Hyde Park Barracks and St- Mary's Catholic Cathedral
The statue of a wild boar in front of Sydney Hospital.
This pig's snout looked so polished. It must be because people have been touching it for good luck. I can imagine patients going to the hospital hoping for a clean bill of health every time they go for a check up or consultation with a doctor.
A side view of the pig
A close up view of the pig's face
IL PORCELLINO: Legend says that you will be endowed with good fortune if you rub the boar's nose
The Mint Building sign
On the third day of our six day vacation in Sydney, we visited a number of historical buildings in the city. Interested in everything about Sydney's beginnings as a colony and the British convicts that first settled the area, we went to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. The museum is housed in some Georgian-style barracks designed in 1819 by the convict and architect Francis Greenway. They were built by convicts and inhabited by prisoners.
These days visitors will find relics from those early days of settlement, including log books, early settlement artifacts, and a room full of ships' hammocks in which visitors can lie and listen to fragments of prisoner conversation.
Upon our entry, an elderly and kind Australian gentlemen, who was a volunteer in the museum offered to tour us around the premises.
The Hyde Parks Barracks Museum
A quiet hallway inside the museum's second floor
It was no surprise to see the museum renovated and totally spruced up by the time it was converted into a museum.
Hammocks
Clothes worn by prisoners in the barracks in the olden days
An impressive oil painting which spanned the entire wall of one viewing room
A painting depicting life in Sydney during colonial days
Artwork on display on the grounds of the Hyde Park Barracks Museum.
A replica of a dining table and some chairs probably used by the prisoners of the barracks in the olden days
Books on a shelf
From the museum, we walked over to the Catholic Cathedral next door.
The back view of the St. Mary's Cathedral taken from the corner of the Hyde Park Barracks Museum
St. Mary of the Cross at St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral
The statue of the late Pope John Paul II on the grounds of the St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral.
Pope John Paul II was so, so popular, it seems that every place he visited during his papacy erected a statue in his honor. If not a statue,some kind of memorial is built. I just saw one at the Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Los Angeles in LA. two weeks prior.
St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral of Sydney
We visited the cathedral and spent a good hour inside. Unfortunately, taking pictures was not allowed. Hence, all my pictures of the cathedral are all shots from the outside.
In front of the beautiful St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral of Sydney
The mall and fountains in front of the cathedral. Located on the next block was the Australian Museum, very much like the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park of San Francisco.
In front of the Australian Museum. Our visit to this museum is a blog of its own.