NS5964 : St Andrews RC Cathedral Memorial Garden
taken 11 years ago, near to Glasgow, Scotland
The garden was created immediately to the east of the cathedral during the 2009-2011 renovations. It has a fountain and a 200-year-old olive tree donated by a village in Tuscany. The garden was described as “an oasis from the world” by its designer Archbishop Conti.
Amongst the many large memorial tablets in the walls is the world’s largest memorial to those who died in the sinking of the cruise ship Arandora Star in 1940. The ship was torpedoed by the Nazis while carrying mainly British-Italian internees; about 800 people died.
The main memorial is a cluster of mirrored steel slabs, like huge gravestones. On one side of each slab is a quote from the gospels; on the other a line from classical Italian poetry.