St. Jakobus, Görlitz

The cathedral of St. Jakobus (St. James) in Görlitz, Germany, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Görlitz, dedicated to St. James. It was built in neo-Gothic style and consecrated in 1900 as a parish church. It became a cathedral in 1994, due to the reorganisation of East German dioceses.HistoryThe church was built in the years 1898 to 1900 and consecrated on 6 October 1900. Görlitz was then part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Breslau (elevated to Metropolia in 1930 and renamed Wrocław in 1972). It was originally planned to be the second church of the parish Hl. Kreuz (Holy Cross). Bishop Adolf Bertram made it the church of the new parish of St. Jakobus in 1918.In March 1947, in result of World War II, Görlitz served as the exile seat of the Breslau Metropolitan Chapter headed by Vicar Capitular, whom the Polish authorities had expelled from Wrocław (Breslau) on 9 July 1946 to the British zone of occupation, but who in 1947 managed to return to the western part of the archdiocese then in the Soviet Occupation zone of Germany. Since October 1945 the Breslau archdiocesan ordinariate ran a branch office in Görlitz, first responsible for the Soviet zone archdiocesan territory, which became the head office (Erzbischöfliches Amt, i.e. Archdiocesan Office) after the chapter and other administrative staff had been expelled from Wrocław.