Pella Cathedral

Pella is a mission settlement on the dry plain south of the Orange River, and its cathedral was built between 1878 and 1895 by two French missionaries, Father Simon and Father Wolf, who had no building training and worked from an article in an encyclopaedia. They made bricks on site, cut timber where they could find it, and took years over it; the result is a solid whitewashed church with a bell tower that stands over a village of date palms in country that gets almost no rain. The palms were planted by the mission and still produce. The settlement itself dates to 1814 and was named after the biblical Pella, a refuge; it has been a mission station, a school and a seminary. It is remote - a gravel road off the N14 - and the contrast between the building and the surrounding desert is the reason to go.

What you actually see

• The self-taught construction - a cathedral built by two priests working from an encyclopaedia.
• The 1895 completion - seventeen years of work with bricks made on site.
• The date palms - a mission planting still producing in near-rainless country.
• The desert contrast - a substantial church standing in empty plain.

When to go

April to September - summer here regularly passes forty degrees. One hour.

Honest expectations

It is remote and the road in is gravel. The village is poor and has minimal services. Summer heat is severe. The cathedral is sometimes locked; ask at the mission for access rather than assuming it is open.

Nearby

Pofadder is south; the Orange River and Namibia are north.