Kolkata: St Paul’s Cathedral, architecturally the most impressive church in the city with a storied history, has been lit up. The illumination uses a never-before dynamic lighting in a heritage building to simulate a feeling of prayerfulness and meditation. Part of a crowd-funding initiative by citizens to present the city’s architectural beauty and diversity in a new light at night, this is the most complex and elaborate illumination that has been carried out till date.
“The lights have been configured to fade and then illuminate again to communicate a sense of serenity and divinity. A combination of static lights and dynamic lighting using digital multiplex system (DMX) has been used in the illumination. This kind of illumination has not been tried on a heritage structure in India before,” said lighting professional Tushar Bhala who designed the lighting.
Some 232 lights, 27 DMX decoders and over 1 km of cables were used to illuminate the sprawling cathedral. St Paul’s presbyter-in-charge Rev Abir Adhikari has been flooded with messages from parishioners as well as the general public who spotted the lighting during the trials on Wednesday. “People are rediscovering the cathedral’s architectural beauty at night and calling it majestic and magnificent,” he recounted.
Kolkata Restorers that has so far lit up 35 buildings, including markets, houses, churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and public buildings said this was by far the most challenging assignment g.