Best Church: Mary Immaculate Church

The Mary Immaculate, constituted as a parish in 1865, is now the Australian mother-church of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor. Instantly recognisable, the architecture is characteristic of the Romanesque Renaissance period – contemporary, majestic and strangely reminiscent of a creamy white chocolate stack reaching up to the sky. The direct sight lines to both altar and pulpit are a traditional European design element of the Franciscan Order. Internally, Cesare Vagarini’s paintings of the Seven Joys of Our Lady Mary provide a striking delight, as does the finely crafted organ, installed in 1979 to commemorate a century of Franciscan Friars in Waverly. (Alex Bell) 45A Victoria St, Waverley