The temporary chancel had been made to address the demands of the Second Vatican Council to engage better with the congregation, but it had left an architectural problem at the centre of the church. The project represents a permanent solution to this problem—remaking the chancel, so that it reflects more closely the way that the congregation gathers to worship today.

The Rococo interior—with its expansive vaults, painted ceilings and elaborate figural decoration—is a space of the imagination. It opens upward to the painted heavens of the dome and outward to the eastern apse and high altar that once would have been the focus of the monastic community. The design sets out to counter this outward emphasis by bringing a new intimacy to the centre of the church and by providing a point of focus for the modern service. The design establishes a new vertical axis; a column of space that rises from the new altar to the dome at the meeting point of the two horizontal axes of symmetry of the plan. Circles, arcs, and rings generate a symbolic geometry in the existing architecture and emphasise the gathering in the heart of the church in an open way that does not diminish the existing, expansive qualities of the Baroque cathedral.

The plinth for the altar is formed with a series of concentric oval steps, made in terrazzo. Their rounded geometry is framed at the rear by the recessive arc of the existing Rococo choir screen. A delicate frieze in black marble, set within the terrazzo, is draped onto each of the steps, giving the plinth an apparent visual depth that rhymes with the celestial rings in the ceiling painting above. The ceremonial furniture of the new chancel – the altar, the ambo, the baptismal font and a semi-circular seat for the clergy – is also made in terrazzo, with each element being further inlaid with another material; marble, walnut and polished metal.

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