One of New Zealand's landmark icons, the Christ Church Cathedral is centrally located in the Christchurch's aptly-named Cathedral Square.

Planning for the Christ Church cathedral began with visions of a city built around a central cathedral and college, following the English model of Christ Church, Oxford. The dream arrived with the planners of the Canterbury Association and their first four ships of settlers that landed in Lyttelton harbour in 1850. Their arrival is recorded in mosaics on the tiled floor of the cathedral.

With the arrival six years later of the first Bishop of Christchurch, Henry Harper, came new impetus for the cathedral project and the go-ahead was given in 1858.

Only fourteen years later, when Christchurch was still a raw settlement rising on swampy ground, a foundation stone was solemnly laid on a wet day in 1864.

Foundations were laid quickly in the centre of town but then lay abandoned for a decade, due to s lack of funds. The dream exceeded the reality - a constantly recurring theme in the cathedral story. Novelist Anthony Trollope visited the town in 1872 and described the "vain foundations" as a "huge record of failure", despite the cathedral being an "honest, high-toned idea."

But a year later, a new resident architect, Benjamin Mountfort, was appointed and work restarted. Mountfort adapted the Scott design and added features of his own such as the tower balconies, west porch, font, pulpit and stained glass. His buildings dominated Victorian Christchurch and he is known today as the "father of Canterbury architecture."

In 1881, the nave or main body of the cathedral was completed and opened amid city-wide celebrations. The rituals of choral music, daily worship, bell ringing and welcoming visitors began that year and continue to the present day.

The decision to first build the nave where people gather, rather than the sanctuary, was deliberately taken. There was simply not enough money for the transepts, chancel and sanctuary. Those took another twenty-three years to construct. In 1904, the cathedral was finally completed, at a cost of 64,000 pounds. It took another ninety years for a visitors' centre to be added alongside.

Although it belongs to the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch, the Cathedral is claimed and used by the whole city for all sorts of occasions. It is not a parish church so is not limited to serving people from any one geographic area.

Any couple seeking marriage may apply to use the building and the same conditions that apply to other Anglican churches are followed. Both partners are expected to undertake two sessions of preparation and planning, led by the marriage celebrant who will be one of the priests on the cathedral staff.