Welome to The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception
The Sisters of Mercy arrived in Perth from Ireland in 1846, led by Mother Ursula Frayne. After arriving in Perth, in 1846 the sisters became the first female religious teaching order to establish a school in Australia. Having navigated sectarism in Ireland, they decided to offer a general education to all Christians. The sisters prioritised Aboriginal people, immigrant Irish orphan girls, the poor and the uneducated. The sisters established a fee-paying school, benevolent institution and Western Australia’s first high school. The ornate English Gothic style chapel designed by prominent church architect E le B Henderson. Purpose built initially as a chapel for the adjoining Convent of the Sisters of Mercy.
The Sisters of Mercy used their own money to build the convent at Victoria Square in 1848 but it was not until 1924 that the chapel was constructed. The chapel has a high barrel-vaulted ceiling and stained glass windows, within Romanesque arches. The murals in the dome were painted in Italy, on canvas, by an Italian nun and purchased in Rome in the early 1930s by Mother Brigid McDonald. The Pipe Organ built by Roberts Ltd, Adelaide was installed in the Chapel in 1926. Many elements in the chapel were created by local craftsmen. The stalls were designed and made of polished jarrah wood, and the bell was cast at the foundry of Frederick Metters in Subiaco. The sisters have since moved out of the convent, and the building is now the Mercy Heritage Centre. The chapel is now used as the school chapel for Mercedes College.