St.Peter's Co-Cathedral,Tarapeta,Vijayawada-1

These were assisted by the Theatine Fathers residing at Masulipatnam and Vizag. Bezwada grew in importance when an amicus was build across the river Krishna between 1852 and 1855. Vijayawada was linked to Hyderabad; it became the nerve centre of Andhra. A large number of railway employees and workers settled down here and among them there were many Catholic “Anglo-Indian families. While the Protes

tants had already settled down in Bezwada by 1847, our PIME Missionaries were only visiting it twice a year until 1880s. Fr. J. Piatti seems to have been the first priest to reside at Bezwada. P.Carlino built a chapel and a priest’s residence near the old municipal office. Bezwada became a parish in 1896 under Fr. Civati Marco. He opened the convent of the Sisters of St. Anne of Turin in 1899. St.Peter’s Church, which became a Cathedral in 1937, was begun by Fr.J.B.Ghidoni in 1906 and was blessed in 1908, but was completed several years later, it was extended by Fr. Paolo Ariati PIME in 1937. In course of time, Avutapalli, Uppaluru, Kondapalli, Pezzonipeta, Jakkamudi and Gollapudi were bifurcated from this parish. It was passed to the rank of Co-Cathedral in 1976 with the consecration of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Patamata. But again in 1997, Bishop Marampudi Joji has raised it to the rank of a Cathedral. The renovation work of the cathedral was taken up by Fr. Mallavalli Balaswami in 1997 and was completed by Fr. Thanam Marreddy in 1998. The renovated Cathedral was rededicated by the Bishops of Andhra on 20th October, 1988.