Porte della Misericordia

Sacred Heart Cathedral : At the end of the 17th Century, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, with its Headquarters at Pondicherry, took over the administration of the Mysore Mission. The civil districts of Shimoga, Chitradurga and Chikmagalur fell into the able hands of the Fathers of the Paris Foreign Mission Society. Already in 1830, Shimoga town had a small Church and a burial ground. It was constituted into a Parish in 1847.
In 1871 a new Church began to be constructed and it was completed and blessed on 4th April 1875 and was dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As the Catholic population increased, this Church was found to be too small and an extension was put up and inaugurated on 30th November 1976. On the erection of the Diocese of Shimoga, this Sacred Heart Church got the status of a Cathedral on 14th November 1988.
However, an entirely new Cathedral Church was started on 31st January 1994, completed and dedicated on 31st January 1998, by Most. Rev. Ignatius Pinto, the first Bishop of Shimoga.