St. George's

St. Peters Church

This is Bermuda's oldest churchyard, where both the elite and not-so-elite historical figures of this country are laid to rest. Here you'll find governors next to pirates, as well as heroic figures and simple folk. Even slaves are buried here, albeit in their own section of the graveyard. There are more recent historical figures buried here too, such as the Bermuda governor Richard Sharples and his bodyguard Captain Hugh Sayers, who were both assassinated in 1973.

Parts of the church were built just ten or eleven years after Goerge Somers landed on Bermuda, so that technically makes the church very very old...dating back to 1620. That puts it in the books as the oldest continuously running Anglican church in these parts of the world, indeed, in the entire Western Hemisphere. Visit the pulpit inside, and you'll be standing in front of the actual oldest part of the church. The triple-tiered pulpit was built in the 1600's, and with its cedar altar and imported 500 year-old baptismal font, makes for a beautiful space. The altar is the oldest piece of woodwork in Bermuda, commissioned under Bermuda's fisrt governor, Richard Moore.

Most of the present-day church was built in the 1700's, the bishop's throne is said to have been salvaged from a shipwreck around the same time. Check out the plaques on the walls of the church, dedicated to wonderful-sounding names from the past, like Allured Popple. In the vestibule behind the alter are encased precious historical items you might want to take a peek at: a silver chalice and a 1697 communion set. The chalice has on it a scene depicting the fateful grounding of the Sea Venture and the coat of arms of the Bermuda Company, which financed the first settlers in Bermuda.

You can enter the church any day, for free (but they accept donations), 10 am to 4:30pm. It's located on Duke of York Street northwest of King's Square.