A cathedral is the largest religious facility that can be constructed in your colonies. They represent the large churches that house a Catholic or Anglican bishop or a Reformed classis, as well as the accompanying bureaucracy and organization.
Benefits
Cathedrals dramatically increase cross production, speeding immigration from Europe prior to independence. Like churches, cathedrals allow your colony to produce missionaries. (Note that they do not produce expert missionaries. Those must be educated at a university or by Jean de Brebeuf after he has joined your Continental Congress.)
Endgame
Once your revolution against your colonists' homeland begins, the clerics at the cathedral no longer have a productive ingame function. One common strategy is to remove the education of any firebrand preachers and arm them with muskets. Doing so just prior to declaring independence provides a greater chance of them upgrading.
Bugs
A bug existed in the original DOS edition of Civilization that required a colony population of 16 for cathedral construction, rather than 8. This was fixed by an early patch.
| Colonization Buildings |
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Armory • Arsenal • Blacksmith's House • Blacksmith's Shop • Carpenter's Shop • Cathedral • Church • Cigar Factory • College • Custom House • Docks • Drydock • Fort • Fortress • Fur Factory • Fur Trader's House • Fur Trading Post • Iron Works • Lumber Mill • Magazine • Newspaper • Printing Press • Rum Distiller's House • Rum Distillery • Rum Factory • Schoolhouse • Shipyard • Stable • Stockade • Textile Mill • Tobacconist's House • Tobacconist's Shop • Town Hall • University • Warehouse • Warehouse Expansion • Weaver's House • Weaver's Shop |