Methods were explored to synthesize sulfated mesoporous zirconia with crystalline pore walls of tetragonal crystal structure. The material has been characterized by small and large angle X-ray diffraction, nitrogen physisorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and catalytic tests using n-butane isomerization to iso-butane and alkylation of 1-naphthol with 4-tert-butylstyrene as probe reactions. It has been found that sulfate deposition is crucial for the transformation of a mesoporous precursor with amorphous pore walls into a material with crystalline pore walls maintaining the mesoporous morphology with narrow pore size distributions. TEM shows no ordered stacking of the pores. As a catalyst for acid catalyzed reactions of large molecules, mesoporous sulfated zirconia is superior to microporous sulfated zirconia.