St. Louis Cathedral Basilica

The last day that Jeff was in town, we worked on the house in the morning and then headed over to the city until his flight at 4pm. We stopped and took a few more pictures of the Arch from the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, then headed over to The New Cathedral, also called the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. I didn't take any pictures of the outside, so here's one I found online.



It is really quite remarkable, with how large it is as well as the art inside. We got a little nervous getting ready to walk into the church seeing as neither of us had been to a church in QUITE some time. When we walked in, the doors are just massive and you enter a hall that is all gold mosaic with intricate mosaic portraits intertwined throughout.




The next two pictures are a regular shot and then a zoomed in shot in case you dont' know what Mosaics are. The mosaics collectively contain 41.5 million glass tesserae pieces in more than 7,000 colors that cover 83,000 square feet. It is the largest mosaic collections in the world and it was completed in 1988. Other than some walls made partially with granite or tiling, the entire Cathedral is a Mosaic.





Another part of this church that I found interesting was it's interior/exterior construction. From the very first picture of the outside, it looks as though there is only one centralized dome in the church. In actuality, there are 3 full domes and two half domes. The exterior is a Romanesque architecture, all with rigid lines and one piece (the dome) that stands out centralized. The interior is a Byzantine Architecture that is more rounded and flowing. You can see from the next layout of the church that there is actually an 80ft. differential between the central dome's height on the interior from the dome on the exterior of the church.






The stained glass in the front entrance and the rear entrance of the church were made by Tiffany and Co. for the church.




Dome over the Altar of the 12 Apostles.



Within the church there are 4 chapels in each corner. This was our favorite chapel. The doorway into this section is from the US Ambassador to Austria at that time. It was quite an entrance.


Here is a statue of King Louis. He is always pictured as a young boy because he started his reign at such a young age.

You can be sure that if you come to visit us in St. Louis, this will be one of the places I want to take to show you. It is unlike anything I have ever seen before, and definitely worth the time to go and see it.