Cathedral of Saint Paul
Archbishop John Ireland, a Civil War chaplain and a towering figure of the Church in the Midwest, wanted a cathedral worthy of the growing city. He chose the highest hill in Saint Paul. The French architect Emmanuel Masqueray designed a vast domed church in the Beaux-Arts style, faced with Minnesota granite. It was begun in 1906, first used in 1915, and consecrated in 1958.
Its copper-covered dome, one of the largest in the United States, rises about ninety metres above the city and can be seen for miles. Inside, the dome is so wide that the whole congregation can see the altar, and the interior glows with stained glass and a vast baldachin. Six chapels in the ambulatory honour the patron saints of the nations whose immigrants built the Church in Minnesota.
In 2009 the cathedral was designated the National Shrine of the Apostle Paul. It is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
- Built
- 1906–1915
- Style
- Beaux-Arts
- Where
- Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
- Map
- Find it on OpenStreetMap
- Read about
- Saint Paul