My Favorite Catholic Churches (buildings)

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ILdoc82:
http://www.seattlecatholic.com/images/articles/MilwaukeeCathedral02.jpg

Milwaulkee Weakland Cathedral

http://www.paulist.org/boston/images/chapeltour/cross_resize.jpg
Paulist Center Crucifix- Boston, MA
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so are these really your favorites? I’m guessing these would be anti-favorites for most of this crowd!

By the way, check out Holy Family Parish in Inverness, IL (one of my anti-favorites): holyfamilyparish.org/main.htm. Look for the photos of the “Cross of New Life”… here’s a taste: note that if you sit in the right spot, Jesus is reaching down directly at YOU!

holyfamilyparish.org/gallery/cross_nl/img016t.jpg
 
My favorite church bulding is the Basilica of St. Louis IX (the Old Cathedral) located at the Arch in St. Louis.
 
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Crusader:
What are your favorite international, domestic and local Catholic churches…?
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The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri is my favorite domestic church. The Basilica houses the largest collection of mosaic images in the western hemisphere. The entire ceiling of this massive building is covered with mosaic tile down to the tops of the columns.

http://www.tc.cc.tx.us/~dallard/etrc/2000_01/inside_cathedral.jpg
This image is facing the main altar from about the middle of the main aisle.

I could’nt find an external view of the building that did it justice.
They have a website: cathedralstl.org/

My favorite Canadian church has to be the Oratory of St. Joseph on Mount Royal in Montreal. We visited there last summer, the place is breathtaking. If you are in Montreal, don’t miss it.

http://mymusicworld.com.ne.kr/grim/archi/Montreal-St.%20Joseph%20Oratory5_tm.jpg
This view is from Queen Mary Street near the main gate. The place is fantastic.

mwtech.com/rw/Photos/Canada/Montreal/St.%20Joseph’s%20Oratory%20Candles_t.jpg
This view is within the Votive Chapel. Hanging from the columns everywhere are crutches and prosthesis left behind by pilgrims healed through the intercession of St. Joseph. The Oratory’s founder, Blessed Brother Andre’s tomb is directly under the statue of St. Joseph you see here.

They too have a website: saint-joseph.org/dynamic/section/home/index.asp?Language=En
 
My parish - the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul MN 🙂

If you are ever in the Twin Cities, you have to stop by and see us–we are at one end of a short connecting road (John Ireland Blvd–named after our first Archbishop) and the State Capitol building is on the other. It is quite a sight to see the two domes of faith and state so close together
http://www.cathedralsaintpaul.org/images/photos/exterior11.jpg

http://www.cathedralsaintpaul.org/images/photos/cath_int.jpg

http://www.cathedralsaintpaul.org/images/photos/sanctuary_baldachindome.jpg

cathedralsaintpaul.org

Blessings! 🙂

+veritas+
 
St Peter’s gets my vote too as a favorite.

Others are the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi…


…Our Lady of the Angels…


…which contains the Portiuncula


While I didn’t care for it as a whole, one of the coolest sanctuaries I’ve seen in the US was the chapel at Borromeo College in Wicliffe OH. Left to right across the sanctuary are the ambo, the altar of sacrifice and the altar of reposition. Carved upon them are the words:

“IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD”
“THE WORD IS MADE FLESH”
“AND DWELLS AMONG US”​
 
Notre Dame de Paris, is my favorite!! I had the chance to go to mass their when i was there, but I slept in :crying:
 
I have really enjoyed being able to visit so many of your fave churches, virtually! Great thread!

When I saw the post the first church that came to my mind was The Cathedral in St. Louis… I believe cnelms described it nicely. I was given a most wonderful tour there by the seminarians a few years back while I was in town for the Steubenville youth conference. The mosaics are magnificent and I recall them saying that the red tiles are the only ones that shade of red in the world- nifty. We also got to watch the 4th fireworks from the roof next to the cupola- another amazing experience that I shall never forget.

The Blessed Sacrament chapel was my favorite spot in the cathedral:
http://www.cathedralstl.org/images/blessedsac.JPG

Number 2 favorite, would be the church my husband and I were married in, in Pittsburgh: Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Here is a view I saw just before I walked down the 125 foot aisle:
http://www.assumptionchurch.org/church/images/archit34.jpg

If you’d like to read more here’s the website:
assumptionchurch.org/church/architecture/index_architecture.htm

As for my number 3 choice, it would be just below Assisi, Santa Maria

And to boot, there’s a wonderful gelato shop caty corner to the church!

C<><
 
Wow! There are really a lot of beautiful churches out there. I’ll to add “church tour” to my list of things to do when I win the lottery. 😃

Of the churches I have visited:

International: Sacre Coeur in Paris.

National: National Shrine in D.C.

Local: my home parish The Church of the Holy Rosary, Edgewater, NJ. The architecture is nothing special but we have the best stained glass windows. They are the mysteries of the Rosary plus on the rear wall we have the Last Supper, Abraham sacrificing Isaac and King Melchisidek (sp) offering the bread and wine. I never tire of looking at them.
 
Bobby Jim:
By the way, check out Holy Family Parish in Inverness, IL (one of my anti-favorites): holyfamilyparish.org/main.htm. Look for the photos of the “Cross of New Life”… here’s a taste: note that if you sit in the right spot, Jesus is reaching down directly at YOU!

holyfamilyparish.org/gallery/cross_nl/img016t.jpg
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You get a taste of their point of view on their home page where they call themselves “An Evangelical Church in the Roman Catholic Tradition”. Whatever that is… :hmmm:

Although if you cruise their site, it looks pretty orthodox. Strange brew…
 
Here’s the church we just built in Plymouth Twp., Michigan (near Detroit). It was dedicated Sept. 9, 2000. The half-million dollar Casavant pipe organ arrived two years later. It is a wonderful place to worship. It has a day chapel, meeting rooms, 400 seat social hall with full kitchen, huge holy water font and pew seating capacity for 1500.olgcparish.net/
 
Here’s the church we just built in Plymouth Twp., Michigan (near Detroit). It was dedicated Sept. 9, 2000. The half-million dollar Casavant pipe organ arrived two years later. It is a wonderful place to worship. It has a day chapel, meeting rooms, 400 seat social hall with full kitchen, huge holy water font and pew seating capacity for 1500.olgcparish.net/
 
St. Mary’s Church in Greektown (Detroit)



St. John Cantius Church (Detroit) where my husband interned

http://parishbulletin.com/Organizations/15876/StJohnCantius.jpg

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church (Wyandotte MI) ]
http://www.ourladyofmountcarmel.org/nh_newaddress_120303.jpg
And a link showing the interior and their beautiful stained glass:
ourladyofmountcarmel.org/munich_windows.html

When we went to Montreal, we went to Mass at a lot of these churches, and toured them all!
montreal.com/tourism/churches.html
 
Y’all make me want to weep. :crying: I have never seen anything like the pictures posted here in my archdiocese (Seattle). Yes, the Cathedral of St. James is nice, but it is rather Spartan in comparison to the photos I’ve seen here. The parishes I have attended have all been built in either the 1980s or 1990s and all have that horizontal relationship thing going on. Wide stage and pew seating in a semi-circle. Little art. One or two lonely statues. No mosaics. No domes. No bell towers. Sigh.

On the bright side, the parish I am attending now (Holy Cross) is still in its 100-year-old mission white clapboard building. A little worse for wear but still in use. If I had a picture, I would post it. It’s cute, as little “frontier” missions go. The pews seat about 50, I would guess. Since the area is growing, the parish is getting ready to build a newer building and will be taking the old church to the new location to use as a chapel.
 
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tom.wineman:
The one I’m participating at Mass in.
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True! Roof + Altar — all else is optional extras.

However, I still have my favorites, mostly local since I’ve had no opportunity to travel, and my diocese has exceeding riches and great variety in architecture.

Top of the list is my beloved Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist (not only utterly transcendent, but also entirely handicapped accessible, and I love the corona), followed by St. Joan of Arc Chapel on the Marquete University campus, Church of the Gesu (especially the upper church windows!), and the Shrine Church at Holy Hill in Hubertus,WI (check out the ex votos and abandoned orthopedic hardware)

p.s. Pray for reconciliation with the Orthodox so I can add Annunciation Church (which is a Frank Lloyd Wright church) and St. Sava’s Cathedral (where they just completed the full-wall-coverage mosaic icons) to this little list!

karen marie
 
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raphaela:
Notre Dame de Paris, is my favorite!! I had the chance to go to mass their when i was there, but I slept in :crying:
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Notre Dame de Paris is by far my favorite as well.

I didn’t get a chance at Mass there, but I was there when they were recording a Chant CD. Notre Dame filled with Gregorian Chant! Beautiful!!
 
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