Say what you want about the Catholic Church: they sure do have some great artwork, particularly in their cathedrals around the world. When walking around St. Louis, Mike was advised by one of the locals that he simply had to go check out the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, which is apparently renowned for the collection of mosaics contained within. Not only that, but it’s so well-known that the Pope (the good one: John Paul, not his lackluster successor) visited the place in 1999 shortly after it was declared a Basilica. Seeing as how a large part of Mike’s history major focused on the Church in Medieval Europe, he was excited enough to leave the hotel around 9 AM and check the place out (nerd). The cathedral is actually a bit off the beaten path in St. Louis, lying well outside of the downtown areas and not anywhere within walking distance of The Arch. The structure itself is a bit daunting at first approach, largely due to its immense scale compared to the surrounding buildings, but if you look around the exterior of the building it quickly becomes apparent that the place is a home to some truly beautiful artwork (as evidenced by The Angel of Harmony sculpture in the garden).
Getting me into the cathedral was a little bit of a challenge, but a little fast-talking got us around it (we claimed I was just a bottle of Christ’s Blood in disguise and then legged it through the door as soon as the volunteer looked the other way). Once we were inside the building’s main chamber, though, it took us a minute just to collect our thoughts because we were hit by both the immense size of the place and the beauty it contained all at once. Unless you’ve wandered through some of the Basilica cathedrals found in Europe, there is absolutely nothing which can prepare you for what you’ll see in this place: towering ceilings which leap and curve every which way, vibrant colors surrounded by golden t
iles, mosaics so detailed that they look exactly like paintings until viewed up close, and sculptures which look like they’re straight out of a Botticelli exhibit are all things you’ll encounter as you walk through this hallowed place.
Somehow (meaning a volunteer told us to follow them), we wound up attached to a tour group that was actually training tour guides on the Cathedral’s history; as a result, we ended up hearing a lot more details about the place than most of the general public normally gets to. Mike found it fascinating, I wound up getting distracted by my reflection in some of the gold tiles (I get lost in my eyes)… but we both had a good time wandering around.
The Cathedral Basilica was originally erected in 1907 and took over 60 years to decorate with all the mosaics that appear on its walls and ceilings. In each half-dome (the East and West wings of the church), scenes from the Old and New Testaments respectively appear. Mike was particularly fascinated by the Southern arch beneath the main dome, mainly because of the way it depicts Judgment Day: there’s the usual stuff about the dead rising from their graves, going before God on his throne and being judged, and St. Michael putting away his sword because the Great Battle is now over, but Mike really got a kick out of the story behind the representation of the damned going down to Hell. Instead of a lake of fire, cloaked figures are seen being led into a snowy cave; it turns out that the artist was originally born in Siberia and hated the cold much more than than the heat, which in turn led to his choice in depicting damnation the way he did.
Ultimately, though, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis is one of those places where once can spend days exploring and learning about. We only had a couple of hours, one of which was spent wandering with the tour group. Was it beautiful and interesting? Yes, yes it was. But I maintain that I’m still prettier.
