Dusty Buildings

When a civilization ends, it does not leave behind a tombstone. Instead, it leaves stackings of stones (i.e. buildings.) We lose the remembrance of individual people, the things they said, did, and wrote, but we remember what they built because those things endure for much longer. The Ancient Greeks and Romans tell us about themselves through their Classical Architecture. We remember the Medieval period in Europe from its castles and Gothic Cathedrals. We remember the early 20th century from the Art Deco buildings it left behind. The style tells us something about their priorities, what they believed, what they knew, and what their hopes were. In a sense, the buildings a culture leaves behind are a kind of epitaph.

Let’s look through the structural epitaphs of our ancestors.

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Rosary Cathedral (Toledo, Ohio)

One of my favorite hobbies is discovering incredible European-style architecture in places other than in Europe. As an American, I particularly enjoy finding these buildings in my home country. Rosary Cathedral is one of the best examples I have yet learned about.

The cathedral was built with Spain in mind, probably due to the fact that Toledo is also a city in Spain. The architectural style is called Plateresque. What is that you might wonder? Well, let me tell you:

Plateresque, meaning “in the manner of a silversmith” (plata being silver in Spanish), was an artistic movement, especially architectural, developed in Spain and its territories, which appeared between the late Gothic and early Renaissance in the late 15th century and spread over the next two centuries. It is a modification of Gothic spatial concepts and an eclectic blend of Mudéjar, Flamboyant, Gothic, and Lombard decorative components, as well as Renaissance elements of Tuscan origin.

Examples of this syncretism are the inclusion of shields and pinnacles on façades, columns built in the Renaissance neoclassical manner, and façades divided into three parts (in Renaissance architecture they are divided into two). It reached its peak during the reign of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, especially in Salamanca, but also flourished in other such cities of the Iberian Peninsula as León, Burgos, Santiago de Compostela, also in the territory of New Spain, which is now Mexico, and in Bogotá.

Plateresque has been considered down to current times a Renaissance style by many scholars. To others, it is its own style, and sometimes receives the designation of Protorenaissance. Some even call it First Renaissance in a refusal to consider it as a style in itself, but to distinguish it from non-Spanish Renaissance works.

The style is characterized by ornate decorative façades covered with floral designs, chandeliers, festoons, fantastic creatures and all sorts of configurations. The spatial arrangement, however, is more clearly Gothic-inspired. This fixation on specific parts and their spacing, without structural changes of the Gothic pattern, causes it to be often classified as simply a variation of Renaissance style. In New Spain the Plateresque acquired its own configuration, clinging tightly to its Mudéjar heritage and blending with Native American influences.

In Spain its development is most remarkable in the city of Salamanca although examples are found in most regions of the country.

In the 19th century with the rise of historicism, the Plateresque architectural style was revived under the name of Monterrey Style.

So you can think of this as a Spanish Renaissance, or a Spanish pre-Renaissance style. Rosary Cathedral is the only American Cathedral built in this style.

The building is not just uniquely beautiful in its architecture, but it is also rich in its interior art. It really is a gem.

(more via wiki)

Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral is a Catholic church located at 2535 Collingwood Boulevard in the Old West End of Toledo, Ohio, in the United States. Completed in 1931, the cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Toledo.

Cathedral officials claim that it was designed with Toledo, Spain, in mind and is the only American cathedral in the Spanish Plateresque style. The cathedral seats 1,400 worshippers.

History

In 1910, Pope Pius X erected the Diocese of Toledo and appointed Joseph Schrembs as its first bishop. A year later, Schrembs purchased land on Collingwood Boulevard in Toledo for the construction of a cathedral campus. The combination bishop’s residence and chancery were completed in 1914, along with the school building. Schrembs erected the cathedral parish in 1915, combining portions of St. Patrick, St. Francis de Sales and St. Ann Parishes. However, construction of the cathedral itself was not yet started.

In 1922 the new bishop of Toledo, Samuel Stritch, hired the architect William Perry of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to design Rosary Cathedral. The ground breaking was in 1925 and the cornerstone was laid in 1926. The cathedral was structurally completed in 1931 at a cost of $3.25 million. Although the cathedral opened for services in 1931, it was not dedicated until 1940. Bishop Karl Joseph Alter presided over the ceremony.

The diocese renovated Rosary Cathedral in 1979 to follow liturgical guidelines issued by the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s.

In 2000, the Rosary Cathedral Parish completed a restoration of the church interior. They cleaned soot deposited by coal- and oil-fired boilers on the interior mosaics. In the 2000s, the parish and diocese re-landscaped the grounds, and re-stoned the paths to the front entrances to match the stonework on the façade. The diocese also installed gates and stone corner-pieces in the cathedral parking lot. The parish also bought a second lot across the street.

Architecture

Cathedral exterior

Description

The Rosary Cathedral is 285 feet (87 m) in length and 215 feet (66 m) in width. Using a basilica floor plan , the cathedral is constructed entirely of Massachusetts granite with Indiana limestone accents. It is designed in the Plateresque style.

Rosary Cathedral has a single entry door recessed in a barrel-vault arch; it is framed by carved limestone details. Above the doorway is a statue of the Virgin Mary in a carved niche.

Facade

The facade is surmounted by a crucifix and encircled by a frieze that depicts notable events in the history of the Catholic church.

The cathedral has a 28 ft (8.5 m) rose window with limestone tracery set into a larger arch. The rose window depicts scenes from the life of Mary. It was financed through the donation of pennies by children in the diocese. The diocesan coat of arms is located above the rose window on the pediment.

Bell towers

Framing the front entry, on the sides of the rose window, are two octagonal bell towers that display carvings of Apostles Peter and Paul. The bells were manufactured in Croyden, England.

Cathedral interior

Barrel vault

The nave of Rosary Cathedral is topped by a barrel vault; the height from floor to peak is 96 feet (29 m). The vault is divided into seven bays. The bays displays paintings figures from both the Old and New Testaments, created by the American artist Felix Lieftuchter. He used Keim’ process to paint them, utilizing mineral paints that do not evaporate or interfere with the cathedral acoustics.

Each bay holds a triple window measuring 26 ft (7.9 m) high and 8 ft (2.4 m) wide. Along the nave are altars dedicated to St. Theresa of Lisieux and Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Blessed Sacrament Chapel

The Blessed Sacrament Chapel is lined with tessellated marbles. It contains a 5 feet (1.5 m) tabernacle that replicates the dome of the bell tower of the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in Toledo, Spain. The chapel also contains a reproduction of the Descent of the Holy Spirit by the Greek painter El Greco. The aluminum gates of the chapel were displayed at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. in 1979.

Chancel

The main altar is carved from black Marquina Florido marble, imported from Spain. Before the renocation in the 2002, the altar was covered with an oak baldachin supported by marble columns. The pulpit was carved from white oak by the German artisan August Schmidt. Statues of the eight authors of the New Testament of the Bible line the apse. Each statue stands under a carved flèche.

Pipe organ

Rosary Cathedral houses a large 4-manual pipe organ, their opus 820 (1930). The instrument was built by Ernest M. Skinner of Boston, Massachusetts; it was dedicated in 1931 by Palmer Christian, professor of organ at the University of Michigan. Claude Lagacé served as organist at Rosary Cathedral from 1954 to 1961 During the 1980s, the Skinner pipe organ was restored by Sam Koontz of Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 2009 the Skinner pipe organ received an historical citation from the Organ Historical Society of Villanova, Pennsylvania.

The Skinner pipe organ contains 75 stops and 76 ranks (sets) of pipes, totaling 4,916 pipes. These pipes range in length from 7 inches (18 cm) to over 32 feet (9.8 m).

For a great short video about the Cathedral, providing both some background and some additional detail that you can see, I recommend the video below: