Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

We are visiting Donna’s brother and sister-in-law. They invited us to see the 34th annual Holiday Brass concert, a fundraiser for the International Women’s Brass Conference.

The next day we visited the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis which reminded us of our visit to Ravenna a few years ago with the elaborate mosaic decoration inside.

We didn’t realize that the Basilica has tours when we arrived, but we were able to join a tour in progress.

These are the largest mosaics in the USA. The mosaics were completed in 1988 after 76 years of work. The mosaics are done with the modern technique of gluing the tiles face down onto a paper panel and then mounting that panel in the mortar, then cleaning off the paper and glue.

There were two different groups of artists that worked on the mosaics, Tiffany Studios started the work, but quit in a dispute over money. The mosaics Tiffany completed are in the side chapel.

The majority of the mosaics are in the Byzantine style. The father and son team, Paul and Arno Heuduck, worked on the mosaic for nearly their entire working lives to complete the mosaics.

The main dome is 146 ft high on the inside.

The faces of the arches that support the dome have Christ, the Father and the Holy Spirit as themes for their mosaics.

Notice that the partial dome behind the Father has rays of light coming from the sun. These were created by the artists by taking a hammer and punch and tapping the tiles to slightly tilt them before they were fully set in the mortar. It took careful planning to know where the light sources would be to create the effect.

There are peacocks throughout the facility. Here they are in bronze.

The side chapel on the opposite side from the Tiffany mosaics has a blood-red ceiling to represent Christ’s blood. Arno Heuduck destroyed the formula and all leftover glass so that it can’t be recreated.

There is a section depicting Joseph Ritter who is buried in the crypt.

The entire facility is cleaned by two custodians. It costs approximately $100,000 per month to operate.