Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and Mosaic Museum

4431 Lindell Blvd.

St. Louis, MO 63108

Free tour of Cathedral and free parking. 

Donation for museum is $2.00

Website: http://cathedralstl.org/

The Cathedral offers a docent-led tour of the worship areas plus has a small museum and a gift shop.  

The outside of the building is Romanesque in style.

However, the inside is in Byzantine style complete with beautiful mosaics.

The Cathedral contains 41.5 million glass tesserae pieces in 7,000 shades of colors that cover 83,000 square feet. Many artists were involved in the process.

The tour began in the narthex where we saw many mosaics dedicated to King Louis IX, the saint after which St. Louis is named.

Then we entered the nave and sat under the Historic dome where the mosaics tell many parts of the history of the church in St. Louis.  The dome is 96 feet high.

American saints are pictured on the four pendentives, inverted triangles.

We then moved to the Central Dome which is 143 feet high, which is equivalent to fourteen stories. (The outside of the building stands 21 stories high.)

The half domes on each side included the last of the mosaics, completed in 1988.

Unfortunately my only picture of the baldacchino and altar under the sanctuary dome is quite blurred but hopefully shows how impressive this area is. 

We then walked behind the alter area and saw an area of the cathedral one can only see if they are on a tour. 

On that North wall above all is the red Rose Window by Tiffany.

From the front when you look to the back you can see the blue Rose Window also by Tiffany.

We then visited three of the four chapels, the first one being Our Lady’s Chapel.

The fabrication and the installation of the mosaics here were done by Tiffany Company in 1912, making them the oldest mosaics in the cathedral. They are in the Italian style not the Byzantine style and thus do not include gold-leaf like the other mosaics in the Cathedral.

The mosaics in the All Souls Chapel are mostly on the ceiling level.

The last chapel we visited was the All Saints Chapel.

The tour group does not enter the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, but outside the chapel we saw the rare bronze replica of Michelangelo’s Pietá that is on temporary loan to the Cathedral.  

The cathedral has many marble statues.

Marble is throughout the cathedral.

The Stations of the Cross are all in marble, also.

And of course the floors are made of marble, some very decorative.

The ceilings are often covered with beautiful mosaics as shown in the next five pictures.

This ceiling outside the Blessed Sacrament Chapel is done in red mosaics to symbolize the blood of Christ.

The ceiling in Our Lady’s Chapel has no gold leaf because just like the walls in this chapel the ceiling was done in the Italian style.

This ceiling outside the All Soul’s Chapel was done in a Navajo design.

Close-up pictures reveal the shine brought to the cathedral through the use of gold-leaf.

The tour took a full ninety minutes.  We then went to the basement Mosaic Museum to learn more about the making and installation of the mosaics.

In addition to pictures and posters of explanation there are some artifacts from the procedure.

There are also artifacts belonging to the Catholic Church such as pictured below.

This is a fourteenth century song book.  It is huge!

Here there is also a crypt where the remains of Saint Louis’ Cardinals and Archbishops are interred.

And lastly we visited the Cathedral Shop where there was a good collection of religious books and items as well as mosaic and Cathedral themed gifts. 

We went to lunch nearby at the Osage Café which is at Bowood Farms at 4605 Olive.

http://www.bowoodfarms.com/cafe_osage  

You enter through a large very fun garden and gift shop.

The restaurant has a good reputation and the food was presented well.  Below are Greens, Eggs, and Ham and the Strawberry Apricot Salad with panko crusted goat cheese!

Comments:

The cathedral is truly beautiful – a real gem in St. Louis.  The building was begun in 1907 and opened in 1914.  The first mosaics were installed in 1912 and the last mosaics were not completed until 1988 thus it took 76 years to complete. It was interesting to learn that until the mosaics could be completed paintings were first done on the walls.  

Our docent was excellent and the tour was very good. It centered on the significance of the different pictures and artwork and included a lot of St. Louis Catholic history. It took a full ninety minutes and was worth every minute. We highly recommend taking it to help you understand and appreciate what you are viewing.   

The tour included very little information about the process of making and installing the mosaics. To learn more about the mosaics one can go to the relatively small basement museum.  Frankly it is at time difficult to follow which description goes with which photograph or artifact in the museum. In order to really understand the mosaic process one must read the long explanations.  The museum was worth going to but could use an update and a better layout. We spent about 20 minutes in the museum. (The $2 fee was on the honor system thus no one to make change so having the correct change is very helpful.)

Be sure to schedule your visit around the masses which are held several times a day.  We called to make reservations for the tour (suggested but not mandatory) and learned that our first-choice date was not available because the cathedral was closed for a special event (rehearsal for a concert). Call ahead and affirm availability.

If you live in St. Louis and haven't been here, you should really go and enjoy being impressed with the artistry and beauty.