Plans for Edifice Promise

Architectural Beauty to Rank With Finest in World.

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COST IS GREAT-WORK HAS BEEN STARTED

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Next Stage on Finishing

Interior Includes Ambulatory and Six Apsidal Chapels.

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Work on the St. Paul cathedral sanctuary, the ambulatory and the six apsidal chapels has been started. This is a continuation of the important development of the cathedral group which were completed some time ago with the clergy house, sacristy and the landscaping of the grounds.

At this time no attempt will be made to do more towards the finishing of the interior of the cathedral than to give its permanent form to all that portion of the building which lies within sanctuary railing. It is expected that it will take almost an entire year to do it and the cost, incidentally, will be several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Setting for High Altar

The sanctuary is the key of this great monument of ecclesiastical architecture which it is hoped will one day rank with the great cathedrals of the world. Already the high altar has struck a note so singularly and majestic that it calls for the most elaborate setting to harmonize with it.

The stone chosen for the facing of the walls is the Mankato in all its tones of buff and gray, only the sweetish pink stones being eliminated. The floor of the sanctuary will be in Alps green with inset of other Italian marbles and a great shield of the arms of the diocese in bronze is being sunk into the slabs in front of the altar steps.

Eight Marble Columns

Eight columns of Botticino marble -the marble of the present altar table will stand in front of the great brick piers which sustain the radical arches. A fixed pulpit of Botticino marble round in shape with ornaments of bronze will be set on the Epistle side of the sanctuary railing on the spot where the present temporary pulpit now stands when not in use. The rail will echo the stones of the altar in that the balusters will be of black Partoro like the great columns of the altar while the rail itself and its support will be of creamy Botticino.

Benches for Vested Choir

Benches for the vested choir will be visible on either side of the altar the great semi-circle of the chancel. The console for the chancel organ will be set immediately behind the high altar.

One of the most interesting features of the sanctuary will be the seven bronze grills which will span the present openings of the sanctuary arches. Some idea of their scale may be gained by the consideration of the fact that they will be 22 feet in height and nine feet six inches in width. They will consist of a frieze some three feet in height in which scenes from the life of St. Paul will be depicted.

Magnificent Bronze Grill

Eight great medallions in each panel will focus the interest which the tracery of the field will support. It is safe to say that nothing more ambitious in the way of a bronze grill has been attempted in this country. Its function will be to serve as a marvelously rich dossal to the present altar which at present seems to lack an explanation. It will, moreover, reduce the harshness of the present piers which, because inevitably they radiate from a center in the sanctuary, have always presented visual difficulties to the multitudes in the pews.

Ceiling Decoration

The decoration of the ceiling of the sanctuary will be a part of this year’s work, but it is felt that nothing should be determined about it until the stone and marble are in place.

The chapels which will cost about $25,000 apiece will be dedicated to St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, St.Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, St. Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles of the Slavic nations, St. John the Baptist, St. Anthony of Padua and St. Teresa, the Little Flower of Jesus.

In each chapel the central window will be permanently closed so as to give effect to the statue- which will be the work of a recognized artist. The windows of these chapels in all 12, will be the work of La Farge Marble altars (without tabernacles) will stand in each statue.

No Lighting Fixtures

The organ screened by a lovely wooden grill will be raised on high in the opening immediately outside of the sacristy door.

The lighting, as at present planned, will be simplicity itself, involving the use of no fixtures save bracket lights and those that are centered on the ceiling of the ambulatory and the centers of the sanctuary arches.

Brown County Journal,

January 22, 1926

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