Pittsburgh

Yes, there are cathedrals in Pittsburgh. There are many and they are beautiful. If you ever have the chance on visiting this once frontier town take that chance and visit. The city is beautifully situated along the banks of two rivers, the Allegheny and the Monongahela, and it is here that they both join to form the Ohio River. While visiting two weekends ago I saw that fall was moving in quickly and the air changed to that wonder fall freshness. What really caught my eye was the Cathedral of Learning.

This could be the most wondrous structure I have ever seen both inside and out. I never knew it existed until I drove into Pittsburgh and saw it off to my right from the highway. There is stood, very tall, between the trees off of highway 376. Upon closer review I saw that the structure, though clearly inspired by gothic architecture, is not that old. This second tallest education building in the world broke ground in 1926 and finished eleven years later in 1937 after delays due to the Great Depression. To help fund this project through tough years, school children were asked to to contribute a dime to “buy a brick.” It worked, and now thanks to Chancellor John Bowman and the children of Pittsburgh this magnificent structure stands as a center for learning.

Inside the building is even more beautiful as vaulted ceilings push the height of the ground floor to showcase a grand enlightenment. Through this area can be seen corridors through archways, tunnels through the towering pillars and a place that invites imagination. While here I wanted to do nothing else but marvel at this wonder. I could only imagine what my imagination would feel if I could bring a book like Frankenstein or The Castle of Otranto to read under this atmosphere.

Throughout the first and third level are a series of classrooms that make up the Nationality Classrooms. With approximately 27 classrooms, each one is dedicated to a different countries and nationalities. In these rooms some of the featured countries are Austria, Japan, Israel, Ukraine, Wales, Czechoslovak, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Greece, Scotland and yes, they have a Romanian classroom. And each room is decorated and designed by a person of that nationality representing their country and their history. My favorite room is the Armenian room.

The next gothic build I saw was during nighttime. When I first saw the Heinz Memorial Chapel its top tower looked strange. Though the outside of the build was illuminated by ground lights the tower stood black in the background as if it were afraid of the light. My initial thought was that since it stood on top of the building the ground lights were unable to hit it. When I came back the next day I could see that I was half right.

I saw that the tower is an entirely different shade from the rest of the chapel. This gives it a great effect at night and during the day it looks like it is always in shadow. Anyway, the Heinz Memorial Chapel was build out of the will of Henry John Heinz in honor of his mother, Anna Margaretta. Construction broke ground in 1933 and the chapel was completed in 1938, one year after the Cathedral of Learning. What is fun about this is the fact that these two buildings are right next to each other on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. While I was touring it began to rain and I actually took refuge in both buildings to take a picture of the other. Sadly my pictures were lost.

Finally, Saint Paul Cathedral. Not too far from the first two building is this grand 14th century style gothic cathedral. It was designed by Egan and Prindeville, a company based out of Chicago and was built by a Philadelphia contractor named Thomas Reilly. This build is more than 240 feet and is beautifully designed with great details on it facade. It is the oldest of the three here mentioned, opening its doors in 1906.

Since I was visiting on Saturday I was unable to go inside two of the three of these, only seeing the Cathedral of Learning. The reason is the chapel and the cathedral were both occupied by weddings. It seemed that there were weddings all over Pittsburgh and a gothic church is a prime location. Indeed it is beautiful and there is a magic about this area. With these three structures as well as many more great buildings this is a great place for the imagination of someone whom loves gothic lore.

If you have any stories about these three gothic builds please share them.

Happy Reading,

ORB