This is the interior of St. Paul Roman Catholic Cathedral in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. As many times as I've driven or walked past it, I'd never ventured inside until just a few days ago. Of course, churches are best in the daylight--especially if there's a lot of intricate stained glass. But the Cathedral of St. Paul is lovely even after dark.
I frequently attend the Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque Society's performances in the cathedral's "Synod Hall." It's a great space, too...faded, austere, and faintly medieval. But the cathedral is magnificent. This strange side chapel seems to be dedicated to St. Joan of Arc. In all my church snooping, I've never before seen a chapel in her honor. I wonder what its story might be. Click on the picture to see the oversized statue of the warrior saint in prayer.
Many Catholic churches in this region tend toward kitsch: overly pious-looking statues of saints in pastel colors; murals depicting androgynous saints in fantastic poses, making unnatural gestures with their hands. Though it's definitely bad manners to mock a church for its piety, the religious showiness of the murals and statues often strikes me as contrived. (I don't tend to trust displays of emotion.) But St. Paul doesn't succumb to those hackneyed notions of religiosity. It has the two features that I find most important in sacred architecture: airiness and clear light.
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