My wedding flower delivery today was at Sacred Heart Cathedral in downtown Raleigh, the smallest Catholic Cathedral in the U.S. I had intended to take many photos of it for the blog, but my camera batteries gave out after this first one and I had failed to pack extras. Bah. I am putting a supply of batteries in my car today so I won't have that problem again.
This church has really beautiful stained glass windows. Too bad I can't show them to you today. The ceiling is beautiful too. A number of years ago, the church was renovated and they had artisans from Italy over here to paint the church and install new marble Stations of the Cross. They are among the most beautiful I have ever seen, and look like blue Wedgewood porcelains with white designs. The ceiling arches are painted sky blue and are dotted with gold stars, all hand painted.
You can see a little bit of the gorgeous terrazo floors on the altar. When we first moved to Raleigh, those floors had been covered in a previous "renovation", in which they laid plain terra cotta tiles over that wonderful inlaid terrazo. What idiots decided that should be done? The altar also had a triptych of plain wood in front of that built-in plaster arch on the back wall, and the beautiful angel/cherub statues in the niches (you can't see them here) had been relegated to the church storeroom.
Luckily a priest with some creative vision decided to find out what was under and behind the mess of the previous renovation. He uncovered the floors and plaster walls, replaced the statues and ordered new Stations. We are the richer for it.
11 comments:
Beautiful flowers :)
Here via Michele's.
Would love to see these pics.
That is a beautiful cathedral, The flowers are nice also.
Beautiful flowers and beautiful work! You are a master!
Visiting from Michele's tonight, but I'd be by anyhow! ;)
Lovely lovely flowers Judy..Wish I could have seen them in closer, too...DRAT about the batteries...I think that is smart of you to start carrying batteries...
It sounds like that renovation is quite extrordinary...it must have been an extremly expensive thing to do, yes? Would love to see photo's of that, too...You may just have to go back again, cause now we are all intrigued!!!
I love the inside of Catholic Churches, they sure know how to make a show of religious worshiping.
You ARE going to get pictures of the stained glass aren't you? That was one of the things I loved about Florence, all the beautiful stained glass. Older churches in the US have lovely examples but newer buildings are foregoing stained glass because it is so expensive to do if done right.
The little church in Illinois where most of the congregation were relatives of ours was torn down do to termite damage. It was a small white country church but had the most gorgeous stained glass windows. My cousin bought several of the panes and fixed them either in framed pieces to hang in a window or intact with light boxes behind them. Another church in the area has one of the intact panes. He used salvaged wood from the building for some of the framing. I wish we had known and been able to get a small hanging.
PS: Vicki's mom is very ill. She has an update this morning.
So beautiful. Especially your flower arrangements.
that floor is beautiful.
I love coincidence ... I hadn't read this post until today (Monday) yet I also posted about a "Sacred Heart" parish ...
Thanks for your nice comment today!
DARN IT! I meant to say that I love the arrangements too! Bee-YOU-tiful. :)
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