Gateway Arch National Park is the smallest national park, but it is truly lovely. It is a beautiful 90 acres of green space and a manmade lake. We decided not to spend the money taking the tram up the arch. Some of us are afraid of heights and others of us are afraid of tiny spaces...so it wasn't a good investment for us. The free museum under the arch was truly impressive. It was filled with history of the area, Lewis and Clarks travels, and information about how the arch was built. We also enjoyed walking around the park and just taking in the tremendous size of the arch (630 feet high). It was neat to walk right up and touch it.
Another beautiful building we explored while we were in Saint Louis was the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. This is the most amazing church building I have every been in to date. It is Romanesque style on the outside and Byzantine style on the inside. The inside is jaw dropping with over 83,000 square feet of mosaics in Italian marble and glass tessarae tiles. There are 41.5 million tiles in the mosaics. Pope John Paul II designated the Cathedral as a Basilica in 1997.
While we were walking around staring at the ceiling, an elderly woman approached us to compliment the kids on their interest in the ceilings. She was a parishioner and said she was used to teens sitting in the pews with their heads in their phones while their parents looked around. I told her that Elijah was the one that had requested to come and had placed this activity on his list of things to do on vacation. She was impressed and went on to tell us all about growing up in the Basilica. Her father had even been one of the mosaic workers before going off to fight in World War II. The ceiling in the picture below was the one he worked on. It was fascinating hearing her stories about growing up attending church there.
I truly felt like I was in a grand cathedral in Europe. I am glad we got to go to both locations.
Another beautiful building we explored while we were in Saint Louis was the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. This is the most amazing church building I have every been in to date. It is Romanesque style on the outside and Byzantine style on the inside. The inside is jaw dropping with over 83,000 square feet of mosaics in Italian marble and glass tessarae tiles. There are 41.5 million tiles in the mosaics. Pope John Paul II designated the Cathedral as a Basilica in 1997.
Next up... The Saint Louis Zoo.
Blessings, Dawn
Oh wow; those mosaics are amazing! How neat to get to hear about it all from a local's perspective too!
ReplyDeleteWow! Gorgeous cathedral!
ReplyDeleteThe church is spectacular!! My BFF and I went to St. Louis on several trips, and it was at the Arch that I found out she was claustrophobic. If you go up in it, they put you in a round orb that holds 4 people, then lock a metal door that looks similar to a submarine door...it was here that she almost ripped my knee cap off with her nails and said "I didn't know we were going to be riding in an ovary!". Funniest thing ever, except for my bruised knee.
ReplyDeleteThat is hilarious!
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