Denver – North Capitol Hill: Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception – Pope John Paul II
Image by wallyg
The statue of Pope John Paul II, designed by Polish sculptor Jacek Osadczuk, was installed outside the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on April 2, 2009, the fourth anniversary of the pontiff’s death, and dedicated on May 17, 2009. The statue commemorates the event of Pope John Paul II holding mass at the cathedral for World Youth Day on August 13-14, 1993.
The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, at the corner of Logan Street and Colfax Avenue, is home to the Archdiocese of Denver. The cathedral building, designed by Detroit architect Leon Coquard in the French Gothic Style, was constructed from 1902-1911 with a final cost of approximately 0,000. Influenced by the the 13th century collégiale Saint-Nicolas of Munster, Moselle, France–the birth village of bishop Nicholas Chrysostom Matz, who supervised its construction–the catehdral is made of Indaiana limestone and Gunnison, Colorado granite and features two 210-foot spires. Its inaugural mass was held on October 27, 1912 and consecration in 1921. The cathedral was raised to the status of minor basilica on Christmas Day, 1979–one of only 29 american Cathedrals with that title.
