The interior of the cathedral is a simple, basilica style church with no transepts or side aisles, and a rectangular apse at the end, flanked by two colonnades in the Ionic order. The high altar is dominated by a huge mosaic of the Madonna of the Immaculate Conception, with the Latin Inscription, “There is no…
Tag: Springfield
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Exterior
The exterior of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception follows the Doric Order, in an interesting late, or as I might call it, terminal Beaux-Arts interpretation of the Greek Revival designed Joseph William McCarthy. Of course, it is architecture adapted for the modern world, as Greek temples did not have windows, whether on the side…
Campus of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Springfield
The story of how the Diocese of Springfield came into being is perhaps a story of how the locus of social, economic and political power has migrated around the State of Illinois over the last two hundred years. It was originally the Diocese of Quincy, founded in 1853, reflecting the primacy of the Mississippi River,…