MALTA: DAY 2, PART 1 - WALKING AROUND VALLETTA, ST. PAUL'S SHIPWRECK CHURCH AND CHAPEL, AND MORE

 March 19, 2024

We began our second day in Malta with breakfast in our hotel. I love Eggs Benedict, and I would give these a 6 or 7 out of 10--better than most, but not great. 

Julia joined us in the hotel lobby and led us on a walking tour of Valletta, the capital city. Valletta is set on a hill, and the streets are positioned to maximize cool breezes from the Mediterranean Sea. What are those round things in the street on the right?

They are restaurant tables. and how do you set up tables on a hill? You make wedges to go under the downhill legs. Do they do this for the chairs too? I don't know.

MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL: A TALE OF TWO CITIES AND THE BASILICA OF ST. MARY

The "Twin Cities" of Minneapolis and St. Paul are more like fraternal than identical twins. Although they have many things in common, they have distinct borders, and each has its own personality. 

One example of the fraternal-twin split can be illustrated by the Catholic church. Together, Minneapolis and St. Paul make up a Roman Catholic Archdiocese with about 750,000 members who are led by a single archbishop. Each city has a large church that acts as the religious heart of the city, and together the two buildings serve as "co-cathedrals" for the Archdiocese.  Both churches were designed by Franco-American architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray (chief architect of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis) and were built at the same time, and they both reflect Masqueray's French training. 

And yet, just as the two cities are distinct, so are the two churches.

This post will focus on the building in Minneapolis, a Basilica dedicated to St. Mary, and my next post will discuss the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, which was actually built almost simultaneously. (Imagine that drain on the church budget.) 

Construction of St. Mary's Basilica took place between 1907 and 1915, although the interior decoration wasn't completed until 1925. There are 83 Roman Catholic churches in the United States that have been designated minor basilicas (the only four major basilicas being in Rome), and this was the very first one, attaining that status in 1926 when it was so designated by Pope Pius XI.

The architectural design is Classical/Baroque or Beaux Arts, depending on who you ask. (I don't know enough about architecture to know whether or not that is essentially the same style.) The two spires are 116 feet tall and the central dome is 138 feet. On top of the dome is a secondary structure and a cross, bringing the total height to 200 feet.

Images of Mary are prominent both outside and in: