Notre-Dame Basilica
— — a cobalt ceiling holding its own weather.
Not only on a wall.
“Gothic Revival twin towers on Place d'Armes, finished in 1829 by James O'Donnell, an Irish-American Protestant architect who converted to Catholicism so he could be buried in the church he built. Inside, the sanctuary reads deep cobalt and gilt, with stained glass that tells the story of Ville-Marie rather than the gospels. The Casavant organ above the entry is one of the largest in Canada. — from the studio
Notre-Dame Basilica, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Notre-Dame Basilica stands on Place d'Armes in Old Montréal, facing the square where the city's founders first laid out the colonial street grid in the 1670s. The current Gothic Revival church was designed by James O'Donnell, a New York architect of Irish birth, and completed in 1829; the twin western towers, named Persévérance and Tempérance, were finished in the 1840s. The parish itself dates to 1656, making it the oldest parish on the island of Montréal. Pope John Paul II raised the church to the rank of minor basilica in 1982. The building seats roughly 8,000.
The interior is the thing people remember: a deep cobalt vault studded with gold stars, walnut and gilded carving, and stained glass that depicts the religious history of Montréal rather than the usual biblical scenes. The polychrome scheme was developed by Victor Bourgeau in a redesign carried out from 1872 onward, after the original O'Donnell interior was judged too austere. The sanctuary is lit by recessed fixtures angled to the vault, and the colour reads differently at the morning Masses than during the evening AURA sound-and-light installation that runs in the nave.
The basilica is at 110 Notre-Dame Street West, a short walk from the Place-d'Armes Metro station on the Orange Line. Daytime entry as a visitor is ticketed, with a small fee for adults and a self-guided or guided option; admission is free during liturgies for those attending Mass. The Casavant Frères organ above the entry, installed in 1891, has 7,000 pipes and is one of the largest church organs in Canada. The AURA multimedia experience runs most evenings of the week and is ticketed separately from daytime visits.