St Augustine Cathedral Tucson
— — a sandstone facade carved with saguaro and horned toad.
Not only on a wall.
“The cathedral seat of the Diocese of Tucson, on Stone Avenue. The current white facade was added in 1928, modeled on the cathedral at Querétaro and carved with saguaro, yucca, and a horned toad — a Sonoran benediction worked into Spanish Colonial stone. The bells still call across downtown at noon. Inside, the nave is cool even in July, and the light through the rose window arrives slowly.
St Augustine Cathedral Tucson, 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.
Saint Augustine Cathedral stands at 192 South Stone Avenue in downtown Tucson, the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, established in 1897. The parish itself goes back to 1858, predating Arizona statehood by more than half a century. The current building was dedicated in 1896; its sandstone facade — the part everyone photographs — was added in 1928 by Manuel Flores, modeled on the cathedral at Querétaro in central Mexico. The cathedral seats roughly 1,200 and serves a diocese covering nine southern Arizona counties.
The 1928 facade is the cathedral's signature: a Spanish Colonial Revival composition in carved sandstone, with the seal of the diocese above the entry and Saint Augustine himself in the upper niche. What sets it apart from its Querétaro model is the Sonoran flora and fauna worked into the relief — saguaro cactus, yucca, and a small horned toad placed where European cathedrals would carry acanthus leaves. The detail is the work of local stonecutters under Flores, finished the year Tucson's population first crossed 30,000.
The cathedral is open daily for prayer outside scheduled Masses, with Sunday liturgies in both English and Spanish reflecting a parish that has been bilingual since founding. There is no entry fee. Mariachi Mass on Sunday evenings is a Tucson institution. The cathedral sits a few blocks south of the Tucson Presidio and within walking distance of the Tucson Museum of Art; metered street parking is available and the Sun Link streetcar stops nearby on Cushing Street.