St. Francis de Sales Cathedral

In an earlier post, you saw this Catholic church from the outside. Today we explore the inside. I called the church office and talked to the nice lady there and she gladly allowed me to come for a visit and photograph the church even though it was closed...the priest was out of town. 

Although it is more modern than that which we typically see in our international travels, there are clear traditional design elements giving this place an elegant look.

As you can see throughout, the stained glass is very nice and give the interior a pleasant, warm feeling.

There are plenty of pews here for a substantial crowd. I don't know if it is filled in non-covid times but I'm guessing that folks come from farms for miles around to services here.

At the back of the cathedral is an organ loft. I am standing in the loft for the image below.

And here are the pipes. A fellow came in while I was there and it seemed like he was there to play/practice on the organ but I was nearly done and he was busy cleaning or something on the organ and I decided not to wait.

I find the gold trim on the pipes especially nice.

You may recall from the photo of the outside, that there room for a bell tower. Here is that tower on the inside. The rope for the bell is hanging down the upper right of the stairwell.

I liked this photo because from the position I could get to at the inner rail of the stairs, I could not get any of the stair rails to line up to be square with one another. This gave the view the appearance of an Escher print and made it feel more than a little vertiginous. 

Here's a view looking across the altar... the one place I forbidden to trod.

As is the commonly the case, the walls are lined with the stations of the cross.

Out front in the bright sunlight (this place is anti-Seattle in this regard), I got this interesting photo of the stairs in front. I hate that the year (1908)was blocked by the railing, but I wanted to get the rail exactly straight on so the jagged shadow on the stairs would contrast with it. You can see in the right corner a portion of the front door. It is metal and very nicely done.