Bistum Buffalo

Ecclesiastical Province of New York map.png
Autor/Urheber: Farragutful, Lizenz: CC BY-SA 3.0
The Province of New York in the Catholic Church encompasses the entire state of New York, USA.

Saint Joseph Cathedral, Franklin Street, Buffalo, NY.jpg
Autor/Urheber: w_lemay, Lizenz: CC BY-SA 2.0
Built in 1851-1862, this Gothic Revival-style church was designed by Patrick C. Keely, and was consecrated as the seat of the Diocese of Buffalo in 1863, and served as the cathedral until 1915, when a new cathedral was built at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Utica Street north of downtown. The replacement cathedral, located adjacent to the Bishop’s residence, ended up proving ill suited for the climate of Buffalo, with the marble cladding separating from the brick due to the freeze-thaw cycle, eventually leading to expensive repairs being needed and the two towers being removed in the 1920s. By 1976, the newer cathedral was in such poor condition that the diocese elected to demolish it and this church once again became the cathedral in 1977, a designation it maintains to this day. The cathedral parish was established in 1847 to be the seat of the diocese, which was formed to serve the entire Western New York region, with the first bishop, John Timon, raising funds for the church in Europe. The church was originally intended to have two towers at the corners of the east facade, with the south tower being completed in 1862, and the north tower never being completed, remaining as a stump abruptly ending in a low-slope roof today. The church has a latin cross layout with a stone exterior, two towers on the east facade with corner buttresses, stained glass lancet windows with tracery, rose windows on the gable ends of the building, trefoil windows above the rose windows, gothic arched entry portals on the east facade in the center of the facade and at the base of each tower, a high nave and transepts with low aisles on either side, buttresses on the facades of the aisles, a small chapel to the rear, built in 1873, with lancet stained glass windows, a side gable roof, and buttresses, with a garage in the basement, and a tower at the southeast corner of the building with a belfry featuring lancet openings with tracery, decorative caps on the buttresses, four clock faces, an octagonal roof topped with a cross, and which contained one of the world’s largest carillons when installed in 1869, but never worked properly, and later ended up being removed from the structure. The interior of the church features extensive gothic trim, a Hook and Hastings organ, a vaulted ceiling, decorative plaster bosses at the intersections of the ribs of the vaulted ceilings, arcaded blind gothic arches on the walls, three lancet stained glass windows above the altar donated by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in 1855, and columns with ornate capitals. The cathedral received renovations in 1882, 1903-1905, 1937-1947, and 1977, each time modernizing the building, with the last renovation allowing it to return fully to service as the diocese’s cathedral. To the south of the cathedral is a four-story Second Empire-style rectory, built at the same time as the church, clad in the same stone as the cathedral with contrasting stone trim at the doors and windows, a mansard roof, replacement windows, gabled roof dormers, a front gable at the top of the projecting center bay, blind gothic arches over the windows, a quatrefoil attic window on the front gable, a projected entry porch with a gothic arched opening, a side gable over a projected bay with a side entrance to the building at the ground floor, and a rear stair tower with a copper hipped roof.

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Autor/Urheber: AlexiusHoratius, Lizenz: CC BY-SA 3.0
Map of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo in the USA.