ROCKEFELLER CENTER, Saint Patrick's Cathedral Exterior

St. Patrick’s Cathedral is the largest Neo-Gothic church in North America, and will remain so until the completion of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

The marble structure rising before your eyes, with its unmistakable spires, was built in the second half of the 19th century. If you observe the façade that looks onto Fifth Avenue, it almost seems as if the building is trying to make space for itself among the tall skyscrapers that have surrounded it over the years, to the point where they literally overshadow the Cathedral.

However, as you can easily imagine, when the building work was completed – after being halted by the Civil War – it was the Cathedral, with its two high bell towers reaching almost 100 meters, that overshadowed everything and everyone around it!

The original plans for the plot of land were for the construction of a Catholic school, although this project was subsequently abandoned in favor of an orphanage. Later, Archbishop John Joseph Hughes decided to replace the Old Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, located in Little Italy, with a new one, built over the remains of the orphanage....