Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Churches have some of the most amazing architecture. Remember how impressed I was with Washington National Cathedral? Remember when I went to the Christmas concert at the Basilica and vowed to return for a tour? Well, with Mom and Tín visiting it seemed like a good time to do that.

I'm not sure where to start. It's among the ten largest churches of the world. The architecture is Romanesque-Byzantine in style. You  know what I love about Byzantine architecture? The mosaics. And does this church have a lot of mosaics. There are over 70 chapels and oratories in the Basilica which gives them a lot of places for mosaics. Here are just a few:

That last one is in the north apse of the Great Upper Church and is over 3600 square feet. Think about that for a second. That's bigger than most people's homes!

Being a shrine dedicated to Mary, there were a lot of different ethnic representations of Mary. Here's a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of La Vang (I hadn't heard of her before), who appeared to the people of a Vietnamese village during the 18th century.

There is also an incredible amount of statuary. This was one of my favorite sculptures. It's titled The Holy Family at Rest - The Flight into Egypt. It's not mentioned in the Bible, but they must have been worn out after their ordeal and I think this sculpture conveys that. Even the donkey looks exhausted.

This chandelier was in an oratory dedicated to Mary, Queen of Ireland. It had the most beautiful alabaster window, but the sun was shining in such a way that I just couldn't get a good picture. I don't remember for sure, but I believe the docent told us that the chandelier was Waterford Crystal.

There was a lot of quilt inspiration which I'll cover in another post so that this one won't have too many pictures in it. Our tour lasted about an hour and we didn't even come close to seeing everything. I'll definitely need to make a return trip.