What started as a routine wash high above St. Mary’s Basilica turned into a surprise hidden under paint for decades.
Renovators cleaning an arch on the ceiling of the basilica in Minneapolis found gold stencil work beneath a dull, tannish mauve paint layer. The basilica said the stenciling may have been hidden since the previous cleaning in the 1950s.
St. Mary’s Basilica, described as the oldest basilica in the US, was finished in 1914. It is now in its second renovation since then, a $50 million project with a deadline of Easter Sunday next year.
Workers put up 15 floors of scaffolding to reach the ceiling of the nave. In the section just before the altar, they found the broad archway had been decorated with gold stenciling and later covered up for unknown reasons.
Johan van Parys, the basilica’s managing director of ministries and director of liturgy and sacred art, told CBS affiliate WCCO there was no record of the artwork.
“We don’t know why the stenciling that was originally here was covered over with flat paint. So whether it was an aesthetic choice or financial reason, all the stencil was covered up,” he said. “When we came to this arch we had no idea we’d discover this.”
The restoration also found medallion panels in the corners of the ceiling design with ultramarine blue fields and gold fleur-de-lis designs.
“It was a supremely emotional moment because that which had been hidden for 75 years now could be revealed again,” van Parys said. “The people from 1914 who came here for the first Mass, this is what they saw, and that is what we will see again.”
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