Tours

Welcome to the first designated Basilica in the United States.

Architecturally speaking, basilicas have their origin in pre-Christian buildings erected in the form of pillared halls which were used for public assemblies and for the administration of justice. The usual plan was an oblong rectangle with a broad central nave separated from side aisles by rows of columns. The walls of the nave rested on these columns and were carried up above the roofs of the side aisles to form a clerestory pierced with windows to admit light to the building. At one end of the structure was the entrance under a portico. At the other end, a semicircular vaulted niche (or apse) was separated from the main building by a screen of columns or a low balustrade. The apse was occupied by the tribune of the judge and an altar of sacrifice. They were called basilicas or “kingly” halls from the Greek basileus, meaning king.

Many buildings of this architectural type graced the Roman Forum Emperor Constantine (274-337) who adopted Christianity as state religion transformed these buildings into Christian churches and used them as models for other churches since they were well suited to this purpose. The semi-circular niche was readily occupied by the bishop and his council of priests. The high altar, usually covered with a baldachin, took the place of the raised platform of the judge. Transepts were often added between the apse and the nave for practical purposes and on account of their symbolism (giving the whole a cruciform appearance). Under the altar was the confessio, or shrine containing the relics of the titular saint.

The Basilica of Saint Mary was designed in 1906 by Emmanuel Masqueray (1861-1917), and has served the Catholics of Minneapolis since the first mass was celebrated here on May 31, 1914. The sanctuary was completed in the early 1920s by the Boston firm of Maginnis and Walsh, with additional interior finish work completed by the Minneapolis firm of Slifer and Abrahamson.