On May 31st, 1914, the Basilica of Saint Mary in front of you, on its slight hill above downtown, was consecrated as the first basilica designated in the United States. The Basilica of Saint Mary was designed by Emmanuel Masqueray, the same French architect who designed the Cathedral of Saint Paul across the river, and his Beaux-Arts design gives the exterior its confident French classicism. The dome, modeled loosely on St. Peter's in Rome, is visible from much of downtown and from the freeways.
Inside, the building holds 1,800 people and the acoustics are extraordinary. The Basilica Block Party, held in the parking lot every July, is one of Minneapolis's signature summer events — a two-day outdoor music festival that has featured national headliners since 1995 and raises money for the building's ongoing restoration. Minneapolis was, by the early twentieth century, a city of significant Catholic parishes serving waves of immigrant communities — Irish, German, Polish, Czech, and Scandinavian — and this basilica was built to serve as the mother church of all of them.
Step inside if the doors are open. The light through those windows on a clear afternoon is worth the stop.