(UF7) STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
Artist – V. Hopple
Oil
Artist – V. Hopple
Oil
(UF7) STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
Artist – V. Hopple
Oil
The Loreto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico is a former Roman Catholic Church that is now used as a museum and wedding chapel. It is known for its unusual helix-shaped spiral staircase. The name and origin of the builder has still not been verified. The Sisters of Loreto credit St. Joseph with its construction. It has been the subject of legend and rumor, and the circumstances surroundings its construction and its builder are considered miraculous by the Sisters of Loreto and many visitors. In 1872 Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the Bishop of the Santa Fe Archdiocese, commissioned the building of a convent chapel which would be in the care of the Sisters of Loreto.
The chapel was designed by French architect Antoine Mouly in the Gothic Revival style, complete with spires, buttresses and stained glass windows imported from France. The architect died suddenly and it was only after much of the chapel was constructed that the builders realized it was lacking any type of stairway to the choir loft. On that day a shabby-looking stranger appeared at their door. He told the nuns he would build them a staircase but he needed total privacy and locked himself in the chapel for three months. He used a small number of primitive tools including a square, a saw and some warm water and constructed a spiral staircase entirely of non-native wood. His identity is unknown and as soon as the staircase was finished he was gone. The resulting staircase is an impressive work of carpentry being there was no attachment to any wall or pole in the stairway. The staircase has 33 steps, the same age as Jesus Christ at his death. This original oil painting by Hopple showing an angel in the middle of the step going up to the heavens was discovered at an antique shop in Cincinnati.
Artist – V. Hopple
Oil
The Loreto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico is a former Roman Catholic Church that is now used as a museum and wedding chapel. It is known for its unusual helix-shaped spiral staircase. The name and origin of the builder has still not been verified. The Sisters of Loreto credit St. Joseph with its construction. It has been the subject of legend and rumor, and the circumstances surroundings its construction and its builder are considered miraculous by the Sisters of Loreto and many visitors. In 1872 Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the Bishop of the Santa Fe Archdiocese, commissioned the building of a convent chapel which would be in the care of the Sisters of Loreto.
The chapel was designed by French architect Antoine Mouly in the Gothic Revival style, complete with spires, buttresses and stained glass windows imported from France. The architect died suddenly and it was only after much of the chapel was constructed that the builders realized it was lacking any type of stairway to the choir loft. On that day a shabby-looking stranger appeared at their door. He told the nuns he would build them a staircase but he needed total privacy and locked himself in the chapel for three months. He used a small number of primitive tools including a square, a saw and some warm water and constructed a spiral staircase entirely of non-native wood. His identity is unknown and as soon as the staircase was finished he was gone. The resulting staircase is an impressive work of carpentry being there was no attachment to any wall or pole in the stairway. The staircase has 33 steps, the same age as Jesus Christ at his death. This original oil painting by Hopple showing an angel in the middle of the step going up to the heavens was discovered at an antique shop in Cincinnati.
