Behind the scenes at the Basilica

[Steve Grisetti]

One of the most beautiful buildings on the state, the Basilica of St. Josaphat on Milwaukee's south side is beautiful and majestic inside and out.

Thanks to my work on a project for them recently, I was given the very rare opportunity to climb into the attic (That's the area between the chapel and the roof), the bell tower and even inside the giant rotunda, 180 feet from the church floor.

No video can capture how amazing the experience was, but hopefully this can at least give you a taste.

[sidd finch]

That is a really beautiful church.

How cool would it be to get some drone footage inside the building....



Sidd

[Steve Grisetti]

They actually had a professional team come in and do just that, Sidd. I'll be shooting more of the close-up stuff up the rafters.

[sidd finch]

Gotta say Steve sounds like you have a pretty enviable job. It is so cool that the church invited you in to do that. Especially in such a magnificent building. I hope you get to record lots of footage.

Sidd

[TreeTopsRanch]

More footage please Steve. Also, what are you going to do there?

[sidd finch]

So here is some trivia I learned, St Josephat was built using 200,000 tons of salvaged stones from the Chicago Post office and customs house that was being demolished. The stones were transported by train to Milwaukee.

Sidd

[Dave McElderry]

That was great. If you have more, please share. I have a fear of heights and would not have even climbed that staircase leading up there. Looking out of that window into the interior would have terrified me. But it's a beautiful piece of architecture. They don't build 'em like that anymore.

[Steve Grisetti]

I'll be shooting a "backstage" video on the need for good fire safety and control upgrades for the Basilica. As we saw with the tragic fire at Notre Dame, those old buildings are mostly wood and they do go up very quickly once a fire starts.

Great trivia, Sidd. In fact, that's one of their favorite stories. If you look closely you can even spot the original fixtures in the present building, still labeled with the Chicago Post Office markings.

Yes, looking out that little panel into the church rotunda was pretty dizzying. Even more so when you think that custodians once changed lightbulbs by climbing out onto a narrow ledge along the rotunda. But a local reporter (who calls himself an "urban spelunker") was brave enough to climb to the top of the dome and open a window in the very top of that rotunda and look down into the church. My knees start shaking even thinking about that!

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

In the late 1970s/early 1980s I worked in the City (that part of London that is the financial district). One lunchtime I took the opportunity to visit St Paul's Cathedral. These are two of the B&W pics that I took.

The first is looking directly up at the dome from the central point on the floor below. The curved part around the edge of the picture is the Whispering Gallery.

Under St Paul's Dome Looking Up.jpg

The second is looking directly down to the floor from a small (from memory about eight inches or so) window in the centre of the dome. You can see the chairs laid out in rows. Looking down through that tiny window was a nerve tingling experience.

St Paul's Dome Looking Down 2.jpg

Note to self - if ever in London again re-vist St Paul's and take some colour pics!

[Steve Grisetti]

Very very nice, John!

[ed]

Very cool video Steve. I bet the acoustics are amazing during Mass.

[sidd finch]

I agree Ed. John those are some cool shots.

Sidd

[Paz_Pazzaz]

WOW, Steve, wow, wow, wow! I was wowing right along with you while watching the footage. What a wonderful opportunity for you, and all of us! Thanks, and yes, let's see more!

Let's see if I got this right... from the exterior shot, starting at the top, we have the copper dome of cupola, cupola body, (is this where the bells are?), the big green dome, cake layer with large clocks, below that, cake layer with Marian Windows. Is that correct?

Is this your church? Magnificent building. Funny comparison, when I was a kid we attended a small concrete block church that had windows with "stained" glass that was a combination of yellow and brown blobs. I always hated that it wasn't even possible to look out the windows. And hot... oh my. We were packed in like sardines, had paper, hand held fans with pretty pictures on one side and some sort of advertisement on the back. My mother would slap my knee if I rocked my legs back and forth but if I went to sleep, she would leave me alone.

The bell tower - if it was not in the cupola, is it in one of the square towers on the side? I used to work on the 9th floor of a 21 story building that had what they called a "clarion" above the penthouse. The sound of the bells was sooooooo loud!!! An life insurance company, it played a funeral appropriate song and tolled the hours all day, every day. Earplugs would have been nice.


Good shots, John. Looks like you were VERY high indeed!

Paz

[Steve Grisetti]

The bell towers are the square, open-air structures on the front of the church. (Although technically only the one I was in actually has bells in it.) The dome is the big round dome, of course, with the cupola and cross at the top center. But within that dome is a wooden structure forming the rotunda, the dome you see from inside the church itself.

My video will show that, despite the building being made of stone, virtually everything within this stone shell is lumber. In other words, when a first starts in these old churches, they go up like a tinderbox! So we'll be raising money for fire prevention equipment.

Technically it's not "my" church, although we in Milwaukee consider it a personal source of pride. In fact, that's part of the problem. It's a "destination church", meaning that it has a relatively small parish supporting it despite people coming from all over the state to visit it and attend mass. Fortunately, a number of businesses and philanthropist support the foundation.

[sidd finch]

Steve now that you have a drone maybe they will let you do something this......

https://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=112&t=16172

Sidd