ASHEVILLE BASILICA HOLDS SOME OF CITY’S OLDEST ART

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By Paul Clark

Asheville Citizen-Times

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Resting under the huge unsupported dome of the Basilica of St Lawrence is not only the body of the man who built the historic structure, but also several Seventeenth Century pieces of art.

Daily Mass, and occasional tours, are held in the nearly 100-year-old structure filled with art from Germany, Spain, Italy and elsewhere, much of it a few hundred years old. In a city noted for its visual arts, the church quietly contains some of Asheville’s oldest.

The Basilica of St Lawrence was designed and built by Rafael Guastavino, a Spanish architect brought to Asheville to help build the Biltmore House. Started in 1905, the church was completed on October 17, 1909 — months after Guastavino died.

Guastavino, who settled down in Black Mountain, built the Basilica in the Spanish Renaissance style, using a method of construction for which he was already famous — embedding layers of flat tiles in strong mortar to create thin, but surprisingly strong, arched vaults.

At the Basilica, Guastavino created what is considered to be the largest unsupported dome in North America — 82 by 58 feet. There are no wood or steel beams in the structure, nor are they in the stairways to the pipe organ.

Off to the side of the main altar are two smaller altars. The one on the left, The Chapel of Our Lady, has a painting by the Seventeenth Century Italian master Massimo Stanzione above the door to the sacristy. “The Visitation’’ depicts Mary, mother of Jesus, having a conversation with her cousin Elizabeth. In the background are Joseph, Mary’s husband, and Zachariah, married to Elizabeth. It is believed that Stanzione, whose works are still in churches around Naples, Italy, died at age 71 during the plague of 1656.

Surrounding the elliptical sanctuary are stained glass windows done by Franz Mayer & Co. of Munich, Germany.

“At that time in the country, if you were a hotshot church or cathedral in America, Mayer glass was acknowledged to be the best stained glass there was,’’ said Bill Wescott, who has helped restore several historic churches in the Asheville area. “The tones and the shades — and especially the way Mayer handled Mary, Jesus, Joseph and other people’s faces — was really well done.’’

The church’s archives show it paid $1,000 for the two large windows on the east and west walls and $250 for each of the smaller semicircular windows, archivist John Toms said.

Alice Cella, an Asheville resident and church docent who leads tours, has written a book about the art in the Basilica. She’s still amazed by the quality of the work in the windows.

“The faces reflect their ages, their emotion so much beauty, so much detail,’’ she said. “The face of Christ himself is a beautiful thing in all these windows. You can just meditate on the windows.’’

She looked at the window on the east wall depicting Christ healing the sick. Under the arch on the right side are the apostles Peter, James and John.

“Look at the clothing that Peter is wearing and the richness of his nimbus halo compared to the other two apostles,’’ Cella said. “It’s an artistic representation of his eminence.’’

The centerpiece of the sanctuary is a hand carved Spanish crucifixion tableau, about 14 feet tall, from the Seventeenth Century. Made of walnut, it was bought from a church in Spain that needed money for renovations.

“Guastavino in his notes indicated that the church (that sold the tableau) had in its sanctuary 16 of this size, which gives you an idea of the size of the church this came out of,’’ Cella said.

“The painting on each of the figures is absolutely beautiful.’’