Lady of the Angels

A couple weeks ago I went with my friends Laney and Yuka to the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. It is a really beautiful and interesting building. We went on a Wednesday because they have weekly Organ concerts that day. The day that we went they were actually doing an organ demonstration rather than a concert. The organ sounded beautiful. It weighs forty-two tons and has a total of six thousand and nineteen pipes! You could feel the room shake as it was played.

We then took a free tour of the building. Here are some great pics that Laney took while we were there:

This is the front of the building. The Cathedral is located right next to the Hollywood Freeway (101). Many European Cathedrals are built near rivers, and the architect considered the freeway as "Los Angeles' river of transportation." The construction is unique in that it virtually has no right angles. The color is beautiful and really stands out against the other buildings downtown.

Here is the main entrance to the Cathedral. There are these massive bronze doors with a beautiful statue of Our Lady of the Angels.
This is the inside of the Cathedral. The organ is on the right side. You can see all of the pipes!
They had a lot of stained glass that was preserved from the previous cathedral that had been destroyed during an earthquake. It was all really beautiful.
Here is a picture of me sitting in the Cathedra, the chair for the Archbishop. I didn't think they would let us anywhere near it, let alone sit in it, but our tourguide actually encouraged us to sit in it and take pictures. I was definitely not going to pass up that opportunity. Very comfortable!
Because I know nothing about the Catholic Religion, it was really interesting to take the tour and learn a little about it. The archictecture was beautiful and all of the history, tradition and symbolism was fascinating. I definitely recommend it.