Basilica of St. Hyacinth
- Architect
- Worthmann & Steinbach
- Year
- 1921
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- Chicago, IL
The Basilica of St. Hyacinth was completed in 1921 to the designs of Worthmann & Steinbach, built for a Polish parish founded in 1894 by Resurrectionists out of St. Stanislaus Kostka, Chicago's first Polish parish. It became the anchor of Jackowo, the city's best-known Polish Patch, and one of the monumental Polish Cathedral-style churches visible from the Kennedy Expressway alongside St. Mary of the Angels, St. Hedwig's, and St. Wenceslaus. The parish stayed closely tied to Chicago's Polish community through the Solidarity-era migration wave of the 1980s.
the building
Scale for a neighborhood parish. St. Hyacinth was built to the opulent, oversized formula of the Polish Cathedral style, in which immigrant parishes raised churches on a scale meant to rival Old World cathedrals as a statement of permanence and pride.
the style
St. Hyacinth is a prime example of Neoclassical architecture executed in the Polish Cathedral idiom, an approach used across Chicago's Polish parishes to give humble immigrant congregations a grand, cathedral-scaled home.
More on Neoclassicalsignificance
On June 26, 2003, Pope John Paul II granted St. Hyacinth the designation of minor basilica, only the third church in Illinois to receive that status. Cardinal Francis George formally proclaimed it a basilica of the Archdiocese of Chicago on November 30, 2003.
nearby
- John Rath House
- Carl Schurz High School
- Charles N. Loucks House
- Congress Theater
- Lane Technical College Prep High School
- (Former) Pioneer Trust & Savings Bank Building