Franciscan Monastery & Memorial Church of the Holy Land
- Architect
- Aristide Leonori
- Year
- 1899
- Style
- Byzantine
- City
- Washington, DC
Franciscan friars built this monastery and church on a wooded Brookland hilltop they named Mount Saint Sepulcher, after Father Godfrey Schilling purchased the McCeeney Estate there in 1897 to relocate a project first planned for a hill on Staten Island overlooking New York Harbor. Completed in 1899 and designed by Aristide Leonori in the Byzantine Revival style, the complex is anchored by the Memorial Church of the Holy Sepulcher and holds replicas of Holy Land shrines, a replica of the Roman catacombs, and the bones of Saint Benignus of Armagh, brought here from a cathedral in Narni, Italy.
the building
Replica catacombs and relics. The grounds hold a built replica of the catacombs of Rome alongside the bones of Saint Benignus of Armagh, moved here from the cathedral of Narni, Italy, part of an effort to bring Holy Land pilgrimage sites to American visitors.
From Staten Island to Brookland. Founders Charles A. Vassani and Godfrey Schilling first planned their 'Holy Land in America' for a hilltop on Staten Island overlooking New York's harbor entrance; when those plans fell through, Schilling instead purchased Brookland's McCeeney Estate in 1897 to build here.
the style
The church was designed in the Byzantine Revival style, a rare choice for Washington, where it stands out among the city's more common classical and Gothic Revival landmarks.
More on Byzantinesignificance
The complex is a DC Historic Landmark (#L_0560) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites.
nearby
- Newton Theater
- Ralph Bunche House
- Engine Company No. 26
- Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
- Old Engine Company 26
- President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home