SEEING THE SIGHTS IN LOUISVILLE, KY

Saturday, September 24 – We are having another day of rain, but that won't stop us from discovering Louisville.

Marsha loves to visit churches. Off we went to visit the Cathedral of Assumption in downtown Louisville.

The seat of the first bishop, Benedict Joseph Flaget, moved from Bardstown, Kentucky, to Louisville in 1841. The Cathedral of the Assumption was completed in 1852.  It is the fourth oldest public building in Louisville as well as the third oldest Catholic Cathedral in continuous use in the United States.

Ceiling as we entered the Church.

As you face the altar, you are facing east to Jerusalem, the direction in which many Cathedrals face.  The bronze candlesticks around the altar are the original candlesticks used on the high altar of the Vatican II.  “There’s a great symbolism of the baptismal font being near the entrance and the altar being in the center in the front because through baptism we come to the Eucharist which comes from the table of the Lord." 

The ceiling fresco depicts cherubs surrounding Mary at the time of her assumption into heaven.  Through different restorations of the interior of the church, the fresco remained untouched until 1964.  After plaster started falling from the ceiling, the fresco was painted over when the ceiling was repaired.  As part of the 1994 renovation, the fresco was painstakingly restored to its earlier beauty.

The magnificent pipe organ was built by the Steiner-Reck Company of Louisville in 1983.  The organ is a mechanical-action tracker organ with 43 ranks and 36 Stops.  The casework is hand carved mahogany and reflects the Gothic style arches of the church.

We also stopped in to the Glassworks factory and shop. They had so many…according to Marsha…awesome items.

Aliens for a mere $40/each.

Marsha wanted to buy one of these for the holidays but thought twice. Not a practical buy when traveling.

Beautiful wine glasses but again impractical.

Below the shop, the doors are open. How neat to watch the artists make these beautiful works of art.

Putting the hot glass in a mold.

Squirting water on the hot glass. He then broke the bad part off the vase.

Footnote to our Louisville Slugger blog.
In our blog about our visit to Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, we forgot to tell you that our visit was FREE! While visiting the Apple Festival in Nappanee, Indiana, we visited the Louisville Visitor Center display. We told the worker that we were going to visit Louisville and headed to the Slugger Museum. He reached into his magic bag and gave us two free tickets…Now that is a great Visitor Center!

Also, at the end of our visit, we were each given a mini Louisville Slugger bat. In the picture, the top bat shows the end stubs that are taken off each professional bat. The bottom picture shows the bat without the stubs.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!