About The Sacred Site
Location:
317 Leroy Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14214
Be sure to check out this site’s social media:
Blessed Trinity R.C. Church Facebook
Website: https://www.blessedtrinitybuffalo.org
Date of Construction: 1923-1928
Style: Lombard Romanesque with Byzantine details
Architect / Builder: Chester Oakley & Albert Schallmo
Activities
Blessed Trinity’s Sacred Sites Open House
Saturday, May 17, 2024
11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
No passport nor time machine required for visitors to be transported to northern Italy and travel back more than 800 years as they encounter one of the purest examples of 12th Century Lombard Romanesque-style architecture in the U.S., but very much “made in America.”
Blessed Trinity R. C. Church, designed by architects Chester Oakley and Albert Schallmo, was “[built] for eternity” between 1923 and 1928 by a working-class congregation of primarily German and Irish immigrants at a cost of $513,000. In 1976, while valuing it at $4.25 million, a commercial appraisal company lamented that it could not be reproduced because “similar craftsmen needed to do the work are no longer available.” More recently, its uniqueness was recognized by Director Alejandro Monteverde who chose it as a setting for scenes in Angel Studios “Cabrini,” the 2024 biopic of St. Frances Cabrini.
Welcoming docents will identify some of the local artisans who created this masterpiece and help you appreciate the building’s outstanding features: handmade bricks produced and set in a medieval fashion; the large-scale use of ceramics including an elaborate display of medieval iconography on the terra cotta portico; and more than 2,000 symbols summarizing Christian beliefs in paintings, sculpture, mosaic floor tiles, metal and woodworking.
*Note: The Landmark church is wheelchair accessible and has ample off-street parking.
