Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption
Modernist cathedral with a soaring saddle-shaped concrete roof and a cross-shaped skylight over the altar.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco opens on the night of September 7, 1962, when forty teenagers evacuate an evening event inside the old Saint Mary's Cathedral as smoke fills the building, and a priest runs back in to save the sacrament before the flames drive him out. It follows the archdiocese's decision to rebuild from nothing, bringing in Italian engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, known for bending raw concrete into shapes that seemed to defy gravity, to work alongside architect Pietro Belluschi on a roof unlike anything the city had seen. Listen for how the congregation first reacted when the new building opened.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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