The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is home to Pope Paul VI's coronation tiara. He relinquished it shortly after assuming his role as the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s, opting for the more understated miter now worn by popes. For some time afterward, this encased crown drew huge numbers of people to the shrine. Catholic communities all over the country have given works of art in her honor. In recent years, the African American Catholic community donated the Chapel of Our Mother of Africa on the crypt level of the shrine.
Docents narrate the stories behind each chapel and mosaic.
Free tours are given between 9 and 11 a.m. and 1 and 3 p.m., Monday through Saturday, but the volunteers will make every effort to show visitors around at any time. Washington National Cathedral Flying buttresses line the south wall of the Washington National Cathedral. While the basilica takes its architectural cues from Rome, the Gothicism of the Washington Cathedral hails from the Middle Ages. Much of the general guided tour is placed in that context. Docents set the medieval church scene as a place of social activity, where people making pilgrimages to the cathedral camped out for days at a time.