page_title: Saint Joseph's Oratory
section_title: Architecture and structure
hierarchical_section_title: Saint Joseph's Oratory / Architecture and structure
context_page_description: Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and national shrine located at 3800 Queen Mary Road on Mount Royal's Westmount Summit in Montreal, Quebec. It is a National Historic Site of Canada and is Canada's largest church, with one of the largest church domes in the world. Founded in 1904 by Saint André Bessette in his patron saint, Saint Joseph's honour, the Oratory was brought alive through the work and ingenuity of numerous architects and thousands of workers in a process spanning six decades. With its monumental scale, Renaissance Revival facade and contrasting Art Deco interior, the Oratory is recognizable not just in Montreal but around the world, attracting more than 2 million visitors and pilgrims to its steps each year.
  The Oratory is the highest building in Montreal, rising more than 30 meters above Mount Royal's summit, allowing it to be seen from many kilometers away. It is one of the few buildings that violates the height restriction under the municipal building code of Montreal, which limits the height of any building, including skycrapers, from surpassing the height of Mount Royal.
context_section_description: When the basilica’s construction began in 1914, many architects were challenging the conventional Beaux-Arts style and neoclassicism. This period was exactly around the time where expressionist architecture, constructivist architecture, Bauhaus ideas and many other facets of modern architecture began to take off, with pioneers like Le Corbusier in Europe and Frank Lloyd Wright in the United States refusing to be categorized by traditional architectural styles. It was certainly atypical for monumental classical church buildings to be constructed in cities around this time, yet Saint Joseph's Oratory was one of the largest buildings in Montreal when it was constructed, and was designed in Renaissance Revival exterior with an Art Deco interior. The basilica, as it stands today, comprises many parts, including the Crypt Church, located underneath the basilica, the Votive Chapel, between the Crypt and the rock of Mount-Royal, the Shrine, which encompasses the nave, apse and transept, and the dome, which is the largest church dome in Canada and the third largest in the world.
caption: The dome, as seen from the interior of the basilica.
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