page_title: Loretto Chapel
section_title: Similar stairs
hierarchical_section_title: Loretto Chapel / Staircase / Similar stairs
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Gdańsk, ratusz Głównego Miasta, ob. Muzeum Historyczne, 1378-XV This is a photo of a monument in Poland identified by the ID 635537
context_page_description: The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, is a former Roman Catholic church that is now used as a museum and a wedding chapel.
  It is known for its unusual helix-shaped spiral staircase. The Sisters of Loretto credited St. Joseph with its construction. It has been the subject of legend, and the circumstances surrounding its construction and its builder were considered miraculous by the Sisters of Loretto.
context_section_description: Although the design of the Loretto stairs is highly unusual, other spiral staircases without center supports are known to exist. One example can be found at the Old Washoe Club in Virginia City, Nevada, which also dates to the 1870s. This staircase was described by Ripley's Believe It or Not! as "the longest of its kind without a supporting pole", although it has fewer turns than the Loretto staircase.
  
  Further afield, another staircase is in the Gdańsk Town Hall in Poland, which was reported to the New Mexican in 1944 by a government official named Bonnie Foster. The paper wrote: 
  "It is tall, spiral, and without steel nails, but the wood is different. It is in the town hall, of the 14th to the 16th century. How it was constructed, and whether there is a miracle story back of it, Mrs. Foster could not say. But she declared it is strikingly like St. Joseph's in design."
caption: Spiral stairs of Gdańsk Town Hall.
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