Inside the Cathedral

I have walked past this Cathedral every day on my way to work but have never been inside. Then last week, after visiting the Van Gogh show at the National Art Gallery (right across the street), I noticed that the front door of the Cathedral was open and people were going in, so I thought I would take a peek and see what the interior was like.

The Cathedral was quite beautiful inside, with a lovely vaulted blue ceiling and columns and religious art everywhere. Perhaps I was predisposed to see everything through an artistic lens (after going to the Van Gogh show at the National), but I was impressed by all the colours and the baroque architecture.

There were dozens of stained glass windows along the side walls. These were very bright with fabulous colours. I looked up the history of the Cathedral - which is the Notre Dame Basilica Cathedral of Ottawa - and the stain glass windows were made in the late 1800's by a company in England. What a lot of intricate detail.

Everywhere I looked there were carvings and statues and ornate decoration. As you can see in this photo, I was not the only person walking around taking pictures with a camera. There were many people, like this man in the bottom left corner, doing the same. But there were also some people sitting in the pews, praying or just resting.

I really liked all the different colours and patterns in the columns. It seemed there wasn't a dull surface anywhere.

As I was leaving, I looked up at this great window that was at the back of the cathedral, over the front door. Splendid!