Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate

When John Galt founded Guelph on April 23, 1827, he allocated the highest point in the centre of the newly founded town to Roman Catholics as a compliment to his friend, Bishop Alexander Macdonell, who had given him advice in the formation of the Canada Company. A road was also later cleared leading up to the hill and named after the Bishop, called Macdonell Street. According to the Guelph Public Library archives, Galt wrote the following statement in the deed transferring the land on which the Church of Our Lady would one day stand: "On this hill would one day rise a church to rival St. Peter's in Rome." The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady Immaculate is the third church to stand on this site, high above the streetscape, overlooking the city of Guelph. The first church, a framed wooden church named St. Patrick's, had been built on the hill by 1835 and was the first structure in Guelph that was painted on both its interior and exterior. It burned to the ground on October 10, 1844. Construction on St. Bartholomew's Church began shortly after St. Patrick's was destroyed. The new building was completed in 1846. The following inscription appeared on the cornerstone of St. Bartholomew's Church: "To God, the best and greatest. The faithful of Guelph, of the diocese of Toronto have built this new Church, in honour of the blessed Apostle Bartholomew, the first church having been consumed in flames." Construction of the new church, based on the Cologne Cathedral, Long-awaited restoration of the church began in April 2007 and was completed in December 2014, at a cost of over $12 million. Talk of restoration began in the early 1990s, with work on the slate roof completed in 1992. Subsequent plans for renovating the interior generated some controversy and were put on hold. Initially, the estimated cost of the inside and outside restoration was between $10 million and $12 million and was expected to last until 2008. It included renovations to the towers ($1.2 million), roof, windows and doors, interior and basement. Funding came from both the congregation and the diocese of Hamilton. The total cost of the work reached about $10 million, including the exterior restoration and the work on the interior, with the installation of new lighting, new flooring and new pews. The project had been directed by Monsignor Dennis Noon who planned to retire in June 2019 after 16 years at this parish. In 2019, Bishop Douglas Crosby formally elevated the church to the status of a "Diocesan Marian Shrine" and sent a petition to the Holy See on 12 November 2019, to crown the Marian image of the basilica which has since been enthroned for over a century atop the high altar. On 8 December 2019, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued the official decree granting the solemn crowning of the venerated Marian image, in the name and authority of Pope Francis. It would only be until 1 October 2022 that the ceremony would be carried out. ==Design==

The Government of Canada's Federal Designation document provides additional specifics as to the character defining elements: French Gothic Revival, including a cruciform plan with side aisles, prominent nave, triforium arcades, apse with radiating chapels and ambulatory, twin-towered façade, spire at the central groin vault, and large rose windows; the sense of verticality, created by the use of steeply pitched roofs with gables, dormers, pinnacles, pointed arches, and tall narrow window openings; the symmetrically organized façade with its twin square towers with pinnacles and paired openings, massive rose window with bar tracery set in a moulded pointed arch, row of lintel statuary set within a blind arcade, and carved tympanum; the division of side elevations into bays defined by engaged buttresses, with each bay accented by a pointed arch and a stained glass window; the north and south transepts, each distinguished by two lancet windows below a large, stained-glass, rose window with flanking narrow pinnacles; the polygonal apse, consisting of radiating gabled chapels with another level of gables above; the extensive use of pointed arches and stained glass windows with bar tracery throughout the composition; the Gothic Revival styling of the interior, including, tall pointed-arch windows in the chancel, clerestories inset with rose windows, stained-glass windows, nave-arcades with false triforium-galleries, granite columns with acanthus capitals supporting the aisle arcades, and rib vaulting; the high quality design and craftsmanship of its interior, including its wood and stone carving, its stained glass, its stencilling, its ironwork, its mosaics, and its excellent acoustics; its prominent siting at the top of a hill overlooking the city; viewscapes to and from the church and the city. City by-laws The City of Guelph's zoning by-laws establish "protected view areas" that are designed to ensure clear sight lines to the Church of Our Lady from various vantage points in the downtown core. Any communication towers or other buildings built in the downtown area must not obscure the view of the church. Also, no new buildings in Guelph were allowed to be higher in elevation than the Church. Nonetheless, the new Wilson Street parkade at the Market, constructed by the city and opened in late 2019, obstructs views of the church from some locations in the downtown area. ==See also==