Visual Communications
Colleen Ayoup
September 14, 2013
The Saint Joseph’s Oratory
Montreal is filled with cultural monuments and structures all round the city, but the one that stands out the most fascinating to be is the Saint Joseph’s Oratory. It may be seen from just about anywhere from Montreal because of its size and location. From its renaissance look to its beautiful surroundings such as flowers and fountains, you wouldn’t hesitate to visit it.
The Saint Joseph’s Oratory is the most fascinating monument in Montreal, in fact it’s one of the
National Historic Site of Canada. Its outstanding dome stands at 318 ft. from the floor and made fully from Canadian granite and copper. The Oratory is 423 ft. high and 213 ft. wide, the size and the material of the structure helps you understand that architects Dalbe Viau and Alpphonse Venne wanted to show the world what Canadian Architecture are capable of in the end of 1967, a time when Montreal was going through the quiet revolution. They wanted to show that even though Montreal was modernizing dramatically at the time, the church was still important to them and in a way to represent
Montreal along the way.
The view from both outside and inside the Oratory has an Italian renaissance look. The colours and shapes they used were really dark and faded much like the renaissance. Inside the Oratory, it gives you a more spiritual feeling, it’s slightly dark and filled all around candles. From the outside of the monument it’s very symmetrical and filled with hills, flowers and a fountain, all that with a dome that is a faded green on the top. The Oratory sits on Mount-Royal and the view from the top is extraordinary including the skyline. Presently the Oratory just went under construction, they modernize the Oratory by adding screens on the wall, adding more parking lots and improving the overall structure.
The monument