Ironwood is similar to ebony, as it is dark, dense and very hard; its grain is very straight. For this reason there are few air bubbles and unlike other woods, ironwood sinks in water.[3] Before the carving of ironwood figures, this wood was used for...
Ironwood tree
The ironwood tree is considered native to the Sonora Desert as it is found only the states of Sonora, Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur in Mexico and Arizona and California in the United States.[1] Olneya tesota is the slowest growing and the tallest...
Mexican ironwood carvings
Mexican ironwood carvings is a handcraft that began with the Seri indigenous people of the state of Sonora. The wood comes from a Sonora Desert tree called ironwood (palo fierro in Spanish) or Olneya tesota. It is a slow growing important shade tree found in...
21st century
On 11 February 2002, Pope John Paul II created the administration for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Moscow and named Apostolic Administrator Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz as archbishop and metropolitan. However, this decision was criticised by Patriarch Alexy II, who called it “unfriendly”, as he believed the...
Organ and bells
The present pipe organ is one of the largest in Russia and the third since the church’s foundation. The first organ was taken by the state in 1938 and the second, an electronic organ with 60 stops, was installed as part of the renovations in...
Interior
On each side on the entry of the cathedral is a stone crucifix and a holy water font. High on the left side there is a brick from the Lateran Basilica, and on the right side a jubilee 2000 medal. The crypt is accessed through...
Architecture and facilities
The cathedral, built in a neo-Gothic style, is a three-aisled cross-shaped pseudobasilica. It was constructed entirely from red brick, and was not rendered externally. The five-bay main aisle extends for 65 metres (213 ft), each with lateral arms 13 metres (43 ft) long. The octagonal...
Renovation and reconsecration
In the early 1990s, plans were made by the Office for Monument Protection to restore the church by 1997, the 850th anniversary of Moscow’s foundation. This proposal was not implemented because of the dispute over occupancy. However, in 1995, the city determined that the parish...
Return to religious use
The glasnost (openness) policy, introduced during the rule of Mikhail Gorbachev, played a major role in developing religious freedom in the Soviet Union.[9] Consequently, in 1989, a group of Moscow Catholics and the cultural association “The Polish House” (Russian: Дом Польский), suggested that the building...
Closure and conversions
In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Provisional Government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks, and Russia became part of the new Soviet Union. As the promotion of state atheism was a part of Marxist-Leninist ideology, the Soviet government ordered many churches closed....
