The Basilica-Cathedral was the largest building project to its date in Newfoundland history. Construction lasted from the excavation of the ground in May 1839, through the laying of the cornerstone in May 1841, until the completion and consecration on September 9, 1855. At this time, it was the largest church building in North America and remains the second largest in Canada behind Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal.
The Basilica-Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is built in the form of a Latin cross and in the Lombard Romanesque style of a Roman basilica. It was designed for Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming by the German architect Ole Joergen Schmidt, though Fleming also seems to have had plans prepared by the distinguished Irish architect John Philpot Jones of Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland, and also consulted with James Murphy, a native of Dublin, Ireland on the final plans for the cathedral. Construction was initially supervised by the Waterford contractor Michael McGrath, but later superintended by stonemason and sculptor James Purcell of Cork, Ireland, who also designed and built a small wooden church, Christchurch, for the community of Quidi Vidi near St. John's.
Construction took place under the watchful eye of the Irish-born Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming, the Vicar-Apostolic and first Bishop of Newfoundland and later under the eye of his successor, Bishop John Mullock. The Basilica-Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is unusual among North America's 19th century public buildings in that it was constructed using limestone and granite imported from Galway and Dublin, Ireland, as well as 400,000 bricks from Hamburg, as well as local sandstone quarried from St. John's and Kelly's Island in Conception Bay, giving the Cathedral its characteristic grey colour. During its centenary celebration in 1955, Pope Pius XII raised the cathedral to the rank of minor Basilica.
The St. John's Basilica-Cathedral was contemporary with and part of the great boom in church construction which surrounded the era of Daniel O'Connell and Catholic emancipation in Ireland and Newfoundland. For its day, the St. John's Basilica was the largest Irish cathedral anywhere outside Ireland. No other Irish building in North America can boast of such intimate influences from or upon Ireland, and no other building had such an international reputation in its day.
The Basilica was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1983, to recognize its architectural uniqueness as one of the earliest North American examples of the Romanesque revival style, and its central role as the spiritual and cultural home of Newfoundland Roman Catholics. The building has also been designated as a Registered Heritage Structure and Provincial Historic Site by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador.
GEOLOGY OF THE BUILDING STONES
Exterior Stone
Approximately 30,000 tonnes of building stone, from five different localities, are present in the exterior of the building. This paper first describes the imported stone, then the local building stone. The formation, source and principal use of the exterior building stones are summarized in Table 1 and discussed below.
Table 1. Principal building stones of the Basilica of St. John the Baptist
Leinster Granite
Leinster granite from Dublin, Ireland was the principal material used in constructing the quoins, mouldings, lintels, cornices and window frames. This stone was also used to construct the statue pedestals, retaining walls and triple-span arch in the piazza. Several varieties of Leinster granite were used to construct the quoins, dressings, arch, and tower bases. The statue pedestals (Fig. 5) are a grey, medium- to coarse-grained, undeformed hornblende tonalite or quartz diorite. This stone is also present in the central archway. The tower bases (Fig. 6) and door frames are a white, medium- to coarse-grained, foliated muscovite-biotite granite that contains muscovite phenocrysts measuring up to 2 cm in diameter. The lintels, window frames, and cornices are a grey, medium-grained, equigranular muscovite-biotite granite that appears to be a finer-grained variety of the tower base and doorway muscovite-biotite granites.
Signal Hill Group Sandstone
Sandstone used in the foundation of the building was quarried from Signal Hill, a prominent landmark on the east side of the city of St. John's, situated approximately 1 km from the Basilica. Signal Hill Group sandstone was also used in originally constructing the parts of the ambulatory walls.
The ambulatory wall of the Basilica located behind the east tower. Light grey blocks of Galway limestone (centre) are bounded by light grey (tower quoins, left of centre) to white (door dressings, right of centre) blocks of Leinster granite and by dark grey weathered blocks (bottom) of Gibbett Hill sandstone.
The stone used in the foundations is part of the Lower Precambrian Quidi Vidi Formation of the Signal Hill Group. This stone is a medium- to thick-bedded, red, arkosic sandstone having thin to medium interbeds of siltstone, mudstone, intraformational breccia, red conglomerate and green sandstone. Finely disseminated hematite surrounds the dominantly felsic volcanic clasts and gives the rock its red colour.
Conception Group Sandstone
In an effort to procure only local stone in building the Basilica, Bishop Fleming established two quarries near the periphery of St. John's at Long Pond and Mundy Pond. The stone quarried from these locations is red and green tuffaceous siltstone and sandstone of the Mistaken Point Formation, the uppermost unit of the Neoproterozoic Conception Group.
Near St. John's the Mistaken Point Formation consists of a 400 m thick succession of mainly green and reddish purple argillaceous siltstone and very fine-grained sandstone. The rocks generally appear to be massive; however, medium to thick beds, parallel laminations and grading are recognizable. The red to green colour changes are diagenetic and may be independent of bedding (King, 1990). The Mistaken Point Formation is perhaps best known for its Ediacarian fossils present south of St. John's at Mistaken Point. The Mistaken Point Formation is interpreted to represent a Neoproterozoic period of explosive volcanic activity associated with submarine turbiditic sedimentation in the peri-Gondwanan Avalon Zone.
Kellys Island Sandstone
A large quantity of sandstone from Kellys Island was utilized in constructing the foundations of the Basilica and in the lower sections of the main and rear ambulatory walls. Kellys Island is situated in Conception Bay, approximately 25 km west of St. John's.
The Tremadoc Kellys Island Formation is the basal unit of the Bell Island Group, a 1200 m thick succession of Ordovician, marine, platformal, sedimentary rocks. The Kellys Island Formation consists of white, massive sandstone interbedded with fissile, dark, silty shale and intercalated, micaceous, sandy siltsone, silty shale and thin- to medium-bedded, rippled sandstone. The stone used in the Basilica was quarried from the top of the formation in a massive white sandstone unit at least 8 m thick. This rock contains wavy, flaser, and lenticular beds along with trace fossils, desiccation cracks, runzel marks, and current formed ripples. Some of the sandstone units are pale green, a result of the presence of chamosite and chlorite.
What is limestone?
Limestone is a sedimentary rock formed most commonly in shallow, warm marine waters. It is usually composed of an accumulation of shell, algal, coral and fecal debris. It can also form from the precipitation of calcium cabronate (CaCO3) from ocean or lake water.
What is Sandstone?
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock comprised mainly of sand particles. The size of the particles can be subdivided into very fine (0.0625 to 0.125mm), fine (0.125 to 0.25 mm), medium (0.25 to 0.50 mm), coarse (0.50 to 1.00 mm), and very Coarse (1.00 to 2.00 mm). Clastic is defined as rock made up of broken pieces of older rocks. Sandstones are further categorised on the basis of their grain types, which can be quartz, feldspar or rock fragments (lithic). Sandstones are deposited by a wide variety of processes, such as fluvial (river), alluvial (river), aeolian (wind) and turbidity currents (underwater currents). Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are: tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white and black.
What is Granite?
Granite is believed to have been formed as long ago as 300 million years. It began as a mass of molten rock, estimated at 1300 -1400 degrees F., formed by volcanic activity about 11-12 miles underground. Forces of nature caused the magma to gradually rise to the surface where it began to cool very slowly over the next million years or so, solidifying into granite. Over time, the land above it eroded, leaving a scattering of granite quarries all over the world, in this map you can see where the granite in Ireland is. Granite is composed primarily of feldspar, quartz, and mica. It may also contain hints of muscovite, biotite, hornblende, and pyroxene and other minerals. These minerals are what give it its various colours. The white mineral grains in granite are feldspar, our planet's most abundant rock, which makes up about 60% of the earth's surface. The light grey, glass-like veins are quartz, and the black, flake-like veins are biotite or black mica. Other minerals imbue the stone with a rainbow of colours, depending on their source, and these varieties are often given unique names.
Cache Logging Requirements
To log this Earth Geocache, please send me the answers to the following questions, in the correct order via the message centre only.
1. What type of rock is Limestone: metamorphic, igneous or sedimentary? Where is it used in this building? (see cache information)
2. Where in the building can you find Signal Hill Sandstone? ( see cache information)
3. Have a look at the foundation stones on the Left (West) and Right (East) side of the church. Are the any signs of weathering in these bottom 2 rows of white stones? If so, which side is showing the most weathering and why do you think this is so?
4. OPTIONAL: Attach a photo of you/your GPSr/smartphone with the building (without including any spoilers)
Reference material: GEOLOGY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BASILICA OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND Jeff Pollock Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/GC/article/view/2739/3186
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