Immaculate Conception Church (New Orleans)
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Immaculate Conception church, locally known as Jesuit church, is a
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
church in the
Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...
of
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
,
Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
. The church is located at 130 Baronne Street, and is part of the local
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
community. The present church, completed in 1930, is a near duplicate of an earlier 1850s church on the same site.


History

Two Immaculate Conception churches, nearly identical to each other, were built on the same site over time. The first church was designed by Fr. John Cambiaso, S.J., and completed in 1857. In the late 1920s, it suffered foundation damage due to the construction of the Pere Marquette building. The church's floor split in half. The building was disassembled in 1928. New footings at the same site were laid in 1929 with the cornerstone laid on 16 May 1929. The new church building, incorporating many fixtures from the older church, was dedicated on 2 March 1930.


Architecture

Immaculate Conception church was built and designed in the Neo- Venetian Gothic style of
Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
, with
Moorish Revival Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticism, Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mi ...
and
Byzantine Revival Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Or ...
elements.


Interior

When one enters the church, one is met with the enormous height of the
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
, compared to other churches in New Orleans. The columns begin with niches in which small statues of archangels stand, and then what is reminiscent of a
Solomonic column The Solomonic column, also called barley-sugar column, is a helical column, characterized by a spiraling twisting shaft like a corkscrew. It is not associated with a specific classical order, although most examples have Corinthian or Composite ...
. The many
stained glass window Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
s of the church, depicting Jesuit saints, are among the finer in America. They are seen when facing back towards the entrance. The interior also is furnished with religious paintings and murals. The pews are made of cast iron, with Moorish tracery, rosettes, and designs particularly symbolic of scriptural references. The chandeliers of fine bronze are of both
Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...
and
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
styles. The brilliant
altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...
was handmade in
Lyons, France Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
, and is 24 karat gold-plated. The central focal point of the church is "Mary's Niche", a solid-marble statue of the Blessed Virgin standing in front of a gilded, lit background. At the same level are found four other statues of saints.


College chapel

As the
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
province in New Orleans grew, the Jesuits purchased the plot of land which is now Jesuit High School. Beforehand the school, called Immaculate Conception College, was adjacent to the church. The Jesuit priests lived inside an area of Jesuit High School which contains a chapel (Thomas Semmes Memorial Chapel) of the same architectural design as the church (the chapel was disassembled then moved to Jesuit's present location). This chapel is not to be confused with the Chapel of the North American Martyrs at Jesuit High School, which was completed in 1953 in a Neoclassical style and is much larger.


Louisiana Cotton Exposition Organ

The remnants of the 1884
World Cotton Centennial The World Cotton Centennial (also known as the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition) was a World's Fair held in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, in 1884. At a time when nearly one third of all cotton produced in the United St ...
or Louisiana Cotton Exposition Organ are housed within the church. The
pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...
was originally built by Pilcher, and was the biggest pipe organ manufactured by the company. When it was being played inside the fair building, it caused the collapse of the main tent. The organ had major renovations and additions by M.P. Moller before it was given to the Jesuit Fathers. It operated in the original church and was moved to the Fairmont Hotel, across the street, while the church was being reconstructed. Then the organ was installed in the 'new' 1929 church, with modifications by M.P. Moller. The organ's facade contained tall Open Diapason pipes, with Moorish Revival style stenciling on them. The organ was later abandoned, but left intact inside the structure. There are large swell shades in the walls at the back of the church. It was replaced by a much smaller organ by Pilcher. After several years of using the second smaller organ, the church replaced it with a digital organ by Phoenix. ;Access The church offers tours daily at 3 pm.


See also

*
List of Jesuit sites This list includes past and present buildings, facilities and institutions associated with the Society of Jesus. In each country, sites are listed in chronological order of start of Jesuit association. Nearly all these sites have be ...


References


External links


Jesuitchurch.net: Parish website
— ''photos and information''.

* ttp://round.me/tour/3077/view 360° Virtual Tour of Immaculate Conception Church {{coord, 29.9535, -90.0715, type:landmark_region:US-LA, display=title Roman Catholic churches in New Orleans Jesuit churches in the United States Roman Catholic churches completed in 1930 Venetian Gothic architecture in the United States Gothic Revival church buildings in Louisiana Moorish Revival architecture in Louisiana 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Society of Jesus in Louisiana World Cotton Centennial