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Western Pennsylvania » The Western Capital—Pittsburgh and Allegheny County » North Side and the Allegheny Valley » St. Nicholas Church

St. Nicholas Church

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1901; 1922, Frederick C. Sauer. 24 Maryland Ave., Millvale
  • (Photograph by Jeremy, Discover the Burgh)
  • Altar murals (Photograph by Plurabilities, CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • "Injustice" mural (Photograph by Plurabilities, CC BY-SA 4.0)

This yellow brick church's Colonial Revival exterior, with its twin towers (added by Frederick Sauer in 1922), gives no hint of the congregation's Croatian heritage, but inside lies an unforgettable portrayal of their former homeland in Maximilian Vanka's 1937 mural cycle. It depicts the Croatian experience in the New and Old Worlds in an eye-catching mix of Byzantine forms and social realist imagery in the manner of then dominant Mexican muralists José Orozco and Diego Rivera. Characteristic is the scene of a Pittsburgh millionaire, deathly pale, dining at a table outfitted with a stock ticker.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lu Donnelly et al.
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Data

Timeline

  • 1901

    Built

  • 1922

    Addition

  • 1937

    Murals

What's Nearby

National Robotics Engineering Consortium
Allegheny Arsenal
Allegheny Cemetery
St. Anthony of Padua Shrine
Washington's Landing (Herr's Island)

Citation

Lu Donnelly et al., "St. Nicholas Church", [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-01-AL85.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 1

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, Lu Donnelly, H. David Brumble IV, and Franklin Toker. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, 100-101.

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