THE ARCHITECTURE OF
ST. LEO'S CHURCH
St.Leo's Church ca.
1882
The Cornerstone 
St. Leo's Church is a historic Roman Catholic
church complex located at Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
It was built in 1880-81 of brick with stone trim, and combines Italianate,
Romanesque, and Classical elements. It features a high
entrance porch, a turret with conical roof on
the north wall, a square bell tower at the
northeast corner, a large rose window in
the main façade, and a variety of decorative
brickwork.
It was the first church in Maryland,
and among the first in the nation, founded
and built specifically for Italian immigrants.
The church was designed by Baltimore architect E.
Francis Baldwin.
The details provided
below identify the main architectural features of the Italianate Style. In the pairs of pictures, a typical
style element is illustrated on the left and its representation
in St. Leo's is on the right. The Italianate
Style was reinterpreted again and became
an indigenous style. It is distinctive by its pronounced
exaggeration of many Italian Renaissance characteristics:
emphatic eaves supported by corbels,
low-pitched roofs barely discernible from the ground,
or even flat roofs with a wide projection. A tower
is often incorporated hinting at the Italian belvedere
or even campanile tower.
Key visual components of this style include:
St.
Leo's corbeling is intricate and reflects the
craftsmanship of its 19th Century brick masons
as does the precision of the ornamental moldings
that grace the exterior.
|
Projecting eaves supported by corbels or
elaborate brickwork. |
Bricks in the corbeling had to be numbered
and their positions carefully mapped out before
they
could be set
in their permanent places.
|
|
Serlian windows - The Palladian, Serlian,or Venetian window
features largely in Palladio's work, almost a trademark
in his early career. It consists of a central light with
semicircular arch over, carried on an impost consisting
of a small entablature, under which, and enclosing two
other lights, one on each side, are pilasters.
This arch and pilaster style
is repeated over and over inside the church as the image
to the right shows. |
|
The Brickwork on the front of the Church memorializes
its parishioners (click to view)
|
