The little town of Gravelbourg SK is home to the impressive Our Lady of the Assumption Co-Cathedral (shared diocese with Regina). Gravelbourg is a French Canadian town on the Saskatchewan prairie and is the unofficial capital of the Fransaskois. The Cathedral stands proudly at the south end of Main Street, opposite the old train station and row of grain elevators. It was built before electricity came to Gravelbourg, but the forward thinking architects and planners wired the building anyway so that when the electricity did arrive they wouldn't have to tear up the building's innards. The (co-)Cathedral also features impressive interior artwork painted by a local clergyman who used local townsfolk as models for various religious figures. The Cathedral is built from the distinctive
Claybank Brick, which is used throughout Saskatchewan, and was even what NASA used to construct the launchpad for the Apollo 11 mission.
(Wikipedia)
(gravelbourgcocathedral.com)
(Institute for Stained Glass in Canada)
(Institute for Stained Glass in Canada)
(GV Audio)
Gravelbourg, as co-seat of the diocese, also has a few other impressive ecclesiastical structures, including the Gravelbourg Convent. No longer used as a convent, the building housed the local public library and elementary school for many years, but now sits largely empty since a new school building was constructed last decade. The beautiful building with especially impressive interior spaces now faces an uncertain future, despite a concerted community effort to find a new use for it.
(Friends of Gravelbourg Convent)
(Regina Leader Post)