The Chapel of the Holy Cross 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 ...

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

built from 1954 to 1956 into the red rock

butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

s of

Sedona, Arizona Sedona ( ) is a city that straddles the county line between Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino and Yavapai County, Arizona, Yavapai counties in the northern Verde Valley region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 United States Census, ...

, within the

Coconino National Forest The Coconino National Forest is a 1.856-million acre (751,000 ha) United States National Forest located in northern Arizona in the vicinity of Flagstaff, with elevations ranging from 2,600 feet to the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet (H ...

. It was inspired and commissioned by local rancher and sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Staude, and was designed by August K. Strotz of the firm of

Anshen & Allen Anshen and Allen was an international architecture, planning and design firm headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Boston, Columbus, and London. The firm was ranked eighth for sustainable practices, and nineteenth overall in the "Arch ...

, with Richard Hein of the firm as the project architect. The chapel is under the auspices of the episcopal see of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix The Diocese of Phoenix (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, in western and central Arizona in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. The Diocese of Ph ...

and its ministry is conducted by St. John Vianney Parish, Sedona. The chapel was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2011.

History

The chapel was inspired and commissioned by local rancher and sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Staude, who had been inspired in 1932 by the newly constructed

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story, Art Deco-style supertall skyscraper in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its n ...

to build such a church. After an attempt to do so in Budapest, Hungary – with the help of

Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. (March 31, 1890 – May 31, 1978), commonly known as Lloyd Wright, was an American architect, active primarily in Los Angeles and Southern California. He was a landscape architect for various Los Angeles projects (19 ...

, son of architect

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

– was abandoned due to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she decided to build the church in her native region. The chapel, built in honor of her parents, Lucien and Marguerite Brunswig, is on

land; Senator

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Re ...

assisted Staude in obtaining a

special-use permit A special-use permit authorizes land uses that are allowed and encouraged by the ordinance and declared harmonious with the applicable zoning district. Purpose Land use is governed by a set of regulations generally known as ordinances or municipa ...

. The chapel's design is by architect August K. Strotz, and the project architect was Richard Hein, both of the

firm. The architects started the design in 1953 and said the following after viewing the site, "Nature has done everything here. All we have to do is understate." Robert D. Dewell was the Civil and Structural Engineer, and Earl & Gropp were the Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Bernard T. Espelage, Bishop of the Diocese of Gallup in New Mexico, approved the plans. The construction supervisor was Fred Coukos of the William Simpson Construction Company, who built the chapel in 18 months at a cost of $300,000. Upwards of 25 tons of rock was moved without the use of dynamite. The chapel was completed in 1956. Upon completion, Bishop Espelage assigned Father John Driscoll as the pastor of the new chapel. The project received an award citation in the 1954 Progressive Architecture Award Program. The citation stated "The problem here was one very similar to that at Burnam Hoyt's Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver--using the minimum of construction to define and utilize a naturally beautiful rock outcropping. The bold, simple structure is left completely open. The symbolic cross, though conventional, is also an important structural element--handled in a visually exciting way." The

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

gave the Chapel its Award of Honor in 1957. In the sculptor's words, "Though Catholic in faith, as a work of art the Chapel has a universal appeal. Its doors will ever be open to one and all, regardless of creed, that God may come to life in the souls of all men and be a living reality." In 2007, Arizonans voted the chapel to be one of the Seven Man-Made Wonders of Arizona.

Architectural features

Upon arrival, visitors walk up a ramp from the parking area to the chapel. The long, curved ramp is constructed of textured concrete. The main feature of the chapel is a 90 ft (27.4 m) tall iron cross on the southwestern wall, which serves both aesthetic and structural purposes. Staude was inspired by the powerful image of the steel framework in the Empire State Building and other skyscrapers. Her idea for the cross was carried out by sculptor Keith Monroe, from San Francisco. The cross holds both the

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 ...

and

Corpus Corpus (plural ''corpora'') is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of ...

on the interior. The walls and cross are constructed with reinforced coarse-aggregate concrete, 1 foot (0.3 m) in thickness. Inside and out, the walls were sandblasted to unveil the textured aggregate. To reduce glare, smokey-gray-colored glass is utilized at the two ends of the chapel. The floor is made of concrete, which is trowel-finished. The front doors are constructed of aluminum with horn-shaped handles. The effect of the materials pallet combined with the simple angled shapes in the chapel creates an impression of grandeur and strength. This is fitting, as it sits at the base of a 1,500 ft (457.2 m) cliff and is surrounded by massive pieces of sandstone. The chapel seats up to 150 people. The confessional, office, two sacristies, and services are located in the basement of the building.

Gallery

File:2021 Chapel of the Holy Cross, front.jpg, The entrance to the chapel File:Chapel of the Holy Cross (Sedona, Arizona), exterior and landscape.jpg, The chapel in context File:2021 Chapel of the Holy Cross, interior, cross close from left.jpg, A closer view of the sculpture of Jesus Christ on the Cross in the chapel File:2021 Chapel of the Holy Cross, interior, view to northeast.jpg, The view from inside through the entrance, to the northeast File:2021 Landforms at Chapel of the Holy Cross 1.jpg, The chapel is surrounded by numerous sandstone formations File:Chapel of the Holy Cross, night.jpg, The chapel at night

References

Notes Bibliography * "Drama in the Desert." ''Architectural Forum'', December 1956, pp. 97–99 * "Chapel Crowns Arizona Eminence." ''Progressive Architecture'', October 1956, p. 91 * "Chapel of the Holy Cross." ''Architectural Record'', October 1956, pp. 173–182.

External links

* * __FORCETOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Chapel Of The Holy Cross Sedona, Arizona Roman Catholic chapels in the United States Roman Catholic churches in Arizona Buildings and structures in Yavapai County, Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Coconino County, Arizona Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona Roman Catholic churches completed in 1956 Tourist attractions in Yavapai County, Arizona Anshen and Allen buildings Modernist architecture in Arizona 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States