Sacred Heart Church is located in

Eau Claire, Wisconsin Eau Claire ( ; lit. "clear water") is a city in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, Eau Claire and Chippewa County, Wisconsin, Chippewa counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the county seat, seat of Eau Claire County. It is the List of citie ...

. It 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 ...

for its architectural significance in 1983. The parish was organized around 1875 when a number of German-speaking families formed a parish distinct from St. Patrick's. The first building was a wooden frame structure, but a brick church was built in 1880 and a school was built in 1910, also from brick. Sacred Heart Hospital, founded in 1889 and located about half a block north of the church, was also part of the campus. In 1928, the current building was built. It is a locally significant example of

Neo-Romanesque architecture Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

, and the imposing building is a prominent feature of the city center. It has identical twin towers, an oversized

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...

, and many round arched openings. The structure has an

apsidal In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In Byzant ...

shape, and the interior has side aisles lining 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 ...

. The twin towers are mirror images of each other, which contrasts with the more common unmatched towers in this architectural style.

References

EauClaire SacredHeart Churches in Eau Claire, Wisconsin EauClaire SacredHeart National Register of Historic Places in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States {{Wisconsin-RC-church-stub