At first glance you might think this church was in France, at least if you ignored its location facing a somewhat busy artery in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills.
The church, now the chapel-of-ease for St. Hugo of the Hills, a parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, isn’t nearly as old as it looks.
Built in the 1930s under the patronage of Theodore and Alice MacManus, architect Arthur des Rosier is said to have used France’s Cluny Abbey as inspiration for the Gothic-style church.
To this day, it holds the distinction as the archdiocese’s only church built entirely with private funds ($275,000 in 1936 dollars). Another historical distinction of St. Hugo is the papal dispensation given by Pious XI allowing the McManuses to be buried in the crypt. This effectively gave them the modern-day status of medieval lords of the manor, the nobles whose patronage of parish life (aka good works) was remembered by way of the memorials and effigies found in old European churches.
The driveway off Opdyke Road leads to the original church, which is built in the traditional cruciform shape out of stone quarried from Wisconsin. The dominating feature is a bold 56-foot-tall central tower, although the statue of St. Hugo perched over the tympanum and plain wooden doors at the west front is notable.
… Read More
Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – The Christian Post.