Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also called the Baltimore Basilica, is a Catholic cathedral in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first Catholic cathedral built in the United States after the nation's founding and was among the first major religious buildings constructed after the adoption of the United States Constitution. It is actually a co-cathedral: it is one of the seats of the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland, and a parish church (ranked minor basilica) and national shrine. It is considered the masterpiece of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the "Father of American Architecture".

The Basilica was constructed between 1806 and 1863 to a design of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764–1820), America's first professionally trained architect and Thomas Jefferson's Architect of the Capitol. It was built under the guidance of John Carroll, the first American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Latrobe offered Carroll two designs: one Gothic and one Neoclassical. As Neoclassicism was the unofficial style of the newly independent, Republican America, Carroll remarkably chose that design as a statement that American Catholicism belonged to the Enlightenment, not the Old World. Gothic architecture, with its medieval history, would have said the opposite. The Basilica was blessed and opened for use on May 31, 1821, by Baltimore's Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal. It was consecrated on May 25, 1876, by Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley. Many famous events have occurred within its walls, including the funeral Mass of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll also was the last surviving signer. Most of the first American bishops were consecrated here to fill the ever-multiplying dioceses necessitated by the young country's territorial expansion and the great growth of the American Catholic population. Until recent years, more priests were ordained at the Baltimore Basilica than in any other church in the United States. The building hosted many of the 19th-century meetings that shaped the Catholic Church in America, including seven Provincial Councils and three Plenary Councils. These events led to the founding of The Catholic University of America. The Third Plenary Council was the largest meeting of Catholic bishops held outside Rome since the Council of Trent, and it commissioned the Baltimore Catechism. Union General Joseph Warren Revere visited the Basilica in 1862 during the Civil War's Peninsula campaign. Reverend H. B. Coskery baptized Revere at the Basilica on October 19, 1862, and his Holy Communion took place on October 26.

In 1937, Pope Pius XI raised the cathedral to the rank of Minor Basilica. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, and was declared a National Historic Landmark two years later. In 1993, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops designated it a National Shrine. The Cathedral Hill Historic District takes its name from the Basilica's location. Many people deemed holy by the Catholic Church are associated with the Basilica, including Mother Mary Lange, founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first order for black Catholic nuns; Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus who was ordained a priest at the Basilica in 1877 by Archbishop James Gibbons; and St. John Neumann, who is credited with founding America's Catholic school system.

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).