The Church of Our Lady of Refuge of Sinners is listed as a contributing building to the Roma Historic District in Roma TX.
The Roma Historic District was created in 1972, and is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places.
The district encompasses most of downtown, from roughly US 83 on the east to the Rio Grande on the west, and from West Garfield Ave on the North to West Bravo Street (the road leading to the Roma- Cd. Miguel Aleman International Bridge) on the south.
Most of the buildings in the district were built by late 19th-century local architect Heinrich Portscheller, who has a street named for him downtown and a historic marker in his honor, both located in this historic district.
The Church of Our Lady of Refuge of Sinners is listed as a contributing building to this National Register Historic District.
From the US National Register Nomination Form on the Texas Historical Commission website: (
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"Outstanding historic properties included within the boundaries of the district include the following:
. . .
4. Church of Our Lady of Refuge of Sinners. (HABS TEX 3135). The church was designed by Pierre Yves Keralum, who joined the order of Mary Immaculate in 1852 after practicing architecture in France. The church, of which only the tower remains, was a brick Gothic Revival structure."
More information on this historic structure from the City of Roma TX National Historic Landmark Nomination Form: (
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19)Tower, Church of Nuestra Señora del Refugio [Contributing]
Father Pierre Yves Keralum, Architect
608 Estrella Street
Block 9
1853, with main portion of the church replaced in 1962
Only the tower remains of the original church built by Father
Keralum (1817-72). Father Keralum worked as a carpenterarchitect
in Paris before joining the Society of Oblates in 1852
and immigrating to the U.S. The Roma church was the first of
several churches designed by Keralum along the lower Río Grande,
each evocative of distinctive traditional designs found in
Brittany. The church was originally a T-shaped structure. Of
sandstone construction, the church featured a primary facade of
brick, with tin-clad wooden spire.
Each floor of the tower is pierced by pointed arch openings, the
two lower floors square in plan and buttressed at the corners,
the upper floor octagonal with corner finials. Following
replacement of the church nave in 1962, the spire of the tower
underwent redesign and reconstruction as a smaller cone with
broken pitched surface. The tower still serves as entrance to
the church, which is offset from the nave. Historically, the
church (tower and nave) was on axis with the plaza.
The church is located at the head of the plaza and is the focal
point of Roma's only public place. A landmark in all senses, the
church is built on high ground, visible from all directions,
including points across the Río Grande in Ciudad Miguel Alemán.
Constructed on a large undivided block, the church is augmented
by other ecclesiastical buildings on the property. Priests' and
sisters' houses are complementary to the property, although the
priests' house to the north (rear) of the church has been
excluded from the historic district due to sustained alterations
and additions over time. On the adjacent block to the
west/northwest, a convent and Roma's early mission church augment
the religious cluster of buildings present in the community. "