Art, architectural treasures of St. Andrew Church on view - Pasadena, CA - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

The Pasadena Star-News ran the follwoing story by Janette Williams, on 04/01/2011:

"Art, architectural treasures of St. Andrew Church on view

PASADENA - If a building can be both the best- and least-known landmark in the city, St. Andrew Catholic Church could be a contender.

No one driving on the Foothill (210) Freeway can miss the church's bell-tower, lit up at night and rising high above the rooftops near the Fair Oaks Avenue exit.

Not so many have seen the majestic interior.

"I never had gone in - and I'm a local boy," said Father Paul Sustayta, pastor of St. Andrew for the past four years. "I passed the campanile on my way to St. Francis (school) from South Pasadena, but I never entered until after high school. And when I went in, at first I was overwhelmed by the beauty and grandeur and the scale of the church. Nothing compared."

Amazement is a common reaction from people seeing the interior for the first time, Sustayta said.

Saturday and Sunday, anyone who wants to can come in and check it out for themselves.

As part of the church's 125th anniversary celebrations, docents will give free art and architecture tours - in Spanish on Sunday - starting at 3 p.m. No tickets or reservations are needed.

St. Andrew, now with a congregation of 5,500 families, has been around since 1886. The present building is the church's third and dates back to 1927, when it was built for less than $500,000 - including the land, Sustayta said.

That half-a-million dollars went a very long way.

Craftsmen and artists were brought from Italy to work on the spectacular columns of rare marble, frescos and paintings of the Station of the Cross above the side columns.

The interior art-work took about eight years to complete, and Italian muralist Carlo Wostry is said to have regarded the work there as his finest.

Preservation and restoration is a constant need for the structure, which is modeled after the the Basilica of St. Sabina in Rome, which was built in 423 A.D.

A restoration committee has spent "many, many years" quietly working on the never-ending project, said Claire Bogaard, a St. Andrew parishioner, committee member and a founder of Pasadena Heritage.

"It's been challenging, but a lot of fun learning about all the art there, and how it came to be, and the history - the story of the painters," Bogaard said. "The craftsmen that came from Italy were responsible for doing, in particular, the pillars that line the inside of the church on either side of the aisle."

The art form has had a "sort of resurrected" in recent years, Bogaard said, but is still quite rare.

Every year, to help raise preservation funds, renowned mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzman of Pasadena performs in a concert in the church - famed for its acoustics and made for choral music.

"So many people who go to the concert have lived in Pasadena all their lives and say they never knew the church looked like this," Bogaard said.

The beauty of the interior can be something of a distraction for new parishioners attending Mass, and even for those familiar with the interior, Sustayta said.

"But it's so rich in meaning, there's so much theological and scriptural significance there," he said. "Whenever I say Mass, I always discover something new. There's so much to see, to appreciate and absorb, always a little detail or something I don't remember seeing before."

Not everyone has always appreciated the art work.

Some frescoes in an area flanking an entry door were covered with foil wallpaper in the 1970s in an effort at modernization.

It was one of the "rather disappointing things that took place in the `minimalist' era," Sustayta said.

"Preservation was not on someone's list of priorities," he said. "Rather than having to undergo the research and expense of restoring architectural landmarks and monuments, they went around and did it the easiest way, and covered up the walls and all the beautiful frescoes and paintings there."

Once they were rediscovered, "the committee went in," Sustayta said.

"They realized all this woodwork and wallpaper covered a beautiful treasure," he said. "It's a privilege to be the pastor of a building with such history and meaning."

For more information on the tours, call 626-792-4183."

Type of publication: Newspaper When was the article reported?: 04/01/2011 Publication: Pasadena Star-News Article Url: [Web Link] Is Registration Required?: no How widespread was the article reported?: local News Category: Arts/Culture

Visit Instructions:
Give the date of your visit at the news location along with a description of what you learned or experienced.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   05/02/2013 Metro2 visited it