If you’d like a peaceful break from the economic and political tornadoes raging around us, you could spend a few moments inside the chapel at Lakewood Cemetery in the heart of Southwest Minneapolis, where Hennepin Avenue meets West 36th Street. Upon entering, the first thing you notice is the quiet calm -- the noise of the city fades away, and even your own footsteps are muffled by the carpet runner down the center of the aisle. Next comes awe -- at the intricate mosaics, the soothing symmetry, and the elegant lines of the Arts and Crafts décor. The interior of this modestly scaled chapel is considered to be the premier example of Byzantine mosaic art in the country.

Completed in 1910, during the heyday of the Arts and Crafts movement, the building was modeled by architect Harry Wild Jones after the venerable cathedral Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (now a mosque), a name that translates as “Holy Wisdom.” Although Wisdom herself doesn’t make an appearance here, the graceful mosaics all around the domed chapel, designed by New York artist Charles Lamb based on the interior of the Cathedral of San Marco in Venice, are all of allegorical women: Memory, Faith, Hope, Love. The dome itself is adorned with 12 tall, slender angels with particolored wings -- the number 12 having been chosen for its biblical symbolism: the 12 sons of Jacob, the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 gates to the Holy City, and the 12 disciples.

Four of the angels hold red roses, indicating the four points of the compass. The 24 stained-glass windows that ring the dome serve as a sundial of sorts, signaling the time of day by the light they let in.

The alcove opposite the entrance features mosaics of entwined olive trees reaching over still more stained-glass windows. All of these pictures show the influence of both the Arts and Crafts movement, with its emphasis on old-fashioned craftmanship as a rebellion against the mass-production of the Industrial age, and Art Nouveau, adding a graceful elongation to the figures and patterns. Both styles share a romantic nostalgia for the classical past and a preference for strong-jawed women. The faces of the four allegorical women around the dome are based on paintings by Ella Condie Lamb, wife of Charles Lamb. If you have admired the women in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, you will surely notice a marked resemblance.

And while the majesty of it all inspires awe, it is at the same time warmly intimate. Though modeled after such a grand structure, it is really quite small. And the acoustics are so perfect that speakers presiding at services don’t need to use microphones.

All of the mosaics are made entirely of small pieces of square tile about a half inch across. Artisans in Venice created more than 10 million pieces, called tessellae, from marble, colored stone, and glass fused with gold and silver. These were shipped to Minneapolis in the summer of 1909, followed by the artists who made them and then painstakingly put them together inside the chapel.

The chapel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. If you have never visited the Lakewood chapel before, you will wonder that such a treasure has been in our midst all these years and you never knew about it, as I did when a friend visiting from Toronto urged me to go see it several years ago.

--SP

This article first appeared in MOQ, fall 2006. Most of the content in MOQ appears only in the print edition. To learn what’s in the current issue, and how to get a copy, please go here.