St. Mary Church, Nova Scotia – The largest wooden church in N. America

Inside the largest wooden church in N. America

We visited St. Mary church (Église Sainte-Marie) on Yarmouth & Acadian Shores of Nova Scotia a few years ago when we drove to the Maritimes Canada. It is a French wooden church on the Acadian Trail, Digby county, in a French community of St. Mary’s Bay area, Southwest Nova Scotia.

In my picture the stained glass windows don’t show their beauty, being lit from the outside. I too a detail of them though, and here is what the look like:

The largest wooden church in N. America facts

L’ Église Sainte-Marie – on its real name in French, was built in 1774 by the Acadians, at the rough times of deportation. Today it is a famous piece of religious architectural art and a touristic landmark. It is also Nova Scotia Heritage Property, and it represents the French culture in the Atlantic Canada
Talking about the largest wooden church in N. America, and here are some numbers. The building measures 61m 325 feet from the ground to the top of the cross. In 1814 the steeple was unfortunately struck by lightning and it had to be rebuilt. Before that, the church was even higher with 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in).

I also photographed it from the outside and here is the tower, viewed looking up. It is like scratching the blue sky above 🙂

When we visited it, the religious community of the Church Point area were celebrating 200 years since the renovation.

I uploaded my pictures to my Fine Art America website, and they are available as a fine art prints. Click on the images to see versions and options:

I was lucky to get to see the largest wooden church in N. America – Wow! Once inside, of course I went closer and photographed the beautifully illuminated altar. Although it was build more than 200 years ago, this religious establishment looked to me like it was new. Everything was shiny and so well maintained. The statues of the angels, St. Mary and the crucifix were literally pieces of art. Here is the framed version of it, also available as print:

I updated this post today with the new pictures from my gallery.
** For the fun of challenges, I’m participating with this post in the Fandango’s (aka, FOWC) challenge for today’s word: represent