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Saint Boniface Roman Catholic Church

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1884–1887
  • Saint Boniface Roman Catholic Church (David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim)
  • Saint Boniface Roman Catholic Church (David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim)

Because of its hilltop situation, the Roman Catholic church of Saint Boniface dominates the small town and surrounding countryside. The New Vienna church, like the one at nearby Dyersville, is French Gothic in inspiration, even though it too was built by German immigrants. Saint Boniface is entirely of stone, a white magnesia limestone obtained from a nearby quarry. Externally the side aisles appear to be separate from the higher nave section; small wall-dormer windows provide clerestory lighting for the nave. The single entrance tower with its narrow spire is 200 feet high. The simple interior, with its thin coupled columns, centers on a finely carved mahogany altar. In the adjoining cemetery is a playhouse-sized cruciform chapel (1900) crowned by an open six-sided tower at the crossing. The tower, its roof, and the roof of the chapel are sheathed in shimmering metal shingles.

Writing Credits

Author: 
David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim
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Data

What's Nearby

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Citation

David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim, "Saint Boniface Roman Catholic Church", [New Vienna, Iowa], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/IA-01-ME361.

Print Source

Buildings of Iowa, David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 142-142.

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