Pittsburgh’s connection to the Vatican was spotlighted for all the world to see this week.
Pope Francis’ initial resting spot in death was the chapel of the Holy Spirit. It’s the work of Louis Astorino, the Pittsburgh architect who also designed PNC Park.
The 88-year-old Argentine pope, who died Monday, laid in state earlier this week in the chapel, where he said daily Mass during his papacy. Francis is now at St. Peter’s Basilica for public viewing in advance of his funeral, set for 10 a.m. Saturday (4 a.m. in Pittsburgh).
Astorino was tapped for the project on the recommendation of fellow Pittsburgher John E. Connelly, perhaps best known for the Gateway Clipper Fleet he founded.
Connelly, a devout Catholic and financial supporter of the church before he died in 2009, funded the Domus Sanctae Marthae — the papal hotel where Francis lived and where the cardinals of the church will sleep during the conclave, which should take place in early May.
“We were the first American architects ever to do a building in the Vatican,” Astorino told TribLive in a 2003 interview.
The 3,300-square-foot chapel was built in 1996.
Although the Astorino was not directly involved with design of the hotel, another claim to fame for him is a recommendation to include American-style bathrooms in the suite in stead of the narrow, steep-walled bathtubs with attached showerhead common to European design, he told TribLive in 2003.
“That was one of the big things. It was unheard of at the time in the Vatican,” Astorino said. “Many of the visiting clergy are older, and taking a shower in those narrow (European-style) tubs could have been dangerous.”
TribLive news partner WTAE broadcast a video tour of the chapel.
Pittsburgh PBS affiliate WQED’s documentary on the chapel, “From Pittsburgh to the Vatican” is set to air at 8 p.m. Thursday.