Iconic Images: Stairways In The Movies
There aren’t many things breath taking as spiral stair cases and Curved stair cases. They often have a form pleasing to the eye with a graceful ascension. There are reports that suggest the earliest known spiral stair case wasbuilt in 480-470 BC at Temple A in the Greek Colony in Selinante, Sicily. There are many famous spiral staircases. The Round Tower in Copenhagen Denmark is less of a staircase and more of a ramp that rises to an observatory. It was commissioned in 1637 and is large enough for carriages, as demonstrated by Peter The Great when he drove his horses up the tower on a visit to Denmark. The Vatican museum has a spiral staircase of some notoriety. It is often photographed. One of the most interesting of all spiral staircases is the one in New Mexico on the Old Santa Fe road in Santa Fe.
The Loretto Chapel was built as part of the Academy of Our Lady of Light. The chapel was started in 1873 under the guiding hand of the French Architect, Antione Mouly and his son. Mouly had participated in the renovation of the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, and the Loretto Chapel was modeled after it on a smaller scale. Before it was completed, the architect died. There are a few accounts that he was gunned down by the Bishops nephew in jealous retribution. In any case, left uncompleted was the way into the choir loft which was 22 feet in the air. It is believed that the original idea may have been to provide a ladder for entry. This did not appeal to the nuns. They asked carpenters to come up with a solution. The lot claimed it was impossible. The chapel was too small to build an adequate stairway.
And so the legend begins. The nuns prayed for nine days, conducting a novena. They beseeched St. Joseph, the woodworkers patron saint. For eight days nothing changed. On the ninth day a man came to the church looking for work. With him he had a donkey loaded down with carpentry tools. The stranger claimed he could construct a spiral case but would need a couple barrels of water to soak the wood.
There are accounts that he labored for 6 months. Others claim it was done rapidly. The outcome was a wooden spiral staircase that made a double helix on its way to the loft. It was held together with wooden pegs, not a single nail, and had 33 steps ascending to the choir loft. The Sisters of Loretto were so pleased they offered a feast for the carpenter. He didn’t show. He disappeared without a trace. He didn’t receive his pay. The Sisters ran an ad in the paper looking for him, but no one replied.
Those aren’t the only interesting details. The wood used for the staircase is a bit of a question. It hasn’t been identified. There are those that believe it is constructed from an extinct species. None of the timber suppliers had sold any lumber to the Loretto Chapel in regards to the staircase. The double helix was brilliant craftmenship. It had no visible means of support. Spiral staircases require a support structure, a center pole or attachment to fixed objects like walls. Some speculate the inner radius of the stair case was compact sufficiently to act as its own support. Still, it is a marvel of craftsmanship and the Lorretto Staircase continues enchanting visitors.