Doors Open 2023

St. Paul’s Basilica will be participating in this year’s Doors Open event!   The Basilica will be open to the public on Saturday, May 27^th from 10 am to 4:30 pm and Sunday, May 28^th from 12 pm to 5 pm. 

Curious about the beautiful artwork, the tragedy of the Irish or the building’s history?  Why is St. Paul’s a Basilica and how can you know that you are in a building of importance?  Explore St. Paul Basilica with a guided tour of the magnificent interior including the four major paintings in the sanctuary and the side apses which were finished in 1893. Access an up-close view of the all-wood organ which was installed in 1898 by R.S. Williams & Son, Toronto, and is the only one of its kind in North America. Explore the stained glass windows that were installed a year later as well as the Stations of the Cross which were installed in 1901. View the scenes of the life of St. Paul which were painted on canvas in 1911. The angels behind the altar were created with the same technique in the 1920s. Take a walk around the church grounds starting with the campanile (bell tower), erected in 1905 which contains the bell from the original church. The bronze Pieta on the front lawn was installed in 1933 as a memorial to Bishop Power and parishioners who died during the typhus epidemic in 1847.

Other nearby locations also participating are: Little Trinity Church, Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, Toronto’s First Post Office, St. Lawrence Hall, The Market Gallery and many more. To learn more about Doors Open please visit their website toronto.ca/doorsopen