St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral is the largest Gothic Revival Catholic cathedral in the United States and one of the most visited churches in the world, standing on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets, directly across from Rockefeller Center. Designed by James Renwick Jr. and opened in 1879, its twin marble spires rise 330 feet above the avenue, and its interior seats 2,400 beneath vaulted ceilings, 76 stained-glass windows, and the great rose window over the entrance.

When construction began in 1858, the site was considered so far north of the city that critics called it Hughes's Folly, after Archbishop John Hughes, who chose it. Within a generation Midtown had grown up around it, and today the cathedral sits at the center of everything, its white marble a counterpoint to the glass and steel on every side.

The cathedral is the seat of the Archdiocese of New York and an active parish, with several Masses daily. It's free to enter, open to visitors of every faith, and it's where the city gathers for its biggest moments: funerals of mayors and police officers, the St. Patrick's Day Mass, and Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, which draws lines around the block.

St. Patrick's Cathedral has anchored Fifth Avenue since 1879. Here are the key facts every visitor should know:

• How tall is St. Patrick's Cathedral? The twin spires rise 330 feet, and when completed in 1888 they were the tallest structures in Manhattan.
• How many people does it hold? The cathedral seats about 2,400 and holds many more standing; over five million people visit each year.
• The cathedral's 76 stained-glass windows were made in Chartres, France, Birmingham, England, and Boston, and the rose window over the Fifth Avenue entrance is 26 feet across.
• The Pieta near the Lady Chapel is three times the size of Michelangelo's in St. Peter's Basilica.
• A three-year, $177 million restoration completed in 2015 cleaned the marble, repaired the windows, and installed a geothermal system beneath the cathedral.
• The cathedral has two pipe organs with a combined 9,838 pipes, and the bronze front doors weigh 9,200 pounds each.

St. Patrick's Cathedral is open daily from about 6:30am to 8:45pm, and it's rarely empty, but the character of a visit depends on timing.

Weekday mornings between the early Masses, roughly 8:30 to 11:30am, are the quietest time to walk the nave, see the side chapels, and study the windows without crowds. Midday brings office workers and the noon Masses, and afternoons fill with tourists walking Fifth Avenue.

If you want to attend Mass, the 5:30pm weekday service is calm and short; Sunday's 10:15am Mass has the choir. Check the schedule before you go, and note that visitors are asked to stay in the rear during services.

December is the cathedral's busiest month, when the Rockefeller tree across the street and the Fifth Avenue windows draw enormous crowds. It's spectacular, but the interior can have a line to enter on evenings and weekends. Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve requires tickets distributed in advance.

St. Patrick's Cathedral is on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets in Midtown Manhattan, directly across from Rockefeller Center. The closest subway is the E or M train to Fifth Avenue–53rd Street, a two-minute walk south. The B, D, F, and M trains stop at 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center, three minutes away across Fifth Avenue.

The 6 train stops at 51st Street on Lexington Avenue, a five-minute walk west. From Grand Central Terminal it's a ten-minute walk, and from Times Square about the same. The main entrance is on Fifth Avenue; wheelchair access is on 51st Street.

Use our interactive NYC subway guide to plan your exact route from any hotel or neighborhood before you arrive.