Saint Aloysius' Church, Glasgow

Don’t be put off by the rather forbidding exterior of Saint Aloysius’ Church on Rose Street, or you’ll miss visiting one of the loveliest churches in Glasgow.

The church was built in 1908 in the 17th century Renaissance style by Menart, with a slender golden-domed campanile, Baroque façade and Byzantine dome. The interior is modelled on the Cathedral of Namur in Belgium.

The church is 46 metres long and 28 metres wide with a 14 metre barrel roof of reinforced concrete spanning the nave. The ceiling height is 18.6 metres and 21.50 metres under the main cupola, which is beautifully decorated in green and gold and has 8 stained-glass windows. The interior is sheathed in marble decorated with Venetian mosaics. The High Altar was added in 1913. There are two sacristies and guildhalls.

The church boasts four lovely side chapels, with the Lady Chapel on the right of the High Altar where you can see a marble statue of Our Lady on a pedestal and a stained-glass window of the Annunciation.

The other chapels are: The Sacred Hearts Chapel, the Holy Souls Chapel and the Saint Ignatius Chapel. There is a shrine to Saint John Ogilvie, the first Jesuit martyr, and a copy of the statue Our Lady of Montserrat (the Black Madonna), which was donated to the church by Spanish visitors in 2008.