Discover the Museum of Divine Statues
Our 13th stop on our 94
Days of Summer and Discovery Tour is to the Museum
of Divine Statues in an old Catholic church in Lakewood and has been
refurbished and filled with the statues of Catholicism. The ornate recreation
of a Catholic church, filled with beautiful statues, artifacts, and displays
from long-closed Cleveland Catholic Churches.
The collection is more than a decade long of collecting by museum
founder and curator Lou McClung. He began collecting and restoring religious
statues when the Vatican ordered the closing of more than two dozen Cleveland
churches often sharing his apartment with a cast of biblical characters.
He convinced them to set aside Saint Hedwig’s, and gutted
and repurposed the aging 1970s church to store and display all the artifacts
he’s salvaged. The Museum of Divine Statues opened in 2011. There are over 200
pieces of ecclesiastical art in the building in Lakewood’s Birdtown neighborhood.
The statues, antiquities, and massive stained-glass windows mostly obtained
from the Diocese of Cleveland.
Stained glass windows pull in rays of light, illuminating
Joan of Arc adorned in battle armor, Saint Lucy, who carries her eyes on a
plate, and the bleeding, arrow-filled chest of Saint Sebastian. But the
museum’s centerpiece is a statue of the 13th-century martyr Saint Nepomucene.
Rats ate a hole in the sculpture’s wig, but Lou covered the damage with a hat.
The Museum of Divine Statues is designed to pay tribute not
only to the art and history of Cleveland's Catholic churches but to the city's
immigrant roots. They also require all visitors to wear a mask and follow
mandated and recommended city, county, state, and CDC Covid19 health and safety requirements.
Want more location suggestions? Then visit us every day
until September 22nd as we explore and showcase different amazing
locations across Northeast Ohio!
Interested in being featured? Email nparson@companycarlimo.com
for more information.
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