St Boniface Cathedral at Night

I have always liked the St. Boniface Cathedral, or at least what is left of it. I have been trying to photograph it at night for several years now. Every time I am in Winnipeg, something comes up that prevents me from getting there. Usually time. I have even gone to the grounds to find that the lights were not turned on that night!

At least I got there this time. But to do it, I had to borrow an old, slightly broken, and not very stable tripod I found in my parents basement. It was better than nothing. I got a couple of pictures, but didn’t hang out quite as long as I would have liked. I will try again to get there a bit earlier too. I didn’t get enough blue in the sky for what I was looking for.

Anyway, the Cathedral you see is just a facade. It was burned twice. The structure that remains was built in 1906. In 1972 a new Cathedral was built on the grounds. It appears to be inside some of the original stone building, behind this facade.

The Cathedral is within what is considered the “french section” of Winnipeg. There are many other French cultural and historical buildings within the St. Boniface  area of Winnipeg. I grew up at the other end (south) of St. Boniface.

One thing I appreciate about the location, is that photography appears to be encouraged. There are lights on the building, and photographers always seem to be around. The grounds also contain a grave yard, but no one guarding or ushering people away. On the grounds, Louis Riel is buried, a very important  French/Metis historical figure. I would imagine that all Canadian kids, not just Manitobans would have learned about him in school.

Some of this information was taken from this wikipedia article

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