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Belleville, Illinois

1814 establishments in Illinois TerritoryBelleville, IllinoisCities in IllinoisCities in St. Clair County, IllinoisCounty seats in Illinois
German-American historyPopulated places established in 1814Use mdy dates from July 2023
Downtown Belleville Illinois Courthouse
Downtown Belleville Illinois Courthouse

Belleville is a city and the county seat of St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. It is located within Greater St. Louis. The population was 42,404 at the 2020 census, making it the most-populated city in Southern Illinois and in the Metro East region of Greater St. Louis. Due to its proximity to Scott Air Force Base, the population receives a boost from military and federal civilian personnel, defense contractors, and military retirees. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville and the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Belleville, Illinois (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Belleville, Illinois
Kinsella Avenue,

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Wikipedia: Belleville, IllinoisContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 38.521666666667 ° E -89.995277777778 °
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Address

Kinsella Avenue

Kinsella Avenue
62226
Illinois, United States
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Downtown Belleville Illinois Courthouse
Downtown Belleville Illinois Courthouse
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Cathedral of Saint Peter (Belleville, Illinois)
Cathedral of Saint Peter (Belleville, Illinois)

The Cathedral of Saint Peter is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville, located in Belleville, Illinois. The cathedral parish of Saint Peter was founded in 1842 at a location east of the present structure, and named after Saint Barnabas the Apostle; it was rededicated to Saint Peter in 1847. By 1863, the congregation recognized the need for a larger structure. It constructed a brick church on the cathedral's present site which it dedicated in 1866.In 1887, Pope Leo XIII created the Diocese of Belleville from the southern portion of the Diocese of Alton (now the Diocese of Springfield) and named Reverend John Janssen as the first bishop. Janssen chose St. Peter's as his cathedral. On January 4, 1912, around 6 p.m., neighborhood children noticed a fire in the upper portion of the building. Although they arrived quickly, firefighters were hampered in their efforts to extinguish the blaze by a lack of water pressure to reach the 80 ft (24 m) roof and the bitter 15 °F (−9 °C) temperatures. Water company officials blamed the poor water pressure on a broken valve at the water station. Soon, the fire burned through the roof timbers, which fell and ignited other parts of the structure. When the fire was extinguished, all that remained were the exterior walls and bell tower. One local newspaper estimated the damage at US$100,000 and said that insurance would cover only $40,000 of the repairs.The present structure's Gothic architecture was modeled after that of the Cathedral of Exeter, England. It was designed by the architect Victor Klutho. The brick walls were covered with Winona split-face dolomitic limestone accented with Indiana limestone in 1956. The sanctuary was renovated in 1968, to conform to directives of the Second Vatican Council, and the south end of the cathedral expanded to increase capacity to 1,270. A mass in January 2012, marked the centennial of the fire and rebuilding, and also reinstallation of the pulpit and cathedra canopy which were removed during the 1968 work.The cathedral houses a three-manual, 40-rank organ by the M. P. Moller Company that dates from 1968. A second console has been added along with four ranks of pipes.