Sacred Spaces in 360°

Note: a recent change to Apple's iOS has disabled the gyroscope mode by default on Safari on the iPhone and iPad. This affects the ability to navigate on the mobile version, and to use the VR/cardboard version. To enable the gyroscope on an iOS device, go to Settings >> Safari, then enable Motion & Orientation Access. You can see a screen snapshot of the settings screen here.

Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral traces its origins to 1892, and the Russian, Ukrainian, Greek, Serbian, and Bulgarian immigrants who formed St. Vladimir's Church, at the time a small wooden structure near the intersection of Racine and Madison Avenues. The group purchased land for the current location in 1899, and broke ground for the church in 1902. The new church, named Holy Trinity, was constructed with the aid of funding from the immigrant community as well as Russian supporters, including Tsar Nicholas II.

The church is associated with numerous leaders of Russian Orthodoxy in America, including Bishop Tikhon, who consecrated it and later led the entire Russian Orthodox Church during the pivotal era of the Russian Revolution, and was subsequently canonized as a saint. Another saint, John Kochurov, generally known as St John of Chicago, led the church during its early days and was responsible for the constuction of the current building. He later returned to Russia, and was martyred during the revolution.

Holy Trinity Cathedral is one of only three surviving houses of worship designed by famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. Sullivan was closely associated with the Chicago school of architecture, and included elements associated with both the prairie school and modernism. While best known for his commercial buildings and early skyscrapers, his work at Holy Trinity shows his interest in fusing American architectural ideas (the prairie-style stained glass windows, for example) with a reimagining of a Russian village church. Both the stained glass windows and the chandelier, donated as a gift by Sullivan, are the work of famed American stained glass artist Louis Millet. In recognition of its architectural and artistic importance, Holy Trinity Cathedral was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and designated a Chicago Landmark in 1979.

Holy Trinity was made a cathedral in 1923, and serves as See Cathedral for the Midwest Diocese of the Orthodox Church in America, which is the autocephalous (self-governing) North American daughter church of the Russian Orthodox Church. Holy Trinity Cathedral's website contains additional information about the church, both in terms of its history and contemporary life at this active church.

Sources consulted:

Bezkorovainy, Anatoly. A History of Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Chicago: 1892-1992. Chicago: Holy Trinity Cathedral, 1992.

Guiley, Rosemary. The Encyclopedia of Saints. New York: Facts on File, 2001.

Orthodox Church of America. "Lives of the Saints." Internet site, https://oca.org/saints/lives. Accessed 4 June 2019.

Turak, Theodore. "A Celt Among Slavs: Louis Sullivan's Holy Trinity Cathedral," The Prarie School Review 9 no. 4 (1972): 1-23.

Instructions for Using the Tour

Computer / Desktop Instructions:

When using a computer, you navigate with your mouse/trackpad. Using your cursor, you can click and drag to change your view to anywhere within the 360° area. Click on the arrows to move to different areas in the tour. You can also use the buttons in the menu bar at the bottom of the screen to pan in different directions, zoom, and change the various interface options. Go ahead and experiment. If something stops working, you can always reload!

As you move the cursor through the screen you will see some highlighted regions appear. Click on them to bring up informative popups. There are also a few “more info” buttons that also open popups. Just click on those buttons to open a popup. To close a popup, click inside the popup box.

Tablet or Phone Instructions:

On a tablet or phone, you navigate by moving the device (if your device supports gyroscopic feedback, which most do), or by dragging the image on the screen. Touch the arrows or highlighted areas to explore the tour. Touch the popup boxes to close them. Sometimes, depending on how you are holding your mobile device, you may not always face the same way as you progress through the tour. You can turn off the gyroscopic controls by clicking the small gyroscope image at the bottom of the screeen.

The tour works best in landscape (horizontal) mode.

On some phones you may need to lift up your phone to portrait mode, then back to landscape mode, in order to clear the menu bar at the top or bottom of the screen. 

Virtual Reality/VR/Google Cardboard Instructions:

The tours can also be experienced in full 360° using a VR headset, such as a Google cardboard. The easiest way is to click the link above for the VR tour (the third link).

You can also access the VR mode from the mobile version by clicking the small icon of a VR headset in the menu at the bottom of the screen (see image on left). You may need to do this on a second screen (see image on right).

To navigate the tour in VR mode, point the small white crosshairs in the center of the view towards buttons or arrows.

If you are using a phone as a VR headset, it is suggested that you turn off screen lock and automatic dimming to avoid interruption of the tour.

On all devices, you can also navigate the tour using the control bar at the bottom of the screen.

HTC Vive and Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Instructions: 

If you have access to a virtual reality headset such as the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, this tour can be experienced through your headset via the WebVR API. With your headset and software turned on and ready, navigate in the Firefox (Mozilla) browser to the VR link for the tour, with ?vr at the end.