Holy Cross-Immaculata

Known most for the Good Friday tradition of people praying the steps leading up to it from the Ohio River, Holy-Cross Immaculate is a beautiful church poised on a peak of Mt. Adams. With a beautiful view of the river, downtown Cincinnati, and Northern Kentucky, Holy-Cross Immaculata is a perfect place to snap a stunning picture of Cincinnati. The church was built in 1859, just before the American Civil War, for the German congregation in the city’s Mt. Adams neighborhood. Archbishop John Baptist Purcell decided to build the church while praying during a severe storm at sea. He promised God that if he survived, he would build a church on the city’s highest point.  The nearby Holy Cross parish primarily served Irish immigrants. When the Holy Cross monastery closed in 1977, the parishioners joined with Immaculata to become the Holy Cross–Immaculata parish. The Mt. Adams Preservation Association raised enough funds to commission the restoration of seven paintings by Johann Schmitt. The paintings were mounted over the main altar and side altars between 1863 and 1870.  A painted scroll stretches above the main altar across a depiction of the Immaculate Conception.