Our Lady of Victory Church (Inuvik) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Our Lady Of Victory Church |
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West (front) view, 2015
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| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Leadership | The Rev. Jon Hansen, C.Ss.R, pastor |
| Year consecrated | 1960 |
| Location | |
| Location | Inuvik, NT, Canada |
 Location in Canada
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| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | Maurice Larocque |
| Groundbreaking | 1958 |
| Completed | 1960 |
| Specifications | |
| Direction of façade | south |
| Capacity | 350 |
| Width | 23 metres (75 ft) |
| Height (max) | 19 metres (62 ft) |
| Dome(s) | 1 |
| Dome height (outer) | 16 metres (52 ft) |
| Materials | Reinforced concrete, wood, aluminum |
| Elevation | 20 m (66 ft) |
Our Lady of Victory Church, often called the Igloo Church, is a unique building in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. It looks like a giant igloo! This special church serves the local Catholic community. It was built in the late 1950s, around the same time the town of Inuvik was being created. The church officially opened in 1960 after two years of construction.
Brother Maurice Larocque, a Catholic missionary who used to be a carpenter, designed the church. He didn't have formal training as an architect. He drew his plans on two pieces of plywood, which you can still see inside the building! The round shape of the church helps protect it from damage caused by frost heave. This happens when the ground freezes and thaws, pushing things around. The church's special design, like "a dome within a dome," helps keep it safe. It sits on a bowl-shaped concrete slab over a gravel bed, which rests on the permafrost.
The Igloo Church is the only big building in Inuvik that isn't built on tall poles. The wood for the church traveled a long way, floating down the Mackenzie River from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, almost 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away. The church was even built without a building permit at first! Government officials in Ottawa couldn't understand Larocque's unique blueprints.
Today, the Igloo Church is Inuvik's most famous landmark. It's also the most photographed building in town. Travel writer Robin Esrock said it "doesn't look like any other church on Earth." Inside, you can see beautiful paintings by Inuit artist Mona Thrasher. During the summer, the church offers tours for visitors.
Contents
Exploring the Church and Its Surroundings
Our Lady of Victory Church is located in the center of Inuvik, at the corner of Mackenzie and Kingmingya roads. The area around it has homes and shops, usually two stories tall with flat roofs and thick walls. Just two blocks away is MacKenzie Square, Inuvik's main park.
The church sits on a grassy area. A fence runs along the sidewalks on the south and west sides. There are some evergreen trees and shrubs growing there. On the north side, a "utilidor" marks the back of the property. This is a narrow tunnel above ground that carries gas and water pipes.
A short paved path, lined with white stones, leads from Mackenzie Road to the church's main entrance. Another path connects to the parking lot. Around the church, there's a planting bed also lined with white stones. The church's sign stands on the lawn. Some tall black spruce trees grow near the entrance and along the utilidor.
Outside the Igloo Church
The church building is a round structure, about 23 meters (75 feet) across. It has a wooden frame and a reinforced concrete basement. This basement sits on a bowl-shaped concrete slab, which rests on a thick layer of gravel. This gravel helps protect the permafrost below from melting. The church walls are made of wood siding, painted to look like large stone blocks.
The roof has a decorative edge made of wood. On the parts of the roof near the front entrance, you can see wooden letters spelling out a Bible verse: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
The domed roof is covered in shiny, diamond-shaped aluminum pieces, making it look like ice blocks. Wooden ribs divide the roof into sections. In the middle of the dome is a round cupola, about 6 meters (20 feet) wide. It has narrow stained glass windows. On top of the cupola is a 2.7-meter (9-foot) tall blue Christian cross. This cross and the cupola light up in the winter.
Wooden steps lead up to the front entrance. The main door has a Gothic arched window above it with tinted glass. Above the door, there's a wooden "IHS" symbol, which is a special sign for Jesus. This symbol has a cross rising from its middle.
Inside the Igloo Church
All three entrances have heavy metal doors. Inside, the main area, called the sanctuary, has curved rows of wooden pews on a hardwood floor. There's a central aisle, and the church can seat 350 people.
Wooden supports, called buttresses, stand next to all the windows. Between these supports, you can see the painted Stations of the Cross. These are pictures showing events from the last day of Jesus' life. The walls are finished with wood panels below the windows. Above that, the walls have a pattern of grooved rectangles, similar to the outside.
At the front of the church, the altar and baptismal font are on a raised platform. Behind the altar is a round-arched space with a crucifix and a sunburst pattern. Two small statues of Christ are on either side.
The larger wooden buttresses support 12 main wooden ceiling vaults. These vaults get wider as they go up. They meet at a central decoration, called a rosette, below the cupola. Small windows around the rosette let in natural light. A ceiling fan hangs nearby. Wooden stairs behind the altar lead up to the cupola.
Building the Igloo Church
Planning for the church began in the late 1950s. At that time, the Canadian government was building Inuvik. This new town was meant to be a main center for the Mackenzie Delta area. It would replace Aklavik, which was getting too crowded and often flooded.
In 1955, Father Joseph Adam, the Catholic priest for the new town, started looking for someone to design a church. Brother Maurice Larocque, a missionary from Quebec, took on the job.
Larocque had worked in the Canadian North since 1930. Before becoming a missionary, he was a carpenter. This experience helped him design buildings for the distant communities he worked in, even without formal architecture training. For Inuvik, he wanted to design a church that would fit the local culture.
The Arctic environment presented some challenges. Inuvik is 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of the Arctic Circle. Here, the permafrost (permanently frozen ground) is only 2 meters (6 feet) below the surface. Most buildings in the area are built on tall poles to avoid problems with the permafrost. However, this wouldn't work for a church with a tall steeple. If the ground shifted, the steeple could fall.
To solve this, Father Adam and Brother Larocque decided on a circular building. Father Adam explained that if a round building settled a bit on one side, "it won't show—and we can always jack it up to make it level again." To make the church feel like part of the local culture, it was designed to look like an igloo.
The round shape alone wasn't enough to prevent problems from frost heave. Larocque came up with a special structural system. The church would have a reinforced concrete basement built on a bowl-shaped concrete slab. A thick layer of gravel would be placed between the slab and the permafrost. This gravel would act as insulation, stopping heat from the church from melting the permafrost. Father Adam said that Larocque "knows more about architecture than many architects," despite his lack of formal training.
Larocque drew his plans on two pieces of plywood. These plywood sketches are still part of the church's structure today, visible near the stairs to the cupola. To get permission to build, formal blueprints had to be sent to government officials in Ottawa. Larocque sent his drawings, but the officials sent them back because they couldn't understand them!
Work finally began in the summer of 1958. Gravel for the foundation was brought by barge from Point Separation, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) south. After the gravel was laid, concrete was poured to create the bowl shape. Then, wood that had traveled 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) down the Mackenzie River from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories was used to build the exterior walls. By the end of the short Arctic summer, the walls and first floor were finished.
Larocque spent the long winter carefully putting together the arches for the domed roof. There were 12 main arches, 24 secondary ones, and 72 smaller arches. Officials in Ottawa were still interested because the blueprints hadn't been approved. When they heard construction had started anyway, they tried to stop the work. But Bishop Paul Piché hired an engineer who visited the church and said it was strong enough to last for 200 years!
In the spring of 1959, construction continued. Many people from the new town volunteered to help. The arches built over the winter were lifted into place, and the outside of the church was completed. Inside, to save money, old hockey sticks were used to floor a walkway in the cupola.
By winter, the roof was in place, covered in shiny aluminum to make it look like ice. Larocque then focused on the church's decorations. To create the look of stained glass in the windows, an old French method was used. Patterns were drawn and painted on special paper, then placed between layers of glass. Larocque also created the alcove behind the altar and its crucifix.
Father Adam asked Mona Sharer, a 17-year-old deaf Inuit artist, to paint the Stations of the Cross on the inside walls. She started in January 1960 and finished in two months, along with other paintings about the life of Christ. Later that year, the church was officially opened and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Eventually, Inuvik became the important center the government wanted. It also became a hub for oil and gas exploration. In the late 1970s, the Dempster Highway was finished, connecting Inuvik to the rest of North America. This brought tourists to Inuvik in the summer. Many visitors took photos of the church, and it quickly became the most photographed building in town. The town's website says, "A trip north of the Arctic Circle is not complete without a photo in front of the Igloo Church." The church began offering tours in the summer months.
In 2013, the church faced a challenge when its heating costs doubled. Volunteers helped reinsulate the church's walls. The church also worked to use less fuel. These efforts helped reduce costs, but the church continued to look for more funding.
Church Services
The Igloo Church holds Mass on Sunday mornings and on weekday afternoons from Tuesday to Friday. Sometimes, these services might be canceled if the priest is traveling to help other Catholics in the delta region.
If Catholics want to go to confession, they can do so a half hour before Mass, by appointment, or if the priest is available at the rectory. At Christmas, the church holds a concert. During this concert, carols are sung in Gwich'in (a local First Nations language), Inuvialuktun (an Inuit dialect), and English. In recent years, a choir of Filipino immigrants has joined in, singing in Tagalog.
See also
- List of Catholic churches in Canada
- List of round churches
- Midnight Sun Mosque
