RELIGION

In time for pope's NYC visit, 3-year renovation project at St. Patrick's Cathedral completed

Associated Press
Published | Updated

This combination of April 19, 2008 and Aug. 30, 2015 photos shows Pope Benedict XVI in front of New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral and the site seven years later after restoration of the cathedral. The restoration project was officially announced on St. Patrick's Day in 2012. A three-year restoration project at the cathedral is coming to an end, just in time for a late September visit from Pope Francis. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, Mary Altaffer) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2010 photo, visitors to New York's Fifth Avenue walk past St. Patrick's Cathedral. The 2,200-seat white marble cathedral opened in 1879. In September 2015, the restoration project at the cathedral is coming to an end, in time for a visit from Pope Francis. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Tuesday, July 3, 2012 file photo, a construction worker walks on scaffolding past the great rose window during renovations at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. St. Patrick’s held its first Mass in 1879 and was declared a national landmark in 1976. A three-year restoration project at the cathedral is coming to an end, just in time for a late September, 2015 visit from Pope Francis. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) (The Associated Press)

A three-year restoration project at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York is wrapping up, just in time for a late September visit from Pope Francis. Most of the scaffolding has already come down and officials are steadfast in saying it will be done in time.

The $175 million project has been a huge undertaking. The entire exterior was covered in scaffolding, all the way to the top of the two 330-foot-tall spires, and washed clean of decades of dirt. Scaffolding also blanketed the inside, as workers cleaned and repaired the 3,700 individual panels in 75 stained glass windows. The bronze doors at the Fifth Avenue entrance were also restored.

St. Patrick's is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and one of the country's most well-known churches.