by Julie Besonen

On any given weekend, NoLIta's tastefully curated boutiques are brimming with avid shoppers. Over on the Bowery, the New Museum draws contemporary art lovers. Seekers of spiritual atonement — or the merely curious — slip into the Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, a historic sanctuary on the corner of Mott and Prince Streets.

Cradled amid fashionable cafes, old walk-up apartment buildings and new, multimillion-dollar dwellings, the soaring, softly lit cathedral was completed in 1815. Its stone edifice, however, dates to 1868, rebuilt after a fire engulfed the original frescoed structure in 1866. 

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/