Basilica of St. Josaphat, Milwaukee (must see)

The Basilica of Saint Josaphat, located in the Lincoln Village neighborhood of Milwaukee, in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, is one of 82 minor basilicas found in the United States. In its grandeur and opulence it is an excellent example of the so-called Polish Cathedral style of church architecture found in the Great Lakes region of North America. Modeled after Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, it features one of the largest copper domes in the world. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated Milwaukee Landmark.

Poles began trickling into Milwaukee in the 1840s, but the flow increased after the Civil War until their numbers were next only to the German-Americans. In 1866 Saint Stanislaus parish was founded - the first urban Polish parish in the U.S. Saint Stanislaus branched off Josaphat's congregation in 1888. Josaphat's first church building burned in 1889.

They rebuilt, but in 1896, when the parish church proved to be too small, Pastor Wilhelm Grutza commissioned a prominent church architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Erhard Brielmaier. Like a number of other Polish churches in the so-called Polish Cathedral style, such as Saint Mary of the Angels in Chicago or Immaculate Heart of Mary in Pittsburgh, the architectural plans for the new edifice were intentionally modeled on Saint Peter's Basilica.