Originally dedicated as “Our Lady of Sorrows”, The St. Mary Basicila of Natchez is a beautiful piece of historic Gothic Revival Architecture designed by James Hardie. Hardie, an immigrant from Scotland, came to Natchez with his two carpenter brothers during the 1830’s. Hardie would also design several other places that are now in the National Register of Historic Places including the Chapel at Laurel Hill Plantation (First Gothic Revival Building in Mississippi), Choctaw and D’Everau.

Construction began in 1842 and was dedicated in 1843. Due to the scale of the project, the Civil War, and several other hurdles, construction on the church was never 100% completed until 1882. Hardie did live long enough to see his architectural masterpiece completed, dying in 1889.

This visually amazing Catholic Church is the only Basilica in the state of Mississippi and one of only 85 in the entire United States.