It
is called "the miracle staircase!" It stands, although no one
knows how, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in a little Catholic chapel. Some
technical engineers, not knowing what to think of the impossible construction,
even call it "advanced engineering", as the staircase design
defies all construction rules, and even gravity? One architect said: "It
seems to defy the rules of carpentry,"
In 1872, the Catholic
bishop of Santa fei ordered the buliding of a small chapel. After quite
a while the construction almost being finished, the architect died. Then
it was gradually discovered that there had been a mistake in the original
design; There was no staircase to the choir loft, except a simple ladder,
and there was not enough room to built one, without severely disfiguring
the looks of the chapel.
Thus the nuns, set out to sincerely pray for a solution, and even called
on the patron saint of carpenters, St. Joseph, the adopted father of Jesus
of Nazareth, as he was a carpenter by
profession!
After their nine days of desperate prayer had ended, a shabbily dressed
man with a donkey and just a toolbox, appeared at the door, looking for
work. When he was taken to see the loft, he offered that he knew how to
built a stairway, on the condition that they would let him have total
privacy.
He locked himself in and for
three months working non stop. When he opened the doors and let the Mother
Superior see the result, she almost fainted at the beautiful sight.
There, incredibly, in the corner stood a wonderful freestanding wooden
spiral staircase built without screws, glue or nails, without attachments
to the wall, and without a center pole to support it, going around 360
degrees twice! The carpenter had only used a few pegs to hold the thing
together. He came without wood, and no one knows where he got it, as no
one saw him get any and the wood he used was unknown to the region.
And what happened
to the carpenter? According to the
nuns, when
they wanted to pay him, he had disappeared without a trace!
Incredibly, the sisters discovered the wood had not been purchased locally.
They
offered a reward for locating the carpenter, even putting out an add in
the local newspaper. No one ever came forward to claim it.
Architects from all over the country still come to inspect this unique
and marvelous piece of craftsmanship. They
are puzzled also by how it has withstood more than a hundred years of
use, every section just
perfectly fitted
together in their own groove. Another
interesting
fact is that the staircase has 33 steps or risers -- the same number as
Christ's age when He died.
