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Vanka Murals provides current St. Nicholas Parishioners free admission to public tours. Please contact the Parish House at 412-821-3438 then Press 0 for the code available exclusively to current members of the St. Nicholas congregation.

You may know the stories behind the murals, or rusty on one or two but what about sharing a Mural Tour with out-of-town family members that are visiting or neighbors and friends to learn about the history and heritage of our church?  

The New Immigration Tour runs at 12:30PM on the last Saturday of the month and may hold meaning for you and your family. Think about joining one of these Public Tours .

Tour the Murals

About the Tour:  Experience a guided tour of the murals commissioned by Father Zagar and the Parish and painted by Croatian artist Maxo Vanka in 1937 and 1941. The murals, inspired by Zagar’s vision to honor and celebrate the heritage and faith of his Parish, are the artist’s tribute to the congregation’s cultural identity and passionate and timeless statements about social justice, the horrors of war and the contributions and sacrifices of immigrant labor. It was his “Gift to America”.

Public Tours ($20 Value)

Schedule is below & Tour Time is approx. 60 minutes

• Saturdays: 11:00am & 12:30pm
• Mondays: 6:30pm
• Thursdays: 6:30pm

Private Tours are also available, but the discount does not apply. More info here: Private Tours | Save Maxo Vanka

If you’d like to share a virtual tour of the Murals with friends and family, please contact SPMMMV for a code to use in the Vanka Store. at: [email protected]

These Walls Can Talk: The Immigration Tour

About the Tour: Take a deeper dive into the history and stories of St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church’s congregation, why people immigrated to Pittsburgh, and how immigrants built their lives in America while maintaining cultural connections. Rich with detail, including oral histories and archival photos, this one-of-a-kind experience interprets a selection of Maxo Vanka’s murals in the context of world events and the cherished recollections of parishioners.

Scheduled for the last Saturday of the month @ 12:30pm & is approx. 75 minutes 

To review and book all the types of tours available to you, visit https://vankamurals.org/visit/

• • The Pieta mural (front right of the altar) and Mark ( Right side of church, back of side arch by the Old Testament Mural Wall) are scheduled for treatment and will be addressed in priority order and according to time and funding availability. Conservation is, however, likely to continue through mid- September. Vanka Murals anticipates using a ladder and small lift to complete the work.
    • UPDATE: Mark and the Old Testament walls are in process. Treatment requires some “rests” for drying and so Naomi is circulating from one to the other via the lift. The Pieta is proving to be more of a challenge because of the extent of the damage and the need to repair areas impacted by restoration work that predates the current conservation campaign. We plan to install scaffolding over the side altar because using the ladder is proving too dangerous. The Side Altars have been scaffolded before, and we own the scaffolding required so we don’t anticipate extending the work past mid-September. The conservators will take care to protect the altar and the statues during the scaffolding/conservation and will clean them after the work is complete.
  • COMPLETED: The two Battlefield ceiling scenes (below the choir loft) will have conservation work performed beginning May 19th with an anticipated completion date of June 30th. Please be mindful of the scaffolding  and note that the back rows pews have been moved up and blocked off to accommodate the scaffolding.
  • Vanka Murals continues to fund conservation through the generosity of private donors. Naomi will perform most of the conservation supported by Vanka Mural’s conservation intern, Mercedes Perez-Shillington.

 Design

• The design print is shown below and was created by Standard & Custom and Evolve EA architects. It was designed to ensure that it provides airflow for the HVAC units, allows for maintenance access, and does not obstruct access to the handicap ramp.
• The partitions will be a combination of metal and wood with metalwork inspired by the design and shape of St. Nicholas' Church windows.
• Two of the panels, the back panel facing the Rectory and the side panel facing Maryland Ave, are called grow walls, that would allow, if whished by Parishioners the option to grow low maintenance greenery on those two panels - that would not interfere with the air conditioning units, or they can simply be left without plants.
• The partitions were enthusiastically approved by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (they thought they were as beautiful as an HVAC screen could be!) and Father Nick approved and signed off on the design as well.

Cost

• The Vanka Murals is covering the full cost of these partitions.
• Their budget estimate was $15-20K, and the actual costs will likely come closer to the high end of their estimate.
• They are using their own funds plus they asked the "Need-Nots," an unaffiliated giving circle of friends who give to them from time-to-time, to allow their 2025 contributions to go towards this partition project.  As a result, their donations will cover about 10% and Vanka Murals will cover the remaining 90% of the total estimate.

Est. Installation Date

• The partitions are currently in production and should be ready for installation at the end of April or Early May.
• Installation should take 1-2 weeks and SPMMV will be coordinating installation around the plans for the Grotto.

As a Parish, we appreciate the care in which SPMMV took in creating partitions that brought in the element of our beloved Church windows and for covering the cost of them.

Donations to help Vanka Murals save and share the Vanka's Masterpiece are greatly appreciated. If you would like to help ensure their presence on the walls of St. Nicholas for years to come, please consider a tax-deductible contribution. More information visit:  Donate Vanka Murals