Today I went up to Gloucester for the first time this year for a program at the Cape Ann Museum. I walked by Our Lady of Good Voyage church, a famous landmark in the old fishing port of Gloucester. It was built in the Mission style for the Portuguese community. Immigrants from the Azores came to Gloucester in the nineteenth century to work in the fishing industry.
The statue of Our Lady of Good Voyage atop the church today is a replica. The original (right) is in the Cape Ann Museum as it had become too eroded by the elements to remain in place on the pedestal in the sky. Close up, one can see Our Lady cradling a fishing boat in her left arm.
The two blue towers of the church on Portuguese Hill, as it is still called, can be seen from many vantage points around Gloucester and from the harbor.
