Lisanti Chapel

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Religious building designed in Italian-American style

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The Lisanti Chapel (1905) is the only known extant free-standing private chapel built by an Italian immigrant in New York City, and possibly the country. The chapel, with its rough-hewn granite exterior and open bell tower topped by a metal filigree cross, is a rare example of Italian American religious vernacular architecture in the United States. The interior is a testimony to immigrant artisan skills and decorative work, seen in the wood lattice altar screen, the altar's tiled floor, the faux marble and the original paintings of religious scenes. Architecturally significant and aesthetically moving, the Lisanti chapel is a direct link to the world of immigrant religious and social life made manifest by Italian American labor and devotion.