"Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral (Indianapolis)"

The architectural firm of Renwick, Aspinwall and Russell, W. L. Coulter of New York designed the Classical Revival-style cathedral, adjacent chapel, and bishop's residence (rectory). The cathedral complex was built in stages.  It is believed that the cathedral is patterned after Saint John Lateran in Rome, Italy.  The cathedral is the main structure in a complex that also includes a three-story rectory, a two-story service wing, and an adjacent chapel. 

The  cathedral measures 188 feet by 80 feet. Its walls and temporary facade were constructed of brick with limestone trim from Bedford, Indiana.  The permanent facade is a Roman classical design in the Corinthian order. It includes four fluted columns measuring 56 feet tall and 5.5 feet  in diameter, with capitals 6.5 feet high and 7 feet across. The facade has three portals. A U.S. coat of arms is over the north door; the seal of Indiana over the south door; and symbols of the Catholic Church (a ship, Christogram, labarum, and a Latin verse from I Timothy 3:15) over the middle door. The facade also includes two niches intended for statues of Saints Peter and Paul.

For the interior, Cesare Aureli, a Roman sculptor, to carve the Blessed Mother and Child statue and the Saint Joseph statue in white Carrara marble. They were installed around 1909. Aureli's statue of Saint Frances de Sales  was delivered in 1911, and installed on the high altar. In 1915 a life-size Crucifixion was installed above the main altar. The sanctuary also includes a copy of Antonio Montauti's Pietà.

Art-glass windows, which were initially installed in 1906, were replaced in the late 1920s, or early 1930s. The Rambusch Decorating Company of New York designed twenty-one new stained-glass windows that included depictions of Saints Peter and Paul; the coats of arms of two of the original bushops,  Pope Pius X, and Pope Pius XI; symbols of the Four Evangelists; and wheat and grapes to symbolize the Eucharist. The façade window in the organ gallery depicted Christ the King.

In 1940 a Madonna of the Forest painting, attributed to fifteenth-century Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini, was presented as a gift to the church.