Maxo Vanka’s Murals, Millvale, PA, photos by Joanne Rocklin

Mural of Christ and St. Peter by Maxo Vanka in St. Nicholas Catholic Church, Millvale, PA

On Easter morning, April 5th, 1942, the Bishop came to bless the newly completed murals by Croatian artist Maxo Vanka that filled the walls and ceilings of St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Millvale, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh.  Begun in 1937 and finished in 1941 and 1942, the spectacular tempera paintings depicted Christ and Mary, saints and apostles, life in Croatia, and social commentary on war and poverty. The brilliant colors and mixture of traditional iconography and scenes of daily life make the images memorable and moving. Many Croatians worked in the mines and steel mills in and around Pittsburgh. Murals painted before the war depict Croatian immigrants coming to America to seek a better life, grateful to have escaped the slaughter taking place in their homeland. Their strong sense of pride in their heritage is evident.

Women in Croatia weep over the coffin of a young, dead soldier.

One of the murals is an homage to labor while another documents the tragedy that occurred when one of the mills burned and collapsed. There are a total of twenty murals in the church. Murals painted after the war are much more striking and vivid with very dark and haunting themes. Maxo Vanka was a committed pacifist and the intensity of his beliefs are depicted clearly in these murals. Maximilian Vanka, also known as Maxo Vanka, was born in Croatia in 1889, came to the United States in the 1930's, and died in 1963. Maxo Vanka and his family lived in New York at the time that he painted the murals in Millvale.  To read about his life and other work click HERE.

Altar with Pieta, the Mother of Sorrows weeping over her dead son. 

My parents, Les and Kay Scheaffer, who were graduate students at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1940s, made regular visits to Millvale to watch Maxo Vanka work.  In his retirement, my father wrote about their experience. I posted his story on October 29, 2012.  It is a window on Maxo Vanka's personality and process of painting. Although I was born in Pittsburgh, I have never seen the murals myself.  Last summer, when my friend, writer Joanne Rocklin, went to Pittsburgh to research her new book for children, I asked her if she would be interested in visiting St. Nicholas Church and in sending me pictures of the murals.  She did and has graciously allowed me to post them here.

St. Matthew (left) and St. Mark (right)

Joanne Rocklin’s new book is FLEABRAIN LOVES FRANNY, a middle grade novel, and is the story of Franny, a young polio victim with an unusual soul mate, Fleabrain. It takes place in 1952-53, just before Salk announced the results of his groundbreaking vaccine research, which he did in his lab at the University of Pittsburgh. The book is also an homage to CHARLOTTE'S WEB by E.B. White which was published in 1952, after a summer of the worst polio outbreak in U.S. history, in which 53,000 were stricken. FLEABRAIN LOVES FRANNY will be published next August. Find out more about Joanne Rocklin and her books at www.joannerocklin.com .

Visiting the Murals
A 60-minute docent-guided tour of the murals is a fascinating glimpse into Vanka's art and the experiences that shaped his ideas. Docents discuss Vanka's early life, his success in Europe and his life in America.
Docent-led tours on Saturdays: 11:00am, 12:00noon and 1:00pm. For special arrangements, please call the Docent Manager at 412-407-2570. Weekend masses at St. Nicholas Church are at 6:00pm on Saturday and Noon on Sunday.
The church is located at 24 Maryland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15209, minutes from downtown, just off Route 28 at the Millvale exit.

For more about Maxo Vanka’s murals in Millvale go to www.vankamurals.com . The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka, founded in 1990, is dedicated to preserving the murals for the future.