Saints Peter and Paul Church

Saints Peter and Paul Church is distinguished by two white spires that rise one hundred ninety-one feet above the North Beach neighborhood. Facing Washington Square, the church replaced an original eighteen eighty-four structure that was lost in the Great Earthquake and fire of nineteen oh six. Construction on the current building began in nineteen thirteen and reached completion in nineteen twenty-four. An Italian inscription across the facade—taken from the opening lines of Dante's Paradiso—frames the three main entrances.