Knocking down heaven’s doors is harder than it looks.
It took workers two nights and a 55-ton crane to remove the massive bronze doors at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to be worked on as part of the ongoing three-year, $175 million restoration project at the renowned Midtown church.
The doors — each weighing about 9,000 pounds and featuring three-dimensional sculptures of American saints — were removed one by one Friday and Saturday morning, shutting down Fifth Avenue completely so the crane could be inched up to the cathedral steps.
The doors have been in place since the 1950s — and haven’t been cleaned since.
For their removal, each was covered in thick padding and encased in a steel frame weighing 2,100 pounds, then pulled off the hinges as Monsignor Robert Ritchie, rector of the cathedral, kept watch.
Temporary doors made of sheet metal and wrapped in vinyl with a printed image of the real doors on them will serve as placeholders.
As part of the restoration, a layer of paint will be removed from each door and the bronze will be polished and waxed to prevent tarnishing.
The project is being completed by Remco CEO Robert Maher — an Xavier HS alumnus whose graduation was held at the cathedral.
“I lit five candles today,” Maher told Ritchie as the doors came down, to which the monsignor replied, “To Saint Jude, I hope” — a reference to the patron of hopeless causes.