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Worshipers and tourists might be impressed when they step inside the nation's oldest Catholic cathedral following its $32 million restoration. But one aspect may overwhelm them: the light.

The Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore will reopen Nov. 4, the nonprofit agency in charge of the restoration announced Wednesday. The reopening concludes on-schedule a project intended to mark the cathedral's 200th anniversary by returning it to the purity of the original design of 19th Century architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe.

WJZ'S Kathryn Brown spoke to members of the Basilica trust. "You know at a time when sacred mosques are being destroyed by explosions and riots are engulfing basilicas in distant lands, this Cathedral deserved to be preserved and protected," said Michael Ruck.

Latrobe--who also designed the U.S. Capitol--didn't want a dark interior, research has shown. So, the heavy stained-glass windows, installed in the 1940s, are gone, as is the paint known as "battleship gray." In their place are translucent windows and a seductive cream color on the walls.

The result is airy and alive, calling attention to the elegance and innovation of Latrobe's architecture.

"There are some that like the very dark worship experience, and that's what this was, and we certainly respect that," said Mark Potter, executive director of the Basilica of the Assumption Historic Trust. "But certainly this is the more attractive look for the building, from all accounts."

Potter spoke as he stood under the cathedral's brilliantly illuminated, 69-foot rotunda during a tour Friday for The Associated Press.  Construction equipment banged and buzzed in the background as dozens of men performed last minute tasks such as installing air-conditioning vents in the floor, beneath where the new pews will be. But the major, wall-busting work is largely complete.

The basilica, which sits on a hill in the Mount Vernon neighborhood just north of downtown is frequently overlooked by tourists beguiled by the charms of the Inner Harbor and Fells Point. It was the highest point in the city when the land was acquired in 1803 by John Carroll, the nation's first Catholic bishop. The historic trust hopes the restoration will call attention to the building's historical and architectural significance.

Baltimore was the nation's only Catholic diocese when the cornerstone for what was then called the Baltimore Cathedral was laid in 1806. It was completed in 1821. In 1937, Pope Pius XI designated it a basilica, an honor given to churches with antiquity, dignity, historical importance or significance as a place of worship. The cathedral was renamed the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

"It's almost a lost masterpiece of American architecture," said Charles Brownell, an art history professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of two volumes on Latrobe's architectural drawings.

Latrobe began working on the Capitol under President Jefferson, the start of a lengthy collaboration between the two giants of early American architecture. The two were in frequent communication and made suggestions to each other. Echoes of the basilica can be seen in Jefferson's masterpiece, the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, and vice versa, Brownell said.

"These two great domed buildings, that both were conceived or perfected in the late eighteen-hundreds, one in Charlottesville, the other in Baltimore, I think of them as kind of a salt-and-pepper set," he said. "They have a special relationship to each other."

Jefferson's love for skylights influenced Latrobe, who gave the basilica a unique double-dome design, with a skylight beneath the outer dome, that allows diffuse light to pool down into the nave, its source unseen. The skylight had been covered up and abandoned in the 1940s because of leaks and other problems.

"The idea, basically, is for there to be a glow hovering high over the head of the spectator, and it's way beyond where you can reach, and you don't fully understand where it's coming from," Brownell said. "It creates a very solemn effect."

The cathedral's neoclassical design links it to the Capitol, making its symbolic value all the more potent to Catholics, whose faith was suppressed under British rule, said Michael Ruck, chairman of the board of the Basilica Historic Trust.

"Just as the Capitol in Washington, D.C. stands as the symbol of the political freedom that we have, this building stands as a symbol of the religious freedom that everyone had been promised under our Constitution and the Bill of Rights," Ruck said.

The restoration will emphasize the basilica's importance to U.S. Catholics. For the first time, people will be able to walk around the altar and descend new staircases leading to the crypt beneath it, which holds the remains of Carroll along with Cardinal James Gibbons, Archbishop Martin Spalding and Archbishop Michael Curley.

"This is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most historic Catholic crypt in the United States," Potter said. "We're very happy to finally be able to give some access to this area."

Near the crypt will be a small, devotional chapel fashioned from the part of the church known as the undercroft, a moody space with inverted brick archways. The space was meant to be used, but the Baltimore masons botched Latrobe's plans and built the floor too high, Potter said. Some historic graffiti remains on the walls of the new chapel, including the signature of a mason named Francis Gildea, who scratched his name into the wet cement in July 1863, just after the Battle of Gettysburg.

"Francis Gildea is the tangible link to all the many expert craftsmen whose beautiful work on this restoration will inspire and be admired for centuries to come," Potter said at Wednesday's announcement of the reopening.

The restoration also brings modern conveniences to a building that sorely needed it: central heating and air conditioning, new and bigger restrooms and an elevator. The improved basilica will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Potter said.

There are "no more restrictions for anyone that wants to come in here," Potter said. "One of the things that was high on our priority list was to make the experience a comfortable one."

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