Monks

What looks like a simple quaint estate in rural Pennsylvania was in the 18th century home to a small monastic community.

Elaborately carved to showcase the glorious wealth that the age of exploration brought to the Portuguese empire.

A public park off the beaten path with a beautiful waterfall and 13th century Cistercian abbey.

Over the centuries, this island paradise has done it all, from providing monks with ecclesiastical respite to sheltering an exiled Leon Trotsky.

12th-century holy complex shares land with a natural park full of heavenly waterfalls and raptors.

This religious complex carved into a cliff is steeped in legends of miraculous stags and the Holy Grail.

An illuminated manuscript comprising the life's work of a lone monk, inexplicably decorated with a portrait of Satan himself.

The highest monastery in the world operates a tiny guesthouse with doors open to all.

This Belgian palace was long the domain of priests and aristocrats but is now being turned into an art commune.

This ancient mountain monastery welcomes all manner of faith in an effort to keep Christians in Syria.

The world's only managed flock of mute swans was established as a factory for monk meat but is now an adorable sanctuary.

Twelve natural mummies are displayed in the crypt of this former monastery school.

This hilltop warren of monastic dwellings is the result of centuries worth of Mongol attacks.

A magical and peaceful ruined Cistercian abbey in what is now southern Belgium.

The hermits of Karoulia protect their asocial lifestyles by living on the vertical face of a treacherous precipice.