1817 Items Tagged

Sacred Spaces

Visitors Center in front, dwelling in back

Auburn, Kentucky

South Union Shaker Village

The remains of this visionary community can still be found much as it was a century ago.

In 2016, the 'First Legal Ayahuasca Church' Got Shut Down. Was It a Scam—or a New Religion?

A Canadian and a Brit had a vision to serve mind-expanding drugs in America.

Sarah Laskow September 16, 2016

Some call this the rose. It shelters the Lipchitz sculpture.

New Harmony, Indiana

The Roofless Church

This open air cathedral invites all faiths to worship under the only roof big enough to fit them all: the sky.

Koreshan State Park Yellow House

Estero, Florida

Koreshan State Historic Site

Former utopian colony based on the belief that the universe exists in a hollow sphere.

Auroville

Bommayapalayam, India

Auroville

This experimental utopian "city of the future" in rural India may hold a dark secret.

The sculpture Sound II in the flooded Crypt

Winchester, England

'Sound II' at Winchester Cathedral

This silent sentry in the crypt below a large Gothic cathedral is often knee-deep in water.

The horned Madonna detail

Horned Madonna of Portinari Chapel

The odd depiction of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is rooted in the Catholic Church's eradication of Catharism.

The crushed guy is at the bottom of the pillar behind the St. Thomas Aquinas reliquary

Toulouse, France

Church of the Jacobins' Little Crushed Man

There is a strange little carving of a person seemingly crushed by a pillar behind the remains of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Church of the Annunciation

Haute-Isle, France

Troglodyte Church

The Church of the Annunciation was carved into the face of a cliff, just like the rest of the town of Haute-Isle.

Monticello, Utah

Home of Truth

This ghost town was once a cult-like religious utopian settlement.

The steeple from the cemetery.

Cedar, Michigan

Holy Rosary Catholic Church

The secret skeleton of a murdered nun was discovered in this church basement, but the scandal doesn't end there.

Kilmacduagh round tower in the burren Ireland

Galway, Ireland

Kilmacduagh Round Tower

The ruins of an 800-year-old monastery boasts the tallest round tower in Ireland.

Leonardo da Vinci's tomb inside the chapel

Amboise, France

Leonardo da Vinci's Tomb

The great Italian Renaissance painter was laid to rest here in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert.

St. George and the Dragon tattoo motif as tattooed from a stencil block that dates to 200 or 300 years ago.

Jerusalem, Israel

Razzouk Ink

This family tattoo parlor has been inking religious pilgrims in the Middle East for 700 years.

The "Arctic Cathedral" in Tromsø, Norway—one of the many churches that about 15,035 people will no longer be attending.

Thousands Leave Norwegian Church as Online Registration Backfires

15,035 people have "unsubscribed" from the church since Monday.

Cara Giaimo August 22, 2016

Walls of the old St. Anthony's church being eaten by sand dunes

Saint Anthony’s Church and Cemetery

The ruins of this old church are slowing sinking into the sand.

The remains of the Martyrs of September

Crypt Beneath St. Joseph des Carmes

The recovered bones of martyrs slaughtered during The Terror are on display in this church crypt.

The Original Assassins Were a Feared Cult That Ordered Hits All Over the Middle East

How to eliminate your rivals from deep within an impregnable mountain fortress.

Stuart Denison August 9, 2016