Sacred Spaces

The oldest continuously operating Catholic school west of the Mississippi.

A standing relief of a Norman knight whose posture marks him as a Crusader.

City law dictates that this mountaintop cathedral containing the heart of a saint is to remain the tallest building in town.

This little-known relic crypt holds stolen parts of a Roman Empress.

Established in 1853, this crumbling cemetery sits forgotten on the corner of Church and Chapel in Gold Country.

This solitary monastery may hold the remains of Vlad the Impaler (but probably not).

This Franklinford, Australia site was once home to one of the remotest churches of its faith—in the fictional world of the Kcymaerxthaere.

The Avenue of Mausolea is a series of grand palatial tombs.

The central mosque of this Mali town is entirely built from mud.

Buddha and Jesus tower over this French mountainside headquarters of the Aumism religious cult.

This giant bronze Buddha, the third largest in Japan, is the last in an ill-fated series of statues.

Temple of a million beers.

This single room has survived the centuries with almost no deterioration.

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

A Manhattan Episcopal church with an eerie underground crypt.

Holy Hindu shrine in an enormous, monkey-filled limestone cavern.

An indigenous take on European design creates a stunning visual overload.

The city of Halifax still bears the scars of the largest explosion prior to the atomic bomb.