Sacred Spaces

The world's toughest modern Christian pilgrimage leads directly to the gates of Hell.

A Gothic-inspired fish market is Gothenburg's best place to find loaves and fishes.

A fifth-century temple improbably built into the side of a cliff.

This former Roman Catholic Church still contains the embalmed hearts and organs of 22 popes.

Stunning examples of Russia's 18th-century wooden architecture.

A cemetery and the town it served sinks beneath the sea during the volcanic birth of Mt. Vulcan.

Malaysia's first and only glass temple.

A 400-year-old mummified arm dangles from the ceiling of St. James the Greater, serving as a warning to thieves.

One of several skulls claiming to belong to the beheaded St. John the Baptist is on display at this Roman church.

The long, arduous journey of the stones of the Abbey of New Clairvaux.

A deadly ancient portal to the underworld.

A crumbling cathedral condemned by an earthquake.

A grand Gothic Revival basilica with stained glass depictions of Montreal's religious history has only one soul resting in its crypt.

This Italian church is as beautiful as it is common, except for the real skulls decorating the many mannequins inside.

A island reachable by a causeway at low tide is possibly one of the earliest Western European locations to be identified in text.

Small ship votives hang from the vaulted ceiling of this port-side church with a Latin inscription on the wall.

The oldest church in Iceland is one of the few to feature ornate decoration.

This black church sits alone among a field of lava rock.