Sacred Spaces

The mummified relics of an American missionary.

Stone memorial that's said to predict the death of the pope and the site of the Cadaver Synod.

This mountain's identity is stuck somewhere between a nightmare and a scenic tourist attraction.

Pilgrimage site for star-crossed lovers.

The gloomy ruins that inspired Bram Stoker to bring Dracula to life.

A 19th-century shrine covered with prosthetic body parts as votive offerings.

A popular shrine where the Blessed Virgin allegedly appeared in 1830, displaying a holy armchair and two incorruptible remains of Lady Saints.

Home of Vissarion, the "Jesus of Siberia."

With a history of slaughter, feast, and famine, remnants of the pork industry decorate this area--even its church.

This ancient church, rebuilt at least 3 times, is flanked at all sides by history.

Modeled after the labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral, this small-town Indiana memorial labyrinth sits half a world away.

Saintly bones pressed into a wax effigy of a Catholic superstar.

For nearly 2,000 years this church has been waging war on local snakes by importing cats.

An English cenotaph honoring an American feminist icon.

These spartan apartments are provided to clergymen visiting Vatican City.

A shrine to a skeleton saint in the city of angels.

The oldest library in Scotland was built from the remains of a church to hold a churchman's library.

This smaller cousin of the Forbidden City has gone from ancestral sacrifice to tourist's whispers.