Religious Sites: Explore Temples, Churches, Mosques and Sacred Complexes
Explore more than 6,500 historic religious sites, including temples, cathedrals, monasteries, mosques, madrasas, synagogues and timber-built shrines. The collection spans Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Its standing interiors and extensive archaeological complexes include spaces for worship, religious teaching, processions and communal life, with some buildings retaining more than one religious phase.
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Awaji Kokubun-ji preserves the site and principal image of the former provincial monastery of Awaji Province, founded under Emperor Shōmu’s…
Founded in 1132 in the Ardennes, the chartreuse du Mont-Dieu was the first Carthusian monastery established within the Kingdom of France. Its…
Chiesa di Sant'Antonio Abate is the principal Catholic church of Lonno, a hamlet of Nembro, with fifteenth-century origins, later enlargement, and an…
The Church of Holy Salvation near the source of the Cetina River is a late ninth-century pre-Romanesque church associated with Duke Branimir and the…
The Church of Saint Benedict in Prague began as the parish church of Hradčany in the fourteenth century. Rebuilt after major fires and expanded…
Church of Saint Martin in Řepy preserves a medieval Romanesque core, later Gothic, Baroque, and Classical alterations, and evidence of the village’s…
Church of St Oswald in Lythe preserves medieval fabric, a Norman tower, and a long history as a parish church overlooking the Yorkshire coast.
The Church of the Addolorata in Acqui Terme developed from an early Christian cemetery and church into a medieval episcopal center, later becoming a…
The Church of the Holy Heart of Jesus in Cerkwica is a fifteenth-century Gothic brick-and-wood church with an eighteenth-century wooden tower,…
The Church of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist in Přibyslav combines an eighteenth-century Baroque church with a medieval defensive tower,…
Dorut Tilavat is a fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Timurid memorial and dynastic burial complex in Shahrisabz, centered on the mausoleums of…
The Franciscan Church and Monastery in Szeged-Alsóváros developed from a medieval hospital church into a major Franciscan complex, retaining Gothic…
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On this page10 sections
Explore by tradition
Browse these collections for religious sites associated with a particular tradition.
Temples, columned halls and inner sanctuaries
At Karnak in Egypt, successive gateways and courts lead through the precinct of Amun-Re. The Great Hypostyle Hall contains closely spaced rows of enormous sandstone columns shaped like papyrus plants. Taller columns along the centre carried a raised roof, with high-level openings admitting light above the lower side aisles.
The smaller Temple of Khonsu preserves another sequence of religious spaces within the complex. A columned court leads to an eight-column hall, a room for the divine barque and inner sanctuaries. The barque carried the god’s image during festivals; its dedicated chamber connected the temple’s enclosed ritual spaces with processions outside.
Cathedrals, vaults and radiating chapels
Amiens Cathedral in France rises around a high Gothic nave with rib vaults carried on clustered supports. Side aisles run beside the main space, while passages around the choir open into a ring of chapels. The different levels of arcades, galleries and windows remain clear from within the building.
The choir has a glazed upper gallery, bringing light into an area that is closed by solid walling in the nave. Large rose windows occupy the transept ends. These arrangements gave a single cathedral distinct spaces for the main liturgy, movement around the sanctuary and worship at subsidiary altars.
Madrasas, teaching rooms and courtyards
The Bou Inania Madrasa in Fez, Morocco, combines a prayer hall with classrooms and accommodation for students. Galleries surround a marble-paved courtyard containing a fountain, while small rooms occupy both the ground and upper levels. Separate corridors and stairs connect the residential areas with the main court.
Carved cedar, stucco and tile decoration are concentrated around entrances and the principal spaces. Founded in the fourteenth century under the Marinids, the complex shows how religious education required both formal teaching rooms and the everyday facilities of a residential institution.
Synagogues, mosques and religious reuse
Córdoba Synagogue in Spain occupies a small site within the old Jewish quarter. A courtyard and entrance hall lead into its prayer room, with a gallery above the entrance. Carved plasterwork and Hebrew inscriptions survive on the walls, preserving the decoration of a medieval place of worship within a densely built neighbourhood.
The city’s Mosque-Cathedral contains a much larger sequence of religious spaces. Repeated double-tiered arches supported the mosque’s roof on comparatively short columns, creating long views through the prayer hall. Christian chapels and a later central cathedral nave were inserted after the building’s conversion. The Islamic arcades and the later church architecture remain visible within the same complex.
Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines beside water
At Byōdō-in in Uji, Japan, the Phoenix Hall stands on an island in a pond. Its central Buddhist hall is flanked by wing corridors, with another corridor extending behind it. Built in 1053, the hall preserves the timber framing and broad projecting eaves of a building arranged around an image of Amida Buddha. The bronze phoenixes on the roof are replicas; the originals are kept separately.
Itsukushima Shrine, on Miyajima, uses a different relationship with water. Covered corridors link Shinto worship halls, purification spaces and subsidiary shrines over the shallow bay. A raised stage stands before the principal halls. High tide surrounds the supports, while low tide exposes the ground beneath them. Rebuilding and the repair of timber exposed to seawater have maintained the complex’s historic arrangement over successive centuries.
Explore the collection
Explore religious sites on the map or in the grid. Narrow the results by country, site type, civilization or era, with additional filters for popularity and rating. Select a map marker to view the site’s details and open its article, or open the article from its grid entry.