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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The Church of St Lawrence in Meriden developed from a Saxon predecessor into a late Norman church, with later medieval additions, nineteenth-century…
The Church of St Peter and St Paul in South Petherton is a medieval Gothic parish church that developed from a Saxon minster and Norman predecessors.…
Built in 1694 in Nelazskoye, the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos is a major example of northern Russian wooden church architecture, shaped…
The Church of the Theotokos Pandonos is an active Orthodox church in Ohrid, North Macedonia, built on the foundations of an earlier medieval church…
Colan Church, traditionally linked with the seventh-century Welsh saint Saint Collen, preserves medieval fabric, memorials, stained glass, and…
The Convent of the Sisters of Charity in Chełmno developed from a Cistercian foundation of around 1266 into a Benedictine center and later a Sisters…
Dale Church in Luster is a medieval stone parish church with Romanesque and Gothic elements, preserved furnishings, and a documented role in Norway’s…
The Duomo di Naro is a medieval Sicilian church founded after the Norman conquest and repeatedly transformed through Gothic, Baroque, and later…
Église Saint-Martin d'Ermenonville developed from a medieval choir and bell-tower base into a Gothic parish church, with major sixteenth-century…
Enmei-in Temple is a historic Buddhist temple in Utsunomiya whose traditions reach back to 1063. Its surviving Jizo Hall, religious artworks, and old…
Grötlingbo Church preserves medieval Romanesque and Gothic stonework, wall paintings, sculpture, stained glass, and furnishings from later centuries…
Hasungen Abbey was a medieval Benedictine monastery on the Burghasunger Berg in Hesse, founded in 1074 and dissolved during the Reformation. Its…
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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.