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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Santo Spirito in Sassia developed from a West Saxon pilgrims’ settlement into a major Roman hospital complex. Its church preserves Renaissance and…
Erzurum Mosque, also known as Erzurum Grand Mosque, is a major 12th-century Saltuklu monument whose history reflects the development of Turkish rule…
Old Mosque in Edirne is an early Ottoman mosque built between 1402 and 1414 during the empire’s dynastic crisis and completed under Sultan Mehmed I.…
Poganovo Monastery, dedicated to Saint John the Theologian, was established in 1395 and developed into an important late medieval center of Serbian…
St. George's Basilica in Victoria, Gozo, is a Roman Catholic parish and collegiate church with origins traditionally traced to the Byzantine period.…
Ananda Temple in Bagan was built between about 1090–1091 and 1105 under King Kyansittha. Its cruciform design, four Buddha sanctuaries, narrative…
The Church of St. Catherine in Brussels developed from a medieval chapel and was rebuilt in the nineteenth century on the filled Sainte-Catherine…
Zirc Abbey is a Cistercian monastery founded in 1182 and rebuilt in the eighteenth century after medieval decline and Ottoman destruction. It later…
Abu al-'Ila Mosque in Bulaq, Cairo, was founded around 1485 by the merchant Nur al-Din 'Ali ibn Qanish al-Burullusi for the Sufi shaykh Husayn Abu…
The Basilica of the Holy Face in Manoppello developed from a sixteenth-century Capuchin friary and became a major pilgrimage destination associated…
Autun Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Saint Lazarus, is a twelfth-century Roman Catholic church whose Romanesque architecture and sculpture…
Tykocin Synagogue is a seventeenth-century Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Tykocin, Poland. Once an important center of Jewish learning, it now houses a…
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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.