Most Beautiful Churches In the world

Traditional church buildings are often in the
shape of a cross and frequently have a tower
or dome. More modern church buildings
have a variety of architectural styles and
layouts; many buildings that were designed
for other purposes have now been converted
for church use, and, similarly, many original
church buildings have been put to other
uses.
The four traditional “notes of the Christian
Church” are unity, holiness, catholicity, and
apostolicity. In the phenomenological sense,
there are many associations that call
themselves Christian churches.
Here is the List has some of the most
beautiful churches all over the earth. Enjoy
and share the knowledge.

Las Lajas Cathedral
Las Lajas Sanctuary is a minor basilica
church located in the southern Colombian
Department of Nariño, munici

Traditional church buildings are often in the
shape of a cross and frequently have a tower
or dome. More modern church buildings
have a variety of architectural styles and
layouts; many buildings that were designed
for other purposes have now been converted
for church use, and, similarly, many original
church buildings have been put to other
uses.
The four traditional “notes of the Christian
Church” are unity, holiness, catholicity, and
apostolicity. In the phenomenological sense,
there are many associations that call
themselves Christian churches.
Here is the List has some of the most
beautiful churches all over the earth. Enjoy
and share the knowledge.

Las Lajas Cathedral
Las Lajas Sanctuary is a minor basilica
church located in the southern Colombian
Department of Nariño, municipality of Ipiales
and built inside the canyon of the Guáitara
River.
The present church was built-in Gothic
Revival style in 1949. The name Laja comes
from the name of a type of flat sedimentary
rock similar to shale.
The inspiration for the church’s creation was
a result of a miraculous event in 1754 when
an Amerindian named Maria Mueces and her
deaf-mute daughter Rosa were caught in a
very strong storm.
The two sought refuge between the gigantic
Lajas, when to Maria Mueces’s surprise, her
mute daughter, Rosa exclaimed “the mestiza
is calling me…” and pointed to the lightning-
illuminated silhouette over the laja. This
apparition of the Virgin Mary caused
pilgrimage to this location, with occasional
miraculous cases of healing reported. The
image on the stone is still visible today.
The existence of a shrine in this location was
recorded in the accounts of friar Juan de
Santa Gertrudis’s journey through the
southern region of the New Kingdom of
Granada between 1756 and 1764. The first
shrine was built here in the middle of 18th
century from straw and wood. It was
replaced with a new, larger shrine in 1802,
which in turn was extended and connected to
the opposite side of canyon with a bridge.
Current church was built-in the time period
from January 1, 1916 to August 20, 1949,
with donations from local churchgoers. It
rises 100 m high from the bottom of canyon
and is connected with 50 m tall bridge to the
opposite side of the canyon.

Sagrada Família
The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada
Família commonly known as the Sagrada
Família, is a large Roman Catholic church in
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by
Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926).
Although incomplete, the church is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in
November 2010 was consecrated and
proclaimed a minor basilica by Pope
Benedict XVI.
Though construction of Sagrada Família had
commenced in 1882, Gaudí became involved
in 1883, taking over the project and
transforming it with his architectural and
engineering style—combining Gothic and
curvilinear Art Nouveau forms.
Gaudí devoted his last years to the project
and at the time of his death in 1926, less
than a quarter of the project was complete.
Sagrada Família’s construction progressed
slowly as it relied on private donations and
was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War—
only to resume intermittent progress in the
1950s. Construction passed the mid-point in
2010 with some of the project’s greatest
challenges remaining and an anticipated
completion date of 2026—the centennial of
Gaudí’s death.
The basílica has a long history of dividing
the citizens of Bapality of Ipiales
and built inside the canyon of the Guáitara
River.
The present church was built-in Gothic
Revival style in 1949. The name Laja comes
from the name of a type of flat sedimentary
rock similar to shale.
The inspiration for the church’s creation was
a result of a miraculous event in 1754 when
an Amerindian named Maria Mueces and her
deaf-mute daughter Rosa were caught in a
very strong storm.
The two sought refuge between the gigantic
Lajas, when to Maria Mueces’s surprise, her
mute daughter, Rosa exclaimed “the mestiza
is calling me…” and pointed to the lightning-
illuminated silhouette over the laja. This
apparition of the Virgin Mary caused
pilgrimage to this location, with occasional
miraculous cases of healing reported. The
image on the stone is still visible today.
The existence of a shrine in this location was
recorded in the accounts of friar Juan de
Santa Gertrudis’s journey through the
southern region of the New Kingdom of
Granada between 1756 and 1764. The first
shrine was built here in the middle of 18th
century from straw and wood. It was
replaced with a new, larger shrine in 1802,
which in turn was extended and connected to
the opposite side of canyon with a bridge.
Current church was built-in the time period
from January 1, 1916 to August 20, 1949,
with donations from local churchgoers. It
rises 100 m high from the bottom of canyon
and is connected with 50 m tall bridge to the
opposite side of the canyon.

Sagrada Família
The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada
Família commonly known as the Sagrada
Família, is a large Roman Catholic church in
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by
Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926).
Although incomplete, the church is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in
November 2010 was consecrated and
proclaimed a minor basilica by Pope
Benedict XVI.
Though construction of Sagrada Família had
commenced in 1882, Gaudí became involved
in 1883, taking over the project and
transforming it with his architectural and
engineering style—combining Gothic and
curvilinear Art Nouveau forms.
Gaudí devoted his last years to the project
and at the time of his death in 1926, less
than a quarter of the project was complete.
Sagrada Família’s construction progressed
slowly as it relied on private donations and
was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War—
only to resume intermittent progress in the
1950s. Construction passed the mid-point in
2010 with some of the project’s greatest
challenges remaining and an anticipated
completion date of 2026—the centennial of
Gaudí’s death.
The basílica has a long history of dividing
the citizens of Barcelona—over the initial
possibility it might compete with Barcelona’s
cathedral, over Gaudí’s design itself, over the
possibility that work after Gaudí’s death
disregarded his design, and the recent
possibility that an underground tunnel of
Spain’s high-speed train could disturb its
stability.
Describing Sagrada Familia, art Critic Rainer
Zerbst said “it is probably impossible to find
a church building anything like it in the
entire history of art” and Paul Goldberger
called it ‘the most extraordinary personal
interpretation of Gothic architecture since
the Middle Ages’.

St. Basil’s Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy
Theotokos on the Moat popularly known as
Saint Basil’s Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox
church erected on the Red Square in Moscow
in 1555–61. Built on the order of Ivan the
Terrible to commemorate the capture of
Kazan and Astrakhan, it marks the
geometric centre of the city and the hub of
its growth since the 14th century. It was the
tallest building in Moscow until the
completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower
in 1600.
The original building, known as “Trinity
Church” and later “Trinity Cathedral”,
contained eight side churches arranged
around the ninth, central church of
Intercession; the tenth church was erected in
1588 over the grave of venerated local saint
Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries
the church, perceived as the earthly symbol
of the Heavenly City, as happens to all
churches in Byzantine Christianity, was
popularly known as the “Jerusalem” and
served as an allegory of the Jerusalem
Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade
attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the
tsar.
The building’s design, shaped as a flame of a
bonfire rising into the sky, has no analogues
in Russian architecture: “It is like no other
Russian building. Nothing similar can be
found in the entire millennium of Byzantine
tradition from the fifth to fifteenth century
… a strangeness that astonishes by its
unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling
interleaving of the manifold details of its
design.” The cathedral foreshadowed the
climax of Russian national architecture in the
17th century.
A victim of state atheism, the church was
confiscated from the Russian Orthodox
community as part of the Soviet Union’s anti-
theist campaigns and has operated as a
division of the State Historical Museum since
1928. It was completely and forcefully
secularized in 1929and, as of 2011, remains a
federal property of the Russian Federation.
The church has been part of the Moscow
Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World
Heritage Site since 1990. It is often
mislabelled as the Kremlin owing to its
location on Red Square in immediate
proximity of the Kremlin.

Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox
patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now
a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the
date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it
served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of
Constantinople, except between 1204 and
1261, when it was converted to a Roman
Catholic cathedral under the Latin Patriarch
of Constantinople of the Western Crusader
established Latin Empire. The building was a
mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931, when
it was secularized. It was opened as a
museum on 1 February 1935.
The Church was dedicated to the Logos, the
second person of the Holy Trinity, its
dedication feast taking place on 25
December, the anniversary of the Birth of
the incarnation of the Logos in Christ.
Although it is sometimes referred to as
Sancta Sophia “Church of the Holy Wisdom
of God”.
Famous in particular for its massive dome, it
is considered the epitome of Byzantine
architecture and is said to have “changed the
history of architecture.” It was the largest
cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand
years, until Seville Cathedral was completed
in 1520. The current building was originally
constructed as a church between 532 and
537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor
Justinian and was the third Church of the
Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous
two having both been destroyed by rioters.
It was designed by the Greek scientists
Isidore of Miletus, a physicist, and
Anthemius of Tralles, a mathematician.
The church contained a large collection of
holy relics and featured, among other things,
a 49-foot (15 m) silver iconostasis. It was the
seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople and
the religious focal point of the Eastern
Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand
years. It is the church in which Cardinal
Humbert in 1054 excommunicated Michael I
Cerularius – which is commonly considered
the start of the Great Schism.
In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by
the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II,
who subsequently ordered the building
converted into a mosque. The bells, altar,
iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were
removed and many of the mosaics were
plastered over. Islamic features – such as the
mihrab, minbar, and four minarets – were
added while in the possession of the
Ottomans. It remained a mosque until 1931
when it was closed to the public for four
years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum
by the Republic of Turkey.
For almost 500 years the principal mosque of
Istanbul, Hagia Sophia served as a model for
many other Ottoman mosques, such as the
Sultan Ahmed Mosque the Şehzade Mosque,
the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Rüstem Pasha
Mosque and the Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque

St. Peter’s Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially
known in Italian as Basilica Papale di San
Pietro in Vaticano and commonly known as
Saint Peter’s Basilica, is a Late Renaissance
church located within the Vatican City. Saint
Peter’s Basilica has the largest interior of any
Christian church in the world. While it is
neither the official mother church of the
Roman Catholic Church nor the cathedral of
the Pope as Bishop of Rome, Saint Peter’s is
regarded as one of the holiest Catholic sites.
It has been described as “holding a unique
position in the Christian world” and as “the
greatest of all churches of Christendom”.
In Roman Catholic tradition, the basilica is
the burial site of its namesake Saint Peter,
who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus
and, according to tradition, the first Bishop
of Rome and therefore first in the line of the
papal succession. Tradition and some
historical evidence hold that Saint Peter’s
tomb is directly below the altar of the
basilica. For this reason, many Popes have
been interred at St. Peter’s since the Early
Christian period. There has been a church on
this site since the 4th century. Construction
of the present basilica, over the old
Constantinian basilica, began on 18 April
1506 and was completed on 18 November
1626.
St. Peter’s is famous as a place of pilgrimage,
for its liturgical functions and for its
historical associations. It is associated with
the papacy, with the Counter-reformation
and with numerous artists, most significantly
Michelangelo. As a work of architecture, it is
regarded as the greatest building of its age.
Contrary to popular misconception, Saint
Peter’s is not a cathedral, as it is not the
seat of a bishop. It is properly termed a
papal basilica. The Archbasilica of St. John
Lateran is the cathedral church of Rome.

Notre Dame
Notre Dame de also known as Notre Dame
Cathedral or simply Notre Dame, is a Gothic,
Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half
of the Île de la Cité in the fourth
arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the
cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of
Paris: that is, it is the church that contains
the cathedra (official chair) of the
Archbishop of Paris, currently André Vingt-
Trois. The cathedral treasury houses a
reliquary with the purported Crown of
Thorns.
Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered
one of the finest examples of French Gothic
architecture in France and in Europe, and
the naturalism of its sculptures and stained
glass are in contrast with earlier
Romanesque architecture. The first period of
construction from 1163 into 1240s coincided
with the musical experiments of the Notre
Dame school.
The cathedral suffered desecration during
the radical phase of the French Revolution in
the 1790s, when much of its religious
imagery was damaged or destroyed. An
extensive restoration supervised by Eugène
Viollet-le-Duc removed remaining decoration,
returning the cathedral to an ‘original’ gothic
state.

Hallgrimskirkja
The Hallgrímskirkja is a Lutheran (Church
of Iceland) parish church in Reykjavík,
Iceland. At 74.5 metres (244 ft), it is the
largest church in Iceland and the sixth tallest
architectural structure in Iceland after
Longwave radio mast Hellissandur, the radio
masts of US Navy at Grindavík, Eiðar
longwave transmitter and Smáratorg tower.
The church is named after the Icelandic poet
and clergyman Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614 to
1674), author of the Passion Hymns.
State Architect Guðjón Samúelsson’s design
of the church was commissioned in 1937. He
is said to have designed it to resemble the
basalt lava flows of Iceland’s landscape. It
took 38 years to build the church.
Construction work began in 1945 and ended
in 1986, the landmark tower being completed
long before the church’s actual completion.
The crypt beneath the choir was consecrated
in 1948, the steeple and wings were
completed in 1974. The nave was consecrated
in 1986. Situated in the centre of Reykjavík,
it is one of the city’s best-known landmarks
and is visible throughout the city. It is
similar in style to the expressionist
architecture of Grundtvig’s Church of
Copenhagen, Denmark, completed in 1926.
The church houses a large pipe organ by the
German organ builder Johannes Klais of
Bonn. It has mechanical action, four manuals
and pedal, 102 ranks, 72 stops and 5275
pipes. It is 15 metres tall and weighs 25
tons. Its construction was finished in
December 1992. It has been recorded by
Christopher Herrick in his Organ Fireworks
VII CD.
The church is also used as an observation
tower. An observer can take a lift up to the
viewing deck and view Reykjavík and the
surrounding mountains. The statue of
explorer Leif Eriksson (1929–32) by
Alexander Stirling Calder in front of the
church predates its construction. It was a
gift from the United States in honor of the
1930 Alþingi Millennial Festival,
commemorating the 1000th anniversary of
Iceland’s parliament at Þingvellir in 930 AD.
In 2008, the church underwent a major
restoration of the main tower, and was
covered in scaffolding. In late 2009,
restoration was completed and the
scaffolding was removed.

Jubilee Church
The Jubilee Church, formally known as Dio
Padre Misericordioso, is a church and
community center in Tor Tre Teste in Rome.
According to Richard Meier, its architect, it is
“the crown jewel of the Vicariato di Roma’s
(Archdiocese of Rome) Millennium
project” (p. 354). The Church serves eight
thousand residents of the Tor Tre Teste area
and was meant to socially “revive” Tor Tre
Teste. It is paid homage to in the video game
Hitman: Blood Money, with a very similar
church as the setting of the game’s final
mission.
he south side of the church features three
large curved walls of pre-cast concrete. (The
walls form segments of spheres.) Meier
claims to have designed the church to
minimize thermal peak loads inside. The
large thermal mass of the concrete walls
control internal heat gain; the result is less
temperature variation, and supposedly more
efficient use of energy.
The walls also contain titanium dioxide to
keep the appearance of the church white.
Enrico Borgarello, the director of research
and development for Italcementi, the
company that designed the cement, claims
that the cement destroys air pollution.
The Church’s site is divided into four main
parts: first, the precinct, including the
church and community center; second, the
northeast terrace; third, the northwest
recreation court; fourth, the west parking
area.

Notre Dame du Haut
The chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, designed
by Le Corbusier, is located in Ronchamp. The
Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut, a shrine for
the Catholic Church at Ronchamp was built
for a reformist Church looking to continue its
relevancy. Warning against decadence,
reformers within the Church looked to
renew its spirit by embracing modern art
and architecture as representative concepts.
Father Couturier, who would also sponsor Le
Corbusier for the La Tourette commission,
steered the unorthodox project to completion
in 1954.
This work, like several others in Le
Corbusier’s late oeuvre, departs from his
principles of standardization and the
machine aesthetic outlined in Vers une
architecture. It is interesting to note though,
that even in this project, the structural
design of the roof was inspired by the
engineering of airfoils.
The chapel is clearly a site-specific response.
By Le Corbusier’s own admission, it was the
site that provided an irresistible genius loci
for the response, with the horizon visible on
all four sides of the hill and its historical
legacy for centuries as a place of worship.
This historical legacy weaved in different
layers into the terrain — from the Romans
and sun-worshippers before them, to a cult
of the Virgin in the Middle Ages, right
through to the modern church and the fight
against the German occupation. Le Corbusier
also sensed a sacral relationship of the hill
with its surroundings, the Jura mountains in
the distance and the hill itself, dominating
the landscape.
The nature of the site would result in an
architectural ensemble that has many
similitudes with the Acropolis, starting from
the ascent at the bottom of the hill to
architectural and landscape events along the
way, before finally terminating at the
sanctum sanctorum itself, the chapel.
The building itself is a comparatively small
structure enclosed by thick walls, with the
upturned roof supported on columns
embedded within the walls. In the interior,
the spaces left between the wall and roof, as
well as asymmetric light from the wall
openings serve to further reinforce the sacral
nature of the space and buttress the
relationship of the building with its
surroundings.

The Crystal Cathedral
The Crystal Cathedral is a Christian church
building in Garden Grove, Orange County,
California, United States. The building,
designed by architect Philip Johnson, was
completed in 1981 and seats 2,736 people.
Since its construction the building has been
the principal place of worship for Crystal
Cathedral Ministries, a Protestant Christian
church organization founded in 1955 by
Robert H. Schuller and affiliated with the
Reformed Church in America.
Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for
bankruptcy in October 2010 and
subsequently, in February 2012, sold the
building and its adjacent campus to the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange for future
use as the diocese’s cathedral. Under the
terms of the sale the building and most of
the campus will continue to be used by
Crystal Cathedral Ministries for up to three
years before being renovated for use as a
Roman Catholic cathedral.

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