Top Churches
 

Other than the obvious (my top 6 favorites being Notre Dame, the Duomo's in Milan and Florence, St. Peter's in Rome, St.Mark's in Venice an Sagrada Familia in Barcelona) what do Fodorites consider the top churches they have seen or think are worth visiting ??

Westminster Abbey, Chartres, the cathedral at Rouen. And, of course, Ste. Chapelle.

Assisi - Basilica of San Francesco
Padova - Basilica of St. Anthony in Padova
Pompeii - Basilica of our Lady of Pompeii
Lourdes
Malta - St. John's Cathedral or Mdina Cathedral
St Stephen's Cathedral Vienna
Seville Cathedral Portugal
Cologne Cathedral Germany

Lincoln Cathedral
York Minster
Bodø cathedral and Hammerfest Church - both modern, stark and beautiful.
St Mary Tal y Llyn and St Cwfan's Church in the Sea, both in Anglesey.
Grote Kerk, Naarden.

In addition to those mentioned already:

Venice - Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
Rome - San Giovanni Laterano
Santa Maria del Popolo (for Caravaggio paintings)
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Siena - Duomo
Florence - Santa Croce
Prague - St. Vitus Cathedral

For the exterior/setting/location:
Paris - Sacre Coeur
Mont St. Michel - Church of Mont St. Michel
Prague - Church of Our Lady Before Tyn
Venice - Santa Maria della Salute
Pisa - Duomo
Rovinj, Croatia - Church of St. Euphemia

Ste Chapelle
Strasbourg cathedral

plus Beagle Bay church in Beagle Bay WA

My favorite in Europe is the Duomo in Siena, with La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona a close second.

I agree with all 6 you have listed, the Milan Duomo being my number one. I would add:

Strasbourg Cathedral
Toledo Cathedral
Cologn Cathedral
St Chapelle
Stephansdom in Vienna

We are going to see the Chartres cathedral and Mt St Michel soon. Can't wait.

Nygvic:

I suggest expanding your topic to "Places of Worship"...for example there are beautiful, historic and interesting synagogues (sinagogas), Buddhist temples, and a variety of Islamic mosques throughout Europe...and world-wide.

The key word is "ecumenism."

I will add:
Il Gesu(Rome).
Hagia Sofia(Istanbul); at present classified as museum; but really a church; unforgettable.
Il Patrarca(Valencia).
Santiago de Compostela Cathedral(Spain).
Saint Peter Church; Salzburg; in a little cemettery, coming down from the castle, baroque at its best, if I remember well.

The Seville cathedral, for sure
Siena and those wonderful floor mosaics
The abbey church in St. Gallen, Switzerland
Hagga Sophia
The Blue Mosque
The Church on the Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg

Tower.....you are right and I appreciate the comment. I chose too narrow a phrasing. Indeed there are many "Places of Worship", such as the Blue Mosque in Istanbul to name one example, that are worthy of visiting and beautiful.

Seville was in Spain not Portugal, last time I looked !

It all depends on what you're looking for.

A couple of the most fascinating I have found are:

San Celemente in Rome - you can descend through multiple different layer of the church to the Templ of Mithras at the bottom

Church of Santa Maris Assunto on Torcello (Venice) originally from 6 something (this was one of the islands on which the locals hid to escape the barbarians coming over the Alps to destroy Rome. Very byzantine in style with incredible tile work.

On roads less traveled:

The cathedral in Syracusa Sicily – built around the remains of huge columns which were once a Greek temple

The Carthusian Certosa di Pavia – beautiful monastery near Milan

The Baroque churches of Salzburg, Austria

Birnau Church on Lake Constance, Germany

I'm not as widely travelled as many posters here, but so far my favourites have been:

Sienna - the Duomo
Rome - Santa Prassede
Paris - St Denis
London - St Bartholomew the Great
Strasbourg - the Cathedral

Some of the many that made my jaw drop include (only listing those that have not yet been mentioned):

the stave church in Borgund
Wells cathedral
Vierzehnheiligen
Gustav-Adolf-Kirche in Berlin
Frauenkirche in Dresden
San Vitale in Ravenna

I don't think anyone has mentioned the Wieskirche in southern Germany.

Ely cathedral
Salisbury

Aside from the chrches already added, I 'll include St. Basil - Moscow ; it takes the name from a Muscovite 'holy fool' , Basil the Blessed, was buried on the site a few years before the present building was erected. The legend says that after it was completed, Ivan the Terrible had the architect blinded in order to prevent him from building another magnificent building for anyone else.

I am not sure if we can include in the list also the monasteries; I would like to add St. Jeronimus in Lisbon, a UNESCO World Heritage. It is a magnificent building with decorated with lace in stone!

Orvieto - Duomo
Palermo - Capella Palatina; Chiesa di San Cataldo

for the location/ setting:

San Luca
Bologna


A place of worship

Mezquita
Cordoba -

Assam church in Munich
St Annans in Annaberg

I forgot to add to the list a very special church which impressed me a lot - Kirche am Steinhof (Church of St. Leopold) in Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital in Vienna.

The building, in Art Noveau stile, is designed by Otto Wagner and has mosaics and beautiful stained glass windows by Koloman Moser.

Otto Wagner showed a high consideration to the needs of patients in the Psychiatric Hospital and paid attention to all details which could help them. The church interior was entirely clad in tiles to allow easy cleaning; everywhere there are rounded edges to minimize injuries, the holy water is brought by a drip to minimize the infection. There are numerous emergency exits, lavatories and an on-premise examination room are distinct features of this institutional church.
The priest's area is separated from the patients; access to the pulpit is only from the vestry, there were toilet facilities easily accessible within the church

Steinhof church is shown as a main motif of one of the euro collectors coins: the Austrian 100 euro Steinhof Church commemorative coin, minted in 2005.

Very ineresting informtion valtor

Santa Prassede--Rome

St. Vitus--Prague. The Mucha Window is staggeringly beautiful.

Maria Maggiore--Rome

The Church of the Nativity of the Loreto Convent--Prague

Yorkminster--York

Santa Maria Vittoria--Rome. For the "Ecstasy of St. Teresa" by Bernini

Most eerie: the church at Fatima. Fatima gave me the heebee jeebees.

Thin

My 3 favorites:
Durham Cathedral
St. Savin in France
Monreale outside Palermo

St Paul's- London
Westminster Abbey- London
St Patrick's- New York City
Cathedral de la Almudena- Madrid

Off the top of my head (I am sure there are other favorites, especially out of the seemingly endless number of churches we saw in Rome):

St. Vitus Cathedral - Prague
Wieskirche - Bavaria, Germany
Sainte-Chapelle - Paris
Cathedral of Siena (Duomo) - Siena (the Piccolomini library and cool mosaic floors mad quite an impression)

((H))

I'd like to mention a church, Notre Dame du Travail, in Paris/Montparnasse that was pointed out to me by Michael, a frequent contributor here.

It's quite different from the magnificent churches and cathedrals most visited, but I found it very compelling in its simplicity and original mission to serve the metalworkers, carpenters and other artisans who lived in the area in the late 19th century.

The best online information I found about its history is here:

http://parisianfields.wordpress.com/...me-du-travail/

As mentioned already, San Clemente in Rome, with its layers of history.

The chora church in Istanbul has wonderful Byzantine mosaics.

The Spanish Synagogue in Prague is very beautiful (you can get a joint ticket for 5 of the Prague synagogues, not including the Old New - this is the most beautiful, but they are all filled with interesting information on the history of the Jews of Prague)

Chartres for the stained glass

St Mark's in Venice blew me away with its mosaics

I recently very much enjoyed two lesser-known (I think) churches in Poitiers - Notre Dame la Grande, which has a wonderful painted interior, and the Baptistery, which goes back to the 4th century and is supposedly the oldest extant Christian building in France.

Another wonderful painted church is St Pierre le Jeune in Strasbourg.

Really could go on and on... I'm not religious, but there are some wonderful, beautiful, historic religious buildings out there.

Another church which we love very much is the Jesuit Church (University Church) in Vienna. The exterior is austere and not impressive, but the interior...!
The baroque opulent, with different colored marble pillars and allegorical ceiling frescoes. The ceiling, painted by Andrea Pozzo at the beginning of 18 sec. is a masterpiece.

In my opinion, this church is one of Vienna's most ornate churches.

Nygvic, thanks for this interesting thread. I was not aware that I love so much many churches!

I understand that we are speaking here about churches in Europe only; I already have in my mind some churches which I found special in other places, but I'll not list them here.

I remember another beautiful church - The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo Alta. It has a sumptuous interior , with the Romanesque Greek cross plan and with baroque decorations. Onn the walls are tapestries, executed in Florence (1583–1586) showing the Life of Virgin Mary. On the rear wall there is the tomb of the composer Gaetano Donizetti.

Near this church is another site, also very ornates: Capela Colleoni, built in the XV sec., dedicated to saints Bartholomeo, John and Mark. Inside there is the tomb of Bartolomeo Colleoni . Capella is decorated with reliefs of Episodes from the Life of Christ, statues, heads of lions and an equestrian statue of the condottiere in gilded wood, finished by German masters from Nuremberg in 1501. The whole complex is surrounded by a triumphal arch.

Most of my faves have been listed but I need to add the Frari Church in Venice. Light and airy, so unexpected in the Venitian context.

Thin, the creepy award for me goes to the Valle de los Caídos church near Madrid. It feels like the entrance to batcave from Gotham City. Very dark, gloomy in a post-industrial sort of way.

Chartres Cathedral = Sagrada Familia (sp?) Barcelona

The two churches (that I know of) designed by Fischer von Erlach, Peterskirche in Vienna and the Collegiate church in Salzburg. They're baroque but not over-the-top like some baroque churches.

The Hofkapelle in Würzburg, the church in the Kloster Ettal.