Church Architecture

One of the most famous and recognizable landmarks in London, St Paul’s Cathedral and its vast dome have dominated the city’s skyline ever since it was built back in 1697. Modeled on St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, St Paul’s colossal dome is its defining feature, reaching 111 meters in height.

St. Salvator's Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of the Saviour and St. Donat, is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Bruges, Belgium. The cathedral is dedicated to the Verrezen Zaligmaker (the 'risen saviour') and Saint-Donatius of Reims. 

One of the city’s most recognizable symbols, St. Stephen’s Cathedral lies in Stephansplatz in the heart of Vienna. is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the archbishop of Vienna.

The church was dedicated to St. Stephen,  the first Christian martyr, and so was oriented toward the sunrise on his feast day of 26 December, as the position stood in the year that construction began. Built of limestone, the cathedral is 351 ft long, 130 ft wide, and 446 ft tall at its highest point.

St. Vitus is a Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Until 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral but was renamed The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert.

The current cathedral is the third of a series of religious buildings at the site, all dedicated to St. Vitus. The first church was an early Romanesque rotunda founded by Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia in 930. This patron saint was chosen because Wenceslaus had acquired a holy relic – the arm of St. Vitus – from Emperor Henry I. It is also possible that Wenceslaus, wanting to convert his subjects to Christianity more easily, chose a saint whose name (Svatý Vít in Czech) sounds very much like the name of Slavic solar deity Svantevit.

Wars and politics prevented the completion of the cathedral for centuries. n 1844, Václav Pešina, an energetic St. Vitus canon, together with Neo-Gothic architect Josef Kranner presented a program for renovation and completion of the great cathedral.

Strasbourg Cathedral is a Catholic Cathedral located in the east of France near the German border and was constructed between 1015 and 1439. It was the tallest building in the world for about 227 years between 1647 and 1874 and has a height of 466 feet. It’s the highest structure in the world still standing that was completely constructed in the Middle Ages.

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Dionysius the Areopagite is the main Roman Catholic church of Athens, Greece, and the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Athens. It is located in central Athens, and is dedicated to Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, disciple of the Apostle Saint Paul and the first bishop of Athens. 

The Cathedral of Saint Mary Major ( Santa Maria Maior de Lisboa or Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Mary Major), often called Lisbon Cathedral or simply the Sé (Sé de Lisboa), is a Roman Catholic cathedral located in Lisbon, Portugal. The oldest church in the city, initially built as a mosque, it is the seat of the Patriarchate of Lisbon. Built in 1147, the cathedral has survived many earthquakes and has been modified, renovated and restored several times.

The cathedral is in the shape of a Latin cross with three aisles, a transept and a main chapel surrounded by an ambulatory. The church is connected with a cloister on the eastern side. The main façade of the cathedral looks like a fortress, with two towers flanking the entrance and crenellations over the walls. This menacing appearance, also seen in other Portuguese cathedrals of the time, is a relic from the Reconquista period, when the cathedral may have been used as a base to attack the enemy during a siege.

A Serbian Orthodox church, the Temple of Saint Sava is located on the Vracar plateau in Belgrade. One of the largest Orthodox churches in the world, it stands in the middle of the city, with its large dome and four apses.

The church is dedicated to Saint Sava, the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church and an important figure in medieval Serbia. It is built on the presumed location of St. Sava's grave. His coffin had been moved from Mileševa Monastery to Belgrade. The coffin was placed on a pyre and burnt in 1595 by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha.

The church can accommodate 7,000 people

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished.  It is believed to be the world’s largest Anglican cathedral-church. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. St. John the Divine was built by the Episcopalians, in part to compete with the Catholics’ St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The cathedral is an unfinished building of stone, granite, and limestone, with only two-thirds of the proposed building completed, due to several major stylistic changes, work interruptions, and unstable ground on the site.

Despite being incomplete, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the world's sixth-largest church by area and either the largest or second-largest Anglican cathedral. The floor area of St. John's is 121,000 sq ft, spanning a length of 601 feet, while the roof height of the nave is 177 feet. Since the cathedral's interior is so large, it has been used for hundreds of events and art exhibitions.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is  a Russian Orthodox church in Saint Petersburg, Russia which currently functions as a secular museum and church at the same time.  Other names include the Church on Spilt Blood and the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ. The church was erected on the site where Narodnaya Volya members assassinated Emperor Alexander II in March 1881. The church was funded by the Romanov imperial family in honor of Alexander II.

Duomo di Milano is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. It is dedicated to the Nativity of St. Mary.  The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete: construction began in 1386, and the final details were completed in 1965. It is the largest church in the Italian Republic—the larger St. Peter's Basilica is in the State of Vatican City, a sovereign state—and the third largest in the world.

The Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica located on the summit of Mount Tibidabo in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The building is the work of the Spanish Catalan architect Enric Sagnier and was completed by his son Josep Maria Sagnier i Vidal.

The church is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus