BootsnAll Travel Community

Sooo...Im starting a thread...lol...with all of us traveling and what not I thought it would be cool if people could post cool churches they come across along the road. Maybe some refrences or whatnot.

Make sure to include Country, City, Denomination, Name and maybe even Direction/Address.

Ill go first:

Galway, Ireland - Catholic - I forget the name but its RIGHT down the road from The Sleepzone Hostel.

Also I was wondering if anyone knew of a good christian church in New Zealand.

For New Zealand, since I think I remember that you announced on the Countdown Thread that you are about to (OK, in exactly 6 days ) leave for the South Island ...

A most famous (and very visited) church: Church of the Good Shepherd , Lake Tekapo (scroll to the bottom for luscious photo)

A cathedral that gave its name to its city, and is itself named after its eponymous college at Oxford: Christchurch Cathedral, Christchurch

The oldest existing church in NZ: Christ Church, Russell, Bay of Islands

A pretty picture of a rustic Northland church

and lastly, a church that became a house , well photographed as it is eye-catching with its purple and lime green paint job!

A few teasers.

Wooow thanks so much...anyone else with some churchs all around the world?

Here is a site for all of the Vineyard churches in New Zealand. They are all over the country. Vineyards are not real big on beautiful church buildings, but they are really big on love, family, fellowship, music, being real, and what have you.

I'm not a church-goer at all, but when I was in the Cook Islands I was invited to go to a service. It was in one of the Christian churches on Rarotonga, and I loved it.

The service was in Maori so I didn't understand a word, but the singing was incredible, I never heard such fantastic harmonics in a church before. The history of the church itself was pretty fasinating - it had 7 pillars to represent the 7 tribal chiefs who funded it, and the roof was tethered down as it had been blown off by hurricanes several times. Also, the food and friendship the islanders offered made it one of the most memorable experiences on my RTW trip.

On my recent travels, I attended two powerful masses...

Budapest, Hungary:
A cave church perched above the Danube, on the Buda-side opposite the Gellert Baths
Mass was in Magyar and I only understood two words, but it was beautiful.

Rome, Italy:
St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Mass at the high/main altar was in Castillian Spanish; I could understand ~40% of it. Watching the processional from the sacristy--candles and crucifix raised, massive censor swinging--was amazing and surreal.

...and a stumbled on number of otherwise interesting churches and religious sites...

Budapest, Hungary:
Great Synagogue on Dohany Utca, between Astoria & Deak ter metro stations
Second-largest synagogue in the world; largest in Europe. Used for non-religious purposes by the Nazis in WWII. There's a memorial, cemetary, and Jewish Museum attached.

Prague, Czech Republic:
St. Vitus' Cathedral in Prague Castle
This gets my personal rating of "most beautiful church I've seen so far" - but I'm a sucker for gothic architecture and good stained glass. You can also climb a few hundard steps to the tower for an amazing view of Prague.
Church of Our Lady Victorious (Mala Strana, on Ujezd and generally near the funicular)
This is a definite pilgrimmage spot, though I knew nothing about it beforehand. People come from all over to see the "miraculous" Infant Jesus of Prague.

Brasov, Romania:
Black Church (in Piata Sfatului)
St. Nicholas' Church (just off Piata Unirii)
Very vivid ceilings frescoes in the church and on the underside of the arch leading to the cemetary.

Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina:
The whole city has an incredible mixture of mosques, churches and synagogues that I found really inspirational. Almost everywhere you look, there is something...

Vienna, Austria:
Kirche Maria vom Siege (Westbahnhof area, off Mariahilfer Gurtel & Heidmangasse)
Impressive from the exterior, yes, but this church has a wonderful children's chapel that mixes "serious religion" with an array of toys - something that stuck out as fairly unique in my mind.

Kutna Hora, Czech Republic:
Church of All Saints ossuary
Macabre, but beautiful and calming/comforting to me. Contains the remains of ~40,000 people.

Rome, Italy:
Capuchin crypt (on rt-side of Chiesa di Santa Maria della Concezione, off Piazza Barberini)
Macabre, but humbling and symbolically breathtaking. This is made of the bones of ~4000 Capuchin monks.
Santa Maria sopra Minerva near the Pantheon
A beautiful church housing the body of St. Catherine of Siena and a Michaelangelo statue of Jesus carrying the cross

Siena, Italy:
Church of San Domenico (on a hilltop, kinda hard to miss)
Contains the head of St. Catherine of Siena.