In most churches, at first glance, one can identify their affiliation with places of worship. However, there are some churches that surprise and even shock believers with their appearance. We present you the top 7 most unusual churches in the world.
7. Chapel of the Holy Cross
This outstanding church building is built in the picturesque red rocks above the city of Sedona and is one of the man-made wonders of the US state of Arizona. The chapel, designed by architect Richard Hein, was erected in the 50s of the 20th century at the expense of the zealous Catholic Margarita Staude. The building design was inspired by the Empire State Building skyscraper.
According to local believers, the chapel is located on a special, energy-strong place. They believe that in the area of construction, the borders between the worlds are very thin, and this contributes to spiritual healing. Others say the chapel is just a beautiful place to think.
6. Ossuary in Siedlec
This Gothic church, located in the Czech region of Kutna Hora, gives a new perspective on the use of human remains.
The interior of the ossuary, as its name implies, is decorated with bones and skulls of people. Legend has it that in the 13th century, Abbot Henry returned from the Holy Land and brought with him the soil gathered from Calvary. He scattered it in the cemetery. Many people who found out about this requested that they be buried in the holy land, but there was not enough space for everyone in the cemetery.
At the beginning of the 15th century, a cathedral with a tomb was built on the territory of the cemetery. And the bones extracted from the graves (in order to make room for new burials) began to be stored in the tomb. Over time, their number grew and grew. It was only in the 19th century that the woodcarver Frantisek Rint began to restore order in a pile of randomly stacked parts of skeletons.
This is what it led to:
- In each corner of the church, he stacked a bell-shaped pile of bones 3 meters high and 4 meters wide.
- A huge chandelier of bones and skulls hangs from the ceiling to the floor.
- Cups and urns made of bones filled niches on the walls.
- Perhaps the most impressive creation of Master Rint is the coat of arms of a noble Czech Schwarzenberg family made of bones. It contains an image of a raven that pecks out the eye of a headless head.
5. Basilica of St. Ursula
In this basilica you can see the largest mosaic made from parts of human bodies.
According to legend, Saint Ursula was a British princess who lived about 300-600 years of our era. As a deeply religious girl, Ursula decided to go on a pilgrimage to Europe. Together with her 11 thousand virgins went on a trip (according to other versions - only 11, or there were 11 ships, not girls - you can’t figure it out over the past years). Their ships miraculously got from Britain to Rome, and then, due to the strong wind, headed for Cologne. At this time, the Huns ravaged Europe. Ursula was captured by them and tortured, along with her companions.
Subsequently, the relics of St. Ursula were placed in the basilica built in Cologne. But in the Middle Ages a pit full of bones was discovered. It was decided that these were the remains of the Ursula suite and they were also transferred to the basilica. Now they adorn the walls of the Golden Chamber.
It is curious that many of the bones of the “virgins” actually belonged to men, infants, and even large dogs.
4. Cathedral in Maring
If the chapel of the Holy Cross is in harmony with the environment, then the cathedral in the Brazilian state of Parana contrasts sharply with the local landscape. This huge conical structure is not only one of the strangest cathedrals in the world, but also the tallest Catholic church in South America, its height is 124 meters.
The purpose of such an unusual design of the city temple was to bring people closer to God. Well, a fall from its peak will certainly direct anyone to meet the Almighty by the shortest path.
An interesting fact: the shape of the cathedral was “suggested” to its architects by Soviet satellites. The author of the original project was don Jaime Luis Coelho, and the authorship of the final architectural version belongs to Jose Augusto Bellucci.
3. Reading between the lines
Such a strange name has the no less strange church in Borgloon, Belgium.
To solve the dichotomy between the abundance of churches and their seemingly increasing inappropriateness in the modern world, architects Peterjan Guis and Arnout Van Vaerenberg built the unique “Reading between the Lines” church. It is made of one hundred layers of steel and allows people to see the landscape on the other side of the church. The cavities between the steel plates give the building an amazing lightness, and if you go inside, you can enjoy a fancy play of light and shadow.
This building is not used for regular church services, and is, in fact, a work of art. However, any believer has the right to freely enter the “transparent” church and pray.
2. Chen Chapell
In second place in the ranking of amazing churches is the ancient French church, built inside a giant 800-year-old oak. According to local tradition, William the Conqueror himself prayed under this tree.
In the 17th century, the tree began to be used as a chapel after it was struck by lightning and burned the wood inside. This event left the oak tree hollow, but still alive. Taking the lightning strike as a divine sign, the local abbot turned the shell of a tree into a chapel.
In the 18th century, atheist revolutionists threatened to burn the tree, but the locals saved it by renaming it “the temple of reason” in order to comply with the “principles” of the French Revolution.
1. Pillar of Katskhi in Georgia
This is probably the most unusual church on Earth, and one of the places closest to the "heavenly office". After all, the church was erected on a large limestone monolith, whose height is 40 meters.
Once the pagans used this monolith to worship the god of fertility, but this stopped when Georgia converted to Christianity.
Around the seventh century, a small church was built on the top of the pillar. She was the visible embodiment of avoiding the futility of life and closeness to God. The monks used it for religious ceremonies until Ottoman Turkey invaded Georgia.
In the 18th century, attempts were made to climb the pillar of Katskhi, but all of them ended in failure, and he obeyed Soviet researchers only in 1944.
The study of the upper part of the column showed that once there were cells, a crypt, and there was also a wine cellar, that is, monastic life was not devoid of all earthly pleasures.
In 1993, a lone monk, father Maxim moved to the grotto under a stone column and lived there all winter. He collected donations for the construction of the temple, and achieved his goal - construction began in 2008, and was carried out with the support of citizens and the clergy.
Currently, in the southeast of the pillar of Katskhi there is a temple named after Maximus the Confessor. Local residents gave the building another name - “Fortress of Solitude”.
