10 Most Beautiful Churches

Budget Travel ^ | 04/20/2011 | Terry Ward

[loreldan]

Just in time for Easter, we've rounded up 10 of mankind's most awe-inspiring odes to faith. Consider this slide show a little piece of heaven on Earth.

Whether or not you're religious, there's no denying that churches are among man's most spectacular creations. From a modern glass-and-pine place of worship deep in the Arkansas countryside to a wooden stave church dating back to the Middle Ages in Norway, we scoured the globe to identify the most breathtaking churches in the world.

[newguy357]

That is actually one of the ugliest buildings I have ever seen.

[Uncle Miltie]

This is my favorite:

I think of it as Siena's Zebra Church.

[Liz]

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Is it an egg or is it a vagina? What sort of congregants want to enter a womb?

[Joe Boucher]

I’d sure feel more at home in that one.

[skeptoid]

Is it an egg or is it a vagina?

Neither; it's floorplan and roof/occulus (skylight) are the shape of the Vesica Pisces and the Ichthys and resembles a Bishop's mitre

.

This was another proposal for the same site:

[iowamark]

[Arrowhead1952]

How do I post the image itself?

<img src=http://saintfrancisturlock.com/share/mod_gallery/170.jpg>

Will look like

[Gman]

Thanks - that is an old picture - I’ll get a newer one up!

[GCC Catholic]

Have you actually been there to Siena to see it? It is truly wonderful - particularly the inlaid pictures on the floor.

But the part that I find most fascinating is the failed attempt to expand the cathedral. Had they succeeded, the existing cathedral would be only the right transept of the enlarged cathedral.

[al_c]