Ten Unique Churches

Harajuku: Japanese Futuristic Church
This futuristic Protestant church, located in Tokyo , and was first
unveiled by the design firm of Ciel Rouge Creation in 2005. The
ceiling is specially made to reverberate natural sound for 2 seconds
to provide a unique listening experience for worshipers and tourists.

 

 

St. Basil's Cathedral is located on the Red Square in Moscow.
A Russian Orthodox church, the Cathedral sports a series of
colorful bulbous domes that taper to a point. Aptly named
onion domes, these are part of Moscow's Kremlin skyline.

The cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible to
commemorate the capture of the Khanate of Kazan.  In
1588 Tsar Feodor Ivanovich had a chapel added on the
eastern side above the grave of Basil, Fool for Christ, a
Russian Orthodox saint for whom the cathedral was named.

The Hallgrïmskirkja (literally, the church of Hallgrïmur) is
a Lutheran parish church located in Reykjavïk, Iceland.
At 74.5 metres (244 ft) tall, it is the fourth-tallest architectural
structure in Iceland. The church is named after the Icelandic
poet and clergyman Hallgrïmur Pïtursson (1614 to 1674) who
is the author of the Passion Hymns.  State Architect Guïjïn
Samïelsson's design of the church was commissioned in 1937;
it took 38 years to build it.

 

 

The Temppeliaukio Kirkko ( Rock Church) is a thrilling
work of modern architecture in Helsinki. It is built
entirely underground and has a ceiling made of
copper wire.  Its final design was the work of
architecture brothers Timo & Tuomo Suomalainen
and completed in 1969. They chose a rocky outcropping
rising about 40 feet above street level, and blasted out the
walls from the inside. It is one of the most popular tourist
attractions in Helsinki and is frequently full of visitors.

 

 

The Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida in the
capital of Brazil is an expression of the architect Oscar
Niemeyer. This concrete-framed hyperboloid structure,
seems with its glass roof to be reaching up, open, to heaven.
On 31 May 1970, the Cathedral's structure was finished,
and only the 70 m diameter of the circular area was visible.
Niemeyer's project of Cathedral of Brasilia is based on the
hyperboloid of revolution. The hyperboloid structure itself is
a result of 16 identical concrete columns. These columns,
designed as hyperbolic sections and weighing 90 tons each,
represent two hands moving upwards to heaven.

 

 

The Borgund Stave Church in Laerdal is the best preserved
of Norway's 28 existing stave churches. This wooden church,
probably built in the end of the 12th century, has not
changed structure or had a major reconstruction since
the date it was built. The church is also featured as a
Wonder for the Viking civilization in the video game
"Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings."

 

 

The Las Lajas Cathedral is located in southern Colombia
and built in 1916 inside the canyon of the Guaitara River.
According to the legend, this was the place where an Indian
woman named Marïa Mueses de Quiïones was carrying her
deaf-mute daughter Rosa on her back near Las Lajas.
Weary of the climb, Marïa sat down on a rock where Rosa
spoke (for the first time) about an apparition in a cave.

Later on, a mysterious painting of the Virgin Mary carrying a
baby was discovered on the wall of the cave.  Supposedly,
studies of the painting showed no proof of paint or pigments
on the rock.  Instead, when a core sample was taken, it was
found that the colors were impregnated in the rock itself to
a depth of several feet.  Whether true or not, the legend
spurred the building of this amazing church.

 

 

The St. Joseph The Betrothed is an Ukrainian Greek-Catholic
Church in Chicago.   Built in 1956, it is most known for its
ultra-modern roof with thirteen gold domes symbolizing the
twelve Apostles and Jesus Christ as the largest center dome.
The interior of the church is completely adorned with Byzantine
style icons (frescoes).   Unfortunately the iconographer was
deported back to his homeland before he was able to write the
names of all the saints as prescribed by iconographic traditions.

 

 

Located over the Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade, Serbia,
the Ruïica Church is a small chapel decorated with... with
trench art!  Its chandeliers are entirely made of spent
bullet casing, swords, and cannon parts.

The space the church now occupies was used by the Turks
as gunpowder storage for over 100 years and it had to
be largely rebuilt in 1920 after WWI. Though damaged
by bombings, there was at least one positive counterpoint
to the terrible carnage of The Great War. While fighting
alongside England and the US, Serbian soldiers on the
Thessaloniki front took the time to put together these
amazing chandeliers, a fine example of trench art.

 

 

The Chapel of St. Gildas sits upon the bank of the Canal du
Blavet in Brittany, France.  Built like a stone barn into the base
of a bare rocky cliff, this was once a holy place of the Druids.  

Gildas appears to have traveled widely throughout the Celtic
world of Cornwall, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. He arrived in
Brittany in about AD 540 and is said to have preached Christianity
to the people from a rough pulpit, now contained within the chapel.