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The newest sacred places to enter the atlas. 90 fresh entries.
Church of Saint James, Moissac
Moissac, Occitania, France
The Church of Saint-Jacques is Moissac's parish dedicated to Saint James the Greater, the apostle whose shrine at Compostela is the Camino's destination....
Sipapu
Arizona, United States
For many Hopi clans the Sipapuni is the place of emergence: the portal through which the ancestors climbed up from a previous world into this one....
Ile-Ife
Ife, Osun, Nigeria
In Yoruba cosmology, Ile-Ife is where the world began. The supreme being lowered a chain from heaven; earth scattered on the primordial waters and spread by a five-toed...
Heliopolis
Egypt
At ancient Heliopolis, Egyptian priests held that the first land — the Benben mound — rose from the dark primordial waters of Nun, and on it the self-created god Atum...
Omphalos Stone
Greece
In Greek belief Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the earth; they crossed paths above Delphi, and the omphalos was set there to mark the navel of the world....
Sanctuary of Our Lady of the End of the Bridge – Refuge of the Mother and Child of Pau
France
In Pau, this neo-Gothic church gathers a Béarnais Marian devotion documented since the sixteenth century — Our Lady at the end of the bridge, invoked for safe crossing and...
Gibraltar Stele
France
At a rural crossroads near Ostabat, about 30 km before Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, three of the great French routes to Santiago — from Le Puy, Vézelay, and Tours — converge...
Church of Saint John the Baptist of Ostabat
Ostabat-Asme, France
Ostabat was one of medieval Europe's great Camino crossroads, where three of the four great French routes to Santiago converged before the final stage to...
Chapel of Soyartze
Uhart-Mixe, France
Crowning a hill at about 286 metres above Uhart-Mixe, this small open chapel is a Marian sanctuary descended from a twelfth-century Premonstratensian foundation....
Church of L’Hôpital-Saint-Blaise
L'Hôpital-Saint-Blaise, France
The sole survivor of a twelfth-century pilgrim hospital, this church on the Béarn–Basque border fuses Romanesque solidity with Hispano-Moorish artistry — pierced stone...
Saint-Sever Abbey
Saint-Sever, France
One of the great Romanesque sanctuaries of Gascony, Saint-Sever Abbey was founded around the turn of the millennium and rebuilt on the model of Cluny....
Aire Cathedral
Aire-sur-l'Adour, France
In the lower town of Aire-sur-l'Adour, the Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste has been a seat of bishops since the early Middle Ages....
Church of Saint Quiteria
Aire-sur-l'Adour, France
On the hill of Le Mas above Aire-sur-l'Adour, this Romanesque church guards the tomb of Saint Quitterie and a carved 4th-century marble sarcophagus older than the building...
Éauze Cathedral
Eauze, France
Saint-Luperc, the former cathedral of Éauze, stands on the site of Roman Elusa, a bishop's see since late antiquity....
Flaran Abbey
Valence-sur-Baïse, France
Flaran Abbey, founded in 1151 at the confluence of the Auloue and Baïse, is among the best-preserved Cistercian abbeys of south-west France....
Condom Cathedral
Condom, France
Condom Cathedral, the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, rises over the Gascon town above the Baïse river....
Collegiate Church of Saint Peter, La Romieu
La Romieu, France
The Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre rises over La Romieu, a Gascon village founded as a sheltered waystation on the road to Santiago....
Lectoure Cathedral
Lectoure, France
Lectoure Cathedral, dedicated to the martyr brothers Gervasius and Protasius, crowns a hilltop town in the Gers....
Church of Saint Martin
Moissac, Occitania, France
The Church of Saint-Martin is reputedly among the oldest church sites in France, a Christian sanctuary built directly over the heated floors of a Gallo-Roman bathhouse....
Saint-Pierre Abbey in Moissac
Mossaic, Occitania, France
Saint-Pierre de Moissac is one of the supreme achievements of Romanesque art. Its twelfth-century south portal renders Christ in glory from the Book of Revelation, and its...
Cahors Cathedral
Cahors, Occitania, France
Cahors Cathedral rises over the old town of the Lot with two vast Romanesque domes, among the largest of the medieval West....
Our Lady of Le Puy Catholic Church, Figeac
Figeac, Occitania, France
On the hill above Figeac stands the town's oldest parish church, dedicated to Our Lady of Le Puy....
The Abbey Church of the Holy Savior in Figeac
Figeac, Occitania, France
At the heart of medieval Figeac stands Saint-Sauveur, the surviving abbey church of a Benedictine, later Cluniac, monastery founded in 838 whose relics drew pilgrims for...
Bonneval Abbey
France
Founded in 1147 as a Cistercian house in a secluded Aveyron valley, Bonneval was ruined by plague, war, and revolution, then raised again in 1875 by Trappistine nuns who...
The Church of Saint Fleuret in Estaing
Estaing, France
In the village of Estaing, reached across a UNESCO-listed Gothic bridge, the flamboyant church of Saint-Fleuret holds the relics of the village's patron, a bishop said to...
Church of Saint-Pierre of Bessuéjouls
Bessuéjouls, France
Between Espalion and Estaing, the modest church of Saint-Pierre de Bessuéjouls keeps an extraordinary secret: a tiny Romanesque chapel raised in its bell tower and...
St. Cosmas' Church
Saint-Côme-d'Olt, France
In one of the Most Beautiful Villages of France, the church of Saint-Côme-et-Saint-Damien lifts a strange twisted 'flamed' spire above the rooftops....
Church of Perse
Espalion, France
On the approach to Espalion, the Romanesque church of Perse was a priory of the great Abbey of Conques, dedicated like its mother house to Sainte-Foy....
Saint-Geniez-d’Olt Church
Geniez d'Olt et d'Aubrac, France
In the Lot valley below the Aubrac, Saint-Geniez-d'Olt grew rich on cloth and built itself a substantial domed parish church in the southern Baroque-classical manner....
Church of Nasbinals
Aumont-Aubrac, France
On the high plateau of the Aubrac, the Romanesque church of Nasbinals offered pilgrims shelter before the most feared crossing on the Le Puy road....
Notre-Dame-des-Pauvres Church, Aubrac
Aumont-Aubrac, France
On the high, treeless Aubrac plateau stands Notre-Dame-des-Pauvres, the late-twelfth-century church of the medieval Dômerie d'Aubrac, a monastery-hospital founded to...
Saint-Roch Chapel
Aumont-Aubrac, France
Standing alone at around 1,300 metres in the bleak Margeride, the Chapelle Saint-Roch marks the highest reaches and the Haute-Loire–Lozère threshold of the Le Puy route....
Saint-Médard Church, Saugues
Saugues, France
At the heart of Saugues stands the former collegiate church of Saint-Médard, a convergence point on the Via Podiensis where pilgrims from Le Puy meet those arriving from...
Chapel of Saint Mary Magdalene
Monistrol-d'Allier, France
Above Monistrol-d'Allier, a neoclassical facade seals a basalt rock cavity to form a troglodyte chapel dedicated to Mary Magdalene, the saint of grottoes and penitence....
Chapel of Rochegude
Saint-Privat-d’Allier, France
Perched at around 960 metres above the Allier gorges, the small twelfth-century chapel of Saint-Jacques de Rochegude marks a dramatic threshold on the Via Podiensis, where...
Church of Saint Privat
Saint-Privat-d’Allier, France
In Saint-Christophe-sur-Dolaison, the first village-stage of the Via Podiensis after Le Puy, stands a twelfth-century Romanesque church of reddish volcanic stone....
Church of Saint Faith of Bains
Saint-Privat-d’Allier, France
On the early stages of the Via Podiensis stands the church of Sainte-Foy at Bains, a twelfth-century Romanesque building of volcanic stone....
Place du Plot
Le Puy-en-Velay, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
Place du Plot is not a temple but a threshold. This busy square in the old town of Le Puy-en-Velay holds the city's oldest fountain and sits at the junction of two great...
Chapel of Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe
Le Puy-en-Velay, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
Set atop a sheer volcanic spire reached by 268 rock-cut steps, this small Romanesque chapel has drawn worship across millennia, from a prehistoric dolmen to a Roman cult...
Foundation Stone
Jerusalem, Israel
The Foundation Stone — Even haShetiya — is the bare rock at the heart of the Temple Mount, enshrined within the Dome of the Rock....
Dome of the Rock
Jerusalem, Israel
Completed in 691/692 CE, the Dome of the Rock is one of the oldest surviving works of Islamic architecture....
Temple Mount
Jerusalem, Israel
A single walled hilltop in Jerusalem's Old City holds the foundation myths of three Abrahamic faiths....
Aix Cathedral
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Rising on the site of the Roman forum of Aix and a sixth-century baptistery, Saint-Sauveur layers nearly two thousand years of sacred history into one building:...
Mont Ventoux
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Rising alone above the Provençal landscape, the bare white summit of Mont Ventoux has been held sacred for three millennia — a deity to the Celto-Ligurians, crowned with...
Chapel of the Apparition — Holy Sepulchre
Old City, Jerusalem, Old City, Jerusalem, Israel
Tucked into the north transept of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Chapel of the Apparition is small but theologically immense....
Russian Orthodox Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Israel
Built 1885–1888 by Tsar Alexander III in memory of his mother, the Russian Orthodox Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene rises on the western slope of the Mount of Olives above...
Cathédrale Saint-Lazare d'Autun
Autun, Autun, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France
Built between 1120 and 1146 to shelter the relics of Lazarus of Bethany, Autun Cathedral carries one of the most concentrated programmes of Romanesque sculpture in Europe....
Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist — Shroud of Turin
Turin, Turin, Piedmont, Italy
Turin Cathedral was built between 1491 and 1498 and adjoined by Guarino Guarini's Baroque Chapel of the Holy Shroud in the late 17th century....
Cathedral of Trier — the Holy Robe
Trier, Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Trier Cathedral has stood on the same Roman foundations since the 4th century — the oldest cathedral church in Germany and the custodian of the Heilig-Rock, the seamless...
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Kibeho
Kibeho, Kibeho, Nyaruguru District, Southern Province, Rwanda
Between 1981 and 1989, three Rwandan schoolgirls at Kibeho College reported apparitions of Mary identifying herself as Nyina wa Jambo, Mother of the Word....
Akita Seibo no Sono
Yuzawadai, Yuzawadai, Akita Prefecture, Japan
In the hills of Yuzawadai outside Akita City, the Institute of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist preserves a wooden statue of Mary that,...
Đền Đức Mẹ La Vang
Hải Lăng, Hải Lăng, Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam
Đền Đức Mẹ La Vang is the spiritual heart of Vietnamese Catholicism. Oral tradition holds that in 1798, during the Tây Sơn dynasty's persecution of Catholics, Mary...
Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help
Champion, Champion, Wisconsin, United States
In a quiet corner of Wisconsin's Northwoods, Belgian immigrant Adele Brise reported three apparitions of Mary in October 1859....
Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidauros
Epidauros, Epidauros, Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece
Epidauros was the principal sanctuary of Asklepios, Greek god of healing, and the mother-shrine from which all other Asklepieia drew their authority....
Pashupatinath Temple
Kathmandu, Kathmandu, Bagmati Province, Nepal
Pashupatinath is Nepal's most sacred Shiva temple and the spiritual heart of the country....
Nageshwar Jyotirlinga
Dwarka, Dwarka, Gujarat, India
On a quiet stretch of Saurashtra coast seventeen kilometres north-west of Dwarka, Nageshwar stands as the tenth of the twelve Jyotirlingas — Shiva as Nagesha, the lord of...
Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Zaragoza)
Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain
Catholic tradition places the Virgin Mary's first apparition on 2 January AD 40 — while she was still living in Jerusalem — to the apostle James the Greater on the banks...
Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
Paris, Paris, Île-de-France, France
The Chapelle Notre-Dame de la Médaille Miraculeuse stands at 140 rue du Bac in Paris, inside the motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity....
Hierapolis Plutonion and the Cleopatra Pool
Pamukkale, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey
Hierapolis was built on a karstic fault that exhales both deadly carbon-dioxide and warm mineral water....
Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal
Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Saint Joseph's Oratory rises in three vast tiers above Mount Royal, but its heart is the small votive chapel where thousands of crutches, canes, and braces line the walls....
Sanctuaire Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré
Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec, Canada
The Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré stands on the Côte-de-Beaupré, about thirty-five kilometres north-east of Quebec City....
Ruri-ji
Japan
Funakoshi-san Nankōbō Ruri-ji is the FINAL station of the New Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage....
Ikaruga-dera
Japan
Hyōgo Ikaruga-dera in Taishi-chō was founded by Prince Shōtoku in 606 CE on rice-paddy lands granted to him in Harima Province by Empress Suiko....
Kagaku-ji
Japan
Banshū Akō Taiunzan Kagaku-ji is the Asano clan's family temple in Akō, founded in 1645 and made permanent home of Akō's memorial culture by the 1701–1703 vendetta of the...
Kongojo-ji
Japan
Nagusayama Kongōjō-ji in Fukusaki, Hyōgo, traces its founding to 597 CE under the Korean monk Ekan during Empress Suiko's reign....
Sakami-ji
Japan
Izumi-shōzan Sagami-ji in Kasai, Hyōgo, was founded by imperial command in 745 after the priest Gyōki received an oracle from Sagami Myōjin, a local kami in the Sumiyoshi...
Jodo-ji
Japan
Gokurakusan Jōdo-ji in Ono shelters two of the only Buddhist National Treasures in Hyōgo: the 1194 Jōdō-dō, a rare survival of Daibutsu-yō architecture, and Kaikei's...
Komyo-ji
Japan
Gobusan Kōmyō-ji crowns Mt. Gobusan in Katō, Hyōgo — a Kōyasan Shingon temple traced to 594 CE and holding an Eleven-Faced Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Kannon as honzon....
Kakurin-ji
Japan
Totasan Kakurin-ji in Kakogawa shelters two National Treasure halls — a 1112 Taishi-dō and a 1397 Main Hall whose three-style synthesis is rare in Japan....
Gaya-in
Japan
Gaya-in, formally Ōtanizan Daikei-ji Gaya-in, is one of Hyōgo's most important Honzan Shugendō temples — a Tendai-affiliated branch of mountain ascetic Buddhism....
Taisan-ji
Japan
Sanshinzan Taisan-ji in Kobe's Nishi Ward holds a 1293 wooden main hall registered as a National Treasure of Japan — one of only a few such structures in the entire Hyōgo...
Suma-dera
Japan
Suma-dera, formally Joya-san Fukushō-ji, is the head temple (daihonzan) of its own Shingon sub-school — the Shingon-shū Sumadera-ha — and the principal site of Heike...
Nofuku-ji
Japan
Nōfuku-ji, founded by Saichō in 805 CE on his return from Tang China, is one of the oldest Tendai temples in the Hyōgo region....
Tenjōji
Japan
Mayasan Tenjō-ji sits near the summit of Mt. Maya, the Kobe-area mountain named for Mayadevi (Lady Maya, mother of the Buddha) — the temple's distinctive secondary focus...
Kannō-ji
Japan
Kannō-ji stands on the slope of Kabutoyama in Nishinomiya, holding one of Japan's three foremost Nyoirin Kannon images — a Heian-period figure carved by Kūkai in 830 from...
Tachiki-Kannon An’yō-ji
Japan
Tachiki Kannon An'yō-ji stands above the Seta River on a cliff that pilgrims reach by climbing roughly 800 stone steps....
Yōkoku-ji
Japan
Yōkoku-ji — known to most Kyotoites as Yanagidani Kannon — joins three rare devotional layers in one Nishiyama mountainside: a hibutsu Eleven-faced Thousand-armed Kannon...
Daihōon-ji
Japan
Daihōon-ji, known popularly as Senbon Shakadō, holds Kyoto's oldest surviving wooden building inside the city limits — a 1227 National Treasure main hall that survived the...
Seigan-ji
Japan
Seigan-ji is the head temple (sōhonzan) of the Jōdo Seizan Fukakusa branch, founded in Nara in 667 CE and relocated in 1591 to Kyoto's Shinkyōgoku entertainment district....
Kabusan-ji
Japan
Kabusan-ji is a Tendai mountain temple in the hills north of Takatsuki, traditionally founded by En no Gyōja in 697 CE and held to be the place where Bishamonten was first...
Anko-ji
Japan
Ankō-ji is an independent Tendai temple founded in 775 CE by Prince Kaisei on a wooded hillside north of Takatsuki....
Mangan-ji
Japan
Mangan-ji at Kawanishi, Hyōgo, is a Kōyasan Shingon temple founded by imperial decree of Emperor Shōmu in the Nara period....
Tokoin Hagino-tera
Japan
Tōkō-in — known by the affectionate name Hagi-no-tera, Bush Clover Temple — is a Sōtō Zen temple in suburban Toyonaka, Osaka....
Taima-dera
Japan
Taima-dera is a major dual-administered temple at the foot of Mount Nijō — held jointly by Shingon (Buzan branch) and Jōdo-shū....
Tachibana-dera
Japan
Tachibana-dera is a Tendai temple set in the Asuka rice fields of Nara Prefecture, traditionally identified as the birthplace of Prince Shōtoku....
Eifuku-ji
Japan
Eifuku-ji at Taishi-chō, Osaka, guards the tomb of Prince Shōtoku — Japan's foundational royal patron of Buddhism — alongside his mother and consort in a single circular...
Saihoin
Japan
Saihōin is a small Pure Land nunnery in Taishi-chō, founded in 622 CE by three of Prince Shōtoku's nurse-attendants who shaved their heads after his death and built the...
Kanshin-ji
Japan
Kanshin-ji holds one of the rare Japanese pairings where both the main hall and its principal image are National Treasures: the Heian-period Kondō and a seated Nyoirin...
Kongo-ji
Japan
Founded by Gyōki on Mount Amano in the Tenpyō era and revived in the late Heian period by the monk Akan, Amano-san Kongō-ji became known as Nyonin Kōya — Women's Kōyasan —...
Houki-in Temple
Japan
Hōki-in is the Mt. Kōya sub-temple charged each year with carrying fresh monastic robes to Kōbō Daishi at the Okunoin mausoleum, where Kūkai is believed to remain in...