30 Famous Churches You Can Name at a Glance!

[A] Church of the Holy Cross | Built into Sedona's red rocks, this chapel seems to float between heaven and earth. Frank Lloyd Wright called it one of America's most beautiful buildings. The structure uses more glass than stone.

[B] Catedral Basílica Del Pilar | Spain's largest Baroque church houses frescoes by young Goya who nearly died painting them. Legend says Virgin Mary appeared here on a pillar in 40 AD, making it Christianity's first Marian shrine.

[C] Santa Maria del Fiore | Florence's crown jewel took 140 years to complete because nobody knew how to build its massive dome. Brunelleschi solved it by inventing new machines and using an egg to win the contract.

[A] Seville Cathedral | The world's largest Gothic cathedral holds Christopher Columbus's tomb, though DNA tests suggest he might not actually be in it. Its bell tower was once a minaret for the mosque that stood here.

[D] Church Of The Nativity | The entrance door stands just four feet tall, forcing even emperors to bow when entering. Built over Jesus's traditional birthplace, it survived destruction because invaders found crosses hidden in its mosaic floors.

[B] Church of St. George | Carved entirely from volcanic rock 40 feet below ground level in Ethiopia, worshippers must descend through tunnels to reach it. Local priests claim it was built in a single night with angelic help.

[A] Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida | Brazil's national shrine can hold 45,000 worshippers inside, making your average stadium look cozy. The tiny black statue it houses was fished from a river by three fishermen in 1717.

[D] Kölner Dom | Cologne's twin spires were the world's tallest structures until the Washington Monument stole the title. It survived 14 WWII bomb hits while everything around it crumbled, leading some to call it miraculous.

[B] St. Stephen's Basilica | Budapest's tallest building houses the mummified right hand of Hungary's first king. The holy relic gets its own annual parade through the streets every August 20th on national foundation day.

[C] Hallgrímskirkja | Iceland's tallest church took 41 years to build and looks like a volcanic basalt formation frozen mid-eruption. Its organ has 5,275 pipes and weighs 25 tons, creating sounds that mimic the country's glaciers cracking.

[A] Duomo di Milano | Milan's gothic masterpiece sports 3,400 statues and 135 spires, basically a holy pincushion. Napoleon crowned himself King of Italy here, breaking tradition by placing the crown on his own head.

[B] Washington National Cathedral | This neo-Gothic giant hides a moon rock in its Space Window and a Darth Vader gargoyle on its northwest tower. It took 83 years to complete and hosts state funerals for American presidents.

[C] Westminster Abbey | Over 3,000 people lie buried beneath your feet here, including 17 monarchs and Charles Darwin. The Cosmati pavement predicts the world will end in 19,683 years, so plan accordingly.

[D] St. John's Co-Cathedral | Malta's baroque treasure looks plain outside but inside every inch drips with gold. The floor contains 400 tombs of Knights Hospitaller, creating Europe's most spectacular marble cemetery carpet.

[A] Chapel of the Cenacle | This Jerusalem room hosted the Last Supper upstairs while King David's tomb sits directly below. It's been a church, mosque, and church again, making it a rare shared holy site.

[D] Reims Cathedral | French kings got their crowns here for 1,000 years, including Joan of Arc's Charles VII. The Smiling Angel sculpture survived WWI shelling and became France's symbol of resilience.

[B] Church of the Transfiguration | Kizhi Island's wooden wonder uses 22 onion domes and not a single nail in its construction. Russian carpenters allegedly threw their axes in the lake afterward, declaring nothing could surpass it.

[C] Basilica of the National Shrine | America's largest Catholic church contains 70 chapels representing every ethnic group that built the nation. Its Byzantine-Romanesque style makes it look older than its 1959 completion date suggests.

[A] Borgund Stave Church | Norway's best-preserved stave church from 1180 has dragon heads guarding its roof like a Viking ship. The tar coating that preserves it gives off a distinctive smell locals call "medieval perfume."

[C] Liverpool Cathedral | Britain's largest cathedral has the world's highest and heaviest ringing bells, totaling 31 tons. Its architect was 22 when he won the design competition, beating 102 other entries including one by Elton John's grandfather.

[D] St. Basil's Cathedral | Ivan the Terrible allegedly blinded its architects so they couldn't recreate this candy-colored masterpiece elsewhere. Each of its nine chapels commemorates a military victory, making it more war memorial than church.

[B] Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey | This tidal island monastery becomes completely surrounded by water twice daily, trapping medieval pilgrims who miscalculated. Victor Hugo called it the "Pyramid of the Seas" for good reason.

[D] St. Peter's Basilica | Michelangelo designed its dome at age 71, grumbling he was too old for this. The bronze baldachin over the altar used metal stripped from the Pantheon's roof, causing Romans to quip about barbarian vandalism.

[A] Sacré-Cœur | Paris's white basilica stays pristine because its travertine stone releases calcite when it rains, basically giving itself a shower. Built as penance for the French Revolution, it has maintained perpetual prayer since 1885.

[C] St. Mark's Basilica | Venice's treasury holds loot from the Fourth Crusade, when Venetians basically robbed Constantinople blind. The four bronze horses above the entrance are actually ancient Greek, stolen at least three times throughout history.

[B] Chartres Cathedral | This Gothic marvel's blue stained glass windows use a recipe lost to time, making "Chartres blue" irreproducible. Its labyrinth walked by pilgrims symbolizes the soul's journey to salvation.

[A] Basilica of the Annunciation | Nazareth's modernist church displays Madonna artwork from every nation, creating a global gallery of Virgin Mary. The grotto below preserves what many believe was Mary's actual childhood home.

[C] Basilica of San Francesco | Assisi's double church stacks two complete basilicas on top of each other like a holy sandwich. Giotto's frescoes here revolutionized art by giving saints actual human emotions instead of blank stares.

[B] Las Lajas Sanctuary | Colombia's neo-Gothic church bridges a canyon 150 feet above a river, looking like something from a fantasy novel. The mysterious Virgin Mary image on the rock wall has resisted all scientific explanation of its origin.

[D] St. Patrick's Cathedral | New York's Neo-Gothic landmark sits on land that was once a cemetery for fever victims. Its doors stay open 24/7 because the architect believed God's house should never close, though security might disagree.