Church Spotter Showdown: Part 1

[B] St. Peter's Basilica | Michelangelo's dome sits atop Christianity's most famous address, where 20,000 people can worship under Bernini's bronze canopy that's taller than most apartment buildings.

[A] Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba | Those candy-cane arches multiply into infinity, creating a forest where Islamic geometry married Christian altars in architectural harmony spanning 1,200 years.

[B] Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady Aparecida | Brazil's national shrine welcomes 12 million pilgrims yearly to its brick embrace, making Vatican crowds look like a neighborhood barbecue.

[C] Seville Cathedral | Columbus sleeps here beneath Gothic vaults so vast that the original mosque's minaret became a bell tower rather than face demolition.

[A] Milan Cathedral | This pink marble porcupine sprouted 3,400 statues and 135 spires, plus a golden Madonna watching Milan's fashion week from 108 meters up.

[D] Cathedral of St. John the Divine | Manhattan's "St. John the Unfinished" mixes Gothic bones with modern art installations, where peacocks strut through gardens between yoga classes.

[C] Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń | Poland's newest giant crowned itself with Europe's largest church bell, weighing enough to make 15 elephants nervous about their job security.

[D] Liverpool Cathedral | Britain's red sandstone heavyweight champion took 74 years to build, finally finishing when The Beatles were already history and disco was dying.

[A] Basilica of the Holy Trinity | Fátima's modernist answer to ancient pilgrimage features 8,633 seats without a single pillar blocking anyone's view of miraculous moments.

[C] Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls | Every pope since Peter gets a mosaic portrait here, creating history's longest group photo that keeps growing until doomsday arrives.

[B] People's Salvation Cathedral | Romania's Orthodox newcomer stretches 120 meters skyward, making Dracula's castle look like a garden shed while blessing Bucharest with golden gleams.

[D] Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar | The Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar guards Spain's most kissed pillar, where millions plant lips on jasper believing Mary herself stood there.

[B] Florence Cathedral | Brunelleschi's dome solved a 140-year construction puzzle without scaffolding, using herringbone bricks that still make engineers scratch their heads in admiration.

[A] Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe | Mexico City's circular basilica moves 20 million annual visitors past Juan Diego's miraculous cloak on airport-style conveyor belts below the altar.

[A] Cathedral of Our Lady | Belgium's Gothic rocket ship houses four Rubens masterpieces that survived both iconoclasts and Napoleon, who wanted them for his personal collection.

[D] Rio de Janeiro Cathedral | This concrete cone channels rainbows through four floor-to-ceiling stained glass rivers while 20,000 worshippers fit inside its spaceship interior.

[B] Basilica of the Sacred Heart | Brussels' Art Deco titan combines brick with copper that turned green, creating Belgium's fifth-largest dome that locals call their "elephant in the skyline."

[C] Basilica of Our Lady of Peace | Ivory Coast's basilica outscales St. Peter's in everything except humility, air-conditioning 18,000 people in African heat while marble columns reach for eternity.

[D] Hagia Sophia | Byzantine engineers made the 31 m dome appear to float 1,500 years ago by using lightweight volcanic bricks and pioneering pendentives—a trick that inspired later domes, not skyscrapers.

[B] San Petronio Basilica | San Petronio's sundial stretches 67 meters across the floor, turning the whole church into a solar calendar that proved Earth orbits the sun.

[A] Cologne Cathedral | Twin spires survived 14 Allied bombing hits because pilots used them for navigation, making this Gothic giant an inadvertent lighthouse of war.

[C] St Paul's Cathedral | Wren's masterpiece lets you whisper sweet nothings across 112 feet of gallery, while its dome survived German bombs that flattened everything around it.

[B] Washington National Cathedral | America hid a moon rock in its Space Window and carved Darth Vader into a grotesque, proving even Gothic can have a sense of humor.

[C] Amiens Cathedral | France's tallest complete cathedral could swallow Notre-Dame twice, its facade originally painted in colors that would make a rainbow blush with envy.

[A] Abbey of Santa Giustina | Padua's eight domes play architectural chess above Europe's largest monastery garden, where Benedictine monks cultivate silence between tourist snapshots.

[D] Cathedral of the Nativity | Africa’s largest Orthodox dome, cradling 8,000 voices beneath a desert sky—modern Coptic faith rising from the sands outside Cairo.

[D] Yoido Full Gospel | Seoul's Pentecostal megachurch manages 480,000 members through cell groups, basically running a spiritual city with more organization than most actual governments.

[C] St. Vitus Cathedral | Prague Castle's crown jewel took 600 years to complete, mixing medieval bones with Mucha's Art Nouveau windows in Gothic time travel.

[B] Basilica of the Immaculate Conception | Washington's Byzantine-Romanesque hybrid dedicates 70 chapels to Mary's global fan club, each one decorated like a different country's love letter.

[A] Cathedral of La Plata | Argentina's neo-Gothic giant planned for 100,000 worshippers but money ran out, leaving towers half-built like a prayer interrupted mid-sentence.