Spot the sanctuary by its selfie—no tour bus required.
By Richie.Zh01
30 Questions
L1 Difficulty
1 × 30 Points
Read MoreRead Less
About This Quiz
Think every big stone church looks the same? Hold my beer—and my candle.
We start with fridge-magnet cathedrals, then wander off-road to timber chapels and neon mega-sanctuaries that probably sell lattes after vespers. By Part 3 the bell towers blur, gargoyles grin, and you’re screaming “Bavaria or Bogotá?!” at your screen.
Pick wrong and you’re wandering the nave like a tourist hunting the bathroom. Get them right and you’ve teleported the globe in your slippers—choir robe optional, off-key anthem included.
Click start and turn those vacation dreams into bragging rights.
[B] Saint Joseph's Oratory | Montreal's miracle mountain features 99 wooden steps climbed on knees by pilgrims, while Brother André's heart sits pickled in a jar upstairs.
2/30
2. Shrine of St. Paulina
[A] Shrine of St. Paulina | Brazil's first saint gets a modernist temple where glass walls dissolve into gardens, proving holiness doesn't require Gothic gloom.
3/30
3. Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral
[C] Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral | Sinking slowly into ancient Aztec lake bed, this baroque beast tilts visibly while 16 chapels hold five centuries of Mexican faith.
4/30
4. Chartres Cathedral
[A] Chartres Cathedral | Blue Virgin windows glow with medieval chemistry secrets lost to time, while its labyrinth offers 261 meters of meditative walking in 11 circuits.
5/30
5. Berlin Cathedral
[B] Berlin Cathedral | Kaiser Wilhelm's Protestant answer to St. Peter's houses the Hohenzollern crypt where Prussian royalty decompose beneath tourist footsteps in baroque splendor.
6/30
6. Cathedral of Saint Paul (Minnesota)
[D] Cathedral of Saint Paul (Minnesota) | St. Paul's copper dome turned green overlooking the Mississippi, where F. Scott Fitzgerald was baptized before writing about less sacred matters.
7/30
7. St. Marys, Kansas
[B] St. Marys, Kansas | Immaculate Conception Church anchors America's largest traditional Catholic community, where Latin Mass never left and time forgot to modernize.
8/30
8. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
[C] Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels | Los Angeles built its cathedral earthquake-proof with base isolators, making it the world's most expensive spiritual shock absorber at $190 million.
9/30
9. De Hoeksteen
[A] De Hoeksteen | Netherlands' Protestant megachurch proves Reformed theology embraces stadium seating, hosting 3,000 worshippers in industrial-chic salvation.
10/30
10. San Giovanni Rotondo
[D] San Giovanni Rotondo | Padre Pio's shrine seats 6,500 under Renzo Piano's stone seashell, where stigmata souvenirs outsell postcards ten to one.
11/30
11. Ulm Minster
[B] Ulm Minster | World's tallest church spire at 161 meters requires 768 steps and an iron will, rewarding climbers with views to the Alps.
12/30
12. York Minster
[D] York Minster | Medieval stained glass survived Cromwell, Hitler, and a lightning strike that should have vaporized it, making this England's luckiest Gothic giant.
13/30
13. Bourges Cathedral
[A] Bourges Cathedral | Five portals lead to France's widest Gothic nave, where no transept interrupts the stone symphony flowing from door to altar.
14/30
14. Reims Cathedral
[C] Reims Cathedral | French kings got crowned here 25 times, including Charles VII with Joan of Arc watching, before German shells tried ending the tradition.
15/30
15. São Paulo Cathedral
[D] São Paulo Cathedral | Neo-Gothic meets São Paulo smog on this Italian marble giant, where 8,000 people contemplate God while helicopters buzz overhead.
16/30
16. Esztergom Basilica
[A] Esztergom Basilica | Hungary's largest church guards Europe's biggest altar painting on canvas, requiring its own climate control system to prevent artistic apocalypse.
17/30
17. Diocesan Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe
[C] Diocesan Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe | Zamora's pink stone sanctuary draws Mexican pilgrims to its neo-Gothic towers that locals swear glow at sunset without any help.
18/30
18. Barcelona
[B] Barcelona | The cathedral's Gothic cloister keeps 13 white geese, one for each year of martyred St. Eulalia's life, honking holiness since medieval times.
19/30
19. Strasbourg Cathedral
[D] Strasbourg Cathedral | Its astronomical clock performs a mechanical puppet show daily at 12:30, making apostles parade while Death rings the hours.
20/30
20. Bogotá
[B] Bogotá | The Salt Cathedral burrows 200 meters underground where miners carved a church from halite, creating Christianity's most seasoned sanctuary.
21/30
21. Palma Cathedral
[A] Palma Cathedral | Gaudí redesigned its interior before tackling Sagrada Familia, practicing his organic style on Mallorca's Gothic bones beside the Mediterranean.
22/30
22. New Cathedral, Linz
[C] New Cathedral, Linz | Austria's largest cathedral stopped one meter short of Vienna's Stephansdom out of respect, making humility measurable in limestone.
23/30
23. Speyer Cathedral
[D] Speyer Cathedral | Eight Holy Roman Emperors rest in its crypt, making this Romanesque beast Germany's most royal graveyard with UNESCO approval.
24/30
24. Provo, Utah
[B] Provo, Utah | Brigham Young University's devotional hall demonstrates Mormon architecture's preference for function over flying buttresses in holy education.
25/30
25. Metropolitan Cathedral of Lima
[A] Metropolitan Cathedral of Lima | Pizarro's bones supposedly rest here after multiple moves, though DNA tests keep finding new conquistadors in the wrong boxes.
26/30
26. Westminster Cathedral
[C] Westminster Cathedral | London's striped Byzantine surprise took 108 years to mostly finish its mosaics, still leaving bare brick waiting for donations.
27/30
27. Medak Cathedral
[D] Medak Cathedral | India's largest Anglican church uses Italian marble floors that stay cool in Telangana heat, converting temperature into congregation comfort.
28/30
28. Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health
[A] Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health | Velankanni's "Lourdes of the East" survived the 2004 tsunami while buildings around it vanished, adding another miracle to its collection.
29/30
29. Lincoln Cathedral
[C] Lincoln Cathedral | Once earth's tallest building until its spire collapsed in 1548, leaving stumps that still make architects wonder what might have been.
30/30
30. St. Mary's Church
[B] St. Mary's Church | Gdańsk's brick titan can fit 25,000 people, making it Poland's largest brick church and Europe's most spacious Protestant paradox.