The Most Unusual Churches in the World

Many churches of different styles and denominations were built in the world, but the forms of some temples are so unusual that they deserve special attention.

Crystal Cathedral, the United States
The Protestant church in the Californian town Garden-Grove is made almost entirely of glass and its shape resembles a four-point crystal. In the process of construction about 12 thousand glasses have been used, and inside is the world’s largest organ, with 16 thousand pipes.

Hallgrímskirkja, Iceland
This unusual church, located in the center of Reykjavík, is the fourth highest building in Iceland, and at the same time the largest. Its height is 74.5 meters and on the top of the tower there is an observation deck with a panoramic view of city located. The church got its strange name in memory of the Icelandic clergy and poet Hallagrum Patterson, and its appearance, according to the creators, should resemble geysers, which are so many in Iceland. The construction of the temple lasted for a long time, from 1945 to 1986.

Jubilee, Italy
Another church, which does not fit any canon, is in Rome. Its creator, Richard Meier, did not hesitate to call it “the pride of Rome” and the “project of millennium”. The form of the building has religious overtones. Three parallel arcs symbolize the Holy Trinity, and the smooth mirror surface before the church should remind of water, which is an important part of the ceremony of baptism.

St. Basil’s Cathedral
The church, which has long been, along with the Kremlin, the symbol of Moscow and Russia, was built in the years 1555-1561 by the order of Ivan Grozny in honour of the capture of Kazan and the victory over the Kazan Khanate. The author of the temple is unknown. According to one version, it was Yakovlev Postnikov a master from Pskov, according to the others it was a Western- European (probably, Italian), architect. The legend has it that the Russian tsar ordered to blind the creator of the cathedral so that he would never be able to build anything even more beautiful.

Sagrada Familia, Spain
Antonio Gaudi’s creation is perhaps one of the most famous unfinished, long-in-construction buildings in the world. Started in 1882, the construction is scheduled for completion in 2026, on the 100th anniversary of the death of the great architect. However, the dates have changed so many times that no one particularly believes in the newly appointed date. Gaudi himself in answer to the question why it takes so long to erect the temple(and he supervised the construction for over forty years) -said: “My customer is not in a hurry”.

The Cathedral, Brazil
The construction of the unusual church in the capital of Brazil, was completed in 1970. The author, Oscar Neymer, created a structure consisting of asymmetric hyperbolic columns, each weighing 90 tons. The form of the church symbolizes hands raised to heaven, to God. They say that the Liverpool Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral served as a prototype for the temple.

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, United Kingdom
The cathedral was originally conceived as the second largest in the world, as opposed to the already existing in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. However, because of problems with financing the project of the construction changed four times and eventually has almost nothing in common with the original plan.

Duomo, Italy
The Cathedral of Milan is one of the largest in the world and the second in spaciousness after the Cathedral of St. Peter’s in Rome. The construction of the temple, which was begun in 1386, lasted 600 years and was completed only at the beginning of the XIX century, when by the order of Napoleon the design of the façade was eventually finished.

Paraportiani, Greece
Located on the island of Mykonos, the church was built in 1425, at the site of a lateral exit from the medieval fortress. The word “exit” in Greek sounds like “paraporti”, therefore, the church was named Paraportiani. The temple consists of 4 chapels on the lower level and one upstairs. A part of the building was erected in 1425, and the rest was completed in XVI-XVII centuries.

Kostnice, Czech Republic
The decoration of this Czech church, located on the outskirts of the small town of Kutna Gora, is made entirely of bones, and for this reason the church was called “Church on the bones” or Kostnice. The temple was built on the territory of an ancient cemetery, closed in 1870, and its interior is made from the remains of about 40 thousand people who were once buried here. The author of the creation, the half-blind monk Frantisek Rint, was appointed with the task to “sort” the territory of the cemetery. For that very end, he sorted the bones by size and shape, washed and whitened them, and then used them in the decoration of the temple.

Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew, Thailand
The Buddhist temple in the Thai province of Sisaket is built entirely of glass bottles, mainly after beer, left behind by tourists. The monks began to collect glass back in the eighties of the last century. The collected half a million bottles were enough not only for the construction of the temple, but also for the monastic dwellings and even a few houses for tourists. Tin lids were also put to use – they have served for creating several panels depicting the Buddha.