Cathedrals & Mosques
Buildings for worship at maximum ambition. Hagia Sophia, Chartres and Notre-Dame, Brunelleschi's dome, the Blue Mosque and Córdoba's arches, Sagrada Família still unfinished, vaults, minarets and stained glass.
Part of Architectural Wonders
11 moments in this segment.
- - Hagia Sophia. Justinian's great dome. 31m wide, suspended on pendentives, an engineering breakthrough. Was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly 1,000 years. Cathedral, mosque, museum, mosque again (2020).
- - Great Mosque of Damascus. Built by Caliph al-Walid on top of an old Christian basilica that had been a Roman temple of Jupiter. The model for the next 1,300 years of mosque architecture.
- - Notre-Dame de Paris. Gothic cathedral that took 182 years to build. Flying buttresses, three rose windows, the gargoyles. Nearly destroyed in the French Revolution; saved by Hugo's novel. The 2019 fire destroyed the spire; restoration completed Dec 2024.
- - Chartres Cathedral. The most intact medieval Gothic cathedral. 176 stained-glass windows survived intact through both World Wars (removed and hidden). The "Chartres Blue" pigment still hasn't been fully reproduced.
- - Salisbury Cathedral. The tallest church spire in the UK at 123m. Built on water-meadow ground without proper foundations; the spire has been leaning for 700 years. Holds one of the four surviving original copies of Magna Carta.
- - Florence Cathedral (Duomo). Brunelleschi's dome, 42m wide, built without a wooden centring frame, an engineering puzzle that had defeated everyone for 100 years. Still the largest brick dome in the world.
- - Süleymaniye Mosque. Mimar Sinan's masterpiece for Suleiman the Magnificent. Sinan built more than 300 structures across the Ottoman Empire. Stands intact on the Istanbul skyline after multiple earthquakes.
- - St. Peter's Basilica. Bramante, Michelangelo, Bernini all worked on it. Michelangelo's dome stands on Brunelleschi's shoulders. The largest church in the world by interior. Bernini's baroque colonnade frames the piazza.
- - St. Paul's Cathedral. Wren's replacement for the medieval church destroyed in the Great Fire. The dome with the Whispering Gallery. Survived the Blitz when most of the surrounding City of London did not.
- - Sagrada Família. Gaudí took over the project in 1883; spent his last 43 years on it. He was hit by a tram in 1926 with construction perhaps 25% complete. Targeted completion: 2026, the centenary of his death.
- - Sagrada Família - Tower of Jesus Christ. The central tower's spire under construction in 2024, when finished (2026 target), it will make Sagrada Família the tallest church building in the world at 172.5m. Still 142 years after Gaudí.
