All Saints, Margaret Street, is a building of exceptional originality and significance. It was built as a model of what churches in England should be to exemplify the observation of ritual needs and English architectural precedent. One of the prime movers in its construction and the provider of most of the funds was Alexander Beresford-Hope, a wealthy and influential promoter of the Gothic Revival. It was Hope who commissioned William Butterfield to design the new church. (more…)

In 1806 Napoleon commissioned Pierre-Alexandre Vignon, Inspector-General of Buildings of the Republic, to build a Temple to the Glory of the Great Army and provide a monumental view to the north of Place de la Concorde. Known as “The Madeleine,” this church was designed as a Neo-Classical temple surrounded by a Corinthian colonnade, reflecting the predominant taste for Classical art and architecture. (more…)

In 1959 the Franciscan Order commissioned the Italian architect Giovanni Muzio to build a large basilica in one of the most ancient holy sites in Christendom: the grotto in which the Archangel Gabriel announced the conception of Jesus to Mary of Nazareth. Various structures have succeeded each other on this site over the course of the centuries: a 3rd-4th century sanctuary, two medieval basilicas built one on top of the other, and a small temple built in the 18th century. (more…)

The monumental complex of Monreale consists of the cathedral with an attached monastery, the royal palace and the archbishop’s palace. It was built from 1174 onwards, by King William II, his aim was to carry out a vast building project that would express the power of the new Norman dynasty. Norman knights and armies had driven the Arabs out o Sicily in 1091, and the new Normans re-established Christianity on the island, and then went on to found the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily in 1130. (more…)

The basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe lies on the rural plain 5 kilometre south of Ravenna; in Roman times, the area was the location of the ancient Augustan harbour and a large town. The basilica was built by Bishop Ursicino, and consecrated by Emperor Maximian in 549; it is considered one of the most important buildings dating from the Byzantine exarchate. In fact, after the fall of the Roman Empire, Ravenna became capital of the territories the Eastern Roman Empire controlled in Italy from 553 to 751. (more…)

In 2001 the church at Kiruna was voted Sweden’s most beautiful building. It is situated in Lapland, in the north-eastern part of Sweden. The church was built for the people of Kiruna by the LKAB mining company, headed by the geologist Hjalmar Lundbohm, as part of the town’s foundation in 1900. Lundbohm wanted Kiruna to be an ideal town, and the church to be its centrepiece. (more…)