Churches

Community mourns historic Franciscan church destroyed by fire in Chile

Plans to rebuild the San Antonio de Padua Church and Franciscan Convent in Iquique are in the early stages

Cathedrals could be free for everyone—where is the imagination needed to make it happen?

A visit to Wells Cathedral, the most beautiful of Gothic cathedrals, raises questions about why the UK’s great religious edifices are not free to enter

Bone of contention: Rijksmuseum and Church disagree on final resting place of Dutch privateer's remains

A bone and lock of hair apparently belonging to Piet Hein have been in storage at the Dutch museum for centuries—now there are calls to have them returned to his grave

Booksreview

A new book explores the life of a pioneering Irish stained-glass artist through his glorious creations

Michael Healy’s reclusiveness belied his trailblazing role in Ireland's most prestigious studio of its kind

New stained-glass windows by Kerry James Marshall unveiled at Washington, DC's National Cathedral

The new works replace those depicting Confederate generals that were removed in 2017

Italycomment

How Italy’s Renaissance lives on today

Like their 15th-century counterparts, contemporary artists continue to enjoy the patronage of the church

Booksreview

A medieval tale of the jester, the priory and the hospital: book uncovers church's history for 900th anniversary

As Saint Bartholomew the Great celebrates nine centuries, a new volume explores how the church has, against the odds, remained at London’s heart

Booksreview

Photographer documents thousands of churches 'in a manner only angels and spiders could achieve'

Remarkable photographs of thousands of church interiors in rural England and Wales have been brought together in this landmark publication

Huge earthquakes in Turkey and Syria devastate heritage sites including 2,000-year-old castle

Gaziantep Castle has been heavily damaged by quakes that have killed more than 1,000 people

Venice erects glass barriers around St Mark’s basilica to fight flooding

The decision to keep the Venetian lagoon's barriers open and allow more ships into the port had left the church without protection and vulnerable to water

Booksreview

England’s late-Georgian churches—long dismissed as 'mere preaching boxes'—are reappraised in new book

Built for a booming population, their architecture has been unfairly maligned, argues this survey

Dutch design studio update 19th-century Dordrecht church facade with a surreal glass sculpture balanced on four bronze turtles

The transformed Protestant building is being relaunched as an exhibition space and cultural centre called Kunstkerk, or art church.

Booksreview

New publication brings Norwegian medieval wooden church—an art history Sleeping Beauty—to ravishing life

It may lie in a remote fjord but the Viking-built stave structure sits within a far wider context

Ukrainian churches and places of worship devastated by war

As Russia's war continues, conservation is proving impossible—but heritage groups, priests and volunteers are doing their best to document the destruction

Italynews

After years of emergencies, Italy launches 'unprecedented' plan to protect churches against earthquake damage

Culture ministry earmarks EU pandemic recovery funds to mitigate the impact of future disasters on religious buildings around the country

Sacred rock-hewn churches at risk as rebel forces take control of Ethiopia's Unesco World Heritage Site Lalibela

Historic town, a holy site for millions of Orthodox Christians, caught up in widening Tigray conflict

Nailed it: Kizhi Pogost church is finally restored on Russian island of remarkable wooden buildings

Newly reopened 18th-century Church of the Transfiguration, topped with 22 domes, is said to have been built without a single nail

Archaeologists find ruins of vast Medieval Nubian cathedral in Sudan

Polish team used remote sensing techniques to detect the building, the largest of its kind in the region, as well as a possible tomb of an archbishop

Booksreview

Saints and stories: vast book reveals the history of the Renaissance altarpiece

This in-depth survey suggests that the development of Italian church altarpieces can be understood through the themes of "icon" and "narrative"

Pew! Sussex church may scrap plans to remove historic seating

Moves by parishes to replace pews with chairs for “flexibility” anger traditionalists

Metropolitan Museum of Art appeals for protection of cultural heritage sites in Nagorno-Karabakh

Plea comes as Azerbaijan moves to take control of swaths of territory under a Russian-brokered peace deal

First Hagia Sophia, now Turkey's 'Sistine Chapel of Byzantium' will be turned back into mosque

The 14th-century mosaics at Chora Church—which was converted to a museum in 1945—risk being covered up and remaining part-restored

Security questions remain after Nantes cathedral blaze: 'There's no European country where church fires are this common'

An arson investigation has been launched into the fire at the Gothic St Peter and St Paul Cathedral in western France

Poignant online videos showcase 20 sites from Alabama’s civil rights era

World Monuments Fund joins partners in launching an oral history project

Getty shores up Peruvian church in an earthquake zone

The preservation project could serve as a prototype for saving other earthen buildings

Booksreview

The architectural and imaginative influence of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock in Western building styles

This book accounts for building histories, designs and geographical spread of church inspired by the Jerusalem prototypes

Churchesarchive

Vermont Church to sell Tiffany window for the homeless

Unless they find themselves subject to divine miracle

Collectorsarchive

Industrialist and collector opens his 14th gallery

Reinhold Würth has converted a church for old masters

Italian collector’s pledge to help save crumbling city of Palermo

Roberto Bilotti has restored an 18th-century palace and plans to open an “art chapel”

Romearchive

Meet the man who wants to open a Hirst chapel in Rome

The Italian collector Carlo Bilotti has commissioned Damien Hirst to create four paintings of the Evangelists which he wants to display in a deconsecrated church