Explore Religious Heritage Across Europe

The Santa Clara convent complex dates back to the 18th century. After being closed during the 19th century, it was recovered by the Sisters of St. Clare in 1894. With the Spanish Civil War, the building burned down and was later used as a supply store. After the war, the complex was transformed into a war memorial.

Santa Coloma is one of the oldest churches in Andorra, built between the 8th and 9th centuries. The Romanesque building has an unusual circular bell tower from the 12th century. The nearby Espai Columba preserves the wall paintings of the apse of the church and various liturgical objects of the Andorran churches.

The Basilica of Santa Croce is a must-see monument in Florence. Built at the end of the thirteenth century by the Franciscans, it was at the center of the Florentine Renaissance in the 15th century, being the burial place of important personalities such as Michelangelo and Machiavelli.

The Monastery of the Holy Cross is an Augustinian monastery founded in the 12th century. Its Igreja de Santa Cruz is one of Portugal’s most important churches as it houses the royal tombs of Portugal's two first kings.

The Cathedral of Santa Giusta was completed in 1145, close to an earlier building from the 6th and 7th centuries. The main portal with its relief arch is similar to that of San Frediano in Lucca, but on the other hand, there are no other Tuscan examples of the idiosyncratic arrangement of the facades. The design of the façade and the choir is clearly inspired by Lombard models.

The Holy Cathedral Church, Consecrated to the Virgin Mary in her Assumption into heaven, began to be built in 1226, under the mandate of Archbishop D. Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada, on the foundations of the Visigoth Cathedral of the S. VI, which was used as a mosque. The construction is Gothic style with a clear French influence. It measures 120 m long by 60 m wide. It is composed of 5 naves, supported by 88 columns and 72 vaults. The side naves extend behind the Main Chapel surrounding the presbytery and creating a girola with a double semicircular corridor. Its first architect is the master Martun, of French origin, to whom the traces of the plan and the beginnings of the work at the head of the temple are due.

The small church of Santa Lucia is of medieval origin, dating back to about 1200. The church, damaged by the earthquake of 23 November 1980, has recently been restored.

The current church of Santa Lucia was built in 1930 on a former church site dating back to the 17th century when the parish was founded. The neo-Renaissance church has three naves and is preceded by a large staircase that leads to the Via De Nava.

Santa Maria al Monte, partially excavated in the tufa, is a characteristic example of cave architecture. It was probably built at the end of the 16th century. The extremely simple façade is topped by a rectangular structure with two bells and a spherical dome. The interior has a wide nave that ends in the apse, flanked on the right side by a narrower nave. In addition to the anonymous altarpiece depicting the Virgin Mary with Saints Anthony the Abbot and Paul the Hermit, the church has a wooden altar with an antependium painted with floral motifs, dating from the early 17th century, and remains of 17th-century frescoes in the vault.

A large part of the building of the church of Santa Maria Assunta dates back to the 13th century when it was built on the site of a Marian miracle. According to tradition, a young shepherd discovered a burning flame in front of the image of the Virgin Mary. From 1589 to 1594, Renaissance architectural details were added to the church. From 1852 to 1863, the facade was completed and the dilapidated 14th-century bell tower rebuilt, inspired by the Norman examples of the island.