Explore Religious Heritage Across Europe

The monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe was founded in the 13th century as a secular priory, it only became a monastery in 1389, a status it retained until 1835. Since 1993, the monastery has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The monastery mixes many different styles from Mudéjar Gothic to Baroque.

The Royal Monastery of São João de Tarouca is the result of the first monastery of the Cistercian order in the country. In 1152, after the victory of Afonso I of Portugal (1139–1185) over the Moors in the battle of Trancoso, the foundation stone of the convent church was laid. A new dormitory and the bell tower were erected in the 16th century. Most of the regular buildings were demolished after the extinction of the Religious Orders decreed in 1834.

Rühn Monastery is a former Benedictine monastery founded in the 13th century. It became a Protestant convent for ladies from 1567 to 1756. The monastery was destroyed during the Thirty Years' War, but it was rebuilt and reintroduced to its function. In the 19th century, the monastery area became the private property of several noble families of Mecklenburg. After the Second World War, it was used as a shelter for war refugees, settlers and orphans. From 1950, a Jugendwerkhof (JWH) was established there, which was dissolved in 1991 and the buildings remained empty for almost 15 years. The monastery is now owned by an association.

Rujan Monastery is a reconstructed monastery, dating back to the 15th century. It is the place where the first printing house in medieval Serbia was established. Possibly at the beginning of the 17th century, the Ottomans burnt down the printing house and destroyed the monastery. The surviving monks fled to the monastery Rača. According to a document from 1857, at that time there was almost nothing left of the monastery, except for a few stones. After the construction of the "Vrutci" dam on Cetinje in 1980, the monastery was flooded due to the formation of the artificial lake Vrutci. The monastery was completely renovated between 2004 and 2006 and consecrated the following year.

The monastery of Sabiona (in German Kloster Säben) is the spiritual cradle of the entire Tyrol and is one of the oldest Christian monuments in the Alps. The current monastery’s building was founded in 1687 on a site used by bishops since the 6th century. Currently and for almost three hundred years, the monastery has been the seat of a community of Benedictine nuns, who are currently only 11 and live in seclusion.

The Sacra di San Michele is a monastic complex perched on top of Mount Pirchiriano, 960 meters above sea level, one of the most beautiful examples of religious architecture in the Piedmont region. Founded in the 10th century, it became one of the main centers of Benedictine spirituality in Italy from the 12th to the 15th century. In 2018, the old monastery of Sacra suffered serious damage following a fire on the roof.

Saint Panteleimon Monastery is an Orthodox monastery built in Odesa in 1895.

Built in the heart of the Baconnais forest, the monastery seems to have existed since the middle of the 11th century. The place already seemed to have been put under the name of Sainte-Gemme.

The San Francisco Convent is a complex that includes the small basilica of the same name, the cloister and several adjacent buildings. Construction of the basilica began in 1281, but the baroque facade with its tympanum and rose window is a 17th century reconstruction.

The monastery of San Luca was built in the 15th century on the former monastery of San Lazzaro, which has been present in the city since the beginning of the 13th century and disappeared with the plague of 1413. In 1861, the monastery was taken out of service and transformed into military housing and, later, into the Carabinieri barracks.