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Churches can be measured and compared in several different ways. These include area, volume, length, width, height, or capacity. Several churches individually claim to be "the largest church", which may be due to any one of these criteria.
A church, church building, or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 and 256.
Hagia Sophia, officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, is a mosque, a former church, and a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively erected on the site by the Eastern Roman Empire, it was completed in 537 AD. The site was an Eastern Orthodox church from 360 AD to 1204, when it was converted to a Catholic church following the Fourth Crusade. It was reclaimed in 1261 and remained Eastern Orthodox until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. It served as a mosque until 1935, when it became a museum. In 2020, the site once again became a mosque.
Cathedrals, collegiate churches, and monastic churches like those of abbeys and priories, often have certain complex structural forms that are found less often in parish churches. They also tend to display a higher level of contemporary architectural style and the work of accomplished craftsmen, and occupy a status both ecclesiastical and social that an ordinary parish church rarely has. Such churches are generally among the finest buildings locally and a source of regional pride. Many are among the world's most renowned works of architecture. These include St Peter's Basilica, Notre-Dame de Paris, Cologne Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Antwerp Cathedral, Prague Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, the Basilica of Saint-Denis, Santa Maria Maggiore, the Basilica of San Vitale, St Mark's Basilica, Westminster Abbey, Saint Basil's Cathedral, Antoni Gaudí's incomplete Sagrada Família and the ancient cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, now a mosque.
Milan Cathedral, or Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary, is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Dedicated to the Nativity of St. Mary, it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Archbishop Mario Delpini.
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire, usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. There was initially no hard line between the Byzantine and Roman Empires, and early Byzantine architecture is stylistically and structurally indistinguishable from late Roman architecture. The style continued to be based on arches, vaults and domes, often on a large scale. Wall mosaics with gold backgrounds became standard for the grandest buildings, with frescos a cheaper alternative.
The People's Salvation Cathedral, also known as the National Cathedral, is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral under construction in Bucharest to serve as the patriarchal cathedral of the Romanian Orthodox Church. It is located in central Bucharest on Spirea's Hill, facing the same courtyard as the Palace of Parliament which is the heaviest building in the world, the cathedral having a one-tenth of its weight and about one-fifth of its volume. Situated behind the Palace of Parliament, this will make it 50 metres taller than the Palace, and will help to make the cathedral an iconic landmark in the city. The People's Salvation Cathedral to 135 metres (443 ft) height (ground-cross), holds a dominant position in Bucharest's cityscape, being visible from all approaches to the city.
Neo-Byzantine architecture was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Orthodox Christian architecture dating from the 5th through 11th centuries, notably that of Constantinople and the Exarchate of Ravenna.
Eastern Orthodox church architecture constitutes a distinct, recognizable family of styles among church architectures. These styles share a cluster of fundamental similarities, having been influenced by the common legacy of Byzantine architecture from the Eastern Roman Empire. Some of the styles have become associated with the particular traditions of one specific autocephalous Eastern Orthodox patriarchate, whereas others are more widely used within the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The Cathedral Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida is a prominent Roman Catholic basilica in Aparecida, Brazil. It is dedicated to Our Lady Aparecida as the principal Patroness of Brazil. Nossa Senhora Aparecida roughly translates to Our Lady Revealed. It is the largest cathedral and the second largest Catholic church in the world in interior area after the St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.
A national shrine is a Catholic church or other sacred place which has met certain requirements and is given this honor by the national episcopal conference to recognize the church's special cultural, historical, and religious significance.
The Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral of São Paulo, also known as the Orthodox Cathedral of São Paulo, is a cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, located at 1515 Vergueiro in Paraíso, Vila Mariana, São Paulo, Brazil. Dedicated to Paul the Apostle, it is home to the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of São Paulo and All Brazil. It was constructed to serve the many Lebanese Brazilians of the Orthodox Christian faith who had been immigrating to Brazil since the late 19th century. It is one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world, and a fine example of Byzantine Revival architecture.
The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Miracles, also Caacupé Cathedral, is the religious building that functions as the Catholic cathedral of the city of Caacupé, Paraguay, and also as the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Caacupé that was created as a territorial prelature in 1960 and was promoted to its current status in 1967 through the bull "Rerum catholicarum" of Pope Paul VI.
Basilicas are Catholic church buildings that have a designation, conferring special privileges, given by the Pope. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense. Basilicas are either major basilicas, of which there are four, all in the Diocese of Rome, or minor basilicas, of which there were 1,810 worldwide as of 2019.
The church occupies an area of 3170 m² and can accommodate up to 5,000 worshippers inside, which makes it the second biggest cathedral on the Balkan Peninsula after the Temple of Saint Sava in Serbia