25 years after, Romanians have commemorated the Revolution where it started, in Timișoara, a city on the west border with Serbia and Hungary. This was the only place in Europe where communism was overthrown after a revolution that took the lives of over one thousand people. The regime had been in place for 45 years, […]

Sighișoara is the medieval fortress with the longest uninterrupted dwelling in Europe, so the typical images from this Romanian city would include Gothic churches, narrow cobble streets and bastions. But this city of Transylvania has it’s modern neighborhoods, where the bulk of the population lives, outside the walls of the hill fortress. Just a few […]

„Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) With these famous words, Jesus Christ instituted the Christian Church, changing the name of Simon to Peter (meaning rock in Latin) to mark the new life of the first disciple that […]

The second largest town of Greece is probably the place to see the most Byzantine artifacts in the world, whether it’s museum objects or standing buildings. But the thousand years long heritage of the Greco-Roman Christian empire is not only a museum exhibit, but a living tradition, preserved in daily religious life. The great Orthodox […]

The works for this immense edifice, the fourth church in the world, began in 1386, by dismantling an older church. Ever since, the entire town was shaped around this dome. Gothic is not a popular style in Italy, but this church was influenced by two French architects who were employed at the beginning of the […]

Questioned online by a popular newspaper, the dwellers of Timişoara chose this cathedral as the most representative place in their town. And this is not without a reason, as the cathedral took part in city’s history. Timişoara is the most western town of Romania, reason for some of its inhabitants to joke about them feeling […]

Eclipsed in fame and size by Dubrovnik on the same Adriatic coast, Trogir is like a very expensive perfume, kept in a tiny bottle. It would have been hard for a film crew to recreate such accurate sets for bringing to life an aristocratic society of hundreds of years ago. But Trogir looks perfect and […]

When people hear “the cathedral of Rome” usually think of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, from where the Pope delivers the Easter benediction. Well, in fact St Peter’s is not a cathedral at all, it’s a “regular” church, despite its architectural and historical value. The term cathedral comes from the Latin word for seat, […]

The legend has it that when he first entered his masterpiece, emperor Justinian lift his eyes towards the dome and uttered: “Oh, Solomon, I’ve surpassed you!”. To understand just how entitled this far from modest remark was, we must put our imagination to work, picturing the basilica painted, the marble floor, the precious stones, the […]

Unfortunately, as the church was under restoration process, I only have some modest pictures from the outside of this Gothic wonder. Though built in the middle of the XIX century, the Votive Church integrates very well in a city that takes great pride in its medieval heritage. The architect Heinrich von Ferstel, who was only […]

The plaza of the catholic cathedral is the central point of Salzburg, Mozart’s hometown. It is the oldest cathedral in the city and one of the largest in Austria. Its monumental proportions are the endeavor of the ambitious archbishop Wolf Dietrich and of the Italian architect Santino Solari. This baroque masterpiece is the place where […]

The elegant Lutheran cathedral in Salzburg is a testimony of endurance after a turbulent time. It was built in 1867, by the local protestant community after the shock of the religious cleansing a century before. In 1731, the followers of Martin Luther’s Reform movement were forced to leave the city and their possessions by the […]

The small city of Esztergom, resting on one side of the Danube, is one of the most important places in Hungary, packed with religious and historic significance. It was here that the patron of the country and founder of the Hungarian Kingdom, Stephen I was born and died. Esztergom was the capital of Hungaria in […]