Collections · Cathedrals, chapels & the holy-ish
Hallowed Ground
Abbeys, cathedrals, temples and at least one Satanic one. Wherever the sacred turns up on the show it tends to drag a very unsacred fact along behind it.
24 places in this collection
- 1Sistine Chapelreligious site · Vatican City
In 1565, Pope Pius the Fourth commissioned artist Daniele da Volterra to add to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel fresco by painting underwear on all the naked people.
Open this place → - 2Westminster Abbeyreligious site · United Kingdom
In 1950, four Scottish students managed to break into Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day and steal it back, but it sounds hilarious.
Open this place → - 3Lincoln Cathedralreligious site · United Kingdom
The windows of Lincoln Cathedral, the stained glass windows, they took them apart piece by piece and then labelled them all and then wanted to put them back as a jigsaw.
Open this place → - 4St Paul'sreligious site · United Kingdom
Paul's Cathedral — it was a Thanksgiving ceremony after the war of the Spanish Succession.
Open this place → - 5Canterbury CathedralUnited Kingdom
There's a cock and balls in Canterbury Cathedral stained glass that you've got to do tours of Canterbury Cathedral to tell the school children that.
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- 7Russian Orthodox ChurchRussia
The Russian Orthodox Church basically said you shouldn't be playing any instruments, and so what they would do is, if they caught you playing a Balalaika, they'd basically steal it off you and then crush it…
Open this place → - 8Church of ScientologyUnited States
Cartwright was awarded in 2023 the status of Patron Excalibur with Honors by the Church of Scientology, which she called 'the most beautiful acknowledgement I've ever received in my life.' The reason she's got…
Open this place → - 9Mount AthosGreece
Mount Athos in Greece was known as a place of 6,000 beards because there were monasteries on there and monks were allowed, but women were not allowed in there.
Open this place → - 10Union ChapelUnited Kingdom
Welcome to another episode of No Such Thing as a Fish, a weekly podcast this week coming to you from our Book of the Year 2018 tour, live from the Union Chapel in London!
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- 12Cologne CathedralGermany
Then when Frederick sort of won, beat them down, he had the skulls removed and moved to Cologne Cathedral, and they're still there today.
Open this place → - 13Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore)Italy
At the moment it's outside the huge entrance of the Duomo Cathedral in Florence, really prominent place and the committee decided to put it there but Leonardo da Vinci was on that committee and he suggested…
Open this place → - 14Church of ScotlandUnited Kingdom
He had tried to interfere with the Church of Scotland and he'd tried to impose his own prayer books on the Kirk in 1637.
Open this place → - 15Longquan MonasteryChina
The Longquan Temple is famously tech savvy and has been for years.
Open this place → - 16Rothko ChapelUnited States
In Texas, the Rothko Chapel has a lot of his paintings, and outside of the security guards that they have there, they also have on standby counsellors who can comfort you if the emotions become way too much…
Open this place → - 17Satanic TempleUnited States
It's set up by the Satanic Temple, who are a non-theistic organization.
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- 19Poets CornerUnited Kingdom
They struck a deal whereby he went to Poets Corner and his heart went to Stensford, and they both had a funeral at 2pm on the 16th of January 1928.
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- 21Holy SeeVatican City
It's this tribunal — it's the oldest established body of the Holy See.
Open this place → - 22DuomoItaly
Brunelleschi made the one in Florence and we still don't know how he did it, because it's got no structure holding it up — it basically holds itself up.
Open this place → - 23Sri Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic)Sri Lanka
It's the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy in Sri Lanka.
Open this place → - 24Church of the Holy SepulchrePalestine
It started over rights of access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
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