Sacred Spaces in Italy

The sacristy of this church contains remains and relics of members of the Aragonese royal family.

This small church was constructed over the ruins of three temples dating to the Roman Republic.

Richard Luke Concanen never set foot on American soil.

This tiny chapel atop a sea stack is dedicated to the patron saint of Ponza, Saint Silverius.

An ancient Roman temple first dedicated to an emperor's wife is now a church.

This grisly effigy displays an early Christian martyr who was skinned alive and beheaded.

Inspired by the more famous Scrovegni Chapel, Cappella di San Giovanni contains several amazing frescoes.

You can only access this hermitage by crawling under a ledge suspended above an overhang.

These pillars at the main entrance of this church are actually a hidden musical instrument.

When occupying Nazi troops detonated a mine below, medieval frescoes were revealed in this small cliff-side hermitage.

During World War II, the Shroud of Turin was secreted to this remote southern Italian complex.

In this medieval church, a centuries-old stuffed crocodile hangs from the ceiling.

A striped 12th-century basilica sits in the countryside of Sardinia.

According to tradition this is the oldest church in Venice, but its actual age is a mystery.

One of the four sanctuaries of Rieti's Holy Valley was the site of the first living nativity scene.

In this nearly 1,000-year-old monastery, monks painstakingly restore old books.