There’s something almost disconcerting about an abandoned church. The idea of a place for meditation and pious reflection passing quietly away into ruin is somehow spooky: like witnessing a religion itself fall into disuse and die. Perhaps it’s because churches are places designed to invoke feelings of the sublime and trigger thoughts on infinity and death. Perhaps it’s because we subconsciously associate them with horror movies. Either way, there’s something darkly magnificent about the following religious ruins:
Presbyterian Church, Ross Island, India
Lurking in the ruins of the British Ross Island settlement in the Andaman area of India, the Presbyterian Church still shows the scars of the apocalyptic earthquake that nearly levelled it. The walls are broken, the roof vanished and the surviving fragments grown over by a tangle of creepers so thick it sometimes looks like the jungle is spontaneously sprouting brickwork.
Originally constructed to service the men of the East India Company – and subsequently the British Raj – the church was one of the few buildings on Ross Island not to serve some sort of penal function. Just about every other building prior to 1941 was dedicated to the incarceration or abuse of Indian natives. Then in ’41, a devastating earthquake rolled through the settlement. The shock this caused, compounded by the Japanese occupation of the island in 1942, led to the place being abandoned. Today the derelict buildings are a tourist hotspot – among them the mournful remains of the church.
Cathedral of the Transfiguration, Markham, Canada
An abandoned Slovak-style Catholic cathedral in the middle of an empty plain in the wild wastes of Canada, the Cathedral of the Transfiguration seems almost bizarrely out of place. The 20-storey bell towers have a distinctly Eastern European look that sits oddly against the modern Canadian development crouched a respectful distance away; and the entire building gives the feeling of having been ripped up by an angry God and dumped in the middle of nowhere.
Perhaps even odder, though, is its back story. Commissioned by an ultra-rich Slovak immigrant in 1984, the cathedral was never officially finished before the Catholic Church closed it down in 2006. Despite costing millions of dollars and despite a blessing from Pope John Paul II, the doors were officially closed for the last time in 2009; leaving this odd monument to do little more than slowly rot in full view of the residents of Markham.
Hither Green Dissenters Chapel, London
A small, fenced-off and broken chapel in the heart of London’s unloved Hither Green Cemetery, this tiny slice of Victorian beauty is practically unknown even within London itself. Boarded off, closed to the public and buried away from sight, it might seem a strange option for inclusion on a list of amazing abandoned churches. But then you get a close look at it. Etched in humble stonework, sporting a crowning ring of tiny gargoyles, the chapel is a wonderful low-key celebration of Victorian gothic.
Opened in 1873 on purchased farmland, the chapel and cemetery were never meant to blow anyone away, so much as offer some small comfort to grieving locals. Fast forward 140 years and it now stands as a glorious little monument to a certain forgotten type of English church.
Humberstone Church, Northern Chile
You’ve probably never heard of Humberstone. An abandoned saltpetre refinery in the ghastly blank of Chile’s notorious Atacama Desert, it lurks many, many miles from civilisation: a quietly rusting ghost town. Opened in the 1880s, Humberstone and other “nitrate towns” like it became known for the brutal conditions their poverty-stricken workers toiled in; a history mirrored when a number of them were later converted into torture camps by the Pinochet regime. Yet these dark places fostered a unique culture among their workers, one that was officially recognized in 2005 when UNESCO declared Humberstone a World Heritage Site.
At the heart of this empty town lies the abandoned Humberstone Church. Squat and derelict, it’s certainly far less-grand than many places on our list. But it represents an important part of Chilean, Peruvian and Bolivian history, and it’s impossible not to feel a sense of this lost pampinoculture when looking at the pictures. Is it beautiful? No. Is it culturally important? Incredibly so.
Explore Humberstone and other South American ghost towns here.
Abandoned Wood Churches, North West Russia
In 988 AD, Prince Vladimir of Russia issued an edict that all pagan idols be destroyed and wooden churches constructed in their place. Across the country, swathes of old centres of worship were torn down and temporary churches thrown up in their place. Fast forward over 1,000 years and a handful of these “temporary” structures are still there; falling to pieces in the wilds of Northwest Russia.
Looking at them now, the intricacy and size of these churches is nothing short of amazing. While some stand a mere two storeys tall, others tower over the landscape, dwarfing everything in the area. Whereas the Markham cathedral above looked like it was built in the wrong place, these churches seem to have been brought here from the wrong timezone – ancient fantasy structures sitting alongside modern tractors and boys in Adidas clothing. A century or more of neglect means these fantastic buildings will probably soon vanish forever; over 1,000 years after they were first constructed.
Abandoned Church, Bokor Hill Station, Cambodia
Like the Church of Humberstone in Chile, the Bokor Hill Station Church is notable less for its aesthetic value than for its history. Originally a French colony, Bokor Hill was built on the blood of ordinary Cambodians worked to death by their colonial masters; before becoming one of the last hold-outs of the Khmer Rouge between the late 1970s and early 1990s. Its history is one of careless exploitation and extreme bloodshed on the part of brutal, often psychopathic, elites. All of which today serves to make the abandoned church even more unusual.
A serene, Protestant structure, the squat church looks over the surrounding area with an air of infinite calmness. The only clue as to its murderous history are the rust stains running down its side; which have fittingly given it the appearance of a building drenched in blood. Today the site is owned by a corporation that intends to build a vibrant new city there; one whose inhabitants may never know the violent history of the place they call “home”.
St Nicholas Church, Macedonia
Mavrovo Lake in Macedonia has one of the oddest, most-striking features of any lake on Earth. Reputedly created artificially to power a nearby power station, the lake is also home to several submerged buildings. One of which just happens to be the old St Nicholas Church; now forever semi-flooded, it’s roof and steeple poking out of the freezing water.
Thanks to its unusual condition, the church has become something of a tourist attraction – and it’s easy to see why. With its beautiful red-roofed spire still intact and a wealth of vegetation lazily protruding through its decayed ceiling, the church is a wonder: a fantastic combination of nature and rural decay, plonked surreally down in the middle of a lake. How much longer it will hold out for is uncertain, but there’s no denying that it’s currently one of the most-bewitching sights in a country full of them.
Eglise St. Pierre et St. Paul Church, Goussainville-Vieux Pays, France
Situated a tasteful-but-convenient distance from bustling Paris, Goussainville-Vieux Pays was once a typical French middle-class town. Sadly, that all changed in the early 1970s, when a craft being flown at the Paris airshow span out of control and crashed fatally to Earth. A good chunk of the village was obliterated in the accident, leaving distressed locals with seemingly no choice but to abandon their devastated home.
Today, the church of the former township is the most-distinctive remnant of that forgotten time. Underneath a major flight path, it slowly decays away, visited only by a handful of tourists and intrepid photographers. Perhaps the most-striking aspect is how normal it still looks; as if people still regularly go for services and the town has only been abandoned in the last two weeks. Walking through the streets has a distinct Mary Celeste vibe – not helped by the slightly creepy sounds of airliners jetting over the scene of a devastating aircrash tragedy.
The Churches of Ani, Turkey/Armenia
The border between Turkey and Armenia is a heavily militarised one; an area that always seems to be on the verge of exploding into violence. Unsurprisingly, no civilians choose to call this place home, the towns all being abandoned long ago. But Ani was already long-empty by the time the current border dispute flared up. Constructed in the 9th century, its citizens all fled after a cataclysmic earthquake in 1319; leaving the beautiful “city of 1,001 churches” a desolate ruin.
Nowadays, Ani is nothing but a neglected huddle of buildings in the middle of an empty plain. Yet its remains retain an air of almost unparalleled grandeur: reminders of when Ani challenged Constantinople and Damascus for control of the region. Almost every extant building is religious in some way and plenty show-off an architectural brilliance almost unparalleled in the modern era. Sad and haunting, Ani is the sort of place where you can viscerally feel the combined weight of seven centuries pressing down on the present.
The Orthodox Churches of Kayakoy, Turkey
Abandoned Kayakoy has long been a favourite for urban explorers, amateur photographers and plain ol’ regular tourists. The combination of desolate ruins and weirdly-pristine structures combines to create an otherworldly atmosphere; one shared by the site’s two abandoned Greek Orthodox churches.
Vast, still partially decorated and utterly imposing, the two buildings are little short of magnificent. Light lances in through the open windows, illuminating the dusty stone walls with strange crisscross patterns. Intricate frescos look down from the ceiling onto rooms of incredible construction. The whole place has a sort of simultaneously profane and sacred feel – like being here is somehow something that will get you into trouble. Alone, the churches are buildings of great beauty. Taken with the rest of Kayakoy, they’re nothing short of spectacular.
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