Top 10 churches facts

In Yamoussoukro. The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace is a Catholic minor basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, the administrative capital of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Guinness World Records lists it as the largest "church" in the world, having surpassed the previous record holder, St. Peter's Basilica, upon completion. It can accommodate 18,000 worshippers.

St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. St. Peter's Basilica (15,160m²), Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida (12.000m²), St. Paul (7,875m²), St. Isaac's Cathedral (7,000 m²)

At least two. Playing the organ before electricity required at least one person (called calcant) to operate the bellows. Therefore, organists rarely practiced on the pipe organs, using other instruments such as the clavichord for practice instead.

It was destroyed by earthquake. The convent was ruined in the 1755 Great Lisbon Earthquake, which destroyed the city, killed possibly 100.000 of its inhabitants and disrupted the colonial ambitions of Portugal. The church was left unrestored to remind the tragedy.

In Rouen. Beginning in the 1880s through the end of his life in 1926, Claude Monet worked on series paintings, in which a subject was depicted in varying light and weather conditions. The first and best known of these is a series of over 30 paintings of the Cathedral of Rouen. The estimated value of one painting is over $40 million.

Bronze. The traditional metal for church bells is a bronze of about 23% tin. Steel was tried during the busy church-building period of mid-19th-century England, for its economy over bronze, but was found not to be durable.

In 1993. When the capital of Spain was transferred from Toledo to Madrid in 1561, the seat of the Church in Spain remained in Toledo and the new capital had no cathedral. Plans to build a cathedral in Madrid were discussed as early as the 16th century, but the cost of expanding and keeping the Empire came first. The construction of the church located just next to the Royal Palace began in 1878 and concluded in 1993.

Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Describing Sagrada Família, art critic Rainer Zerbst said, "It is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art" and Paul Goldberger called it, "The most extraordinary personal interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages."

XVI-XVII. Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626, so it was XVI-XVII century.

Church of Scotland. The Church of Scotland known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is the national church of Scotland.The Church of Scotland's governing system is presbyterian which means that no one person or group within the Church has more influence or say than any other. Its supreme rule of faith and life is through the teachings of the Bible.