List of largest church buildings

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the largest church in the world.

A church can be measured by various criteria in order to determine its size.

- List of largest church buildings

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Brussels

Region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium.

Charles of Lorraine founded what would become Brussels, c. 979.

The Grand Place after the 1695 bombardment by the French army

Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830, Gustaf Wappers, 1834

The Place Royale/Koningsplein in the late 19th century

The 1927 Solvay Conference in Brussels was the fifth world physics conference.

British tanks arrive in Brussels on 4 September 1944, ending the German occupation

Satellite picture of the Greater Brussels area

The Place du Luxembourg/Luxemburgplein with the European Parliament in the background

Flags of NATO member states wave at the entrance of NATO's headquarters in Haren

Population density of Europe. Brussels is located between the largest urban centres.

Estimate of languages spoken at home (Capital Region, 2013)

Bilingual French and Dutch street signs in Brussels

The municipalities with language facilities (in red) near Brussels

The National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Koekelberg

The Great Mosque of Brussels is the seat of the Islamic and Cultural Centre of Belgium.

Manneken Pis is a well-known public sculpture in Brussels.

The Grand Place of Brussels, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Flagey Building (or Maison de la Radio) in Ixelles

The Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark memorial arcade and museums

Meyboom giants in Brussels, a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

Brussels is known for its local waffles.

Flea Market on the Place du Jeu de Balle/Vossenplein

R.S.C. Anderlecht fans at the Lotto Park

Brussels' Northern Quarter business district

The former Brussels Stock Exchange building

Main building on the Solbosch campus of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)

The Planetarium of the Royal Observatory of Belgium

Brussels Airlines Airbus A319 landing at Brussels Airport in Zaventem

The Saint Catherine Dock, Eugène Boudin, 1871

Main hall of Brussels-South railway station, home to the Eurostar train service to London

High-speed rail networks connect Brussels with other European cities (ICE train in the North Station pictured).

Brussels Metro carriage at Erasme/Erasmus metro station

The Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat is one of the city's main streets.

Berchem-Sainte-Agathe (Sint-Agatha-Berchem)

Molenbeek-Saint-Jean (Sint-Jans-Molenbeek)

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (Sint-Joost-ten-Node)

Watermael-Boitsfort (Watermaal-Bosvoorde)

Woluwe-Saint-Lambert (Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe)

Woluwe-Saint-Pierre (Sint-Pieters-Woluwe)

Former Old England department store by Paul Saintenoy (1899)

Saint-Cyr House by Gustave Strauven (1903)

On the north-western side of the region, the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart is a Minor Basilica and parish church, as well as the 14th largest church building in the world.

Liverpool

City and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England.

Liverpool in 1680, the earliest known image of Liverpool.

A map of Liverpool's original seven streets (north to the left).

Liverpool's Lime Street area pictured from above in 1946

Inaugural journey of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, the first-ever commercial railway line.

Lime Street, Liverpool, in the 1890s, St.George's Hall to the left, Great North Western Hotel to the right, Walker Art Gallery and Sessions House in the background. Statues of Prince Albert, Disraeli, Queen Victoria and Wellington's Column in the middle ground.

Liverpool was the port of registry of the ill-fated ocean liner Titanic. The ship sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912, with the loss of 1,517 lives (including numerous Liverpudlians). A Memorial to the Engine Room Heroes of the Titanic is located on the city's waterfront.

Mathew Street is one of many tourist attractions related to the Beatles, and the location of Europe's largest annual free music festival.

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the first such school in the world

Oriel Chambers, the first "modern" building in the world

Satellite imagery showing Liverpool Bay, Liverpool and the wider Merseyside area

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King

The Al-Rahma Mosque in the Toxteth area of Liverpool

Apartment buildings within Liverpool's new commercial district

Liverpool One has helped move the city into the top five retail destinations in the UK

The Range Rover Evoque is manufactured at Jaguar Land Rover's plant at Halewood.

Liverpool's Three Graces, the Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building at the Pier Head

The Albert Dock contains the UK's largest collection of Grade I listed buildings as well as being the most visited multi-use attraction outside London

Bluecoat Chambers, the oldest building in Liverpool city centre

Victoria Street like many streets in the city centre is lined with dozens of listed buildings

Speke Hall Tudor manor house is one of Liverpool's oldest buildings

West Tower has been the city's tallest building since completion in 2008

Liverpool Cathedral is regarded as one of the greatest buildings of the twentieth century and is one of the largest church buildings in the world

The Wallasey entrance to the Kingsway Tunnel. Liverpool's skyline is visible in the background

Liverpool John Lennon Airport terminal building

The Merseyrail network has extensive underground sections within the city centre. Liverpool Central is the UK's busiest underground station outside London

MV Royal Iris of the Mersey is one of three ferries that provide cross river services between Liverpool and the Wirral

The Beatles statue in their home city Liverpool. The group are the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in popular music.

Philharmonic Hall, home of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

William Brown Street, also known as the Cultural Quarter was a World Heritage Site consisting of the World Museum, Central Library, Picton Reading Room and Walker Art Gallery

Nelson Monument at Exchange Flags. The other British hero of the Napoleonic Wars is commemorated in Wellington's Column

The Empire Theatre has the largest two-tier auditorium in the UK

University of Liverpool's Victoria Building

Liverpool John Moores University's James Parsons Building

Liverpool Community College's Arts Centre

The Merseyside derby is the football match between the two biggest clubs in the city, Liverpool in red and Everton in blue.

The Earl of Derby Stand at Aintree Racecourse; home of the Grand National

The M&S Bank Arena hosts numerous sporting events and was formerly the home of British Basketball League team, the Mersey Tigers

Radio City Tower, home to Radio City and a number of subsidiary stations

The Anglican Cathedral, which was constructed between 1904 and 1978, is the largest Cathedral in Britain and the fifth largest in the world.

Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

The western facade, including the rose window

The Leake and Watts Orphanage, which is still located on the cathedral grounds

Architectural rendering of the cathedral's design for Heins & LaFarge, Architects (1891)

Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1910

The consecration of the choir, April 19, 1911

Interior of St. John's nave, facing west toward Amsterdam Avenue entrance

The facade of the southern tower, which was expanded in the 1980s and 1990s

Seen from the north in 2005, with scaffolding still on the southern tower

View of the western facade from across Amsterdam Avenue to the west

Wide angle view of the cathedral's western facade

The right-hand bronze doors in the center portal

Exterior of the nave. Two of the double bays can be seen here, with four columns of windows in total. At center is a large arched buttress, while smaller buttresses to the left and right separate each set of double bays.

The crossing (dark stone ceiling), viewed from the nave. The apse is in the background

Ithiel Town Building (former orphanage) seen here in 1934

The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine

Avalon Morningside Park, built on a portion of the cathedral close in 2007

Despite being incomplete, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the world's sixth-largest church by area and either the largest or second-largest Anglican cathedral.

St. Peter's Basilica

Church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal enclave that is within the city of Rome, Italy.

View from the Tiber on Ponte Sant'Angelo and the Basilica. The iconic dome dominates the skyline of Rome.

St. Peter and the Apostles on the Facade of St. Peter's Basilica

Bishops at the Second Vatican Council in 1962

Crepuscular rays are seen in St. Peter's Basilica at certain times each day.

An early interpretation of the relative locations of the circus, and the medieval and current Basilicas of St. Peter.

Maarten van Heemskerck - Santa Maria della Febbre, Vatican Obelisk, Saint Peter's Basilica in construction (1532)

A conjectural view of the Old St. Peter's Basilica by H. W. Brewer, 1891

St. Peter's Basilica from Castel Sant'Angelo showing the dome rising behind Maderno's façade.

1506 medal by Cristoforo Foppa depicting Bramante's design, including the four flanking smaller domes

The engraving by Stefan du Pérac was published in 1569, five years after the death of Michelangelo

The dome was brought to completion by Giacomo della Porta and Fontana.

Architectural details of the central part looking upward into the dome

Michelangelo's plan extended with Maderno's nave and narthex

Maderno's façade, with the statues of Saint Peter (left) and Saint Paul (right) flanking the entrance stairs

Maderno's nave, looking towards the chancel

The apse with St. Peter's Cathedra supported by four Doctors of the Church

St. Peter's Basilica and the piazza at night

One of the two fountains which form the axis of the piazza.

Evening aerial view of the piazza and facade

View of Rome from the Dome of St. Peter's Basilica

Air vents for the crypt in St. Peter's Basilica

Cardinals at Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica two days before a papal conclave, 16 April 2005.

The inauguration of Pope Francis in 2013

Silhouette of St. Peter's Basilica at sundown (view from Castel Sant'Angelo).

alt= A marble statue showing a matronly woman in a sweeping cloak supporting a cross which stands beside her and presenting a set of nails to the viewer with her left hand|Saint Helena

alt= This statue shows a Roman soldier, with a cloak furling around him, gazing upward while he supports a long spear with his right hand and throws out his other hand in amazement.|Saint Longinus

alt= This statue shows an elderly man, bare-chested, and draped, looking up despairingly as he supports a large cross, arranged diagonally.|Saint Andrew

alt= This statue shows the saint as a young woman, who, with a sweeping dramatic gesture, displays a cloth on which there is an image of the face of Jesus.|Saint Veronica

alt= A pair of bronze doors divided into sixteen panels containing reliefs depicting scenes mainly from the life of Jesus and stories that he told.|The Holy Door is opened only for great celebrations.

alt= A large memorial set in a niche. The marble figure of a kneeling pope is surrounded by allegoric marble figures, and sculptured drapery surfaced with patterned red stone.|The tomb of Alexander VII, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1671–1678.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Docs/seminarians4.htm|website=saintpetersbasilica.org|title=The Seminarian GuidesNorth American College, Rome|access-date=29 July 2009}}</ref>

alt= Peter is shown as a bearded man in draped garment like a toga. He is seated on a chair made of marble, and has his right hand raised in a gesture of blessing while in his left hand he holds two large keys. Behind the statue, the wall is patterned in mosaic to resemble red and gold brocade cloth.|The bronze statue of Saint Peter holding the keys of heaven, attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio.

alt= This marble statue shows the Virgin Mary seated, mourning over the lifeless body of Jesus which is supported across her knees.|The Pietà by Michelangelo, 1498–1499, is in the north aisle.

With an exterior area of 21,095 m2, an interior area of 15,160 m2, St. Peter's Basilica is the largest Christian church building in the world by the two latter metrics and the second largest by the first.

Liverpool Cathedral

Cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool, built on St James's Mount in Liverpool, and the seat of the Bishop of Liverpool.

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, St James's Mount

Giles Gilbert Scott's winning design, with twin towers

The Lady Chapel, the first part of the cathedral to be completed.

Scott's 1910 redesign, with central tower

The missionary Anna Hinderer is in one of the Lady Chapel windows

The interior of the cathedral, looking up into the vault below the central belltower.

The cathedral's west window by Carl Johannes Edwards. The uppermost window is the Benedicite window. The pink neon sign by Tracey Emin reads "I felt you and I knew you loved me" and was installed in 2008 when Liverpool became European Capital of Culture.

A K6 telephone box, also designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, in the cathedral

Liverpool Cathedral is the largest cathedral and religious building in Britain, and the eighth largest church in the world.

St Paul's Cathedral

Anglican cathedral in London that is the seat of the Bishop of London.

The dome and northwest tower from Ludgate Hill, showing the densely developed area in which St. Paul's is located

Reconstructed image of Old St Paul's before 1561, with intact spire

Canaletto: The River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral on Lord Mayor's Day (1746; Lobkowicz Collections, Prague)

Two suffragette bombs on display at the City of London Police Museum in 2019. The bomb on the right was used in an attempted bombing of St. Paul's in 1913.

The iconic St Paul's Survives taken on 29 December 1940 of St Paul's during the Blitz

St Paul's during a special service in 2008

St Paul's Cathedral West Front Dome Street View

St Paul's from the south-east, with the tower of the destroyed Church of St Augustine, Watling Street to the right, now part of St Paul's Cathedral School.

Gilt statue of Saint Paul at the top of the monument to St Paul's Cross in the cathedral precinct

18th-century engraving of St Paul's from the north-west by Canaletto

19th-century coloured engraving from the south-west by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd

Romantic 19th-century engraving of St Paul's in the evening after rain by Edward Angelo Goodall

Oil painting, John O'Connor, Evening on Ludgate Hill (1887) St Paul's looms beyond St Martin's.

St Paul's from Richmond House by the Venetian painter Canaletto (1747)

St Paul's viewed from a loggia, a capriccio (c. 1748) by Antonio Joli who also worked in Venice.

An Impressionist view of St Paul's from the River by Ernest Dade (before 1936)

St Paul's from Bankside, a watercolour by Frederick E. J. Goff (before 1931)

St Paul's is the second-largest church building in area in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral.

Seville Cathedral

Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville, Andalusia, Spain.

View of the southeastern side of the Cathedral

Door of the Conception, in the North facade

Golden ceiling, main nave, Seville Cathedral

The elliptical Renaissance dome of the chapterhouse.

Giralda as seen from the outside wall of the Patio de los Naranjos.

Cathedral roofs and the Garden as seen from the Giralda.

Gate to the Patio de los Naranjos, part of the old Almohad mosque, now annexed to the cathedral.

Pierre Dancart's masterpiece, considered one of the finest altarpieces in the world.

Montañés' Cristo de los Cálices (1603), located in the Sacristy.

Collapse caused by earthquake, 1 August 1888.

Details of vaults in front of main chapel

It is the fourth-largest church in the world (its size remains a matter of debate) as well as the largest Gothic church.

Basilica of St. John the Baptist

Metropolitan cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John's, Newfoundland and the mother church and symbol of Roman Catholicism in Newfoundland.

St. John's from Government House, with the basilica in the background, 1851. Work on the basilica was not completed until 1855.

Grey limestone, and white granite was used to build the basilica

At this time, it was the largest church building in North America and remains the second largest church in Canada after Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal and the largest cathedral church in Canada.

Washington National Cathedral

American cathedral of the Episcopal Church.

The west rose window was dedicated in 1977 in the presence of both the 39th President, Jimmy Carter, and Queen Elizabeth II (as Supreme Governor of the Church of England)

The 2004 state funeral of the 40th President, Ronald Reagan

Prayer and vigil for the March for Our Lives rally, March 23, 2018

Washington National Cathedral undergoing repairs in 2017

Looking east, looking up to the choir of the cathedral

East End of the cathedral, with the Ter Sanctus reredos, featuring 110 carved figures surrounding the central figure of Jesus.

The flags of all the states of the US with the current liturgical banners hung on the pillars

The console of the Great Organ at Washington National Cathedral in 2010. It includes four manuals: the Choir, Great, Swell, and Solo. It is located in the Great Choir.

Side view of The Washington National Cathedral, with earthquake construction

There is a placard for every state from the United States

Statue of George Washington (by Lee Lawrie)

GITMO stone inscribed in 1964 as a gift to the cathedral from those at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

Encaustic mural of the burial of Jesus in the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea

Stained glass window depicting major events of the life of Confederate General Robert E. Lee

Stained glass window depicting the life of Stonewall Jackson

Stained glass dedicated to Andrew Carnegie

The rood in the chancel arch separating the nave from the choir

Washington National Cathedral Looking SE

Aerial view of the Washington National Cathedral

It is the second-largest church building in the United States, and the third-tallest building in Washington, D.C. The cathedral is the seat of both the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Bruce Curry, and the bishop of the Diocese of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde.

Milan Cathedral

Cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy.

Plate celebrating the laying of the first stone in 1386.

Saint Ambrose barring Theodosius from Milan Cathedral by Anthony van Dyck

Giovanni Antonio Amadeo on the "Amadeo's Little Spire"

Plan of the Cathedral in the 16th century

Design for the crowning of Ferdinand I of Austria at the Duomo in 1838, by Alessandro Sanquirico

The Gold Madonna at the top of the cathedral

It is the largest church in the Italian Republic—the larger St. Peter's Basilica is in the State of Vatican City, a sovereign state—and possibly the second largest in Europe and the third largest in the world (its size and position remain a matter of debate).