Amazing And Mysterious Cave Churches And Monasteries Made In Rock

MessageToEagle.com – These are no ordinary places.

In order to visit these magnificent places you have to go underground and the surrounding atmosphere makes you feel you’re in almost in a different world.

Cave churches and monasteries have been around since the beginning of the church, often as a way to seek out spiritual succor in a remote and solitary place.

Carved into the rock, or located inside caves, they have a raw appeal that often contrasts with urban cathedrals with stained glass windows.

rock church
The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá is an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine 200 meters underground in a Halite mountain near the town of Zipaquirá, in Cundinamarca, Colombia.

 

rock church
Jonas caves, Auvergne, France

 

rock church
Cave Church of St. Peter, Hatay, Turkey

 

rock church
The Hermitage Saint Antoine and his troglodyte chapel, located at the bottom of the Gorges Galamus. The gorge is the border between the Aude and Pyrenees-Orientales, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, Europe (P. Eoche / Getty)

 

rock church
Italy, Calabria, Pizzo, Piedigrotta church

 

rock church
The interior of the Panagria Hrysospiliotissa (Chapel of Our Lady of the Cavern) in a grotto under the Temple of Dionyso, in Greece.
rock church
A general view of the Underground Serbian Orthodox Church on May 5, 2009 in Coober Pedy, Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
rock church
A general view of St Samaans (Simon) Church also known as the Cave Church in the Mokattam village, nicknamed as ‘Garbage City,’ is seen on July 26, 2012 in Cairo. Once a week hundreds gather at the Cave Church in Moqattam, after the prayer, a coptic priest performs exorcism or healing blessing to some of the believers. With a cross and holy water he fights spiritual entities and demons. The Monastery of St. Simon the Tanner is the largest and it has an amphitheater with a seating capacity of 20,000 making it the largest church in the Middle East. It is named after the Coptic Saint, Simon the Tanner, who lived at the end of the 10th century, when Egypt was ruled by the Muslim Fatimid Caliph Al-Muizz Lideenillah. Simon the Tanner is the Coptic Saint who is associated with the legend of the moving of the Mokattam Mountain. AFP PHOTO/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA

 

rock church
Mihalich Cave Church, Bulgaria
rock church
Chapel Of the Blessed King, Wieliczka Salt Mine, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Krakow, Poland

 

See also:

A cave monastery is a monastery built in caves, with possible outside facilities. The 3rd century monk, St. Anthony the Great, known as the founder of monasticism lived in a cave.

You don’t have to be a religious person to enjoy these magnificent places that offer so much peace and beauty…

MessageToEagle.com