Inspiration: Sacred Places of a Lifetime

For Christmas my mom got a National Geographic book called Sacred Places of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations.  The book is divided into ten somewhat vaguely defined sections: Sacred Landscapes, Megaliths & Mysteries, Cradles of Faith, Majestic Ruins, Daily Devotion, Shrines, The Pilgrim's Way, Ceremonies & Festivals, In Remembrance, and Retreats.  Though I've been to some of the sites listed, I found some I hadn't heard of before that I feel I need to visit.  If you take a look at the book, it might behoove you to keep a pen and paper handy to update your own list.

More important are the ones I've not seen yet.  Several of these have been on my radar before, but some were new to me via this book.  With the help of Sacred Destinations, a site I could spend many an hour on, here are short descriptions of the interesting places I found.  These are organized vaguely geographically.

Canterbury Cathedral is the site of Thomas à Becket's martyrdom, and the church to which the pilgrims were traveling in the Canterbury Tales.  One day I want to walk from Southwark Cathedral in London to Canterbury Cathedral.

Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire was destroyed during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries.  Theologically speaking, I'm not sure how sacred a place can be if it's been formally deconsecrated, but the ruins look beautiful (as do those of Fountains Abbey, also in Yorkshire, which didn't make the 500). 

Lindisfarne or Holy Island is in the northeast of England.  Like Iona, it has long been home to a monastery, and the Lindisfarne Gospels were produced there.

Iona is an island off the west coast of Scotland long held sacred and the site of a monastery since the early Middle Ages.  The Book of Kells may have been produced, in full or in part, on Iona.

The Calanais (anglicized Callanish) stones have stood on the Isle of Lewis, off Scotland, for nearly 5000 years.

Chartres Cathedral is one of the premier cathedrals in France, and that's saying something.  Its stained glass windows are especially impressive.  Apparently.  Ask my mom, she's been there a few times.

Mont-St-Michel is another island monastery, though, as at Lindisfarne, you can walk to it during low tide. 

Heloise and Abelard, Chopin, Delacroix, Isadora Duncan, and Oscar Wilde are among those buried at Père Lachaise. 

The London to Canterbury pilgrimage can be walked in about a week, but to complete the Camino de Santiago de Compostela takes at least a month.  There are multiple routes to the cathedral in Compostela, one coming all the way from Rome, but the most well-known running from France across northern Spain.  To achieve your certificate, you must walk at least the last 100 kilometers (60 miles)--and declare that there was a spiritual reason for your journey.

The abbey in San Galgano, Italy, is ruined only in that the roof is missing.  Otherwise the 13th-century building is almost completely intact.

The 6th-century Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna is filled with Byzantine mosaics.

Aachen Cathedral was first begun by Charlemagne, who's now buried there.  As the cathedral of subsequent Holy Roman Emperors, it is richly decorated and great in historic significance.

What the book calls "Wittenberg Church" is more precisely the Castle Church (Schlosskirche) there, as opposed to the City Church (Stadtkirche).  It was to the Schlosskirche's doors that Martin Luther nailed his theses in 1517, and now he and his friends Philip Melanchthon, and Frederick the Wise are buried there.

Not far from Kraków is the monastery of Jasna Góra in Częstochowa, which holds a miraculous Black Madonna.  I grew up hearing stories of my dad driving tour groups to see a replica of the icon at the Our Lady of Częstochowa Shrine in Pennsylvania, so I'd like to see the real one.

There are several stave churches in Norway; the book lists those at Lom and Borgund, while the best known is probably that at Urnes.  These wooden churches date from Christianity's introduction into Norway in the early Middle Ages.

Kizhi, in Karelian Russia, is home to wooden Orthodox buildings situated in the midst of Lake Onega.  You can get to the pogost by helicopter, boat, or hydrofoil.

The Upper Svaneti region in Georgia has several medieval villages, some of which feature peculiar tower-houses.  Presumably there are churches amongst the buildings; to be honest, I can't now remember if the book was specific about any particular site.
  
The Anatolian rock churches of Göreme, Turkey, are notable for their Byzantine frescoes.  The paintings in the so-called Dark Church are especially vivid due to the paucity of natural light that enters the chuch.

It's a church!  It's a mosque!  Varangian vandals carved runes in its stone!  (It's the Hagia Sophia.)

No one is sure what it was for, and the architecture is not typical for the area, so it's no surprise that Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail at the Treasury in Petra.

The cemeteries of New Orleans are famed for both their architecture and their otherworldly atmosphere.  The oldest dates from 1789.  The Internet seems to suggest that due to the neighborhoods in which they're located, not all of the cemeteries are safe for tourists to visit.

Haida Gwaii, off the coast of British Columbia, is the home of the Haida tribe.  Formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, the area features natural beauty and native culture.

Wish List Addendum: Medieval English Cathedrals

A few years ago I was watching "The Worst Jobs in History," a series I highly recommend, wherein the host, Tony Robinson, mentioned that there are 24 medieval cathedrals in Britain. Being given a number immediately translated into having a new goal: I will visit all 24 of these cathedrals.  Since that time, I've been to one of them (the last on the list), so I'm that much closer to achieving my goal.

The following list is based on what I've been able to glean from different websites (like this one and this one), because I haven't found an "official" list of these medieval cathedrals.  A few of them have remarkable features, upon which I shall indeed remark.  

23 More-or-Less Medieval Cathedrals of England (I Guess the 24 Either Counts Westminster Abbey, Which Was a Cathedral for 10 Years, or the St Paul's that Burned in the London Fire of 1666)

Bath
Canterbury: Canterbury Cathedral is the site of the murder and consequent shrine of St Thomas à Becket.  Because of this, it's the place to which Chaucer and the pilgrims are traveling in "The Canterbury Tales."  It's also where the Black Prince is buried.
Carlisle
Chelmsford 
Chichester
Christ Church Oxford
Durham: The Venerable Bede is buried here.
Ely 
Exeter 
Gloucester 
Hereford: The cathedral is home to the Hereford Mappamundi, the best extant example of medieval English cartography.
Lichfield 
Lincoln 
Norwich
Peterborough: Catherine of Aragon is buried in the churchyard.
Rochester 
Salisbury: Home to an original (1215) copy of the Magna Carta.
Southwark: Shakespeare attended services at this cathedral, which now has a memorial to him and a special service each year on his birthday.  John Harvard, who would later found a college in Massachusetts, was baptized here.
St Albans
Wells: Wells Cathedral features scissor arches, and according to my cursory Google search, it may be the only place in the whole wide world with Gothic scissor arches.  Furthermore, Hot Fuzz was filmed in Wells, director Edgar Wright's hometown, and the cathedral towers were painted out of many scenes.
Winchester: Jane Austen is buried here.
Worcester 
York

(In regards to the title of the list, Westminster Abbey currently isn't a cathedral [bishop's seat].  There is a Westminster Cathedral in London, but it was built in the 19th century, and who cares about the 19th century.)
 
Related Sites But Also Not Technically Cathedrals 

Battle Abbey: Founded by William the Conqueror in 1070 on the site of the Battle of Hastings.
Fountains Abbey: The gorgeous ruins of a monastery in Yorkshire, once again brought low by the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII's plundering and sale of Catholic sites during the English Reformation.  I could get quite upset with Henry if I thought about the Dissolution too much; same goes for Cromwell after the Civil War.

Wish List III

Time for the biennial wish list update!  Instead of listing places alphabetically, this time we're going to do it by country.

* UNESCO World Heritage Sites
# new places

AUSTRALIA

AUSTRIA 
Hainburg an der Donau# 
Marchegg

BELGIUM 
Bruges*#

CANADA 
Banff National Park#
Calgary Stampede#
L'Anse aux Meadows*
Montréal 
Nova Scotia
Prince Edward Island
Québec City*#
Queen Charlotte Islands 
Vancouver

CHILE 
Valparaíso*

CROATIA 
Plitvice Lakes*#

EGYPT
Giza*

FINLAND 
Suomenlinna*#

FRANCE 
Annecy# 
Avignon*#
Basilica of Saint Denis# 
Bayeux Tapestry
Brittany
Carcassonne*
Chartres Cathedral*#
Dordogne River Valley
Mont Saint Michel* 
Normandy
Provins*# 
Rouen#  
Strasbourg

GERMANY 
Aachen Cathedral*# 
Wittenberg in 2017

GREECE

ICELAND

INDIA 
Shimla*

ISRAEL 
Jerusalem*

JAMAICA 

KENYA 

the NETHERLANDS

NEW ZEALAND

NORWAY 
Bergen#
Borgund Stave Church#
Urnes Stave Church*#
Viking Ship Museum#

POLAND 
Częstochowa#
Malbork Castle*

RUSSIA 
Lake Baikal*#
Siberia

SPAIN 
Ávila*#
Santiago de Compostela*
Toledo*# 
walk at least 100 kilometers of the Santiago pilgrimage route*#

SWITZERLAND 
Lucerne#

SYRIA 
Krak des Chevaliers*

TURKEY 
Istanbul*#

UK 
all the medieval cathedrals in England which I shall discuss in a separate post 
Battle Abbey and Hastings battlefield# 
Berwick-upon-Tweed#
Cambridge#
Canterbury* 
Channel Islands#
Cornwall#
Forest of Dean# 
Fountains Abbey# 
Greenwich*#
Hadrian's Wall*# 
Iona 
Isle of Skye#
Lindisfarne
Oxford#
Stonehenge*
walk the pilgrimage route from London to Canterbury Cathedral
Wearmouth-Jarrow twin monastery# 

USA 
Alaska
Aspen# 
Badlands National Park 
Bethany Beach
Denali National Park 
drive Route 66 between Chicago and Los Angeles 
Dry Tortugas National Park 
Everglades National Park*
Florida Keys
Hawaii 
Louisiana 
Minnesota
Mount Rushmore 
Santa Fe 
Sitka 
St. Augustine 
Texas 
Vermont 
Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park*

INTERNATIONAL/MULTI-NATIONAL 
aurora borealis
bears
fjords 
glaciers
midnight sun 
Niagara Falls 
polar bears
Rocky Mountains 
Victoria Falls* 
zebras

Wish List Update

Here are changes to my wish list since the original was posted on October 20, 2007. (Well done being over two years old, blog.)

Once again, * mark UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and # will mark new places.

Alaska
aurora borealis
Australia
Badlands National Park South Dakota
Bardejov* Slovakia#
Bayeux Tapestry Bayeux, France
bears
Bethany Beach Delaware
Boston
British Library London
Brittany France
Budapest* Hungary#
Canterbury* England
Carcassonne* France
Denali National Park Alaska
Dordogne River Valley (Périgord) France
Dry Tortugas National Park Florida
Edinburgh*
Everglades National Park*
Florida Keys
fjords
Giza*
glaciers
Greece
Hawaii
Iceland
Iona Scotland
Ireland
Jamaica
Jerusalem*
Kenya
Krak des Chevaliers* Syria
Krakow Poland#
L'Anse aux Meadows* Newfoundland, Canada
Levoča* Slovakia#
Lindisfarne Scotland
Louisiana
Madrid
midnight sun
Minnesota
Montréal
Mont Saint Michel* France
Mount Rushmore South Dakota
the Netherlands
New Zealand
Niagara Falls New York/Canada
Normandy France
Nova Scotia Canada
polar bears
Prague Czech Republic#
Prince Edward Island Canada
Queen Charlotte Islands British Columbia, Canada
redwoods
Rocky Mountains (American, Canadian, or both)
Rome*
Santa Fe New Mexico
Santiago de Compostela* Spain
Scotland
Sečovce Slovakia#
Shimla* India#
Siberia
Sitka Alaska
Slovakia I WIN AT LIFE.
Slovenský raj ("Slovak Paradise") Slovakia#
Spišský hrad* (Spiš Castle) Slovakia#
St. Augustine Florida
Strasbourg France#
stave churches Scandinavia and central Europe
Stonehenge*
Texas
Trenčin Slovakia#
Valparaíso Chile
Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
Vatican City*
Vermont
Victoria Falls* Zambia/Zimbabwe
Wales
Wittenberg in 2017#
Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park* Wyoming
York England
Yosemite National Park* California
zebras

Wish List

Today I'll be sharing my current travel wish list. These are all the places I want to visit or things I'd have to travel to see. The list does not include all the places that I've already been to and plan on going back to again (which is all of them, because I did not take enough pictures the first time). Items with stars are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Although it pains me not to, I refrained from explaining what some of the sites are and why I want to visit them; if anyone is curious, I will be more than happy to explain further. And now, the list.

Alaska
aurora borealis
Australia
Badlands National Park South Dakota
Bayeux Tapestry Bayeux, France
Bethany Beach Delaware
Boston
British Library London
Brittany France
Canterbury* England
Carcassonne* France
Denali National Park Alaska
Dordogne River Valley (Périgord) France
Dry Tortugas National Park Florida
Edinburgh*
Everglades National Park*
Florida Keys
fjords
Giza*
glaciers
Greece
Hawaii
Iceland
Iona Scotland
Ireland
Jamaica
Jerusalem*
Kenya
Krak des Chevaliers* Syria
L'Anse aux Meadows* Newfoundland, Canada
Lindisfarne Scotland
Louisiana
Madrid
midnight sun
Minnesota
Montréal
Mont Saint Michel* France
Mount Rushmore South Dakota
the Netherlands
New Zealand
Niagara Falls New York/Canada
Normandy France
Nova Scotia Canada
polar bears
Queen Charlotte Islands British Columbia, Canada
redwoods
Rocky Mountains (American, Canadian, or both)
Rome
Santa Fe New Mexico
Santiago de Compostela* Spain
Scotland
Siberia
Sitka Alaska
Slovakia
St. Augustine Florida
stave churches Scandinavia and central Europe
Stonehenge*
Texas
Valparaíso Chile
Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
Vatican City*
Vermont
Victoria Falls* Zambia/Zimbabwe
Wales
Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park* Wyoming
York England
Yosemite National Park* California
zebras

And since we're talking about things I want, I'd also like a pair of green Converse hi-tops.