Wonders
Wonders of the world on the atlas in the story of Christianity: built for it, long used by it, or standing on its holy ground.
Built 532 – 537 CE
Hagia Sophia
Istanbul, Turkey
Built by Justinian as the cathedral of Constantinople, it was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years and the seat of the Patriarch until 1453.
Built 1163 – 1260
Notre-Dame de Paris
Paris, France
The cathedral of Paris, begun in 1163 and a landmark of Gothic church building; it was restored after the fire of 2019 and opened again for worship in 2024.
Built 1173 – 1372
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
Pisa, Italy
The free-standing bell tower of Pisa Cathedral, built beside it and its baptistery in the Piazza dei Miracoli.
Built c. 1200 – 1220
The Church of Saint George, Lalibela
Lalibela, Ethiopia
One of eleven churches cut from the rock under King Lalibela, who meant the town as a new Jerusalem for Ethiopia's Orthodox Christians; it is still a place of pilgrimage.
Built 1555 – 1561
Saint Basil's Cathedral
Moscow, Russia
A Russian Orthodox church of nine chapels on Red Square, built for Ivan the Terrible to mark the taking of Kazan in 1552.
Built 1714
The Church of the Transfiguration, Kizhi
Kizhi Island, Karelia, Russia
A wooden Russian Orthodox church with 22 domes on an island in Lake Onega, built in 1714 as the summer church of the Kizhi parish.
Built 1922 – 1931
Christ the Redeemer
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
A statue of Jesus above Rio de Janeiro, raised from 1922 on the initiative of the city's Catholics and consecrated in 1931.
Trade routes that carried it
Routes on the atlas that its missionaries, merchants and pilgrims travelled. The map above draws them in the years they ran.
c. 146 BCE – 1453 CE · by land
Via Egnatia
Paul took it about 49 or 50, from Philippi by Amphipolis to Thessalonica, founding some of the first churches in Europe, as Acts and his letters tell.
c. 30 BCE – 250 CE · by land, sea and river
Indo-Roman trade
By the tradition of Kerala's Saint Thomas Christians, the apostle Thomas sailed with this trade and landed at Muziris in 52.
c. 123 BCE – 439 CE · by sea and river
Roman grain supply
Paul was taken to Rome as a prisoner on Alexandrian grain ships, by Myra, Fair Havens, Malta, Syracuse and Rhegium to Puteoli, as Acts tells; a church at Rome was already there.
c. 130 BCE – 1453 CE · by land
Silk Road
Monks of the Church of the East followed it from Persia to Merv and Central Asia; Alopen reached Chang'an in 635, as the Xi'an Stele of 781 records.
c. 800 CE – 1100 · by sea and river
Route from the Varangians to the Greeks
The Rus' traded down the Dnieper to Constantinople and took its faith home: Princess Olga was baptised there about 957, and her grandson Vladimir had Kiev baptised in 988.
c. 1497 – 1800 · by sea
Carreira da Índia
Portugal's fleets took priests and friars to Goa, a bishop's seat from 1534 and the Jesuits' base in Asia; Francis Xavier sailed out on them in 1541.
1543 – 1639 · by sea
Nanban trade
Jesuits sailed on the Portuguese ships from Goa and Macau to Japan, and the trade and the mission grew together at Nagasaki until Japan banned the faith in 1614 and the Portuguese in 1639.
1565 – 1815 · by land and sea
Manila galleons
Legazpi's fleet sailed from Mexico in 1564 with Augustinian friars, and for 250 years the galleons carried the missionaries who made the Philippines Catholic.
1566 – 1790 · by sea and river
Spanish treasure fleet
Its convoys from Seville took Spain's bishops, priests and friars to the Americas with the settlers, and their churches and missions spread with Spanish rule.
1611 – 1799 · by sea
Dutch East India Company Route
Company ships brought Dutch Reformed settlers to the Cape from 1652, and the Company paid the ministers of the churches at the Cape and Batavia.
Symbol meaning
Cross
The cross on which Jesus was crucified. It recalls his death, which Christians believe reconciled people with God, and his rising again. Early Christians more often drew a fish or the Chi-Rho; the cross became the main sign of the faith in the 4th century, after Rome's emperors took it up.
Timeline
67 places in order of arrival: when the first believers came, from where and how; when it became the main faith there, and when it faded.
c. 30 CE, main faith 380 CE – 1187 · Jerusalem
Jesus was crucified here about 30, and his followers, led by Peter and James, formed the first community, proclaiming that he had risen from the dead.
c. 37 CE, main faith 380 CE – 1268 · Antioch
Believers who left Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen preached here; followers were first called Christians in Antioch, which became Paul's base for his journeys.
from Jerusalem · by migration and mission
c. 49 CE, main faith from 380 CE · Rome
A community existed here by the 40s; Peter and Paul were put to death under Nero, and in 380 the Edict of Thessalonica made Christianity the empire's state religion.
from Jerusalem · by migration
c. 50 CE, main faith from 380 CE · Corinth
Paul spent some eighteen months founding a church here around 50 to 52, and later wrote it the letters known as First and Second Corinthians.
from Antioch · by mission
c. 52 CE, main faith 380 CE – 1304, until 1923 · Ephesus
Paul worked here for over two years from about 52, and the city became the centre of the churches of Asia; the Council of Ephesus met here in 431.
from Antioch · by mission
c. 52 CE · Kerala (Muziris)
By tradition the apostle Thomas landed here in 52; the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala later received their bishops from the Church of the East in Persia.
from Jerusalem · by mission
c. 60 CE, main faith 380 CE – 950 CE · Alexandria
Tradition names Mark the Evangelist as the founder of the church here; by about 180 it had a school whose teachers included Pantaenus, Clement and Origen.
from Jerusalem · by mission
c. 100 CE, main faith 380 CE – 1400, until 1923 · Caesarea Mazaca
Christians of Cappadocia were addressed in the First Letter of Peter; bishops here consecrated Gregory the Illuminator for Armenia, and Basil the Great led the see from 370.
from Antioch · by mission
180 CE, main faith 380 CE – 950 CE, until 1160 · Roman Africa (Carthage)
The Scillitan martyrs, tried here in 180, are the first record of the African church of Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine; it dwindled under Muslim rule and ended under the Almohads.
from Rome · by mission
c. 180 CE, main faith 380 CE – 1146, until 1924 · Edessa
Christian teachers such as Bardaisan were active here by about 180, and its Syriac-speaking church sent missions east; a later story credits King Abgar V and the apostle Addai.
from Antioch · by mission
c. 250 CE, main faith from 496 CE · Paris
Its first bishop, Denis, was martyred about 250; Clovis, king of the Franks, was baptized a Catholic at Reims about 496 and made Paris his capital.
from Rome · by mission
c. 280 CE · Persia (Ctesiphon)
Bishop Papa bar Aggai organized the Christians of the Persian capital about 300; a synod held here in 410 made its bishop the catholicos of the Church of the East.
from Edessa · by mission and migration · Church of the East
c. 300 CE, main faith from 1248 · Seville
Hispalis had a bishop by about 300; Leander and Isidore led the Visigothic church from here, and the city was Christian-ruled again after Castile took it in 1248.
from Rome · by mission
c. 301 CE, at once the main faith · Armenia (Vagharshapat)
Gregory the Illuminator baptized King Tiridates III, making Armenia the first kingdom to adopt Christianity; the cathedral of Etchmiadzin rose at the royal city.
from Caesarea Mazaca · by mission
c. 330 CE, main faith from 340 CE · Ethiopia (Aksum)
Frumentius, a Syrian Christian at the court, converted King Ezana and was made bishop by Athanasius of Alexandria; Ezana's later coins carry the cross.
from Alexandria · by mission
330 CE, main faith 330 CE – 1477 · Constantinople
Constantine, who took Byzantium from his rival Licinius in 324, refounded it in 330 as Constantinople, a capital built with churches from the start.
from Rome · by conquest
334 CE, until 1221 · Merv
A bishop of Merv is recorded in 334, and the city became a see of the Church of the East that sent missions to the Turks; Christian life faded after the Mongol sack of 1221.
from Ctesiphon · by mission · Church of the East
c. 337 CE, at once the main faith · Georgia (Mtskheta)
Nino, a woman from Cappadocia, converted Queen Nana and King Mirian III of Iberia, who asked Constantine for priests and made it the faith of the kingdom.
from Constantinople · by mission
c. 356 CE, main faith from 1147 · Lisbon
Its first known bishop, Potamius, wrote in the 350s; the city was under Muslim rule from 714 until Afonso I of Portugal took it with crusaders' help in 1147.
from Rome · by mission
c. 432 CE, main faith from 550 CE · Ireland (Armagh)
Pope Celestine sent Palladius to the Irish Christians in 431, and Patrick, a Briton, preached in the north from about 432; Armagh became the seat of his successors.
from Rome · by mission · Catholic
c. 450 CE, until 641 CE · Najran
A Christian community grew here in the 5th century; many were killed in 523 under the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas of Himyar, and Caliph Umar moved the rest to Iraq about 641.
from Antioch · by mission · Oriental Orthodox
543 CE, at once the main faith, until 1500 · Nubia (Pachoras)
Julian, a priest sent by Empress Theodora, converted the king of Nobadia in 543; Nubia's kingdoms stayed Christian until Muslim rule ended the faith there about 1500.
from Constantinople · by mission · Oriental Orthodox
597 CE, at once the main faith · Canterbury
Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory I, baptized King Ethelbert of Kent, whose Frankish queen Bertha was already Christian; the other English kingdoms followed by the 680s.
from Rome · by mission · Catholic
604 CE · London
Mellitus, a companion of Augustine, became bishop of London in 604; in the 1790s the city became the base of the London and Church missionary societies.
from Canterbury · by mission · Catholic
635 CE, until 845 CE · Tang China (Chang'an)
The monk Alopen came from Persia in 635 and Emperor Taizong let him found a monastery; the church declined after Emperor Wuzong banned foreign religions in 845.
from Ctesiphon · by mission · Church of the East
695 CE · Utrecht
Willibrord, a Northumbrian monk, preached to the Frisians from 690 and was made their archbishop in 695, with his seat at Utrecht.
from Canterbury · by mission · Catholic
c. 723 CE, main faith from 742 CE · Hesse (Fritzlar)
Boniface, an English monk sent by Pope Gregory II, felled the sacred oak of Donar at nearby Geismar about 723 and built a church here from its wood.
from Canterbury · by mission · Catholic
739 CE, at once the main faith · Passau
Boniface organized the Bavarian church into dioceses in 739, with Passau as the see whose missionaries later worked among the Moravians and Magyars.
from Fritzlar · by mission · Catholic
c. 810 CE, at once the main faith · Hamburg
Charlemagne's wars forced baptism on the Saxons (772-804); Ansgar, made bishop of Hamburg in 831, led missions from here to the Danes and Swedes.
from Paris · by conquest and mission · Catholic
c. 831 CE, at once the main faith · Moravia (Mikulčice)
The Moravian princes, whose stronghold here had a dozen churches, were baptized by Bavarian clergy about 831; Cyril and Methodius came from Constantinople in 863.
from Passau · by mission · Catholic
864 CE, at once the main faith · Bulgaria (Pliska)
Khan Boris I was baptized by Byzantine clergy in 864 and put down a revolt of nobles who resisted; disciples of Methodius later gave the Bulgarians a Slavonic church.
from Constantinople · by mission · Eastern Orthodox
c. 883 CE, at once the main faith · Bohemia (Prague)
Duke Bořivoj of Bohemia was baptized by Methodius about 883 and built the first church at Prague Castle; his grandson Wenceslaus became the land's patron saint.
from Mikulčice · by mission · Catholic
c. 945 CE, main faith from 988 CE · Rus (Kyiv)
Christian Varangians had a church here by 944 and Princess Olga was baptized about 957; her grandson Vladimir I had the people of Kyiv baptized in the Dnieper in 988.
from Constantinople · by mission · Eastern Orthodox
c. 965 CE, at once the main faith · Denmark (Jelling)
King Harald Bluetooth accepted baptism about 965 and raised a runestone here proclaiming that he had made the Danes Christian.
from Hamburg · by mission · Catholic
966 CE, at once the main faith · Poland (Gniezno)
Duke Mieszko I, married to the Bohemian princess Dobrawa, was baptized in 966; Gniezno became the seat of Poland's first archbishop in 1000.
from Prague · by mission · Catholic
c. 972 CE, main faith from 1000 · Hungary (Esztergom)
Grand Prince Géza let German missionaries in about 972; his son Stephen I, crowned in 1000, made it the kingdom's faith and put down pagan revolts.
from Passau · by mission · Catholic
997 CE, main faith from 1024 · Norway (Nidaros)
Olaf Tryggvason imposed Christianity by force from 995 and founded Nidaros in 997; Olaf II, buried here after his death in 1030, completed the conversion.
from Canterbury · by conquest and mission · Catholic
1000, at once the main faith · Iceland (Thingvellir)
Under pressure from King Olaf Tryggvason, the Althing meeting here accepted Christianity as Iceland's law in 999 or 1000, allowing private pagan worship for a time.
from Nidaros · by mission · Catholic
c. 1000, main faith from 1100 · Sweden (Sigtuna)
King Olof Skötkonung, who minted coins with Christian symbols here, was baptized about 1008; the pagan temple at Uppsala stood until about 1080.
from Hamburg · by mission · Catholic
1201, main faith from 1290 · Livonia (Riga)
Bishop Albert founded Riga in 1201 as the base of a crusade; the Livonian Brothers of the Sword conquered the Livs, Latvians and Estonians and baptized them by force.
from Hamburg · by conquest and mission · Catholic
1387, at once the main faith · Lithuania (Vilnius)
Jogaila, grand duke of Lithuania, became king of Poland in 1386 and had his people baptized from 1387; Samogitia, the last pagan land in Europe, followed in 1413.
from Gniezno · by mission · Catholic
1491, main faith from 1509 · Kongo (Mbanza Kongo)
Portuguese priests baptized King Nzinga a Nkuwu as João I in 1491; his son Afonso I, who reigned from 1509 to 1542, made Kongo a Christian kingdom.
from Lisbon · by mission · Catholic
c. 1496, at once the main faith · Hispaniola (Santo Domingo)
Friars came with Columbus's second voyage in 1493, and Santo Domingo became the Spanish base; the island's Taino people were nearly wiped out by disease and forced labour.
from Seville · by conquest and mission · Catholic
1510, at once the main faith · Goa
Afonso de Albuquerque took Goa in 1510; it became the base of Portuguese missions in Asia, and from 1560 its Inquisition tried converts accused of keeping Hindu or Jewish ways.
from Lisbon · by conquest and mission · Catholic
1521, at once the main faith · New Spain (Mexico City)
Hernán Cortés took Tenochtitlan in 1521 and built Mexico City on its ruins; twelve Franciscan friars arrived in 1524 and the friars baptized people across central Mexico.
from Santo Domingo · by conquest and mission · Catholic
1533, at once the main faith · Peru (Cusco)
Francisco Pizarro's men, with the friar Vicente de Valverde, took the Inca capital in 1533; Cusco became Peru's first bishopric in 1536.
from Santo Domingo · by conquest and mission · Catholic
1549, until 1614 · Japan (Nagasaki)
Francis Xavier landed at Kagoshima in 1549, and Nagasaki became the Jesuits' centre from 1571; the shogunate banned the faith in 1614 and killed believers who would not renounce it.
from Goa · by mission · Catholic
1549, at once the main faith · Brazil (Salvador)
Jesuits led by Manuel da Nóbrega came with Governor Tomé de Sousa when he founded Salvador in 1549, though a first Mass had been said on the Brazilian coast in 1500.
from Lisbon · by conquest and mission · Catholic
c. 1557 · Macau
Portuguese merchants settled Macau about 1557, and it became the Jesuits' gateway to China and Japan; its diocese was founded in 1576.
from Goa · by trade and mission · Catholic
1565, at once the main faith · Philippines (Cebu)
Magellan baptized Rajah Humabon here in 1521, but lasting conversion began when Miguel López de Legazpi came from New Spain with Augustinian friars in 1565.
from Mexico City · by conquest and mission · Catholic
1601 · China (Beijing)
The Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who reached Macau in 1582 and the mainland in 1583, was allowed to live in Beijing from 1601; missions were banned in 1724 but small communities survived.
from Macau · by mission · Catholic
1608, at once the main faith · New France (Quebec)
Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608; Récollet friars came in 1615 and Jesuits in 1625, preaching to the Wendat and other nations.
from Paris · by migration and mission · Catholic
1615 · Vietnam (Hội An)
Jesuits from Macau began a mission at this trading port in 1615; Alexandre de Rhodes, who worked here and in the north, helped set down Vietnamese in the Latin alphabet.
from Macau · by mission · Catholic
1630, at once the main faith · New England (Boston)
Puritans led by John Winthrop founded Boston in 1630, ten years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth; the first American foreign mission board was founded nearby in 1810.
from London · by migration · Protestant
1652, at once the main faith · Cape Town
Dutch East India Company settlers brought the Reformed Church in 1652; Moravian missionaries reached the Khoikhoi from 1737, and most South Africans are now Christian.
from Utrecht · by migration · Protestant
1784 · Korea (Hanyang)
Yi Seung-hun, baptized in Beijing, came home in 1784 and baptized fellow scholars, founding a church without missionaries; thousands were executed in persecutions up to 1866.
from Beijing · by mission · Catholic
1788, at once the main faith · Australia (Sydney)
The chaplain Richard Johnson came with the First Fleet's convicts in 1788; missions to Aboriginal people followed, and Sydney sent missionaries on to the Pacific islands.
from London · by migration · Protestant
1792 · Sierra Leone (Freetown)
Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia founded Freetown in 1792 under a London company; freed slaves educated here, such as Samuel Ajayi Crowther, carried the faith on to Nigeria.
from London · by migration and mission · Protestant
1797, main faith from 1819 · Tahiti (Papeete)
London Missionary Society preachers landed from the ship Duff in 1797; King Pōmare II, who won back power in 1815, was baptized in 1819 and the island turned Christian.
from London · by mission · Protestant
1820, main faith from 1869 · Madagascar (Antananarivo)
David Jones of the London Missionary Society reached the court in 1820; Queen Ranavalona I banned the faith in 1835 and had many killed, but Ranavalona II was baptized in 1869.
from London · by mission · Protestant
1820, main faith from 1825 · Hawaii (Honolulu)
American Board missionaries led by Hiram Bingham arrived in 1820, months after Kamehameha II had abolished the kapu system; the regent Kaʻahumanu was baptized in 1825.
from Boston · by mission · Protestant
1826, main faith from 1831 · Tonga (Nukuʻalofa)
Wesleyan Methodist missionaries settled in Tonga in 1826; the chief Tāufaʻāhau was baptized in 1831 and, as King George Tupou I, united the islands under a Christian law code.
from Sydney · by mission · Protestant
1835, main faith from 1854 · Fiji (Bau)
Wesleyan missionaries sailed from Tonga to Lakeba in 1835; Cakobau, chief of Bau and the most powerful man in Fiji, accepted the faith in 1854 and his people followed.
from Nukuʻalofa · by mission · Protestant
1844 · Kenya (Mombasa)
Johann Ludwig Krapf of the Church Missionary Society landed here in 1844 and set up a mission at nearby Rabai; most Kenyans became Christian in the 20th century.
from London · by mission · Protestant
1846 · Yorubaland (Abeokuta)
Henry Townsend and Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a Yoruba freed slave ordained in London, opened a mission here in 1846 among the Egba, some of them returnees from Sierra Leone.
from Freetown · by mission · Protestant
1873 · Japan (Nagasaki)
French priests built Ōura Church here in 1864 and found hidden Christians who had kept the faith; Japan lifted its ban in 1873, and Catholic and Protestant missions grew.
from Paris · by mission
1877, main faith from 1900 · Buganda (Rubaga)
Anglican missionaries reached Kabaka Mutesa I's court in 1877 and Catholic White Fathers in 1879; dozens of converts were killed in 1885-87, and Christian chiefs held power by 1900.
from London · by mission
