List of largest church buildings

This article lists the largest church buildings in the world as measured by various criteria.

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Scope[edit]

The term church is open to interpretation and debate. In this article, it means any building that was built for the primary purpose of Christian worship. The list does include at least one building, the Hagia Sophia, that was originally a church but later became a mosque - and is now a museum.

Measurements[edit]

Relative size of churches

Whilst claims are made about the relative size of churches many of these claims are not easily substantiated. "Largest" is at best a vague term, which is often not qualified by claimants. Accepted measures of largeness could include area, volume, length, width, height, and/or capacity, although the last is far more subjective. It is important to note therefore that churches may claim to be "the largest" based on only one of these measurements; and thus that there may be several churches that have equal claim to be "the largest church". Since there is no official body governing these claims, there is no generally accepted criterion for being "the largest church".

The list below attempts to rank churches by different (more-or-less) objective criteria, and thus may generate different orders depending on the measure used. Churches for which claims are made but dimensions cannot be found are not included on the below lists.

For length, width and height, there is usually a definitive statistic for each church, which can easily be compared. However, for area and volume, the situation is often more complex. It is often possible to find multiple values quoted for the area/volume of a church in references. Many values appear to be estimates or approximations (especially for volume), or may have been calculated by multiplying lengths, widths and heights. In the latter case, the exact dimensions used (internal vs. external, etc.) may give very different figures. Therefore, although area and volume are the most common 'largeness' measures, they are also apt to be the least reliable. This should be borne in mind when comparing church sizes.

Area (m²)	Gross volume (m³)	Name	Built	City	Country	Denomination	Comment
15,160 (interior)^[1]^[2] 21,095 (exterior)^[1]	5,000,000^[3]	St. Peter's Basilica	1506–1626	Vatican City	Vatican City	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Area can be verified on a plan printed as 205% size in 1:1000 scale to match a 41.47 m dome internal diameter
12,000	1,200,000^[4]	Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida	1955–80	Aparecida	Brazil	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Church dimensions 173×168 m yielding a maximum area of 29,000 m²^[5]
11,520^[6]	500,000 +	Seville Cathedral	1401–1528	Seville	Spain	Catholic (Roman Rite)	The largest Gothic cathedral in the world^[7]
11,200^[3]	480,000^[8]	Cathedral of Saint John the Divine	1892–present	New York City	United States	Anglican (Episcopal Church in the U.S.)	Unfinished, lacking transepts among other components
10,186^[9]	440,000	Milan Cathedral	1386–1965	Milan	Italy	Catholic (Ambrosian Rite)	Touring Club Italiano claims 11,700 m² (earlier sources state 8,406 m²)^[2]^[10]
9,717 (interior)^[11]		Abbey of Santa Giustina	1501–1606^[12]	Padua	Italy	Catholic (Roman Rite)
10,090	300,000^[13]	Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń	1994–2004	Licheń Stary	Poland	Catholic (Roman Rite)	9,240 m²^[13]or 10,090 m²
9,687^[14]	450,000 +	Liverpool Cathedral	1904–78	Liverpool	United Kingdom	Anglican (Church of England)
8,700^[15]	130,000	Church of the Most Holy Trinity	2004-07	Fátima	Portugal	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Area given as 12,000m²^[4]
8,515		Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls	IV–1823	Rome	Italy	Catholic (Roman Rite)	One nave & four aisles by 80 columns
8,318^[16]		Basilica-Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar	1681–1872	Zaragoza	Spain	Catholic (Roman Rite)
8,300		Florence Cathedral	1296–1436	Florence	Italy	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Largest brick and mortar dom in the world
8,260	190,000	Ulm Minster	1377–1890	Ulm	Germany	Lutheran	Tallest in the world and one of the largest brick churches north of the Alps
8,000		Basilica of the Sacred Heart	1905–70	Koekelberg (Brussels)	Belgium	Catholic (Roman Rite)
8,167		Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe	1974–76	Mexico City	Mexico	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Circular base of 102 m in diameter^[17]
8,000^[18]		Cathedral of Our Lady	1352–1521	Antwerp	Belgium	Catholic (Roman Rite)
8,000		Rio de Janeiro Cathedral	1964-76	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Catholic (Roman Rite)	External diameter is 106 meters
7,989 (interior) 30,000 (exterior)^[19]		Basilica of Our Lady of Peace	1985–89	Yamoussoukro	Ivory Coast	Catholic (Roman Rite)	The enclosed area approximately 8,000 m²^[20]
7,960	255,800 ^[21]	Hagia Sophia	532–537	Istanbul	Turkey	Orthodox (Ecumenical Patriarchate)	Was the largest church in the world for a millennium, now a museum.
7,920	270,000	San Petronio Basilica^[22]	1390–1479	Bologna	Italy	Catholic (Roman Rite)	World's largest Gothic brick church
7,914	407,000^[23]	Cologne Cathedral	1248–1880	Cologne	Germany	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Gross volume without buttresses
7,875^[2]		St Paul's Cathedral	1677–1708	London	United Kingdom	Anglican (Church of England)
7,712^[24]		Washington National Cathedral	1907–90	Washington, DC	United States	Anglican (Episcopal Church in the U.S.)
7,700^[25]	200,000 (interior only)	Amiens Cathedral	1220–70	Amiens	France	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Gross volume slightly below 400,000
7,097 (interior) 12,069 (exterior)^[26]		Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception	1919–61	Washington, DC	United States	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Interior decoration remains unfinished
6,968		Cathedral of La Plata	1884-1932	La Plata	Argentina	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Largest church in Argentina
6,825	660,000	Saint Joseph's Oratory	1904–67	Montreal	Canada	Catholic (Roman Rite)
6,732		Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral	1573-1813	Mexico City	Mexico	Catholic (Roman Rite)
6,650		Reims Cathedral	1211–75	Reims	France	Catholic (Roman Rite)	The longest church in France
6,044		Strasbourg Cathedral	1015–1439	Strasbourg	France	Catholic (Roman Rite)	World's tallest building 1647-1874
6,038		Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels	1998–2002	Los Angeles	United States	Catholic (Roman Rite)
6,020^[27]	43,300	De Hoeksteen, Barneveld	2007–08	Barneveld	Netherlands	Protestant
6,000		Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church	1991-2004	San Giovanni Rotondo	Italy	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Vaulted church holding 6,500 seats
5,900		Bourges Cathedral	1195-1230	Bourges	France	Catholic (Roman Rite)
5,660		Esztergom Basilica	1822–69	Esztergom	Hungary	Catholic (Roman Rite)
5,500		Notre Dame de Paris	1163–1345	Paris	France	Catholic (Roman Rite)
5,400		Sagrada Familia	1882–present	Barcelona	Spain	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Unfinished
5,300		Primate Cathedral of Bogotá	1807-23	Bogotá	Colombia	Catholic (Roman Rite)
5,240		Cathedral of Christ the Saviour	1839–83	Moscow	Russia	Orthodox (Moscow Patriarchate)	Rebuilt during 1995-2000
5,170		New Cathedral, Linz	1862–1924	Linz	Austria	Catholic (Roman Rite)
5,017		Westminster Cathedral	1895–1910	London	United Kingdom	Catholic (Roman Rite)
5,000	185,000–190,000	St. Mary's Church^[28]	1343–1502	Gdańsk	Poland	Catholic (Roman Rite)	One of the largest Gothic brick churches north of the Alps
5,000	137,000	Holy Trinity Cathedral	1995–2004	Tbilisi	Georgia	Orthodox (Patriarchate of Georgia)	Description see^[29]
4,968^[30]		Winchester Cathedral	1079–1525	Winchester	United Kingdom	Anglican (Church of England)	The longest Gothic Cathedral in Europe.
4,800		Dresden Cathedral	1739-55	Dresden	Germany	Catholic (Roman Rite)	Largest church in all of Saxony
4,500		Basilica of St. Thérèse, Lisieux	1929-54	Lisieux	France	Catholic (Roman Rite)
4,320^[31]		Basilica de San Martin de Tours (Taal)	1856–78	Taal, Batangas	Philippines	Catholic (Roman Rite)
4,273^[32]		Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire	1083–1375	Ely	United Kingdom	Anglican (Church of England)	Third-largest medieval Cathedral in the United Kingdom
4,188	185,000–190,000^[33]	Frauenkirche	1468–1525	Munich	Germany	Catholic (Roman Rite)	One of the largest Gothic brick churches north of the Alps and the largest hall church
4,130		Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis (St. Louis)	1907-14	St. Louis	United States	Catholic (Roman Rite)	83,000 square feet, largest mosaic collection in the world
4,000		Saint Isaac's Cathedral	1818–58	Saint Petersburg	Russia	Orthodox (Moscow Patriarchate)	Still a museum
3,822		Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral, Yerevan	1997–2001	Yerevan	Armenia	Armenian Apostolic Church
3,500^[34]	170,000^[34]	Church of Saint Sava	1935–89	Belgrade	Serbia	Orthodox (Patriarchate of Serbia)	The largest church in the Balkans.
3,170^[35]		Alexander Nevsky Cathedral	1882–1912	Sofia	Bulgaria	Orthodox (Patriarchate of Bulgaria)
2,972		Westminster Abbey	960-18c	London	United Kingdom	Anglican (Church of England)
2,800^[36]		Medak Cathedral	1914–26	Medak	India	Anglican (Church of South India)
2,300		Our Lady of Dolours Syro-Malabar Catholic Basilica	1929-2005	Our Lady of Dolours Syro-Malabar Catholic Basilica	India	Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Thrissur	It has the 3rd tallest tower in Asia
2,135	64,040^[37]	Basilica of St. John the Baptist	1839–55	St. John's	Canada	Catholic (Roman Rite)	The largest church in eastern Canada
1,760	32,162^[38]	All Saints Cathedral, Halifax	1907–10	Halifax	Canada	Anglican (Church of Canada)	The largest Anglican cathedral church in Canada