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Sacred Space in Geography: Religious Buildings and Monuments

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Geography of World Pilgrimages

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Abstract

Sacred space includes both the natural and cultural environment. The sacred spaces are distinctly visible in the landscape, the process of sacralization of place is full of various discourses and interpretations. Sacred places are tangible, whether they be natural objects, or created by human. This chapter presents man-made religious structures (buildings and sacred monuments). The chapter analyses the main traditional Christian religious shrines. The analysis focuses on the Christian sacred spaces as Churches, monasteries, and also peculiarities of Calvaries, Grottos of Lourdes, roadside crosses, crucifixes and chapels. Churches and chapels, along with roadside crosses and crucifixes have different forms, building traditions and sacred elements. Christian churches have exclusive architectural forms and central location in the geographical space. The article presents the statistics of the church buildings in some European countries. The article also presents the main historical reasons for the change of the number of shrines. The author discusses the main structural elements of sacred space and the existential circle of sacred spaces.

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  1. Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Darius Liutikas

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  1. Darius Liutikas
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  1. Geography, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Lucrezia Lopez

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Liutikas, D. (2023). Sacred Space in Geography: Religious Buildings and Monuments. In: Lopez, L. (eds) Geography of World Pilgrimages. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32209-9_5

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