Faith and Death: Churches and Cemeteries Around the World

I inherited from my grandfather a fascination – some with more conventional sensibilities might say a perverse obsession – with old churches and graveyards around the world.

They, through my eyes, convey a sense of the existential cultural legacy that one can't quite get from cultural artifacts.

Whenever I encounter one that captures my imagination, I tend to document it through photography.

Here's a smattering of what I've seen around the world.

New Mexico

Once employed by the federal government, prior to my permanent banning from the Bureau of Land Management Rio Puerco Field Office for eternity following a Homeland Security investigation into my threat status as a domestic terrorist, my job include long drives to remote federal government sites for obscure bureaucratic reasons.

In Arroyo Seco (I believe it was Arroyo Seco although memory has faded), in 2016, while wasting time on the clock in my official capacity, I stumbled upon this gem hidden in the Northern New Mexico mountains.

Arroyo Seco, New Mexico (?)

Ukraine

Against the backdrop of midsummer green in Ukraine, my Ukrainian now-wife and I walked through 230-year-old Lychakiv Cemetery, consisting of more than 300,000 gravesites -- literal miles of them, nearly all meticulously manicured and comely, mixed in with the occasional forlorn, ancient-looking crumbling façade

Lviv, Ukraine

Rivne, Ukraine

Stepan, Ukraine – a village graveyard (the location of my wife's grandmother's gravesite)

Lviv, Ukraine

Georgia (the country)

This beauty in Batumi, adjacent to the Black Sea, is perched atop a mountain a few kilometers inland. Like the previously documented churches in Ukraine, it is Christian Orthodox, as evidenced by the telltale proprietary cross design at the top.

Batumi, Georgia

In the interior of Georgia, deep into the Caucasus Mountains, in Borjomi, we came across this modest graveyard.

Borjomi, Georgia

Mexico

Latin American church architecture is a tribute to the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church that Spain championed.

15th-century cathedral in Merida, Mexico, lit up for a local celebration

Graveyards work a little differently in Latin America in that the gravesites are above-ground, often stacked one on top of the other.

And, below, on November 1, 2022, was the scene of the Ciudad del Carmen graveyard on Dia de Los Muertos ("Day of the Dead").

Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico

Here is found a curiously colored Jesus figure, at the cathedral Izamal on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Izamal, Mexico

Costa Rica

Costa Rica's capital, San Jose, is largely nothing to write home about, save for a sprawling and majestic graveyard in the middle of the city.

San Jose, Costa Rica

This cathedral, likewise, is located in the middle of San Jose, surrounded by urban decay.

San Jose, Costa Rica

And, in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, we came upon this quaint-looking church, erected with bricks, near the beach.

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Vietnam

Here we have a French-inspired cathedral in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Hanoi, Vietnam

Below is not a church, clearly, in the conventional sense, but it is a temple of Chinese influence.

An arrangement based on the Chinese astrological signs

Lao Cai, Vietnam

And below is the scene near Sapa Vietnam, shrouded in fog, near the highest point in continental Southeast Asia.

An array of idols of some sort, Sapa, Vietnam

Ben Bartee is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.

Join Armageddon Prose via Substack or Locals if you are inclined to support independent journalism free of corporate slant. Also, follow Armageddon Prose at Gab and Twitter for the latest content.

Insta-tip jar and Bitcoin public address: bc1qvq4hgnx3eu09e0m2kk5uanxnm8ljfmpefwhawv