The largest churches in the world: St Peter's, Yamoussoukro, Aparecida, Seville, Milan, St John the Divine, and the tallest, longest and widest

Architecture · 4 September 2026

The largest church in the world by interior area is St Peter's Basilica in Rome, with 15,160 square metres of floor, 187 m long inside and 220 outside, room for 60,000 people, and a dome 136.6 m high; the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace at Yamoussoukro in Ivory Coast, finished in 1990 as a copy of St Peter's, is larger overall at 30,000 square metres with its colonnades and taller at 158 m, but its interior is smaller, and by agreement with the Vatican its dome was kept lower than St Peter's. After them come the Basilica of Aparecida in Brazil (1980), Milan Cathedral, the largest Gothic church by area, Seville Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral and the largest by volume, and St John the Divine in New York, the largest Anglican church and the largest in the United States, unfinished since 1892. The tallest church is Ulm Minster at 161.5 m until the Sagrada Família's tower reaches 172.5 m; the longest is St Peter's; the widest nave is Girona's; the largest dome is Florence's by span and St Peter's by height. Below: the top ten by area, the largest by kind and by country, the tallest and longest, the seats, the comparisons with mosques and temples, and the arguments about measuring, with the churches in the Buildings by style collection.

The ten largest by interior area

1. St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City (1506–1626). 15,160 m²; 187 m long inside; nave 46 m high; dome 136.6 m to the cross, 42 m across; the story in St Peter's Basilica facts.
2. Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast (1985–90). About 8,000 m² inside and 30,000 with the colonnades; 158 m high; built by President Houphouët-Boigny in his home village for 300 million dollars, seats 7,000 with room for 11,000 standing, and larger than St Peter's by every outside measure; the Guinness "largest church".
3. Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady Aparecida, Brazil (1955–80). 12,000 m²; 173 m long; 45,000 people; the largest Marian shrine and the second-largest church by capacity, 12 million pilgrims a year.
4. Milan Cathedral, Italy (1386–1965). 11,700 m²; 158 m long; 108 m high at the spire; the largest Gothic church by area and the third-largest church in the world by some counts, with 3,400 statues and 135 spires.
5. Seville Cathedral, Spain (1401–1528). 11,520 m² and 500,000 m³, the largest Gothic cathedral and the largest church by volume; 135 m long, 100 wide, nave 42 m high; built on the mosque, whose minaret is the Giralda; the tomb of Columbus. The chapter is said to have resolved to build "a church so great that those who see it finished will think we were mad".
6. Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York (1892–). 11,200 m²; 183.2 m long, the longest Gothic nave in the world; 37.7 m high inside; unfinished, its towers and transepts never built, "St John the Unfinished"; the largest Anglican cathedral and the largest church in the United States.
7. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C. (1920–61). 7,100 m² of floor and 11,000 m² overall; the largest Catholic church in North America, 6,000 seats, Byzantine-Romanesque with a 100 m tower.
8. Liverpool Cathedral, England (1904–78). 9,687 m²; 189 m long, the longest cathedral in the world; 101 m tower; Giles Gilbert Scott's Gothic, the largest Anglican cathedral in Britain and the largest religious building in Britain.
9. Basilica of the Holy Trinity, Fátima, Portugal (2004–07). 8,700 m² in a circular hall of 125 m across, 8,633 seats; the largest modern church in Europe.
10. Cologne Cathedral, Germany (1248–1880). 7,914 m²; 144 m long; twin spires of 157 m, the tallest twin-spired church; the largest Gothic church in northern Europe.

Close behind: St Paul's in London (7,875 m², 158 m long), Florence Cathedral (8,300 m², dome 45 m across), Amiens (7,700 m², nave 42 m), the Cathedral of Learning is a university, St Sava in Belgrade (7,570 m², the largest Orthodox church by area), the Basilica of Licheń in Poland (10,000 m² with its side chapels, the largest in Poland), and the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, with 10,000 seats. List of largest church buildings.

The largest by kind

• Gothic. Milan by area, Seville by volume and as a cathedral, St John the Divine by nave length, Liverpool by total length; Amiens the largest French Gothic interior by volume, 200,000 m³, and Cologne the largest facade.
• Anglican. St John the Divine, then Liverpool, then St Paul's.
• Orthodox. St Sava in Belgrade (7,570 m², 82 m dome), Christ the Saviour in Moscow (rebuilt 1995–2000, 103 m), the People's Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest (2010–25, 127 m, larger than both when finished), and Hagia Sophia (7,960 m²), the largest church for 900 years, now a mosque.
• Modern. Yamoussoukro, Aparecida, Fátima, Licheń, and the Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, 4,500 m² but 172.5 m tall.
• Protestant. Ulm Minster, the largest Lutheran church, and Liverpool; the megachurches of the United States, Lakewood in Houston in a former arena with 16,800 seats, are auditoriums.
• By continent. Europe, St Peter's; Africa, Yamoussoukro; South America, Aparecida; North America, St John the Divine; Asia, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Manila by tradition and the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, no, of Christ the Saviour in Moscow if Russia is Asia; Australia, St Mary's in Sydney.

The tallest

• Ulm Minster, Germany. 161.5 m, the tallest church tower in the world since 1890, with 768 steps to the top; a Lutheran parish church, never a cathedral.
• Sagrada Família, Barcelona. The Tower of Jesus Christ at 172.5 m, completed in 2026, makes it the tallest church; the story in when the Sagrada Família will be finished.
• Yamoussoukro. 158 m to the cross on the dome, the tallest dome.
• Cologne. 157 m, the tallest twin spires; the tallest building in the world from 1880 to 1884.
• Rouen. 151 m, the tallest in France, an iron spire of 1876; Strasbourg, 142 m, the tallest building in the world from 1647 to 1874.
• St Nikolai, Hamburg. 147 m, a ruin; Notre-Dame de la Paix above; St Peter's, 136.6 m; Salisbury, 123 m, the tallest in Britain; Lincoln was 160 m until its spire fell in 1548, the tallest building in the world for 238 years.
• Washington National Cathedral, 91 m, the tallest in the United States by tower, on the highest ground in the city; St John the Divine was planned with a 130 m tower.

Longest, widest, biggest dome, most seats

• Longest. St Peter's, 220 m outside and 187 inside; Liverpool, 189 m; St John the Divine, 183; Aparecida, 173; Milan, 158; St Paul's, 158; Winchester, 170 m, the longest medieval cathedral in Europe.
• Widest nave. Girona Cathedral in Spain, 22.98 m, the widest Gothic nave in the world; St Peter's nave is 25 m between the piers; Seville's five aisles 76 m across in all.
• Biggest dome. Florence, 45.5 m across the octagon, the largest masonry dome; St Peter's, 42 m across and 136.6 m high, the tallest; Yamoussoukro's, 90 m across the outer shell; St Paul's, 34 m; the story in how domes are built.
• Most people. St Peter's, 60,000 standing; Aparecida, 45,000; Guadalupe, 10,000 seats; Yamoussoukro, 18,000 in all; the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Licheń, 7,000; Lakewood, 16,800 in an arena.
• Largest window. The Great East Window of York Minster, 23 by 9.5 m, the largest medieval stained glass; the largest rose windows Strasbourg's and Notre-Dame's at 13 m.
• Largest bell. The Tsar Bell is not in a church; the largest church bell in use is the Petersglocke of Cologne, 24 tons; the Pummerin of Vienna, 20 tons.

For comparison: the largest mosques and temples

The largest religious building of any kind is the Masjid al-Haram at Mecca, 400,000 m² of covered space and room for 4 million people; the Prophet's Mosque at Medina holds 1.5 million; Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument by land, 162 hectares; the Akshardham temple in Delhi and the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple at Srirangam, 63 hectares, the largest Hindu temple in use; Borobudur the largest Buddhist; the Temple of Heaven's park in Beijing 273 hectares. St Peter's, at 2.3 hectares of building, is small beside them and large beside every other church.

Versions and theories: how the measuring is argued

• Yamoussoukro is the largest church. By exterior area and height, yes, and Guinness says so; by interior floor, St Peter's is larger, and the Vatican, whose Pope John Paul II consecrated the Ivory Coast church in 1990, asked that its dome be lower than Rome's. The basilica seats 7,000 in a town of 200,000, in a country a third Christian.
• Seville or Milan is the largest Gothic church. Seville by volume and as a cathedral, Milan by floor area; Milan was a Gothic building finished with a Baroque-Gothic facade in 1813 and its last gate in 1965.
• St John the Divine is the largest cathedral. The largest Gothic cathedral by nave length and the largest Anglican church; St Peter's is not a cathedral, the Pope's being the Lateran, so the largest cathedral in the world is Seville or Milan by area and St John the Divine or Liverpool by length, and the lists give all four.
• Hagia Sophia was the largest church for a thousand years. From 537 to 1520, when Seville was finished; it is now a mosque and stays on the lists as a church building.
• The largest church in the United States is the National Shrine. The largest Catholic church; St John the Divine is larger; both are in the lists, and the Crystal Cathedral in California, now Christ Cathedral, was the largest glass building.
• Area is the measure. Area, volume, length, height, seats and cost give six different lists, and every church picks the one it wins.

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