150 Churches in Paris and elsewhere

St Peter’s basilica is probs top building in the Catholic Church, and Headquarters of the Holy, see? Sure, the more finicky will point out that there is only one cathedral in Rome and this ain’t it. But St Peter’s gets papal audiences every week, popes’ funerals when necessary, and is actually built on St Peter’s tomb, so it trumps cathedral St John Lateran, I think. The size of the basilica is breathtaking. My own favourite bit is the amazing 90 foot tall bronze canopy by Bernini, the bronze looks so delicate. Bernini also did a couple of grand monuments to popes in this basilica, as well as the statue of St Longinus. Now, Longinus is the soldier, in the New Testament, who stuck a spear into Jesus’s side to ensure hé was dead (“At the time I just felt I was doing my job,” he said to the local newspaper). Later, he converted to Christianity, they say, and ended up a saint. A lot of the inside is very gilded volumes and “look who’s king of the castle now”. In huge letters it says in Lat...