Monastery World Map
Travel guides & inspiration
Latest posts
Solovetsky Monastery: The Fortress at the Edge of the White Sea
How a hermitage on a remote White Sea archipelago grew into a boulder-walled fortress, a place of pilgrimage and imprisonment, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Koyasan: Sleeping Among the Monks on Japan's Sacred Mountain
High on a forested plateau in Wakayama Prefecture, Mount Koya has been the centre of Shingon Buddhism for some twelve centuries — and you can spend the night there.
Haeinsa: The Korean Mountain Temple That Guards the Tripitaka Koreana
Deep in the forests of Gayasan, Haeinsa Temple shelters more than eighty thousand carved woodblocks that hold the entire Buddhist canon of medieval Korea.
Samye Monastery: Inside Tibet's First Buddhist Monastery
Founded in the 8th century under King Trisong Detsen, Samye was Tibet's first Buddhist monastery — a walled mandala where monks were ordained, scriptures translated and the future of Tibetan Buddhism decided.
Read more →Cluny Abbey: The Monastery That Ruled Medieval Europe
A deep dive into Cluny Abbey in Burgundy, from its remarkable founding charter of 910 to the demolition of the greatest church of the Middle Ages.
Read more →El Escorial: Inside the Granite World of Philip II
How a vow made after a battle became a monastery, palace, library and royal tomb in the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama, and why UNESCO lists it among the great monuments of the Renaissance.
Read more →Paro Taktsang: Inside the Tiger's Nest, Bhutan's Monastery on the Cliff
Paro Taktsang clings to a granite cliff high above Bhutan's Paro valley, where legend says Guru Rinpoche arrived on the back of a flying tigress.
Read more →Trinity Lavra of St Sergius: Inside the Spiritual Heart of Russian Orthodoxy
From a hermit's log cell in the forest to a fortified holy city of golden domes, the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius has shaped Russian faith and history for nearly seven centuries.
Read more →Rila Monastery: Bulgaria's Mountain Sanctuary of St John of Rila
How a tenth-century hermit's cave in the Rila Mountains grew into Bulgaria's largest Orthodox monastery and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read more →Skellig Michael: The Monastery at the Edge of the World
How Irish monks built a stone village on a jagged Atlantic crag off the Kerry coast, and why their island monastery still astonishes visitors today.
Read more →Saint Catherine's Monastery: Seventeen Centuries at the Foot of Mount Sinai
At the foot of Mount Sinai stands a fortified Greek Orthodox monastery that has never closed its doors since the sixth century.
Read more →Monte Cassino: The Abbey That Refused to Die
The story of Benedictine monasticism begins on a hilltop between Rome and Naples, at an abbey that has been destroyed and rebuilt again and again.
Read more →Meteora: The Monasteries Suspended Between Rock and Sky
How Orthodox monks turned the sandstone towers of Thessaly into one of the most astonishing monastic landscapes on earth.
Read more →Mont-Saint-Michel: A Deep Dive into the Abbey Between Sea and Sky
How a granite rock in a Norman bay became a Benedictine powerhouse, an impregnable fortress, a prison and a World Heritage icon.
Read more →Cluny vs Citeaux: Two Medieval Reforms
Founded 909 and 1098 in Burgundy, Cluny and Cîteaux waged a two-century argument over liturgy, art, and poverty — magnificence versus emptiness.
Read more →