Montserrat Monastery (Montserrat, Spain)

In one of the more disturbing mountain formations outside Barcelona, a group of monks decided to found a monastery. Their seeming insanity is eclipsed only by the beauty and power of the area. If there exists a place on this earth that is close to God, figuratively and literally, Montserrat is quite possibly it.

In the satellite pictures to the left, the monastery church is the dark oval near the center. The shadows of the mountains are this big as seen from space. The picture above shows the rocks towering above the church. On the top satellite picture, you will note that these are the little rocks in the clusters directly adjacent to the complex in the lower photo. The really big rocks (like those to the far left of the complex in the upper satellite photo) are incomprehensible.

The Florence Cathedral (Florence, Italy)

Though immense in its engineering accomplishments, standing within these grand halls causes one to marvel not at the human contribution, but the divine inspiration.  There are some places of worship that put one in mind of the perils of humanity and strike fear in the hearts of those who would stray from the paths of righteousness, but this cathedral is not one of them.  In contrast, its facade of green and white invite the passer by to look a little closer at the details and entice them to come into this joyful place which can only have been created in celebration of a greater, more generous power than humanity can wield.