The Most Beautiful UNESCO-Listed Temples in Europe
6 places in 4 countries · updated 14 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful UNESCO-listed temples in Europe are Parthenon (Greece), Ġgantija (Malta) and Maison Carrée (France). The list covers 6 UNESCO-listed temples in 4 countries. Greece has the most, with 2. Last updated 14 October 2026.
Europe's listed temples span more than five thousand years of worship, from prehistoric stone sanctuaries to the gilded chapels of early Christianity. What a UNESCO inscription adds is evidence that a building marks a turning point: the first monumental stone architecture, the classical orders in their purest form, the meeting of Byzantine, Islamic and Latin art. Each of these temples is a reference point for how a culture imagined the sacred.
The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, built in the fifth century BC for Athena, is the defining Doric temple and the emblem of classical Greece. The Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, high in the mountains of Arcadia, was the first Greek monument inscribed on the World Heritage list and combines Doric, Ionic and the earliest known Corinthian capital. On Gozo, the megalithic temples of Ġgantija were raised by Neolithic farmers more than five thousand years ago.
The Maison Carrée in Nîmes is one of the best-preserved temples of the Roman world, still standing complete on its podium; it inspired Thomas Jefferson's design for the Virginia State Capitol. In Palermo, La Martorana, founded in the twelfth century by George of Antioch, admiral to the Norman king Roger II, glows with Byzantine mosaics. In Ravenna, the small Archbishop's Chapel, built around 500, preserves early Christian mosaics from the age of Theodoric.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | Country | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parthenon | Ruins | Greece | ✓ |
| 2 | Ġgantija | Archaeological site | Malta | ✓ |
| 3 | Maison Carrée | Temple | France | ✓ |
| 4 | Temple of Apollo Epicurius in Bassae | Ruins | Greece | ✓ |
| 5 | La Martorana (Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio), Palermo | Church building | Italy | ✓ |
| 6 | Archbishop's Chapel, Ravenna | Church building | Italy | ✓ |
01 Parthenon
Παρθενώνας
Greece · 1.6 km from Athens37.972° N 23.727° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by nonbirinonko from Pixabay The Parthenon looks perfectly straight only because almost nothing about it actually is.
Did you know? On 26 September 1687 a Venetian mortar round hit gunpowder stored inside by the Ottoman garrison, and the blast killed about 300 people.
02 Ġgantija
Malta · 27.5 km from Valletta36.047° N 14.269° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Vitold Muratov · CC BY-SA 4.0 Ġgantija stands on the edge of the Xagħra plateau on Gozo, the second island of the Maltese archipelago, and it is the oldest of the megalithic temples that make up the Maltese World Heritage listing. Its two temples were raised around 3600 BC, which puts them centuries ahead of the Egyptian pyramids.
Did you know? Ġgantija was inscribed alone on the World Heritage List in 1980; in 1992 five more temples joined it and the listing was renamed the Megalithic Temples of Malta.
03 Maison Carrée
Maison carrée
France · 1 km from Nîmes43.838° N 4.356° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by pcdazero from Pixabay Two thousand years after it was built, the Maison Carrée still stands complete on its podium in the centre of Nîmes, columns, roof, pediment and all. It is one of the best-preserved Roman temples anywhere in the former empire. In 2023 UNESCO added it to the World Heritage list.
Did you know? Despite its name, which means square house, the temple is a rectangle almost twice as long as it is wide.
04 Temple of Apollo Epicurius in Bassae
Ναός Επικούριου Απόλλωνα
Greece37.430° N 21.900° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Jean Housen · CC BY-SA 4.0 On a bare limestone shoulder of Mount Kotilion, more than 1,100 metres up in the wild hills where ancient Arcadia met Messenia, stands one of the best-preserved temples of classical Greece. Its name, Bassai, means roughly a little vale among the rocks, and the setting is exactly that: grey stone, oak scrub and a long view over ridges towards the sea.
Did you know? Bassae became the first Greek site on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986.
05 La Martorana (Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio), Palermo
Chiesa della Martorana
Italy · 1.9 km from Palermo38.115° N 13.363° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
GiorgioGaleotti · CC BY-SA 4.0 In 1184 the Arab traveller Ibn Jubayr, passing through Palermo, devoted page after page to one church and called it the most beautiful monument in the world. He meant the church founded by George of Antioch, admiral and chief minister of the Norman king Roger II, and known ever since as Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio, St Mary of the Admiral, or simply La Martorana.
Did you know? After the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, the island's nobles met in this church and decided to offer the crown of Sicily to Peter III of Aragon.
More about La Martorana (Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio), Palermo →
06 Archbishop's Chapel, Ravenna
Cappella Arcivescovile
Italy · 1.9 km from Ravenna44.416° N 12.198° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
GFreihalter · CC BY-SA 3.0 Ravenna is famous for its mosaics, and this is the smallest of its great mosaic interiors, a private oratory tucked into the first floor of the archbishop's palace. It was built around 495 for Bishop Peter II, at the very moment the city was ruled by Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king who followed the Arian form of Christianity. That context explains what the chapel says.
Did you know? Since 1996 the chapel has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful UNESCO-listed temples in Europe?
- On our list, Parthenon (Greece) ranks first, followed by Ġgantija (Malta) and Maison Carrée (France).
- Which country has the most UNESCO-listed temples in Europe?
- In our collection, the most come from Greece (2), Italy (2) and France (1).
- How old are the Ġgantija temples?
- They were built in the fourth millennium BC, around 3600 to 3200 BC. That makes them older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt.
- Why is the Temple of Apollo at Bassae unusual?
- It combines all three classical orders: Doric outside, Ionic inside and a single Corinthian column, the earliest known example of that capital. It is attributed to Ictinus, one of the architects of the Parthenon.
- What building did the Maison Carrée inspire?
- Thomas Jefferson modelled the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond on the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, which he had admired while in France.
- How many UNESCO-listed temples are on this list in Europe?
- The list covers 6 UNESCO-listed temples in 4 countries. Greece has the most, with 2.