The largest brick church in the world, built over 159 years and completed in 1502. The interior holds 25,000 people and is vast enough to feel genuinely awe-inspiring even when empty — white-washed walls, soaring Gothic vaulting, and 31 chapels radiating off the nave. Climb the 405 steps of the tower for the best panorama of the old town and the river.
St Mary's Church
World's largest brick church with 405-step tower views
A story
After 1945, the church's famous astronomical clock — built in 1464 and capable of showing the day, month, year, moon phase, and the positions of the sun and moon — was removed by Soviet forces and taken to the National Museum. It was returned to the church only in 1983, after decades of diplomatic wrangling.