Sanctuary aims to be an online map and register of all religious heritage across Europe.
The current version only contains data from the pilot project. It is not complete.
The map-based database was conceived and is owned by the Future for Religious Heritage (FRH). It was built and is curated on its behalf by the not-for-profit company Religioscape, which has direct experience of this work.
The pilot project
The pilot project ran from 2022-2024. It aimed to create a simple database that could demonstrate the value and potential of bringing together information from a number of early adopting partners across Europe.
It covered three areas:
- Listed Church of England church buildings in England (data provided by Historic England)
- Religious heritage of Larnaca province in Cyprus (data provided by an EU-sponsored Religious Track of the Peace Process, University of Münster)
- Endangered Jewish sites of eastern Europe (data provided by the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, ESJF, Făgăraș project, Romania)
Project phase two
Funding is being sought to expand the areas the database covers as well as the type of data it contains.