how sacred art and architecture transform the world around us — a taschen edition

sacred sites: a journey through the mystique with taschen

Since the dawn of mankind, civilizations have delved into the mystical realms of ritual, creativity, and worship, placing profound and enduring meaning on our environments. From holy mountains to great pyramids, golden shrines, and esoteric land tracings, the history of sacred art and architecture has inevitably transformed the world around us. For the fifth volume in its best-selling Library of Esoterica series, Sacred Sites, TASCHEN takes us on a visual pilgrimage through this incredibly vast and mystical landscape of myth, religion, and imagination, with essays and interviews edited by Jessica Hundley, and more than 400 images of ancient and modern wonders. 

Torkwase Dyson, Liquid A Place, United States, 2023 | image © Lance Gerber, courtesy the artist and Desert X

all images courtesy TASCHEN

the history of our reverence of nature, the body, and more

From our early reverence of nature and the body as a temple to our futuristic embrace of imaginary realms, the pursuit of mystique is perpetual. By gathering, we fill our spaces with spirit; we encircle the bonfire, kneel at the forest altar, and offer praises at the temple to our chosen divinities. Through pilgrimage, we etch lasting paths, journeying meditatively across continents, with generations of footsteps repeatedly treading sacred grounds. Through our creative tributes to the spirit, we dream up new worlds: wildly imaginative odes to what we hold sacred; golden temples hewn from rock, immense spirals sculpted from sand and soil, and silent sanctuaries hidden among wooded groves. We adorn ancient cave walls with paintings, carve petroglyphs to guide the way, and place roses in homage at candlelit shrines. TASCHEN’s Sacred Sites (see more here) brings each of these ceremonial creations to life, page by page.

Mohammadreza Domiriganji, Ceiling of Vakil Mosque, Shiraz, United Arab Emirates, 2014

worshipping through art and architecture

‘Slowly, stone-by-stone, we build monuments to our gods, a cosmic geometry held within our sacred architecture of worship. These hidden patterns can be found in the mysterious, towering pyramids across the globe and throughout an astounding diversity of cultures, in the marble sanctuaries built to house the Greek and Roman goddesses, and in the windblown mountain monasteries of ancient Asia and the indigenous cliff-dwellings of the American Southwest,’ writes Sacred Sites author and editor, Jessica Hundley. Nature, art, and beauty are integral to the sacred sites of our ancestors and the myriad places where we endeavor to connect with the divine and with ourselves. Charting a path from ancient stone temples to visionary modern architecture, the fifth volume in The Library of Esoterica honors the shared history of spaces hallowed by human worship.

Ra Paulette, Tree of Life Cave, United States, 2011–19 | image © Nicolas Peña

Jessica Hundley, is an author, filmmaker and journalist. She has written for the likes of Vogue, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times, and has authored books on artists including Dennis Hopper, David Lynch, and Gram Parsons. Hundley often explores the counterculture in her work, with a focus on metaphysics, psychedelia, and magic. The English edition of Sacred Sites. Library of Esoterica by TASCHEN will be available starting July 15th, 2024. You can pre-order the book here. 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped Monument to Leonardo, Bulgaria/Morocco, 1970 | image © Harry Shunk

Unknown, Drawing from an untitled manuscript, Germany, 16th Century | Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuettel: Cod. Guelf. 74.1 Aug. 2°, folio 25r