YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast—There’s nothing on earth quite like the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace. It is one of the tallest churches anywhere, with a 518-foot-high basilica that tops the Vatican’s St. Peter’s. Guinness World Records calls it the largest church in the world.
Rising like a mirage through the haze of the Ivorian jungle, it is graced with Italian marble of many colors, outfitted with French glass of 5,000 shades and flanked by a grand 272-column colonnade. The price tag on the basilica, consecrated in 1990, was never disclosed. Local estimates range from $200 million to $600 million.
There was just one thing the great edifice, which can accommodate 18,000 people, lacked: … Read more>>