Project Ecclesia

A photographic survey of churches

Project Ecclesia

Project Ecclesia is a photographic survey of churches — their facades, towers, naves and the streets around them — recorded region by region as an atlas, with a book to follow. Each building is photographed with the same patient, frontal attention, so that the collection can be read as a whole: a record of how communities have chosen to build for worship.

Volume I

Volume I: Orange County, California

In progress

Volume I surveys the churches of Orange County, California, city by city.

Open the Volume I index →

Selected plates

Front of St. Francis by-the-Sea on Park Avenue: a white stucco church with an open wooden bell tower and cross, red tile roofs and a tiled entry porch with the sign "St. Francis by the Sea, The American Catholic Church", the number 430 and a National Register plaque.

Plate 101 · Laguna Beach

St. Francis by-the-Sea

American Catholic · 1933–34

The map

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Be first to hear about the Volume I book.

Get involved

Take part

I · Nominate

Know a church worth recording?

The survey grows through local knowledge. A short questionnaire covers its history and whether interior access might be possible.

Nominate a church

II · Support

Help the survey continue.

Project Ecclesia is self-funded. Support pays for travel, printing and the time it takes to photograph each church properly.

Support the project