Are there any pagan built churches?

Question

I know a lot of churches were built on pagan sites, but were any of them actually built by pagans, as in, for their own church brfore the christians even came along?

Answer 1

Just as the pagans built temples and sites on previous religions' sites as soon as they got the higher hand - romans over druidic or northern sites for example - the early Christians did the same with pagan temples. Many churches are built on temples and if you can visit the cellars you can find trace of that old architecture, mostly Roman in Europe.
No church was in fact old pagan temple as the priests did not want traces of the previous religion anywhere, besides each religion had their own rules for building a sacred building.

Answer 2

They are many pagan superstions still linked to churches, partly because many were thought to have been built on old sacred ground. The evidence of yews, etc. bares witness to this.
Walking the wrong way (widdershins) around the church was believed to invoke the Devil. I'm afraid we used to do it all the time as kids!
They were also still a lot of people that attended church that also practised the "old ways". They were taken very seriously even in the early sixties.
Harvest festival, Halloween, etc. all have thier roots in folklore.
The pagan way is to have the alter in the North because this is where the strongest energy is beleived to be drawn from. Not so crazy when you think of the North Pole. It was also thought that if the Devil could enter it was from this end. Churches are well known to follow the traditional ley lines, the east - west paths and roads between villages are still often referred to as funeral paths.
Check out the website below, I think it has more info.

Answer 3

nope, Pagans didn't build churches.. that's a Christian thing.

but you could argue that Stonehenge, Avebury, Masham and various other points were Pagan religious centres.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if some churches were built on Pagan sites, after all Christianity has absorbed pagan festivals into its own rites in order to encourage people to convert.

Also seeing as Christianity was imported into this country by the Romans in the first century its doubtfull that any detailed records will survive

Answer 4

They worshipped at particular sites, had many Gods.
The Romans often adopted the local Gods as they were effectively Pagan too. The main places of worship were henge's, these were built of all sorts of materials and only a few survive(stone henge) and evidence of wooden henge's from archaeological digs have been found.

You could try checking your local library and look up information on Druids. The isle of Angelsey was a stronghold for a long time, one of the last the Romans crushed I think, so look for a History of Anglesey.

Answer 5

No "pagan " churches; but if you look closely in some of the really early built churches you will find examples of paganism crafted by the early masons.
Look for the green man: hidden somewhere in the "christian" edifice!

Answer 6

Yes. The Pantheon in Rome was built as a temple to the 7 gods of the 7 planets. It was latter taken over by the Christians and is now a church.

Answer 7

Not as far as I know. It's a shame alot of our early religious heritage was whipped out by the Christians. I don't think there would be, because they either came together in covens of on their own. Then again that's modern pagans and we don't not really know anything about how our ancestors worshipped.

Answer 8

that would be contraditory to pagan teachings. you couldn't praise the earth locked up in a building.

Answer 9

Well, exactly what do you mean by "pagan"?

Chow!!