Sacred and ancient

Temples, palaces and pyramids where music was ritual long before it was a night out. 11 rooms across 10 countries. Open any one for when to go, how to get there and what it sounds like inside.

Audience silhouettes facing the Sphinx enclosure lit gold, with two pyramids beyond and a green laser under a starry sky

Europe 3 rooms

The arcade of the Lazzaretto in Bergamo with a lawn in front and wooded hills behind

Lazzaretto di Bergamo

Bergamo, Italy · Living Cathedral and Outdoor Venue

Once a 15th-century refuge for the sick, the Lazzaretto di Bergamo has been reborn as a spiritual concert space where history hums through every stone.

Durham Castle and Durham Cathedral lit at night above the River Wear, the weir and the bridge in the foreground

Durham Cathedral

Durham, United Kingdom · Sacred

Durham Cathedral is the Norman cathedral on the peninsula above the River Wear, begun in 1093 and, with Durham Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986.

Panoramic view inside Union Chapel: red-brick Gothic arches, stained glass, long wooden pews and a stage set up beneath the pulpit

Union Chapel

London, United Kingdom · Sacred

Union Chapel is a Grade I listed Victorian Gothic Revival church at the top of Upper Street in Islington, designed by James Cubitt and completed in 1877.

Africa 2 rooms

Audience silhouettes facing the Sphinx enclosure lit gold, with two pyramids beyond and a green laser under a starry sky

Pyramids of Giza

Giza, Egypt · Open-air

The Giza plateau, on the western edge of Cairo, holds the Great Pyramid, the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure and the Great Sphinx, all built in the Fourth Dynasty.

The Hassan II Mosque and its minaret silhouetted against a low sun over the sea

Hassan II Mosque Esplanade

Casablanca, Morocco · Religious Architecture / Esplanade

Africa's second-largest mosque, inaugurated 1993, built half over the Atlantic Ocean. The 210-metre minaret is the world's second tallest.

Asia 4 rooms

Rinpung Dzong above a covered wooden bridge and river in Paro

Paro Tshechu

Paro, Bhutan · Sacred

Annual five-day spring tshechu at Paro Dzong. Masked monks dance to long-trumpet drone, cymbal and drum in the dzong's open courtyard with the Himalayas as the upstage wall. March-April.

A paved courtyard with carved pavilions and gateways at Ubud Royal Palace

Ubud Royal Palace (Puri Saren Agung)

Ubud, Indonesia · Sacred

Nightly gamelan-and-dance in the open courtyard of the still-occupied Ubud royal family palace. Full-village gamelan orchestra, court-trained dancers, plastic chairs ten feet from the gongs.

The low white shell of Teshima Art Museum on a green hillside

Teshima Art Museum

Teshima, Japan · Sacred

Ryue Nishizawa's concrete shell on Teshima Island in the Seto Inland Sea. Rei Naito's water installation produces a near-imperceptible drip-and-flow soundscape. The room is the music.

A performer in a red-and-green demon mask on a painted stage, from the Royal Ballet of Laos

Royal Ballet Theatre Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang, Laos · Sacred

Performance theatre inside the former Royal Palace in Luang Prabang. Masked dance with live court orchestra (khene, gongs, drums) in a UNESCO-protected town that goes to bed at 10pm.

Oceania 2 rooms

The Centre Culturel Tjibaou seen across the bay: a row of tall timber huts among the trees, with the mountain behind

Centre Culturel Tjibaou

Nouméa, New Caledonia · Sacred

Renzo Piano's 1998 masterwork on the Tinu peninsula. Ten timber-and-steel huts up to 28 metres tall, ribbed like upturned Kanak ceremonial structures, tuned by the trade winds.

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa seen from the waterfront

Te Marae o Rongomaraeroa (Te Papa)

Wellington, New Zealand · Sacred

Cliff Whiting's contemporary national marae inside Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand. A wharenui that belongs to all iwi rather than one.

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