2 City Methodist Church Gary, Indiana, USA
Built in the Gothic Revival design, this enormous church included a gymnasium for activities and a restaurant. Unfortunately, the expense of upkeep was too great, and by the middle of the 1960s, fewer people were coming.
In 1975, the church fully shut its doors. The church’s roof was damaged in a significant fire in 1997 that mostly destroyed downtown Gary, leaving it exposed to the elements.
The sanctuary is the sole part of the structure that is still standing. The location is incredibly exposed to the elements due to the lack of a roof and windows. Inside the sanctuary, snow and rain gather, and plants have started to take over the structure, forming wild gardens.
Unfortunately, entry to the structure is not permitted. Visitors should avoid entering the building because of the deteriorating walls. Nevertheless, a lot of photographers have entered the building to record the natural splendor of the chapel.
1 San Juan Parangaricutiro Mexico
An alluring sight, the chapel of San Juan Parangaricutiro is encircled by hardened lava. The Paricutin volcano started to rise and erupt from a farmer’s field in 1943. The cone expanded by 410 meters (1,345 feet) in a single year and continued to erupt lava for an additional eight years.
Since the volcano is monogenetic, it will never erupt from the same location twice. Fortunately, no one was wounded during the blasts since the nearby communities were swiftly evacuated. Two communities were entirely buried by the volcano, with just fragments sticking out from the lava.
A church miraculously endured the relentless assault of molten rock for over 10 years. Even though it is entirely engulfed in and filled with lava, it still remains tall today.
Due to lava’s high nutritional content and ability to hasten plant growth, the fields that surround the church are now covered with dense, luxuriant vegetation. People go from all over the world to view the church, which is a popular tourist destination because it was the only building to withstand the molten lava.
