Best basilicas to visit worldwide

Basilica is an honorary rank the pope gives to a church for its history, its relics or its role as a place of pilgrimage, and the four papal basilicas of Rome sit at the top of the list. St Peter’s is the one almost everyone visits, free to enter but with a separate ticket for the dome; the Sagrada Família in Barcelona sells timed entry and a second ticket for its towers; St Mark’s in Venice keeps the Pala d’Oro and the terrace above the square behind their own tickets. Sacré-Cœur in Paris, St Mary’s in Kraków with its carved altarpiece and hourly trumpet call, and St Stephen’s in Budapest with its dome walkway complete the most booked group.