Throughout history, cities rather than rural areas have been places of religious activity. This also applies to secularisation, i.e. “ negative religious innovation.” Especially in Western Europe, it was ( and is ) cities where secularisation has been strongest. On the other hand, it is cities where new religious movements can and do grow. With the secularisation thesis losing ground as the dominant explanation for changes on the religious scene, attention is increasingly drawn to these developments even in Western European cities. Following the spatial expansion of major cities in Western Europe in the 19 th century and the first half of the 20 th century, most new churches were built in outlying areas, while many old churches found at central locations have been turned into museums and other tourist sites, often without an active congregation or just with a small one. Religious “ newcomers ” such as Islam and charismatic and evangelical Christian churches often have to resort to the urban periphery. Because their members usually are scattered across a large area within the urban agglomeration, accessibility by car and large parking lots are more important than a central, representative location. Rather than interpreting this observation as an exodus of religion from the centres of life and centres of cities, it should be seen as an adjustment to, and an expression of, changed modern and postmodern lifestyles.

In the last 60 years, the number of Muslims in the Netherlands has increased considerably from 300 to more than 827,000. Immigration, in particular from Turkey and Morocco, was the main cause. In the same time period, Dutch society was secularising to a large extent. About 60% of the Dutch population is no longer affiliated with a religion.
This paper focus on two questions. Is the Muslim population secularising as well? Is a Muslim religious identity hindering integration in, or identification with, (secular or Christian) Dutch society? To answer these questions, the results of recent surveys, both on the national and on the local (Amsterdam) level, have been analysed after considering existing theories on secularisation and immigrant integration. The results show that after initial indications of secularisation, there is no secularisation among Muslims of Turkish and Moroccan origin in the last decade ; mosque attendance by the second generation has actually increased. Existing theories on secularisation, such as the classical secularisation paradigm and market theories can not explain these developments, perhaps with the exception of the theory of existential security. Also assimilation theories do not prove to be valid. It appears that
there is a continuing religious vitality among these immigrant groups as a consequence of socialisation in immigrant families and communities with relatively strong intra-group ties. Also the possibility of a kind of “reactive religiosity” in confrontation with an increasing public hostility towards Islam cannot be excluded.
Concerning the second research question, there proved to be a positive correlation between religious identification (with Islam) and ethno-national identification (with the country of origin), which could hinder integration in, and identification with, Dutch national society. However, it does not hinder identification with the local (Amsterdam) society, which is relatively strong and functions as a “ bridging identity ” with the national society.

New church construction in the cities of Serbia in the last 25 years is a consequence of restrictions and the marginalisation of religion during the pre-1989 socialist period. In the period from 1945 to 1989, almost no new churches were built, and urban planners in Serbia have not developed appropriate selection criteria for the location of new religious buildings. Religious buildings built in the period after 1990 were built on sites that were selected ad hoc without considering the needs of believers and churches. In the last 25 years, more than 400 churches have been built in rural areas and cities, which influenced the reshaping of the cultural landscape. In this paper, attention is given to determining the required number of churches, their location, and the distribution of the urban structure in relation to various relevant factors. The specific spatial organisation of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the homeland and in the diaspora is emphasized.

The main aim of this paper is the analysis of trends and processes in the religious landscape of the Czech capital of Prague in the period of political transformation after 1989. Czech society has been secularised to an extent unprecedented in the rest of Europe. The paper uses also the term religious landscape in a broader sense mostly as both territory and society of a selected larger territorial unit. The general trend of secularisation of modern Czech (Prague) society is accompanied by diversification (almost atomisation) of religious communities. The paper attempts to describe the main reasons for the transformation in religiosity in Prague after the fall of communism between 1991 and 2011 as well as outlines the fundamental consequences of these changes. The city of Prague has also experienced regional differentiation of religious development, evidenced by the quantitatively dwindling Roman Catholic Church on the one hand, and the growth of the Brethren Evangelical Free Church on the other. The rising importance of alternative religiosity is probably associated with the trend of secularisation of society and thus the transformation of the original Christian society into a society with prevailing occult or esoteric knowledge.

In the last one hundred years, Czech lands and Europe in general have witnessed a significant change in burial culture. In some countries, cremation has evolved into a dominant method of human burial, but Europe is highly differentiated in this respect despite its common Christian tradition. Does this change in burial culture reflect changes in religiosity? The largely secular Czechia ranks first in the practice of cremation not only in Europe but also worldwide. This paper discusses changes in burial methods in Europe, which are a reflection of socio-political processes that ultimately lead to more frequent cremation, and the role of cremation in religion is also discussed. One of the aims of the paper is to stimulate the geographer’s/reader’s interest in the subject of death and burial, which are issues that remain on the margins of world geography, and yet say so much about the cultural development of our society.

In the paper, issues of a multitude of functions of sacred places in Lviv are considered. The problem is presented on the example of selected religious sites that were established in distinct periods of the development of the city and refers to different religious denominations. At present, various functions are mixing in the sacred complexes of Lviv. The author tries to formulate some general conclusions concerning their contemporary role and leading types of activity. These findings are based, most of all, on analyses of the facts related to the history of Lviv, circumstances of its foundation, various transformations, and modern functions of the selected sites.

The purpose of the paper is the identification and description of factors affecting the process of sacralisation as well as the implementation of theoretical concepts in a case study of the Baltic city of Gdynia. The time range of the research is limited to the postwar period (1945–2013). It has been assumed that the formation of any religious landscape occurs under two main circumstances: (1) the need to express faith and (2) the opportunity to do it. The former is an internal factor and depends on religiosity, while the latter is closely related to politics, environment, economy and social life. A detailed scheme was constructed around this statement in the form of a mapping sentence. The research is based on qualitative measures which include field observation, analysis of source documents, and an analysis and criticism of bibliographic sources. Visual documentation and participant observation have also been used. There are two main conclusions coming out of this paper. Although any religious landscape is a mixture of different factors, by the 1980s the sacralisation of Gdynia was determined mainly by political factors, and later by economic and cultural ones. Furthermore, for three decades some tendencies, typical also for the whole country, have also been recognised in Gdynia: monumentalism, privatisation of sacred sites and the “John-Paul-the-Second-isation” of public spaces.

Religious heritage is an important cultural resource for a city. First, cities are at the crossroads of conflicting trends in globalisation. Urban communities are looking for that which makes them universal and unique at the same time. Second, reflection on identity in relation to the heritage and history of a city reveals the multicultural past of Central and Eastern Europe, and shows an image of social change and transformation. Religious heritage plays, therefore, various roles. Places connected with religious identities have symbolic, sacred and artistic meanings. They construct a local universe of meaning; they are an important factor of the local narrative and customs, and they place it in the context of national, regional and ethnic traditions. Churches, temples, and cemeteries are also a sign of memory, this shows not only history but also the contemporary processes of remembering and forgetting. The city of Bielsko-Biała was a cultural and religious mosaic until 1945. Jewish, German and Polish cultures were meeting here everyday with diverse religious belonging and boundaries. Today, the heritage of its religious identity is recognized mainly via monuments, tourist attractions, and cultural events. Only occasionally is the religious heritage of the city analysed in the context of collective identities. Urban space still reflects the complexity of the relationships between religious, national, and regional identities. The purpose of the paper is to describe the variety of functions of religious heritage in a contemporary city on the example of Bielsko-Biała in Poland. The analysis will be based on demographic data from the national census of population, religious community documents, available sociological research outcomes, and historical and contemporary images of the city such as maps and plans, postcards and tourist brochures.

Religious orders are clearly noticeable in the geographic space of major cities in Poland. The purpose of the paper is to analyse the location factors for religious orders in Kraków, including the location of the most important houses and their related activity in the city. Religious orders have been present in Kraków since its beginnings. The paper covers convents run by the Roman Catholic Church within the borders of Kraków. The paper is focused on the 20th century when a considerable increase of the number of religious orders and general spatial development of the city was observed. The data for this paper was obtained from church and secular sources, as well as land surveys. In addition, changes in the spatial distribution of religious orders and monastic houses operating in Kraków in the 20th century as well as modifications in their functions were analysed. The largest concentration of monastic houses is Kraków’s historic core. The actual distribution of convents is a result of centuriesold traditions and depends on numerous factors such as the capital city function of Kraków in effect until the end of the 16th century and the rank of religious administration (bishopric). A further increase in the number of monastic houses was also due to the spatial growth of the city and the general development of monastic life. Religious orders were characterised by various endogenous and exogenous functions.