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Places of worship provide peace and comfort to millions of people of many faiths around the world.

It may be a church, synagogue, temple or mosque in your town, a city’s cathedral or perhaps even a place that’s simply special to you and your family.

Religious buildings aren’t always built to a traditional blueprint, though. Here, 91�ȱ� Bitesize takes a look at four remarkable places from around the world, whose form and structure have had a little help from nature, intriguing human design, or a plot thousands of feet in the sky.

The church built within France’s oldest known tree

A 17th-Century bolt of lightning marked the beginning of a remarkable transformation for an oak tree in the French village of Allouville-Bellefosse. The high-voltage impact gutted its trunk, but rather than leave it in such a sorry state, two men, the Abbot Du Detroit and his friend, the village priest Father Du Cerceau - created a shrine to the Virgin Mary within the tree, which was now hollow.

The shrine went on to become a place of worship, known as Le Chêne Chapelle (The Chapel Oak). It houses two chapels; Notre Dame de la Paix (Our Lady of Peace) and Chambre de l’Ermite (Hermit’s Room), with access to the upper level from an external staircase. The structure stands 15m tall and has a circumference of 16m. It came under threat of being burnt to the ground during the French Revolution, where churches were seen by some as a symbol of oppression against the people. It was renamed as a Temple of Reason instead.

As well as being a place of worship, the tree also bears the title of France’s oldest known tree, at around 800 years old - although there are claims it has been around for as long as 1,200 years. Its age has led to the structure being propped up with poles and a series of protective coverings - known as shingles - placed around the trunk, giving it a higgledy-piggledy look. It remains a working place of worship, welcoming two masses each year and a special pilgrimage on 15 August. In 1932, it was listed as a historic monument.

The mosque built on a man-made island in Malaysia

The newest building on this list, Masjid Selat Melaka, also known as the Melaka Straits Mosque or Malacca Straits Mosque, was completed in 2006 on the shoreline of the Strait of Melaka in Malaysia.

It is built on a man-made island on the shoreline and when the water levels are high enough, the mosque appears to float. Its archways are made from stained glass and the building is said to look impressive in the light of sunrise and sunset.

The building is also of great importance to passing vessels as the mosque’s 98ft (100m) minaret has another use as a lighthouse.

The Finnish church built within a cave in its capital city

Visitors to Finland's capital Helsinki may well have seen this church as part of a city tour. Not only is it an unusual place of worship, it’s also become a tourist attraction.

Temppeliaukio church (also known as the Rock Church) was opened in 1969 following an architecture competition won by brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen. The bare rock walls in the interior of the building were not initially part of the blueprint, but were left in their natural state when it was realised they provided good acoustics. They’re so good, in fact, that the church is often used as a music venue too.

A large copper and glass dome on the roof is the main source of light for Temppeliaukio, and the only part that can be viewed from above ground. There are no bells within the church either - a recording is played instead over loudspeakers.

The temples built on a cliff in Bhutan

For more than 400 years, Paro Taktsang monastery, also known as Tiger’s Nest, has sat on the side of a cliff in Bhutan’s Paro valley.

Built in 1692, its location is near a cave where the Buddhist Guru Padmasambhava is said to have meditated for three months, three weeks, three days and three hours in the 8th Century. Padmasambhva remains an important figure in the country.

The complex of temples, part of which have been rebuilt after a fire in 2008, can only be accessed by a path up the cliff and the journey. It's a big hike, the monastery is 10,000ft (3,000m) above sea level, and can take around three hours on foot. The Prince and Princess of Wales made the trek to the Tiger’s Nest during an official visit in 2016, as Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

This article was published in February 2022 and last updated in February 2023