One of the most beautiful churches in the world, Las Lajas Sanctuary in Colombia

Las Lajas Sanctuary, Ipiales, Colombia, March, 2013
Las Lajas Sanctuary in southwest Colombia is renowned for its stunning architecture, for a series of legends involving the appearance of the Holy Virgin Mary, and for a mysterious mural of unknown origin. Located in the southwestern Colombian state of Nariño, the Sanctuary sits on a 130-foot-high bridge built over the Guaitara river, less than seven miles from the Ecuadoran border. The neo-Gothic church was erected by worshipers between 1916 and 1953, to replace a shrine first built in the middle of the 18th century.
The inspiration for the church's creation was a purported miraculous event in 1754, when Amerindian Maria Meneses de Quiñones and her deaf-mute daughter Rosa were caught in a very strong storm. The two sought refuge between the gigantic Lajas, when, to Meneses' surprise, her daughter Rosa exclaimed "the Mestiza is calling me" and pointed to the lightning-illuminated silhouette over the laja. This apparition of the Virgin Mary instigated popular pilgrimage to the site and occasional reports of cases of miraculous healing. An image appeared in the stone that is several feet inside of it. The image in the stone is still visible today.
The existence of a shrine in this location was recorded in the accounts of friar Juan de Santa Gertrudis' journey through the southern region of the New Kingdom of Granada between 1756 and 1764. The first shrine was built here in the middle of 18th century from straw and wood. It was replaced with a new, larger shrine in 1802, which in turn was extended and connected to the opposite side of canyon with a bridge.
The current church was built between January 1, 1916, and August 20, 1949, with donations from local churchgoers. It rises 100 meters (330 ft) high from the bottom of the canyon and is connected to the opposite side of the canyon by a 50 meters (160 ft) tall bridge.