The map above shows European cities, towns and villages that have the term “saint” or “holy” in their names. The data comes from the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
Overall, France is the clear winner with 8,963 “holy” places followed by Spain with 4,444 and Italy with 2,638. At the other extreme you have Sweden and Norway with just 2 “holy” places each.
Interestingly, the UK actually beats out Ireland in terms of places named after a “Saint” or including the word “holy”, with 327 compared to just 34 in Ireland.
You can read the full article and learn more about the data and methodology here.
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Erig Le Brun de La Bouëxière says
They would have found way much more if they had considered the celtic names of the breton (Brittany) localities. Quite every breton village is named after a saint but the name of the saint is accompanied by a prefix significating “monastery” (lan), “parish” (plo/plou) “hermitage” (loc) etc… the word saint is not written but it’s implied.
It’s the same in most of celtic countries. In Wales the welsh laguage prefixes are mainly the same than in breton “Llan” “Lok” etc… In Ireland they could have counted the “kil” cities (Killarney etc…)
Doing so, they just would have had to paint Ireland Wales and Brittany red…
Clint says
Very true, I did a very quick and dirty search for welsh Llann and Llan place names and indeed you would have paint Wales red, also Lan and Lann in Cornwall as you pointed out. Thanks for the Kil reference for Ireland, I was looking for the literal term for Naomh i.e. saint in modern Irish.
Shea Reynolds says
Also Mull at the beginning of the name in Ireland meaning follower of bald headed munk. Tober meaning well (holy).
Philip Owen says
Not just Kil. Wales also has Cil…
Philip Owen says
Oh and Clas… Glas… for a monk’s hermitage, the monk usually being a Saint of Celtic Christianity. Glas-tonbury being a doubly distorted derivation from such a root.
mainwasser says
So, Galicia is the most holy place in Europe!
Reggie says
Not sure you can claim that simply by place name correlation, also the map misses out a lot of saint designated place names where the compiler has not understood certain languages or idiomatic language usage.
rhysllwyd says
This map is incorrect, my friend correctly plotted out the Llan’s in Wales. All the Llan’s bar a few exeptions are named after a Celtic Saint.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b010cf5f483a4058b1796cc7ecc5b7db74700e78c12dc9984cf9eee5564be8ac.jpg
Ainis Stankaitis says
Ha! Ain’t no saints in Lithuania 🙂
MAGA says
The last country in Europe baptized, so…
Šventas says
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0ventoji,_Lithuania
Diana says
I belive there is, but not in this map. I’m from Latvia and there is place Svēte (holly)
Zólya Atilla says
If they would analyse the name of localities not only in the „ruling” language of the countries, then also in the language of the national minorities witch are there living, that map would be more accurate and real… in Romania are living approx. 1 500 000 Hungarian/Sekler, and a big part of their localities are named from the patron saint of the church of the locality, but the translation of the locality’s name in the Romanian (official language) this isn’t mirrored, the original sense is lost.
For exemple:
Csíkszentlélek – Leliceni
Csíkszentmiklós – Nicolau
Dicsőszentmárton – Târnâveni
Gyergyószentmiklós – Georgeni
Homoródszentmárton – Mărtiniş
Székelyszentlélek – Bisericani
Székelyszentmihály – Mihăileni
Nyárádszentmárton – Mitreşti
Tordaszentlászló – Săvădisla
Holy says
Holysloot is missing
MR. Twister says
What about Saint Petersburg?
g-guy says
Just a question :
Why is Turkey a non-European country and Switzerland is ?
– If it is about political EU then Switzerland as well must be out of Europ.
– If it is geographical then Turkey is in Europ the same way Russia is as well.
Andy says
I think this also boils down to how you define a place name. Does it have to be the official political name of a city, town, or village, or do names of non-politically defined neibourhoods or geographical features also count? If you start looking for saints names in things like mountains, forests, streams, farms, islands etc, I guess you will find plenty more. Also if you do not just use the official language but minority or non recognised languages or word etymologies even where tehse are no longer obvious.
shixilun says
The Channel Islands are rife with “Saint” names. Ten out of twelve parishes in Jersey (where I live) are named after saints.
And yet no red at all?
Philip Owen says
This came back on Twitter. Kirk-, -kirk and -kirchen would probably populate Northern and German Europe. Eglwys and Eglos (meaning church) would also add a few more in Celtic areas.