Markus Brunetti's FACADES Series Documents Europe's Churches

German photographer Markus Brunetti has spent over two decades on his ongoing FACADES series, meticulously documenting Europe's cathedrals, basilicas, monasteries, synagogues, and cloisters. Using thousands of high-resolution photographs captured meter by meter, Brunetti assembles each image into a monumental, distortion-free facade portrait. He flattens perspective and removes optical distortion, making Gothic spires and Baroque domes fully visible and symmetrical. The process involves traveling across Europe with collaborator Betty Schöner in a converted firetruck, revisiting sites under precise lighting conditions. Some structures require multiple visits over years; his portrait of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome began in 2007 and was completed in 2026 after seven returns. The series highlights the diversity of European ecclesiastical architecture, from Venetian Renaissance to French Gothic to Tuscan Romanesque. Brunetti, born into a family of builders, brings an architectural awareness that rejects traditional photography in favor of a monumental digital elevation drawing. The resulting images remove modern distractions like signage and crowds, presenting the structures as timeless studies of craftsmanship. An exhibition titled FACADES IV runs from April 30, 2026 to June 20, 2027 at Yossi Milo Gallery in New York.