Churches have always been places of sanctuary. In Joburg, many of the older ones supported the fight against apartheid. Others are newly built, bringing fresh peace and succour to the city. This is the second in a series of articles on Johannesburg's places of worship.

REFLECTING its multi-cultural nature, Joburg has a number of places of worship from across the religious spectrum.

Almost every religion is represented in the city, and practised in some of the country's most beautiful structures. Some of these, like St Mary's Cathedral in the inner city, played a significant role in the struggle against apartheid. At this particular Angelican church Beyers Naude preached and Desmond Tutu was dean.

Some old churches have been reborn as mosques or temples; some churches simply take place in the veld; new mosques have sprung up in former whites-only suburbs; new temples have been built by the faithful. Some places of worship stand out because of their architecture, their history, their associations, or just their splendour.

Christ the King Anglican Church, Sophiatown, 1935
The Christ the King Church was made famous by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston in the 1940s and '50s. The passionate anti-apartheid campaigner was being followed by the security police by the mid-1950s and was eventually recalled by the church to England in 1955, the year the removals started in Sophiatown.

The restful interior of the Christ the King Church, Sophiatown

Residents of the vibrant suburb were systematically removed to Meadowlands in Soweto, in the name of the Group Areas Act. The church, a simple but beautiful building, was one of the few structures in Sophiatown to survive the bulldozers, and it subsequently went through a tumultuous time. It was designed by Frank Fleming, who designed 85 churches throughout South Africa.

Its distinctive feature is a mural, no longer visible. It was painted between 1939 and 1941 by Sister Margaret. An uplifting mural painted in beautiful colours, it gave the simple church, with its wooden-beamed ceiling, a grandness that was greatly enjoyed and admired by its congregation.

The entire Sophiatown community was removed by the end of 1963; the church was deconsecrated in 1964 and sold to the department of community development in 1967. In the 1970s it was bought by the Nederduits Hervormde Kerk, which used it for Sunday schools. Before this purchase, the church had been badly vandalised and the beautiful mural had graffiti and racist slogans sprayed over it. Officials opted to whitewash the mural.

The tower of the Christ the King Church is a national monument

The church changed hands again: the Pinkster Protestante Kerk bought the building, altering it significantly. The nave was enclosed, a large font was built and wooden panelling and false organ pipes changed the look of the interior.

In 1997 the Anglicans bought the church back; the changes were reversed and the building was largely restored to its former self. However, the hall and gallery the Pinksters had built were retained. Many former Sophiatown worshippers have returned to the church, travelling each Sunday from Soweto to attend services there.

But its unique feature, the mural, sits quietly beneath the whitewash, waiting for the restorers' brushes and scalpels to return it to its former glory.

St Mary's Cathedral, inner city, 1929
St Mary's is another Frank Fleming church, designed in a Romanesque-Italian style. Its interior (some four to five storeys high) is dominated by soaring white-plastered columns and arches, glossy parquet floors, beautiful stained glass windows and simple wooden benches. Generations of Anglican worshippers have come and gone, among them the late Helen Joseph; the late Beyers Naude served as a priest at the church. The story goes that security men wearing their safari suits tried to blend in with the congregation, while spying on Naude.

The church's windows sparkle with stained glass depictions, and it boasts Cecil Skotnes linoprints and Joe Kekana pulpit carvings. An adjoining chapel, designed by Herbert Baker, lists 8 000 names of those who died in World War 1, and the walls are covered with paintings and other religious artefacts, many of them gifts to the church.

The lofty interior of St Mary's Cathedral, finished with the many contrasts in textures

Consecrated on 27 September 1929, the church's exterior is finished in stone; although these days it dissolves into the surrounding buildings, when it was built it stood tall and splendid in Wanderers Street.

Alongside the restful, domed apse is a magnificent pipe organ, which is still played on Sundays, echoing its resonant melodies through the high spaces. The cathedral seats 2 000 but these days those benches are hardly filled, says Reverend Douglas Torr. The 9.30am service attracts around 500 congregants, drawn from the inner city, Soweto and the East Rand. Up to 25 percent of the congregants are immigrants from other parts of Africa.

The church is famous for its strong ties to the struggle against apartheid. In the 1950s, it was one of the few non-racial churches in downtown Johannesburg, according to Luli Callinicos in The World that Made Mandela. The closing of St Cyprian's a few kilometres away forced the black congregants from that church to join the services at St Mary's.

The adjoining Darragh House, which belonged to the church, was a venue for non-racial meetings and in the 1970s and '80s, when Archbishop Desmond Tutu was dean of the church, services in support of the struggle were held.

And in April 1993 the body of Oliver Tambo lay in state in the cathedral before he was buried in Benoni.

Swaminarayan Mandir, Lenasia, 2004
One of Joburg's newest places of worship, the Swaminarayan Mandir, or temple, opened in September 2004 in Lenasia, to much celebration.

There's a peacefulness in the temple interior – it's quiet, with a polished marble floor and wide prayer space facing the idols against a decorated raised platform.

Intricately sculpted pillars line the walls, and the interior of the dome is lined with the same intricate carvings. The exterior is impressive: a flat, rectangular building with a small, central dome, offset with pillars on the corners and at entrances down the sides. The pillars consist of intricate PVC carvings and shapes, adding interest to the building. Flags flutter from short flagpoles on the roof.

Sleek, marbled floor surrounded by intricate, moulded pillars and with PVC moulded latticework in the domem defines the interior of the Swaminarayan Mandir

Mukesh Patel, the chairman of the Swaminarayan Hindu Mission of South Africa, says building the temple was very much a community effort: the R7-million needed was raised entirely by the Swaminarayan Hindu community in the city - some 400 people of a total 700 devotees nationwide.

• Temple Israel, Hillbrow, 1936
• St Alban's Anglican Mission Church, Ferreirasdorp, 1928
• Johannesburg Melrose Shree Siva Subramaniar Temple, Abbotsford, 1996
• Coptic Orthodox Church, Parkview, 1999
• ZCC Church, Alexandra
• Dutch Reformed Church, Fairview, 1906
• Mosque, Kerk Street, mid-1990s
• Church of Latter Day Saints, Parktown 1985
• Grace Bible Church, Pimville, 2002
• Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon, Woodmead, 1991
• Greek Orthodox Church, Hillbrow, 1912
• Dutch Reformed Church, Cottesloe, 1935
• Christ the King Anglican Church, Sophiatown, 1935
• St Mary's Cathedral, inner city, 1929
• Swaminarayan Mandir, Lenasia, 2004
• St Mary's the Less, Jeppestown, 1889
• Regina Mundi Catholic Church, Soweto, 1964
• The Lions Shul, Doornfontein, 1906
• Mosques, Vrededorp, 1930s
• St Anthony's, Crown Mines, 1976
• St Peter's Priory, Rosettenville, 1903