In the Netherlands, a Catholic church will be converted into a swimming pool

In the city of Heerlen, architects plan to transform the closed Church of Saint Francis of Assisi into a swimming pool. The Holy Water project was proposed by the architectural firms MVRDV and Zecc Architecten, who won the competition to redesign the building. Information about this is available on the official website of the architectural bureau.

The church, built one hundred years ago, has not been functioning since 2023 due to a decline in attendance. Instead of preserving its sacred purpose, the building will be repurposed as an entertainment venue.

The original floor will be removed, and a new mosaic floor will be installed with a movable mechanism: it can be flooded with a thin layer of water or raised for events. The priest’s pulpit will be converted into a lifeguard station. Locker rooms and a dining area will be arranged inside the building.

Thus, the space that once served as a place of prayer will become another entertainment facility.

Earlier it was reported that in the city of Vyshhorod, Kyiv region, the premises of a Sunday school built by the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the Borysoglebskyi Church were put up for commercial rent. This was announced on May 24, 2025, by Archbishop Iona of Obukhiv, vicar of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC, citing a publication on the OLX classifieds platform.