The history of Italy, home to the Vatican, is historically tied to the Catholic church. So it comes as no surprise that there are an estimated 65,000 churches—or chiese—in Italy. But what may surprise you are the vast quantities of churches that have been abandoned and left to decay. Across the country, it's an all-too-common phenomenon and it's something that Dutch photographer Roman Robroek wanted to learn more about.

To do so, Robroek explored Italy from north to south and photographed 100 examples of church architecture that have fallen into decay. According to Robroek, there are at least 1,000 abandoned churches reported across the country, and the actual number may be even higher.