Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral

Before the twin spires went up on Fifth Avenue, this was St. Patrick's Cathedral. Built between 1809 and 1815 to a Gothic Revival design by Joseph-François Mangin, who also co-designed City Hall, it was the largest church in the city when it opened and the seat of New York's bishops until the new cathedral took over in 1879. The brownstone-trimmed walls rise straight off Mulberry Street, and a high brick wall wraps the old churchyard, one of the few in Manhattan.

Film fans know the interior from The Godfather: the baptism scene, cut against the settling of scores across the city, was shot inside. The church was named a New York City landmark in 1966 and a minor basilica in 2010, and it is still a working parish, with services in English, Italian, Spanish and Chinese, so step in quietly and save the photographs for outside.