How do you redeem ground that's been tainted by an evil history? Cathleen Falsani writes about a church in Zanzibar that was constructed on the site of an old slave market. The result is an amazing symbolic statement, made not with costly monuments and elaborate architecture, but with the church's physical location:

The Anglicans purposely built Christ Church atop the former slave market as a statement of redemption and resurrection, as a kind of re-consecration.

Christ Church's altar, decorated with a triptych of mosaics depicting scenes from the life of Christ -- including a central rendering of his crucifixion—sits precisely where the slave market's whipping post once stood. Slaves were tied to it and lashed to demonstrate their strength for potential buyers.

Falsani filmed her exploration of the slave cells still preserved at the church. Can you imagine being faced with this piece of history each time you came to church to worship?

We normally think of "sacred ground" as a space where something holy or wondrous happened. But Falsani, reflecting on her tour of the church, wonders if sacred ground can be paradoxically created by suffering and evil as well. If you've ever been to a site that witnessed great evil or suffering (see this account of a modern-day visit to Weis Church and Dachau), there's no denying a certain sense of "sacred space" as you are forced to ponder the things that transpired there.

Have you ever experienced this? Anybody care to share other examples of "sacred space" created by, or redeemed from, historical evil?