Old churches find new life in Quebec

1. Église Christ-Roi

Location: Sherbrooke Built: 1940 The church was sold for $200,000 and subjected to a $300,000 conversion that turned the house of worship into a house of rock climbing. There are now 2,000 paying members of the Vertige Escalade gym.

2. Église St-Luc

Location: La Motte Built: 1937 The diocese sold the church to the town of La Motte, the hometown of former papal frontrunner Cardinal Marc Ouellet, for $1. The town then launched a $123,500 conversion, turning the little-used church into a multi-use community hall that continues to host a mass every second Sunday.

3. Église Sanctuaire du Rosaire et de St-Jude

Location: Montreal Built: 1905 The church was sold to developers in 2008 for $1.4 million and received $3.9-million renovation, adding a sauna, hot and cold baths, a gym and an interior garden, before opening as Le Saint-Jude Espace Tonus, a members-only spa and health centre in late 2013.

4. Église du Très-St-Rédempteur

Location: Montreal Built: 1927 Chic Resto Pop, a blossoming social endeavour to feed the poor, bought the church in 2001 for $300,000 and invested about $4 million to overhaul the building and set up a full-scale kitchen in the basement. Congregants now have food for the body rather than just the soul.

5. Église St-Esprit

Location: Limoilou Built: 1930 The Quebec Circus School was searching for a permanent home and the Catholic Church was looking to get rid of an underused property that had fallen into disrepair. So it was that the circus came to town, buying the building for $20,000 in 2001 and opening a year later after a $2.65-million renovation.

6. Église St-Pierre-Apôtre

Location: Joliette Built: 1953 The municipality bought the church for $500,000 in 2005 and completed a $6.3-million conversion to a library that added a few thousand editions, including literature, non-fiction and reference material to the Catholic holy book.