This thesis is based on an examination of abandoned church buildings in Saskatchewan that were built during the second wave of immigration to that province. It proceeds with an inquiry into their architectural purpose at a time when they are no longer in use, and examines the meaning of these places as ruins, as mnemonic devices for contemporary man, and as a reminder of loss.Eighteenth century thinker Gianbattista Vico’s theory of the “cycle of history” serves as a structuring theo...