The conquistadors and their successors specifically set out to destroy indigenous religion and religious sites and replace them with Catholic ones in South and Central America. There are a fair number of cathedrals and churches in Mexico, Ecuador and Peru that are built on top of destroyed temples, often reusing the same stones. In Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, the entire temple district was razed and the existing main cathedral of Mexico City was built over part of it.

Almost all of the paper texts created by the Maya were destroyed by a Catholic priest named Diego de Landa in 1562. Not all of them were religious but a lot of them were.

In the Andes, priests received orders to destroy all the native idols, mummies which were venerated as ancestors, and huacas, or sacred locations on the landscape. There's a letter from a frustrated priest (I don't have the reference to hand) complaining that his job is impossible because the natives worship sacred mountains, rock outcrops, and other natural features too permanent to destroy.

Here's a reference for Peru

Here's a reference for the Maya codices

The church specifically or nations doing this in the name of the church?

Yes, Christians have at various points throughout history destroyed traditional and sacred sites associated with other belief systems. However, this is a bit of broad question as it covers nearly two thousand years worth of history and policies and practices directed against non-Christians have varied drastically with time and place. Is there a time period in particular that you are interested in?

During the early medieval period, for example, we have accounts of Christians destroying sacred groves and other non-Christian cultic sites. One of the more famous accounts comes from the Vita of St. Boniface, and concerns the destruction of the oak at Geismar in Hesse, likely dedicated to Thor. The tale attributes the destruction of Donar's Oak to the saint:

Now at that time many of the Hessians, brought under the Catholic faith and confirmed by the grace of the sevenfold spirit, received the laying on of hands; others indeed, not yet strengthened in soul, refused to accept in their entirety the lessons of the inviolate faith. Moreover some were wont secretly, some openly to sacrifice to trees and springs; some in secret, others openly practiced inspections of victims and divinations, legerdemain and incantations; some turned their attention to auguries and auspices and various sacrificial rites; while others, with sounder minds, abandoned all the profanations of heathenism, and committed none of these things. With the advice and counsel of these last, the saint attempted, in the place called Gaesmere, while the servants of God stood by his side, to fell a certain oak of extraordinary size, which is called, by an old name of the pagans, the Oak of Jupiter. And when in the strength of his steadfast heart he had cut the lower notch, there was present a great multitude of pagans, who in their souls were earnestly cursing the enemy of their gods. But when the fore side of the tree was notched only a little, suddenly the oak's vast bulk, driven by a blast from above, crashed to the ground, shivering its crown of branches as it fell; and, as if by the gracious compensation of the Most High, it was also burst into four parts, and four trunks of huge size, equal in length, were seen, unwrought by the brethren who stood by. At this sight the pagans who before had cursed now, on the contrary, believed, and blessed the Lord, and put away their former reviling. Then moreover the most holy bishop, after taking counsel with the brethren, built from the timber of the tree wooden oratory, and dedicated it in honor of Saint Peter the apostle.

Now it's important to remember that hagiography, along with most early medieval history writing, has a tendency to appeal to certain literary tropes in the construction of their narratives, usually with a specific end-goal in mind (i.e. this saint should be venerated!). The 'pagan showdown' trope is a common one --usually ending in a miraculous event--, but the appeal of such stories was that the destruction of 'pagan' holy sites in some measure demonstrated the victory of the Christian God over non-Christian ones. In other words, the author implies that this kind of destruction was good and assumes that his audience would generally agree. That at least gives us some idea of the attitudes of some Christians towards pre-Christian sites in the early medieval period. However, while the destruction of groves certainly happened, that does not mean the practice was coordinated. Early medieval Christianity was incredibly diverse, decentralized, and did not operate as a coherent unit.

Edit: Since you have asked specifically about the role of polities in the destruction of religious sites and the endorsement of such actions by the Church, Charlemagne’s campaign against the Saxons might be a worthwhile subject to touch upon.

In AD 772, Charlemagne invaded Saxony and ordered the destruction of Irminsul, kicking off the infamous Saxon Wars. Irminsul was another sacred site, which like others was associated with the world tree (we don’t know exactly what was venerated on the site). The war had a strong religious component to it, with major Frankish victories followed by baptisms, church foundations, and forced tithes.The response to these campaigns were mixed, and we do see criticism of Charlemagne’s heavy-handed approach. Anglo-Saxon missionaries had certainly experienced Carolingian support or backing in the desecration of sacred sites in the past, so it was not the destruction of non-Christian sites per se that prompted these responses. Alcuin in particular argued for delayed baptisms and tithes. Alcuin’s model for missionary activity is outlined further in the various saints’ Lives he authored and letters to contemporaries, which emphasizes an approach that relies on preaching and not on force. The missionary Lebuin, according to his Life, urged the Saxons to convert before the Franks invaded, and the text seems to indicate that it is an attempt to head off Charlemagne’s policies.

Of course, that does not mean that others did not approve of Charlemagne’s efforts, the (premature) panegyric De coversione Saxonum written by Angilbert certainly takes the perspective of one who supports the king’s efforts to bring Christianity to the heathen. Despite the failure to thoroughly convert the Saxons through force, similar actions would also be used in campaigns against the Avars. The larger point is that the medieval church was not a monolithic entity, dispensing its approval or disapproval in hive-mind fashion. While the treatment of pre-Christian sites was generally negative, how to approach ‘converting’ various peoples on the fringes of the Christian world was an ongoing dialogue throughout the period.

Hello everyone,

In this thread, there have been a large number of incorrect, speculative, or otherwise disallowed comments, and as such, they were removed by the mod-team. Please, before you attempt answer the question, keep in mind our rules concerning in-depth and comprehensive responses. Answers that do not meet the standards we ask for will be removed.

Others have rightly pointed out here that the question is a tad fraught, as what constitutes an act of the Church per se (i.e., what mandate or action is required) directly determines whether such events have been entirely commonplace, or almost wholly absent.

That having said, the most prominent example in my area of specialisation is to be found in Willibald's Life of St. Boniface. Here, during the Anglo-Saxon Saint Boniface's 8th century mission to the continent, we are provided a precious anecdote offering an insight into the early medieval Christian Germanic encounter with Germanic paganism. And we are provided a story of the destruction of a sacred place by a church leader:

Moreover, some continued secretly, others openly, to offer sacrifices to trees and springs, to inspect the entrails of victims; some practiced divination, legerdemain, and incantations; some turned their attention to auguries, auspices, and other sacrificial rites; while others, of a more reasonable character, forsook all the profane practices of the Gentiles [i.e., pagans] and committed none of these crimes. With the counsel and advice of the latter persons, Boniface in their presence attempted to cut down, at a place called Gaesmere, a certain oak of extraordinary size called in the old tongue of the pagans the Oak of Jupiter [i.e., Donar]. Taking his courage in his hands (for a great crowd of pagans stood by watching and bitterly cursing in their hearts the enemy of the gods), he cut the first notch. But when he had made a superficial cut . Suddenly, the oak's vast bulk, shaken by a mighty blast of wind from above crashed to the ground shivering its topmost branches into fragments in its fall. As if by the express will of God (for the brethren present had done nothing to cause it) the oak burst asunder into four parts, each part having a trunk of equal length. At the sight of this extraordinary spectacle the heathens who had been cursing ceased to revile and began, on the contrary, to believe and bless the Lord.

Edit: I should note that though the account itself sounds fanciful in the details, we have every reason to consider it authentic in the generalities. Willibald is a contemporary of Boniface who is personally familiar with the man and cannot be less than equally familiar with this most significant mission of the early 8th century Anglo-Saxon church (by which time all of England itself has come under Christian rule). Clearly, he is a biased source. But beyond hearing the account of Boniface himself, he could not be a better placed one.

Interesting that no one has mentioned that many of the great cathedrals of Southern Spain (for example Cordoba) are built around or inside a mosque. In the case of Cordoba, they (the Church and Castille) walled up the airy space, ripped out a few columns and arches, and stuck a cathedral in the middle. The central mosque of Seville formed the basis of the cathedral there as well and I would expect this happened in other cities too.

The Temple of Jupiter in Damascus was converted into a church in the late 4th century. This in turn became the Umayyad Mosque a few centuries later.

IF you go, it's always interesting to notice the various styles of stonework and look how the old Roman columns were recycled, especially under the treasury.

I don't know if it counts as an answer to your question. You say "The Catholic Church" but at the time it was one of five catholic churches, falling under the Patriarch of Antioch and not Rome.