In the last decades, in Italy, as well as in other countries with a relevant Catholic background, a growing number of church-buildings is desacralized and dedicated to new uses. By adopting a semiotic perspective, this paper provides some considerations about the codification of the reuse of churches in canon law as well as national and international law, and then presents a tentative typology of the most common types of reuse. It concludes by presenting some reflections on the aesthetic, ideological and pathemic issues at stake in the common imagery about desacralized churches, also taking into consideration literary works.