The churches represent the most widespread typology within the monumental masonry buildings present in the Italian territory. A special attention needs to be paid to the assessment of this structures for the high vulnerability due to the architectural features (slender walls with large openings, wide halls and huge vaults, large façades, etc…). The work presents the analysis carried out on a database that collects the damage information and structural characteristics of a large sample of churches (2884) inspected after the 2016-2017 Central Italy seismic sequence. The first part of this paper analyses the seismic sequence and the typologies of churches included in the database. The second part illustrates the derivation of empirical fragility curves for the churches, elaborated starting from the damage probability matrices (DPMs), expressing the probability of attaining selected damage levels for discrete interval of PGA (peak ground acceleration). The fragility curves are determined via the maximum likelihood estimation method by adopting a lognormal cumulative function to determine the exceedance probabilities of the considered damage levels. In particular, the fragility curves are defined considering the behavior of the churches through the value of a global damage index. These results are then compared with the fragility curves related to the damage index referred to the single macro-elements and single mechanisms. The main aim of this work is to identify the weight of specific macro-elements and mechanisms in determining the global damage level and eventually to point out proper interventions to reduce the vulnerability of the whole church.