Architectural Oddities

A peculiar trapezoidal building covered with wonderful humorous reliefs.

This neighborhood of futuristic ball houses looks like an alien settlement in a science fiction film.

The patron of this extravagant Art Nouveau confection insisted that nothing less than a boat should project from its facade.

In the days before house numbers, these colorful signs held clues about various buildings' purposes.

A mining town, now abandoned, was built in a canyon so narrow that the railroad ran right through the hotel lobby.

An ingenious solution to a tricky engineering problem, this spiraling bridge takes drivers for a dizzying spin.

On special occasions, one of the world's tallest artificial waterfalls gushes down the side of this Chinese skyscraper.

Seven mini rowhouses fill the gap between 54 and 70 Westerstraat.

An exact replica of Bill Clinton's childhood home stands within a resort in Japan.

Part of an abandoned19th-century fortress hides in plain sight inside a modern office building.

This enormous secondhand bookstore inside a Victorian train station sparked the "Keep Calm and Carry On" craze.

From a distance, Latin America's first Baha'i Temple looks like an enormous egg perched atop a hill.

These ruins of Francis Bacon's once-magnificent manor are hidden in the English countryside.

Local legend says this unusual chimney is actually a broken-hearted man's tomb.

A unique spiral staircase that doesn't quite make it up to the top floor.

This space rocket-like Buddhist stupa sits atop two giant arches and can be seen from out at sea.

Witnesses claim the Virgin Mary statue outside the church once mysteriously shed a single tear.