Architectural Oddities

An enchanting work of outsider art, full of whimsical sculptures and carvings.

Three underground crypts and a pointed arch under the bell tower make this cathedral unique among Romanesque churches.

One of the earliest large-scale "hyper" roofs in the U.K. is now a derelict roadside attraction.

A little-known park with unusual, half-ruined structures and a mystical energy.

This abandoned lock-up was saved because of its connection to a local football team.

The unusual stilted beacon is the town's only active lighthouse.

A rare octagonal brick beacon on an isolated island in the Baltic.

This early 20th-century former train station’s unusual roof shape earned it a rather witchy name.

These medieval carvings bear scars left by Parliamentarian troops during the English Civil War.

The industrial architecture honors the laborers who brought the Exposition Universelle of 1900 to life.

On a cornerstone of the City Museum is the head of a monstrous serpent stolen from an Aztec pyramid 400 years ago.

This skeletal, unfinished Gothic church once housed a miraculous masterpiece by Raphael.

An outstanding piece of retro Sci-Fi architecture built into a sacred mountain.

Given just one more year to live, Conrad Schuck built his dream house in Bartow, Florida.

There are many Byzantine-era churches still standing in Athens, but this is the only one with a 2,500-year-old column rising through its roof.

This small 16th-century church in Athens is almost entirely surrounded by a modern building.

Edison's cast-in-place concrete houses were a failure, but way ahead of their time.

A surprising and unconventional mosque hidden in the subsoil of Istanbul.