BestArchitecture
Buildings worth crossing a country to stand in front of — ancient temples, cathedrals, modernist landmarks and contemporary work that changed what a building could be. Many of the most famous are still working buildings: churches hold services, town halls hold councils, and interior access is the thing most likely to be closed when you arrive.
Sydney Opera House
Sydney, Australia · Expressionist Modern
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Jørn Utzon's harborside performing-arts center, its shell-like concrete roofs an icon of 20th-century Expressionist Modern architecture.
Schönbrunn Palace
Vienna, Austria · Rococo / Baroque
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The Baroque summer residence of the Habsburgs, with hundreds of Rococo rooms and extensive formal gardens on the edge of Vienna.
Fundação Iberê Camargo
Porto Alegre, Brazil · Contemporary
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Álvaro Siza’s only building in the Americas, a white concrete block against a hillside on the Guaíba shore, circulated by sculptural ramps that leave and re-enter the facade; it won him the Golden Lion at the 2002 Venice Biennale.
Habitat 67
Montreal, Canada · Brutalist / Modular
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Moshe Safdie's housing complex built for Expo 67, a stacked arrangement of prefabricated concrete modules that give each apartment a private terrace, exploring whether mass housing could feel like a house.
Great Wall of China
Northern China · Military Fortification
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A series of fortifications built over many centuries, stretching thousands of miles across northern China; the most visited sections at Badaling and Mutianyu near Beijing date to the Ming Dynasty.
Forbidden City
Beijing, China · Imperial Palace
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The Ming and Qing dynasty imperial palace complex at the center of Beijing, a walled city of 980 buildings in traditional Chinese palatial architecture — the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
Beijing National Stadium (Bird's Nest)
Beijing, China · Parametric
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The main stadium of the 2008 Summer Olympics, wrapped in a lattice of interlacing steel that gives it its bird's-nest nickname.
CCTV Headquarters
Beijing, China · Deconstructivist
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A headquarters for Chinese state television by OMA, formed of two leaning towers joined at top and bottom into a continuous looped ring.
Shanghai Tower
Shanghai, China · Neo-Futurist
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A twisting supertall tower in Shanghai's Lujiazui district by Gensler, wrapped in a double-skin glass facade that spirals as it rises.
Villa Tugendhat
Brno, Czech Republic · International Style
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Mies van der Rohe's residence in Brno, its open plan defined by a curved ebony wood wall and a straight onyx wall under a flat roof, with full-height glazing that slides into the floor to open the living space to the garden — a masterpiece of modern residential architecture.
Great Pyramid of Giza
Giza, Egypt · Ancient Monument
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Tomb of the pharaoh Khufu and the only surviving wonder of the ancient world, built of millions of limestone blocks on the Giza plateau.
Abu Simbel
Aswan Governorate, Egypt · Ancient Egyptian Rock-Cut Temple
Notre-Dame de Paris
Paris, France · French Gothic
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A landmark of French Gothic architecture on the Île de la Cité, noted for its rib vaults, flying buttresses, and rose windows; damaged by fire in 2019 and restored.
Sainte-Chapelle
Paris, France · Rayonnant Gothic
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A royal chapel built to house relics of the Passion, its upper level an almost continuous wall of towering stained-glass windows.
Château de Chambord
Loir-et-Cher, France · French Renaissance
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A Loire Valley royal hunting lodge that grew into the largest château in the region, with a roofscape of lanterns, dormers, and chimneys; its double-helix staircase is widely attributed to Leonardo da Vinci.
Palace of Versailles
Versailles, France · French Baroque
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The lavish seat of the French monarchy under Louis XIV, known for its Hall of Mirrors, state apartments, and vast formal gardens.
Villa Savoye
Poissy, France · International Style
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Le Corbusier's white villa raised on slender pilotis, a clear demonstration of his five points of modern architecture and the International Style.
Unité d'Habitation
Marseille, France · Brutalist / Modernist
Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut (Ronchamp)
Ronchamp, France · Expressionist Modern
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A pilgrimage chapel by Le Corbusier in the Haute-Saône hills, its sculptural white shell roof, asymmetric walls, and deeply splayed colored-glass windows a departure from everything he had built before.
Centre Pompidou
Paris, France · High-Tech
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A pioneering High-Tech arts complex by Piano and Rogers that turns the building inside out, exposing its structure, ducts, and escalators on the exterior. The Paris building is closed for renovation from 2025 to 2030.
Fondation Louis Vuitton
Paris, France · Deconstructivist
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Frank Gehry's art foundation in the Bois de Boulogne, wrapped in billowing curved glass sails over a structure of white concrete blocks.
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne, Germany · High Gothic
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A twin-spired Gothic cathedral begun in the 13th century and completed in the 19th, long among the tallest churches in the world.
Bauhaus Building
Dessau, Germany · Modernist / International Style
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Walter Gropius's school building for the Bauhaus in Dessau, its glass curtain-wall workshop wing and asymmetric interlocking volumes a direct expression of the school's design philosophy and one of the most influential buildings of the 20th century.
Neue Nationalgalerie
Berlin, Germany · International Style
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Mies van der Rohe's final major building, a glass-walled steel pavilion raised on a granite platform in Berlin; its vast flat roof is supported by only eight cruciform columns at its perimeter, leaving the interior almost entirely column-free.
Olympic Stadium Munich
Munich, Germany · Tensile Structure
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The main venue of the 1972 Summer Olympics, its sweeping tent-like roof of translucent acrylic panels suspended from steel masts by cables, a landmark of structural engineering and a precedent for all large tensile roofscapes that followed.
Jewish Museum Berlin
Berlin, Germany · Deconstructivist
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Daniel Libeskind's zinc-clad extension for Berlin's Jewish Museum, a fractured zigzag cut with voids and skewed windows, its disorienting interiors designed to evoke the history of German Jews.
Parthenon
Athens, Greece · Doric Temple
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Marble temple to Athena crowning the Acropolis, the defining monument of Classical Greek Doric architecture and a model of proportion imitated for centuries.
Borobudur
Java, Indonesia · Buddhist Temple
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The world's largest Buddhist temple, a nine-tiered stone monument on the island of Java covered in 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues, built under the Sailendra dynasty.
Colosseum
Rome, Italy · Roman Amphitheater
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The largest amphitheater of the Roman world, built of stone and concrete with tiered arcades, once seating tens of thousands for gladiatorial games.
Pantheon
Rome, Italy · Roman Concrete Dome
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Roman temple, later a church, famous for its unreinforced concrete dome and central oculus, long the largest such dome ever built.
Doge's Palace
Venice, Italy · Venetian Gothic
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The seat of Venetian government for centuries, its distinctive facade of pink Verona marble over delicate loggia arcades is a defining example of Venetian Gothic architecture on the Piazzetta.
Duomo di Milano
Milan, Italy · Late Gothic
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A vast marble cathedral built over nearly six centuries, bristling with spires, pinnacles, and statuary in an elaborate late Gothic style.
Florence Cathedral (Brunelleschi's Dome)
Florence, Italy · Early Renaissance
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Brunelleschi's octagonal brick dome crowns Florence's cathedral, an engineering breakthrough built without full scaffolding that helped launch Renaissance architecture.
Villa Rotonda
Vicenza, Italy · Palladian
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Andrea Palladio's symmetrical country villa with a central dome and four temple-front porticoes, a hugely influential model for later Palladian architecture.
Bosco Verticale
Milan, Italy · Green Architecture
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A pair of Milan residential towers by Stefano Boeri whose balconies host thousands of trees and shrubs, an influential example of vertical greening.
Basilica di Santa Croce
Lecce, Italy · Lecce Baroque
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The defining work of Lecce Baroque, worked on by three generations of architects from 1549 to 1695; the soft local limestone let carvers cover the facade in figures, beasts and foliage to a depth found nowhere else in Italy.
Hōryū-ji
Nara, Japan · Buddhist Temple Complex
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A Buddhist temple complex near Nara whose timber pagoda and hall are counted among the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world.
Himeji Castle
Himeji, Japan · Japanese Feudal
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A well-preserved hilltop fortress of white plastered walls and layered roofs, considered the finest surviving example of Japanese feudal castle architecture.
Nakagin Capsule Tower
Tokyo, Japan · Metabolism
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Kisho Kurokawa's tower of prefabricated living capsules bolted to concrete cores, the best-known built work of Japan's Metabolist movement; demolished in 2022.
Al-Khazneh (The Treasury)
Petra, Jordan · Nabataean Rock-Cut
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An ornate facade carved directly into rose-red sandstone by the Nabataeans, the most famous monument of the ancient caravan city of Petra.
Petronas Towers
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia · Postmodern
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Twin steel-and-glass towers by César Pelli linked by a double-decker skybridge, once the tallest buildings in the world, with floor plans drawn from Islamic geometry.
Cube Houses (Kubuswoningen)
Rotterdam, Netherlands · Residential Experiment
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Designed by Piet Blom and built in 1984, Rotterdam's 38 tilted cubes rest on hexagonal pylons above Blaak square — each unit rotated 45° so the floor plan becomes a triangle, creating a forest of yellow-clad geometric towers that remain one of the world's most daring residential experiments.
Oslo Opera House
Oslo, Norway · Contemporary
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The Norwegian National Opera's home on the Oslo waterfront by Snøhetta, its white marble and granite roof slopes to the fjord so visitors can walk directly onto the building's angled exterior.
Machu Picchu
Cusco Region, Peru · Inca Citadel
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A 15th-century Inca citadel set high on an Andean ridge, renowned for its precise dry-stone masonry and dramatic terraced setting.
Winter Palace
St. Petersburg, Russia · Elizabethan Baroque
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The former principal residence of Russian emperors, an Elizabethan Baroque palace on the Neva that now forms part of the Hermitage Museum.
Marina Bay Sands
Singapore · Contemporary
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Moshe Safdie's resort of three hotel towers topped by a boat-shaped SkyPark, a defining feature of Singapore's Marina Bay waterfront.
Gardens by the Bay (Supertree Grove)
Singapore · Biophilic Architecture
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A Singapore nature park whose Supertree Grove features tall tree-shaped vertical gardens linked by an elevated walkway, alongside climate-controlled conservatories.
Jewel Changi Airport
Singapore · Contemporary
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A retail and garden complex at Changi Airport by Moshe Safdie, centered on an indoor waterfall that pours through the middle of a glass-domed roof.
Burgos Cathedral
Burgos, Spain · Spanish Gothic
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A Spanish Gothic cathedral built over several centuries, distinguished by its openwork spires, star-vaulted crossing, and richly carved chapels.
Alhambra
Granada, Spain · Moorish / Nasrid
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A hilltop palace and fortress of the Nasrid dynasty, celebrated for its intricate stucco, muqarnas ceilings, tilework, and courtyard gardens.
Sagrada Família
Barcelona, Spain · Art Nouveau / Organic
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Antoni Gaudí's still-unfinished basilica, an extraordinary fusion of Gothic and organic Art Nouveau forms with soaring towers and tree-like columns.
Casa Batlló
Barcelona, Spain · Art Nouveau
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A Gaudí-remodeled townhouse on Passeig de Gràcia, known for its undulating facade, bone-like balconies, and shimmering broken-tile mosaic surfaces.
Palau de la Música Catalana
Barcelona, Spain · Catalan Modernisme
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A Catalan Modernisme concert hall by Domènech i Montaner, richly decorated with stained glass, mosaic, and sculpture, including its inverted glass-dome skylight.
Casa Milà (La Pedrera)
Barcelona, Spain · Art Nouveau
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Gaudí's stone apartment building nicknamed "the quarry," famed for its rippling limestone facade, wrought-iron balconies, and sculptural rooftop chimneys.
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Bilbao, Spain · Deconstructivist
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Frank Gehry's titanium-clad museum of curving, sculptural volumes on the Nervión riverfront, credited with reviving the city through cultural tourism.
Taipei 101
Taipei, Taiwan · Postmodern
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A Taipei supertall tower once the world's tallest, its tapering stack of tiered sections evoking a segmented bamboo stalk, with a large tuned mass damper inside.
Hagia Sophia
Istanbul, Turkey · Byzantine Basilica
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Built under Emperor Justinian, its vast pendentive dome redefined Byzantine architecture; later a mosque and museum, it remains a landmark of Istanbul.
Topkapi Palace
Istanbul, Turkey · Ottoman
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The primary administrative center of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years, a sprawling hilltop complex of courtyards, pavilions, and tile-clad chambers overlooking the Bosphorus.
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates · Contemporary Islamic
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One of the largest mosques in the world, its gleaming white marble exterior inlaid with semi-precious stones, with a prayer hall housing one of the world's largest hand-knotted carpets and a Swarovski-crystal chandelier.
Burj Khalifa
Dubai, United Arab Emirates · Neo-Futurist
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The tallest building in the world, a tapering, buttressed-core tower in Dubai designed by Adrian Smith of SOM with observation decks near the top.
Louvre Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates · Contemporary
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Jean Nouvel's museum on Saadiyat Island, sheltered under a vast latticed dome that filters sunlight into a shifting pattern he called a rain of light.
Museum of the Future
Dubai, United Arab Emirates · Parametric
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A Dubai museum shaped as a torus, or hollow ring, its stainless-steel facade inscribed with Arabic calligraphy that doubles as the building's windows.
Stonehenge
Wiltshire, United Kingdom · Prehistoric Monument
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A prehistoric circular arrangement of massive standing stones on Salisbury Plain, built in phases over 1,500 years; its alignment with the summer solstice sunrise suggests astronomical intent, though its true purpose remains debated.
Westminster Abbey
London, United Kingdom · English Gothic
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A Gothic abbey church that has hosted English and British coronations and royal burials for centuries, adjoining the Palace of Westminster.
30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin)
London, United Kingdom · High-Tech
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A tapering, glass-clad office tower in the City of London by Norman Foster, whose rounded form and spiraling pattern earned it the nickname the Gherkin.
The Shard
London, United Kingdom · Neo-Futurist
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Renzo Piano's tapering glass tower beside London Bridge station, among the tallest buildings in the United Kingdom, with a public viewing gallery near the top.
King's College Chapel
Cambridge, United Kingdom · Perpendicular Gothic
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Built over a century from 1446 across the reigns of five kings, the chapel carries the largest fan vault in the world and a complete run of 16th-century stained glass that survived the Civil War.
Chrysler Building
New York, United States · Art Deco
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A Manhattan skyscraper by William Van Alen, an icon of Art Deco design crowned by its distinctive stainless-steel sunburst spire.
Empire State Building
New York, United States · Art Deco
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An Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan that was the world's tallest building for decades, with observation decks near its summit.
Flatiron Building
New York, United States · Beaux-Arts
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An early steel-framed Beaux-Arts skyscraper whose narrow triangular footprint, filling a wedge-shaped block, made it an enduring symbol of New York.
Fallingwater
Mill Run, Pennsylvania, United States · Organic Modern
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Frank Lloyd Wright's house cantilevered over a waterfall in the Pennsylvania woods, a defining work of his organic architecture.
Farnsworth House
Plano, Illinois, United States · International Style
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Mies van der Rohe's steel-and-glass weekend house raised above a floodplain, a minimalist landmark of the International Style.
Gateway Arch
St. Louis, Missouri, United States · Neo-Futurist
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A stainless-steel catenary arch on the St. Louis riverfront by Eero Saarinen, the tallest arch in the world and the tallest man-made monument in the United States, with a tram to an observation room at the apex.
TWA Flight Center
New York, United States · Neo-Futurist
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Eero Saarinen's winged concrete terminal at JFK Airport, an expressive mid-century landmark now restored as the lobby of a hotel.
Salk Institute
La Jolla, California, United States · Brutalist
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Louis Kahn's research campus of teak and concrete laboratories flanking an open travertine plaza that frames a channel of water toward the Pacific.
Seagram Building
New York, United States · International Style
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A bronze-and-glass office tower by Mies van der Rohe set back behind a granite plaza, a defining model of the International Style skyscraper.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
New York, United States · Organic Modern
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Frank Lloyd Wright's spiraling white rotunda on Fifth Avenue, where a continuous ramp winds upward past the art displayed along its walls.
Kimbell Art Museum
Fort Worth, Texas, United States · Modernist
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Louis Kahn's museum in Fort Worth, a series of parallel cycloid vaults of travertine and concrete whose silver-thin skylights run the full length of the roof and bathe the galleries in diffused natural light — widely considered the finest small art museum ever built.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Los Angeles, United States · Deconstructivist
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Frank Gehry's downtown Los Angeles concert hall, home of the LA Philharmonic, sheathed in billowing stainless-steel panels around a vineyard-style auditorium.
One World Trade Center
New York, United States · Neo-Futurist
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The tallest building in the United States, built at the World Trade Center site by David Childs of SOM, tapering from a square base to an antenna spire.
The Vessel
New York, United States · Interactive Sculpture
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A honeycomb-like structure of interlocking staircases at Hudson Yards designed by Thomas Heatherwick, built as a climbable centerpiece for the plaza.
South Carolina State House
Columbia, South Carolina · Greek Revival
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A Greek Revival capitol begun in 1855 and finished decades later after the Civil War interrupted construction; six bronze stars on the western facade mark where Sherman’s artillery struck the unfinished building in 1865.
Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District
Miami Beach, Florida · Streamline Moderne
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Roughly 800 buildings put up between the 1920s and 1940s along Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue — the largest concentration of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architecture anywhere, saved from demolition by a preservation campaign begun in 1976.
Palacio Salvo
Montevideo, Uruguay · Eclectic / Art Deco
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A 100-metre eclectic tower finished in 1928 on Plaza Independencia, briefly the tallest building in South America; its designer built a near-twin, the Palacio Barolo, across the river in Buenos Aires.
St. Peter's Basilica
Vatican City · Renaissance / Baroque
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The principal church of the Vatican, shaped by Renaissance and Baroque masters, with Michelangelo's dome and Bernini's colonnaded square before it.
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