The world’s most beautiful buildings

Jul 13, 2011 8:10:24 AM

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Straight away we’ll say that this isn’t a top 10 list. There are just far too many styles of buildings, each worthy of a top 50: sacred buildings, homes, skyscrapers, theatres…

Instead, this is a list showing the variety of architectural beauty across the globe. Some will argue about the omissions – the Sydney Opera House, the Chrysler Building, Fallingwater – but consider this a starting point, a checklist of architectural must-sees for an eye-rewarding round-the-world trip.

Museo Guggenheim, Spain

Image by aherrero

Some critics might argue that Frank Gehry’s Museo Guggenheim in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao, opened in 1997, looks as though it’s been taken to by a can-opener, but this is one of the most influential and striking buildings in modern architecture. With its ribbonlike sheets of titanium and its collection of interconnecting blocks, the museum gives a nod to Bilbao’s industrialism but also to the saucerlike curves of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York. Oh yeah…nearly forgot. There’s art inside, too.

Potala Palace, Tibet

Image by watchsmart

Perched high above the holy city of Lhasa is the former seat of the Tibetan government and the winter residence of the Dalai Lama. More notable now for its imposing presence than its residents, this huge construction is 13 storeys high, contains thousands of rooms, and is styled like a traditional Buddhist gompa (temple), if significantly more elaborate. More than 7000 workers were said to have been involved in its construction during the 7th century AD. Potala Palace is now a state museum of China, and has been given a place on the Unesco World Heritage list.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt

Image by alexandra_de_grote

Between the ancient pyramids and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt now has the best of old and new. Like a giant discus landed at an angle or an enormous light switch, Alexandria’s oceanfront library is arguably the first great design of the new millennium. Completed in 2002, it’s inspired by the original Alexandrina library, founded in the 3rd century BC and acclaimed as the greatest of all classical institutions. The building’s sloped design represents a second sun rising beside the Mediterranean. The vast rotunda space can hold eight million books.

Sagrada Família, Spain

Image by photographerglen

Surely the most extraordinary church on the planet, from the mind of one of history’s most eccentric designers: Antoni Gaudí. With its tapering towers like the straightened arms of an octopus, construction of Sagrada Família began in 1882, though Gaudí’s vision was so complex that the church is still unfinished. It will ultimately feature three façades and 18 towers, the tallest of them (170m) representing Jesus Christ. Plans are to have the Barcelona icon completed in 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death, although it will almost be a shame now to see it finished.

Taj Mahal, India

Image by gustaffo89

Is this the world’s most famous building? And its most romantic (ignoring the sprawling, industrial city around it, and the hordes of rickshaw-wallahs and touts)? Described by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore as ‘a teardrop on the face of eternity’, the Taj Mahal in Agra was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child in 1631. It’s an extravagant, whitemarble monument to love, which may explain all the young, starry-eyed couples wandering around it. If you’re heading to the Taj, read our 5 ways to see it as well as fantastic side trips in the area.

Imam Mosque, Iran

Image by Laura and Fulvio’s photos

Headlining beside one of the world’s largest squares, Esfahan’s Imam Mosque is a tiled wonder. Completely covered, inside and out, with pale blue and yellow ceramic tiles (which are an Esfahan trademark), it’s a stunning 17th-century mosque, with its tiles seeming to change colour depending on the light conditions. The main dome is 54m high and intricately patterned in a stylised floral mosaic, while the magnificent 30m-high portal is a supreme example of architectural styles from the Safavid period (1502–1772). The mosque sits askew to the square, at about 45 degrees, so that it faces Mecca.

Winter Palace, Russia

Image by Michele Benericetti

Best known as the outer casing for the remarkable State Hermitage Museum, this pistachio-coloured gem on the banks of the Neva River in St Petersburg was designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli as the winter residence of the Russian tsars. Filling an entire block, it bears all the whimsy and ornamentation of the baroque period, and statues line its roof edges like divers about to plunge into the Neva. Little wonder it should be the showpiece of a city built specifically to highlight that Russia could match the architectural beauty of Europe.

Crac des Chevaliers, Syria

Image by peuplier

Described by TE Lawrence as the ‘finest castle in the world’, this hilltop Crusader fortress might be 800 years old but, like a good botox treatment, stands tight and taut against the ravages of time. It’s the classic blueprint of a medieval castle, its thick outer walls separated from the inner structure by a moat dug out of the rock. Inside, it’s a minitown, complete with a chapel, baths, a great hall and a Gothic loggia. The most visible sign of ageing is the vegetation that grows from its walls; nothing a good shave wouldn’t fix.

Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Brazil

Image by Felipe Vieira

Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the celebrated architect behind the creation of the Brazilian capital, Brasília, the Museu Oscar Niemeyer in Curitiba will test your view of aesthetics. Like all great buildings – and probably more so – the art museum’s appearance has an element of love-it-or-hate-it, with its main gallery shaped like a reflective glass eye, balancing atop a yellow support, and approached on curving ramps above a pool of water. Once inside the building commonly called the ‘Eye Museum’, you’ll see that every aspect of the museum’s design seems to marry beauty with whimsy.

Aya Sofya, Turkey

Image by Sev!

Aya Sofya is the great architectural landmark at the heart of Istanbul, with its four minarets poised like moon-bound rockets. Constructed in the 6th century AD as an Orthodox church, it later became a mosque and, since 1935, a museum. The enormous structure was built in just five years, and its musk walls are topped by an imposing dome, 31m wide and 56m high. The dome’s base is ringed by windows, so that from within the structure, the dome seems almost to hover ethereally above the building.

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Comments

17 March 2011 11:10PM hopeyang Report this comment
I have seen Museo Guggenheim, Sagrada Família and Aya Sofya. They are all beautiful and amazing and it is difficult to say which one is more beautiful than the other as they are so different but they all touch my heart in different way.
21 March 2011 7:31PM rambanter Report this comment
Not even a drop in the ocean of beautiful buildings! A good start, hope to see more such lists.
A showcase of hidden architectural gems would also be magnificent. I'd love to compile but I need to get more travelling under my belt...
23 March 2011 6:52PM razvannita Report this comment
I've seen Sagrada Familia and it realy impressed me a lot. But there's another building that managed to make feel that impossible is nothing...La Basilique du Sacré Coeur in Paris. I visited it on a Octobre Thursday and there were two nuns singing inside, and their voices made me cry like a little baby. This is a thing that I'll probably remember until I die.
23 March 2011 10:46PM dpvisser Report this comment
It's interesting the mix of buildings here. Old and new. I'm not sure as to why the Crac des Chevaliers is on the list...I see it, but I am not inspired by it as I have seen other castles / dominions around the globe that make this one pale in comparison. What I have missed here is the Grand Mosque of Muscat, Oman. I was there last year and the sheer size and beauty of the complex was mind-boggling - very impressive and inspiring.
24 March 2011 10:11AM jssp Report this comment
Why is crac des chevaliers on the list? I have seen it and do not think it's one of the best...in fact it's a dump....must have been pretty in it's hey day!!!!! Definitely agree with taj mahal, sagrada and aya though!
24 March 2011 4:23PM kenm5510 Report this comment
The cathedral in Milan , Italy should be on the list. I have never seen anything that compares to it.
24 March 2011 9:24PM zoe100 Report this comment
Aya Sofia is a distillation of the holy; more than the sum of its parts. I always felt incredibly moved by its stillness and darkness.The damaged mosaics of Byzantine emperors and saints must be among the most sublime pieces of art in the world. Even the Muslim conquerors could not bear to destroy them completely. I have read that the image of Christ is possibly based on a contemporary representation, now lost, taken from the Holy Land by St Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, and therefore the closest representation of the true face of Jesus we have left. Regardless of your religious beliefs, you cannot fail to be moved by the mixture of sorrow and compassion caught in his eyes.
25 March 2011 2:34AM stevep Report this comment
The Citadelle, Haiti. Macchu Picchu, Peru.
25 March 2011 11:16PM caroline6 Report this comment
There are tons of amazing buildings in MADRID, I just don't think I could mention just one.... I love them all!!!! ;-) 3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=958&vpy=91&dur=793&hovh=95&hovw=157&tx=196&ty=98&oei=fYaMTe6OGY-7hAfYvamsCw&page=1&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0
25 March 2011 11:18PM caroline6 Report this comment
Here some pics of MADRID ;-) http://www.google.es/images?hl=es&rlz=&q=fotografia+madrid&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=0oeMTZOEI9SwhQet5sG9Cw&ved=0CDYQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=670
26 March 2011 7:16AM djuradj Report this comment
The most beautiful building I know is the Church of the Resurrection of Christ (a.k.a. the Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood) in Sankt Peterburg, Russia. See here, for example: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/church-of-savior.asp
27 March 2011 1:25AM moniconeck Report this comment
I think The pyramid of Chichen-Itza is one of the most incredible buildings.
4 April 2011 5:29AM mostinterestingman Report this comment
The Alhambra, Granada; Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria; Versailles Palace, FR; Royal Palace, Bangkok.
31 May 2011 4:26PM vit Report this comment
No mention of the Sydney Opera House ?
28 June 2011 11:01PM sheilamlondon Report this comment
I think the two most beautiful buildings in the world are probably the Taj Mahal (included on this list) and the Mont St Michel in France (Brittany), but there are simply too many beautiful buildings in the world to list them all. And what about York Minster, the Duomo di San Marco in Florence and the Mezquita in Córdoba?
29 June 2011 12:53AM norsey Report this comment
As far as impressive fortresses go, I'm not sure why you picked Crac des Chevaliers over, say, Carcassonne or Burg Eltz (or maybe I'm just hard to impress, having grown up a couple of miles from Kronborg). But we all have our favourites, and this list introduced at least two architectural treasures I wasn't aware of. More for the wish list...
2 July 2011 7:38AM biffin Report this comment
I don't know who you got to do the picture research, but I'd have a word with them if I were you. The picture under the Winter Palace is of a different building - it's the General Staff Building, which is opposite the Winter Palace, across the square. That picture has been taken FROM the Winter Palace. The picture of a yellow and white building doesn't really match the description of a "pistachio-coloured gem"!
3 October 2011 10:34PM michaelandmore Report this comment
What about the Opera House in Sydney ? or the Reichstag in Berlin ?
25 December 2011 8:59AM hristinab Report this comment
I visited the Duomo San Marco in Venice last month, but I can't say I was too impressed by it, I'm not sure why. I just didn't feel the awe I expected. (Having someone in the middle of the church printing tickets for the Ca d' Oro -- when people on the other side were trying to pray --didn't help, either.)
Aya Sofia (which means St. Wisdom in Greek, meaning the Wisdom of God)is a place of great religious and historical importance to us Greeks. I will never forget the amazing mosaic of Jesus Christ on the dome, surrounded by gold, and the way it sparkled in the light! It makes you wonder about how much more this church would have been, had it not been vandalised by the Ottomans.
The Sydney Opera House... Well, it looks impressive from a distance. But up close and personal... not so much.