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Ses Salines, Spain
Botanicactus
Built in Mallorca's driest region, this cactus garden survives on an artificial lake. Its excavated dirt became wind-blocking hills.
From the CommunityWhite
Similar to the Black collection, White often serves as a contrast that allows other pops of color to take center stage. One thing is for certain, these snaps & stories aren't vanilla.
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Sponza Palace
A 1522 customs house that survived Dubrovnik's devastating earthquake where merchants traded under God's watchful scales.
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Garston, New Zealand
Garston Hotel
A gold rush hotel owner planted hundreds of trees along a New Zealand highway: they're still there, long after the pub closed.
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Kazan, Russia
Old Tatar Settlement
Catherine the Great's 1767 decree ended a 215-year ban on stone mosques and her quip about minarets reaching heaven became legend.
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Bayeux, France
Cinema Normandie
Bayeux's 1929 cinema sparked outrage for threatening the cathedral. Now it's the one becoming a historic monument.
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Koksijde, Belgium
Koksijde Beach Cabins
Belgium's 250-year beach cabin tradition began with horse-drawn huts on wheels. A coachman's whip-clap signaled privacy.
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London, United Kingdom
Liberty
This department store was built from two decommissioned warships: its frontage matches HMS Hindustan's exact length.
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Kraków, Poland
Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Stanislaus
For centuries, every Polish king had to visit this church before coronation, atoning for a royal murder from 1079.
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Uji, Japan
Pâtisserie Yuji
This French patisserie in Japan's 800-year-old matcha capital blends seven varieties of local tea into éclairs and tarts.
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Rye, United Kingdom
The Old Shed
A new off-license on Cinque Ports Street, where medieval Rye once ran its own courts and dodged the Crown's taxes entirely.
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Binz, Germany
Müther Turm
A GDR rescue tower made of concrete shells now hosts weddings—complete with beach sand on the floor and Baltic views.
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Binz, Germany
Seebrücke Binz
Binz's pier has been destroyed by the Baltic twice since 1902. The town rebuilt it anyway—three times and counting.
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San Francisco, California, United States
Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
A visitor center for a place you're forbidden to visit: the Farallon Islands, locked down since 1969 and swarming with great white sharks.
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Dubois, Wyoming, United States
Dubois Museum
From hacking railroad ties in frozen forests to opening a gas station lined with Western paperbacks.
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Santa Cruz, California, United States
Waltons Lighthouse
Most of California's lighthouses are 19th-century relics. This one was built in 2001 to honor a sailor lost in 1945.
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Ottenby, Sweden
Långe Jan
Sweden's tallest lighthouse was built from a recycled medieval chapel and spent 60 years with an open fire on top.
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Nexø, Denmark
Duodde Fyr
Denmark's tallest lighthouse was built in 1962 because the sand, so fine it filled hourglasses, kept burying its predecessor.
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Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, France
Feu de Grosse Terre
Built in 1972 as one of France's last major lighthouses, its real challenge isn't guiding ships: it's outrunning the sea.
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Baabe, Germany
Fischerstrand Baabe
When Baabe's fishermen didn't want a bathing facility on their landing spot, they sawed down the construction piles at night.
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Helsinki, Finland
Helsinki Cathedral
The architect envisioned restraint. The committee added a dozen zinc apostles to the roof.
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Spittal, United Kingdom
RNLI Lifeboat Station
England's most northerly lifeboat station sits in a town that changed flags 13 times in 186 years—crew loyalty tested daily.
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Helsinki, Finland
Lasipalatsi Square
A 'temporary' 1936 building outlasted the Olympics it was built for, which never happened, and inspired an underground museum.
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Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
The Cab Phone @ Aloha Tower
This lei-wrapped phone near Aloha Tower connects directly to a cab dispatcher—no coins, no dialing, just pick up and go.
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Clinton, Connecticut, United States
Lobster Landing
This century-old shack survived the 1938 hurricane and serves lobster rolls with butter drizzled from a double-boiler, never a hot pan.
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Ellensburg, Washington, United States
The Lazy A Coffee
A gas station that served Highway 10 travelers for 42 years now dispenses lattes instead of leaded.
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Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Larry’s Beans
A Raleigh roaster funds $500 teacher grants and runs a telephone booth library because caffeinating communities goes beyond beans.
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Tuineje, Spain
Ermita Protestante de Violante
A German widower built this 2.5-meter chapel on a Fuerteventura hilltop in 2011; inside, strangers leave wishes in a book.
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Glencoe, United Kingdom
Wee White House Glencoe
This Highland cottage's Ballachulish slate roof beat 75% odds: most of the locally-quarried material rusted through with holes.
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Kohukohu, New Zealand
Tauteihiihi Marae
This marae has outlasted Kohukohu's timber boom, when 2,000 people lived on land literally built from kauri sawdust.
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Brooklyn, New York, United States
Parkside Avenue Subway Station
This Brooklyn station is literally split: two-thirds tunnel through buildings, one-third open to sky: a subway chimera.
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Broc, Switzerland
Maison Cailler
This 1898 chocolate factory powered an entire Swiss village: its hydroelectric plant brought electricity to Broc in 1899. What a uniquely sweet history!
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Dublin, Ireland
Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre
Where U2 got their start, shoppers now browse beneath a glass dome locals call "The Wedding Cake."
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Tallinn, Estonia
Restoran Olde Hansa
This Tallinn restaurant bans potatoes, tomatoes, and chocolate—only ingredients available before 1492 make the cut.
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Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Queen’s Arcade
Before the arcade, the site belonged to Belfast's harp-playing doctor who taught blind children music and founded a hospital.
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Florence, Italy
Piazzale Michelangelo
Nine pairs of oxen hauled a bronze David up Florence's hills in the 1800s, and the museum it was meant for never opened.
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