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Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Southsea Seafront Shelters
Grade II listed Victorian shelters, dismantled and restored piece-by-piece, now guard against both storms and floods.
From the CommunityYellow
An underrated color in the AWA universe, yellow has a lot to offer. We find that there is a lot to love when yellow appears as a pop of color and hope that you'll be delighted, too.
Istanbul, Turkey
Hagia Sofia
Hagia Sophia's original dome collapsed in 558—just 21 years after opening—because workers used too much mortar and didn't let it dry.
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Montauk, New York, United States
White’s Liquors
This neon sign marks where Montauk kids once slurped ice cream sodas, before the White family traded prescriptions for pours.
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Lisbon, Portugal
Santa Apolónia Train Station
Once called both 'Wharf of America' and 'Wharf of Europe,' this 1865 station transferred European rail passengers to Atlantic ships.
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Valencia, Spain
Estación del Norte
València's 1917 Nord station features an architect's sister-in-law immortalized in ceramic, and 'bon voyage' in nine languages.
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Brisas de Zicatela, Mexico
Playa Zicatela
Lifeguards at Zicatela rescue 800 people annually from waves that can amplify five times their deepwater height.
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Milan, Italy
Porta Genova
Milan's oldest station closed in December 2025 after 155 years. Its WWI-era iron bridge still reunites a neighborhood split by tracks.
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Manchester, United Kingdom
The Peveril of the Peak
The landlady ran this pub for fifty years, retiring at 93 after keeping Manchester's last detached pub alive.
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Bornem, Belgium
Castle d’Ursel
A theatrical designer known for trompe-l'œil gave this Belgian castle its eyebrow-raising yellow facade in 1761.
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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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Budapest, Hungary
Drechsler Palace
Railway workers' pension fund built a palace, then it sat empty for two decades.
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London, United Kingdom
Lacy Gallery / Pippa Small
A frame dealer's son and an anthropologist-turned-jeweler hold down neighboring pink and yellow shopfronts on Westbourne Grove.
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Dublin, Ireland
Polaris Building, Dublin City University
DCU's Polaris Building corralled 3,000 students from four scattered buildings into one €80 million facility during a pandemic.
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Perkins, Oklahoma, United States
Old Texaco Gas Station and Museum
This 1930 Texaco station pioneered the gas-and-groceries model three decades before 'convenience store' was even a term.
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Yucatán, Mexico
Convento de San Antonio da Padua
The world's second-largest atrium was built in six months by 6,000 Maya workers—using stones from their own demolished pyramid.
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Vienna, Austria
Louis Vuitton Vienna
Julius Meinl kept one store when selling 700+ locations. Louis Vuitton now occupies the building next door to it.
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Luxor, Egypt
Hot Air Balloon
Every morning, balloons chase the moon above tombs carved for pharaohs 3,500 years ago.
Odense, Denmark
Hans Christian Andersen’s Childhood Home
The home of the most popular Dane & his 168 fairytales.
AWA visted here
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Odense, Denmark
Klods Hans
Named after Andersen's 1855 tale of a "stupid" brother who wins a princess with mud, dead crows, and a wooden shoe.
AWA visted here
Presented with
Kerkira, Greece
Tobacco House 1941
Since 1941, this family tobacco shop has outlasted an empire of smoke.
From the Community
Monteroni di Lecce, Italy
Chiesa dei Santi Medici Cosma e Damiano
A church honoring twin doctors so committed to free healthcare that a talking camel had to intervene in their burial dispute.
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Superior, Arizona, United States
Superior Climbing Shack
A former copper mining town reinvents itself one climbing route at a time, with 1,000 sport climbs replacing underground shafts.
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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
The Yale Theater
From livestock auctions to Art Deco revival: this Oklahoma City theater that refused to stay dark.
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Weymouth, Massachusetts, United States
Jefferson School
After designing 140 churches, architect Shepard S. Woodcock finally built something you could skip on Sundays.
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Istanbul, Turkey
Egyptian Bazaar
Turkish wordplay turned this 1664 spice market into the 'Corn Bazaar'.
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London, United Kingdom
Chelsea Embankment
How a river too putrid for Queen Victoria became one of London's most pristine waterfronts.
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Shiraz, Iran
Nasir al-Mulk Mosque
This mosque's expensive gamble turns morning prayers into a daily light show.
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Brussels, Belgium
De Brouckere Metro Station
Belgium's first underground route opened in 1969- as a tramway, not a metro.
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Ljubljana, Slovenia
Slovenian School Museum
Slovenia's oldest specialist museum once lived in a bar and a castle before finding its permanent home in 1938.
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Kathmandu, Nepal
Durbar Square
Three rival Malla kings turned sibling rivalry into an architectural competition that lasted 300 years and produced 150+ temples.
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Paris, France
Eiffel Tower
The con man who sold the Eiffel Tower twice... because the first buyer was too embarrassed to call the cops.
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Rio Grande Depot
The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad spent $750,000 in 1910 to outshine a competitor, then sold the depot for a dollar in 1977.
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Naryn, Kyrgyzstan
Song Kol Lake
Song Kol sits under snow for 200 days each year. Families arrive in June, hang laundry from vans, graze herds, then vanish by October.
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Aalborg, Denmark
Aalborg Old City Hall
For 150 years, nine people ran this city hall with a jail in the basement - now it only governs vows and wedding ceremonies.
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Colfosco, Italy
Colfosco
The world's largest ski area exists because one man in 1973 was annoyed about stopping to pay for lift tickets at every mountain.
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