St. Stephens Hall

In 1897, ceramics magnate Vilmos Zsolnay pitched Emperor Franz Joseph on a radical idea: a Hungarian-style hall for the Royal Palace. The result won a grand prize at the 1900 Paris Exposition before being destroyed during World War II. For seventy-six years it remained a ghost, until experts painstakingly recreated it using original photographs and surviving fragments—reassembling over 600 pieces of Zsolnay pyrogranite for the fireplace alone. The hall reopened in 2021, making TIME’s global ranking of greatest places.