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Pisa, Italy
Lavautomatica
Italian washing machines can take over two hours per cycle because they heat water internally, no hot-water hookup.
From the CommunityClassic Facades
The stunners contained within this theme scream AWA. Guess what, they are all real places, each with a story to tell. We invite you to explore some of the most "classic" spots around the globe.
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Old Wan Chai Post Office
Built steps from the 1915 shoreline, this former post office now sits 800 meters inland after a century of land reclamation.
From the Community
Bergenhus, Norway
ByParken
Bergen's first park was born from flames: a firebreak against the city's chronic fires, later crowned with a cast-iron pavilion.
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Napier, New Zealand
Hildebrandt’s
Designed in 1933 by Louis Hay, who never cared for Art Deco; he was too busy channeling Frank Lloyd Wright from 1912.
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Tây Ninh, Vietnam
The Great Divine Temple
Vietnam's Great Divine Temple was built without a single blueprint, just divine instructions received through spirit-writing.
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Southampton, United Kingdom
The Bugle
This 1846 yacht club became a WWII naval headquarters, then university offices, before rediscovering its gilded past.
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London SW3 5RX, United Kingdom
Chelsea Manor Court
While 1930s Chelsea went upmarket, Peabody built 111 working-class flats on Manor Street, championed as the borough's soul.
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Petersburg, Alaska, United States
Helse Restaurant
A Norwegian cafe serving Chinese dinners on an alley named for a murdered merchant: only in Alaska's Little Norway.
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London, United Kingdom
British Museum
The British Museum's rear entrance mirrors its famous facade, but few of the six million annual visitors ever see it.
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Eivissa, Spain
Dalt Vila Historic Quarter
About 400 residents live inside Dalt Vila's 16th-century fortress walls, originally built to repel Ottoman pirates, now home to pastel facades and quirky window displays.
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Brooklyn, New York, United States
Brooklyn Academy of Music
When BAM burned in 1903, its stock price rose the same day—the Brooklyn Heights real estate was just too valuable to mourn.
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Brooklyn, New York, United States
Prospect Park Boathouse
Poet Marianne Moore saved this Venetian-inspired pavilion 48 hours before demolition—it became a NYC landmark before the park.
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Tehran, Iran
Masoudieh Mansion
Built by a prince barred from the throne, this mansion became the birthplace of Iran's first national library and museum.
From the Community
Tabriz, Iran
Hariree House
A 19th-century Tabriz mansion with walls of painted murals now houses the Azerbaijan Press Museum on its first floor.
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Denver, Colorado, United States
Denver Fire Station
Denver's firehouses evolved from horse stables to neighborhood chameleons, then retired when trucks grew too big for their bays.
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Trakai, Lithuania
Trakai
Crimean warriors turned cucumber farmers: the Karaim went from guarding castles to growing Lithuania's beloved gherkins.
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Palermo, Italy
Porta Nuova
Palermo's grand gate survived 84 years before exploding in 1667—gunpowder stored inside turned triumph into rubble.
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Sappada, Italy
La Sorechina
A German-speaking island in Italy where 11th-century Tyrolean dialect survives and 17th-century wooden houses still stand.
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Chania, Greece
Mousouron 2
The last Ottoman soldier left Chania through the gate at Mousouron Street on November 3, 1898, ending 253 years of rule.
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Stanley, Tasmania, Australia
Crossland Antiques & Collectables
Stanley received Tasmania's first mainland telephone line in 1936 via submarine cable from Apollo Bay across Bass Strait.
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Stockholm, Wisconsin, United States
Stockholm, WI Post Office
This village of 78 shares its name with Sweden's capital, and with turn-of-century Chicago, once the world's second-largest Swedish city.
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Romsey, United Kingdom
Goodies Fish & Chip Shop
One of 10,000 survivors from an era when Britain had 35,000 fish and chip shops: each one a neighborhood institution.
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Tehran, Iran
Cinema Museum
Iranian cinema began with a shah on vacation in France.
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Naples, Italy
Galleria Umberto I
Naples built this soaring glass arcade to clean up a city ravaged by cholera—and rival Milan.
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Ribeirão da Ilha, Brazil
Ribeirão da Ilha
Brazil's oyster capital speaks an 18th-century Azorean dialect, preserved by accident when immigration simply stopped in 1756.
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Kashan, Iran
Ameri House
Kashan's grandest mansion has an intentionally unfinished corner: the governor stopped construction mid-song in 1800.
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Tabriz, Iran
El Goli Mansion
This pavilion was demolished in 1967 and rebuilt. After the revolution, Shah Goli became El Goli, but ask for directions and you'll hear both names.
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Gevrey-Chambertin, France
Gevrey-Chambertin
Gevrey-Chambertin started Burgundy's hyphenation craze in 1847, inspiring 11 villages to rebrand with their top vineyards.
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Kazan, Russia
Artillery Court
Kazan's fortress foundry armed Russia against Napoleon—cast from the same kremlin Ivan the Terrible once destroyed.
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Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Fondation J.P. Pescatore
A Napoleonic deserter turned tobacco baron left his fortune to build this 1892 retirement home, after creating Europe's largest orchid collection.
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Osaka, Japan
Tamade Supermarket
Named after a pachinko winning term, Tamade's neon-blasted storefronts sell ¥100 meals in what locals call Osaka's cheapest supermarket.
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Peio TN, Italy
Peio Spring
Peio's mineral water traveled the Austro-Hungarian Empire in small greenish bottles, sold in pharmacies to fashionable customers.
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Tabriz, Iran
Sorkheyi Boutique Hotel
This Tabriz mansion belonged to the son-in-law of the shah who granted Iran its first constitution—then died 40 days later.
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Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Lyceum No. 5
This Soviet-era lyceum helped transform Tajikistan from 0.1% female literacy in 1926 to near-universal education.
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Moscow, Russia
Arseny Morozov House
A millionaire built a Portuguese palace in Moscow. His mother called him a fool, and he later died proving pain tolerance.
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