Classic Facades

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Abay State Opera and Ballet Theater

Built to house the new and burgeoning opera scene in Kazakhstan, this theater was founded and directed by the father of Kazakh opera, Evegeny Brusilovsky.

Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

Old Thatch Teashop

Built in 1690, this building is the oldest in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. It houses a quintessential English tea shop, a "dairy garden," and a friendly ghost.

Bangkok, Thailand

Saranrom Palace

This former palace has been the seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1932 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Zealand, Denmark

Vallø Castle

This castle's distinctive corner towers served as separate residences for a pair of sisters that each lived in until their deaths.

Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom

Chicheley Hall

Chicheley Hall, completed in 1725, features rare Baroque architecture and a lavish interior of marble pillars, oak staircases, and most intriguingly, a hidden library.

Cartagena, Colombia

Teatro Pedro De Heredia

This theater in Cartagena opened on November 11, 1911, commemorating the centennial of the Independence of Cartagena.

Melk, Austria

Melk Abbey

Now the oldest continuously open school in Austria, this abbey was saved from destruction by Emperor Joseph II because of its reputation as an academic institution.

Savannah, Georgia, United States

Davenport House Museum

This house has been a museum since 1963, but it's only in recent years that a more complete history of the house has emerged.

Savannah, Georgia, United States

Savannah Cotton Exchange

The Savannah Cotton Exchange was designed by William G. Preston after beating out several other designers for this structures' commission.

Kyiv, Ukraine

St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral

This bright yellow cathedral built in the late 1800s has survived four wars and multiple threats to destroy its historic presence.

Ludwigsburg, Germany

City Church

This Protestant church in Germany was built in the Baroque style and used to have a live-in bell tower guard.

Munich, Germany

Orlando-Haus

This historic beer hall and restaurant was named after Renaissance composer, Orlando di Lasso.

New York, New York, United States

Stonewall Inn

This beloved bar in New York City is recognized as the birthplace of the LGBT+ civil rights movement in the U.S.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States

Philbrook Museum

Built as a place where his two kids could entertain friends, oilman Waite Phillips donated this villa as a public art museum only 11 years after moving in.

London, United Kingdom

The Borough Welsh Chapel

This well-preserved example of a Welsh chapel built in 1870 in London's Southwark district was founded by a pub owner nicknamed "Ginshop Jones."

Bilbao, Spain

Bilbao-Concordia Station

This terminal rail station on the Renfe Feve line, inaugurated in 1898, is an art nouveau standout in the mostly industrial city of Bilbao, Spain.

Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States

Paramount Theater

This historic theater in New Jersey was designed by the same architects that designed New York's Grand Central Station.

Helsinki, Finland

Military Museum of Finland

This museum is tasked with collecting, preserving, researching and displaying artifacts of military history in Finland.

Genoa, Italy

Palazzo Doria-Tursi

This 16th century Italian palace is now the Genoan Town Hall and serves as a cultural venue.

Jaipur, India

City Palace

A boy becomes king at eleven with barely enough cavalry—by fifteen, he's charming emperors and recalculating the cosmos.

AWA visted here

Presented with

London, United Kingdom

Kew Palace & Queen Charlotte’s Cottage

This British royal palace on the banks of the Thames is survived by the Dutch House, built in an Artisan Mannerist style dominated by Dutch gables.

From the Community

Presented with

Orvieto, Italy

Orvieto Cathedral

This Italian cathedral took nearly three centuries to complete and contains countless works of art.

From the Community

Moscow, Russia

Kuskovo Summer Palace

This 18th century summer estate is now home to the Russian State Museum of Ceramics.

Detroit, Michigan, United States

Detroit Institute of Arts

With a collection consisting of over 65,000 works worth billions of dollars, this art museum is among the most visited in the world.

From the Community

Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany

St. Maria Himmelfahrt

Though the current golden yellow structure dates from the 18th century, archaeological evidence suggests a church sat on this site back in the 8th century.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

The second oldest botanic garden in Britain, founded in 1670, houses an incredible 13,500 species of plants.

AWA visted here

Presented with

Washington, D.C., United States

Arts and Industries Building

Designed to be perfectly symmetrical, this building is the second oldest building of the Smithsonian Museum.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Bachelors Barge Club

This boathouse is one of a group on historic Boathouse Row in Philadelphia - home to the oldest operating boathouse in the United States.

Hanoi, Vietnam

Hồ Chí Minh Mausoleum

This is the final resting place of Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam's revolutionary leader. It was built on the same site where Minh read the country's Declaration of Independence.

Murun, Mongolia

Murun Airport

This Mongolian airport was the first in the country, opened in 1956.

Moscow, Russia

State Historical Museum

This state-sponsored history museum in Moscow's Red Square features over 4.5 million artifacts.

Milan, Italy

Duomo di Milano

The largest church in Italy and the third largest church in the world.

Presented with

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Teatro Colón

This century-old Argentinian opera house is held in high regard as one of the best concert venues in the world, both acoustically and aesthetically.

From the Community

Scania, Sweden

Christinehof Castle

Commissioned by Scandanavia's most famous female entrepreneur, this Swedish castle remains incredibly well-preserved despite having stood for nearly 300 years.

Fertod, Hungary

Eszterhaza

Often called the "Hungarian Versailles", this palace is considered the country's grandest Baroque structure.