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Buenos Aires, Argentina
El Rey de los Botones
Eduardo Alonso's button shop his father opened in 1933 now holds over two million buttons!
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Interiors
Who doesn't love an immaculately designed interior? It's where we spend most of our waking hours, at least for many of us. This collection represents the best of the best when you need a little inspiration for your own inside spaces.
Wankaner, India
Wankaner Royal Oasis
The last stepwell built in Gujarat sits beside an Art Deco pool, both designed by a maharaja in 1935.
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München, Germany
The Munich Residence
Munich's Residence lost 99% of its roof to WWII bombs, but staff saved its Rococo theatre by dismantling it in 1943.
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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Queen Victoria Building
Sydney's 1898 'marketplace' was built during a recession to create jobs, but the council never intended it to sell produce.
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Wroclaw, Poland
Wroclaw Main Railway Station
A 1857 Prussian station renamed twice by history, Wrocław Główny hid its most personal relic in a ceiling board: three fired workers' names, dated the day after their dismissal in 1946.
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Paris, France
Musée Gustave Moreau
Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau's greatest work may have been his death: a museum he'd never see, opened in 1903.
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Bakı, Azerbaijan
The Merchant Baku
This 1858 shipping headquarters helped Baku supply over half the world's oil by 1901, before Pennsylvania's boom even began.
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Paris, France
Théâtre du Châtelet
Jules Verne's play ran here for 64 years straight, ending only with the Nazi occupation, but Diaghilev's 1909 ballet premiere changed dance forever.
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Wien, Austria
Funkhaus Wien
Funkhaus Wien's trapezoid studios were built to make sound 'uncomfortable': a design quirk that created acoustic perfection.
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Malahide, Ireland
Malahide Castle
Fourteen Talbots breakfasted here before the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Only one returned alive that evening.
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Denver, Colorado, United States
Denver Union Station
Once Denver’s gateway to the Wild West, Union Station is now at the heart of the city's culture.
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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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Tabriz, Iran
Haidarzadeh House
A 19th-century mansion with no documented birth date now serves as Tabriz's official tourism information center.
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Baku, Azerbaijan
National Museum of History of Azerbaijan
Nine kilograms of gold decorate this hall's ceiling, built by an oil baron who started as a shoemaker's son.
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Baku, Azerbaijan
Taza Pir Mosque
Built over nine years with Tsarist oversight, this 1914 mosque operated for three years before becoming a cinema and barn.
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Almaty, Kazakhstan
Zhibek Zholy Metro Station
Started in Soviet times, finished 23 years later: Kazakhstan's first metro uses Korean trains, not Russian: a quiet declaration of independence.
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Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
Blair Flats
An apartment building turned hotel turned dollar-mansion ghost town turned apartment building once again.
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Newport, Rhode Island, United States
Cap Club
Newport's Gilded Age hotel swapped martinis for banana daiquiris and America's Cup nostalgia.
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Tehran, Iran
Niavaran Palace
The Shah's palace, abandoned mid-breakfast in 1979, now opens its retractable stargazing ceiling to the public for a dollar.
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Dale Hill, United Kingdom
Dale Hill Hotel and Golf Club
Dale Hill's Old Course traded dairy cows for divots in 1973; Ian Woosnam's 1997 addition starts with a 602-yard reality check.
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Kazan, Russia
Nurulla Mosque
This 1840s mosque spent 63 years as apartments and offices before returning to worship in 1992, minaret and all.
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Kazan, Russia
Kul Sharif Mosque
Kazan's Kul Sharif Mosque was destroyed in 1552 and rebuilt 450 years later, opening in 2005 for the city's millennium.
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Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Rohat Teahouse
Promised survival in 2022, demolished in 2025: Dushanbe's beloved 1958 teahouse became a high-rise government building.
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Srinagar, India
Chai Jaai
Kashmir's pink noon chai gets its color from chemistry, not dye: baking soda transforms tea chlorophyll into burgundy pyrroles.
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Kazan, Russia
Galiev Mosque
Forced into exile in 1552, Kazan's Tatars built their own 'Atlantis': a quarter of mosques and merchant mansions by Lake Kaban.
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Lisbon, Portugal
Teatro São Luiz
This Lisbon theater premiered Portugal's first sound film in 1931 after surviving a fire, three name changes, and a futurist scandal.
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Porto, Portugal
Teatro Nacional São João
Porto's 1798 opera house burned down, was rebuilt for Verdi, then spent decades as a cinema before returning to the stage.
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Roubaix, France
La Piscine
Built for bathers in booming 1932, saved by locals after industrial collapse, now sculptures stand poolside where workers once swam.
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Kazan, Russia
Chabad-Lubavitch Synagogue
Forbidden under the Tsars, this 1915 synagogue later sheltered Soviet-era Jewish students fleeing university quotas elsewhere.
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Glasgow, Scotland
RISOTTO Studio
Mackintosh's first job? Designing drainage for a Victorian lemonade factory that's now a risograph print studio.
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Khet Bang Rak, Thailand
The Standard Hotel Bangkok Mahanakon
The elevators at The Standard Bangkok come in bold, clashing colors: a chromatic rebellion inside a pixelated tower.
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Bielsko-Biała, Poland
Sala Redutowa
Where the last Habsburg emperor slept and a notorious bandit was finally caught.
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Kraków, Poland
Tempel Synagogue
Tempel's 43 stained glass windows are the only preserved synagogue stained glass in Poland, surviving Nazi occupation as ammunition storage.
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Jodhpur, India
Mehrangarh Fort
To break a hermit's drought curse, a man was buried alive in Mehrangarh's foundation—his descendants still receive state care today.
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Pula, Croatia
Home of Croatian Veterans
Pula's 1913 naval ballroom outlasted the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a world war, and three countries, but the dances continue.
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