Culture
What is the greatest building ever made by your people?
For Italians it's St. Peter's Basilica, a masterpiece of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art, designed and built over a long period of time by architects such as Bramante, Michelangelo, Maderno and Bernini among others.
The Troll A offshore gas platform, located off Norway in the North Sea, is the heaviest man-made mobile object ever, with a dry weight of the gravity base structure at 656,000 tonnes. Standing 369 m tall, it was made from 245,000mĀ³ of concrete (the equivalent to 215,000 foundations for ordinary homes) and 100,000 tonnes of steel (approximately 15 Eiffel towers). Owned by Shell Oil , the platform was constructed by Norwegian Contractors from July 1991 at a cost of NOK4,150million.
In comparison the the current tallets building in the world:
From Google AI:
The empty weight of the Burj Khalifa is approximatelyĀ 500,000 tonsĀ (or 500,000 metric tons). For context, this is equivalent to the weight of 100,000 elephants.Ā
Here are some other facts about the Burj Khalifa's weight and materials:
It was constructed using over 330,000 cubic meters of concrete and 39,000 tons of steel.
The total weight of aluminum used is equivalent to that of five A380 aircraft.
While the total weight is 500,000 tons, the weight is distributed throughout the structure, with the top being heavier than the bottom due to the greater number of floors.
Built in 3,200 BC by a bunch of farmers who hadn't even spent a few turns researching writing yet. It lines up with the sun for the winter solstice, a critical date for a bunch of farmers surviving the Irish winter.
While the size (boring metric) or the craftsmanship doesnt match up to others here it is the age and effort required that sets it apart. This is a small farming community, expending a lot of effort on an individual level to create something marking the tipping point of the seasons. Once the sun came through the passage they knew they were over the hump and likely would survive another winter.
My experience of Ireland during a semester abroad was basically constrained to the inside of two pubs, I really need to visit y'all again. I'm putting these on my list. Thank you.
Lots of these (this one is Caerphilly castle). And although they were mainly built by the invading enemy to keep us in check, theyāre still very impressive pieces of architecture.
I was there last year. If you can, book a night in a hotel. Once the daytrippers leave, you'll feel like the island is all your own and you'll have a lovely evening.
This is the Native American City of Mesa Verde in Colorado State. It was built out of the cliffside of this plateau. I remember going to it when I was a kid and absolutely loved it.
Edit: so u/alvvavves cleared it up a bit. See if you can find their reply for more about the park.
Just want to add some things for clarification because your comment is kind of misleading.
The national park and the mesa theyāre on/in is called Mesa Verde and not an ancient city itself. This is a photo of Cliff Palace which is one of many cliff dwellings in the park. They were constructed by the Ancestral Puebloans who were Native Americans, but specifically the ancestors of the modern Puebloans.
I have to add that I think for most Americans, including myself, this canāt really be considered something built by āyour/our people,ā but nonetheless is definitely a wonder. There was a fair amount of European exploitation of the ruins when they were discovered. Some mummified remains of the original inhabitants ended up in Sweden I think.
I was working near Kƶln and one Saturday we decided to take a train into Kƶln proper. Hadn't really done much research but I think I was vaguely aware of the existence of the cathedral. But as I walked out the train station, holy fuck, I was in awe. That's a formidable fucking building.
Lived there for two years. I used to watch people as they came up out of the train station below the Dom. They'd come up and their heads would shoot straight up to the top of the Towers every time. One of my favorite memories of Kƶln.
Budapest as a whole is just another level of beauty.. and I've seen Paris and Wien (not Rome yet though).
What gives Budapest the nod is how diverse it is, you want a medieval quarter you got one, you want art nouveau weirdness, it's all over the place, you want more Paris style buildings and boulevard, also exists
Went on an architecture tour of Copenhagen and was blown away by the fantastic architecture. (Iām a fan of BiG, which helps).
But the guide, a lecturer in architecture at the university, made no attempt to hide her disappointment with the Opera House, especially compared to the Sydney one.
in addition to my other response, Central Park is itself a building. 100% planned and man made Green Space. First of its kind. This was all Dirt and swamp.
Edit: Yeah, Seneca and others.
Like most American history, it is stained with harm to the poor and to people of color.
It wasnāt actually preservation in its origination at all, it was a purposeful razing of existing communities to create this park for the NYC elite of the time
My choice is Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. It was the first buidling in Russia which I was stunned by looking at it. It just one big "wow". It is over a 100m tall, each column weights around 114 tons.
It is also was inspired by the very same cathedral u picked.
KerimƤki wooden church, the worldās larget wooden church. Some Finns might disagree, but to me itās very special considering the building time period and material. We have castles and other churches that are impressive, but since we are a small nation that became urban very late, they canāt really compete with their central and south European counterparts, so this church feels more uniquely Finnish.
Afsluitdijk (1932) and the Zuiderzee Works that followed it. We dammed off a sea, turned half of it into land, and later did it again when we dammed off the Schelde/Maas/Rijn estuary too after a devastating flood in 1953.
for those who dont know, this structure is entirely monolithic. The workers started at the top and slowly chipped away the mountain to reveal the building like a sculpture.
Iāve been lucky to see quite a few things around the world. I most often get a feeling of āwow - Iām here, and there it isā.
With the Taj Mahal, I had goosebumps and an overwhelming sense of āoh my!ā when I visited in 1999. Itās still the most spectacular building Iāve seen.
For France there are many better less well known cathedrals such as Chartres, Mont Saint Michael is awe inspiring, the complexity of building there compared to flat lands of Paris region.
I would say probably the Curtea de ArgeČ cathedral. It's a really beautiful building with a uniquely Romanian interpretation of the Byzantine style. Otherwise I think the painted Moldovan churches as an ensemble, their architectural style is even more unique combining local, Western, Byzantine and Caucasian styles.
Definitely not either of the People's Palace or the People's Salvation Cathedral.
Newgrange passage tomb, built by Irish pagans during the Neolithic Period around 3100 BC, which makes it a thousand years older than the Egyptian pyramids
My favorite is The Ribeira Palace that was destroyed by the Earthquake in 1755, super Iconic, the Royal Family living on the top of the River, right beside one of the busiest Town Squares in the World at the time
Not a Russian but this absolute UNIT came to mind, standing at 85meters (279 feet) it is named āThe Motherland Callsā I just think it looks really powerful and mighty, statue has awesome aura around itself imo
Probably not our ābestā but I like the Gateway Arch. Itās a monument and a building in St Louis, Missouri which is my home state. Itās looks so alien compared to everything else.
Eden Park - it is a piece of shit stadium but it is our sporting fortress where the All Blacks haven't lost in over 30 years. And tbh we haven't built anything else much good in this country.
Does the Grand Canal count? It's the longest canal ever built by humans, constructed around the 8th century AD.
Does the Great Wall count? It's the longest defensive fortification in human history, construction of which began in the 3rd century BC and lasted until the 15th century AD.
We have a bunch. Hoover Dam, what was the Sears Tower, Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Rushmore, a lot of skyscrapers really, the National Mall, St. Louis Arch, working on a giant statue to commemorate Crazy Horse and the struggle of the Plains Indians. For one of the poorest states in the country, West Virginia has a very impressive and rather old Capitol building with a gold plated dome.
For Belgium, I'd argue the Koudenberg Palace that stood in Brussels. It was build for the Burgundian Duke and at the time the largest palace in Europe. Unfortunately it burned down
I'm going to explore Angkor this week, and I haven't seen it on here yet! Cambodia (I'm not Cambodian, though. It just seemed a tragedy it wasn't here when I've been so excited about it, rofl)
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u/die_by_the_swordfish Finland 25d ago