The engineering logic is entirely practical, and once you know it the buildings stop looking quaint and start looking sensible. Here are eleven still standing.
1. The Kapellbrucke, Lucerne, Switzerland…
These are not clocks with decoration added. They are astronomical instruments that happen to display the hour, built when the position of the sun and moon mattered to planting, sailing…
An aqueduct is mostly invisible. The famous arched bridges are the short sections where a valley had to be crossed; the great majority of any system ran underground or along…
What these have in common is a building doing something it was not built for, and a business that decided the space was worth the inconvenience. Here are fifteen worth…
A pier is an odd piece of architecture: a road to nowhere, built at considerable expense, whose purpose is the walking rather than the arriving. Here are fifteen worth doing.…
These are working buildings rather than museums, which means the way in is usually a tour or the cheapest seat available. Here are fifteen worth getting inside.
1. Palais Garnier,…