Nostalgia architecture 

Set against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, Neuschwanstein Castle rises dreamlike above a river gorge in the heart of Bavaria. Designed on a vast scale and at enormous expense, it served as King Ludwig II’s retreat into a fantasy world of poetry, music, and imagination. By the time of his death at age 41, Ludwig was effectively bankrupt, and only one-third of the colossal building was completed. Constructed of brick with a limestone façade, Neuschwanstein later inspired the iconic castle in Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.

Glorious, colorful, and wildly eccentric, Palácio da Pena is Portugal’s counterpart to Ludwig II’s Neuschwanstein. Overlooking the enchanting town of Sintra, the palace was built on the ruins of the Hieronymite Monastery of Nossa Senhora da Pena for Ferdinand II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Painted in vibrant red and yellow, the domed and turreted palace soars from a peak 1,450 feet high in the Sierra de Sintra, creating a striking and fantastical silhouette against the landscape.

The Neo-Baroque style of Garnier’s Paris Opéra is monumental, classically inspired, and lavishly detailed. Although the opera house itself occupies a surprisingly small portion of the building, with much of the space dedicated to the grand domed foyer and the magnificent monumental staircase, its design is opulent and dramatic. Garnier won Baron Haussmann’s competition to create an opera house for central Paris, and his design was meant to embody the cultural diversity of the Second Empire. The staircase, adorned with gleaming marble, opulent candelabra, and lavish gilding, exemplifies this vision with grandeur and elegance.

The first completed Art Nouveau building, designed by Victor Horta (1861-1947) for his friend Emile Tassel in Brussels, caused a sensation upon its completion. Externally, the house is rather unremarkable, aside from a double-height oriel bay window, making it almost indistinguishable from its more modest neighbors on a street now overshadowed by a dull 1960s office block. However, the interior is a different story—it bursts with dynamic metal tendrils and organic forms. The hall, with its striking palette of oranges, browns, and pale greens, evokes the atmosphere of an exotic palm house, where columns morph into surreal iron stalks, creeping and twisting in true Art Nouveau style.

Gaudí built two iconic apartment buildings in Barcelona: the vibrant, dragon-like Casa Batlló and the Casa Milà. The latter is renowned for its undulating gray stone façade, absence of straight lines, surreal roofscape, and organically designed apartments. Supported by a steel frame with brick and concrete pillars, Casa Milà’s roof is a striking feature, adorned with hundreds of parabolic brick arches, whimsical chimneys, and mosaic-clad ventilation shafts, all contributing to its surreal and innovative design.

Still incomplete, Sagrada Familia is one of the most extraordinary buildings of all time.