Buildings and Architecture in Europe

There are a fair bit of old windmills on Langeland. Some stand dilapidated and neglected, while others have been carefully restored. Skovsgaard Mill is probably one of the finest on Langeland. It was rebuilt in 1904, after a fire, and is still totally functional to this day, where it grinds ecological flour for the Skovsgaard Estate. The mill is open for visitors.

A few kilometers from Skagen lies The Sand-Covered Church (in Danish Den Tilsandede Kirke). The church was constructed in the late 14th-century, but during the last half of the 18th-century the church was getting buried by drifting sand. The congregation had to dig out the entrance each time a service was to be held. The struggle to keep the church free of sand lasted until 1795, when it was abandoned. The actual church was demolished, but the tower was left to act as a sea mark and was therefore whitewashed.

Kajaani Castle was built in the early 17th century to safeguard the border of the Swedish kingdom. It's located on its own island in the middle of the Kajaani River. It existed for nearly 100 years, before the Russian army blew it up during the Great Northern War in 1716. It has been under restoration recently.

Kastelholm is the only castle in Åland. It was built during the medieval period (14th century), but had its heyday during the reign of the Swedish Gustav Vasa. Next door lies an open-air museum with traditional houses.

The old wooden church of Petäjävesi is such a fine example of Nordic wooden churches that it has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church was constructed in 1763-65 and has remained nearly unchanged. The big floor planks are made of wall logs of a chapel that stood previously on the spot. The church stopped being used as a church from 1879, but the graveyard was still used afterwards. Today you can hire it for weddings, christening or even concerts. It's open daily as a museum during summer time.

From the outside Temppeliaukio Church doesn't look like much. Just a green copper dome ontop of a rocky outcrop in the middle of a residental area. But the church is hewn into solid rock. Inside it's a prime example of Nordic modesty. Natural light flows through narrow glass panels which hold the cobber string dome, making it surprisingly bright even during wintertime. The raw granite walls stand as bare as they were the day the church got hacked into the rock. Concrete balcony and minimalistic Finnish interiour in cool colours finish off this crazy architectural masterpiece from 1969. Temppeliaukio Church rank as Helsinki's number one attraction which it fully deserves, for it's truely an astonishing sight.

The wooden church in Tornio is one of the oldest wooden ones in Finland. It was first founded in 1621, but not completed until 1647. In 1682 it burned to the ground after it got hit by lightning. The present church was built in 1686, though some work went on until the beginning of 18th century. The bell tower, west of the church, was added in 1687 and is still in use today (the oldest of its kind). The church is now the oldest wooden church still in use in Finish Lapland, but only during summer.

Turku is Finland's oldest town and has a fine medieval castle, which is more than 700 years old. The castle is constructed on the banks of Aura River and has had an important role in the Finnish and Swedish history. Today, Turku is a vibrant university town with a young crowd.

Berlin Modernism Housing Estates is a collection of estate houses, which were built in the 1920s in order to deal with the housing shortage after WWI. They were groundbreaking because they combined mass produced houses for people with low income with innovative architecture and urban planning. The same reasons they became an UNESCO World Heritage site. The estates are spread throughout Berlin, so it's unlikely that you will go and see all six groups. The six groups are Großsiedlung Siemensstadt (Siemensstadt Housing Estate), Siedlung Schillerpark, Großsiedlung Britz Hufeisensiedlung (Horseshoe Estate, pin on map), Weiße Stadt (White City), Wohnstadt Carl Legien and Gartenstadt Falkenberg, where Siemenstadt group is the biggest and most diverse.

Berlin is clustered with important historical buildings, but only three groups have made to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, namely Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin, and the Museum Island. The Museum Island (Museumsinsel) is an small island in Berlin’s River Spree with five world class museums all built between 1824 and 1930: Altes Museum (Old Museum), Neues Museum (New Museum) which holds the iconic bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery), Bode Museum and Pergamon Museum which holds the famous Pergamon Altar. During WWII the Museum Island got heavily damaged, and the Neues Museum was in ruins. Post 1945 the Museum Island was in East Germany and some reconstruction was done, but the reconstruction of Neues Museum wasn't completed until 2009.