79 Items Tagged

Follies and Grottoes

Podcast: Winchester Mystery House

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

The Podcast Team August 3, 2021

Halifax, England

Wainhouse Tower

This tallest folly in the world began its life as an elaborate factory chimney.

Câmpina, Romania

Iulia Hasdeu Castle

This eccentric folly house was designed by Romanian thinker Bogdan-Petriceicu Hasdeu, with a helping hand from his deceased daughter's spirit.

Rudolph, Wisconsin

Rudolph Grotto Gardens

Five acres of divinely inspired folk art.

Belvedere Tiburon, California

Lyford's Tower

Once the gateway to the utopian dream-village of a Civil War embalmer.

Godalming, England

Witley Wonder Underwater Ballroom

The hidden "ballroom" under a mansion lake was built by a criminal who ate a cyanide pill during his trial.

100 Wonders: The Underwater Ballroom

The abandoned room beneath a lake was built by extravagant Victorian criminal Whitaker Wright.

Dylan Thuras March 3, 2016

Mow Cop, England

Mow Cop Castle

This crumbling folly looks like an enchanted left over from Middle Earth.

Berlin, Germany

Pfaueninsel

This Berlin island is home to a flock of free-roaming peacocks, as well as a historic ivory folly.

Ocotillo, California

Anza Borrego Desert View Tower

This historic tower in the California desert promises visitors a "vortex of good vibes".

Greenfield, Massachusetts

Poet's Seat Tower

This tall Massachusetts folly got its name thanks to all of the purple prose its vistas inspired.

Weston, England

Hawkstone Park

Created hundreds of years ago, the magical follies and landscapes at this park were almost lost to time before being restored.

Wadebridge, England

Doyden Castle

This remote castle was built to be a wealthy businessman's palace of vice but is now simply a historic vacation cottage.

Salzburg, Austria

Schloss Hellbrunn

Trick water gardens from 1619 featuring a 200 piece mechanical theater powered by water.

Brighton, England

Clayton Tunnel North Portal

This tunnel entrance is built to resemble a grand castle but no one is quite sure why.

Before the Garden Gnome, the Ornamental Hermit: A Real Person Paid to Dress like a Druid

Allison Meier March 18, 2014

Kassel, Germany

Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe

A sprawling Baroque park with 300-year-old hydro-pneumatic waterworks.

Congleton, England

Little Moreton Hall

This logic-defying 16th-century Tudor manor still stands to the delight and astonishment of onlookers.