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Culture Explorer Profile picture
@CultureExploreX
Sep 16, 2024 • 21 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
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Wow, they actually made it better!

Here are 20 remarkable revivals proving that breathtaking architectural restoration is possible. 🧵 Frauenkirche Dresden - 1957 and 2024
1. Dresden (1983 and 2019) Image
2. Boston before and after the "Big Dig." They took the freeway and buried it underground. Credit: ©u/StrategyOdd7170 / Via reddit.com
3. In 2010, a new Beaux Arts building in New York City replaced a 1950s shop building. Credit: ©u/NewYorkvolunteer / Via reddit.com
4. Hereford Square, London (Before and After) Credit: @Culture_Crit
5. A mall in Budapest, Hungary (Before and After the fall of communist regime) Image
6. Warsaw, Poland (1945 and Now) Credit: @Dr_TheHistories
7. Chróstnik Palace 2009 vs. now. Chróstnik, Lubin County, Poland Credit: @tradingMaxiSL
8. Sometimes nature takes over the beauty that existed. Revealing it is a net positive.

Chichen Itza 1892 and 2020 Image
9. Sas-Bahu Temple, Gwalior, India (1869 vs 2019) Image
10. Warsaw, Poland (Then and Now) Image
11. Harlem, New York (Then and Now) Image
12. Berlin Kreuzberg (1985 and 2018) Credit: @ThenvsNowPic1
13. Kossuth square, Budapest (Then and Now) Credit: @Arch_Revival_
14. Dubai (1990 and 2021) Image
15. Ziggaurat of Ur (Before and after excavation) Image
16. Mahabulipuram (Then and Now) Credit: @GemsOfINDOLOGY ·
17. Remodeled health clinic in Csenger (before and after) Credit: @Michael_Diamant
18. Hiroshima (1945 to 2020) Credit: ©u/Adamstowellll / Via reddit.com
19. Walkways at Ohio State University were paved based on the student's desired paths. Image
20. Tsaritsyno Palace, Moscow, Russia (Before and after 2005) Credit: @Culture_Crit

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More from @CultureExploreX

Culture Explorer Profile picture
Jul 15
The most dangerous thing you can do… is aim too low.

Michelangelo said it best.

These 20 sculptures show what happens when humans reach higher than anyone thought possible. 🧵

1. Pietà – Michelangelo
St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City

Michelangelo was 24. One block of marble. One mother. One dead son.
And somehow… he made it eternal.Michelangelo’s Pietà is a masterpiece so hauntingly perfect that it feels as if marble itself wept under his chisel.
2. The Veiled Virgin – Giovanni Strazza
Presentation Convent, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Carved in the 1850s. Still unexplained.
How do you make stone look like silk? The Veiled Virgin by Giovanni Strazza (1850s) — St. John’s, Canada Her veil looks like silk. You want to lift it. But it’s all carved from one marble block. Credit: @ArtorOtherThing
3. Winged Victory of Samothrace – Unknown
Louvre Museum, Paris, France

No face. No arms. And still… it dominates the room.
The moment just before she lands.
Read 23 tweets
Culture Explorer Profile picture
Jul 14
Venice doesn’t feel real.

A floating city with no cars, no roads... just water, silence, and 1,500 years of ambition.

It’s not just beautiful. It’s impossible. 🧵

A thread on the haunting, seductive, unforgettable beauty of Venice: The Bridge of Sighs, Venice, Italy.
It began as a refuge, settlers fleeing barbarian invasions, building on marshes no army would cross.

But Venice turned exile into empire.

By the 13th century, it wasn’t just surviving, it was ruling the seas. Venice was built on a foundation of about 10,000,000 underwater wooden logs or 8 to 10 tree logs per sq meter. Trunks function as roots. 1200 years later, those same trunks still support almost all of central Venice. Credit: Dr. M.F. Khan @Dr_TheHistories
No city flaunted power like Venice.
Not with walls but with domes, gold, and spectacle.

The Basilica di San Marco was its crown: five bulbous domes, stolen columns, and a ceiling made of molten heaven.

It wasn’t built just for prayer. It was built to stun as well. The Patriarchal Basilica of Saint Mark (Italian: Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco) in Venice, Italy, was the national treasure of the Republic of Venice until 1797 and since 1807 it has been the Cathedral of Venice. Photo: @harimaolee By Nguyễn Khánh
Read 21 tweets
Culture Explorer Profile picture
Jul 13
This cathedral looks like a fairytale. But it was built to scare people, not to inspire them.

A warning in stone. A symbol of domination.

Here’s the untold story of Saint Basil’s Cathedral 🧵👇 St. Basil’s Cathedral (Moscow, Russia) Credit: Architecture & Tradition @archi_tradition
After Ivan the Terrible conquered Kazan in 1552, he wanted more than a monument.
He wanted to make a statement.

He ordered a cathedral so bold, so strange, that it would leave Russia’s enemies shaking.
And he didn’t hold back. Iván el Terrible entra en Kazán, por Piotr Shamshin.
The site was strategic, the edge of the Kremlin moat.

Before it, Red Square had no real landmark.

This cathedral changed the skyline forever.
It set the tone for how Moscow would be seen — sacred, strange, and unstoppable. Image
Read 21 tweets
Culture Explorer Profile picture
Jul 13
Asia isn’t a continent. It’s a mosaic of civilizations, faiths, and empires.

These 24 landmarks capture its soul—with no filters, no gimmicks.

They’ll change how you see the world. 🧵👇 Great Wall of China Credit: @histories_arch
Persepolis – Iran

Imagine walking into the throne room of kings who ruled half the known world. That's Persepolis. Credit: @onationalparks
Angkor Wat – Cambodia

Built to honor Hindu gods and later transformed into a Buddhist temple, it’s a city of stone. Image
Read 27 tweets
Culture Explorer Profile picture
Jul 12
“Solomon, I have outdone thee!” — Emperor Justinian.

So why did Renaissance thinkers call his era the "Dark Ages"?

What if they got it completely wrong?
Let’s dismantle the biggest myth in history. 🧵👇 The Hagia Sophia in its current form was rebuilt by Emperor Justinian.
When people hear “Dark Ages,” they picture a world of ignorance, plague, and collapse.

No science. No progress. Just decay.
But that’s not what really happened.

The term “Dark Ages” isn’t just inaccurate, it’s propaganda. San Vitale (Ravenna) Photo by Phantom65 on flickr
In 536 AD, the sky literally darkened. A mysterious fog covered much of Southern Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia.

This foreboding change was recorded by the Byzantine historian Procopius. “For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year.”

Crops failed.
Plague followed. Millions died.

Scientists now believe massive volcanic eruptions triggered the chaos.

But the era didn’t die, it adapted.Photo by Maggie Evans freeyork.org/photography/watch-the-explosive-footage-of-a-recent-volcanic-eruption-in-iceland/
Dramatic storm clouds
Sunrise eruption at Volcano Fuego in Guatemala
Read 21 tweets
Culture Explorer Profile picture
Jul 8
Italy doesn’t just have art.
Italy is art.

And nowhere is that clearer than in its churches, some built to honor God, others to display power, and a few to do both.

Here are 17 churches in Italy that will make you question what humans are even capable of. 🧵👇 Duomo di Siena, Italy Credit: @ValentyneDreams
1. Duomo di Milano – Milan

It took 579 years to build.

A forest of spires.
3,400 statues.
And on top? A golden Virgin Mary watching over the city.

This is what happens when ambition and spirituality unite. Credit: @Anc_Aesthetics
2. Santa Maria del Fiore – Florence

It changed architecture forever.

Brunelleschi’s dome was an unsolvable puzzle until he solved it without scaffolding.

No one had seen anything like it since the Pantheon. And 600 years later, no one’s matched it. Credit: Travel Destinations, Tips & Inspiration
Read 21 tweets

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