This unusual house in Turin was built 123 years ago.

It's the perfect example of a kind of architecture unique to Italy, known as the "Liberty Style".

How to make ordinary buildings more interesting? The Liberty Style has an answer... During the 1890s there was an artistic and architectural revolution in Europe: Art Nouveau.

It means "New Art" in French, and that's exactly what it was — a whole new approach to design, whether of buildings, furniture, clothes, sculpture, or crockery.

This painting is nearly 100 years old.

It's by Grant Wood (most famous for American Gothic) and it's called The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.

Why does it look like that? Because Grant Wood had one of the most unusual styles in art history... Grant Wood was born in 1891 in rural Iowa; ten years later the family moved to Cedar Rapids.

He worked at a metal shop, studied at arts and crafts schools in Minneapolis and Chicago, and then became a public school art teacher back in Cedar Rapids.

Humble beginnings.

This is Mount Nemrut in Turkey, one of the strangest ancient ruins in the world.

It's a colossal, 2,000 year old burial mound on top of a mountain, surrounded by huge stone heads.

Who built it? A king who wanted to become a god... First, where is Mount Nemrut?

It's in the Taurus Mountains, a range in south-eastern Turkey. And, rising to more than 2,000 metres, it's one of the tallest mountains in the region.

A brief history of landscape art: In Medieval Europe landscape painting wasn't a genre of its own, and it hardly featured in art at all.

Notice how the background of this 11th century mural indicates the landscape merely by the generic sketch of a castle and an isolated, highly stylised tree:

In the year 1712 something incredibly strange happened in Sweden.

For the first and only time in history, February had 30 days.

Here's the story of what happened — and why... The story begins in 753 BC, when Rome was founded by the mythical Romulus.

Now, Romulus was credited with creating the first Roman calendar.

It had ten months, each of 30 or 31 days, beginning in March and ending in December.

This is the American Radiator Building, a 101 year old black and gold skyscraper that's half Gothic, half Art Deco.

It's famous, but not as famous as it should be — so here's a brief history of one of the world's coolest skyscrapers... In 1923 the American Radiator Company wanted to build a new office in New York.

This was the Golden Age of Skyscrapers: the Woolworth Building was ten years old, and the Empire State and Chrysler were less than a decade away.

So it was going to be a skyscraper... but what sort?

Why Brutalism isn't as bad as you think... When you hear the word "Brutalism" what comes to mind?

Maybe something like this: an uninspiring line of highrises, the sort people tend to call boring, generic, or even oppressive.

But that isn't real Brutalism — and it never has been.

Urban design isn't magic — there are specific reasons why we like some places more than others.

So here are 10 ways to make a street more (or less) interesting... 1. Street Parking

Parked cars, however nice they look themselves, almost always make a street look less appealing and feel less inviting.

There are two broad reasons for this.

In 1995 there were 820 skyscrapers in the world.

There are now more than 7,000 — and they're being built at a faster rate than ever... but why?

Well, here's a brief history (& future) of skyscrapers... The history of skyscrapers can be divided into five broad eras.

First are ancient and medieval buildings which were tall, though not what we think of when we hear the word "skyscraper".

Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a belltower, completed in 1372 after two centuries' work:

164 years ago today a Belgian designer called Victor Horta was born.

You probably haven't heard of him, but he was one of the most important architects in history.

Why? Because Horta created Art Nouveau... Imagine yourself in the late 19th century.

All architecture is directly based on the past: everything is Neo-Classical, Neo-Gothic, Neo-Byzantine, Neo-Romanesque, Neo-Renaissance, and so on.

There is no original style unique to the age; everything is backwards looking.

The year is now 2025 — but only according to one of the world's many different calendars.

So here's what the year is, right now, according to some of the others... Gregorian Calendar: 2025

The world's most commonly used dating system. Introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a slight modification of the old Julian Calendar.

It dates history from the birth of Jesus Christ and has no "year zero" — 1 BC is followed by 1 AD.

One building from each year of the 21st century:

1. Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat, Oman (2001) 2. Kingdom Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (2002)

Once the tallest building in Saudi Arabia (since surpassed), the Kingdom Centre is probably most interesting for containing the world's most elevated mosque — and, of course, its incredibly distinctive sky bridge.

It might feel like Christmas is now over — but it's only just started.

Because Christmas really begins on the 25th December and ends on the 5th January.

That's why there are Twelve Days of Christmas... The way Christmas is now celebrated makes the 25th December feel like its end and culmination.

But originally — and as remains the case religiously — the 25th December was the beginning of Christmas, not its end, as declared by the Council of Tours in 567 AD.

Who is Santa Claus? Why does he look like that? And where did he come from?

All these questions, answered... The original Santa Claus, so to speak, was Saint Nicholas (270-343 AD).

He was an early Christian bishop born in Myra, modern Turkey, who became famous for working miracles and helping the needy.

In the 5th century AD Emperor Theodosius II built a church in his honour.

The colour of a street's lighting can totally change how that street looks and feels.

But that's only one example of how the smallest details influence architecture and urban design.

So, from sidewalks to chimneys, here are some more... To heat our homes we use air conditioning or central heating — rather than fires — now.

An obvious but easily missed consequence of this change is that houses no longer have chimneys.

This is one reason new houses so often look strange; they just seem to be missing something.

"Decem" means 10 in Latin — so why is December the 12th month of the year?

It's a story involving Julius Caesar, a lost month called "Intercalaris", and the longest year in history.

But it begins three thousand years ago with Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome... Romulus was the mythical founder of Rome, supposedly descended from Aeneas, who fled from Troy centuries before.

He and his twin brother Remus were raised by a wolf and, eventually, they fought over the founding of a new city.

Romulus killed Remus — and Rome was born.

Over 2,000 years ago there was a philosopher who believed in atoms, speculated about aliens, created a theory of evolution — and even said religion was just superstition.

Here's a brief introduction to Epicureanism, the strangest (and most controversial) ancient philosophy... Epicurus was a philosopher who lived in Athens in the 3rd century BC.

He refined and expanded on existing beliefs until he had created a definitive philosophy of his own: Epicureanism.

Epicurus also set up a school in Athens, where he taught these ideas, known as "the Garden".

The Notre-Dame is France's most famous cathedral, but it isn't the biggest or even the best.

So here are some of France's other (and less well known) Gothic wonders... There's plenty of great Gothic Architecture in Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and other countries.

But France is the true home of the Gothic — just look at Tours Cathedral, say.

And after all, France is where the Gothic first emerged in the 12th century.

Which or That, explained: If it even matters, one of the subtlest (and most misunderstood) nuances of the English language is the difference between "which" and "that".

They are similar — both are used to introduce additional information in a sentence — but serve different purposes.

The most beautiful paintings of Winter:

1. Full Moon by Louis Douzette (1869) 2. Snow in Mukojima by Hasui Kawase (1931)

A brief guide to the Nine Circles of Hell according to Dante's Inferno...

From the things that land people in each circle (including astrology and political corruption) to how they're punished — and who else is already there: It begins in a dark forest at midnight on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday, in the year 1300.

Exactly halfway through Dante's life.

He is pursued by three beasts — a lion, leopard, and wolf — before the ghost of the ancient Roman poet Virgil saves him.