Napoleon died 204 years ago today.

He rose from obscurity, joined a revolution, became an emperor, tried to conquer Europe, failed, spent his last days in exile — and changed the world forever.

This is the life of Napoleon, told in 19 paintings: 1. Bonaparte at the Pont d'Arcole by Antoine-Jean Gros (1796)

Napoleon's life during the French Revolution was complicated, but by the age of 24 he was already a General.

Here, aged just 27, he led the armies of the French Republic to victory in Italy — his star was rising.

It took 8 architects, 21 popes, and 120 years to build and finish St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

And, four centuries later, it's still the largest church in the world.

So here's a brief introduction to St Peter's... The first impression anybody has when they see St Peter's Basilica in Rome, in real life or in a photo, is awe.

Because this is an immensely impressive building — it was and remains the world's largest church by volume.

Others are taller, but none are so vast.

The Sistine Chapel is one of the world's greatest buildings, and it has the most famous ceiling in history.

But what is it, who built it, and what does "Sistine" even mean?

Well, here's the surprisingly controversial history of the Sistine Chapel... Where did the Sistine Chapel get its name?

It was commissioned in 1473 by Pope Sixtus IV and completed nine years later.

His name in Italian was Sisto and the chapel was named after him, hence "Sistine" Chapel.

This is Burg Hohenzollern in Germany, one of the world's most beautiful Medieval castles.

Except that it isn't a Medieval castle — trains had been invented before it was built.

And so Hohenzollern is a perfect introduction to Neo-Gothic Architecture... If you want to understand Neo-Gothic Architecture then the best place to begin is with something like Hohenzollern.

It seems too good to be true — and that's because it is.

What you're looking at here isn't a Medieval castle; it's not even 200 years old.

This painting has no brush strokes — it is made from over 2,000,000 individual dots of colour.

And although it looks like nothing more than a sunny afternoon in Paris, it has a much darker hidden meaning... In the 1870s the Impressionists, led by Claude Monet, burst onto the French art scene.

Rather than painting classical themes in studios according to the principles of the Renaissance, as they had been taught in the Academy, the Impressionists took art outside...

This is the Queen's Stepwell in Gujarat, India, built nearly 1,000 years ago.

It's incredible, but it isn't unique — India is filled with hundreds of stepwells just like it.

Here is the story of the world's most extraordinary underground architecture... Water management was (and remains) one of the biggest challenges for any society.

When you have a large group of people living in one place you need to provide water for drinking, bathing, washing, irrigation, and more.

The only question is... how?

The Eiffel Tower was completed 136 years ago today.

It's now a global symbol of France and over 7 million tourists visit it every year.

But people hated the Eiffel Tower at first — they called it humiliating, modern, and "too American"... The Eiffel Tower was started in 1887 and finished two years later, on 31 March 1889.

This was an unprecedented structure and a challenge to engineering unlike anything attempted before.

Upon completion it was 300 metres tall and immediately became the world's tallest building.

These buildings, from around the world, look like they're either ancient or medieval.

But they were all built in the last few decades... The Ranganathaswamy Temple in Tiruchirappalli, India, has a history going back centuries.

But its tallest gopuram (a form of monumental gateway tower) was only completed in 1987.

You can see the older part at the bottom; its base is several hundred years old.

571 years ago today Amerigo Vespucci was born.

He's the guy the Americas are named after.

But it was basically an accident — and he didn't even know about it... As with the other continents, it isn't completely clear how the Americas got their name.

But the most widely accepted theory is that America was named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who travelled there twice in the late 1490s and early 1500s.

The Brutalist is about an architect who studied at the Bauhaus.

Its protagonist is fictional, but the Bauhaus was real.

What was it? The most influential design school in history.

So, from fonts to furniture, this is how Bauhaus created the aesthetic of the modern world... During the 19th century architecture, art, and design were all about the past.

This was the age of Revivalism — everything was built or designed in historical styles.

And it was also a maximalist age: decoration, detail, colour, and ornamentation were in fashion.

Mont-Saint-Michel in France is one of the most famous places in the world.

You've seen thousands of photos of it... but what is Mont-Saint-Michel? Who built it? And when?

This is a brief history of the world's strangest village... First — where is it?

Mont-Saint-Michel (which is the name of the island, the village, and the abbey) is a tidal island off the coast of Normandy, in northern France.

"Tidal" means that it is surrounded by sea or by land depending on the tides.

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.