Hungarian Parliament Building

Begun in 1885 and completed in 1902, the Országház was conceived to mark the 1896 millennium of the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian Basin. Imre Steindl's design fused neo-Gothic spires with a vast Renaissance dome, and at 268 metres it remains Hungary's largest building — its 691 rooms decorated with 40 kilograms of gold. Beneath the dome sit the Holy Crown of Saint Stephen and the coronation regalia, symbols of Hungarian statehood carried across a thousand years of empire, revolution, and occupation. Steindl went blind before he could see it finished. Floodlit above the river at night, its symmetrical façade mirrored in the Danube is one of Europe's most photographed parliaments.