Get ready for sensory overload. Check your sanity at the door. House on the Rock is a manic mishmash of mechanical mayhem. Much like stepping into Oz, only in Wisconsin, a tour through House on the Rock is like something from a drug-induced haze. Some visitors love the bizarreness and some hate it, but here are 48 images of the schizophrenic blend in this freaky destination.

House on the Rock

image credits: (Dave Lyons,tripadvisor)

House on the Rock opened in 1959 in Spring Green, Wisconsin. It is a “complex of architecturally unique rooms, streets, gardens and shops designed by Alex Jordan, Jr.” The House sits atop Deer Shelter Rock with a forest nearby. The above Infinity Room was added in 1985, hanging out 218 feet from the House without supports underneath. The end section has a glass floor and the room has over 3,000 windows. This is neither an endorsement to visit, nor a slam, but instead it is a weird trip in complex design that screams, “Bizarro land!”

Odd but not too far out . . . yet:

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

At first glance, it may not seem as if you are about to step off into Oz in Wisconsin. Both of Alex Jordon’s biographers relate a story by a man who was officially proclaimed as the 1976 World Champion Liar. Furthermore, according to Wikipedia, reporter Marv Balousek published a book about House on the Rock and reported: ‘Jordan Sr. hired “drunks and bums” from the Madison street to help blast the rock. Balousek says that according to Sid Boyum these workers were sometimes paid with whiskey and sometimes by check, but that Alex Jordan Jr. destroyed the cancelled checks later to further a myth that he had personally built the house himself.’

Seems normal enough at first

The Gate House is an entryway to the main house. Paying visitors take self-guided tours. The “ultimate 1970s bachelor pad” switches to a Victorian Steampunkish flavor after descending the library steps. Alex Jordan believed that sights and sounds were the most effective means of stimulating the senses. Well get ready for sensory overload and a real life version of a Tim Burton movie.

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

The eclectic maze of rooms include the Mill House, Streets of Yesterday, The Heritage of the Sea, Tribute to Nostalgia, Atrium Restaurant, Music of Yesterday, Spirit of Aviation, and the Carousel. Of course that’s not all. More seriously strange structures include the Organ Room, Inspiration Point, the Doll House Room, the Circus Room, the Galleries, and the Doll Carousel Room.

Let the bizarre tour begin:

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

Is there LSD in those bottles? No, but there seems to be about everything else you might imagine. A tour through House on the Rock is like something from a drug-induced haze.

Sheriff keeps a head in a jar?

The Sheriff’s Office features a head in a jar. There are also hundreds of guns in all shapes and sizes. This is not even close to as wacky or wonderful as this place gets. Depending upon your perspective, it might seem like a manic mishmash of musty mechanical mayhem. “It’s creepy, beautiful, dreary, overwhelming, and inspiring.” You can check your sanity at the door.

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

Some tourists seem to love it. Others post trip comments such as, “I came away wondering what was that? It is so totally weird I can not even express it.” Yet other  visitors seem to hate it. Could the controversial opinions be due to that overwhelming WTF feeling it produced?

Puppet Master to Heritage of the Sea Building:

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

There is a puppet master and his many peculiar marionettes. The Heritage of the Sea building is one of the most popular destinations. A giant sea-monster type whale is centered in the building. It stands 200 feet high, as tall as the Statue of Liberty, in the nautical themed room. Additionally, there is a Titanic display and over 200 model ships.

Automated – Animated Bands Out the Kazoo:

The Circus Room has all things circus. The pyramid of elephants is but one tame example. There is also an automated 40-piece band and an 80-piece orchestra.

Among knick-knacks, antiques and re-creations, music seems to rule the House on the Rock. The Organ Room is only one of many automated musical rooms surrounded by walkways, spiral staircases, and bridges.

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

Beside the indoor trees and huge pipes, you can see two of the three theater organ consoles.

Carousel Room

The Carousel at House on the Rock is recorded as the world’s largest. Hundreds of angel mannequins hang from the ceiling as well as 182 chandeliers. 20,000 lights surround the bizarre merry-go-round, heightening that Christmas on crack, drug-induced blur feeling. The indoor carousel has 269 different basts, gathered from all around the world, with none of them being a a traditional carousel horse.

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

The “mouth” entrance to the Carousel Room leads down a hallway. If a person grows bored, there are elephants loaded down with life-sized Barbies in another room not too far away.

Trip to WTF?

The House on the Rock is a crazy place that you can probably not prepare yourself for, even after a quick search on the web. Every nook and cranny is crammed full of treasures. The walls and ceilings are carpeted or padded with cushions. Was this done perhaps in case visitors go temporarily insane?

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

The Music of Yesterday is piped with loud oriental music and animated with robotic musical instruments. If you take a quick detour to one of the restrooms, you will find the walls equally packed with loony yet oddly cool displays.

Weirded Out Yet?

If you aren’t weirded out yet, perhaps a few cheesy stops to shake hands with Uncle Sam or be terrorized by a clown will do it?

Knights protect the damsels from dragons. All kinds of time periods and all kinds of cultures are jumbled together at House on the Rock.

What collection is complete without Mardi Gras masks?

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

Frog Girl “alive” is probably something you never thought to see. Kids will either come away impressed or distressed and have nightmares.

How about now?

If you weren’t yet completely weirded out by all the eccentric oddities, how about now?

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

To say this would be a very unique experience is putting it mildly. The schizophrenic blend which makes up House on the Rock is for you to decide if you like it or not. To say it’s extremely odd is surely a safe bet.

A big shout out and thank you to Dave Lyons who kindly gave permission to use his awesome photos!

One of the sweetest sounds to students is when that last bell in the last class rings to signal school is out for summer. In the words of Alice Cooper, “Out for summer. Out till fall. We might not go back at all.” No one will return for classes to these schools; they are out permanently. The once busy halls and classrooms are lifeless and lonely. Not all schools are filled with laughter; some have a very dark past. These abandoned and decaying schools are out forever.

Bus

(image credit:ScallopHolden.com)

Tax payers may want to cuss at this overturned and graffiti-covered bus. However, there is something satisfying to the rebel soul to see the urbex image. Like these schools, this bus will never experience high school drama, laughing, or arguing kids again.

Abandoned School

(image credit:Atelier Teee)

Once upon a time, in Bradford, Illinois, this school was new and filled with hopeful teachers and laughing kids. Now it is a lonely and sad dilapidated building.

Detroit

(image credit:the chive,doobybrain)

Detroit is a rustbelt city with population loss, rising crime rates, high loss of jobs, and a declining urban environment. Nearly 30 schools have permanently closed their doors due to budget cuts. Most were left unsecured and scrappers have plundered the computer monitors and the buildings for any precious metals. The school buildings are full of discarded textbooks and office paperwork, peeling paint, and overall destruction.

Holley High School

(image credit: www.motionblurstudios.com)

The Holley High School auditorium with stuffed animals as the audience is located in New York. The school was closed in 1976. 10-15 years ago, asbestos clean-up costs were estimated at $1 million. This abandoned school and auditorium will never again be filled with applause or cheers. No high school student will be struck with stage-fright or give the performance of their life. The guests in the moldy seats are gifts from superstitious urban explorers.

Class Dismissed

(image credit:opacity,ScallopHolden.com)

The lecture hall in an abandoned Belgium university is cast in an eerie light. Forlorn and deserted now, the college was built in 1930 on the site of an old abbey.  In the abandoned school library, on the right, a librarian will never again shush someone. The floor is littered with dead presidents.

Art School

(image credit:ScallopHolden.com,ScallopHolden.com)

The abandoned art school in Buffalo, New York, has bright splashes of color mixed into the beautiful decay. No aspiring artist will ever again paint their heart out to create a masterpiece here.

Piano

(image credit:Micheal Peterson)

The dejected and overturned piano in a rural Nebraska school is hauntingly beautiful. The forgotten keys are forever silenced.

Abandoned Girls’ School

The scenery on the decaying stage is from the last play before the UK school for girls was abandoned.

Beautiful architectural bones will slowly disintegrate.

Below the dome, the pentagram on the floor seems to gives this room a sinister atmosphere.

A lone chair sits amid rotting floorboards of a classroom. With no more catty or chatty girls, the halls, corridors, and stairways are silent.

(image credit:howzey)

Sections of this abandoned school for girls now resembles a school from a war-torn country.

Pennhurst State School

Pennhurst State School opened in Spring City, PA, in 1908. The facility was dedicated to treat people with mental and physical disabilities, but in 1946 there were only seven physicians serving over 2,000 patients.

Reports of beatings by staff and other patients, assault, and extended periods of isolation were uncovered. Residents regressed into mentally disturbed states of mind. In 1977, the institution was found guilty of violating patient’s constitutional rights in a class-action lawsuit.

Among the debris and destruction are reminders of the students who attended school here. The school is seeped with trauma. Instead of finding broken desks, the atmosphere is heavy with broken spirits.

Kids were not happy and well cared for. The children despaired in the “Candycane Dungeon.”

Ex-patients and many other reports were documented, including abuse, patient case studies, and behavior modification. Pennhurst State School was closed in 1987.

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In October 2010, the school will be reopened as a “haunted attraction.” It will be called “Pennhurst Institute of Fear.”

Gas Masks

(image credit:Timm Suess)

The ghost town of Pripyat near Chernobyl is a derelict wasteland. The floor is littered with gas masks. “School’s out for summer. School’s out forever. School’s been blown to pieces…”

Stalker School & Popash School

This old abandoned school in Bedford, Indiana, looks eerie. However it has an even creepier name, Stalker School.

(image credit:cindy47452, tantrum_dan)

“No more pencils. No more books. No more teacher’s dirty looks.” In Florida, the decaying Popash School is under demolition.

Exit

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Both of these schools are seeped with trauma, instead of happy school days. From 1922 to 1992, the developmentally disabled children in Massachusetts could not run for the exit. Belchertown State School was permanently shut down after publicized investigations that proved overcrowding and poor living conditions. On the right, the abandoned training school consisted of 87 buildings on a sprawling 1,000 acre campus. It was founded in 1917, but forced to forever close its doors in 1990 after violating patients’ 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th and 11th amendment rights. Another court case was won by a woman who charged deprivation of her human rights and slavery.

Abandoned Washburne Trade School

This is a zippy, trippy tour through an abandoned vocational school before it was demolished. School’s out forever!

Crypts are stone chambers or vaults beneath a church usually used as burial vaults. In more modern times, family vaults were built aboveground in cemeteries and are usually referred to as mausoleums. When a cemetery or a church is abandoned, these decrepit crypts and the people buried in them are all but forgotten. In a tribute to Memorial Day, with the help of urbex, urban exploration photos, we will virtually visit and pay out respects to these 15 abandoned and creepy crypts.

Spooky Crypt Hunters

(image credits: GraemeKelly, GraemeKelly)

Although not the most common places to hunt, crypts are explored by urban explorers and ghost hunters. Imagine creeping through a cemetery as darkness approaches, armed with a camera, and with the intention of infiltrating an abandoned church and traveling below ground into a crypt. Here we go with this special brand of spooky crypt hunters for a few moments of remembrance and to pay our respects.

Abandoned Crypt, Memphis, Tennessee

(image credit: naslrogues)

This abandoned chapel in Memphis, Tennessee, is boarded up and practically shouted to a few urban explorers to go inside and see what is there. The disused crypt portion had no coffins in the shelves, but the inside was in complete disarray. Old broken coffins were broken open and scattered throughout the place. Although there were no signs of any dead laid to rest here, and no corpses, it was still very creepy.

Calvary Cemetery, Rock Island, Illinois

(image credit: orngejuglr)

This very old mausoleum in Calvary Cemetery, Rock Island, Illinois, is far beyond abandoned. The decrepit vault is crumbling. The front gate or door might have fallen off as time passed or it might have been opened by grave robbers. Nature is reclaiming this mausoleum with a bush growing beside it and a tree growing on the inside and up through the roof. Although there is no sign of a coffin inside the mausoleum, there is musty dirt, dried up mortar and plenty of spiderwebs.

Vampire’s Crypt

(image credit: Svenstorm)

This is an ultra spooky but true tale that happened at Chestnut Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in Rhode Island. Mercy Brown, age 19, died in January of 1892. The winter ground was frozen and a grave could not be dug, so she was kept in this aboveground crypt. When consumption started killing off her family, her brother and others went into the crypt. She appeared to have moved and still looked “fresh.” Believing her a vampire, her brother cut out her heart and burned it against a wall inside the crypt. Then he gave the ashes as a treatment to his sick son. The son soon died. Poor Mercy Brown was later buried in the cemetery with a traditional tombstone.

Ice Crypt in Koohrang, Iran

(image credit: milad3010)

Due to aridity in Iran, due to super hot summers and very cold winters, crypts were carved into the mountain. In archaic times, people lived in them as well as buried their dead in them. This ancient ice crypt is also a tunnel located near Chelgerd City. It took 15 years for about 5 million workers to cut through the mountain at the time of Shah Abbas (1587-1629). This ice crypt tunnel of Koohrang was meant to divert more water to Karoon River.

Heidelberg Thingplatz

(image credits: opacity)

The grounds of the Heidelberg Thingplatz cover 25 meters of sloping land, which is situated atop Heiligenberg (Holy Mountain) Germany. The mountain is full of ancient burial grounds. At the summit was a Roman temple dedicated to the god Mercury. The location of this temple later became the St. Michael Monastery in 1023. Heiligenberg Thingplatz was built in 1934 around these ancient crypts and burial grounds. It was used for Nazi propaganda plays, speeches, and entertainment. Then the radio took over as the more preferred medium for promoting Nazism.

St Cuthbert’s Burial Grounds, Edinburgh

(image credit: bthomso)

There is really nothing left in which to pay respect inside this decrepit crypt. Nature is slowly reclaiming the burial chamber. Located in Edinburgh, this is only one of three old damaged crypts in St. Cuthbert’s burial grounds.

Collegiate Church Crypt

(image credit: rojabro)

The castle at Warkworth, Northumberland, has a passage under the foundation which leads to the Collegiate Church (as seen at left). On the right is the crumbling remains of a crypt which is hidden away under the church. The church was abandoned and left uncompleted after Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, was murdered in 1489.

Grave of Joseph Lenné

(image credit: Morgennebel)

Peter Joseph Lenné was a famous Prussian landscape gardener and architect from Bonn who worked in the German classicist style. Bornstedt Cemetery has remarkable tombstones, mausoleums and crypts. It was a popular burial place of Prussian court employees. Located in Potsdam, Brandenburg, this is the gravesite of Lenné who died in 1866.

You Never Know What Might Be Waiting Inside The Crypt…

Urban explorers never know what might be waiting on the inside of whatever they are exploring. The same is true of going down and under into abandoned crypts. The sign above reads, “To my wife, we’ll never forget you.”

(image credits: Jago Pauwels, Jago Pauwels, Jago Pauwels)

In the same abandoned and derelict crypt, a diseased spider hangs dead on the wall. Nearby, beautiful decay marks the face of an angel statue.

New Guest

(image credit: Bousure)

Just in case you don’t find it creepy enough exploring abandoned crypts, this forgotten crypt in Belgium has a ghoulish “new guest.”

Tales From The Crypt

(image credit: e³°°°)

Laeken is a residential suburb in north-west Brussels in Belgium. The neo-gothic Church of Our Lady was initially built as a mausoleum. The church contains a royal crypt where the members of the Belgian Royal Family were buried. The Laeken cemetery behind the church is known as the “Belgian Père Lachaise” because it used to be the burial place of the rich and the famous. Inside the crypt are the graves of famous individuals and also features an original cast of Thinker by Auguste Rodin.

Crypt of family “Müller”

(image credit: Morgennebel)

Again at the abandoned Potsdam graveyard in Germany, this grave seems less like an elaborate tombstone and more like a dungeon cell leading to the dead. This is the crypt for the “Müller” family. Nature is moving in to reclaim the decaying crypt.

Crypt of Barons*

This family crypt is in an England town cemetery, which is very well maintained except for this resting place. Barons from a nearby castle are laid to rest inside, with dates starting in the early 1800’s and ending with urns that were entombed around 1960.

The crypt was laid out in an L-shape. Each casket rests inside a niche with enough room for about 15 bodies. A duke born in the 1700s has a crown and a plague atop his casket. On another duke’s casket, ornate metal crests and shields and jewels glint from the meager light that shines into this cave-like crypt.

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Some of the caskets in Crypt of Barons* are warped with age. Old wooden doors, thick cobwebs and mildewed stones give this crypt an eerie atmosphere like something out of a horror movie. The real name of this crypt is not used, since the doors are unlocked. Urban explorers do not want to mark the way like a map for vandals and grave robbers.

La Crypte des Fleurs*

One cemetery in Belgium is very well maintained except for a small chapel-like structure. Inside, a spiral staircase leads down to a dark, dank crypt and gallery of tombs that have not been visited at all for years except by urban explorers. Three tunnels form this crypt, following the cemetery paths aboveground.

The dates of death range from 1885 to 1978. The walls are damp to the touch. Mementos, plastic flowers and cracked portraits have layers of mildew, moss, rust, and cobwebs.

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In the early days of this crypt, caskets were constructed of cheap wood. These soon decomposed in this damp underground crypt and created a horrendous stench of liquefied wood and rotting flesh. The city council issued an order that future coffins to be buried in this tomb were required to be zinc based. This was to reduce the putrid stench of decaying bodies which were shelved in the crypt.

Mount Rose*

Built in 1837 to alleviate overcrowding in the smaller local cemeteries, Mount Rose Cemetery* helped to provide a more remote location for bodies that were infected with contagious diseases such as smallpox and cholera. There are ornate Victorian crypts, monuments, and mausoleums on the hills of this cemetery.

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There are also two old abandoned Gothic chapels. The one built in 1863 was a receiving vault. The other chapel added a crematory in 1912. Mount Rose is the final resting place for more than 1/3 of a million people . . . it is also not the cemetery’s real name to protect the innocent and the dead.

Father de Coma – Crypt Works

A French priest, Father Louis de Coma, created many great monuments above and below ground in Baulou, France. On the left is the chapel on the hill: The 12th Station of the Cross and the start of the Father de Coma Alignment. Behind the chapel are two ancient tombs.

(image credits: andrew gough)

On the upper left a Water Gorgon guards the entrance to the de Coma Family Crypt. On the right is Magdalene crypt, the burial tomb of the De Coma family. Magdalene presides over a pool of water that de Coma believed to possess magical powers. The evocative underground mausoleum is symbolically connected via an alignment that bisects all of the primary religious structures aboveground in Baulou. The Statue of Jesus is turned away from Louis de Coma’s tomb.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day Weekend! Please consider sparing a few moments in remembrance to those who died fighting for your country. Please pay your respects to your loved ones who have passed away before you.

Don’t you hate it when someone tells you that you don’t know diddly squat, don’t know jack? Does it make you more determined than ever to succeed? Do you not tell anyone and continue building your dream in secret? Are those dreams ever as big as building a castle? Each of these 14 castles were constructed primarily as the DIY work of one man, except for perhaps a few family members or friends who also didn’t know jack but pitched in. Sometimes not knowing jack comes back to bite us, while sometimes the drive and desire to attain the dream is aided by not knowing how impossible the DIY task should be. Here are 14 fabulous DIY castles built by people who did not have a clue about construction, who did not know jack about building castles.

Bishop Castle

(image credits: wikipedia)

Bishop Castle is proof of the power of suggestion. Jim Bishop might not have known jack about building, but he knew enough to construct his family cottage and to cover it with rocks. In 1969, neighbors remarked that the cottage looked similar to a castle. Upon hearing that, Bishop acted as sole builder and constructed Bishop Castle near Rye, Colorado. It has several towers, but the main tower is over 160 feet tall.

Le Palais Idéal – Ferdinand Cheval

(image credits: wikipedia)

Although some people may say Ferdinand Cheval didn’t know jack, he knew enough to be inspired by one beautiful stone in the road and then to build the castle of his childhood imagination. By day, Cheval worked as a mailman. By night, he worked in secret to construct Palais Ideal. Palais Ideal, the Ideal Palace, “Started in 1879 and finished in 1912; it took over 10,000 days, 93,000 hours, and 33 years of toil.” Cheval wished to be buried there, but French authorities more or less said Cheval didn’t know jack about the law and refused. Cheval spent the next eight years building a magnificent mausoleum in the cemetery of Hauterives. He lived one more year before he was buried there at the age of 80.

Fidler’s Castle

(image credits: Daily Mail)

If you had neither the training nor the lawful building permits, how do you hide a self built castle for four years? Behind 40 feet tall bales of hay. Robert Fidler and his wife built their dream castle, complete with ramparts and cannons. After four years, thinking the time for objections had passed, they removed stacked hay and tada! Fidler’s Castle. Neighbors and the Redhill Surrey planning council were not impressed. In fact, after years in court, Fidler lost the battle. His dream of a castle was jacked and it is to be knocked down.

Cathedral of Justo Gallego Martínez

(image credits: wikipedia,citynoise)

No money, no formal training, but rich with faith, former monk, farmer and bull fighter, Justo Gallego Martínez built his very own Cathedral near Madrid, Spain. People make promises when they are close to death, but few follow up on them and build a “castle.” When he was struck down with tuberculosis, Martínez promised he would build a shrine in honor of the Lady of the Pillar if he recovered. The Cathedral, his castle, has no formal plans and is still under construction. He works mainly alone and it might take him another 15 – 20 years to complete. Most of the structure was built from recycled materials like the columns which were molded with old petrol drums. The domed cathedral stands over 131 feet. Pretty impressive for someone who doesn’t know jack about building.

Rushton Triangular Lodge

(image credits: wikipedia)

15 years in prison might cause anyone to go a little crazy, but how many might it inspire to build their own castle? Upon his release of prison in 1593, Sir Thomas Tresham designed and constructed his castle, the Triangular Lodge. He was jailed for refusing to convert from Catholic to Protestant, so Tresham built Triangular Lodge to reflect the Holy Trinity. It has three walls, each of which are 33 feet long. Each wall has three triangular windows and surmounted by three gargoyles. The structure is three stories high and has a triangular chimney. The three outside walls have three Latin texts, each 33 letters long.

Mystery Castle

(image credits: Atlas Obscura)

After being diagnosis with tuberculosis, but telling no one about it, Boyce Luther Gulley abandoned his life and family. He moved outside of Phoenix, Arizona, and started building Mystery Castle. The self built castle took 15 years, has 18 rooms, 13 fireplaces, and was constructed of reclaimed materials like car parts, stones, salvaged rail tracks, telephone poles, and adobe. It’s held together with mortar made from goats milk and cement. Upon his death, his daughter, also his princess, learned she now was the owner of Mystery Castle.

Quigley’s Castle

(image credits: smokeyangel,Atlas Obscura)

Perhaps her husband told her that she didn’t know jack, but whatever set her off, Mrs. Quigley found one very unique way to get her own castle. While her husband was away, she demolished their house so he would help her build Quigley’s Castle. It is located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Mrs. Quigley’s rock and bottle sculptures fill the indoors and cover the castle’s facade. Inside one of the bedrooms, there is a wall of butterflies next to trees growing indoors.

Grotto of the Redemption

(image credits: wikipedia)

The Grotto of the Redemption is a self constructed “castle” built upon a promise. Father Paul Dobberstein became critically ill with pneumonia and promised to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary if she interceded for him. After he recovered, Dobberstein started building the religious monument located in West Bend, Iowa. The Grotto is actually a conglomeration of minerals, fossils, shells, and petrifactions. They are built into nine grottos depicting scenes from the life of Jesus. It is believed to be the largest grotto in the world. Dobberstein might not have known jack, but he knew Jesus.

Loveland Castle

(image credits: wikipedia,lovelandcastle)

In 1929, Boy Scout troop leader Harry Andrews began building Loveland Castle. Also called Château Laroche, Loveland Castle is located in Loveland, Ohio. It is now a museum. Andrews built his castle as “an expression and reminder of the simple strength and rugged grandeur of the mighty men who lived when Knighthood was in flower.”

Broken Angel House

(image credits: wikipedia,gothamist)

The Wood family took a 4-story brick tenement building in Brooklyn, New York, and improvised construction to build their castle. Broken Angel house is a castle of broken dreams and broken hearts. For 27 years, Arthur and Cynthia Wood built the structure up until it reached about 9 stories above the sidewalk. A fire broke out in 2006, inside the huge cathedral of beautiful arches and stained glass windows. The Wood family was ordered to vacate, but Arthur defied the order and was arrested. Cynthia was arrested while outside with their dog. Arthur, his wife and their pets lived in a car outside their own castle during the cold winter months that followed. Faced with foreclosure and medical bills from Cynthia’s cancer, the plans to renovate Broken Angel were never realized. This tragic tale of broken dreams gets worse; Cynthia died of cancer and Arthur has a broken heart, but not his Broken Angel castle.

Tower of Eben-Ezer

(image credits: wikipedia,musee)

This castle in Liege, Belgium, was built by Robert Garcet. The tower-museum is called the Tower of Eben-Ezer. It has seven floors and stands 108 feet high. The four turrets at the corners are topped with magnificent statues. In the Bible, Eben-Ezer is the stone of help, so Garcet chose to top his castle with the four cherubs of the Apocalypse: Taurus, north-west, Man, south-west, the Lion, south-east, and Eagle, the northeast. Garcet might not have known diddly about constructing a castle, but the stone cutter knew enough to enlist help from other visionary friends.

Taródi Var

(image credits: Curious Expeditions)

Stephen Tarodi, with the help of his family who also did not know jack about building, toiled since the 1950s to build Tarodi Var. The castle in Sopron, Hungary, is complete with towers, turrets, rope bridges and arches. Mr. Tarodi died in 2009, but his sons will continue his legacy. Part of Tarodi Var is open to the public. The castle is filled with antique furniture and paintings.

Braylsham Castle

(image credits: homebuilding)

Braylsham Castle in East Sussex was a DIY labor of love built by orthodontist and physiotherapist John Mew. It took John and his wife Jo Mew eight years of backbreaking work to construct this castle from scratch. Both of Braylsham Castle’s towers are faced in reclaimed stone. The round tower leads down to the dungeon (basement), but that is not where their innovation ended. Braylsham Castle and the medieval manor house stand on an island which was also created by the Mews. Their castle comes complete with a moat. Not bad for a man who didn’t know jack about building a castle.

Sutyagin House

(image credits: seyituyanik)

One gangster’s self built castle is another man’s fire hazard. Nikolai Sutyagin spent 15 years of his life constructing his 13-story, 144-foot-tall, wooden “castle.” The house which he considered his castle, which he didn’t know diddly squat about building, was considered an eyesore and glorified barn by many of his neighbors. Sutyagin House was reported to be Russia’s tallest wooden house, perhaps the tallest in the world. While Sutyagin was in prison for racketeering charges, the city jacked him up. His castle had deteriorated to the point of being condemned. Sutyagin house was demolished.

Namaste! The LOST TV series has inspired people from around the globe to create some of the best fan made art ever! For six years, Lost fans have included amazingly talented artists with Lost-themed vision, incredible creativity, and an insatiable appetite for the island’s mysteries. Lost fans are now somewhere in-between a frenzy to having fun. Here is a huge collection of Lost fan art. Like LOST itself, some of the fan art is fantastic, while some is simply freaky and WTF?!?

The ‘Lost’ Supper

(image credit: daily LOST)

You may not be a fan of the TV series Lost, but the fans are diehards! Lost is almost over, with too many questions left unanswered. Whether or not that will leave an opening for a series of Lost movies on the big screen is yet to be known. However, the cult-like following will live on and continue to grow as new people watch reruns. Here are some of the best or most freaky fan art in a goodbye tribute to Lost.

Things Are Not As They Seem

(image credits: cafe press,cafepress,etsy)

Lost is one epic WTF after another. The only “given” is to expect that things are not what they seem. If you know nothing of Lost, you will not understand the hieroglyphics or the countdown timer. Explaining it is for the experts, but once upon a time Oceanic Flight 815 crashed on the the island. The survivors found the Hatch and the Numbers had to be entered into the station’s computer. Execute needed pushed every 108 minutes to prevent system failure and the dreaded hieroglyphics (or end of the world). From Desmond Hume, to John Locke, to Mr. Eko, in fact everything about the island, was never what it seemed. Each episode included a minimum of one WTF moment, leaving fans to speculate until the next episode.

Bentos

(image credit: Adventures in Bento Making)

As a Lost fan, you see clues everywhere. The Numbers, also Hugo Hurley Reyes‘ “winning” lottery numbers, might be found in something as simple as minestrone soup. Everywhere you look, Lost is there. Crystal Watanabe creates the most fabulous Lost tributes as Bentos. Her site, Adventures in Bento Making, is a perfect example of how creative and diehard LOSTies can be.

The Lost Art by Fans: Screenprints, Shirts, Bumper Stickers

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(image credit: xigli)

To celebrate the final season of the series Lost, a group of designers and artists who are also fans of the program were challenged to create screenprints of the most memorable moments in the unforgettable series. They are not the only ones with fan art. Glenn Jones creates t-shirts designs, including the  Dharma milk carton. People all over the world have created t-shirt tributes to their favorite Lost character.

Mysterious Artwork

Hot Meteor creates some awesome Dharma vintage posters as if from Circa 1974. These Lost tributes to the Dharma Initiative are “Smoke ’em if you got ’em” and “Reach out and touch someone.”

This was part of the Lost Underground Art show at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles. Created by artist Carlos Ramos and titled, “DHARMA Science Manual Volume: 4,” this 20 X 24 inch masterpiece sold for $975.00!

Eric Tan designed “The Crash.” It was one of 300 hand-signed and numbered screenprints. Jason Casey created “Mr. Eko stares down the smoke monster.” Arinen drew Charlie Pace and “Not Penny’s Boat.” Buuya drew a different character like this “Benjamin Linus” every day of June.

(image credits: little box of ideas)

Scott Campbell created these framed 5 X 5 watercolor showdowns on archival paper. “LOST Showdowns” sold at the Underground Art Show for $350 each.

Lost T-shirt Logos

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If you are a Lost fan, then it goes without saying that you have an insatiable appetite for rehashed theories of flight Oceanic 815, of the black smoke monster, of the intriguing Dharma Initiative, of the parallel universes, of the island and all of its mysteries. Don’t get us started on Adam and Eve. Here are a few of the important logos, sayings, and clues, printed on shirts by diehard fans.

T-shirts

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Here are a few more favorite Lost characters and a tiny drop in the bucket of t-shirt designs available in tribute to each. These are Hurley, Desmond, Dr. Daniel Faraday, James “Sawyer” Ford, and Sayid Hassan Jarrah. Depending upon how many questions are left unanswered, how many characters are offed, and how this epic TV series ends, Lost fans may break into worldwide riots in the streets.

Polar Bear

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Do you like plush toys? When the polar bear charged across the tropical island, it was a giant WTF!?! This polar bear was created by Danielle Buerli and titled “The Dharma Bear.” This eight inch plush bear makes a roaring noise when squeezed and has small Dharma biscuits in a pouch. At the Underground Lost Art Show, it sold for $350!

Hurley & Locke Statues

(image credit: lostundergroundartshow)

Wade Schin created these one-of-a-kind, five inch sculptures of Hurley and Locke. They have magnetic feet and bases for extra stability. At the Underground Art Show, each sold for $815!

All Shapes, Sizes, Products

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Almost any product you can think of has been turned into a Lost piece of art. From skateboards, clocks, hats, water bottles, it’s out there if you but look due to the awe factor of this highly addictive, intensely mysterious and controversial series. Some people hate Lost and will be happy to see it go. Even Lost fans like to bash Lost plots sometimes, but one thing rings true for all diehard fans. We will be lost without Lost.

Lost Simpsons

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Lost and Simpsons, a combo that is hard to beat. Adam Reynolds created Lost wallpaper that executive producer Carlton Cuse tweeted: “Love this.”

Lost Kubricks

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With six seasons, Lost has been turned into fan art and into toys for fans. One example of Lostie toys are the Lost Kubricks from Medicom. This series included Locke, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Charlie and Hurley.

Lostpedia

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Tragedy seems to rule side by side with WTF!?! Hurley and Libby, Charlie and Claire, Richard, Locke and the hatch, Juliet and Ben, none escaped unscathed from tragedy. Lostpedia is a great source among thousands, perhaps millions, of sites which discuss or debate Lost theories.

Lost Love, Lovers & Love Lost

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Ahh, love, what we would do without it? The love quadrangle between Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Juliet was just one of the dramatic conflicts that helped drive the plot. Jate is the fan-given name to the relationship between Jack and Kate while Skate is the fan-given name to the romantic relationship between Sawyer and Kate. These amazing works of art have had six seasons to grow. “LOST Season Four” is by grantgoboom. “LOST II” is by juarezricci. “Sawyer and Jack“ was drawn by RobD4E.

Heartbreak

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Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse must have truly wanted to break our hearts and bring on the waterworks over the Kwons. Jin and Sun were blessed by Jacob on their wedding day. After Sun’s rescue, she gave birth to their daughter Ji Yeon. Once reunited on the island, that blessing by Jacob seemed like a curse. When Jin and Sun drowned together in the submarine, millions of voices around the globe shouted WTF?!?

Lost Cake

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Charm City Cakes made a special cake for the series’ 100th episode. “It has been more than four years since that fateful airliner, Oceanic Flight 815, crashed onto an Island on September 22nd, 2004. After 99 episodes full of ominous mythology, startling discoveries, shocking cliffhangers, buried secrets, and stunning character development – we have reached the 100 episode milestone.”

LOST (2004-2010)

(image credit: themexican-standoff)

We, the fans, love Lost. You’ve seen but a tiny sampling of awesome Lost fan art collected here. Six years later, we are still addicted and without answers to millions of questions. If you are not a Lostie, but know one, don’t call for we will have our phones off. We will be having parties. We will be ready and waiting for the Lost final showdown. To try to come between us and our beloved TV series may be hazardous to your health!