Surely a contender for the title of ‘World’s Most Beautiful Skatepark,’ this stunning urban park project by Constructo Skatepark Architecture incorporates design elements abstracted from an adjacent 17th-century fortress. Set in Luxembourg’s Peitruss Valley at the foot of the old Vauban fortification that encircles the old city, the Luxembourg City Skatepark pays tribute to the region’s heritage while creating an awesome gathering spot for locals.

Measuring nearly 30,000 square feet, the skatepark adds a series of ramps, bowls, stairs and a plaza to a popular green space full of pathways, playgrounds, picnic areas and other recreational hotspots.

Luxembourg publication Delano reports that on its opening day, the skatepark could almost have been mistaken for Venice Beach. Professional athletes swooped in to demonstrate their skateboard, BMX and scooter skills in front of a crowd of local skaters and other residents. The park is designed for use in a variety of sports at all ages and skill levels, including kids. It’s the only skatepark of its size in the country (which is one of Europe’s smallest at 999 square miles.)

Expanded under the renowned commander and military engineer Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban between 1684 and 1688, the fortress was once one of Europe’s most impressive fortifications. Today, much of the original fortress is long gone, but its remains are a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Peitruss Valley sits at the base of the fortress (pictured above), acting as a natural border between the Old Town and the New Town.

Glide you way through a multi-story dedicated skate park, a glow-in-the-dark bowl, an old subway tunnel under London, a floating ramp on Lake Tahoe or even a ramp that goes right off the edge of the Grand Canyon. These 12 skate parks and ramps, from California to Dubai, offer some of the world’s most amazing places to practice your tricks – places that are legal, anyway.

World’s First Multi-Story Skate Park

Many a skater has eyeballed the surfaces of a spiraling parking garage and wished they were curvier. Soon, a quiet seaside town in Britain will be home to the world’s first multi-story structure devoted to exactly this activity: the Folkestone Sports Park by architecture firm Guy Holloway. The world’s first facility of its kind, Folkestone will feature three entire floors for skaters as well as a climbing wall, underground boxing ring, cafe, training room, youth room and first aid center.

Skate Park Doubles as a Working Sundial

You don’t have to glance at a watch or phone to figure out what time it is when you’re skating at this park in Lugano, Switzerland. Brightly painted markings on the concrete of the bowl will tell you according to the sun and shadows. Designed by Moscow group Zuk Club, this park is one big rainbow-hued sun dial.

Abandoned Tunnel Turned Subterranean Skate Park

London’s famous Old Vic Tunnels under the Waterloo Station are home to the city’s first subterranean skate park, a cultural complex taking up 32,000 square feet. House of Vans offers a pool-style bowl, street section and mini ramp as well as a music venue, bar, theater, cafe, artist studios and gallery space.

Sink or Skate: Floating Ramp Design

This sculptural wooden ramp took up residence right on the surface of sparkling Lake Tahoe as a promo for the California tourism industry. Built by skateboarding pro Bob Burnquist with the assistance of art director Jerry Blohm, the structure features a half pipe, quarter pipe and 45-degree ramp and weighs an amazing 7,300 pounds. Bob had a wet-suited snorkeler waiting in the waters nearby to retrieve his board anytime it went over the edge.

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Flip For This 12 Crazy And Creative Skate Ramps Parks

In place of the usual ramps, rails and pipes are busted wheelchairs, dusty bowling pins and gaping holes in wooden floors as skater Rob Miceli maneuvers his board through an abandoned psychiatric hospital in New York State. Miceli and fellow skater Sean Colello gained access to an unnamed facility (speculated to be the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood by Gawker) and filmed themselves using various rotting rooms of the hospital as one big skate park.

“Back in 1931 the center was thriving, but around World War 2 things started falling apart when unqualified workers took over for nurses who had to serve in the war,” Colello told Jenkem. “It wasn’t until the 1970s when they officially shut down a handful of the buildings on campus and they’ve just been rotting away ever since.”

Colello reports that most of the buildings are so boarded up they’re virtually impossible to access, but once you find a way into one, you can access all of them through a network of underground tunnel. In the eerie video, the duo can be seen making their way through the dark, wet subterranean maze to find themselves in a bowling alley, a children’s playroom and a theater.

The infamous Old Vic Tunnels under London’s Waterloo Station are now home to the city’s first subterranean skate park with the opening of House of Vans, a cultural complex taking up the entire 32,000-square-foot space. In addition to the pool-style bowl, street section and mini-ramp for skaters, the space will offer a music venue, cafe, bar, cinema, artist studios and gallery space.

The four massive tunnels were the subject of a bidding war once the Old Vic Theather vacated the underground space, with Vans reportedly beating out Apple and Nike. The skate park is a fitting usage for it, located adjacent to London’s largest legal graffiti wall and another skate park on the Thames River.

The smooth new concrete surfaces and black-and-white checkered floors contrast with the centuries-old weathered brick surfaces of the original tunnels, which are still under control of England’s Department of Transport. Before it was taken over by Old Vic, the disused tunnel played host to the premiere of Banksy’s movie Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Skate sessions are free, but must be reserved in advance, with time slots getting snapped up as much as a month ahead of time. Artists selected to utilize the studios for free get the opportunity to display their work in the gallery space at the end of their tenancy.

Skaters at this park in Lugano, Switzerland don’t have to pull out their phones to check the time – they can just glance down at a series of colored lines painted right onto the concrete of the bowl as a modern sundial. A ribbon of rainbow hues curves up and down the undulating surface, the sun and shadows revealing the current hour.

A different line of color indicates each hour of the day, marked off as the sun passes overhead. Designed by Moscow group Zuk Club, the vibrant park is like an abstract modern mural customized specifically to the shape of the bowl and the surrounding area.

It’s an interesting and visually resting concept, though perhaps no match for the largest and most complex skate parks around the world. Skaters who find ordinary skate parks unimaginative should check out 13 examples of highly skateable architecture, ranging from the specially renovated interior of a hunting lodge to Zaha Hadid’s futuristic science center in Germany.