Eccentric Houses

A self-built castle made by a mysterious man.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

A six-story-tall golden pyramid, surrounded by a moat.

An 80-year-old house built out of newspapers.

A medieval castle in the middle of rural Texas.

An eccentric German artist built this weird and wondrous castle packed with shocking sculptures and alien art.

A bizarre house filled with an astounding array of collections.

This tiny, hurricane-resistant house in Galveston is one of the city's most notable architectural oddities.

The "Skinny House" is made from scrap, salvage, and a neighbor’s kindness.

This folk art compound was built by a fortune teller on the advice of three people from the future.

The most magnificent bottle house in a town strangely full of them.

A cabin completely covered in coffee mugs, where visitors are welcome to leave one of their own—if they can find an empty nail.

This little barrel-shaped cottage by Lake Superior was once a cartoonist's summer retreat.

This imposing modern citadel started out as a home renovation project.

What almost started out as a spite house became an eccentric's found object masterpiece.

One man's ambition created this psychedelic log home.

This miniature take on the Kremlin is one Dutch man's retirement project.

A burnt orange monolithic dome structure perched on a hillside near Interstate 280.

Exotic, erotic, and esoteric, one artist's live-in Bali gallery brings a splash of color and madness to its surroundings.

A wacky two-story folk-art assemblage of carved and found objects, with lights, motion, and sound now in need of financial support.

Rainbow-hued local gem in Venice.

The home of one of California's most important horticulturalists wilts amidst a lovely park.

This stunning sea creature-shaped home blends into the landscape like a fantasy villa.

A colorful narrow alley in Cuba is full of street art and sculptures made of found objects.

The house's confection-like decorations are the result of one man's painstaking work over decades.

This eccentric folly house was designed by Romanian thinker Bogdan-Petriceicu Hasdeu, with a helping hand from his deceased daughter's spirit.

This extravagant villa built by a Burmese merchant is part pagoda and part European mansion.

One of New Zealand’s few castles boasts beautiful gardens, grand architecture, and a history filled with family drama.

A majestic mansion designed in Mughalai style, complete with a turquoise onion dome.

In the mid-19th century, an eight-sided house was the latest fad.

The bottle house obsession struck a Florida man in his retirement, and now he can't stop building.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

A 98-room castle in the middle of Toronto that bankrupted a 19th century electricity multimillionaire.

Originally built as a promotional giveaway, this suburban house was designed to be an IRL version of the Simpson home.

Two women with a flair for both adventure and artful clutter created this singular round home.

The dream home of an iconoclastic renaissance man still stands as a monument to his domestically mundane vision.

This iconic science fiction house still looks like something from the future.

What is it about mushrooms that makes people wish they lived inside of them?

This whimsical stacked cabin looks like something out of a children's book.

This odd little home was built right into an African rock face.

An eccentric artist's abode in this small Italian town has been transformed into a surreal temple of mosaic madness.

This softly rounded mansion was built without corners not to avoid evil spirits, but to make them more comfortable.

An English artist has turned an unassuming ex-council house into a time-lost house of mystery.

This weird abode has inspired everything from the "House On Haunted Hil" to a robot hunter's pad.

Abortion, prohibition, religion, war, and fear all play a part in the history of this idiosyncratic Pacifica castle.

Bursting forth from a historic German neighborhood, these day-glo palaces are now a bright fixture in the town.

This pair of eccentric Ohio castles were built by a pair of brothers who wanted to bring a bit of class to the Ohio wilderness.

This eccentric cave dwelling is bizarre even by the standards of a subterranean town.