10 replicas of the most famous monuments in the world, from the Sistine Chapel in Mexico to the Tower of Pisa in the USA

There are copies of famous monuments and reproduced out of context around the world: there are replicas of the Sistine Chapel in Mexico and the Tower of Pisa near Chicago, there is a copy of Notre Dame in California, in San Francisco, a Big Ben in India, in Calcutta, and a copy of London’s Tower Bridge in China. There is a copy of Mount Rushmore in Japan, a life-size replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, America, a Christ the Redeemer in Lisbon, a copy of the Taj Mahal in Bangladesh and one of the copies of the Statue of Liberty in Tokyo.

1. The Sistine Chapel in Mexico

The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, consecrated on 15 August 1483 with the first mass commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV, is one of the most iconic and famous works created in Italy throughout the world. Mexican director and producer Gabriel Barumen together to his brother Anthony, had an exceptional idea: faithfully reproducing the Sistine Chapel in 1:1 scaletherefore to exact dimensions, to allow even those who cannot travel to Rome to admire one of the most extraordinary works in the world.

Barumen, in agreement with the Vatican Museumsi, together with a team of experts, photographed every detail of the chapel and created special panels with which he covered an almost identical structure, 22 meters high, 67 meters long and 22 meters wide, which occupies an area of ​​510 square meters. The end result is an almost exact copy of the Sistine Chapel, which was inaugurated in Mexico City in 2016 and then became a traveling work.

2. The Tower of Pisa in Illinois, USA

TO Nilesabout 20 km from Chicago, in the American state ofIllinoisthere is an exact copy of the Tower of Pisa, made in approximately half the scale, therefore approximately 33 meters high (the Tower of Pisa is 55.8 meters high). This is a project carried out in the 1930s by the industrialist Robert Ilg, who wanted to include it in a park intended for his company’s employees and how tribute to Italian culture and historyand as a ploy to hide the water supply of two swimming pools.

In the 1991 Pisa confirmed the twinning with Niles, recognizing the official historical value of the copy of the Italian Leaning Tower.

3. Notre Dame in San Francisco

The architect Lewis Hobartin 1964 he completed a San Franciscoon Nob Hill, an almost exact copy of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. This is Grace Cathedral: the Gothic-style façade and the plan are practically identical, but the American copy is made in anti-seismic reinforced concrete – a necessary choice given the high seismicity of the area – and not in limestone like the famous Parisian church.

4. Big Ben in Calcutta

There Lake Town Clock Towerbuilt in Calcutta, India, in 2015, is a copy of Big Ben in Londonbut high only 30 meters against 96 for the London monument. Located at the intersection of VIP Road in the Lake Town district, it was commissioned by Mamata Banerjee, then Prime Minister of West Bengal, both as a tribute to India’s ties with England, of which it was a colony, and to create an iconic point of reference for the inhabitants of the area.

The Lake Town Clock Tower is one of the most photographed monuments in the city, and is becoming one of the new symbols of Calcutta.

5. The Tower Bridge in China

Even in China we can “taste” a bit of London: in the city of Suzhouin fact, there is an almost exact copy of the Tower Bridge in London. “Almost” because the Chinese bridge has four towers, while the original one only has two, e it doesn’t lift: open to the public, it is one of the favorite destinations for married couples who want to take unforgettable souvenir photos.

In Suzhou there is not only a copy of the Tower Bridge, but the Pont Alexandre III in Paris has also been reproduced – and we know that there is also an entire Chinese city that reproduces the French capital! – a corner of Dutch architecture, with houses overlooking the canal and windmills, and a copy of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

6. Mount Rushmore with the faces of US presidents, in China

As we have seen, the Chinese are fond of copies, and it also testifies to this the copy of the American Mount Rushmore which – on a very small scale, only a few meters high – reproduces the faces of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The copied mountain is located at Chongqingthe Chinese capital during the Second World War, and was wanted for thank the USA of the alliance provided against Japan.

7. Christ the Redeemer in Lisbon

Opened in 1959 in Lisbon, Portugal, the Cristo Rei it is a very similar representation of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, of the same size.

Built during the Salazar dictatorship, it was commissioned by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira to thank God for having preserved Portugal from the Second World War which had devastated the rest of Europe.

8. The Parthenon in Nashville, USA

TO Centennial Parkin Nashville, America, there is a life-size replica of the Parthenon in Athens: today home to the city’s art museum, the copy of the marvelous monument is a tribute to classical culture and the fact that the American city is called the “Athens of the South”. Built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, it was the set for some scenes from the film Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

9. The Taj Mahal in Dhaka, Bangladesh

We are in Bangladesh and not in Agra, but we can admire a copy almost identical to the original of the Taj Mahal, the spectacular Indian mausoleum, considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Built in 2008, the slightly smaller copy was created on the initiative of Ahsanullah Moni, a Bangladeshi director, as a tourist destination for low-income families in Bangladesh.

The Taj Mahal in Dhaka is significant because, compared to other copies made in the world, it is particularly faithful to the original, even in size.

10. The Statue of Liberty in Japan, Bordeaux and Paris

Built in 1998 in Japan, a Tokyoin the Park of Odaibathis little one Statue of Libertyonly 1/7 the size of the original, was intended as temporary installationbut its popularity became such that it has never been dismantled.

In reality, there are over 300 copies of the Statue of Liberty in the world: those of Bordeauxcast from the original mold, by Parison the banks of the Seine.