Although travelling can be expensive, you cannot put a price tag on the experience to explore new countries, cultures, and people. Part of being a tourist means you will see landscapes and structures that will take your breath away. Each city comes with its own stamp of uniqueness. There is a beauty, charm, and historical background that speaks volumes through its architecture. For the most part, you will be left speechless at the wonder of the human mind and engineering capabilities. Other times, you will be surprised and shocked at what you see. Take a look at some of the wackiest monuments across the globe. Who knows, if this type of artwork is just your thing, it will help you decide where your next destination will be.The Headington Shark was unveiled on the 41st anniversary of the Nagasaki atomic bomb dropping. The sculpture was made by artist John Buckley at the request of radio presenter Bill Heine. “The shark was to express someone feeling totally impotent and ripping a hole in their roof out of a sense of impotence and anger and desperation,” he said.
The monument of the first Duke of Wellington and the Commander of the British forces who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, was not originally made with a traffic cone. This is the work of locals who love nothing more than tease the government by replacing the cone as soon as one is removed.
Before he became the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter was a peanuts farmer. To pay tribute, this 13-foot-tall peanut was created in his name and likeness.
The 42-foot-tall statue is a tribute to the Stawinchy’s Meat Processing factory which was opened by a father-son duo in 1959. The sausage monument also pays homage to the Ukrainian community that settled in this small town.
This sculpture honours it’s most famous residents, The Beatles. It weighs 1.2 ton and depicts the band walking along the Mersey. John Lennon’s sister, Julia Baird, said, “The statue stands in loving memory of the best band in the world – the band that leapt from The Cavern stage to worldwide recognition.”
Artist Boris Bally, created this erratic monument in 2001, with guns he bought from a fireman buy-back program. It took more than 1,000 guns to give full shape to the pillar. Fortunately, the guns used for the project were disabled and fossilized beneath a layer of concrete. The 12-feet-high pillar is right in front of the Providence’s Federal Courthouse.
The Skywhale is a hot air balloon, first unveiled on the hundredth anniversary of Australia’s capital, Canberra in 2013. The balloon was designed by one of the country’s best sculptor, Patricia Piccinini, who wanted to “create a creature that was massive and wondrous, existing somewhere between the impossible and the unlikely.”
The Kindlifresser (or child eater) fountain has been scaring the hell out of the town’s children since 1546. It’s easy to see why; the Kindlifresser is happily munching on a newborn’s head, while the other petrified children watch in complete horror. According to Bern’s locals, the fountain’s main purpose was to create a sort of boogeyman figure for the town’s children so they would behave themselves.
Louise Bourgeois, a French sculptor, is the brain child of this terrifying sculpture. Maman, which is French for mother, is a 30-foot-bronze spider carrying a sac of 26 eggs in her mouth. The artist said that the figure is a symbol of motherly love and is an ode to the artist’s own mother.
Belgian artist, Jan Febre, presented this piece of art on the 575th anniversary of the Catholic University of Leuven. The piece is a giant beetle being impaled by a 70-foot needle. Febre said he wanted the structure to represent the spirit of the city and its university.
