Doors contain a significant amount of value in most homes, especially when it comes to home security. After all, they act as your points of entry and exit and are typically among the first things you see when you enter a home.
However, certain doors are more well-known than others, and some of their origin tales might even be hard for you to believe. Here are 5 famous doors from around the world.
10 Downing Street – London, England
The door at 10 Downing Street has been seen by all of us numerous times, including on the news and maybe even in person. However, have you ever noticed that it has no handle? The entrance cannot be unlocked from the outside and can only be opened from the inside by the guard on duty because the building is one of the most heavily secured in the country.
This door was originally made of black oak before it was forced to be replaced because of an attack from the IRA in 1991. The door therefore had to be replaced and upgraded to have a metal-backed version that is bombproof. Now that’s door security! The door is also frequently coated with high-quality gloss paint.
One further curiosity surrounds the Downing Street door: the number “0” on the door is the letter “O.” Evidently, the Ministry of Works responsible for such things was out of “0s” and was forced to improvise!
St. Peter’s Basilica Doors – Rome, Italy
The bronze doors are named after the artist Filarete and date back to 1433 and 1445, which predates even Columbus’ famous trip to America!
The significance of the Holy Door is that it remains closed, is cemented shut, and is only opened every 25 years for Catholic pilgrims to pass through its doorway. The last time it was open was in 2000, so we must wait another 2 years to see Porta Santa open again.
The Holy Door serves as a metaphor for both leaving this world and entering God’s presence, as well as for clearing any barriers in the way of the Lord. This door is one of the holiest sites in Christianity and Catholic tradition.
Westminster Abbey Entryway – London, England
Britain’s only and oldest Anglo-Saxon door is a piece of oak that can be found at Westminster Abbey. The door has stood for more than 900 years and is made of five vertical oak planks held together with three horizontal battens and iron straps, and it was later determined that the door’s alleged human skin remnants were really cowhide.
The door enters the octagonal Chapter House, which currently houses crucial religious documents but was formerly where monks gathered daily for prayer in the 13th century.
The door was crafted from a single tree, and based on its growth rings, it dates to between 924 and 1030 AD. It’s 6.5 feet high, 4 feet wide, and contains five panels. The Abbey’s doors are open to the public, so visitors can visit. If you are looking to visit an Anglo-Saxon door, this is your only chance to do so!
Columbus Doors on the US Capitol Building – Washington, United States of America
The Columbus Doors, also called the Rogers Doors or Rotunda Doors, stand imposingly at the east entrance to the U.S. Capitol Building. These bronze doors, which are about 17 feet tall and weigh 20,000 pounds, make a strong statement about not just their subject, Christopher Columbus, but also the significance of Columbus to the public.
There are eight segments on the doors. The four figures, which stand for the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, and America, show that Columbus’s achievements have been recognised on a global scale. Sculpted portraits of historians and other authors, whose writings on Columbus’s journey served as the inspiration for the events shown, are interspersed between the panels. Columbus’s life is represented by a clockwise succession of events starting at the bottom of the left valve.
221B Baker Street – London, England
The owner of this iconic door is a famous fictional investigator by the name of Sherlock Holmes, as the armchair detectives among you have presumably already established.
The actual door is a permanent fixture on the street, with the distinctive door knocker and letterbox on view for all to see. However, the numerals are different, as they revert to the actual address of 187, but during filming, the front door had its regular door numerals removed and replaced with the famous 221B ones.
The Sherlock Holmes Museum may be found at 221B Baker Street today. Technically speaking, though, the Sherlock Holmes Museum is not situated at 221 Baker Street, as 221 Baker Street does not exist!
Since the 1930s, the renowned location has been included as a component of a wider complex of structures that was formerly home to the Abbey National Building Society. They started getting messages from all over the globe addressed to Mr. Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street virtually as soon as the Abbey National opened. Due to the overwhelming volume of letters received, the bank’s public relations department decided to hire a full-time secretary just to handle the urgent inquiries.
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