I'll Go to the Foot of Our Stairs Quiz

Answer: Potemkin steps

The original 200 steps were built between 1837 and 1841 as a direct route from the city of Odessa to the harbour below. They have also been called the Boulevard steps, the Giant staircase, Richelieu steps and Primorsky stairs, but were made famous when they were named after the Russian battleship, Potemkin, or Potyomkin.

This was the warship made famous when it fired the first shots during the 1905 Russian Revolution.

Answer: Hydro-electric

The 4,444 steps will take you from sea level to 740 metres high at the side of Lysefjord in south-west Norway. The steep cliffs along the edge of the fjord are impassable for most people, and so the steps were built at the side of the giant pipes to allow workers access.

The hydro-electric plant has now been closed but keen tourists still use the steps to view the stunning scenery from the top.

Answer: Miraculous Stair

The construction of the Roman Catholic chapel was completed in 1878 and it was only then that people realised that the architect had not included a way to access the choir loft above. Several theories have been put forward as to when and who built the staircase.

The most favoured story is that the Sisters of the Chapel prayed for a carpenter and one appeared, built the staircase in secrecy, and then left without revealing his identity. For years afterwards, people marvelled at the "miracle stairs" as they had no obvious signs of a central support.

Answer: Books

Some people have called it the most beautiful bookstore in the world. The Livraria Lello (Lello Bookstore) is one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal, and has a ground and second floor, linked together by a beautiful ornate staircase. The skylight above the staircase has the brother's motto in Latin "vecus in labore" inscribed into the stained glass. No photographs are allowed to be taken inside, although the store offers a small guide book for a nominal price.

Answer: The Tulip Stairs

This Palladian villa was originally built for Queen Anne in 1616 but she died before it was completed. The building saw many changes over the years and is now part of the Greenwich maritime UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Tulip Stairs were added during the Stuart period.

They feature a floral pattern in wrought iron, and are believed to have been the first spiral staircase built in Britain.

Answer: Vatican Museum

This spiral staircase in the Vatican Museum is not one single stairs, but a double helix; one ramp going up and the other going down. It is similar in look to that of a double helical DNA strand. The museum holds the cultural heritage art of the Holy See including a gallery of 15th and 17th century tapestries, papal portraits and precious antiquities.

Answer: Munich, Germany

Umschreibung in English means "re-writing". The staircase was designed in 2004 by Danish architect, Olafur Eliasson, for aesthetic reason and not functional, although you can climb up the treads and back down again without going anywhere. It was placed in the courtyard of an accounting and auditing firm called KPMG at Munich in Germany. Eliasson was also responsible for other architectural designs including the waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

Answer: Switzerland

The previous method of crossing the 70-metre drop chasm was by way of a rope bridge, but this was destroyed during a rock fall. Swiss civil engineer, Jurg Conzett, designed the replacement crossing which was a stair-bridge, with one side 22 metres higher than the other. The sides of the stairs are extended so that people using the bridge do not get vertigo from looking below. Conzett also designed the Traversina Foot Bridge at Viamala in Switzerland.

Answer: Honour and Glory crowning Time

The panel surrounding the clock depicted a carving of two angels, Honour and Glory, crowning Time with an olive branch. The same clock could be found on the White Star sister ship, RMS Olympic. The area where the grand staircase was housed is now a gaping hole at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean - large enough for submersibles to enter and explore the silent underwater graveyard.

Answer: Snail

The Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo can be found in a Venetian street called Campo Manin. The palace was designed by Italian, Giovanni Candi, in 1499, and used styles in a mixture of Renaissance, Gothic and Byzantine. The Contarini hired another architect called Giorgio Spavento, and it is believed that it was he who added the staircase after the main structure was built.