The Nazis took architecture seriously, building monumental structures to flaunt what they claimed was German superiority. Today, the top 10 repurposed sites from that era have found surprising new purposes – from nightclubs to museums – proving that even the most ominous stone can be given a fresh lease on life.

Why These Top 10 Repurposed Highlights Matter

10 Flak Towers

Flak towers were colossal, castle‑like fortresses erected to shield Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna from Allied bombers. A total of eight were constructed, each wrapped in reinforced concrete walls ranging from eight to fourteen inches (20‑35 cm) thick – thick enough to shrug off direct bomb impacts, and none were destroyed during the war.

Each complex comprised two towers: a G‑type combat tower armed with eight 128 mm anti‑aircraft guns and thirty‑two 20 mm cannons, and an L‑type command tower equipped with radar and forty 20 mm guns. The 128 mm pieces could strike ground targets up to eight and a half miles away and aerial targets as high as fifty‑thousand feet, delivering an astonishing 8,000 rounds per minute.

Beyond their firepower, the towers doubled as massive bomb shelters, capable of housing ten thousand civilians. When Soviet forces stormed Berlin, more than thirty thousand people crammed inside, and the forts withstood ground assaults, forcing the Red Army to bypass them and negotiate surrender. After the war, four towers were demolished, a process that proved arduous – one required five months of planning and three demolition attempts before finally collapsing. Today, one Viennese tower hosts an aquarium, another serves the Austrian army, a third stores artwork, while in Hamburg a tower has become a nightclub and another is being transformed into a renewable‑energy plant powering a thousand homes and heating three thousand more.

9 Vogelsang National Socialist Castle

The Vogelsang National Socialist Castle, perched in the Eifel region, was erected between 1934 and 1936 as a training school to indoctrinate German youth with Nazi doctrine. Operation ceased with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, after which the site was repurposed as a military barracks during the conflict and later as a Belgian army training ground.

Today the German government has reclaimed the property and is contemplating its conversion into a museum. Unlike many other Nazi‑era structures, Vogelsang still bears visible symbols of the regime – a swastika etched into the ground, now covered by a mat, and several wall motifs that have been plastered over. The site has sparked debate: some German Jews call for its demolition, while others advocate for adaptive reuse as a senior‑citizen home, a hotel, or a public park.

8 Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau, situated near Munich, holds the grim distinction of being the first Nazi concentration camp. Initially built to incarcerate political dissidents, it soon expanded to imprison Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma, homosexuals, and criminals, many of whom were subjected to forced labour and medical experiments. The infamous gate bears the phrase Arbeit Macht Frei – “work sets you free.”

Although the camp possessed its own gas chambers, they were likely never used; instead, prisoners sentenced to death were transferred to other camps for execution. Today, Dachau serves as a memorial and museum, drawing over eight hundred thousand visitors annually. At the entrance to its crematorium stands a modest Russian‑Orthodox chapel, constructed on soil imported from Russia. While the chapel is too small for public services, it remains a quiet space for private prayer.

7 Prora Holiday Resort

The Prora holiday resort sprawls across Rügen Island, a product of the Nazi “Strength Through Joy” program designed to grant the working class access to middle‑class leisure. Its eight identical block‑style buildings featured cinemas, large theatres, and ten thousand ocean‑view rooms, though a proposed swimming pool and festival hall never materialised due to the war’s outbreak.

During World II the complex housed conscripts, labourers, refugees, and prisoners. Post‑war, Soviet and East German forces occupied it. One of the eight structures was destroyed by Soviet troops; another became a hostel, two entered private hands, and the remaining four are undergoing conversion into luxury apartments. Renovation work is still in progress, with completion originally slated for 2022.

6 Wolfschanze

The Wolfschanze, or Wolf’s Lair, perched near Kętrzyn in present‑day Poland, served as Adolf Hitler’s primary command centre for most of the war. It was the very site of the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who placed a bomb in a suitcase; the device missed its mark because the meeting was held in a building rather than a bunker, and the briefcase was shifted away from Hitler moments before detonation.

Strategically hidden by dense forests and situated beside a lake to thwart eastern assaults, the complex comprised over eighty buildings and bunkers, staffed by more than two thousand personnel, and encircled by fifty‑thousand landmines. As Soviet forces advanced in November 1944, the Nazis tried to demolish the site but only managed a partial destruction.

Today, the Wolfschanze functions as a tourist destination. The former Waffen‑SS garage has been transformed into a hotel and restaurant, while the remaining structures remain unused, maintained by the Polish Forestry Service, which hopes to lease them to anyone able to meet the £90,000 ($111,000) annual rent.

5 Reich Air Ministry

The Reich Air Ministry, completed in 1936, was a colossal office complex comprising 2,800 rooms and seven kilometres of corridors – the largest of its kind in Europe at the time. Remarkably, it escaped wartime damage and was retained by the Soviet authorities for military purposes after the conflict.

In the early 1990s, the building became home to the Treuhand committee, tasked with privatising former East German assets. The committee proved deeply unpopular, and its inaugural chairman, Detlev Rohwedder, was assassinated in 1991, prompting a renaming of the edifice to Detlev Rohwedder Haus. Today, the structure remains a popular backdrop for films set in the Nazi era and, while not generally open to the public, offers a free tour each August. It now houses Germany’s Ministry of Finance.

4 Banana Bunker

Constructed in 1942 as a 120‑room air‑raid shelter, the Banana Bunker earned its fruity moniker after the Soviets repurposed it in 1945 as a prisoner‑of‑war camp, and later East German officials turned it into a warehouse for Cuban fruit imports.

Following German reunification, the bunker was transformed into a performance hall and later into a nightclub famed as the “hardest club in the world” due to its notorious sex‑filled parties. Authorities eventually shut the venue down, leaving the space vacant until a couple purchased it in 2003 to showcase their private art collection.

3 Fichtebunker

The Fichtebunker, nestled in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, was originally built between 1883 and 1884 as a gas‑storage facility for the city’s street‑lamp network. When electricity supplanted gas lighting at the turn of the century, the structure fell into disuse until 1940, when the Nazis converted it into a bomb shelter designed for six thousand occupants.

Renovations for its wartime role reinforced the exterior walls to 1.8 metres (six feet) and thickened the ceiling to three metres (ten feet). The bunker was divided into six levels, each containing 120 rooms. As Allied bombings intensified, the shelter swelled beyond its intended capacity, housing over thirty thousand people, including a local police station and its detainees.

After the war, the Fichtebunker served various humanitarian functions: a homeless shelter, a food‑storage depot holding “Senate reserves” for potential Soviet blockades, and eventually, in 2006, a private firm purchased it. The firm converted the chambers into upscale apartments complete with a rooftop garden, re‑branding the complex as the Circlehouse.

2 Reichssportfeld

Adolf Hitler commissioned the Reichssportfeld sports complex for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, intending the event to showcase German supremacy. Beneath the stadium, a Nazi radio network operated from a bunker during the war. After the conflict, the British military took control, renaming the venue Olympiastadion to erase its Nazi associations.

The Olympiastadion retained its sporting and cultural relevance, hosting three matches during the 1974 FIFA World Cup and the final of the 2006 World Cup after German reunification. Today, it remains a bustling sports complex, serving as the home ground for Hertha Berlin.

1 Templehof Airport

Tempelhof Airport, once Europe’s busiest airfield in the 1930s, was shuttered by the Nazis and briefly turned into a prototype concentration camp before an aborted attempt to build a replacement airport. After World II, the United States assumed control, using the site for the famed Berlin Airlift (1948‑49) that supplied West Berlin, and leasing portions in 1951.

Commercial flights ceased in October 2008 when a newer airport opened. The control tower remains under German Army jurisdiction, monitoring Berlin’s airspace. The vast airfield has been transformed into a public park, while the surrounding buildings now host a variety of institutions – the German police, a kindergarten, a dance school – and, notably, serve as a refuge for Syrian and Iraqi asylum‑seekers. In 2015, Berlin prepared to accommodate forty thousand refugees within the former airport facilities and nearby disused barracks.

When you hear the phrase “10 props repurposed,” you might picture a dusty warehouse of forgotten set pieces. In reality, it’s a bustling economy of creativity where studios recycle, reinvent, and sometimes deliberately re‑use iconic items to save cash or drop Easter eggs. Whether it’s a gleaming robot or a cigarette pack that appears in every Tarantino flick, these props travel far beyond their original productions, popping up in surprising places and giving fans a fun game of “spot the reused prop.” Below, we dive into ten of the most memorable examples, each with its own quirky backstory.

Why 10 Props Repurposed Matter to Filmmakers and Fans Alike

10 Robby The Robot

To truly grasp Robby the Robot’s legacy, compare him to another famous silver‑screen droid: R2‑D2. While Artoo debuted in Star Wars, Robby first rolled onto the scene in the 1956 sci‑fi landmark Forbidden Planet. Both are characters with names, dialogue, and personalities, yet Robby’s creators weren’t as litigious as George Lucas, allowing the metallic marvel to outlive its original franchise by decades.

After Forbidden Planet, MGM’s props department stored Robby’s suit, and a parade of productions borrowed the free robot. Credited variously as “The Robot,” he showed up in multiple Twilight Zone episodes, battled a family bot on Lost in Space, shared a laugh with Mork on Mork & Mindy, and even made cameo appearances in Wonder Woman, Gremlins, and the Addams Family. Imagine if Artoo had been handed out as freely as Robby!

9 Mr Fusion

The Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor first sparked curiosity in Back to the Future, where it replaced plutonium as the DeLorean’s power source—environmentally friendly and less likely to attract Libyan terrorists. By turning ordinary kitchen waste into cold‑fusion energy, this quirky contraption generated a full 1.21 gigawatts for Marty’s time‑traveling adventure.

But Mr. Fusion didn’t stop at hover‑cars. In Alien, the prop can be glimpsed hanging above the crew’s mess hall, perched above the coffee maker, apparently powering the Nostromo. Whether it was a clever cross‑studio prop swap or a lucky find in a Hollywood warehouse, the garbage‑powered reactor proved its versatility across genres.

8 Those Glowy Sci Fi Tubes

If you’ve watched a single major sci‑fi film, you’ve likely spotted the iconic pair of glowing red tubes. Known by many monikers—“blinking tubes without function,” “dual generators with rotating neon lights”—these acrylic beacons first lit up in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and have since become a universal visual shorthand for futuristic tech.

From The Last Starfighter to the myriad Star Trek series, and even superhero outings like The Flash, Lois & Clark, and The Incredible Hulk Returns, the tubes have earned the nickname “The Most Important Device in the Universe” among online fans.

7 Okay, Actually All The Sci Fi Equipment

The glowing tubes may dominate, but they have serious competition: the wall‑to‑wall giant computers that fill every spaceship bridge, secret lab, or government bunker. These massive consoles are modeled after a real piece of hardware—the AN/FSQ‑7 Combat Direction Central, nicknamed the Q7. Developed by IBM in the 1950s for the military, the Q7 was the largest standalone computer of its time, taking up entire rooms and weighing about 250 tons.

Its sleek maintenance console became the default visual for sci‑fi and espionage settings, appearing in Independence Day, Lost, Gremlins II, Goldmember, Logan’s Run, and WarGames. A quick Google search for “AN/FSQ‑7 maintenance console” yields images that look straight out of a Star Destroyer’s bridge.

6 Let’s Heisler Morley

Ever notice the generic brands on the snacks and drinks characters sip? That’s no accident. Studios keep a stash of fictional products—Let’s Chips, Heisler Beer, and Morley Cigarettes—to avoid branding hassles and cut costs. Each of these faux brands boasts a filmography that would make Samuel L. Jackson blush.

Heisler, the beer, appears more often than the others, given how many scenes revolve around a cold brew. Let’s Chips, however, enjoys the most fame, thanks to the meta‑humor of Community, which turned the snack into a running gag, constantly comparing it to the “other greasy brand,” Splingles.

5 Red Apple Cigarettes

When it comes to reused props, few are as deliberately placed as Red Apple Cigarettes. The brand shows up in nearly every Quentin Tarantino film, not out of thrift but as a purposeful Easter egg, effectively sidelining the more ubiquitous Morley brand.

Fans speculate that Tarantino uses Red Apple to weave a shared universe, while others point to the logo—a worm emerging from a pristine apple—as a symbolic nod to hidden ugliness. Whatever the reason, the cigarettes add a distinctive flavor to his movies.

4 The Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers gifted cinema with its sleek slate‑gray space‑marine armor, worn by virtually every central character and featured prominently on home‑media covers. What’s surprising is how those same suits turned up, virtually unchanged, on the TV series Firefly.

In Firefly, the Alliance’s soldiers sport the iconic Mobile Infantry armor, making fans of both franchises do a double‑take. The crossover is a testament to how a single costume design can traverse unrelated universes.

3 That Same Dang Newspaper

Few props are as inconspicuous yet ubiquitous as a simple newspaper. One particular paper—blank‑fronted for custom headlines but always featuring the same two middle pages—has been a background staple since the 1960s. Its middle spreads consistently show a dark‑haired woman, a top‑hat‑wearing gentleman, and a burning warehouse.

Once you spot the recurring headshot, you’ll notice it in countless scenes, from breakfast tables to newsroom desks. Rather than craft a new paper for each shoot, productions reuse this familiar prop, creating a subtle visual thread across decades of cinema.

2 The Pke Meter

The P.K.E. (Psychokinetic Energy) meter from Ghostbusters is a central piece of hardware, used to detect spectral activity. Its distinctive extendable wings and blinking lights make it instantly recognizable.

John Carpenter repurposed the same meter as an alien detector in They Live, and it even resurfaced in the ill‑fated Suburban Commando. Imagine if the iconic proton packs had appeared in Twins—the cross‑genre reuse adds a playful layer for attentive fans.

1 Gwyneth Paltrow’s Head

While the briefcase in Pulp Fiction remains the most famous unseen prop, the severed head of Gwyneth Paltrow’s character in Seven is a close runner‑up. A lifelike replica was crafted for the climactic scene but ultimately cut from the final edit, then stored away for sixteen years.

When Contagion needed an autopsy prop for Paltrow’s character, the production team rescued the dormant head, placing it atop a dummy to save money and give the actress a day off. Though the head appears in only one film, its reuse makes it a standout example of a prop finding new life after a long hiatus.

Artists across generations and continents have breathed new life into old buildings while preserving their historical integrity through a process dubbed “adaptive reuse.” Though their architectural features are typically maintained, their purposes often shift dramatically: cathedrals become concert halls, windmills become wineries. This list takes a look at 10 of the weirdest and most wonderfully repurposed buildings.

10 From Theatre to Bookstore: El Ateneo Grand Splendid

Book lovers and Broadway nerds, rejoice! Hidden in plain sight on a lively avenue of Barrio Norte, Buenos Aires, is one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. The building first opened its doors as the Teatro Gran Splendid in 1919, hosting an eclectic array of performers, most famously “King of Tango” Carlos Gardel. Ten years later, the theater underwent its first renovation and became the first cinema to show sound films in Argentina. Upon being threatened with demolition at the turn of the 21st century, the former theater was leased to Grup Ilhsa.

Today, the Grand Splendid’s architectural grandeur has been maintained—or as many may argue, enhanced—to spotlight books instead of performers. El Ateneo Grand Splendid pays homage to its musical legacy, with live piano performances serenading readers as they browse shelves and sip coffee. The frescoed ceilings, sumptuous velvet curtains, and abundant ornamentation of the theater make this bookstore a resplendent escape for bibliophiles, thespians, and architects. ^[1]

9 From Church to Skatepark: Kaos Temple

What was once a spiritual haven for Christians of Llanera, Spain, has become a colorful sanctuary for skaters. The Church of Santa Barbara was built by architect Manuel del Busto in 1912 but soon found itself deserted. After being abandoned for almost a century, the space was reprised in 2007 by the Church Brigade, a collective that transformed the former church into an indoor skatepark.

In 2015, Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel was commissioned through a crowdfunding campaign to paint the church in his distinctive geometric style. Today, bold colors and kaleidoscopic depictions of humans, animals, and nature ornament the building’s original domed ceilings and walls. Where once were pews are now halfpipes and ramps to provide indoor refuge to skateboarders in one of Spain’s rainiest regions. The original façade of the Church of Santa Barbara remains, housing the skatepark’s interior amalgamation of neo-Gothic detail and vibrant contemporary art. Kaos Temple blends old and new to appeal to artists and athletes alike. ^[2]

8 From Railway Station to Museum: Musée d’Orsay

Best known for its expansive collection of Impressionist paintings, Paris’s Musée d’Orsay has another peculiar pull: The museum’s foundation initially served as a train station. The 20th-century station’s artfully anachronistic design can be attributed to a collaborative effort between French architects Émile Bénard, Lucien Magne, and Victor Laloux. Located on the Left Bank of the Seine, it was built to transport visitors to the Paris Exposition of 1900.

After being deemed unsuitable for the increasingly mainstream use of longer trains, the building served several purposes beyond the architects’ original intentions. Before the museum’s inauguration in 1986, it was used as a World War II mailing center and set for several popular films, such as Orson Welles’s The Trial. Today, the Musée d’Orsay’s stunning construction and exhibits by Monet and Renoir have made it one of the world’s most popular museums, with well over a million annual visitors.^[3]

7 From Grain Silo to Rock Climbing Gym: Upper Limits Rock Gym

Bloomington, Illinois, hosts the perfect outing for athletes and agricultural enthusiasts: cylindrical rock climbing walls inside 65-foot-tall (20-meter) grain silos. They transformed the abandoned set of four silos to develop an experience that is both unique and sustainable. Utilizing the foundation of the previously deserted structures, the gym is powered by solar panels. In addition to the interior climbing walls, routes have been added to the 115-foot-tall (35-meter) exterior.

Once a giant in the global grain market, rural Illinois’s skyline is still dotted with silos and grain bins. Rock climbing is just one of several unusual purposes the state’s renovated silos serve. Originally a grain bin in Alvin, IL, the Has Bin Guest House has been converted into a charming bed and breakfast. Meridian Nursery similarly repurposed a Rockford silo to host intimate events in a nontraditional rustic setting.^[4]

6 From Cathedral to Bookstore: Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen

This 13th-century Catholic cathedral in Maastricht, Netherlands, was repurposed several times over the past seven centuries before settling on the sprawling bookstore it hosts today. After being consecrated in 1294, the building served as a religious sanctuary for half a millennium. Following the 1794 invasion of the Netherlands, however, the gothic church’s cavernous interior appealed to French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte as a strategic—if excessively ornate—storage space. In more recent history, the cathedral was used for bike storage.

In 2005, the building was transformed by Dutch architects Merkx and Girod into a massive bookstore, its grand architecture and lavish interior design capitalized upon to draw lovers of history, art, and stories to its shelves. Now featuring three stories of bookshelves and walkways underneath stunningly preserved frescoes, the renovated church earned the 2007 Lensvelt de Architect Interior Prize and remains a popular destination for today’s locals and literary tourists.^[5]

5 From Jail to Luxury Hotel: The Liberty Hotel

Dark tourists who find themselves in Boston, Massachusetts, can spend a night in what used to be the storied Charles Street Jail. Constructed in 1851 according to the controversial Auburn penal system, the county jail once housed such inmates as activist Malcolm X and anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. The overcrowded prison closed after almost a century and a half, but its rich history and charming architecture found a second life in The Liberty Hotel.

The ironically named Liberty Hotel opened in 2007, featuring almost 300 guest rooms alongside the original central rotunda. Guests can dine surrounded by portraits of prisoners at the aptly titled Clink and Alibi restaurants or take a walk in the former prison yard. Curiously, Boston’s Liberty Hotel is just one of several prisons transformed into hotels. Those interested in jail hopping can stay overnight in the former Het Arresthuis jail outside Amsterdam or at a Turkish Four Seasons housed in the former Sultanahmet Prison.^[6]

4 From Bullring to Hotel: Hotel Quinta Real Zacatecas

If the macabre history of Boston’s Liberty Hotel doesn’t strike your fancy, consider traveling to Zacatecas, Mexico, to spend the night in this 19th-century bullring-turned-hotel. Quinta Real Zacatecas hotel was constructed within the 1866 San Pedro bullfighting arena, also known as the Plaza de Toros, which hosted the sport for well over a century. In 1989, fourteen years after the Plaza’s final bullfight, the Quinta Real opened its doors.

Today’s visitors can appreciate the hotel’s preserved Spanish Colonial façade from the courtyard where the bullring once stood. And if your hankering to explore uniquely repurposed buildings hasn’t yet been satisfied, a ten-minute drive will take you to Museo Rafael Coronel. In one of the more niche renovations of historic religious buildings, this museum, housed in the former San Francisco convent, features more than 5,000 Mexican masks.^[7]

3 From Shopping Mall to College: Austin Community College’s Highland Campus

Central Texas students flock to Austin to live and learn within the walls of the former Highland Mall. Once anchored by a JCPenney store, the building is now characterized by its sustainable and tech-based approach to higher education. In a $46 million renovation effort, the 32,000-square-foot (2,973-square- meter) mall property has been transformed to accommodate nursing skills labs, kitchens, a television studio, and other modern facilities for hands-on education.

ACC’s newest campus champions a distinct suburban charm in its maintenance of quintessential mall features and the less traditional banana split sculpture marking the former food court.

The Highland Campus has bolstered the local economy and community by drawing young professionals to the campus’s surrounding area, which, paired with its sustainable design, makes it a compelling choice for the next generation of college applicants.^[8]

2 From Grain Silo to Museum: Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art

With their domineering form and non-malleable construction, grain silos seem to lend themselves less to adaptive reuse than many of the other repurposed structures on this list. Yet, from climbing walls to galleries, these agricultural hallmarks have been transformed into a number of cultural institutions, with one of the most successful being the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (MOCAA).

The early 20th-century silos in Capetown, South Africa, were repurposed in 2014 by Heatherwick Studio to house the public, not-for-profit museum. The Zeitz MOCAA exhibits and preserves both temporary and permanent collections of contemporary art from the African continent and diaspora. The building, built upon a foundation of 42 hollowed-out silos, is a work of art in itself—one that, paired with its storied interior, has made the MOCAA the most visited art museum in Africa.^[9]

1 From Film Set to Theme Park: Popeye Village

This final list item transcends a singular building’s transformation. Built for the 1980 musical comedy Popeye, starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall, this former film set has been repurposed as an amusement park. The Maltese village, inspired by the fictional hamlet of Sweethaven, comprised 19 wooden buildings which served as the stomping grounds for the live-action Popeye and Olive Oyl. Following Popeye’s lukewarm media response, the set was abandoned.

Rather than letting the prop village succumb to nature, local entrepreneurs converted the neglected set into a theme park, maintaining the colorful architecture to house water trampolines, restaurants, and a winery, among other attractions. Actors still walk the streets of Sweethaven as the comic book and cartoon characters, but for tourists and comic enthusiasts instead of the camera. Whether you have an appreciation for salvaged infrastructure or simply a soft spot for cartoon sailors, Popeye Village belongs on your Malta itinerary.^[10]