Famous buildings in Minecraft, free to download

Neuschwanstein Castle, the Colosseum, Sagrada Família and dozens more landmarks can be downloaded for Minecraft from my3dhouse, free. Each one is built block by block from the building’s 3D model, in your browser, and comes as a ready-made world for Java or Bedrock or as a schematic to build yourself. Here is where to start, which size to choose and how to open what you download.

Twelve landmarks to start with

Every building on my3dhouse has a Minecraft page at its own address followed by /minecraft. These twelve are the ones people look for most. The sizes are at Small, one block per metre, including the grounds around each building.

• Neuschwanstein Castle in MinecraftLudwig II’s castle on its crag. 67 × 126 blocks, 113 tall at Small.
• The Colosseum in MinecraftThree tiers of arches and the hypogeum. 207 × 175 blocks, 53 tall.
• Sagrada Família in MinecraftGaudí’s eighteen spires. 98 × 75 blocks, 173 tall.
• Tower of London in MinecraftThe White Tower inside its curtain walls. 155 × 133 blocks, 37 tall.
• Potala Palace in MinecraftThirteen storeys up the Red Hill. Shrink it: 444 × 316 blocks at Small.
• Hohenzollern Castle in MinecraftA mountaintop of slate-capped towers. 192 × 166 blocks, 98 tall.
• Blenheim Palace in MinecraftVanbrugh’s Baroque Great Court. 250 × 149 blocks, 34 tall.
• Palace of Versailles in MinecraftThe 670-metre garden front. 672 blocks long at Small.
• Reichstag in MinecraftFour corner towers and the glass dome. 70 × 53 blocks, 34 tall.
• Hallgrímskirkja in MinecraftReykjavík’s stepped concrete church. 63 × 97 blocks, 75 tall.
• Tokyo Tower in MinecraftOrange and white lattice. 334 blocks tall at Small, inside the height limit.
• Burj Khalifa in MinecraftToo tall for any world at full size, so it is offered fitted.

The full list, every published building with its download, is at my3dhouse.app/minecraft.

Which size to choose

The page offers four sizes, and shows the block dimensions of each before you download anything:

• Small, one block per metre. Quick to build by hand, and the right choice for something enormous like the Potala Palace or Versailles.
• Standard, two blocks per metre. Big enough for rooms you can walk around.
• Large, three blocks per metre, with space for furniture.
• Huge, four blocks per metre, keeps every detail the converter can place.

A Minecraft world has a height limit, and some landmarks do not fit under it at any of those sizes. The Burj Khalifa is 828 metres tall, which would be well over 800 blocks at Small, so its page adds a Fitted size, shrunk until it fits. Tokyo Tower, at 333 metres, just fits at Small.

Spires and pinnacles are where size matters most. A detail thinner than a block cannot be drawn at all, so a thin spire that is only a block wide at Small gains some shape at Large. If a building is mostly towers, like Sagrada Família or Hohenzollern Castle, try the preview at two sizes before you choose.

How to open each download

A Java Edition world

On a computer, the Java world is a zip with the building already built, in creative or survival, by day, at sunset or at night. Unzip it into your saves folder (on Windows that is %appdata%\.minecraft\saves, on a Mac ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves) and it appears under Singleplayer.

A Bedrock world for iPhone, iPad and Android

On a phone or tablet the page offers a .mcworld file with the same choices. Tap it once it has downloaded; Minecraft opens and imports it, and it is then under Play, Worlds.

A schematic for Litematica or WorldEdit

The .schem file is for building into a world you already have. In Litematica, drop it in .minecraft/schematics, open the Litematica menu (M by default), load it and place it, and you get a see-through guide to build over block by block. In WorldEdit, put it in WorldEdit’s schematics folder, run //schem load with its name, then //paste where you stand. A survival build comes with the list of blocks it needs, so you know how much stone to mine before you start.

How a 3D model becomes blocks

The converter works the way a builder would. It first lines the model up so that the big walls and windows fall on block edges. Walls, roofs, glass and ground are then filled in by their surfaces, which gives hollow rooms and walls one block thick. Details thinner than a block, such as window frames, mullions, sills, posts, doors and lamps, are added afterwards in the one line of blocks where each shows, using the partial blocks Minecraft has for them: slabs, stairs, fences, walls, panes, doors and lanterns.

It also clears the wall behind every window, fills pools with water, and gives every building a door, so you can walk in. What it does not do yet is add floors inside.

Everything happens on your own device. The page downloads the building’s 3D model, the same one you can turn round on its main page, and converts it there; nothing is built on a server.

No Minecraft? Walk round it in the browser

Each building also has a page at its address followed by /play, which builds the same blocks into a small world that runs in the browser, with nothing to install. Neuschwanstein Castle is a good one to try.

Build your own house in Minecraft

The buildings here were made on my3dhouse from photographs. You can do the same with your own house: upload a few photos, and plans if you have them, and a 3D model of it goes up in your browser. Once it is published it gets a Minecraft download of its own, like every building above.

Make your house in 3D · £5 →Or browse every Minecraft download

Not an official Minecraft product. Not approved by or associated with Mojang or Microsoft.