The famous Colosseum, situated in Rome, Italy, has now been created in LEGO® form using a record-setting amount of pieces.
The design of the set, which contains 9,036 individual pieces, took over six months and was led by Rok Zgalin Kobe - who has been designing sets since 2011.
The set's staggering number of pieces has earned it the record title for the largest commercially available LEGO® set.
One of the most recognizable landmarks in the world, the Colosseum was built during the Roman Empire and was completed in 80AD.
"It's been weathered under the Roman sun, so the LEGO version provides more colour in order to show to some of the shadow lines and better accentuate some of the details," Rok explained.
The LEGO model equivalent contains several of the amphitheatre's signature features including it's iconic columns, arches and stepped seating layout.
This is also one of the largest LEGO sets available - when completed it stands 27 centimetres high, 52 centimetres wide and 59 centimetres deep.
We haven’t set out to do the biggest LEGO model of all time; I set out to explore what would be the best execution of the Colosseum in LEGO. But the more the model was being perfected, the more pieces went into capturing its details. Once I saw that we are getting close to the record number of elements, that help grew the enthusiasm for the model internally and it also helped justify the increase in its complexity. - Rok Zgalin Kobe
The set was released in November 2020 and designer Rok has completed the build several times, although every time it has taken over 30 hours to complete.
"The super-structure is only connected at a few points, much like in modern bridge building."
Rome's famous Colosseum has had plenty of usages in its near-2,000 year lifespan, it has hosted gladiator fights and theatre shows but is now a massive tourist attraction, bringing in millions of visitors every year.
It is also around 189 metres long and 156 metres wide, meaning the LEGO set is approximately 300 times smaller!
As a commercially available set, it currently retails at around £450 or $550 USD.
The Colosseum is also the first set since 2017 to hold this record and not be a fictional structure.
The previous record holder was a 7,541 brick replica of Star Wars' Millennium Falcon and before that, a 4,080 piece Disney® castle.
The last real landmark to hold this record was the Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India which contained 5,922 parts and was released back in 2008.
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