From restaurants to cinemas: Five of the tiniest places from across the world

The Taj Mahal, the Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower: when you think of global landmarks you may think of these attractions and their spectacularly large size. But the world also contains many tiny attractions, and over the years some have become record-holding.

From miniature houses on the coast of Wales to little restaurants in the north of Rome, these pocket-sized gems show that bigger isn't always better. BBC Bitesize takes a look at five incredible small places from across the globe.

Cinema dei Piccoli

Housed in a green building and located in Villa Borghese, a landscape garden in Rome, is Cinema dei Piccoli. Containing just one digital movie projector and a screen, it was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest building used as a cinema in the world in 2005. Despite its small size, it has a total seating capacity of 63.

It was built as a children’s cinema in 1934, when programming included comedies and cartoons.

Shortly after opening, a large wooden image of Mickey Mouse was placed on the cinema roof and the words ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’ were added to the Cinema dei Piccoli sign. The extra signage was shortly erased when Disney warned the owner against using the name of the famous mouse. However the image remained until the early 1970s, and it is still referred to by some as the ‘Mickey Mouse Cinema’ even today.

According to Guinness World Records, the title for smallest cinema by seat capacity is held by the Palastkino in Germany, which contains nine seats.

Livraria Simão

Livraria Simão is one of the smallest bookshops on the planet and can be found in Lisbon, Portugal. The shop can fit a single person inside at a time and is named after and owned by a rare book dealer called Simão Carneiro.

With less than 13ft (4m) of space, the collection is comprised mostly of second-hand books. The majority of books are in Portuguese and include some of the most important names in the country's literature - including Eça de Queirós and Fernando Pessoa.

The shop has been known to have around 4,000 books available, with titles also in Italian, English and Chinese.

The Smallest House in Great Britain

Recognised for its tiny stature and distinct red paint, Britain’s smallest house can be found in Conwy, Wales. Measuring 10ft by 5.9ft (3m by 1.8m), the 16th-Century cottage sits at the end of a terrace of houses on the quayside.

The house was once home to a fisherman called Robert Jones in the late 19th Century. However, he was too tall to stand up inside the rooms and the local council soon forced him to leave the premises. In 1900 the house was declared unfit for habitation.

The property’s owner, who coincidentally was also called Robert Jones, was encouraged to tour and measure small houses across the country in order to be able to declare it the smallest house in Britain.

His attempt was a success and it was officially confirmed by The Guinness Book of Records in the early 1920s. It has opened its doors as a tourist attraction ever since.

Solo Per Due

Solo Per Due, translating to ‘just for two’, is true to its name, catering to two diners at a time. Thought to be one of the smallest restaurants in the world, it opened in 1983 and forms part of a rural 20th-Century stone mansion.

Found in north Rome, the dining room measures just under 500ft² (46m²) and the restaurant is surrounded by an exotic garden, containing different plants from across the world.

Guests choose what they’d like to eat in advance from a multi-course menu consisting of seasonal Italian food. They also get to decide on floral decorations and background music.

The restaurant also overlooks the ruins of an ancient Roman villa, which is said to have been the country house of the Roman poet Horace.

Ochopee Post Office

Accommodating one employee at any given time, the Ochopee Post Office in Florida is no bigger than a broom closet and has been serving the community for generations. It is considered the smallest operating post office in the United States and was formerly used as a pipe shed for a tomato farm.

The post office was previously located inside a local general store, but was moved into its current shack after a fire burnt the building down in 1953. It has remained in the same shack ever since. As well as providing postal services across the three-county area, it also serves as a bus ticket office.

Standing at roughly 7ft wide and 8ft deep (2.1m by 2.4m) the spot has attracted tourists and stamp collectors from all over the world.

This article was published in August 2024