• Mon. Sep 1st, 2025

The world’s most beautiful palaces, according to maths

Palaces around the world are of interest to both tourists and locals. From England’s iconic Buckingham Palace to Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle, there really is a palace in every shape, size, and style. But which palace is the most statistically beautiful according to science? 

Interested in finding out, money.co.uk utilised the golden ratio to determine which of the world’s palaces is the most beautiful. To do this, they compared each palace’s dimensions to the golden ratio, a mathematical ratio which can be found in nature, architecture, and even music, that indicates a balanced and aesthetically pleasing composition. Money.co.uk were then able to determine how close the palace’s dimensions are to the golden ratio – the smaller the percentage difference, the more statistically beautiful the palace. 

England:

Money.co.uk found that Kensington Palace in England is the ninth most scientifically beautiful out of all those analysed. The palace’s ratio of height to width is 2.375, which is 47% different to the golden ratio proportions (1.618).
However, England’s other palaces don’t fare so well. Hampton Court Palace ranks as the second least scientifically beautiful, differing from the golden ratio by 295%. Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle rank seventh and eighth least beautiful, respectively.

The world’s most scientifically beautiful palaces 

 

Palace 

Country 

Height/width ratio 

Percentage difference from golden ratio 

#1 

Topkapi Palace 

Turkey 

1.572 

3% 

#2 

Mysuru (Mysore) Palace 

India 

1.690 

4% 

#3 

Forbidden City (The Gate of Divine Might/Shen-Wu Gate) 

China 

1.783 

10% 

#4 

Schönbrunn Palace 

Austria 

1.359 

16% 

#5 

Neuschwanstein Castle 

Germany 

2.000 

24% 

=#6 

Imperial Palace Tokyo 

Japan 

1.133 

30% 

=#6 

Château De Chambord 

France 

1.125 

30% 

#8 

Palais des Papes 

France 

2.158 

33% 

#9 

Kensington Palace 

England 

2.375 

47% 

#10 

The Grand Palace (Chakri Mahaprasad Hall) 

Thailand 

2.813 

74% 

#11 

Potala Palace 

China 

3.077 

90% 

#12 

Umaid Bhawan Palace 

India 

3.520 

118% 

#13 

Alhambra (Palace of Charles V) 

Spain 

3.706 

129% 

#14 

The Royal Palace of Stockholm 

Sweden 

3.788 

134% 

#15 

The Royal Palace 

Spain 

3.970 

145% 

 

Money.co.uk also revealed that the world’s most statistically beautiful palace is Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. The palace’s width/height ratio worked out at 1.572, which is just 3% off the golden ratio’s proportions. 

Just behind, with a difference of 4% from the golden ratio, is Mysuru (Mysore) Palace in India. 

Coming in third, and differing 10% from the golden ratio’s proportions, is the Forbidden City Palace in Beijing, China. 

 

The world’s least scientifically beautiful palaces 

 

Palace 

Country 

Height/width ratio 

Percentage difference from golden ratio 

#1 

Dolmabahçe Palace 

Turkey 

7.972 

393% 

#2 

Hampton Court Palace 

England 

6.389 

295% 

#3 

Buda Castle 

Hungary 

5.175 

220% 

=#4 

Drottningholm Palace 

Sweden 

5.160 

219% 

=#4 

Palace of Versailles 

France 

5.158 

219% 

#6 

Presidential Palace (Palacio de Gobierno) 

Peru 

4.613 

185% 

#7 

Buckingham Palace 

England 

4.500 

178% 

#8 

Windsor Castle 

England 

4.361 

169% 

#9 

Chateau De Fontainebleau 

France 

4.337 

168% 

#10 

Winter Palace 

Russia 

4.179 

158% 

 

Despite being home to the ranked most beautiful palace, Topkapi Palace, the results found that Istanbul was home to the least statistically beautiful palace analysed, Dolmabahçe Palace. The palace’s height/width ratio was 7.972 due to the width of the palace, meaning it is a staggering 393% away from the golden ratio’s proportions. 

Three of England’s palaces feature in the bottom 10, with the least statistically beautiful being Hampton Court Palace, again due to its wide proportions. Hampton Court Palace shows a difference of 295% to the golden ratio, placing it second from bottom. 

Third from last is Buda Castle in Hungary, which shows a difference of 220% from the golden ratio with a height/width ratio of 5.175. 

 

For more information, please see money.co.uk’s full blog post: https://www.money.co.uk/home-insurance/most-beautiful-palaces

 

Methodology: 

  1. Money.co.uk wanted to find out which palaces around the world are the most scientifically beautiful. 
  2. To do this, money.co.uk collated a list of the 50 most famous palaces, and then searched each palace’s name into SEMrush to find which are searched for the most on Google in order to determine the 25 most popular. 
  3. Next, money.co.uk sourced the dimensions of the façade of each palace (base width and height) using a combination of reliable online sources and Google Earth Pro in order to apply the golden ratio to each structure. 
  4. The dimensions were then used to calculate the percentage difference from the dimensions of each palace to the golden ratio. 
  5. Each palace was ranked based on which palaces’ façade was closest to the golden ratio where the smallest percentage difference indicated a more scientifically beautiful palace. 

*In the cases where the palace was not a single building, but a complex of palaces, the most representative palace was chosen: 

  • Palace of Charles V, Alhambra 
  • Chakri Mahaprasad Hall, The Grand Palace 
  • The Gate of Divine Might/Shen-Wu Gate, Forbidden City 
  • Main entrance, Topkapi Palace