Chandeliers have been a symbol of opulence and affluence for so long, that man has discovered strange, beautiful and most of all, monster-sized ways to make them! While we are well aware that it is not always size that counts most in how impressive something is, we’ve compiled this preliminary list of the 7 biggest chandeliers in the world, to give you a bit of inspiration about your own at home. While yours may not be architect-designed, and if it were a hundredth the size of one of these, still mightn’t fit through your front door, it’s your own! It’ll be a tiny piece of luxury, to remind you of the dedication and fascination of some people with their own chandeliers! We would like to point out that this is a preliminary list, given that we don’t have access to every chandelier in the world, and would love to hear from you if you know of any larger ones! Simply go to the contact us page, drop us an email and include pictures or links, if you can.

7th place - Rialto Square Theatre, Joliet, Illionois

The smallest biggest chandelier in the world (!) is in the United States, in the Rialto Square Theatre, Joliet, Illionois. The chandelier in the Theatre is known as the ‘Duchess’ – she took two years to be born, and cost one and a half million dollars before her birthday. That was one and a half million back in the 1920s … when you could buy a house for a person’s weekly wage nowadays. Elsewhere in the theatre, the arch between the Esplanade and the Rotunda was copied from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

6th place - The Jai Vilas Palace, India

The Jai Vilas Palace houses two chandeliers, each one weighing 3.5 tons. To test whether the roof would take their weight, ten elephants were used to stamp on the roof, to make sure! The current maharaja lives in part of the palace, but a large part of it is used as a museum, including the room housing the chandeliers. The palace was designed by a British colonel during colonial times in India, and has survived until now. Sad and unfortunate memorabilia remains from that era, including a large collection of stuffed tigers, which are now endangered, worldwide. There is also a cut-glass rocking chair! The gold paint used in the room the chandeliers are in is estimated to weigh 58 kg – enough gold to make a fit and healthy woman!

5th place - Dolmabahçe palace in Istanbul, Turkey

The Turks love chandeliers, and a 4.5 ton one resides at the Dolmabahçe palace in Istanbul. The chandelier it contains has 750 lamps, and is made of Bohemian crystal – it was a gift from Queen Victoria of Britain to the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800s. The buildings also houses the largest collection of Bohemian and Baccarat chandeliers in the world, with even the staircases being made of Baccarat crystal! So we are guessing the ladies with stilletoes on have to take their shoes off at the door.

4th place - Knokke Casino, Belgium

Knokke, in Belgium, is a seaside resort close to the Dutch border, and it is home ot one of Belgium’s tyen casinos – and also one of the world’s seven biggest chandeliers. The Belgians are so fascinated by their chndeliers that they even have a word for ‘chandelier room’ – Kroonluchterzaal. The chandelier is made of Venetian crystal, 22,000 pieces of it to be exact, and includes 2,700 lamps creating light for the crystals to refract. It hasa diameter of 8.5m and a height of 6.5m. The entire structure weighs 6 tons, so we are guessing they don’t take it down to clean it every fortnight! They have also put some effort into building up a collection of gorgeous paintings and wall tapestries for the casino’s decorations.

3rd place - Palais Garnier Opera, France

The chandelier in the Palais Garnier in France, a country known for its fascination with things beautiful, objets d‘art, also weighs 6 tons. It is in a fitting setting – the building, which is home to France’s traditional operas, is very ornate, decorated with marble friezes, columns, and statues around it’s interior. Napoleon began its construction in 1858, and it stands today. The huge chandelier is actually in the auditorium where the operas are played out, and it is surrounded on the ceiling by Marc Chagall’s artwork – controversial at the time, as many believed it was not in keeping with the building’s other architecture and decorating.

2nd place - Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara, Turkey

God has always been the source of man’s greatest inspiration to create – so many beautiful cathedrals and churches have been designed and created for religious purposes – and the chandelier at the Kocatepe Mosque, in Ankara, Turkey, holds to that tradition. It weighs 7.5 tons, is 5.5m in diameter, has 32 side lights and 4 corner lights. The mosque is used by around 80,000 worshippers, and the building itself, along with the chandelier, is considered one of the great triumphs of Turkish architecture. The skeleton of the chandelier is only gold plated – pure gold would have stretched and broken long before now – and the smaller chandeliers which make up the whole are made of small crystal balls with connecting chains.

1st place - Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Oman

The largest chandelier known in the world is in the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Oman, and weighs 8.5 tons. The actual mosque is smaller than that in Turkey, so that not so many people can share in the richness of the surroundings at once – however, 20,000 worshippers is still a decent number to squeeze into a building! It is still in the process of being fitted out and decorated, but the library will also contain 20,000 books eventually. The actual chandelier is made of Swarovski crystal, has gold plated metalwork, and hangs down for a length of 14 meters. It has a diameter of 8m to go with this height, making the size of the chandelier comparable to a five-story apartment block or block of flats. It contains staircases and platforms, necessary for maintenance, and has 1,200 dimmable halogen lamps triggered by more than 36 switching circuits. Given that the height of the ceiling in the main minaret is 90 metres, this huge chandelier is probably actually the most efficient way of lighting up the entire space! Surprisingly, also, the Omani site describing the chandelier gives more attention the Persian carpet in the hall, which is handmade of 1,700 million knots, weighs 21 tons and is made in a single piece.

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