Austin, Texas's wacky Cathedral of Junk survived high winds and occasional showers of criticism for 21 years.

Now the wired-together structure faces its toughest challenge: City inspectors threaten to flatten the towers, hallways and rooms made solely from discarded items if owner Vince Hannemann didn't meet Friday's deadline for submitting plans to make the cathedral safe. (He says it was already safe for the 10,000 annual visitors.)

Hannemann hopes he has appeased the city by unplugging Christmas lights, blockading one tower, remodeling and removing approximately four tons from the structure.

Remaining are 800 bicycles and a mishmash of discarded items, including trophies, motorcycle helmets, dinnerware, typewriters and much, much more.

Keep reading for more info and photos of the remodeled cathedral.





Even after remodeling, the cathedral site still occupies a 20-by-25-yard footprint and has three towers rising as high as 33 feet. New visitors will never know 15 percent of the original structure is gone.

In his late 20s, Hannemann (who currently has "JUNK" tattooed across four fingers) hung a few hubcaps on his backyard fence in a lower-middle-class neighborhood. That was 1989. As the collection grew like a yard gazebo on steroids, people started leaving items on his sidewalk.

Hannemann said, "I haven't looked for stuff in 18 years ... Foreigners often tell me, 'This could never exist in my country. We'd reuse all this.'"

For the last two years, the free attraction has been his full-time job, thanks to donations, income from a Bank of America commercial shot on site, and a coop with four chickens. (If neighbors occasionally complain, it's about the traffic, not the cathedral or the chickens.)



His secret to solid construction? Copper, aluminum, brass or cast-iron wire. "I'll use any (sizable) gauge. It'll last forever," he said.

The city may have a different viewpoint, even though Hannemann said Austin has used the cathedral in publicity materials. (City officials say a complaint forced them to inspect.)

"It kind of goes back to the old Texas A&M bonfire [the huge pile of logs that killed 12 people when it collapsed during construction]," city official Ronald Potts told the Austin daily newspaper. "It's a great thing, and it's supported by people, but if it's not built by an engineer, bad things can happen." While it's still standing, visit the Cathedral of Junk at 4422 Lareina Dr. in Austin, or check out savethejunk.org for more information.