There's no place like home.

Home is where the heart is.

These phrases state the obvious.

Our homes are emotional spaces.

They're weighted with memories, with meaning.

Even the look of a house, the architecture itself can express emotion.

Some houses are puffed up and pompous, trying to convince everyone of their importance.

Other houses are little, inviting and cozy.

The architectural equivalent of a grandmother's hug.

But there is one particular kind of architecture, one particular kind of house that expresses

a very specific human emotion.

And it's not a nice feeling.

This architecture is personal and it's petty.

It's bitter all the way down to its foundations.

I'm Dewey Thoris and this is Atlas Obscura, a guide to the world's strange, incredible

and wondrous places.

Today, we're taking a tour of the world's spite houses, teeny tiny palaces of malices.

That is after this.

In the city of Beirut, there are once two brothers.

The brothers had inherited land from their father.

It was beautiful land on a hill overlooking the sea.

But the land came in a strange shape and the brothers couldn't agree on how to divide

...