History of the world's tallest buildings of world's tallest building was borne by shorter buildings. St. Mary's Church in Stralsund became the world's tallest building after the collapse of Lincoln Cathedral's spire. The central tower of St. Pierre's Cathedral was tallest from 1569 until it collapsed in 1573, making St. Mary's the tallest once again. In 1647, the bell tower of St. Mary's burned down, making the shorter Strasbourg Cathedral the world's tallest building. It was not until the completion of the Ulm Minster in 1890 that the world's tallest building was again also the tallest building ever constructed, surpassing the original configuration of Lincoln Cathedral.
History of the world's tallest buildings was destroyed by a 1953 tornado and rebuilt. If the original spire was as tall as is claimed, then the Mole Antonelliana was the world's tallest building from 1889 to 1908, surpassing Philadelphia City Hall by . The buildings that were the tallest secular skyscrapers, which excludes religious buildings, were: The list of tallest buildings is based on the default metric of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), that of measuring to the highest architectural element. Other criteria would generate a different list. Shanghai World Financial Center is not on the above list, but it surpassed Taipei