A slide made of mosaic tiles. A wall of beer bottles. Street signs, metal fans, and tires adorn the exterior metal landscape. Inside, countless CDs hang from the ceiling, giving the sparking impression of a disco ball. The walls are covered with discarded objects – Barbie dolls, a Gumby, hubcaps, rubber duckies – all in sorted by color – red, green, orange and pink. It’s three stories high. And a throne to conclude its glory. It’s the ultimate I Spy game, a photographer’s dream. The Cathedral of Junk.

The Cathedral of Junk was constructed by Vice Hannemann in his own back yard. He finished his first back yard sculptor at the age of 16 in New Mexico. When he moved to Austin in 1989, he continued to pursue his passion.

“It was 11 different sculptures, at first,” Hannemann said. “Then they kind of grew together into one. I originally called it Yard Space 11, but that didn’t make sense to anybody. My mom was the one who came up with the idea of The Cathedral of Junk in 1992. The name stuck with it and it grew.”

All of the mixed matched materials are from other people donating them to Hannemann. Sixty tons worth of junk and none of it is his.

“People leave the junk out on the driveway or on the porch,” Hannemann said. “I don’t even have a truck to haul things around anymore.”

However, the Cathedral was never that easy. In 2010, residents living in the South Austin neighborhood filed complaints to the city, claiming that they didn’t approve the constant flow of tourists disrupting their community and the various health violations that the Cathedral wasn’t certified for. Three lawyers and four months later, Hannemann got approved by the city to keep the art work.

“I still had to get an engineer to approve the Cathedral,” Hannemann said. “So technically it’s not a sculptor, it’s a building.”

In the vine-draped building, people celebrate everything from birthdays to weddings. Visitors from all over come to see the eccentric and eclectic collection of art.

“It’s cool to represent Austin,” Hannemann said. “You know what they say, ‘Keep Austin Weird.’ I think the Cathedral embraces that. I meet people from all over the country and the world. I don’t know what they think when they think of the Cathedral, but l see most of them leave with a smile, and that’s always cool.”