STRANGE PLACES IN CENTRAL FLORIDA

Fifteen entries, the largest region in the register, and the reason is the theme parks. Central Florida has had a captive audience of bored, driving families since long before Disney, and every one of these places was built to intercept some of them.

That gives the region its particular texture: high concentration, short distances, and an unusual survival rate for things that should have closed decades ago. You can do four of these in a day without hurrying, which is not true anywhere else on this list.

The range runs from the seriously beautiful to the frankly deranged, sometimes on the same road. A singing tower in a landscaped garden. A castle built from a newspaper's discarded printing plates. A hill where cars appear to roll uphill and the elementary school is named after the ghost. Eight of the fifteen are free.

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