Designed by Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi and opened in September 2012, France's biggest mosque (accommodating 1500 worshippers) sits on a bend in the River Ill and is topped by a copper dome and flanked by wings resembling a flower in bud. More than just another landmark, it took 20 years of political to-ing and fro-ing for this project to come to fruition and its completion is considered the beginning of a new era for Muslims and religious tolerance in France.