- he wanted to have it reconstructed as a national pantheon based on the model of Valhalla near Regensburg that had been completed in 1841; he dedicated himself enthusiastically to urgent social problems and must be seen in this light as the originator of social housing; and he organised with overwhelming success – against the objections of many politicians and technicians – the legendary first Great Exhibition of 1851, which became the model for all world's fairs and similar undertakings in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. To house it he created the gigantic Crystal Palace, three times as long as St. Paul's Cathedral, the largest building in the country up to that time; it was built of cast iron and glass by 2,500 workers in only seven months time. Within a period of six months the exhibition attracted over six million visitors, who were able to admire exhibits by 3,000 individuals and 14,000 companies and institutions from around the world. With the profits from the admission tickets, the immense sum in those days of 250,000 pounds, Albert launched into his greatest project ever, the "Albertopolis", the world's largest integrated complex of institutions devoted to science and education.