What do superstars Madonna, Elton John and John Lennon all have in common? Some of their favorite shoes can be found at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada. They're just a fraction of the thousands of pairs of footwear on display. From satin slippers to a boot for a medieval knight, these are top-notch examples of history and culture from around the world.

People worldwide have a passion for shoes, and the Bata Shoe Museum is proof.

Its collection of over twelve and a half thousand shoes include examples of the most shocking, the most beautiful and the most unusual from Europe, India and the Far East.

The museum's mandate to collect footwear from everywhere around the world has resulted in some unusual exhibits.

There is also a large selection of tiny Chinese foot-binding shoes. This was an ancient trend in which the feet of young girls were tightly wrapped to stop their development and keep them small.

Twentieth century celebrity shoes are particularly popular with visitors. They can find pop icon Madonna's pink spangled platform shoes alongside singer songwriter Elton John's extraordinarily high heeled black and silver shoes and singer Cher's autographed designer training shoes.

The museum was founded by Sonja Bata after she married into a family which has manufactured footwear since the 1890s.

Bata believes that because shoes are often status symbols, they can reveal key details about the owners place in society, the fashions of the time, and the activities they undertook. In some cases, shoes are even expressive of a person's religion.

The newest on-going exhibit is "On Pointe: The Rise of the Ballet Shoe". 50 artifacts include the dancing shoes of several of the world's greatest ballet dancers, including Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias.