We’ll admit that it has been quite a while since we cracked a copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy, but it’s still easy to recognize the nine circles of hell, recreated here in LEGO by Romanian artist Mihai Marius Mihu. The epic project took him seven months to complete, and he used some 40,000 little plastic bricks to realize his vision.

“I didn’t read the Divine Comedy, only the small descriptions of the circles I found on Wikipedia and on other websites,” Mihu has explained. “I didn’t want to be much influenced by the original descriptions because I wanted to give a whole new fresh approach for each circle. I thought more about the significance of titles and from then on it was only my imagination.” Click through our slideshow to see his depictions of the circles, from limbo all the way to treachery, and let us know what you think of his hellish pieces in the comments.

Photo credit: Mihai Marius Mihu

Photo credit: Mihai Marius Mihu

Photo credit: Mihai Marius Mihu

Photo credit: Mihai Marius Mihu

Photo credit: Mihai Marius Mihu

Photo credit: Mihai Marius Mihu

Photo credit: Mihai Marius Mihu

Photo credit: Mihai Marius Mihu

Photo credit: Mihai Marius Mihu