Housing the groundbreaking maps and globes of Gerard Mercator.

Lavish royal estate punctuated with heated greenhouses.

Theme park featuring miniature replicas of European monuments.

Rare wooden escalators lead deep down into an otherwise staggeringly monotonous tiled tunnel.

Most prolific publishing house in the 1600s open to the public.

The patron of this extravagant Art Nouveau confection insisted that nothing less than a boat should project from its facade.

The largest bell in the world has been swinging high above a Cologne cathedral for almost a century.

The monumental home of Prussia’s eccentric "Cannon King."

This "floating railway" is one of the world's oldest monorail systems.

A beautiful collection of taxidermy birds and rare pomological wax models.

Horrifically creative torture devices and shame punishments line the walls of this chilling museum.

The beautiful, ornate weather station is the most popular geocache in Salzburg.

American soldiers discovered Europe's best one-liner at the end of World War II.

When a medieval fire claimed the original St. Stephen’s Cathedral, it sparked a pattern of unquenchable organ building.

The prison where Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf," and 278 Nazis were later executed for war crimes.

The world's tallest church tower reveals a spectacular view to anyone up to the task of climbing the daunting staircase.

According to legend a man pooped out the window of this tower to prove that it was straight.

A once-luxurious, now abandoned hotel in the Italian Alps.

The Sighignola summit on the Swiss border offers views so breathtaking it's been named one of the most beautiful places in Italy.

A cablecar-station-turned-revolving restaurant with 360-degree views of the Swiss skyline.

This monastery built into a cliff hides a perfectly preserved hermit in a glass coffin.

This Italian dam is covered in salt-hungry goats who manage to scale its almost vertical face.

The alpine falls where Sherlock Holmes apparently met his demise can actually be visited.

A historic observatory precariously perched at the "Top of Europe."