It's not hard to see why the historic Peabody Conservatory of Music's library has been described as a "cathedral of books."

The 953 windows undoubtedly make this the world's most beautiful screened porch.

On Japan's Tashirojima Island, cats are king.

In this historic region, homes and churches are carved into ancient volcanic rock formations.

A small town Romanian cemetery filled with darkly humorous gravestones.

In this truly magical place, rent hasn't been raised since the year 1520.

An abused and forgotten metropolis, abandoned for centuries.

Graffiti covers the walls of a room where university students through the centuries have waited nervously to defend their theses.

A 605-page Quran penned in the blood of a dictator is locked away in a mosque.

There is a strange little carving of a person seemingly crushed by a pillar behind the remains of St. Thomas Aquinas.

A silly medieval mural preserved on the side of a Viennese house.

This 8th-century Bavarian monastery is home to an exquisite Baroque-era library.

The first public library in the Americas has more than 45,000 books dating back to the 15th century.

A surrealist timepiece by the artist of melting clocks.

In the world's oldest university is a stunning 17th century anatomical theater carved from spruce.

A neighborhood church's unusual abstract stained glass was the final project of avant-garde artist Jean Cocteau.

The vast, legendary catacombs hold secrets much stranger than stacked bones.

A Victorian Gothic masterpiece housing a world-class collection of rare books and manuscripts.

Large-scale contemporary artworks tower over fields and lurk in forests around a Jacobean manor house.

Constructed along the shores of Lake Zurich, this pavilion is a walk-through work of art.

The gravestone of a famous poet features a fittingly poetic epitaph chosen by the writer himself.

This famous writer's tombstone is a literary pilgrimage site that was publicly defiled by a rival.

Artworks by loners, prisoners and the criminally insane.

This colorful but controversial ceiling has been likened to a 21st-century Sistine Chapel.