This monolithic slab of art metal crowns a German slag heap.

Austria's very first and only nuclear power station was completed but never used.

A chemical factory damaged by two earthquakes and an explosion that became abandoned after bankruptcy.

An old spa town in the mountains of Romania where, according to legend, the great hero Hercules once bathed.

The preserved arm of a third-century sorcerer is believed to have the power to lift curses and spells.

This once-derelict building is now one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.

This massive underground salt mine now holds a sci-fi theme park in its depths.

Now abandoned, the world's first torpedo factory is crumbling into the sea.

At this monastery, monks make raw-milk cheese and use excess whey to create methane that powers their hot-water system.

The abandoned military base looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

This cheerfully-named branch of the Chicago River is the fetid result of years of blood, entrails, and meatpacking waste.

One of the oldest, well-preserved water treatment facilities in all of Europe.

This historic hydroelectric power plant in Japan has been preserved and is open to the public.

This concept building is the UK's first attempt at making a permanent structure of nothing but trash.

Even drowned in an ocean of toxic waste, the remnants of this Romanian village stand tall.

A stunning medieval castle owned and restored by the famed actor Jeremy Irons.

Fluffy and friendly alpacas nestled against the border of the beautiful Connemara region.

This neon landmark has been posing this deadpan question to follicly-challenged Dubliners for over 50 years.

The chaotic studio of one of the 20th century's most important artists has been preserved down to the dust.

A hugely vast Irish landscape of barren rock that stretches for miles.

A steam trawler with a whiskey-soaked history driven ashore in 1960 resides rusty but still standing on the shoreline.

A diminutive, thousand-year-old church believed to be the smallest in Ireland.

Mortarless walls that stretch for miles are a lovely solution for creating grazing land in the harsh terrain of the Aran Islands.

Certain traditions prevail on the least-visited island of the Aran Islands.