A spectacular Petrine Baroque summer palace commissioned for Catherine I by Peter the Great.

This statue is dedicated to the animal cosmonauts that perished during space flight experiments.

A stone marker and sculpture in the city of Riga stake a claim for the very first community Christmas tree.

A series of concentric circles represented a bold new experiment in socialist urban planning, and it notoriously difficult to get around.

3,000 market stands in five former Zeppelin hangars.

An icon of International Style architecture on the outskirts of Rotterdam.

For years, the remains of this ancient Roman fortress were hidden under an orchard.

The location of the world's first telescope demonstration.

The giant scales in this museum can still tell if someone is one of the devil's brides just by weight.

An idyllic hotel that gave its name to a supposed shadow government.

This stoic bronze soldier stands as a symbol of Russian sacrifice or Soviet oppression, or maybe both.

An abandoned textile factory on the "island of crows" was home to Estonia's first workers' strike.

Visitors can sit and study the board with this Estonian chess legend and International Grandmaster.

A forest park outside Tallinn full of architectural and artistic curiosities.

A statue of the Soviet leader still stands in a quiet corner of Estonia’s most Russian city.

This legendary giant, born from vegetables, terrorized townspeople and cheated local children in games.

Nicolas Schöffer's massive interactive sculpture was assembled in 1961 and brought back online in 2016.

This heavily worn bas-relief was once an honored fertility symbol.

Once a year, local students "clean" this statue with a champagne shower.

A historic scientific breakthrough that crosses nine borders.

First point in the Struve Geodetic Arc, a 19th century undertaking to measure the Earth's size and shape.

This celebration of Latvia’s freedom and independence avoided demolition over half a century of Soviet occupation.

This charming Latvian lane doubled as Baker Street on the Soviet Union’s version of Sherlock Holmes.

The statue of a legendary giant who carried Christ and shouldered the world's sins.