The oldest of Venice's plague quarantine stations, designed to keep the medieval city safe from disease.

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

A small island less than half a mile from Venice is a forbidden island with a dark and twisted past.

Formerly a brutal Nazi colony, this Chilean village was remade as a (controversial) German-themed tourist trap.

Rent out a glass igloo to watch the Northern Lights like you live in the future.

Said to be one of Sweden's most haunted places, this vicarage once even attracted a ghost-busting priest.

One of the few remaining casualties of the London Blitz, this destroyed church has become an enchanting public garden.

A quaint Russian village in the middle of a German metropolis.

This Netherlands museum holds a gloriously mechanical collection of ornate musical automata.

Housing the famous Norwegian ice-defying 19th century polar exploration ship.

This bright yellow relic is the final survivor of a short burst of seashell-shaped petrol pumps.

A high point in Vancouver kitsch.

When you can't get to the Pacific, just go to Florida.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

A museum founded to reflect on and remember the human rights abuses under Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

This odd 1930s shop remains stranded in time and shrouded in mystery.

The inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft's horror stories and Batman's Arkham Asylum is now a condominium complex.

Abandoned for decades, trains still pass through the now-restored remains of one of Madrid's first metro stations.

An extravagant western hotel where every floor is the "ground floor."

A Manhattan courthouse hides a small but scathing memorial to Holocaust injustice.

During World War II, this rice mill became a Nazi concentration camp.

This massive stained-glass masterpiece is thought to be the largest Tiffany dome in existence.

One of the U.S. Forest Service's only mansions is outfitted with a dinner table for floating food.

One of the world's few mounted blue whales, its jaws are hinged open allowing visitors to descend into a lounge.