The marble facade hides a little-known medical museum with early surgical instruments and rare copies of canonical texts.

An extensive collection of reliquaries containing the bones of saints housed in the largest Catholic church in Venice.

This Roman statue is missing a limb from when the Venetians stole it from Constantinople during the Crusades.

Those who own or stay at this 500-year-old, allegedly cursed house often meet terrible fates.

This palatial spiral staircase was so unusual the name "snail" was given to the noble family who built it.

A new sculpture calls attention to climate change in the centuries-old city it threatens.

Where Venice's gondolas go for a tune-up.

In the past, Renaissance sex workers were encouraged to entice customers on this bridge.

A sinister pyramid in the Frari contains the heart of the famous neoclassical sculptor.

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

A terrific purveyor of natural history objects and curios.

This beautiful building in the heart of Manhattan's Financial District was empty for decades.

A crumbling hospital from the 1850s on Roosevelt Island.

An eccentric collection of antique items shares space with a prop-quality witchcraft museum.

Sitting on an Italian hilltop is this surreal fortress built by the mad inventor of electrohomeopathy.

Medieval torture techniques with a modern conscience.

The largest and most famous wax anatomical collection anywhere in the world.

The middle finger of modernity.

Over 50 exquisite hand-painted Renaissance maps decorate a Medici storage room.

The mummified relic of St. Antoninus.

Renaissance hospital featuring a rotating door into which unwanted babies were dropped.