America's oldest Eastern European synagogue provided the immigrants of crowded Lower East Side tenements a space of sanctuary.

The first American home of the isolated, egalitarian religion has a trove of Shaker architecture and artifacts.

A good place to research the Freemasons, esoterica, occultism, and hermeticism.

This stately building in Alexandria, Virginia was built by Freemasons to honor one of their most famous members.

One of the oldest masonic museums in Paris.

A once-secret library of Freemason history in Catalonia.

Hidden behind a wall for decades, this masonic lodge was only rediscovered during renovations.

A curious little museum dedicated to the furry feline in the cat haven that is Old Town Kotor.

This fairy-tale, neo-Gothic church in the Azores is a world of magical realism.

The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.

A former barn converted into a massive train diorama.

Everyone from Mark Twain to Teddy Roosevelt has a pipe hanging from the walls of this historic chophouse.

Under a glass sidewalk lie the remains of some of Manhattan's oldest buildings.

A pair of large white marble lions guard this stretch of the Mojave Desert, and it is utterly mysterious how they got there.

Colin Stokes "got a bit carried away" and built a castle that looks like something out of Tolkien.

This ambitious attraction was the brain child of a lake resort impresario, and built by the WPA.

The legendary cliffside castle of three-time Voivode of Wallachia, Vlad the Impaler.

This elaborately decorated, fairytale-like Romanian royal palace is one of the most striking castles in Europe.

Once a train station along the Great Eastern Railway this vibrant coffee shop and bar is where members of London’s creative class mingle.

The last of the 19th-century booze-free bars has been slinging teetotal tonics for over a century.

A historic London pub with prison cells in the cellar and a "spy room" on the second floor.

An ancient hotspot for spotting schools of fish.

The near loss of the stately fireplaces at this medieval castle spawned some of Britain's most crucial historic preservation laws.

Mysteriously stacked storefront paths give this medieval British town an iconic style like none other.