Fittingly, America's museum of architecture is itself a magnificently designed old building.

Franciscan monks created a facsimile of the Holy Land for North Americans who couldn’t afford the trip overseas.

This titanic oil company sign is a reminder of the Americana boom of the 1970s and also its commoditization.

Collecting 700 years of mechanical death-dealing, the NRA's sprawling gun museum is a revealing testament to the American obsession with armament.

This 18th-century folly is one of Europe's rare "garden mosques."

Remnants of a cone-shaped Nazi bomb shelter.

Walk inside a half mile long crevice right outside the town of Garmisch Partenkirchen.

A preserved college lock-up that recalls a clubhouse approach to discipline.

This historic toy museum brings a little whimsy to a city not usually remembered for such things.

An abandoned train station in Munich constructed for the 1972 Olympic games.

From Nazi chemicals to the CIA, this architectural marvel has played a fascinating role in German history.

The last remnants of a massive medieval wall that once encompassed the city of Berlin.

This extremely narrow tenement boasts a maximum occupancy of just two.

A monument to the three wars that led to German unification towers within a Berlin traffic circle.

Legendary site where an evil bishop was devoured by rodents.

Sitting in the basement of a castle, the largest wine barrel in the world is bigger than most apartments.

The real life town from the Pied Piper of Hamelin has a mechanical puppet show that retells the famous story many times a day.

Every hour the doors open to reenact the legend of the heroic mayor who saved his town by drinking a gallon of wine.

The birthplace of Karl Marx is now a museum dedicated to the communist revolutionary's life and work.

The largest bell in the world has been swinging high above a Cologne cathedral for almost a century.

It's good luck to be mocked by this monkey.

Originally envisioned by King Ludwig II to rival Versailles, Herrenchiemsee's "New Palace" remains half-gilded for lack of funds.

The stones of this formerly witch-obsessed castle were used to build a church.

The last bastion of Roman presence north of the Alps looms over a German town.