A haunting collection of the vanished and disappearing natural world.

A short distance from the Eiffel Tower is the final resting place of several of the city’s more well-known and interesting characters.

Former hunting lodge of a duke who was an avid collector of impressionist works.

The Sun King's military models, saved from the Louvre.

Hidden away in a modern library are the remains of one of the 18th century's most celebrated wunderkammers.

Where the high court feasted, frolicked, and high courtesans put their royal lovers' diamonds to the test.

A unrivaled and rather horrifying collection of wax dermatological models.

Known as the "Dodo Manège," this carousel features a herd of animals that have disappeared—or may be gone soon.

A Parisian cemetery where the elite and artistic are interred beneath an eccentric collection of tombs.

France's national museum of scientific and industrial instruments.

This museum houses an imposing skeleton army comprised of creatures great and small.

A scandalous Art Nouveau collaboration that set Paris all atwitter at the turn of the century.

This iconic Parisian bookstore doubles as the "Tumbleweed Hotel" for traveling writers.

A horde of stray cats rule in this secluded Parisian cemetery under a bridge.

The vast, legendary catacombs hold secrets much stranger than stacked bones.

The best preserved Paleochristian basilica in Rome hides a number of oddities and secrets.

A treasure trove of Renaissance-era funerary art in a Roman church built on top of Nero's grave.

The mystic whose incorrupt corpse still attracts the faithful.

Charles Dickens was not a fan of the ghastly wall dressings in this 6th century church.

St. Francesca Romana, patron saint of drivers, resides in the church she founded.

This delightful little museum is dedicated to only one thing: pasta.

The martyr's wax-enhanced skeletal remains lie preserved in a glass case in the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.

A Nesting Doll of Churches.

This ritzy Italian market is built around a statue of an unforgiven heretic who was burned for his belief in an endless universe.