This Buddhist monastery once housed an image of Buddha containing a 19-carat diamond.

This 170-year-old Swiss guesthouse built into the side of a mountain is best accessed by a cable car.

Also known as "Hell Alley," this tiny street in Imola gained its name in a bloody episode in the 16th-century.

The only Buddhist temple in Japan dedicated to breasts.

This building featuring Brutalist architecture has a rich media production history.

Norway has built what may be the world's most beautiful public toilet.

The Uyghur settlement in the middle of a lake continues to raise questions.

A beautiful and abandoned New York subway station from 1904, complete with chandelier.

The mysterious, fantastical woodland inspiration for "The Lord of the Rings."

This former guildhall with a bacon-like exterior is now home to a museum covering 600 years of Antwerp's musical history.

A lovely aquatic park built by a one-armed Civil War veteran who made a fortune from lotuses.

An 18th-century Catholic church converted into an eccentric temple of music and bacchanalia.

Disused seaplane hangar gets a second life as the jaw-dropping home of Estonia's museum of maritime history.

A vault of safe-deposit boxes in an old bank has been repurposed as a time capsule of Hispanic culture.

The first tunnel to be dug beneath a river, repurposed as an art and museum space.

A restored Pittsburgh house of God has been converted to a marvelous house of suds.

This repurposed church offers a more literal way to get closer to the heavens.

A 19th-century subterranean reservoir repurposed as a contemporary art cave.

An abandoned set from the 1980 film "Popeye," claimed and repurposed as a theme park by creative locals.

Elevated freight railway turned wildly successful urban park.

This Parisian café sticks almost exclusively to an ethos of reuse.

Flames have been burning within this mountain for more than 2,500 years.

Climbing this abandoned railway leads to breathtaking vistas of O‘ahu.

An island graveyard with spectacular views of the Caribbean.