Palaces

These bleak 800-year-old ruins were once the royal residence of choice for hunting in Sherwood Forest.

The palace window through which Protestant nobles flung two Catholic regents, thus sparking the Thirty Years' War.

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

An unrealized Taoist palace left abandoned in a Houston suburb.

This palatial, 99-doored Colonial mansion is a marvel of architectural fusion.

The world's largest grapevine has produced a delicious harvest at Hampton Court Palace for almost 250 years.

A rare set of strings by famed instrument maker Antonio Stradivarius is on display in the Royal Palace.

Carved initials which are nearly 500 years old preserve the deposed Queen's presence at Hampton Court Palace.

This extravagant villa built by a Burmese merchant is part pagoda and part European mansion.

Stunning ruins of what was once the center of one of the greatest empires in East Africa.

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

Moscow's other, lesser known kremlin is a fairytale-like cultural complex modeled after Old Russia.

This abandoned palace and the stupas around it conceal beautiful Buddhist frescoes, statues, and silk paintings.

The bust of Romania’s most notorious ruler, Vlad Dracula aka "Vlad the Impaler," keeps watch over the ruins of his medieval court.

This former Baroque palace on the historic Calle Montcada is a rare architectural gem and was once the meeting place of an aristocratic scholarly society.