Once the fallout shelter of a dictator, this sprawling bunker is now a combined history museum and contemporary art gallery.

What happens when you cross a mayor and a painter?

The elliptical citadel resisted the advance of the mighty Ottomans several times, thanks to the military prowess of the "Dragon of Albania."

Hundreds of thousands of concrete bunkers crowd Albania long after the fall of Communism.

An Albanian monument to the Communism that nearly crushed the country is now a crumbling wreck.

Breathtaking and huge 430 year old maps of Italy.

This ducal residence was once home to a future Russian empress and a French king in exile.

This celebration of Latvia’s freedom and independence avoided demolition over half a century of Soviet occupation.

A stone marker and sculpture in the city of Riga stake a claim for the very first community Christmas tree.

This charming Latvian lane doubled as Baker Street on the Soviet Union’s version of Sherlock Holmes.

The reconstruction of this prominent building fulfilled a long-written command.

Latvia's symbolic mountain-shaped national library is home to millions of cultural tomes.

A black cat protests the City Guild in Riga's Old Town.

Flamboyant architecture from the turn of 20th century.

The oldest housing complex in Riga is a mini timeline of architectural trends.

3,000 market stands in five former Zeppelin hangars.

This street has over a half-dozen names, all at once.

The largest park in Lviv is surrounded by a network of disused rail tracks.

This unique Lady Liberty is one of the only examples of the figure sitting down.

A fortress built to pacify local uprising that had a stint as a Nazi concentration camp before becoming a five-star hotel.

Monumental sculptures guard many of the graves, transforming this necropolis into an open-air fine art museum.

The haunting complex honors the millions of Ukrainians who died in the forced famine under Soviet rule.

This Ukranian fortress is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Europe.

One of the most valuable palace-garden complexes in the eastern borderlands—and one of the most haunted.