A much-loved sculpture depicting the hero of a 1956 anti-Soviet uprising.

A trail of iron footwear stands as a monument to the thousands executed along this riverbank during WWII.

An unfinished complex built for children from around the world sits abandoned on the Black Sea coastline.

A large statue of Pope Gregory XIII in Bologna was disguised as Saint Petronius to avoid destruction.

A striking memorial recalls thousands of Bolognese men and women killed fighting fascists in World War II.

Legend has it this fountain built to symbolize the Pope’s power hides a strange secret concerning Neptune's manliness.

A small window on Via Piella offers a lovely and rare peek at Bologna's lost canals.

Over 100 towers were built in Bologna during the Middle Ages, but only 22 survive.

Thanks to modern navigational tools we now know that the true prime meridian runs through a park next door.

Hidden in a secluded Greek cove is a pristine beach marred only by the rusting smuggler's hulk stranded on its shores.

A massive cave once a secret military base is now home to thousands of bats.

A decaying, yet still functioning, work of communist architecture.

At this 16th-century monastery in rural Bulgaria, visitors can also spend the night.

A supersonic jet stands on a pedestal in this rural village as a monument to military aviation.

This building has two facades of clashing architectural designs.

This apartment is a true time capsule of local life in Bulgaria during the Soviet regime.

An homage to the medieval rulers of Bulgaria.

Said to be the only museum in the world dedicated to the most classic of all blooms, the rose.

Underneath this Byzantinian church lies a necropolis filled with ancient tombs and the ruins of previous churches.

Sofia's legislative center is continuously reinventing itself.

Rock carving created 1,300 years ago 75 feet off the ground.

A vast Communist-era exhibition space in the Bulgarian capital.

A gigantic statue of a Russian soldier watches over the ancient city of Plovdiv, a prominent reminder of the Soviet period in Bulgaria.

Ruins of an early Roman Christian church dating back to the 4th to 5th centuries.