In the days before house numbers, these colorful signs held clues about various buildings' purposes.

This cheese shop also houses a museum devoted to Dutch dairy.

The attic of a four-century-old canal house hides a clandestine church.

The castle still holds traces of the abandoned Roman fort it was built atop.

Recently restored menagerie of Victorian-era beasts.

A harem-inspired Moorish fantasy design in a Victorian-era Welsh castle.

The only "Egyptian" pyramid in Europe and the legendary tomb of Remus.

This uniquely shaped 17th-century structure comes alive in early September.

An ongoing medieval tradition of communal pig husbandry is honored with a handsome granite sculpture.

This influential Renaissance-era library was once the haunt of kings and monks.

Spanish architects used seized Muslim gravestones to rebuild parts of the fortress.

This home designed for chocolate magnate Antoni Amatller is an exquisite treasure-box of Catalan Modernism.

This underground church is topped with a 500-foot cross that is seen by many as a beacon of fascist hubris.

This stunning iron gate designed by Modernist architect Antoni Gaudí is filled with mythic symbolism.

Catalonia Tradition: Beating the hollow Christmas log until it defecates in your fireplace.

Barcelona's only remaining tram system takes riders to the Tibidabo funicular.

Spain's unique Mosque-Cathedral has been a place of worship for both Muslims and Christians throughout its history.

The Cathedral of Salamanca has a number of unusual carvings but none so surprising as a modern astronaut.

An eerie collection of the surviving structures from a past celebration of the future.

A curious carving hides on a marble column in the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba.

A Spanish town built into the cliffs.

This whimsical winery by Antoni Gaudí looks ripped from the pages of a fairytale.

These magnificent city walls rise from the barren sun-baked Spanish plains like something straight out of a fairytale.

Mountain where Jesus was first tempted by the Devil.