Places caitmckay Wants to Go

The Byzantine, pre-Columbian, and medieval art at this stately mansion are some of the most under-appreciated collections in D.C.

A derelict bit of transportation infrastructure hidden in the woods.

A tiny piece of the Moon is embedded in this stained glass masterpiece.

Enormous piles of historically significant stones, dumped by Congress in a forest, and abandoned for 60 years.

This 6th-century church honors St. Tudno, the patron saint of Llandudno.

Eerily lifelike effigies stare at everyone who enters this sanctuary.

Legends say that this small island was the final resting place of the Welsh saint of lovers.

The oldest continual pilgrimage site in Britain was supposedly created by a gruesome beheading.

One of the few surviving street funiculars in the world.

The enormous earthwork sculpture honors the ponies that lived and worked in the old colliery.

This grand gothic brewery has been pumping out suds for over a hundred years.

Franciscan monks created a facsimile of the Holy Land for North Americans who couldn’t afford the trip overseas.

The Corinthian columns that towered over Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration stand proud.

The 72-foot giant escaped confinement in a large patch of mulch only to be reburied in the sandy shores of the Potomac River.

The world's oldest surviving music hall was also once a freakshow.

A serene public space nestled within the remains of Glasgow’s Victorian maternity hospital

The approximate spot where the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar was put to death.

A mud statue stands in the dark tunnels, seeming to hold up the weight of the city above.

A 400-year-old church covered floor to ceiling in ex-voto offerings from the faithful.

A magical, macabre wax museum, beloved by locals, uses real artifacts to depict an assassination from the French Revolution.

These medieval monastery ruins are surprisingly overlooked by most tourists.

This silent sentry in the crypt below a large Gothic cathedral is often knee-deep in water.

The oldest and smallest cemetery in Paris is only open to the public twice a year.

The headless bodies of more than 1,300 guillotined victims of the Reign of Terror are buried here in mass graves.