Places dbone Wants to Go

The possible imprisonment of Vlad the Impaler here earned the medieval castle its nickname, "Dracula's Castle."

This fairy-tale castle would make Dracula (who is said to have been imprisoned there) jealous.

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

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

Massive, unfinished broadcasting station stands as a monument to the fall of communism.

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

The Grand Mall in Varna hosts one of the biggest collections of Soviet-era paraphernalia in Bulgaria.

Not far from a popular beach, an unfinished, abandoned mansion for Bulgaria's last communist dictator.

These natural cliffs look like they are a part of an old castle complex.

This massive stone and steel monument remembers a century-old battle that cost thousands of lives and nearly destroyed the city.

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

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

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

"Holy Wisdom" overlooks the city that became its namesake.

The remarkably well-preserved final resting place of a powerful ancient Thracian king.

A mountain pass in Bulgaria's Balkan Mountains was the site of four historic battles.

"Unity, Creativity, Beauty."

A magnificent, glittering building tucked into a tiny Bulgarian mountain town.

Eastern Bloc nostalgia, anybody?

This ancient theater, restored in the 20th century, lives on as a venue for dramatic and musical performances.

This once-grandiose behemoth of a monument from the socialist era now sits quiet and closed up.

A striking symbol of the Bulgarian capital.

An ancient Thracian city where fire rituals were practiced on the largest cult altar in Southeast Europe.

A flamboyant five-story building in Bulgaria resembles a crawling snail.