Places Edited by Eric Grundhauser

This extravagant Art Nouveau rest stop features a million-dollar view of the Columbia River.

Foreign invaders almost left this lovely Caucasus palace alone—almost.

Vienna's giant wonder wheel had a starring role in one of the greatest noir movies of all time.

This tiny cafe is one of the last meeting places of its kind, allowing revolutionaries a place to plot.

Edoras, capital city of Rohan in Lord of the Rings, once sat atop this isolated New Zealand mountain.

Honoring the famed folktale author, this California museum looks like it belongs in the Black Forest.

It looks like a whale, it's part of Yale, and it's best-known by a nickname you can probably work out for yourself.

For 20 years, this whale skeleton has been slowly dripping oil on the floor of the museum where it hangs.

This plaza at the end of the world teems with monumental tributes to a problematic history, and laser discs.

The hidden lair of an alchemist rediscovered in a 2002 flood.

Michael Jackson got Bad and Crocodile Dundee walked on heads in this iconic Brooklyn subway station.

According to Hindu belief, this shallow island chain was created by a god with an army of monkeys.

A fleet of automotive automatons sleep in this otherwise unremarkable urban garage.

Countless grotesque faces stare out from this eerie Prague art wall.

This once-palatial plantation may have been the site where a draft of the Declaration of Independence was written.

Within this lovely Richmond cemetery lie the remains of famous Virginians and some of Edgar Allan Poe's most beloved family and friends.

Somewhere between an art studio and a print shop, this artists storefront is a house of worship devoted to type.

Since 1920, one small company has defined the distinctive chairs of Paris' sidewalk bistros.

This stunning French estate was so lavish that it landed its original owner in jail for the rest of his life.

Carvings in Turkey's Marble Road may have directed ancient Romans to a hidden brothel.

The art and history of the velvet painting are on full display in this Los Angeles museum.

The burning of this 12th-century church kicked off a campaign of Norwegian Black Metal terror.

Noirish green neon marks the location of one of the oldest private detective agencies in France.

The Underground Railroad passed right through this historic Brooklyn Heights church.