A mysterious concrete hand reaches out from between the stones of Uniwersytecki bridge.

A striking public sculpture representing the period of martial law in Communist Poland.

This centuries-old wooden wonder was built in less than a year and is one of Europe's largest timber-framed churches.

This dazzling wooden church was constructed as part of an elaborate peace project after the Thirty Years' War.

A collection of old neon signs from all over Poland line a secluded courtyard.

Relive a Polish uprising via an enormous, century-old cyclorama.

A 90-ton, gravity-defiant steam locomotive shoots for the skies in this bizarrely beautiful public artwork.

In the center of Wrocław's old meat market stands a somber tribute to the city's livestock.

This ex-prison dates back to the Middle Ages.

The silly symbol for an underground protest group is now scattered around the city.

This oddly beautiful water cistern is a techno-temple to the wet stuff and a multimedia masterpiece.

While the U.S. and Soviet Union were engaged in a space race, Poland built a UFO on the ground.

Tony Blair's garden gnome and a Howitzer shell-turned-flower-pot are on display in this deconsecrated 13th-century church.

London's marvelous wildfowl reserve along the Thames.

Hamburg's first legal sex work is relegated to a gated street that still does not allow pedestrian women.

Long before Moo Deng, this 17th-century waterfowl was a cultural sensation.

A less famous, short-lived meeting spot of the Inklings.

The names Lúthien and Beren can be found inscribed on the shared grave of the famous writer and his beloved wife and muse.

These ancient ruins were the final resting place of King Henry II's mistress.

An obsolete, long-forgotten advertising character lingers on this Sainsbury’s balcony railings.

A cornucopia of gargoyles adorns the oldest portion of Oxford’s Magdalen College.

The weathered grave of a medieval anchoress who walled herself up in a cell attached to a church.

Originally founded in 1654, this coffee house claims to be the oldest of its kind in Europe.

A rare specimen of the ancient piggy bank of Java resides in one of the unassuming corners of the Ashmolean.