Places Guthbrand Wants to Go

An abandoned 14th-century castle and prison complex on a small island in the Neva River.

Monastery complex at the location where bodies of the executed Romanov royal family were discovered.

This 15th-century cave complex is one of the very few monasteries to stay open throughout World War II and the Soviet regime.

Once frequented by heavyweights of the Russian arts scene, this café is stuck in the 1800s.

Siberian whale bones stand as cairns marking location of an ancient butcher yard.

Monastery, army base, and infamous Soviet Gulag in the far Russian north.

An abandoned town of skeletal wooden homes.

The "Mystery and Company of Merchant Adventurers" is an Elizabethan-era hangout in Moscow.

Gigantic natural towers in a Russian plateau.

Church built on the site where the last tsar of Russia and his family were killed.

No one knows why ancient labyrinths were built on this tiny northern island.

Unusual, mushroom-like rock formations caused by weathering and water erosion, set to disappear, according to geologists.

The USSR’s Conquest of Nature lead to the domestication of many moose—no squirrel.

Site of the largest impact event to occur over land in Earth's recorded history.

An early-20th-century "dacha" village of quaint cottages curiously located in a modern part of Moscow.

A remote forest of stone pillars along the Lena river.

Abandoned castle was once a grand example of Russian privilege, built exclusively to win a frivolous bet between noblemen.

The reason for the strange contortions in the trunks of these "drunken" pine trees in Russia is still a mystery.

A little church on a tiny island looks like something from a fairy tale.

Legends of time travel and magical woodland creatures bolster the natural charm of this verdant sanctuary in the midst of Moscow.

Stunning examples of Russia's 18th-century wooden architecture.

Moscow's other, lesser known kremlin is a fairytale-like cultural complex modeled after Old Russia.

This ancient village and its adjoining cemetery have a beautiful history of death and remembrance.

This ancient market is often referred to as the oldest shopping mall in the world.