Places Joel Cusumano Wants to Go

The odd depiction of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is rooted in the Catholic Church's eradication of Catharism.

The severed head of a 17th-century Irish martyr lies within an intricate golden shrine.

These blingy, baubled skeletons lie in glass boxes inside a baroque Bavarian church.

Unexplained bald patches in the landscape grow and recede over time, as though they are somehow alive.

The famous 102-year-old circus elephant was struck and killed by lightning.

A submerged archeological park still holds the wonders of a Roman Sodom.

Geometry and mystery come together in an epic show of octagonal masonry.