Places JonAkzar Wants to Go

A stunning 18th-century site where pilgrims ascend by a series of punishing stairs only to return via funicular.

The medieval castle built as headquarters for the Pope's secretive Knights Templar.

The verdant mossy ruins of a Franciscan monastery lie in the remote Sintra hills awaiting exploration.

Picturesque intersection of witchcraft and ancient Christianity.

Perhaps the most spectacular grotto along the Algarve coastline.

This restored Portuguese cafe may well be the most beautiful place in the world to grab a Big Mac.

This gaping hole in the middle of a remote mountain lake looks like a portal to another dimension.

This Industrial Age architectural and engineering gem helps visitors and residents alike traverse Lisbon, “The City of Seven Hills.”

A king's pet, a pope's gift, an artist's inspiration, and a tragic shipwreck.

This small chapel is built of human bones and decorated with a golden skeleton.

A 16th century chapel decorated with bones, skulls, and entire bodies hanging from the wall.

Legacy of the earthquake that nearly wiped Lisbon off the face of the Earth.

One of the most beautiful bookstores in the world hides a neo-Gothic interior behind an art nouveau facade.

This eccentrically decorated palace is replete with grottoes, fountains, tunnels, and caves.

The fountain marks the area where hundreds of accused witches were burned at the stake.

Ruined 11th century abbey built by King David I in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This 17th-century street hidden beneath Edinburgh was once a breeding ground for the black death.

A domino effect created with Britain’s iconic telephone boxes.

A museum wholly devoted to juvenescence.

A curious collection of mechanical moving figures.

A remarkably well preserved tower dating all the way back to the Iron Age.

Hidden in a Scotland museum is a copse of extinct tree stumps.

Where condemned pirates met their grisly end at the gallows on the River Thames.

An American ghost town hides along a side street in Scotland's capital.