An ornate plague column – built to celebrate life – claimed the lives of numerous artisans during its construction.

A church of bones, decorated with 40,000 human skeletons.

Macabre astrological automaton clock dating to the late 1400s.

The 700-year-old fortress was the site of Count Orlok's castle in "Nosferatu."

Extremely famous in his native country, this Cracovian painter is all but unknown beyond Polish borders.

The giant statue and its model solar system honor the native Pole who declared that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

Museum dedicated to "the man who moved the Earth."

A tribute to the Polish insurgents who fought in the failed attempt to end their city's Nazi occupation.

St. Mary's features one of the most spectacularly decorated cathedral interiors in all of Europe.

The former Nazi Germany concentration camp stands as a museum to remember this dark chapter in European history.

An underground city of salt.

Though it was heavily modified, fragments of the original medieval cathedral still survive.

A symbolic graveyard for the villages that perished during the Nazi invasion of Belarus.

A striking Soviet memorial commemorates the liberation of Belarus from the Nazis.

Glowing orb in Minsk houses 8,600,000 items.

Thanks to its heroic service during WWII this Soviet castle has been turned into a monument towered over by a brutalist titan.

Over time, this castle grew to encompass the entire island.

A small monument in Lithuania marks the geographic center of Europe—or at least one of the claimants.

An old hill fort covered in over 100,000 crosses is a symbol of Lithuanian nationalism and beliefs.

This ducal residence was once home to a future Russian empress and a French king in exile.

This celebration of Latvia’s freedom and independence avoided demolition over half a century of Soviet occupation.

The reconstruction of this prominent building fulfilled a long-written command.

A black cat protests the City Guild in Riga's Old Town.

The oldest housing complex in Riga is a mini timeline of architectural trends.