Carved scenes of sex work and unglamorous labour beneath a cultural hero.

A giant bug impaled on a 75-foot-tall needle.

One of Warsaw's coolest malls was once a center for anti-Nazi resistance activity.

An elevator into the Baltic Sea.

Now harmless, this looming post struck fear into the heart of medieval troublemakers.

A trail of iron footwear stands as a monument to the thousands executed along this riverbank during WWII.

Built in 1870 at the bridge that connected Buda and Pest, this spectacular incline railway was almost lost forever during World War II.

This Hungarian castle was built out of cardboard and wood until it proved so popular that it got upgraded to stone.

From Austrians to Nazis to Soviets, this historic Budapest fortress has a history as complex as the city itself.

Budapest's Communist-era statues, banished to the suburbs.

Tucked away near more famous landmarks lies a statue meant to symbolize the confluence and continuing development of human culture.

The metal leaves on this tree are engraved with the names of Holocaust victims.

Also known as Uncle Karl, the beloved bronze copper keeps a watchful eye on St. Stephen’s Basilica while people rub his lucky belly.

A Trabant car, a kangaroo statue, and a plethora of plants take over this abandoned-factory-turned-bar.

Many of the tombs contain victims of yellow fever epidemics.

Prank chair from an 18th-century Danish royal court shows the eternal popularity of fart jokes.

Just off the city’s central station hides a quaint lamp-lit alley into medieval Elsinore.

Once a meeting point for great thinkers, and the midpoint of the country.

Opulence and fantasy collide in this royal chair which is supposedly made with unicorn horns.

This 12th-century castle majestically overlooks the city and the beautiful Mosel River valley.

The largest mosque in Germany.

The skeletal frame of a decommissioned gas-pumping station offers breathtaking views of greater Berlin.

An eerie ghost village hidden in the forests of the Eifel, frozen in a strange postwar limbo.

This easily overlooked statue depicts an important woman in Mannheim's history.