Those who own or stay at this 500-year-old, allegedly cursed house often meet terrible fates.

This palatial spiral staircase was so unusual the name "snail" was given to the noble family who built it.

Thousand-year-old Viking runes adorn an ancient Greek lion at the entrance to the Venetian Arsenal.

According to tradition this is the oldest church in Venice, but its actual age is a mystery.

Where Venice's gondolas go for a tune-up.

100 year tradition of fist fights, marked by marble footsteps.

This deconsecrated church has seen many uses, from a tobacco storehouse to a cinema.

Two stone columns flank the grand Venice square, but there were supposed to be three.

The only museum with its curator—and her pets—buried inside.

This fairytale inspired, warped building houses restaurants, shops, and a radio station.

This medieval castle overlooking the Elzbach river looks just like it did hundreds of years ago.

This antique thermometer honors the creator of the first universal temperature scale.

A merchant court dedicated to the fictitious King Arthur is heavily adorned with bizarre Renaissance art.

A mysterious emblem tucked in an small alleyway is actually the coat of arms of a heroic medieval family.

This Cold War–era fallout shelter was actually a storage facility for the nation's emergency currency.

This fountain of a little boy that spits on passersby at erratic intervals is a town icon.

Every half hour the eye-rolling clock face sticks out its tongue to mock the good citizens of Koblenz.

This 600-year-old home seems to defy physics.

A tiny chapel clings to a precipice above Germany’s gemstone capital.

The birthplace of Karl Marx is now a museum dedicated to the communist revolutionary's life and work.

The last bastion of Roman presence north of the Alps looms over a German town.

A famed artist's inspiring work of peace and tolerance.

Legendary site where an evil bishop was devoured by rodents.

A rare water-powered funicular, it uses a huge tank of water and gravity to do its work.