Places Renate Wants to Go

This former Baroque palace on the historic Calle Montcada is a rare architectural gem and was once the meeting place of an aristocratic scholarly society.

This astonishingly geometric cave has inspired everyone from Jules Verne to Pink Floyd.

This imposing modern citadel started out as a home renovation project.

The Voodoo Superstore of the world.

Yemen's "Stone Palace" looks like it was carved right out of the tall stone column on which it is built.

An Ethiopian "Jerusalem" featuring a church hewn out of a single rock.

Five ancient libraries, little changed for centuries, preserve a medieval archive of Quranic lore and civic documents

The central mosque of this Mali town is entirely built from mud.

The Cathedral of Salamanca has a number of unusual carvings but none so surprising as a modern astronaut.

Madrid's romantically ornate crystal palace has been offering shelter to plants and art for over a century.

Brightly painted boulders scattered throughout the Sinai Desert.

More than 100 monumental tombs carved into rock are preserved at this ancient Nabataean site in the Arabian Desert.

An abandoned set from the 1980 film "Popeye," claimed and repurposed as a theme park by creative locals.

Sitting on an Italian hilltop is this surreal fortress built by the mad inventor of electrohomeopathy.

The abandoned husk of a mental institution that failed to save a Jazz Age icon still sits nearly unchanged.

A once great mansion stands in stately ruin.

This popular pilgrimage site offers a hole filled with holy healing dirt.

This uber-quaint Polish village is known for its habit of painting elaborate floral motifs on just about everything.

Built by the patron saint of illusionists this Elizabethan manor house is riddled with secret cubbies for hiding priests.

This quirky curiosity shop takes its cues from the world's bazaars.

Elevated freight railway turned wildly successful urban park.

Historic funicular railway, believed to be the shortest railroad in the world.

Every day a troupe of pampered water fowl walk the red carpet to their favorite fountain.

Once the home of a hermetic monk, this cave now houses a small church.