Places wednesday Wants to Go

The land is full of geologic eye candy, such as otherworldly spires, mushroom-shaped hoodoos, and prehistoric fossils.

These old stone ruins in the Oregon wilderness were once bathrooms and are steeped in legends of murder.

An Irish church where an 800-year-old mummy is reaching out of his coffin as if to shake hands.

The gorgeous library at Trinity College is home to remarkable treasures of Irish identity.

Turntable anonymously received orphans, alms, and groceries.

A vista of the city and sea from atop the little-known viewing deck on an unassuming Columbus statue.

The vast, legendary catacombs hold secrets much stranger than stacked bones.

This fairy-tale castle would make Dracula (who is said to have been imprisoned there) jealous.

The possible imprisonment of Vlad the Impaler here earned the medieval castle its nickname, "Dracula's Castle."

This ancient village and its adjoining cemetery have a beautiful history of death and remembrance.

The birthplace of an eccentric alchemist and possible inspiration for the fictional reanimator of monsters.

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

The final resting place of the hundreds of bodies originally buried where Badin Lake sits now.

Home to a vast and influential collection of Shakespeareana.

At night, bats patrol this magnificent 18th-century space in search of book-eating pests.

This sprawling bookstore spans four floors and has more than a million books in stock.

This structure among the trees was the result of divine inspiration.

The location of the last witch trials of Italy, known as "The Salem of Europe."

This Navarrese cave's history of witchcraft and pagan ritual is not just embraced, but recreated each year.

This encrypted monolith protected a secret of Norse mythology by hiding in a church wall for over a millennium.

The world's largest model of our planetary system.

Hundreds of dwarf beeches create an unusual, haunting forest in the north of France.

Staves, storm-calling, and of course, necropants.

Home of an evil witch famous within southern folklore.