A diverse collection of wax, bone, papier-maché and mummified relics.

This Arabesque Italian castle was built with a primitive, if ingenious, air-conditioning system.

Haunting graffiti left by prisoners of the Spanish Inquisition.

Macabre symbols of death and mummies on display set the tone of this Italian purgatory church.

A unique form of erosion created an uncanny landscape of boulders perched atop slender columns of clay.

The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead still cares for the skulls at this mini-Fontanelle.

Contains some of the world's more disturbing wax anatomical models.

A preserved dragon's rib that remembers the legend of the founding of the city of Atessa.

The naturally mummified body of a peasant girl saint.

The marble facade hides a little-known medical museum with early surgical instruments and rare copies of canonical texts.

Fountain where visitors can earn a license to be mad.

A collection of grotesques lines the walls of this Italian villa.

An Italian vineyard invites religious pilgrims to stop by 24/7 to get their drink on, for free.

In the world's oldest university is a stunning 17th century anatomical theater carved from spruce.

This zoological museum began as the first great curiosity cabinet.

The odd depiction of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is rooted in the Catholic Church's eradication of Catharism.

An open-air museum in a mountain valley features works designed to blend in with—and disintegrate back into—their natural surroundings.

Naturally preserved bodies are eerily staged throughout the crypt in varying poses.

This natural gas vent certainly earns its name as the smallest volcano in Italy.

The mystic whose incorrupt corpse still attracts the faithful.

Charles Dickens was not a fan of the ghastly wall dressings in this 6th century church.

A madman's personal garden filled with 1,000 sculpted heads.

A gorgeous medieval library where the books are kept in chains.

The world's oldest surviving anatomical theater, where "the dead are pleased to help the living."