A little church on a tiny island looks like something from a fairy tale.

Pictures tacked onto trees remember the more than 40,000 of Stalin's victims buried here in mass graves.

A surreal pile of colorful junk fills a small yard in an otherwise gray neighborhood.

A city block packed with whimsical sculptures that seem to be plucked from a tiled fantasy world.

Dark, eerie exhibits make for a surreal exploration of the subconscious.

A small and surprising passageway in Saint Petersburg devoted to the Beatles.

An unusual collection of self-made musical instruments and unique noises.

Perhaps the tiniest sculpture in Saint Petersburg is a little bronze finch inspired by a song.

Inside the world's largest seed bank, WWII botanists elected to starve to death rather than compromise their collection.

An incredibly random collection of wax figures is displayed in a shopping center walkway.

Its front wall is striped with a menagerie of fantastic beasts and magnificent monsters.

Stalinist skyscraper built with help of cryotechnology.

Former estate of Lenin, now home to his death mask.

Former headquarters of the KGB.

The gorgeous entrances into the city's underbelly look more like grand halls than subway stops.

The "Mystery and Company of Merchant Adventurers" is an Elizabethan-era hangout in Moscow.

World's largest bell sits on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow.

This Russian museum stresses the importance of keeping clean and even holds one of Pavlov's dogs.

Specimens collected by the author of "Lolita" and self-taught lepidopterist are exhibited in his childhood home.

Palace where the nearly un-killable Rasputin was murdered.

A 250-year-old timepiece-automaton adorned with golden mechanical birds, which still sing to this day.

The oldest museum in Russia is home to a fascinating collection of nearly two million anthropological artifacts and anatomical curiosities.