Quebec City, famous for its cobblestone streets and 17th- and 18th-century architecture, is one of the few places in North America that might be mistaken for Old World Europe.

Built in 1962 to house the Fayetteville, Arkansas, Public Library, the Fulbright Building sits in a leafy residential neighborhood on the edge of the city’s historic district and to this day is surrounded by Victorian houses and Craftsman-style cottages.

Ten miles from the city of Recife on Brazil’s northeast coast, Our Lady of the Conception Chapel, completed by Paulo Mendes da Rocha in 2006—the year he won the Pritzker Prize—shows a reserve that came to the 80-year-old architect late in his career.

In 1849, Richard Wagner fled Germany for Zurich, escaping retribution for his political involvement in the May Uprising against the Saxon government.