Joan of Leeds: the nun who faked her own death to escape convent
Being a nun and living in a convent is one that requires extreme commitment, particularly in the 14th century. For Joan of Leeds, a rather rebellious English nun at St. […]
Onions in the Middle Ages were so precious that they were used also as money!
How many tears are shed by peeling an onion? Despite this little drawback, the use of the onion is normal, both for the taste that ensures in countless recipes, and […]
Prague: the magnificent European capital cobbled with Jewish gravestones
Prague is one of the most touristic cities in Europe. It is a large UNESCO World Heritage site, full of fairytale towers, ornate statues and art nouveau façades. The beauties […]
Pheasant Island: the only territory in the world that changes sovereignty every six months
You are not allowed to visit Pheasant Island, which lies near the Atlantic Ocean terminus of the French-Spanish border. But “it can easily be seen from the Joncaux bank, on […]
Mount Roraima: a floating island shrouded in clouds
Deep in the rainforests of Venezuela, mysterious highlands rise to more than 2,700 meters above sea level, but seen from above they look like islands floating on a sea of […]
Kola Superdeep Borehole: 12 Km towards the Earth’s core
Someone said that the human beings knows more about certain distant galaxies than it does about the ground that lies beneath its very feet. In fact, while it took the […]
The macabre egyptian “Voodoo” Doll, dated back about 3rd-4th Century AD
A binding spell is a magical formula intended to “bind” or restrain a person’s will or behavior. Examples of binding spells include love spells, attempts to silence enemies, or any […]
The bizarre medieval trials against animals
Even if it might seem bizarre to modern observers, animal trials were commonplace public events in medieval and early modern Europe. Pigs, cows, goats, horses, and dogs that allegedly broke […]
Point Nemo: the most remote place on Earth, and Space Vehicles cemetery
People often vaguely refer to “the middle of nowhere,” but as it turns out, scientists have actually figured out precisely where that point is. Point Nemo, the most remote location […]
The “Unknown of the Seine”: the most kissed face of all time!
In the late nineteenth century, around 1880 the body of an unidentified young woman was pulled from the River Seine in Paris. The custom at the time with unknown bodies […]
Access forbidden for a century – the French “Red Zone”: a no-go area since WWI
If we think of France, we probably think of the magic of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, the scents of Provence, the lavender fields, the glamor of the Croisette during the […]
The ancient and strange English custom of wife-selling
Between the late eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth century in England, there was a strange and fascinating custom called wife-selling. Married women in England were commonly bought and sold at village […]
21 grams: the experiment that measured the weight of the Soul
It was 1901, and Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts, thought of measuring the weight of the soul, intrinsically proving its existence. According to him, at the moment of […]
George Parrot: the bandit who was transformed into a pair of shoes
When we talk about “Wild West”, referring, of course, to the conquest of the western territories of the United States, perhaps we do not have the real perception of how […]
The almost forgotten charm of the Marsh Arabs of Mesopotamia
The two great rivers of ancient Mesopotamia, Tigris and Euphrates, rises in the Taurus mountains in southern Turkey, and after flowing through Turkey and then Syria, enters the vast desert […]
“Scold’s bridle”: Renaissance torture that punished the gossip.
Corporal punishment has always been considered a deterrent for anyone who wanted to do something wrong. From antiquity to the present day, torture has never ceased to be used as […]
Brno Astronomical Clock: a peculiar clock that commemorates a historic victory
In 1645, near the last stage of the Thirty Years’ War, the city of Brno became popular across Europe because it managed to thwart a siege by the previously undefeated […]
