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 […]
Shoes on the Danube Promenade: the Holocaust Memorial of the Jews of Budapest
On the banks of the Danube, in Budapest, not far from the Hungarian Parliament building, 60 pairs of 1940s-style worn-out shoes pairs of shoes are lined up. There are women’s, […]
Ortona, Italy: Moro River Canadian War Cemetery
Near Ortona, in the region of Abruzzo, Italy, there is a place that links Italians and Canadians: the Moro River Canadian War Cemetery. The Battle of Ortona was Canada’s bloodiest […]
England’s (almost) forgotten pet massacre of 1939
In the first week of September, 1939, London’s animal shelters were overflowing with guests. The queues of people and their pets meandered down the streets in a typically British manner, […]
“Sokushinbutsu”: the self-mummification ritual and the myth of non-death
Although the Japanese climate is not exactly conducive to mummification, somehow a group of Buddhist monks from the Shingon sect discovered a way to mummify themselves through rigorous ascetic training […]
Leonid Rogozov: the man who cut out his own appendix
Leonid Rogozov, a russian surgeon, was part of the sixth Soviet Antarctic expedition – a team of 12 had been sent to build a new base at the Schirmacher Oasis. […]
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 […]
Tacoma Narrows Bridge: the most popular non-fatal engineering disaster in U.S. history~
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge at the time was the third-longest suspension bridge behind the Golden Gate Bridge and the George Washington Bridge, and was opened on July 1, 1940. A […]
Cripta de los Héroes: the final resting place for many of Peru’s greatest military heroes.
We are in Lima: the historic (and supposedly haunted) Cementerio Presbítero Matías Maestro is the most famous cemetery in Peru. Inaugurated in 1808, it now contains 766 mausoleums and 92 […]
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 ancient Lycians and and their spectacular funerary culture
The ancient Lycians are probably one of the most enigmatic peoples of history, because there are not many traces of their civilization. However, what has been discovered reveals a fascinating […]
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 […]
Little Ease, the torture cell in the London Tower.
In 1534, a man and a woman were stopped a step away from the exit door of Tower Hill in London by a group of night guards. The man was […]
