“Half-Hangit” Maggie Dickson: the woman who survived the hangman’s noose.
Maggie Dickson was consigned to the gallows on Edinburgh’s historic Grassmarket on September 2, 1724. So, it was unlikely that anyone attending her public execution thought they would see her […]
Julia Margaret Cameron: the greatest Victorian-era portrait photographer
Julia Margaret Cameron (11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879 ) was an English photographer considered one of the most significant portraitists of the 19th century, who managed to make […]
Amelia Dyer: the Victorian “Baby Farmer” who killed 200 to 400 children
England was not a safe place for children in Victorian times. On the other hand, it wasn’t even for adults, if we think of serial killers like Jack the Ripper […]
The beautiful letter of 1973 from an illiterate woman to a distant husband
Being far from the people you love is one of the most difficult experiences in life, even with today’s trans-continental video-calls, skype and similar, all solutions cheap and easy. So […]
Poveglia: the “cursed” Venetian island between history and legend.
If we think about the islands of the Venetian lagoon, immediately come to mind Burano, Murano, Torcello and maybe some other less known, such as the beautiful Sant’Erasmo, or the […]
Oymyakon: the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth
The Russian village of Oymyakon is one of the coldest inhabited places in the world, which has recorded the lowest temperature in any place inhabited by man and which sees […]
An alternative side of Brooklyn: Gravesend’s Accidental Park
It seems like every square inch of New York City has been categorized, labeled, and put in more or less probable tourist guides. But if you know where to look […]
A visit in Lawang Sewu, The Indonesian “House Of Thousand Doors”
Wars, suffering and blood shed fills the world’s history, and this is one of the reasons why many of the our planet’s older buildings have tragic histories that still mark […]
The Haserot Angel: the mysterious crying angel of Lakeview Cemetery – Ohio~
Lakeview Cemetery near Cleveland, Ohio, contains over 100,000 graves, including those of presidents and business moguls. President James A. Garfield rests here, as well as the American business magnate and […]
Friedhof Der Namenlosen – Cemetery of the Nameless: a hidden gem for Danube’s victims
We are in Vienna. Many tourists who come to the Austrian capital visit the Zentralfriedhof, the Central Cemetery, which is the city’s largest and most popular cemetery, the final home […]
The Snow Child: a black humor medieval folktale
In medieval France a few different type of story was told as an alternative to the fairy tales or the popular fables, know as “Fabliaux”, in French, with a simple […]
St. Ignatius Hospital: abandoned but not forgotten
St. Ignatius Hospital is a former manor hospital located in Colfax, Washington, United States, established in 1892 by the Sisters of Providence from Montreal, a religious institute of Roman Catholic […]
The “Hidden Mothers”: macabre portraits of children in the Victorian era
In a technological age like the one in which we live, characterized by the constant sharing on every social networks of photos and selfies of ever-increasing quality, it is probably […]
A visit at the Cimetière des Chiens, the world’s oldest Pet Cemetery
The Cimetière des Chiens et Autres Animaux Domestiques, translated as the Cemetery of the Dogs and other Domestic Animals, in Asnières-sur-Seine, just outside of Paris, is the oldest pet cemetery […]
Edward Leedskalnin and the mysteries of Coral Castle
Coral Castle is one of the most visited places in Florida and is the most modern monolithic complex in the world, made with calcareous oolite. Commonly mistakenly believed to be […]
Nellie Bly: the Journalist who let herself be interned in Asylum to save the patients
Elisabeth Cochran Seaman (1864-1922) is probably not a well-known name, although perhaps the pseudonym with which she signed her articles, Nellie Bly, is better known. She became popular all over […]
