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Cannock Chase – Aliens Demons and Wild Animals
Cannock Chase A thirty minute drive north of the industrial city of Birmingham, sits Cannock Chase, twenty-six square miles of bracken, ancient oaks and history. The site has been inhabited since the Iron Age and the remains of a hill fort settlement can still be seen there today. As you watch families eating ice creams […]
The Catacombs of Paris: Lifeless and Lost
Continuing on from last week’s article on the Catacombs of Paris in the modern day, the underground subculture of Catacombs explorers known as cataphiles are well-known for their skill at moving through the catacombs, and for good reason. An unprepared explorer of the tunnels who tries to stray from the public sections of the Catacombs […]
The Catacombs of Paris: Cataphiles and Cinemas
The Catacombs still hold a pull in modern day that cannot be denied by the tourist and local alike. With its unmistakeable mystique, tied up in the morbid display of death that has been transformed within it, visitors to Paris flock to the Catacombs every year. Airbnb hosted a Halloween contest in 2015 to entice […]
The Catacombs of Paris: Resistance and Reclamation
As discussed last week, the immense Paris Catacombs were created as a way to consolidate the many dead that had taken up the city’s Cimetière des Saints-Innocents somewhere where they would not start to intrude into the basements of the residents of France’s capital. After their initial purpose was fulfilled, they played host to a […]
The Catacombs of Paris: Introduction and Construction
To conclude the Body and Blood series, it is important to take a look at one of the most major and well-known instances of Europeans using the remains of the deceased as a resource with which to improve their lives and create something important to them: the Paris Catacombs. This is a subject that is […]
The Middle Ages’ Morbid Burial Rites
As one can expect, the Middle Ages were a tumultuous time for Europe. Death was everywhere, whether it came from war, crop failure, or the plague. As stated in previous articles, this lead to Europeans having a relationship with death that transformed the bodies of the dead into useful commodities such as relics, medicine, and […]
The Gruesome Inspiration of Sawney Bean
Sawney Bean and his gory legacy sit with that of Countess Báthory when it comes to infamy and influence. It is a testament to the fear that the world outside of civilization held even during the Renaissance, when cities were rapidly beginning to build enough infrastructure between them to shelter traders and other members of […]
Pocahontas and the Hungarians
Captain John Smith and Pocahontas in Hungary. Pocahontas must have heard high tales of the Siege of Székesfehérvár, Hungary… Besides the German and Scottish mercenaries, there served some English soldiers on the Hungarian battlefields in the 16th-17th centuries. Everybody heard of the adventures of Captain John Smith (1580-1631), the English soldier who set out to America […]
The last knights of Europe – the Valiant Order
The Valiant Order The Borderland was a wonderous 1,000-mile-long frontier separating the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe between the 15th and the 17th century. In that time, it was the longest structure of defense system of Europe. It had worked for the longest period, partly financed and maintained by the Austrian Habsburgs and by the […]
Countess Báthory and Blood-Drinkers: Part 2
As discussed in last week’s article, Countess Báthory of Hungary became infamous for supposedly killing hundreds of her servants and townsfolk. One of the most infamous stories connected to her was that she bathed in the blood of those innocents in order to keep herself alive. Her killing spree, if it actually happened, definitely sets her […]