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Here, we will delight you with information, curiosities, history and legends from locations across Europe. Everything can be seen by those whose eyes have the power to observe… follow us and we will show you where to look!
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 Highgate Vampire – Part 1
Highgate Cemetery in North London, opened in 1839 and famous for the last resting place of such notables as Karl Marx, Michael Faraday, Douglas Adams, Alexander Litvinenko and many others. Is these days run under the auspices of the charitable trust The Friends of Highgate Cemetery and has been restored to its former glory but […]
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 […]
The Ottoman concept of “Kizil Elma”
The Ottoman onslaught Kizil Elma. We know that the Ottomans regarded the important Christian towns which were the targets of their imperial desires as „Golden Apples”. Nándorfehérvár aka Belgrade, the gateway to the Hungarian Kingdom, was just such a fruit and Buda Castle was the next one to pick. The rest of the apples, like Vienna, […]
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 […]
Captain György Thury, the famous duelist
The warrior of the Valiant Order György (George) Thury (1519-1571) was the most famous Hungarian duelist, his admirers called him the Hungarian El-Cid. Contemporary sources say he won 600 duels. Swordsmen rushed to challenge him from three continents, the Ottoman warriors especially wanted to see him dead. It was no wonder that King Ferdinand acknowledged […]