What’s Up with all the Lady Parts in Medieval Prayer Books?

Let’s say you’re flipping through a medieval Christian prayer book (as you do), and suddenly you come across a curious illustration amongst the prayers and psalms of something that looks unmistakably like female genitalia. A scolding voice in your head tells you to get your mind out of the gutter. But you wouldn’t be alone.…

The Unexpected Relevance of Medieval Monsters

Monsters once lived at the heart of pop culture, albeit during what was arguably the weirdest time to be alive: the Middle Ages. In intrepid, faraway lands you’d find them: neckless men with their faces in their stomachs – known as “blemmyae” – or yet another being, known as a “panotti”, with ears big enough…

Hunting for the Lost River of Paris

La Seine, immortalized by artists and adored by lovers dangling their feet over the quay, harbours a dark secret. Under the fifth and thirteenth arrondissements grumbles la Bièvre, the Seine’s younger sibling who was banished to the netherworld over one-hundred years ago. Starting thirty-three kilometers away in the Yvelines and feeding into the Seine at…

Hiding Out in Paris’ Littlest-Known Medieval Tower

Hiding in plain sight, sandwiched amongst Haussmann buildings on the right bank, is one of Paris’ grandest but littlest-known surviving medieval towers– and former home of one of the city’s more villainous citizens, Jean the Fearless. The Tour de Jean Sans Peur has been lurching over the heart of the city since 1411, but it took even…

The Vault

Biblical Bad Girls and Their Ancient “Time’s Up” Scandal

Welcome to Rouen, France, a city where the cider flows freely (it’s a Normandy thing), and the streets are lined with crooked, half-timbered houses that send a singular, ye-olde message: you’re on some seriously ancient stomping grounds. Rouen’s power and influence can be traced from its founding by a sturdy Celtic tribe, to its pivotal…

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Inside the Mystery of an Untranslatable 600 Year Old Book

It’s like Medieval Times, with a kiss of psychedelia. A book in which strange globules float freely, alien plants shimmy across the pages, and female figures slide into a pool of green plasma. Binding them all together? A beautiful, albeit entirely indecipherable script by an unknown author. The “Voynich Manuscript,” is an ancient codex that…

The Unexplained Dancing Plague & Other Epidemics of Yore

The human body is a miraculous piece of machinery. Try as they might, scientists can’t always seem to understand its power — and susceptibility — to the strangest situations throughout history. What happens when a meteorite causes a mental health calamity? Or a laughing epidemic? From ye old French dancing fits, to an entire village…

The Lost French Castle That’s Taking 25 Years to Re-build

Let’s say a volunteer became involved in the early stages of building this castle at the age of twenty. By the time construction of the fortress is complete they would have doubled in age and already celebrated their 40th birthday. These days, that’s a heck of a long time to take building something, but that’s because this is no ordinary…

The Italian Hotel built inside Abandoned Medieval Grottos

Okay come with me, we’re going to explore every inch of this hotel built inside the deserted grottos of an Italian mountain village from the Middle Ages. The cliffs of the Gravina River Valley in Matera Italy are believed to be the site of the first human settlements in the country. So let’s begin our…