Author: Ms. R.

Astrid Lindgren is one of Sweden‘s most famous authors. She wrote more than 30 books for children, and is best know for creating Pippi Longstocking, a book that has been translated into more than 75 languages and adapted into several movies and television series. Lindgren lived in this house in Stockholm form 1941 until her death in 2002. Since her passing, her family has decided to preserve the house in the state it was in before her death, and……

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The small walled town of Montagnana, in Veneto, was an important city during the Middle Ages thanks to its strategic position in the middle of the countryside, halfway between the domains of Padua and Verona. Contested by many local powers, the area was conquered by the troops of the feudal lord Ezzelino III da Romano, who ruled most of Veneto during the 13th century. After conquering and pillaging Montagnana, Ezzelino III da Romano ordered the construction of a new……

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In 1981, during the underwater excavation of the Tudor warship the Mary Rose, divers discovered the incredible well-preserved skeleton of the ship’s dog. When the Mary Rose sank in 1545, the pup died, along with many of the ship’s crew. The cause of the sinking remains a mystery. Because the skeleton was found near the entrance of the ship carpenter’s cabin, a sliding hatch door, the research team named him Hatch. Some have claimed that the dog passed away while trapped……

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In one of England’s most iconic corners of history and intellect, a colorful and very modern transformation is taking place. After some three centuries as a perfectly manicured formal lawn, the grass behind the storied King’s College Chapel, at the University of Cambridge, has burst into the “glorious, Monet-style chaos” of a wildflower meadow—all in the name of biodiversity. Those are the words that the college’s head gardener, Steve Coghill, uses to describe the view from where he sits……

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Starting in the spring of 1665, an outbreak of bubonic plague devastated England. The disease was swift and brutal, leaving sufferers woozy with headaches, damp with fevers, and dotted with buboes—firm, tender lymph nodes that could swell to the size of a chicken egg. More than 7,100 Londoners died in a single week in September 1665, according to the National Archives, and by the time the outbreak subsided, around 15 percent of the city’s residents had perished. Those who……

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The Tremiti Islands are a small archipelago in the Adriatic Sea, located off the coast of Italy‘s Gargano Peninsula. Sparsely populated and far from land, the islands have always been a place of confinement. One of the islands, San Nicola di Tremiti, was said to be home to a hermit during the fourth century. According to the legend, the Virgin Mary appeared to the hermit allowing him to find the legendary tomb of Diomedes, a hero in Greek mythology…….

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At a graveyard in northern Israel, pilgrims seek to spiritually ascend with the help of Jewish mystic holy men buried beneath bright blue graves. The cemetery is in Safed, which spent 500 years as a small Galilean settlement before becoming the world capital of Kabbalah, the best-known form of Jewish mysticism, during the 16th century. Thousands of graves and burial caves are carved in the rock. Some of the graves, painted blue, belong to the holy men, tzadikim. According……

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Near the famous Nasu hot springs in Japan, there is a stone that is rumored to kill anyone who comes in contact with it. In traditional Japanese culture, the kitsune or foxes are frequently depicted as mischievous spirits with shapeshifting powers. The most infamous of such creatures is Tamamo-no-Mae, who took the form of a beautiful woman to seduce the Emperor and become his mistress in the mid-12th century. Legend has it that Tamamo-no-Mae’s true identity was a nine-tailed fox, at least……

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On the outskirts of Stockholm, there is an ancient oak tree that has been used to measure changes in sea level. During the last Ice Age, a layer of ice more than three kilometers thick covered the Nordic countries and Canada. All of this mass compressed the earths mantle, lowering the land by several meters. After the ice melted, the mantle started to puff back up slowly—very very slowly. Only by about half a centimeter a year, a negligible……

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Established in the year 990, the Church of St. Stephan stood for centuries before suffering extensive damage in World War II. When restoration was finally completed in the 1970s, Klaus Mayer, the pastor, wanted to incorporate new symbols of peace into the rebuilt house of worship. Mayer reached out to the artist Marc Chagall, whose life had been shaped by wartime events, and invited him to design stained-glass windows. The participation of Chagall, a Jew who was born in……

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