Author: Ms. R.

In the countryside near the city of Brescia stands the Padernello manor, which, towards the end of the 1300s, was a simple defensive tower protected by a moat. Starting in 1391, the structure became the property of the Martinengo, a family of mercenary soldiers who left their homeland of Bergamo during the 12th century to move to the outskirts of Brescia to serve the Duchy of Milan and, later, the Republic of Venice. The Martinengos dedicated themselves to the……

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You want to see a really big door? Then head to the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Munich. Opened in 2000, it is one of the most striking churches in the city, with rather unusual architecture. The church is a cube with a 14-meter (46-foot) front made of blue glass and semi-transparent walls. Inside this steel-glass construction is a further, unconnected almost similarly sized wooden cube. The real special feature, however, is the front. If one normally enters the church through two normal……

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Victor, Colorado is an old mining town that was established in 1895. It was once home to 18,000 people during the gold rush but these days Victor has a population of just over 400 people and is a semi-ghost town.   Adam Zimmerli initially purchased the Monarch, a former casino and gentlemen’s club, as an investment. It was originally built in 1895, but a massive fire destroyed the town in 1899. After the fire, the Monarch was rebuilt, but unfortunately the……

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This article is adapted from the April 9, 2022, edition of Gastro Obscura’s Favorite Things newsletter. You can sign up here. We have written about thousands of intriguing foods and drinks over Gastro Obscura’s history—everything from a soup steamed with volcanic rocks to a cocktail containing a human toe. But nothing has intrigued me, made me desperately desire a taste, and driven me to distraction like peanut butter fruit. That’s not its official name. Bunchosia armeniaca, to go by……

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Within the campus of Savitribai Phule Pune University (formerly the University of Pune) is a beautiful garden. It is a quiet, tranquil green place where students are often seen studying under the canopy of the large trees, peacefully, amongst the chirping of birds and rustling of leaves. This place goes by the name Alice Garden. There lies, within the premises, of this garden, a lone grave from the 19th century. The grave is in a slightly secluded corner and……

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Kilwinning Abbey was a Tironensian Benedictine monastic community whose magnificent ruins sit in the centre of Kilwinning town. The Tironensian order took its name from Tiron in the diocese of Chartres. Kilwinning means “the church of Winnin” and the abbey was dedicated to Saint Winning and the Virgin Mary. Traditional holds that St Winnin was a holy man who first set up a church here in the 700s, while the abbey was established later sometime between 1162 and 1168……

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This piece was originally published in Undark and appears here as part of our Climate Desk collaboration. While working as a curatorial assistant at the American Museum of Natural History, Eli Wyman learned about a very unusual bee that was presumed to be extinct. The bee, Megachile pluto, also known as Wallace’s giant bee, is a massive unit. It is the largest bee in the world, four times larger than a honeybee and measuring about the length of a……

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Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit one of America’s most famous pieces of self-built architecture: 17 interconnected towers that rise like inverted ice cream cones, the tallest reaching over 100 feet. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some……

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