Author: Ms. R.

Leuven is a town with a rich history and full of strange folk tales. Perhaps the strangest of these is the story of Paep Thoon, the famous city jester.  Paep, formally called Anthoon vander Phalizen, was the son of a local pastor. His nickname refers to him being the son of a priest (paep), and Toon is short for Anthoon.  Paep was allegedly a hunchback and worked at his father’s church as an organist and carillonneur. However, Paep was……

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Deep in the middle of the busy Shinjuku district surrounded by modern buildings and fancy restaurants sits a museum that takes its visitors through Japan‘s glorious, battle-filled past. This museum features dozens of samurai armor sets, including those of renowned historical figures such as Oda Nobunaga, Date Masamune, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Most of the armor sets come from the Muromachi and Edo periods. There is also an area specializing in Kamakura period weapons and armor. Also included amid the display……

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The building, popularly called Romanita (“Romashka”) because of its resemblance to a flower, was once the tallest residential building in Chisinau. The stone flower rises on Mala Malina. In the 1980s, Romanita was one of the city’s most ambitious housing projects. A strange elongated shape, a futuristic “flying saucer” on the roof, a spiral staircase inside, and apartments arranged in a circle. Designed and built between 1978 and 1986, the project was the work of architect Oleg Vronsky and……

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The cliff overhangs of Ha Kome are a series of cave dwellings an hour’s drive from Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. While their exact history is unknown, the current inhabitants are descended from Basia tribesmen and women who first made the overhang home in the late 1800s.  The Mefcane (“the Crushing”) was a period of intense socio-political unrest during the 1820s and 30s throughout southern Africa, defined by widespread drought, forced migration, and inter-tribal warfare. To flee the ongoing……

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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 sit down with Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team to bring listeners two Atlas Obscura locations created by people compelled by visions: the East West Peace Church in Munich, Germany, and the Source du Nil in Musenyi, Burundi. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under……

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It might not look like much, but this unassuming bar is the oldest in Oklahoma. First opened by Peter Eischen in 1896, Eischen’s is still run by Peter’s descendants. Perhaps the bar’s longevity can be attributed to its sticking to the basics:  The menu is literally eight items. They know what they do and do it well, especially their popular fried chicken. Their signature menu item was developed in the 1960s by George “Boog” Eischen, who also worked as a……

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Imagine this: You are a Catholic priest in the 1600s, traveling through the desert, and one day come across a small river. What would you do? If you said, “Build a church in the middle of nowhere,” your name must be Juan Barragán Cano! Barragán built the first temple in 1635 and consecrated it to John the Baptist because of its proximity to the river. The church that stands at this site today, though, was built around a hundred……

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Made from southern yellow pine, the World’s Largest Wooden Nickel measures 16 feet in diameter. It was erected by Jim Glasgow in 2006, during a time when locals were protesting the widening and redevelopment of the highway that it is located next to. It took approximately six months to build the massive wooden coin, which is supported by eight stainless steel rods drilled through the centers of the pine beams. According to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Glasgow called the Historical Wooden……

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