Ghost stories
The Caves of Zugarramurdi · Those Judged at the...
At the edge of Zugarramurdi in Navarre a stream flows out of a cave and runs through a wide stone chamber that locals call “the witches’ cave.” It was said...
The Caves of Zugarramurdi · Those Judged at the...
At the edge of Zugarramurdi in Navarre a stream flows out of a cave and runs through a wide stone chamber that locals call “the witches’ cave.” It was said...
Chamberí Ghost Station · The Platform That Stop...
Madrid’s Chamberí station opened in 1919 and was closed in 1966 because the curve was too sharp and the platform too short; trains still pass it as before, but passengers...
Chamberí Ghost Station · The Platform That Stop...
Madrid’s Chamberí station opened in 1919 and was closed in 1966 because the curve was too sharp and the platform too short; trains still pass it as before, but passengers...
Palace of Linares · The Best-Known Haunted Hous...
The Palace of Linares was built at the end of the nineteenth century as the mansion of the banker Linares, finished with great care: statues on the roof, and stairs...
Palace of Linares · The Best-Known Haunted Hous...
The Palace of Linares was built at the end of the nineteenth century as the mansion of the banker Linares, finished with great care: statues on the roof, and stairs...
Bomarzo · The Great Mouth in the Woods
In the “Sacred Grove” at Bomarzo stand dozens of stone sculptures: a monster with a great open mouth (inside it is carved the phrase “forget your troubles”), wrestling giants, a...
Bomarzo · The Great Mouth in the Woods
In the “Sacred Grove” at Bomarzo stand dozens of stone sculptures: a monster with a great open mouth (inside it is carved the phrase “forget your troubles”), wrestling giants, a...
Mount Etna · The Neighbour That Smokes Every Day
Etna is the most active volcano in Europe and erupts almost every year; the towns below have been skirted by lava again and again, and rebuilt again and again. The...
Mount Etna · The Neighbour That Smokes Every Day
Etna is the most active volcano in Europe and erupts almost every year; the towns below have been skirted by lava again and again, and rebuilt again and again. The...
Matera · Nine Thousand Years in the Rock Caves
The old town of Matera was cut out of the rock face: houses in the stone, churches in the stone, the roof of one street serving as the floor of...
Matera · Nine Thousand Years in the Rock Caves
The old town of Matera was cut out of the rock face: houses in the stone, churches in the stone, the roof of one street serving as the floor of...
Triora · The Witch Village of Italy
Triora, in the mountains of Liguria, is called “the witch village.” At the end of the sixteenth century a group of women here were accused of witchcraft, tried, imprisoned and...
Triora · The Witch Village of Italy
Triora, in the mountains of Liguria, is called “the witch village.” At the end of the sixteenth century a group of women here were accused of witchcraft, tried, imprisoned and...
St Mark’s Basilica · A Saint Brought From Elsew...
St Mark’s Basilica in Venice holds the remains of Saint Mark. It is said that when two Venetian merchants brought the relics back from Alexandria they covered the cargo with...
St Mark’s Basilica · A Saint Brought From Elsew...
St Mark’s Basilica in Venice holds the remains of Saint Mark. It is said that when two Venetian merchants brought the relics back from Alexandria they covered the cargo with...
The Colosseum · The Seating Below Ground
When the Colosseum in Rome was completed, a hundred days of games were held, and it is said that thousands of wild animals and more than a thousand gladiators died....
The Colosseum · The Seating Below Ground
When the Colosseum in Rome was completed, a hundred days of games were held, and it is said that thousands of wild animals and more than a thousand gladiators died....
Pompeii · The City Frozen in Ash
In 79 AD Mount Vesuvius erupted and sealed Pompeii under six metres of deposit, preserving the city, its bread, its wall paintings and the bodies of its people down to...
Pompeii · The City Frozen in Ash
In 79 AD Mount Vesuvius erupted and sealed Pompeii under six metres of deposit, preserving the city, its bread, its wall paintings and the bodies of its people down to...
The Catacombs of Rome · Hundreds of Kilometres ...
Beneath Rome lie dozens of catacombs, their passages running several hundred kilometres in total; early Christians cut tier upon tier of burial niches into the rock and laid their dead...
The Catacombs of Rome · Hundreds of Kilometres ...
Beneath Rome lie dozens of catacombs, their passages running several hundred kilometres in total; early Christians cut tier upon tier of burial niches into the rock and laid their dead...
The Capuchin Crypt · Rooms Furnished With Bone
In the Capuchin Crypt in Rome, the decoration on the ceiling and walls is pieced together entirely from the bones of more than four thousand friars: vertebrae as lampshades, finger...
The Capuchin Crypt · Rooms Furnished With Bone
In the Capuchin Crypt in Rome, the decoration on the ceiling and walls is pieced together entirely from the bones of more than four thousand friars: vertebrae as lampshades, finger...
Poveglia Island · The Island No One Is Allowed ...
The island of Poveglia lies in the Venetian Lagoon. In the late eighteenth century it served as a plague quarantine station: arriving ships stopped here first, the sick were carried...
Poveglia Island · The Island No One Is Allowed ...
The island of Poveglia lies in the Venetian Lagoon. In the late eighteenth century it served as a plague quarantine station: arriving ships stopped here first, the sick were carried...
Königssee · A Lake for Electric Boats Only
The Königssee lies between rock walls; its water comes from glaciers and is said to be clean enough to drink. For more than a hundred years only electric boats and...
Königssee · A Lake for Electric Boats Only
The Königssee lies between rock walls; its water comes from glaciers and is said to be clean enough to drink. For more than a hundred years only electric boats and...
Black Lake, Rügen · The Lake Where the Goddess ...
In the Jasmund forest on Rügen there is a small lake of black water, ringed by beeches. The goddess Hertha is said to bathe in the lake once a year...
Black Lake, Rügen · The Lake Where the Goddess ...
In the Jasmund forest on Rügen there is a small lake of black water, ringed by beeches. The goddess Hertha is said to bathe in the lake once a year...
Porta Nigra · The Colour of Its Own Stone
The Porta Nigra in Trier is a city gate from the Roman Empire, built of enormous sandstone blocks without a drop of mortar, held together by iron clamps and their...
Porta Nigra · The Colour of Its Own Stone
The Porta Nigra in Trier is a city gate from the Roman Empire, built of enormous sandstone blocks without a drop of mortar, held together by iron clamps and their...
Eltz Castle · One Family for Eight Hundred Years
Eltz Castle is tucked into the woods of a valley. Since it was built in the 12th century it has been owned by the same family, passing through more than...
Eltz Castle · One Family for Eight Hundred Years
Eltz Castle is tucked into the woods of a valley. Since it was built in the 12th century it has been owned by the same family, passing through more than...
Teufelsberg · Listening to the World from a Pil...
Teufelsberg, west of Berlin, is a man-made hill: rubble from buildings destroyed in the Second World War was piled here, and beneath it a never-finished Nazi military technical college is...
Teufelsberg · Listening to the World from a Pil...
Teufelsberg, west of Berlin, is a man-made hill: rubble from buildings destroyed in the Second World War was piled here, and beneath it a never-finished Nazi military technical college is...
Neuschwanstein Castle · A Myth Built for Himself
Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria for himself, and inside it he recreated scenes from Wagner’s operas: a knights’ hall, a singers’ hall, an artificial stalactite grotto....
Neuschwanstein Castle · A Myth Built for Himself
Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria for himself, and inside it he recreated scenes from Wagner’s operas: a knights’ hall, a singers’ hall, an artificial stalactite grotto....
Black Forest · Do Not Call Out to Anyone in the...
The firs of the Black Forest grow tall and close, so that going in by day feels like evening; the German tales of Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding...
Black Forest · Do Not Call Out to Anyone in the...
The firs of the Black Forest grow tall and close, so that going in by day feels like evening; the German tales of Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding...
Brocken · The Night the Witches Met
The Brocken is the highest point of the Harz Mountains and the centre of German witch legend: on the night of 30 April, witches are said to fly from every...
Brocken · The Night the Witches Met
The Brocken is the highest point of the Harz Mountains and the centre of German witch legend: on the night of 30 April, witches are said to fly from every...
Spreepark · A Park That Stopped One Day Before ...
Spreepark in Berlin was built in the East German period as an amusement park, with a roller coaster, dinosaur statues and a theatre. In the 1990s the owner went bankrupt,...
Spreepark · A Park That Stopped One Day Before ...
Spreepark in Berlin was built in the East German period as an amusement park, with a roller coaster, dinosaur statues and a theatre. In the 1990s the owner went bankrupt,...
Beelitz Sanatorium · A Hospital in the Forest
In the forest thirty kilometres outside Berlin stand sixty old red-brick sanatorium buildings, put up in 1898. In the First World War they took in wounded soldiers; in the Second...
Beelitz Sanatorium · A Hospital in the Forest
In the forest thirty kilometres outside Berlin stand sixty old red-brick sanatorium buildings, put up in 1898. In the First World War they took in wounded soldiers; in the Second...
Tarasque · The Man-Eating Beast by the River
Tarascon, on the Rhône, takes its name from a legendary beast, the Tarasque: half animal and half fish, with six legs, a bull’s head and a serpent’s tail, lying in...
Tarasque · The Man-Eating Beast by the River
Tarascon, on the Rhône, takes its name from a legendary beast, the Tarasque: half animal and half fish, with six legs, a bull’s head and a serpent’s tail, lying in...