Showing posts with the label Poland

Casimir Zeglen: The Priest Who Invented The Bulletproof Vest

Feb 14, 2024

On October 28, 1893, the tranquility of Chicago was shattered with the assassination of its mayor, Carter Harrison, who was shot on the door...

The Warsaw Radio Mast

Oct 24, 2023

Some radio transmitters are built to great heights in order to reach audiences far and wide. In fact, nine out of ten structures taller than...

Falowiec: The Wave Building of Gdańsk

Aug 31, 2023

In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, a series of peculiarly shaped apartment blocks were constructed in the Polish city of Gdańsk. They we...

The Dwarves of Wrocław

Jun 20, 2023

The city of Wroclaw is famous for its charming market square, stunning old houses, and majestic churches. But lurking below near the ground,...

The Curse of King Casimir IV Jagiellonian

Dec 13, 2022

Casimir IV Andrew Jagiellonian was one of the most successful rulers of Poland, who, having defeated the Teutonic Knights in the Thirteen Ye...

Charles Domery, The Glutton

Nov 19, 2022

In 1799, Doctor Thomas Cochrane, a surgeon at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, found in his care a man with the most unusual ea...

Johannes Hevelius’s Moon Atlas

Nov 22, 2021

German astronomer Johannes Hevelius is often regarded as one of the last great astronomers to carry out major observational work without a t...

Malbork Castle: The Brick Marvel

Jul 22, 2020

The Malbork Castle in northern Poland wears two feathers in its cap. Not only it is the largest castle in the world measured by land area, i...

Churches of Peace: The Churches That Defied The Holy Roman Emperor

Jun 7, 2019

In the towns of Jawor and Åšwidnica, in the Silesia neighborhood of Wroclaw, Poland, stand two magnificent timber-framed churches. The Holy ...

Gliwice Radio Station, Where World War 2 Began

Oct 1, 2018

On the evening of August 31, 1939, as the last rays of the setting sun lingered on the top of the giant wooden mast towering over the then G...

Project Riese: The Secret Nazi Tunnels in Poland

Mar 17, 2018

Eighty kilometers to the south of Wroclaw, underneath Poland’s oldest mountain range, the Owl Mountains, lies a massive underground complex ...

Wojtek: The Bear That Drank Beer And Went to War

Feb 28, 2018

Archibald Brown, the British official at the port of Naples, looked at the roster in his hand and called out the name—“Corporal Wojtek”, but...

Bialowieza: Europe’s Last Primeval Forest

May 10, 2017

Before the arrival of humans, much of northeastern Europe was covered by primeval forests that stretched for thousands of kilometers across ...

The Anti-Communist Dwarves of Wroclaw

Jan 4, 2017

Scattered throughout the city of Wroclaw, Poland, are hundreds of small bronze statues of dwarves. They began appearing in the streets in 20...

The Wolf’s Lair, Poland

Feb 11, 2016

Deep in the Masurian woods about 8 km from the small East Prussian town of Rastenburg, lies the ruins of Adolf Hitler’s most secretive bunke...

The Mausoleum of The Martyrdom of Polish Villages

Jan 7, 2016

A beautiful new World War 2 memorial is nearing completion in Michniów in south-central Poland. Set to open in 2016, the Mausoleum of the Ma...

Upside Down Houses Around The World

Nov 28, 2015

A clichéd yet popular tourist attraction that never fails to amuse is an upside down house, with a faithfully reproduced exterior and interi...

Crooked, Drunken And Dancing Forests

Nov 14, 2015

A tree, when left to its own device, will normally grow straight. But when the tree is young and its trunk is tender, it can be forced to gr...

The Train to Heaven in Wroclaw

Jul 28, 2015

The Train to Heaven is a monument depicting an old, real steam locomotive standing upright and pointing towards the sky, located at Strzegom...

The Inclined Boat Lifts of Elblag Canal

Feb 2, 2015

The Elblag Canal, also called the Elblag-Ostroda Canal, is a 150-years-old canal in Poland that runs from Elblag to Ostroda. At over 80 km i...