Showing posts with the label Spain

Botafumeiro: The Most Famous Thurible in The World

Sep 8, 2023

In the Santiago de Compostela Archcathedral Basilica in Galicia, Spain, hangs a very special thurible. It is so special that it has a name o...

Sad Hill Cemetery

Aug 28, 2023

About 30 kilometers southeast of Burgos, a charming city in the Castilla y León region of northern Spain, rests a rather expansive cemetery....

Playa de Las Teresitas: A European Beach Made From Saharan Sand

Jun 2, 2023

Playa de Las Teresitas in Tenerife, Spain, is one of the most popular beaches of the Canary Islands, but the beach is not natural—it was cre...

The Fishman of Liérganes

Mar 22, 2023

In the small town of Liérganes, in Cantabria, northern Spain, a legend has been around since the late 17th century about a young man who dro...

Leaning Tower of Zaragoza

May 24, 2022

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is undoubtedly the most famous of all towers that lean at alarming angles, but it is not the tallest. That credit ...

Balmis Expedition: How Orphans Took The Smallpox Vaccine Around The World

Dec 29, 2020

The biggest hurdle to mass vaccination in the 19th century was keeping the virus alive out of the human body as the precious pus was being t...

Hostile Façades

Nov 27, 2020

The old city of Segovia, about 90 km north of Madrid, is best known for its aqueduct , but this historic city is full of architectural curio...

Casa de las Conchas: The House of Shells

Oct 20, 2020

Casa de las Conchas, or the House of Shells, is a curious attraction in Salamanca, Spain. This stately mansion built between the late 15th a...

Aqueduct of Segovia: The Mortar-Less Miracle

Oct 13, 2020

The aqueduct of Segovia is a classic example of Roman water transport architecture—simple in design, yet magnificent to behold, and surprisi...

Battle of Surfaces: The Epic Nadal Vs Federer Match

Aug 25, 2020

In the spring of 2007, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were two of the best tennis players in the world. But they excelled on different surfa...

Llívia: A Curious Spanish Enclave in France

Jun 3, 2020

A welcome sign on the road to Llívia, a landlock state of Spain inside France. Photo: LMspencer/Shutterstock.com Deep in the Pyrenees, s...

Hellburner: The 16th Century Weapon of Mass Destruction

Jun 29, 2019

In the age of sail, when ships were made of wood, fire was the number one enemy of sailors, and this fearsome tool was used in diabolic ways...

Pretty in Pink: The Muralla Roja

Jun 7, 2019

This innovative pastel-colored postmodern apartment complex is a popular landmark in the coastal town of Calpe, Spain. It is called Muralla...

Las Médulas: The Largest Roman Gold Mine

Apr 25, 2019

This incredible serrated landscape of red mountains and green chestnut trees is the result of two centuries of destructive mining carried o...

The Castle of Zafra

Mar 29, 2019

In the beloved TV series Game of Thrones, young Ned Stark is seen clashing swords with the henchmen of Targaryen in front of a spectacular c...

The Chapel Inside a Volcano

May 29, 2018

Santa Margarida is a freato-magmatic volcano located in the Spanish county of Garrotxa, in Catalonia. Some 11,500 years ago, the earth’s cru...

Toxic Art: The Almaden Mercury Fountain

May 3, 2018

At the Joan Miró Foundation, a contemporary museum on Montjuïc hill in Barcelona, is a fascinatingly deadly piece of art—a fountain of mercu...

The Negro of Banyoles

Jan 22, 2018

It’s one thing to keep the mummified body of a thousand year old pharaoh or a monk in a glass case in a museum, and another to stuff the dea...

The Abandoned Canfranc Railway Station

Nov 7, 2017

Sitting at the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains on the Spanish side of the French-Spanish border is an immense railway station. Built wit...

Puzzling Gravestones

Sep 19, 2017

When Canadian doctor Samuel Bean lost his first two wives, Henrietta and Susanna, within 20 months of each other, he decided that the best w...