March 16, 2021

Iceberg Trackers When icebergs make news, it is generally due to something rare and dramatic: a chunk twice the size of New York City, another threatening the ecosystem of an entire island, or, of course, the Titanic. But each day human eyes are watching bergs of many shapes and sizes, mapping their movements ​at both ends of the Earth. Call them iceberg trackers. Or iceberg-ologists. Or ice scientists, perhaps. Their job is to get close-up looks at these meandering, icy giants and observe the environmental conditions that impact the way they drift, move, and deteriorate.  READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Propaganda-Filled Cookbook Since January, the Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon, England, has been selling copies of one of the strangest cookbooks ever published: The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth, Commonly Called Joan Cromwell, the Wife of the Late Usurper. The book begins with what the museum’s curator calls “a very ranty essay” against the controversial Oliver Cromwell and his wife, Elizabeth, and while the recipes that make up most of the book are typical of the time, the anonymous editor peppered the text with political, personal, and sexual slander aimed at tarnishing the Cromwell legacy. READ MORE → BOLOGNA, ITALY Statue of Pope Gregory XIII On the façade of the Palazzo d’Accursio, the town hall of the city of Bologna, there is a large bronze statue representing Pope Gregorius XIII. Installed in 1580, the statue dominated the main square for two centuries. But when the Napoleonic invasion of Italy ended the long rule of the Papal States over Bologna, the statue was set to be melted into cannonballs, like so many other bronze artifacts of the era. It was rescued, however, when the city council decided to turn Gregorius XIII into Saint Petronius, the patron saint of Bologna, thus sparing it from destruction. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA EXPERIENCES Step Inside the Dead Zoo At 12pm EDT today, we're hopping virtually over to Dublin, where we’ll have a lunchtime chat with the Zoology Curator of Dublin’s Dead Zoo, Paolo Viscardi! We’ll dive into the Dead Zoo’s reputation as a museum-of-a-museum, discuss its 164-year old history and how it’s changed little in the last 100 years, and learn the secrets surrounding the 2-million-strong objects in their collection. GET TICKETS → Reimagining the Underground Railroad Photographer Dawoud Bey’s project Night Coming Tenderly, Black, aims to reimagine the history of the Underground Railroad. To ground his work for the dark and nuanced picture in the series, he found out as much as he could on the subject and places known to have been part of the secret network, choosing to then recreate the experience of a fugitive enslaved person moving through the landscape. It’s a project that deftly uses the landscape to tell the story of the unseen. READ MORE → ONOGUR, BULGARIA Palmatis Ruins The small village of Onogur, Bulgaria stands on land that, some 14 centuries ago, was home to a large and well-fortified city. On Roman maps, this city was named Palmatis. One of the few pieces of evidence for the ancient city are the ruins of a spacious public building, thought to be a basilica. But the walls are completely destroyed and the ground is covered with the debris of limestone fragments, offering a first impression of utter desolation. READ MORE → THE ATLAS OBSCURA PODCAST The Gates of Hell Our first episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast is here, and in case you missed it, we took a trip to the Gates of Hell. Join us as we visit this gigantic crater of fire in Turkmenistan, which has been burning for nearly 50 years. LISTEN NOW → FROM THE ARCHIVES Women in The Age of Sail Stories of sea voyages, especially first-person accounts, are a source of enduring fascination, full of discovery, endurance, survival, and larger-than-life characters—usually men. In The Sea Journal: Seafarers’ Sketchbooks, historian Huw Lewis-Jones collects diaries, letters, and drawings, made at sea. Among his collections are the rare but compelling tales of the women who endured the hardships of life at sea: Rose de Freycinet and her cross-dressing predecessor, botanist Jeanne Baret; Nantucket whaling captain’s wife Susan Veeder; and aristocratic English traveler Annie Brassey. READ MORE → AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS De Poezenboot De Poezenboot (The Cat Boat) is an animal sanctuary floating on a canal in Amsterdam. It was founded by Henriette van Weelde in 1966 as a home for stray, sick, and abandoned felines, and can accommodate up to 50 cats at once. Visitors can come choose a cat for adoption, but they’re also welcome to just drop in and scratch a kitty behind the ears. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA TRIPS Festivals and Mountaintop Temples of Bhutan Nestled in the heart of the Himalayas, the Kingdom of Bhutan is a tiny country home to pristine forests, extraordinary architecture, and rich cultural traditions. Join us as we journey from bustling Thimphu to the Phobjikha Valley, visiting ancient dzongs, art studios, incense factories, and nature preserves, all while meeting artisans, monks, and farmers along the way. LEARN MORE →