Countess Elizabeth Bathory has gone down in history as Die Blutgrafin (The Blood Countess), who tortured to death over six hundred women and girls, sometimes biting chunks of flesh from their necks and breasts – the origin of legends that she bathed in the blood of virgins to keep her own skin white and translucent. … Continue reading
Author Archives: Justin
Visiting The Catacombs Of The Capuchins – Palermo, Sicily
Sicily’s Catacombs of the Capuchins (Catacombe dei Cappuccini in Italian ) are unlike anywhere else I know of in the world. Described by some as a “ grisly one-stop shop for horror” or the “ultimate museum of the macabre”, I believe there is actually far more to them. The catacombs were created in the 16th … Continue reading
The Bone Church – Kostnice Ossuary In Sedlec
The Sedlec Ossuary is a small Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, many of whom have had their bones artistically arranged to form decorations and … Continue reading
In Search of Transylvania’s Vlad Dracula: The Dracula Tour
Fifteenth-century Wallachian prince Vlad Tepes is all too often credited with being Dracula, the vampire-count featured in the classic Gothic horror story Dracula (1897) written by Anglo-Irish novelist Bram Stoker. The association of these two unholy figures – one historical, the other fictitious – is nothing more than a product of popular imagination though. But … Continue reading
Mtskheta’s Sveti Tskhoveli Cathedral – The “UFO Church”
Dominating the small Georgian town of Mtskheta, the cathedral of Sveti Tskhoveli rises on the site of the palace of the kings of Iveria. The final resting place for numerous Georgian kings, it is also supposedly where the robe of Christ is buried. The first church in this location was built of wood in the … Continue reading
A Breakdancing Competition In Tbilisi, Georgia
While wandering around Tbilisi last week, we came across an impromptu breakdancing competition in front of the presidential palace (you can see it in the background). I thought it was pretty cool… Continue reading
Photo Of The Day: The Botanical Gardens Of Tbilisi, Georgia
These gardens were established as a royal pleasure ground in 1636 on the right bank of the Tsavkistiskhevi (Fig Ravine). The Tbilisi Botanical Gardens with their natural waterfall became a municipal garden in 1801. In its 128 hilly hectares there are 4,900 species with over 900 species of tropical and subtropical plants in greenhouses. The … Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket 