johnbrandon's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Places edited in Bergen, Norway
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Edinburgh, Scotland

Death Cell Door of Calton Jail

Many of Edinburgh's more unsavory characters spent their final days behind this door while awaiting their executions.
Edinburgh, Scotland

The Witches' Well

The fountain marks the area where hundreds of accused witches were burned at the stake.
Rome, Italy

Borromini's Perspective Gallery of Palazzo Spada

This gallery commissioned by Cardinal Spada is known for its magnificent optical illusion.
Holly Springs, Mississippi

Mittie Manning's Tomb

This tomb was fashioned with a sliding window for a grieving mother who struggled with her daughter's death.
Florence, Italy

Michelangelo's Hidden Drawings

The doodles of a genius line the walls of a secret room under the Medici Chapel, where they were hidden for nearly 500 years.
Évora, Portugal

Portugal's Chapel of Bones

A 16th century chapel decorated with bones, skulls, and entire bodies hanging from the wall.
Nagato, Japan

Mara Kannon

This phallic temple was erected in the forest to honor the tragic death of a samurai lord's son.
Dover, England

Bronze Age Boat

One of the oldest seagoing boats in the world can be found at the Dover Museum.
Rieti, Italy

Terminillo's Sword in the Stone

Templar knights fleeing persecution are said to have left this sword in stone as a landmark in 1307.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Mount Moriah Cemetery

An abandoned cemetery lies in ruins as the surrounding forest swallows it whole.
Pateley Bridge, England

Oldest Sweet Shop in England

The oldest candy store in the world has been selling traditional sweets since 1827.
London, England

The Hardy Tree

This churchyard arbor is surrounded by hundreds of gravestones placed there by author Thomas Hardy.
Isle of Wight, England

St. Catherine's Oratory

This lighthouse was crafted as penitence for the theft of wine bound for a monastery.
Tokyo, Japan

Taira no Masakado's Grave

A shrine dedicated to a 10th-century samurai emperor, whose head is not buried on site (contrary to popular belief).
Tokyo, Japan

Obake Kaidan

A flight of this "ghost staircase" has 40 steps on the way up, but only 39 steps on the way down.
Tokyo, Japan

Oiteke Bori

This water goblin statue represents a 19th-century urban legend about a haunted canal that became a Japanese idiom.
Inuyama, Japan

Momotaro Shrine

A kitsch shrine dedicated to the ogre-slaying folktale hero born from a peach.
Nasu, Japan

Sesshōseki (Killing Stone)

Believed to hold the remains of Japan's most infamous fox spirit, this stone is said to kill those who dare approach.
Ichikawa, Japan

Yawata no Yabushirazu

Nestled in an unassuming residential area, this "forbidden forest" is rumored to spirit away those who dare enter it.
Minot, North Dakota

Gol Stave Church Museum

This museum is a full-size replica of an original church constructed during the 13th-century.
Vienna, Austria

Clock Museum

A small museum filled with over 1,000 clocks, and one particular clock calibrated to run until the year 9999.
Vienna, Austria

Wiener Pestsäule (Vienna Plague Column)

Baroque celebration of the end of the Great Plague of Vienna.
Vienna, Austria

Stephansdom Crypt

The crypt of the imposing Stephensdom holds royal intestines and thousands of skeletons.
Vienna, Austria

Römermuseum

This museum is dedicated to the little known ancient Roman history of Vienna.