Ruined

Published Feb 24, 2022, 10:00 AM

It's amazing how many curious things can be uncovered if only we took the time to do a little digging.

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Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The death of any creature is a tragedy, from a beloved family member to the smallest insect. Even when nature takes its course and a lion devours a gazelle, it's still hard to watch such a loss of life, no matter how common it may be for humans. That loss is commemorated in some kind of ritual burial. Some Tibetan Buddhists, for example, leave their dead outside for birds and other animals to eat. It's an act known as a sky burial, and it's meant to acknowledge the circle of life as the body is returned to nature. In South Korea, many people have their deceased loved ones cremated and turned into beautiful beads in colors like blue, green, pink, and black. The beads are then stored and displayed in glass containers or dishes. It's a way to honor those who were lost in a colorful and uplifting way. In eighteen thirty six Scotland, however, a different kind of burial right was discovered. To this day, no one knows exactly what it meant or who started it. All we know is that it took nimble fingers. During the summer of that year of eighteen sixty three, several boys were climbing a hill known as Arthur's Seat. Now Arthur's Seat was actually an ancient volcano that was part of a hill cluster east of the city. Climbed to the top of Arthur's Seat today and you can look out over the bubolic green pastures leading towards the modern buildings and homes of Edinburgh. But in eighteen thirty six there was more countryside to explore, and the boys were out hunting rabbits. During their escapade, they came to a cave, the entrance to which was blocked by several sheets of slate. It took some effort, but they were able to remove the obstruction and peer inside. They found seventeen coffins arranged in three rows. The first two rows contained eight coffins each while the third row only had one. The coffins were removed and opened. Inside were bodies in varying states of decay, some wrapped in cloth, others dressed in handmade clothes. No one knew who placed them there, and even after news reports were published weeks after the discovery, nobody claimed responsibility. According to an article in The Scotsman on July six, eighteen thirty six, it was believed that one person had been behind the coffin's presence in the cave, and that they had been placed there over a number of years. The wood of the coffins in the first row had rotted away considerably the last often, though the one by itself in the third row was much newer and couldn't have been older than a few days. But what really puzzled the locals was how small they were. These weren't children's coffins. They were described in the press as Lilliputian, measuring only three point seven inches long, and the bodies inside were actually wooden figurines, in other words, dolls. Once word got out, rumors began to spread about what the coffins had been used for. The Scotsman reported that they had been created by witches as part of their spells. It wasn't completely unfounded either, arthur Seed had been a hot bit of witchy activity during the sixteenth century, complete with hasty accusations and even hastier burnings. Another theory was that the figures had been effigies of people who had died far from Edinburgh, a common practice in Saxony, who had made and entombed them, however, remained a mystery. Despite the healthy amount of speculation as to the origins of the tiny coffins, the true was nowhere to be found until another theory cropped up one hundred and fifty years later. But during the eighteen hundreds, Edinburgh, like many parts of Europe, were plagued by a disgusting and disrespectful practice, grave robbing. Medical students in need of corpses often utilized less than legal ways of obtaining bodies for study, and in eighteen two men found a great way to put some money in their pockets by helping students and teachers alike. Their names were William Burke and William Hair. Hair ran a boarding house where one of his guests died unexpectedly. He sold the body to a doctor, Robert Knox for seven pounds ten shillings. Seeing a new business opportunity before them, Hair and Burke started selling the corpses of the people who died at the boarding house to Knox, who used them in his anatomy class. There was just one problem. Those guests weren't dying on their own. The two men had to help nature along. Over the course of ten months, bur can here were believed to have killed sixteen lodgers, people who had been traveling alone with little or no family to miss them. They were finally caught in eighteen twenty eight and prosecuted for their crimes. In the nineteen nineties, Samuel Menaphee of the University of Virginia and Alan Simpson of Edinburgh University proposed that the seventeen coffins represented Burke and Hair's victims, the sixteen they murdered, plus the first victim who had died of natural causes. Unfortunately, every theory has proven to be nothing more than that a theory. There is no way to know for sure who made the dolls, their clothes, or the coffins in which they were placed. Today only eight coffins survive and are on display at the National Museum Scotland, but the story doesn't end there. In two thousand fourteen, the museum received a package. Inside was a tiny coffin with a wooden doll inside it, just like all the others. Included was a note with the number eight team written out in Roman numerals across the top. Below that the words to the National Museum of Scotland a gift for caring for our nation's treasures, followed by a passage from Robert Louis Stevenson's short story The Body Snatcher, which had been based on Burkenhair's exploits. The museum had no clue who had sent it, and there was no return address. From England's Buckingham Palace to Versailles. In France, royal palaces were more than just living quarters for the country's rich and powerful. They hosted leaders in other countries, and they turned into hubs of government activity. Versaiah, for example, became France's de facto capital after Louis the fourteenth began conducting official business there. But one palace stood out above the rest. It was the epitome of sophistication and decadence for almost seven hundred years, and it's also served as the seat of Brussels government for just as long, and yet most people today don't even know it existed. The Palace of caude Bear started life as a castle built around the year eleven hundred by the counts of Brussels and lou ven It was constructed out of the cow de Bear, meaning cold hill in Dutch. By putting the castle on the tallest hill in Brussels, there was less of a risk of flooding from nearby rivers, and it literally elevated the counts above the rest of the city. Over time, territories changed, as did those who ruled over them. In eleven eighty three, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa created the Duchy of Brabant and a great, big wall was erected around Brussels. The Duke of Brabant then moved the seat of the court from nearby Louven two Brussels, specifically to Caudebart Castle. Because it had been built as a castle instead of a palace. The structure it was fortified and served as a defensive military stronghold. In thirteen fifty six, Count Louis the second of Flanders breached the city's protective walls and occupied Brussels, but as forces were pushed outs and new walls were constructed after they left, the castle had served its purpose, but that wasn't the end of its usefulness. Since it was no longer needed for defense, it was slowly converted into a palatial home and entertainment venue for visiting dignitaries. The whole property was expanded over the next few hundred years, and new additions were constructed. The main building grew in size, a gallery was installed to display various artworks and statues, and a massive banquet hall was built. Charles the fifth, the Duke of Burgundy, had a Gothic chapel installed during the sixteenth century. There as well, powerful elites began to build their own homes nearby, just so they could be close to the action. Counter Bear Palace was suddenly the new hot destination for princes and diplomats from all over France, Germany and the Netherlands. In more ways than one, the palace was no stranger to disaster. For example, it's roof was damaged badly by a fire in sixteen seventy nine, but on February three of seventeen thirty one, things got out of control. Arch Duchess Maria Elizabeth of Austria, sister to Emperor Charles the sixth, was living at Calderbart and had gone to bed for the night for some reason, though she never put out the candles in her room, a fire started that quickly engulfed the rest of the palace. Emergency workers were unable to get to the affected rooms in time, though since they did not have the authority to enter the private apartments inside, and the high winter winds only helped spread the fire even more, it didn't take long for the palace to burn down. Much of the art was lost, as were important court documents. The arch Duchess was saved thanks to the quick actions of one firefighter who decided to break protocol and rush inside to get her. Of all the structures on the property, only the chapel and the banquet hall still stood once the flames had been put out, but when all was said and done, the fire was officially blamed on the kitchen staff instead of the Archduchess, due to the feared backlash of accusing her of such thoughtlessness. A public square was built atop the ruins in seventeen seventy five, and if you didn't know any better, you'd think that it had been there forever. There were no remnants of the old palace left behind. At street level, the chapel and the walls of the banquet hall were all torn down, but below the feet of those million around the square, the palace wasn't truly gone. The buildings that occupy the space today, such as the Center for Fine Arts and the Musical Instruments Museum, sit directly on top of the stone passageways and brick walls of the original palace, which were excavated over twenty five years starting in the nineteen eighties. Brick walls dating back to the fifteenth century are still intact. The vaulted archways that once sat below the chapel are illuminated to day by modern lightbulbs instead of wax candles. Statues are encased in protective glass, and the crumbling remains of a staircase to nowhere can be seen behind a chain rope. Underneath this part of the city there are great, big rooms with cobblestone floors that take visitors back in time hundreds of years. There may even be more of the original palace that hasn't yet been found. But for now, visitors can still get a unique glimpse into Brussels past. All they have to do is peel back the surface and look down. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah h

Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

From the creator of the hit podcast Lore comes a new, bite-sized storytelling experience. Each twice 
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