Stories from Estrasburgo, Grande Leste, França

Strasbourg, 1518: the dance that became a story of death

In the summer of 1518, people in Strasbourg began dancing in a way that alarmed the city. Its council recorded medical consultations, pilgrimages and a public ban. Centuries later an unnamed woman acquired the name “Frau Troffea”, and reports of many deaths appeared. This dossier follows the sources to separate the documented episode from the legend.

169 km · Klingenberg am Main

Anneliese Michel: illness, exorcism, and a death brought to court

In Klingenberg, a student with a history of seizures underwent months of exorcism and died of malnutrition in 1976. This dossier traces interrupted care, the trial of her parents and priests, the exhumation legend, and the later use of recordings while separating evidence from belief.

398 km · Paris

The Paris Catacombs: the city that moved its dead below

Beneath Paris, former quarries became a municipal ossuary in the late eighteenth century. This dossier follows the stone that built the city, overcrowded cemeteries, nighttime transfers of human remains, the creation of a monumental visitor route, and the boundary between heritage, memory and legend.

497 km · Veneza

Poveglia: the real island behind the horror legend

In the Venetian Lagoon, Poveglia was a community, quarantine station and care facility. A documented outbreak killed 12 sailors in 1793; centuries later, pictures from another lazaret and television turned the island into a supposed mass grave. Maps, archives and today’s struggle for public access reveal a more complex history.