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Pena Palace at sunset, Sintra, Portugal. Source: onnybas / Adobe Stock

Eight Places Straight out of a Fairytale (Video)

In Portugal's Sintra Mountains, the Pena Palace stands as a showcase of King Ferdinand II's flamboyant taste, featuring a red clock tower and a yellow minaret. Abandoned in 1910, it earned UNESCO...
Pedro González and his wife Catherine (c. 1575) by Joris Hoefnagel. Source: Public domain

Beauty and the Beast Was Inspired by a Tragic True Story

While the fairytale Beauty and the Beast has a happy ending, the tragic true story on which it was based most certainly did not. Published in France as La Belle et la Bête , it seems that the 1740...
The medieval Bojnice castle in Slovakia is one of many real-life fairytale castles in Europe. Source: radu79 / Adobe Stock

10 Real-life Fairytale Castles from Across Europe

The castles we see in movies and picture books were not just inspired by fantasy and imagination. In most cases they were based on real-life castles, many of which can be found in Europe. Evolving...
Trulli in Alberobello, Italy.

The Fairy Tale Village of Alberobello and its Picturesque Trulli Houses

Alberobello, literally translated as ‘Beautiful Tree,’ is a small town with one-of-a-kind historic buildings called trulli. The iconic houses in the town have led to it being dubbed a ‘fairy tale...
Memories of Childhood: Aesop’s Fables are as Relevant Today as They Were 2,600 Years Ago

Memories of Childhood: Aesop’s Fables are as Relevant Today as They Were 2,600 Years Ago

The Frog and the Mouse, The Fox and the Stork, The Boy Who Cried Wolf – these, and many other wonderful fables were a big part of childhood for many of us. But now that childhood is gone, did we stop...
Persian Women dancing. From a wall painting at "Hasht Behesht Palace" (Palace of 8 heavens), Isfahan, Iran.

My Mother’s Persian Stories: Rose and Marigold

The custom of telling bedtime stories is ancient. Over the ages, they have passed from one generation to another through oral tradition. Each generation has embellished them in new ways by adding or...
“Bust of a child” first century AD (Public Domain), Antique bust of girl (Nerissa’s Ring/CC BY 2.0) and On A Misty Morning (Vinoth Chandar/CC BY 2.0); Deriv

The Green Children of Woolpit – An Otherworldly Tale That Just Might be True

The story of the Green Children of Woolpit, Suffolk, has always been one of the strangest medieval folktales, and that's up against some pretty stiff competition. If you don't know it, it goes a bit...
Red Riding Hood

'Little Red Riding Hood' traced back 2,000 years

Most people would have heard of the fairy tale of “ Little Red Riding Hood ”. It is the story of a young girl who wears a cloak and hood made of red velvet, who goes wondering through the forest...