Trazee In-Depth: Unique Landmarks You Might Be Missing

The United States is a relatively young country, especially compared to the old world and ancient history of far older countries in Europe and Asia. We ultimately take a lot of its history for granted, from our country’s museums, historic buildings and landmarks. Next time you travel abroad or to a historic city in America, don’t take everything for face value; keep an eye out for these creepy, dark and interesting clues into the past.

Beginning in the streets of Paris, have you ever seen the indentation in some of the older city streets? Specifically in Rue de la Croix-Faubin, where La Roquette Prison once resided, you can still see five slabs of stone in the road. They stand out as five indentations that don’t belong, mostly because they’re the remnants of a guillotine used during the French Revolution.

Back when public executions were all the rage, a guillotine would be placed right in the middle of the city street for all to see. While the pedestrian streets were completely uneven, five heavy stones would be weighted into the ground to support the structure. Stones were pounded tightly into the ground so the guillotine could be placed on a perfectly level platform, but, with all that weight over all those years, some stones left a residual mark withstanding the test of time. You can see photos here and read more about the historic locale.

Over in Münster, Germany, tourists stroll through the beautiful city streets observing Gothic architecture and taking in the ancient history of the town. Walk on by St. Lambert’s Cathedral, and things get dark.

The church is incredible and has been since the 1500s, but, when taking in the stunning view, you’ll see metal cages hanging toward the top of the steeples, once used during the Münster Rebellion. Some religious unrest spread throughout the town, tensions were high and a wave of Anabaptism belief began, which insisted willing adults could only be baptized into Christianity, not uninformed babies.

This new idea began rather peacefully with believers spreading ideas and values among peers, but one particular branch of the religious belief became more violent and aggressive and sought to take over the city by force. Fighting ensued with religious unrest spreading throughout the town and some notions of polygamy entering the Anabaptism battle. The aggressors took over the town for more than18 months before the city bishops were able to work together in taking it back. As a punishment, the aggressors were tortured, killed and placed in the seven-foot-tall cages hanging from the Cathedral for all to see — in case anyone else had any ideas about changing religion in Münster, Germany.

Back in the United States, our history may be more recent, but there is still quite a story to tell. For those traveling along I-278 in the Bronx or flying into LaGuardia Airport in New York, you can see North Brother Island, an abandoned 20-acre plot.

North Brother Island rests between Manhattan and the Bronx, hosting an ivy-covered stone brown building once playing a large role in New York’s medical system. Once the quarantined residence of Typhoid Mary, the infamous Irish immigrant believed to spread Typhoid to the Upper East and West Side homes of New York City, North Brother Island is now an abandoned reminder of a bygone era.

In the late 1880s, Riverside Hospital construction began, intended as a facility specifically to quarantine smallpox patients. North Brother Island was used for overflow patients or the terminally ill, a place to put people established city hospitals couldn’t care for. Once Typhoid Mary took up residence there — against her will — the island became famous.

For years North Brother Island was something from horror stories, a far-off plot to stick sick people, but, by the 1930s, a multitude of hospitals began populating New York. With public health leaps and bounds better than the late 1880s, new health advances made quarantine islands obsolete and North Brother was all but forgotten.

Since the 1940–50s, the island has basically been uninhabited and remains closed off to visitors. Talks have been made about what to do with the plot — 20 acres is a lot of land for New Yorkers to let sit — but the island is so overgrown with foliage, history and infamous stories, it may be difficult to start anew.

Clearly there is still a bit of history to be found in our day to day, we just need to know where to look. Before your next trip, check out some lesser-known history in the area and see if you can find a few historical eggs.