Atlas Obscura - Latest • Jan. 19, 2026, 4:31 p.m.

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , and all major podcast apps. I’m Kelly McEvers, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

So I don’t know about you, but I like to keep track of all the places that I have visited, say, in the past year. I have lists of all the countries that I visit in a given region.

Each year I go back to my handwritten calendar planner book because, yes, I still write everything down. I have kept track of all my trips, and that helps me remember all the places I’ve visited and the people I saw.

Atlas Obscura - Latest • Jan. 19, 2026, 4:31 p.m.

“There’s not much there anymore, it’s pretty much just a crossroads.” I read the posts online telling me not to bother, but I wanted to go anyway. Certainly I could feel something as we got close: the sense of desperation, of ruin and abandon.

So I drove with a small group of friends deep into eastern Pennsylvania—coal country—through towns with names like Frackville, Pottsville, Ashland. Many downtowns had at least one house that had burned to ruin and been left abandoned.

It was early June, but clouds covered the sky and we drove through a slight but persistent rain. We were on our way to Centralia, Pennsylvania.

Atlas Obscura - Latest • Jan. 19, 2026, 4:31 p.m.

The El Desdémona was built in Hamburg and sailed to South America as a merchant ship. As early as 1983, it was severely damaged off the coast of Buenos Aires.

A lightning strike destroyed the navigation system, and it ran aground. The crew managed to escape and navigated the ship onward to Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of Argentina.

When the engine also failed, the captain attempted to reach the port of Ushuaia at a slow speed. The shipyard was unable to repair the damage, but the crew continued their journey nonetheless.

Atlas Obscura - Latest • Jan. 19, 2026, 4:31 p.m.

In Paris, the 14th arrondissement is rarely visited by tourists. Yet many places there are worth a visit.

The Villa Seurat is one of them. Contrary to what its name might suggest, it is not a large and luxurious country house, because in Paris, the term "villa" refers to a street or cul-de-sac lined with individual houses.

This one was built between 1920 and 1926 on land that had previously been used for stables and sheds. It is named after the painter Georges Seurat, inventor of pointillism, and is unique in that it houses several studios that were designed from the outset for artists.

Atlas Obscura - Latest • Jan. 19, 2026, 4:31 p.m.

The Passing of the Buffalo statue might more accurately be called The Passing Around of the Buffalo Statue , as it has now been moved from New Jersey and is at its third location in Muncie, Indiana. Currently, it is appropriately placed in a roundabout, where it can be passed around more conveniently.

The beautiful statue of a Native American chief with his foot resting on the skull of a bison was created by renowned sculptor Cyrus Edwin Dallin. Dallin created over 260 statues, many of which depict Native Americans.

The Passing of the Buffalo was created in 1929 and installed on the estate of Ethel Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge in Madison, New Jersey, in 1931. Mrs.

Atlas Obscura - Latest • Jan. 19, 2026, 4:31 p.m.

When you walk along the Chicago Riverwalk between May and October, you may stumble across a bridgehouse that is actually open to the public. This would be the McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum, located in the southwest tower of the Michigan Ave Bridge.

The Friends of the Chicago River opened the museum in this 5-story tower in 2006. The ground floor contains the gear room, which contain the massive gears and weights that lift the bridge a couple times per week.

The remaining floors are dedicated to exhibits on the history and impact of the Chicago River, such as native wildlife in the watershed, and how the river's flow was reversed in 1900.

Atlas Obscura - Latest • Jan. 19, 2026, 4:31 p.m.

The Monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas, known as La Cartuja, is linked to Cristopher Columbus. In fact, in 1509 he was buried there, alongside his son Diego, until 1536, when his remains were transferred to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

Yet something of his voyages to America still endures here. Another son, Hernando Colón, brought ombú seeds from the American continent on one of his father's voyages, which he accompanied.

He planted them later in the Monastery's gardens, so the ombú tree of La Cartuja became the first European specimen of this species. The ombú (Phytolacca dioica) is a herbaceous tree native of the Argentine pampas and bordering areas of Uruguay, southern Brazil, and Paraguay.

Atlas Obscura - Latest • Jan. 19, 2026, 4:31 p.m.

The country of Ireland is known for many things, from its world-class writers and singers to its award winning actors and playwrights. But there is one iconic institution you can find in any corner of the globe, and that is the pub, with its welcoming charm and decor, and its full-hearted embrace of music.

Perhaps this is singularly personified in Fanny O'Dea's (pronounced DEES), a 17th-century pub that is still operated by the same family, for nine generations and counting. Not only is this family-run business, perhaps the longest continually operated pub in all of Ireland.

It also contains a few hidden treasures as well, if one knows where to look. The first one is easy to locate, but a rarity nonetheless, and that is its thatched roof.

Atlas Obscura - Latest • Jan. 19, 2026, 4:31 p.m.

Once touted as the largest hotel resort in the world, it burned completely to the ground in 1919, likely due to faulty wiring in the installation of electric lights. Because the main structure was built entirely with wood framing, only remnants and ruins of its foundation remain today.

The hotel was one of the largest in the United States at the time and could serve more than 1,000 guests per day while in operation. The Put-in-Bay Hotel Company was founded by investor J.K.

Tillotson in 1888, with the construction of the hotel beginning shortly thereafter. The hotel opened to guests in 1892, but financial troubles caused it to close in 1893.

Atlas Obscura - Latest • Jan. 19, 2026, 4:31 p.m.

Nestled in the valley below Spello, Villa Pandolfi Elmi has stood since the mid-18th century, its elegant architecture framed by olive groves and sweeping views of the medieval town. Behind the villa lies a small chapel with a curious reputation.

Built shortly before 1746, its first recorded mass coincided with the feast of San Pasquale Baylon, a Spanish friar canonized for his devotion to the Eucharist. His relics rest within the chapel, and for generations, women have invoked his aid in finding a husband—sometimes reciting a traditional Neapolitan rhyme: San Pasquale Baylonne Protettore delle donne, fammi trovare marito, bianco, rosso e colorito, come te, tale quale, o glorioso san pasquale!

Saint Paschal Baylon, Protector of women, help me find a husband, fair, rosy, and full of color, just like you, exactly so, oh glorious Saint Paschal!

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