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European History

Document Deep Dive

How Anne Frank’s Diary Changed the World

The most famous account of life during the Holocaust has been read by tens of millions of people

A victorious commander rides in a chariot during a triumphal procession in ancient Rome.

What You Don’t Know About Ancient Rome Could Fill a Book. Mary Beard Wrote That Book

The British historian reveals some surprises about the ancient Roman people and their customs

Europe

Experience Alpine Enchantment at These Eight Austrian Huts

Grander than their name might imply, these hütten are the perfect perch for weary travelers

Images of survivors of the Herero genocide foreshadowed similar scenes from the liberation of Nazi death camps

A Brutal Genocide in Colonial Africa Finally Gets its Deserved Recognition

Activist Israel Kaunatjike journeyed from Namibia to Germany, only to discover a forgotten past that has connections to his own family tree

A hiker is dwarfed by the landscape of the mountain plateau where the Viking sword was found

Cool Finds

Hiker Accidentally Discovers 1,200-Year-Old Viking Sword in Norway

The wrought iron weapon is an extraordinary find

Europe

The Real-Life Places That Inspired Frankenstein

How Mary Shelley used ideas, events and places to invent her famous monster

Cool Finds

There’s an Elephant Buried Underneath the Vatican

The forgotten remains of a beloved, 16th-century papal pet

Will Catalan Elections Allow an Old Nation to Become a New State In Europe?

Catalonians have long asserted they are not part of Spain, now the historical question of independence is on the ballot

Turkey’s ‘Fairy Chimneys’ Were Millions of Years in the Making

Nature built them, but humans made them their own

American South

The Oldest City in the United States

St. Augustine, Florida, was the first city founded by European settlers in North America

Krzyżtopór Castle in Ujazd, Poland, once the largest castle in all of Europe, now in a state of ruin.

Visit the Ruined Castles of Poland

Grand but dilapidated structures from many centuries ago dot the country’s landscape

After World War II, Gottschee ceased to exist as an independent community

An Attempt to Keep the Dying Gottschee Culture Very Much Alive

Inspired by a trip to Slovenia with her grandmother, one New Yorker took it upon herself to chronicle the story of a lost piece of European history

Past and Presence: The Power of Photographs

The shattering nature of violence. The resilience of the human spirit. The power of photographs. A Smithsonian special project

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Discussion

Readers respond to our June issue

The view inside Pompeii's old granary

The Fall and Rise and Fall of Pompeii

The famous archaeological treasure is falling into scandalous decline, even as its sister city Herculaneum is rising from the ashes

Yepraksia Gevorgyan fled Turkey with her family. Her father was killed along the way, and her mother died soon after they crossed into Armenia.

Armenia: Smithsonian Guide

One Photographer’s Personal Endeavor to Track Down Survivors of the Armenian Genocide, 100 Years Later

As children, they escaped ruthless state-sponsored violence. Now, these Armenian women and men visit the aching memory of what they left behind

Runnymede meadow in Surrey, England, is the site of historic Magna Carta negotiations.

The Mad King and Magna Carta

How did a peace treaty signed — and broken — more than 800 years ago become one of the world’s most influential documents?

The Most Loved and Hated Novel About World War I

An international bestseller, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front was banned and burned in Nazi Germany

A screen shot from a video about how Indo-European languages spread around the globe.

Cool Finds

Half of All Languages Come From This One Root Tongue. Here’s How it Conquered the Earth.

Today, three billion people speak Indo-European langauges

Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, by Artaria

The American at the Battle of Waterloo

The British remember William Howe De Lancey, an American friend to the Duke of Wellington, as a hero for the role he played in the 1815 clash

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