my friends need to be punished

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/vor-frue-kirke-church-of-our-lady

Most churches have one or two towers. The Church of Our Lady in Kalundborg, Denmark, has five. Built in the late 12th century, this red-brick Romanesque church was designed as a perfect Greek cross, with a tower rising from each arm and a fifth at the center. The layout is strikingly balanced, a rare architectural gesture in medieval Europe.

Seen from the fjord, the five towers rise above the hilltop town like a fortress-like crown. Their deliberate symmetry has long invited symbolic interpretations: the central tower as Christ, the four others as the evangelists. From a distance, the sight is so harmonious it feels almost mathematical.

Local legend, however, offers a very different explanation. The church, it’s said, was built by a troll who struck a deal with Esbern Snare, the founder of Kalundborg. In exchange for his labor, the troll demanded Snare’s eyes and soul, unless Snare could guess the troll’s name before the final stone was laid.

As the story goes, Snare later overheard the troll’s wife singing a lullaby to their child and learned the name: Finn. When the last stone was placed, Snare spoke it aloud, breaking the bargain.

Enraged at being outwitted, Finn tried to tear the church apart before vanishing underground. When part of the building collapsed in 1827, engineers blamed age and shifting masonry. Locals preferred another explanation: that Finn had finally returned to finish what he started.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/vor-frue-kirke-church-of-our-lady

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fu-lu-shou-complex

A one-of-a-kind building, Fu Lu Shou Complex blurs the line between mall and temple. In this shopping centre, enlightenment comes with a price tag, a Buddhist and Daoist-themed gift shop on steroids. 

Located in the heart of Bugis, the mall provides an eclectic mix of souvenirs, trinkets, ingredients, antiques and religious services that specialize in Feng Shui and astrology. It defies the typical shopping center blueprint, merging Buddhist and Daoist spirituality with retail in a way few places, especially in Singapore, dare to do.

Constructed in 1983, the complex contains a total of 140 retail units dedicated to religious paraphernalia. Shrines to Daoist and Buddhist deities are a common sight inside the shops, almost as if welcoming visitors to pray, purchase, or do both.

Its name comes from the three Lucky Gods of Daoism, Fu, Lu and Shou, who represent Good Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity. All three gods are depicted in a mural on the side of the complex, facing Rochor Road. 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fu-lu-shou-complex

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/canakkale-trojan-horse

The famous archaeological site of Troy is situated near the modern Turkish city of Çanakkale, but you don't even have to leave the city center to catch a glimpse of the legendary wooden horse that the Greeks used to infiltrate the walled city and win the war. In the city's marina, in fact, the Trojan Horse stands proud, facing the Dardanelles Strait and wowing visitors with its stature. 

Of course, this Trojan horse is a modern recreation of the myth - more movie magic than ancient artifact. The statue is a screen-used prop straight from the set of the 2004 Wolfgang Petersen film Troy that was gifted to Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism after the movie wrapped filming.

Made of steel instead of wood and covered by fiberglass, the Hollywood-made Trojan horse weighs 12 tons and stands 40 feet (12.4 meters) tall. Although it's not possible to climb inside, the statue makes it possible to imagine the uncomfortable lengths that the Greeks went through to win the mythical war. 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/canakkale-trojan-horse

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pere-cheney-cemetery

Hidden deep in the pine forests near Grayling, Michigan, the Pere Cheney Cemetery is all that remains of a vanished nineteenth-century lumber town. Visitors have long reported drifting lights between the trees and laughter that doesn’t belong to anyone living. Some say they’ve returned to find tiny handprints on their car windows. Whether or not those stories are true, the tragedy that gave rise to them is real. Pere Cheney was once a thriving community that grew with Michigan’s lumber boom, then fell to disease, fire, and time.

The town began in 1873, when George M. Cheney established a sawmill and rail stop on land granted by the Michigan Central Railroad. Within a year, Pere Cheney had homes, shops, and a hotel offering telegraph service. By the late 1870s it had about 1,500 residents, two sawmills, and a post office, even serving briefly as Crawford County’s seat. But nearby Grayling soon took the title and the railroad hub, leaving Pere Cheney isolated. When the surrounding forests were logged out, the town’s reason for being disappeared.

Then came the disasters. Diphtheria struck in 1893, killing families by the dozens. The cemetery filled faster than it could be tended. Soon after, fire swept through the wooden town, burning mills, homes, and whatever remained of hope. The disease returned in 1897. By 1901 only a handful of residents were left, and by 1912 the post office was closed for good. By 1917, the land was sold off and nature reclaimed the site. Only the graveyard endured.

Today, a sandy track winds through thick forest to a small clearing, the old Pere Cheney Cemetery. Around ninety people are buried here, though few stones remain. Vandals once shattered or stole many markers, and for decades the site was neglected. Local volunteers now maintain it, but the place retains its weathered isolation. Wooden signs ask visitors for respect, warning against trespassing after dark.

The most enduring legend tells of a woman, sometimes a midwife, sometimes an outcast, accused of witchcraft and blamed for the epidemic. Some say she cursed the town before being executed, her grave marked by a red stone that glowed at night. No records confirm the story, but like many legends, it offers explanation where grief left a void.

Today, Pere Cheney is a ghost of memory: a cemetery, a name, and a legend that refuses to fade. Paranormal groups visit in search of voices. Historians come to trace the town’s brief rise and fall. Between the two lies the truth- less about witches and more about the people who lived, worked, and died here. The town is gone. The sorrow remains.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pere-cheney-cemetery

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/marjuns-lifting-stone

Havs (massive stones lifted to prove strength) are scattered across the Faroe Islands, each with its own story. Marjun’s Lifting Stone (Marjunar Hav) lies in the small village of Mikladalur on the remote island of Kalsoy. According to legend, in the 16th century, a young woman from Norðnástovu who had become pregnant out of wedlock lifted this immense stone to leave behind a legacy before facing her punishment. At the time, such pregnancies were considered a grave crime, often punished by death.

The tale recounts that while walking with other women to check on the cows, she stopped beside the stone and declared:

"I know what lies in store for me: I’d rather lose my life. Therefore, this hav will be my only legacy."

Her ultimate fate remains unknown, whether she was executed or spared due to her extraordinary feat, but the stone was later moved down to the village, where it rests today beside a sculptural tribute to the young housemaid whose story still lingers in local memory.

The stone is said to weigh 287.5 kilograms (634 pounds) and lies behind a fence near the public toilets in Mikladalur village. 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/marjuns-lifting-stone

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/land-of-sleeping-volcanoes

In western Turkey, Kula Volcanic UNESCO-listed geopark preserves a haunting volcanic landscape shaped by eruptions thousands of years ago. The terrain, black rock, rust-colored slopes, and scattered vegetation, reveals the immense power that once reshaped the region.

From the rim of one of its long-quiet cones, you can look out over a sweeping “sea of ashes” that stretches to the horizon. The volcanoes may sleep now, but their story is written in every ridge and stone beneath your feet.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/land-of-sleeping-volcanoes