The Shroud of Turin and the “dancing plague” in France are just two of the almost unbelievable mysteries from the Middle Ages.
1) The Shroud of Turin
The Shroud of Turin is one of the most baffling medieval enigmas. The negative image on the linen—showing a bearded man marked by torture and believed by many to be Jesus—has fueled scientific debate for decades. To this day, experts have not definitively determined the cloth’s exact age or how the image was formed.
2) Giulia Tofana
Giulia Tofana was a notorious “black widow” figure. She sold a face powder laced with arsenic called Aqua Tofana, instructing women
to apply it before meeting their husbands—after which many became wealthy widows. By this gruesome method, Tofana is said to have killed around 600 men before she was executed in 1659.
3) La Quintrala
Known as La Quintrala, Catalina de los Ríos y Lisperguer was a Chilean noblewoman accused of murdering 40 people, including her own father, priests, and other relatives.
4) The Voynich Manuscript
Dating to the 15th century, the Voynich Manuscript remains an unsolved puzzle and one of history’s most mysterious books. Its contents—written in a language unknown to modern scholars—have resisted all attempts at decipherment.
5) Peter Niers
In the 16th century, Peter Niers became a byword for horror after reportedly killing 544 people and cannibalizing some victims. In 1581, he was executed with extreme brutality—tied to a breaking wheel and dismembered over three days—a punishment as terrifying as his crimes.
6) Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury
Edward V and his younger cousin Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, were confined in the Tower of London in 1483—and vanished. One theory blames their uncle, Richard III, their appointed Lord Protector, who allegedly killed them to seize the throne. In 1674, a chest containing two small skeletons was found and thought to be the princes, but the truth remains unproven. The fate of the Princes in the Tower has stayed shrouded in mystery for centuries.
7) The Werewolf of Bedburg
For 25 years in the 15th century, Peter Stumpp—nicknamed the Werewolf of Bedburg—was blamed for the murders of 14 children and two pregnant women. The German killer terrified the populace, even confessing to devil worship.
8) The Strange “Dancing Plague”
In 1518, a bizarre epidemic struck Strasbourg, France: crowds of people danced day and night in the streets. Within a month, at least 400 men, women, and children were caught in the frenzy—many collapsing from exhaustion, some even dying. The cause and cure of this dancing plague remain unknown.
