Notre Dame, the cathedral that reinvented the Middle Ages
The inauguration of this Parisian landmark on Saturday, five years after the fire, reflects our enduring fascination with the era
Pompeii’s new secrets revealed: Beauty, sex and slavery
The excavations taking place in the Roman city, buried by the eruption of Vesuvius, reflect the beauty and sophistication of the Empire, but also a world of slavery and violence. We tour this villa with Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the site
More mysterious than Neanderthals, the Denisovans hold the key to humanity
The latest discoveries about the two archaic human species closest to ours reflects constant genetic exchanges
‘Gladiator 2’: Rhinos in the arena demonstrated Rome’s power over the world
These animals, captured in either Africa or Asian, could often be seen in the Colosseum, fighting against bulls or being killed by Emperor Commodus
Robert Fico, or the unpredictable consequences of assassinations in Europe
No attempt on a leader’s life is innocuous, especially not in places with such a dense history as central Europe. And much less in a time as volatile as the current one
Nero’s Rome was not so different from today’s world: Stratospheric rents, gentrification and chaotic traffic
The historian Dimitri Tilloi-d’Ambrosi has published an essay on daily life in the imperial capital, which was home to a mix of nationalities, exclusive and run-down neighborhoods, and where citizens suffered from noise pollution
The boom of books with Auschwitz in the title: The publishing industry uses the Holocaust as a commercial hook
Novels named after the Nazi death camp proliferate despite accusations of trivializing the Shoah
The time the world changed: Paris at the beginning of the 20th century
The exhibition ‘Modern Paris’ at the Petit Palais reflects the profound transformations that culture, industry, and everyday life experienced at the turn of the century
The dark side of the French Resistance: four graves in the forest
Even those on the right side of history can commit atrocities, and revealing them is no longer considered unpatriotic or harmful
When the Navajos fooled John Ford
The difference between the way ‘Cheyenne Autumn’ was shot 60 years ago and the recent ' Killers of the Flower Moon’ reflects Hollywood’s radical change toward Native Americans
The Danish queen who translated Simone de Beauvoir
Remembered above all for ‘The Second Sex,’ the French feminist is also the author of a raft of novels and memoirs in which she variously reflects on death
From Spain’s post-war exodus to Ireland’s coffin ships: Migration is key to understanding European culture
The obsession with framing migration as an invasion is especially jarring in Spain, a country that hundreds of thousands of people left to escape misery and Franco’s dictatorship
Albert Camus and Gaza: ‘Even in destruction there is an order, and there are limits’
The French Nobel Prize winner’s play ‘The Just Assassins’ and Steven Spielberg’s movie ‘Munich’ reflect on how violence and revenge end up consuming those who exercise it
Jean-Jacques Hublin, paleoanthropologist: ‘Evolution is the story of a great extinction’
In a conversation with EL PAÍS, one of the most respected paleoanthropologists in the world offers a heterodox look at his work as a researcher. He explains that prehistory brings up questions that are relevant to the present, from issues such as climate change to our relationship with technology
To visit authentic dictatorships, travel back in time
To say that we live under tyranny means to ignore the cold, poverty, and terror in which millions of people lived for hundreds of years, and that many millions still suffer
Israel’s lessons in Lebanon: Two invasions failed to defeat Hezbollah and Palestinian militias
Elements of previous conflicts are being repeated in the current war, such as the suffering of civilians and the indiscriminate bombing of non-military targets
They should leave the Holocaust alone
Comparisons with the Shoah, like those made by Benjamin Netanyahu, minimize the horror that the Middle East is experiencing
Pompeii, a never-ending journey of discovery
Luigi Spina / Guillermo Altares|
A new book by Italian photographer Luigi Spina explores hidden corners of the ancient city buried by a volcanic eruption in 79 AD
Australian Indigenous Voice referendum: Denial of the horrors of colonization buries the injustices of the past and of the present
A plebiscite to give new political rights to Aborigines has led to a misinformation campaign against the First Nations people of the island-continent
What if all the history books are wrong and World War II started before or after 1939?
Two of the leading historians of the conflict, Antony Beevor and Olivier Wieviorka, suggest that it could have started in 1937 and 1941, respectively
Herculaneum, the Roman city destroyed by Vesuvius that still hides its mysteries
Most of the city, defined as ‘an open-air archaeological laboratory,’ remains unexcavated. Less famous and not as busy as Pompeii, the site has introduced new visits and promises extraordinary finds
The St. Bartholomew’s Massacre: The apotheosis of violence in the Wars of Religion in France
An exhibition at the Army Museum in Paris recalls the conflicts that shook the country in the 16th century and offers lessons for the present
Racism unmasked: The lessons of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
Harper Lee’s famous novel masterfully depicts the experience of living in the racist societies that appeal to certain far-right political parties
The odyssey of restoring the most famous Roman mosaic in the world: Seven tons, two million pieces and a 2,000-year-old mortar
The National Archaeological Museum of Naples begins the restoration of the Alexander the Great mural from Pompeii, while inaugurating an exhibition about the Hellenic king in the East
The return of the mammoths: The giants of the Ice Age reappear to serve as a warning for the future
The largest mammal ever to roam Earth competes in our imagination with the dinosaurs as it coexisted with humans until only 4,000 years ago. Books, films and a grand exhibition have brought back the giants of the Ice Age bearing a cryptic warning: was the climate or human behavior the cause of their extinction?
Fox’s unending web of lies
Movies, series and books can shed some light on the scandal surrounding the ultra-conservative broadcaster
The unhealed wounds of the Bosnian War: ‘Nothing prepared me to look at a mass grave’
In a book, the journalist Taina Tervonen recounts the endless search for those who disappeared during the conflict, through a forensic anthropologist and a researcher