Did you know? The origin of Jägermeister logo comes from the ancient medieval saint Hubertus who became the first bishop of Liège in 708. Hubertus had a vision in which a stag with a glowing cross between its antlers appeared! What did the stag tell him? I explain... (thread)
Hubertus was born around 656 near Toulouse as the song mighty Duke of Aquitaine Bertrand. Like many aristocrats, he enjoyed hunting, but he took it too far and became addicted to it and was a very greedy hunter as he kept hunting and killing animals in the forests of Ardennes!
One day Hubertus stalked a magnificent stag. Just as Hubertus stalked in for the kill, the stag is said to have turned directly toward him revealing a shining crucifix suspended between its antlers and started talking to him! The stag told Hubertus to turn to the Lord!
Hubertus was moved by this vision and changed his lifestyle. Furthermore, the stag lectured Hubertus that he needs to held animals in higher regard as they're God’s creatures, never to shoot females with young and hunt old and sick animals and with quick and clean kills instead.
Hubertus listened to this and started preaching about the ethics of hunting. These principles became important all over Europe and Saint Hubertus was widely venerated and considered a patron saint of hunters!
*son of the mighty Duke of Aquitaine Bertrand
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From 1475 on, the Venetians recruited the stradioti light cavalry from the Balkans as borderland troops in Friuli to defend against Ottoman raids.
These were known for cutting off the heads of dead or captured enemies and wanted to be paid extra for every head they brought back!
In one instance during the Ottoman raid on the town of Spilimbergo in 1499, the stradioti were able to respond quickly enough and in cooperation with local Friulian militias killed around 100 Ottomans whose heads they brought to a Venetian commander, demanding to be paid!
The territory of Friuli was acquired by Venice relatively late in 1420 following the collapse of the state of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.
Friuli would become a troubled borderland of Venice and faced many powerful enemies to the east.
I keep thinking about this town of Mahdia in Tunisia.
It used to be an important port but brutal wars through history reduced it to a quiet fishing town.
It's a place of significance for Western history as the first successful crusade-like expedition was launched here in 1087.
The Mahdia campaign of 1087 was a huge success for Pope Victor III who was able to rally the rival Italian maritime republics of Pisa, Genoa and Amalfi behind the Christian banner to attack the hated Muslim port of Mahdia from where pirate raids were staged by the Zirids.
11th century saw the rise of the maritime Republic of Pisa which was punching far above its weight in terms of power.
The Pisans continuously clashed with the Muslims for control of the Mediterranean and were eventually able to bring the war to them, sacking Tunis in 1130.
Some European towns are still enclosed by their medieval walls.
The most known examples are Visby, Carcassonne and Monteriggioni!
These towns are from different parts of Europe, located in Sweden, France and Italy respectively.
Which one do you think is the most beautiful?
The town of Montagnana in Veneto is still enclosed by fully functional 14th century walls which had withstood powerful Veronese bombards in 1386.
Absolutely amazing walls!
It's very rare that a town remained enclosed by its medieval walls because if the town was important enough to have a wall, it likely meant that it would grow and upgrade it and eventually demolish it.
In big cities you can sometimes see remains of medieval walls like in Paris.
In the pre-modern world, purple color was seen as a status symbol as it was incredibly expensive to make.
Until this guy named William Henry Perkin accidentally discovered how to make synthetic purple dye in 1856.
Millennia of elite status of purple color gone just like that.
The ancients used to make purple color from sea snails found in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
It was extremely expensive and time consuming to make and it became symbol of elite and royalty, known as Tyrian purple or imperial purple.
The dye was so expensive to make because 12,000 snails of the Murex brandaris species were needed for just 1.4 g of pure dye, which was only enough to color only the trim of a single garment.
Such was the difficulty of obtaining this precious color!