StrataHistory underfoot

The library of ground

Every place Strata has dug, assembled from its sources and filed by locality and era. A place is reviewed again whenever the ground beneath it is dug afresh.

125 places · 53 localities · last reviewed 12 September 2026
United Kingdom North LeighNorth Leigh holds a Roman villa of some sixty rooms above an Iron Age settlement, a Saxon church tower a thousand years old, and Eynsham Hall, a Georgian hunting lodge torn down and rebuilt grander by the Mason family, later a wartime maternity ward and police training college. 4 digs
47 records
The mansion torn down and rebuilt grander Eynsham Hall · 100–2023 The house they knocked down to build a bigger one Eynsham Hall, Terrace Walls To Rear · 700 BC–1981 The house that got torn down to build a bigger one Eynsham Hall, Terrace Walls To Rear · 100 BC–1981 The house that kept getting torn down Eynsham Hall, Terrace Walls To Rear · 100 BC–1981
United States SimsburySimsbury grew along Hopmeadow Street from a 1711 farmhouse into a town of schools, a bank and a memorial hall. David Phelps raised that farmhouse; his son Elisha died in 1776 supplying Revolutionary War troops. Later generations, including the Beldens, built on what he left behind. 1 dig
12 records United States Preston CityPreston City grew as the hub of a Connecticut town whose land came by deed from Uncas's son. It held a Congregational church from 1698 and a Baptist church from 1812, then a psychiatric hospital that opened for 95 years and closed for none, sold by the state for a dollar. 1 dig
8 records United States PomfretPomfret, Connecticut, grew up along the spine now known as Pomfret Street, ground that carries a colonial-era tragedy alongside the ordinary passage of schools and churches through the town's centre. 1 dig
8 records United States Salt Lake CitySalt Lake City's ground holds a war ended by a handshake, a fortune's ambition stalled mid-build, and a killing on the Jordan River decades before any street existed. From an 1857 mansion to an abandoned 1980s megaproject, the record here moves between peace-making, unfinished grandeur and old violence. 3 digs
26 records
The mansion where Utah made peace with the army sent to crush it Devereaux House · 1857–2024
United States WindsorWindsor, Connecticut, holds two brick houses raised a generation apart: one built by a brickmaker from clay dug across the road around 1825, the other by a tobacco farmer whose crop made him rich enough to outbuild the town's wood-framed houses, around 1860. 2 digs
20 records
A brickmaker built his house from his own backyard Windsor · 1595–1979 The largest brick house tobacco money built Windsor · 1595–1916
Portugal Salvaterra de MagosSalvaterra de Magos grew up around a royal hunting retreat built in the 1500s and favoured by the Portuguese crown into the 1700s. Fires in 1817 and 1828 and an earthquake in 1858 brought the palace down, leaving only its chapel and falconry standing near where the bullring now stands. 1 dig
9 records United States Rocky HillRocky Hill grew around ground first claimed in 1638, when John Robbins took land that his family would hold for nearly three centuries. His grandson raised a brick house and tavern there around 1767, and the town's story since has passed through pewtersmiths, ministers and ballplayers. 1 dig
10 records United Kingdom WoodstockWoodstock grew up around a royal hunting lodge and its palace, where kings, mistresses and a future queen once stayed. That palace is gone, but its memory survives in the ground nearby, including Bear Close, named for the old Bear Inn that once held it as pasture. 1 dig
12 records Spain VigoVigo's Praza da Independencia holds the memory of 1809, when fishermen, farmers, and townsfolk forced occupying French troops out of the city without any garrison of Spanish regulars to lead them, an episode still called the Reconquest of Vigo. 1 dig
3 records Portugal CascaisCascais grew from a fishing town into King Luís I's summer court in the 1870s, then sheltered exiled royalty and wartime couriers through the Second World War, while nearby Alcabideche holds Roman remains and ancient granite beneath ground that later records have yet to fill in. 4 digs
27 records
A regent, a king and a chess champion all died in exile here Os Três Emissários Polacos · 1606–2016 A fishing village becomes a king's chosen court Chalet Monte Real · 1520–2018
Portugal PenichePeniche, on the coast of Portugal, is defined by its fortress, raised from 1557 against pirate raids and later turned into the Estado Novo's most feared political prison, holding dictatorship opponents until 1974, and before that a place of internment and, once, disaster at sea. 1 dig
8 records Portugal Sobral de Monte AgracoSobral de Monte Agraço is the hill town where André Masséna's invading French army was stopped in October 1810, held through a starving winter behind Wellington's Lines of Torres Vedras, and turned back towards Spain in March 1811, never reaching Lisbon. 1 dig
5 records Ireland DublinDublin's ground carries siege, rebellion and argument in close quarters: a corner near Dublin Castle that saw a collapsed 1649 siege and 1922 street fighting, and a spot on O'Connell Street where a column stood, fell to a bomb, and gave way to the Spire. 2 digs
24 records
The pillar Dublin argued about for 157 years Spire of Dublin · 377 BC–2003 A siege collapsed and a civil war opened near this corner Castleview · 600–2016
Italy RomeRome's ground carries layers rather than a single story: an amphitheatre ordered by Vespasian for public death, an imperial bathhouse now outlined by a piazza's colonnade, a fountain that once scandalised the city, and a Forum chasm and pyre tied to Caesar's own end. 4 digs
52 records
The nymphs Rome tried not to look at Ninfa dei Laghi · 378 BC–2018 A fountain sits on the footprint of an empire's bathhouse Baths of Diocletian · 378 BC–1762 Public death staged as spectacle on this ground Colosseum · 64–2007
United States BostonBoston's ground near Congress Street carries the weight of a single violent night: on March 5, 1770, British soldiers fired on a crowd, killing five men, including Crispus Attucks. That corner, once colonial Quaker Lane, later burned in the Great Fire of 1872 before rebuilding into the Financial District known today. 1 dig
11 records United States PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia's Independence Hall, built as the Pennsylvania State House and completed in 1753, held the vote for independence on July 4, 1776, and the signing of the parchment a month later. The same room later drafted the Constitution, in 1787. 1 dig
15 records Portugal MafraMafra grew around a king's vow: John V promised in 1711 to build a convent if his wife bore an heir, and that promise became the vast Palace of Mafra, finished in 1755. The town's old stone pillory still stands nearby, marking older judicial ground. 1 dig
12 records United States CharlestonCharleston's Court House Square holds ground that carries centuries in layers: pirates condemned nearby in 1718, a colonial statehouse burned in 1788, and James Hoban's courthouse raised over its ruins between 1790 and 1792, a design he then carried to Washington to build the President's House. 1 dig
14 records Portugal SintraSintra grew up around a royal palace on high ground, holding kings from birth to death across four centuries. It passed from medieval Templar tenure through royal confinement and consort rule, into a town of fire, legend and rehearsed disaster on its outskirts. 5 digs
21 records
The king who was born and died on the same hill Câmara Municipal de Sintra · 9222 BC–2018
Portugal LisbonLisbon's ground carries a walled hill taken by siege in 1147, a riverside palace lost to the 1755 earthquake, and buildings where the secret police worked and finally fired on a crowd in 1974. Each site here was researched on its own before being gathered into this record. 4 digs
44 records
The knight who blocked a closing gate with his body Painel de Azulejos "Conquista de Lisboa" · 6400 BC–2012 The king who wouldn't sit for his own portrait Praça do Comércio · 200 BC–1965 The building where the last shots for the dictatorship were fired Palácio do Barão de Quintela e Conde de Farrobo · 1367–2025 Where Lisbon's secret police kept its files and its cells Edifício no Largo Corpo Santo, n. 19 - 22 · 1506–1974
France ParisParis has grown across two thousand years from a walled Gallo-Roman island to a capital of kings, revolutions and world's fairs, its ground layered with fortresses, convents, tollgates and battlefields, each stratum still traceable beneath the boulevards Haussmann drew over them. 30 digs
289 records
The tower built to be torn down after 20 years Pavillon Ferrié · 1651–1948 Bullet scars mark the École Militaire from 1944 Les Invalides · 1751–2025 Wine-tax cheats and a phone-bomb on the same corner Rue Friant · 1721–1972 A police officer was shot dead beside Notre-Dame in 1944 Siege of Paris · 700–2019 An island fought over since the Vikings sailed up the Seine Siege of Paris · 250 BC–1995 A chapel built for a crown of thorns still stands Siege of Paris · 250 BC–2014 Vikings besieged this island fortress until paid to leave Siege of Paris · 250 BC–1995 Egyptian coffins rest beneath a fortress that became a palace Louvre Castle · 100 BC–1794 A fortress underlies the Louvre's glass pyramid Pyramide du Louvre · 500–1989 A teenager died feet from Citadium's door Citadium · 1783–1999 800 died at the last barricade of 1832 Le président du conseil ministre de la guerre cite à l'ordre de l'armée la Ville de Paris · 1358–1938 A pilot chose a dying man over his own escape Rue Gustave Courbet · 1730–1980 Ravel wrote Daphnis et Chloé near this Paris kiosk Le Kiosque de Paris · 1836–1944 A fireman died steps from the Arc de Triomphe Hôtel Landolfo-Carcano · 1785–2021 A crossroads named after wartime allies Charles de Gaulle · 1667–2024 An orientalist theatre for four thousand vanished within a decade Keolis · 1779–1951 Cinema was born in a café cellar near the opera Café de la Paix · 1600–2025 Poincaré unveiled a playwright's monument here Hôtel Marcel Dassault · 1768–2002 An anarchist's contempt for the bourgeois lit a bombing wave Place Vendôme · 1587–2014 Audit courts and vanished convents ring this Paris corner Les Feuillants Convent · 1200–2014 A hotel rises on ground once walled for a royal arsenal SO/ Paris Hôtel · 1254–2022 Chaillot hill has been rebuilt for two centuries Carlingue · 1794–1980 A hotel corner where cinema itself began InterContinental Paris le Grand · 1600–2025 A processional line binds this ground to the Louvre Axe historique · 1682–2015
Portugal Santa Maria MaiorSanta Maria Maior, a parish in central Lisbon, holds ground once ruled by kings and monks alike. The Ribeira Palace stood here for around 250 years before the 1755 earthquake destroyed it, and Carmo Convent, founded in 1389, still stands roofless from that same morning. 2 digs
23 records
Kings ruled here for 250 years, then the ground shrugged Núcleo Arqueológico da Rua dos Correeiros · 1000–1875 A convent that watched power fall twice Palacete Loures · 1147–2012
Portugal AldoarAldoar, on the edge of Porto near the mouth of the Douro, holds ground where a bishop's Renaissance chapel was later swallowed by a fortress wall. Built in the 1520s and rebuilt into a bastion against Spain between 1646 and 1653, it marks a place shaped by faith and defence in turn. 1 dig
5 records Italy Santo StefanoSanto Stefano gathers a long ground in Bologna: the site of two Christian executions in 305 AD, a buried temple to Isis, an early medieval cemetery, and, nearby, the palace prison where a defeated king died in 1272. Ownership and use shifted repeatedly across centuries of destruction and rebuilding. 1 dig
15 records Bulgaria SofiaBeneath modern Sofia lies Serdica, the fortified Roman and medieval city besieged by Bulgarian forces in 809 and taken by the Ottomans in 1382. Its buried streets and a sunken church now sit beneath a shopping mall and the Serdika Metro Station, marking the old city's core. 1 dig
11 records Serbia Opstina Nis-MedijanaOpstina Niš-Medijana holds ground fought over across centuries: besieged by crusader knights in 1096, taken by Bulgarian troops in 1915 as Serbia's wartime capital, and struck by NATO cluster bombs in 1999. Emperors, priests and armies all left their mark here. 1 dig
7 records Italy Venezia-Murano-BuranoVenice was built as a city without roads, entered only by water until the nineteenth century, when a rail causeway and later a road bridge tied it to the mainland. The Ponte della Libertà, completed in 1933, remains its sole land approach, bombed during the Second World War for that very reason. 3 digs
44 records
A clock tower was built for sailors, not for time Siege of Venice · 300–1912 A causeway built to end isolation was bombed for it Ponte della Libertà · 1273–2010 A causeway built by fascist Italy still carries Venice's only road Ponte della Libertà · 1273–2010
Italy FlorenceFlorence gathers around Piazza della Signoria and its cathedral: seat of a medieval republic, site of a friar's execution, ground where Medici dukes raised bronze monuments, and a Duomo built directly over the city's first cathedral. Republic gave way to Medici rule, and each layer left its mark. 3 digs
23 records
A cathedral was built directly over Florence's first one Siege of Florence · 300–1530 A friar's ashes were thrown into the Arno here Girolamo Savonarola · 1–1594
Italy VeronaVerona's record here gathers around Piazza Bra: a small plaque to the city's sons who fell fighting in Libya in 1911, set near the spot where Garibaldi once vowed "Rome or death," alongside older markers of the square's long civic and military past. 1 dig
3 records Italy Porto - SaragozzaVia Giacomo Venezian, in Bologna's Porto - Saragozza district, runs close to Piazza del Nettuno, where Palazzo Re Enzo held Enzo of Sardinia, son of Emperor Frederick II, prisoner from 1249 until his death in 1272 — twenty-three years within a building still standing. 1 dig
12 records Italy PisaPisa's Via Santa Maria runs near the Piazza del Duomo, where the cathedral was consecrated in 1118 on soft ground that later tipped its bell tower. Around it rose a memorial church after 1316 and, centuries on, a fountain of 1765. 1 dig
10 records Italy PaduaPadua's former ghetto neighbourhood, near the synagogue built in 1548 and the ancient university, holds a record of arrest and deportation. Sixteen stumbling stones set into its pavement mark families and students taken between December 1943 and May 1944. 1 dig
3 records Italy MonzaMonza sits on clay laid down by a drowned Pliocene sea, and has carried a medieval commune, a Habsburg and Savoy villa, a murdered king, wartime torture, and one of the world's oldest motor-racing circuits, each leaving its own mark on the town's ground. 6 digs
48 records
The Chimera guards a square that has seen worse Arengario (Monza) · 1200–1961 A king was shot near his own summer palace Royal Villa of Monza · 1750–1986
United Kingdom City of LondonThe City of London holds Aldgate, breached by rebels in 1381 and 1471, and the Tower of London, raised by William the Conqueror in the early 1080s, where three queens were beheaded and a 1974 bomb killed a visitor. Sieges, executions and modern violence have all left their mark here. 2 digs
25 records
Three queens beheaded a few paces from a Norman keep Tower of London · 200–2014 Rebels died under a dropped portcullis at this gate Aldgate House · 50–1888
Vatican City RomeBeneath the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica lies a second-century funeral monument amid a Roman necropolis of roughly a thousand graves. Tradition and a 1968 papal declaration name it Peter's tomb, though the excavation's own lead archaeologist doubted that identification throughout his life. 1 dig
12 records France VersaillesVersailles grew around a palace that housed the French court from 1682 until the Revolution of 1789, when the Tennis Court Oath was sworn on its grounds. The palace later endured a 1978 bomb that gutted its north wing. 1 dig
15 records United Kingdom Tower HamletsTower Hamlets holds a Roman bath house buried beneath Wapping's streets and the Norman keep William the Conqueror began at the Tower of London in the early 1080s. Between them lie centuries of upheaval: murder on Ratcliff Highway, executions at Tower Green, and a 1974 bomb in the White Tower's mortar room. 2 digs
27 records
A bomb reached the room where two kings had already fallen White Tower · 1078–1974 A Roman bath house lies beneath Wapping Lane Eluna Apartments · 1799–1936
Spain MadridPuerta del Sol has long been the square where Madrid's public life gathered: a convent's steps for gossip, a lost fountain, the point from which every Spanish road is measured, a post office turned seat of government, and, on 13 September 1974, the site of a bombing that killed thirteen people. 1 dig
7 records United Kingdom City of WestminsterThe City of Westminster's record here gathers around Monmouth House, near Broadwick Street, where a contaminated pump caused the 1854 cholera outbreak that killed 616 people and changed how disease itself was understood. 1 dig
4 records Portugal MisericordiaMisericórdia is a Lisbon parish shaped twice by disaster — the 1755 earthquake and the 1988 Chiado fire — where a poet's uncertain grave, a ruined convent, and rebuilt shopping streets sit together around Praça Luís de Camões and Largo do Chiado. 2 digs
26 records
Fire took the Chiado twice, and the poets stayed Largo do Chiado · 1147–1988 A nation buried the wrong bones and called it certain Palacete Loures · 1147–1988
France Le Mesnil-AmelotLe Mesnil-Amelot, a village on the eastern edge of the Île-de-France plain, rests on clay, gypsum and limestone laid down by Eocene and Oligocene coastal seas. Marked in 1745 as a waypoint on the royal road to Reims, it later found itself beside a TGV station and airport terminal. 1 dig
3 records Austria Innere StadtInnere Stadt is Vienna's old core, ground first held by the Roman camp of Vindobona and since layered with medieval churches, Habsburg burial, sieges, a Baroque palais, a synagogue and a wartime Gestapo headquarters — each holding its place beneath the streets. 1 dig
18 records Italy CremonaCremona rests on Pliocene clay within the Cenozoic fill of the Padana basin, a colony fought over in 200 BC and besieged in AD 69, later marked by a Romanesque baptistery, the towering Torrazzo, a rebuilt opera house and a small square that was once a plague cemetery. 1 dig
24 records
A record of ground, not a magazine.

Nothing here was commissioned. Each place is assembled from its own sources, published at the resolution of the ground rather than the point, and reviewed again when the record changes. No page reports a person.