Placelore - The true stories of the places you walk past

Placelore is a free guide to the stories behind ordinary places: a monastery hidden among terraces, a church moved on rails to escape demolition, a square that was a racetrack. As of 25.09.2026, 785 places and 106 walks in 31 European cities, in 6 languages. Each story is researched, checked against sources and lists them. Read at home or walk it: with GPS on, the map shows the way to the next stop and tells you when you're there. No app, no account, no ads.

Hi Product Hunt 👋 Placelore started with a simple frustration: you walk past a building every day and never learn what happened there. Guidebooks list the famous sights; the stories that make a street interesting are scattered across archives, old newspapers and local history books. So each place in Placelore gets one short, true story — the one detail that makes you look up — and a longer version if you want more. Places are linked into walks on foot: 106 of them so far, in 31 cities, from Bucharest (where we started) to Berlin, Rome, London, Lisbon, Istanbul and Ohrid. What's different: • Sources first. Every story lists what it's based on. Doubtful claims don't go in. • Honest about AI. Stories are written with the help of AI from researched sources and then checked; each page says so and has a "tell us if something's wrong" link. • Works in the browser. No app, no account, no ads. Your progress is saved on your phone. • Walk it or read it. At home it's a book of places; outside, turn on GPS and the map shows the way to the next stop and tells you when you've arrived. It's free, and it will stay free for readers. I'd love your feedback — especially: which city should we write next, and did a story make you want to go and see the place?

Placelore - The true stories of the places you walk past

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