Mystery Man

never reached. Though we have charted much of the globe over the centuries, there was a time when certain areas we know today were considered exotic places, where the cultures were so different that when someone from one of those lands stepped foot in the West, they caused quite a stir. Enter the man from Formosa during the eighteenth century. His story was one of mystery and intrigue. He had been kidnapped by a French Jesuit from his home in Formosa,

a country off the coast of China. The missionary had whisked him back to Europe to convert him to Catholicism, but the man from Formosa worshiped the sun and the moon instead, so he refused to convert and was jailed he escaped before being captured again, then got away once more and fled to the Netherlands. Dutch soldiers who apprehended him attempted to convert him to Calvinism instead, but he continued to resist, and that was, however, until he met

Alexander Innes. It Is was the Scottish priest whose sermons captivated the man from Formosa. After a short time in his successfully converted the young man to Christianity, baptizing him with the name George Salmanazar. Of course, he didn't only do this out of the kindness of his heart. George gave in his a unique opportunity to demonstrate his talent

to the upper ranks within the church. He and brought the man to England, where he presented him to the Bishop of London, who intruduced him to the rest of English high society. George was never truly accepted as one of them. He was treated as something to be studied, but his status as a curiosity nevertheless made him the talk of the town. He was never without an invitation to a party or a soiree, speaking in his native

tongue and regaling folks with stories about Foremosa. He talked about its capital Extranesta, and how the foremos and men didn't work clothes. They just walked around with a plate made of gold or silver covering their nether regions. They also practiced polygamy, but if a wife was ever caught cheating on her husband, he claimed that their husbands could legally eat her as punishment. The tales were fascinating, but something about George rubbed a few people the wrong way. Well, actually,

there were several things about him that drew questions. For one, he didn't look like he had come from another land. His skin was pale and he had blonde hair. According to him, that was because he had lived in an underground dwelling to avoid the intense heat in the region, so he hadn't been exposed to the sun very much. There was also his language, which didn't sound like anything

anyone had ever heard before. It's alphabet was comprised of only twenty letters and was outlined in a book George published in seventeen o four describing Formosa and its customs. The book only made him more popular and even led him to a job at the University of Oxford lecturing and translating religious text into formos In. Alexander Innes, however, knew the truth about George Salmanazar. He knew everything except his real name. George didn't actually hail from Formosa otherwise

known as modern day Taiwan. He'd been born in France around six eighty After literally bumming around Europe as a young man, he realized that he could make a pretty good living pretending to be from an Asian country and asking strangers for help in his seen through the ruse early on, but went along with it anyway to boost his chances at a higher position within the church. After all, he'd been the one man to convert the mysterious man

from Formosa to Christianity. Others had their doubts, but nothing was made official until seventeen o six, when he let everyone in on the secret. It got to a point where he just couldn't explain away the lies anymore. Despite his imposture, however, his foremost in alphabet still found its way into language texts for at least another hundred years.

George died in seventeen sixty three, after which his final book was published, Memoirs of Blank commonly known by the name of George Salmanazar, a reputed native of Formosa, but he took his real birth name and why he did what he did with him to the grave. All he left behind was a legacy built on lies mixed with a pinch of cannibalism. One of the biggest steps in a couple's relationship is finding their first home. It might be a small apartment in a big city or a

modest house in the suburbs. No matter the size, however, it is a place that will be filled with love and memories, a home in which to build a life together. But sometimes the perfect residence doesn't exist. They must be built. For Jose Paranella, his love for his wife and his love for another country lad him to one of the most beautiful and unique homes ever constructed, with one heck of a water feature. Paranella was born in the northeast

of Spain. He spent a lot of his time as a child with his grandmother, who told him stories about Spanish nobility and the beautiful castles they lived in. These tales stuck with him as he got older, especially as he to earn his own money. Jose had a dream to buy a castle of his own. One day when he was twenty six, the newly engaged Paranella answered a classified ad. It was looking for men to work the

cane fields in Australia. He saw it as a way to build a life for himself and his future wife, so, leaving his fiance behind, he hopped a boat to Sydney in July of nine th then migrated north to Queensland to scope things out. Then he spent the next several years earning a living tending to the cane fields there, and he hated it. His hands ached constantly and he developed blisters. But the more he worked, the more money he made, which he squirreled away as he dreamed of

his castle. Eventually he saved up enough to start buying his own cane farms, which he then built up and resold for a profit, earning considerable wealth in the process. It was during this time when Paranella stumbled upon a beautiful tract of rainforest near a waterfall that had been untouched by human hands. He knew that this be where he would build his castle, but he couldn't do so without his fiance by his side, so he returned to Spain,

only to find that she had married someone else. Refusing to go back to Australia without a companion, he asked Margharita, his ex fiance's younger sister, for her hand in marriage instead. Margharita agreed, and a year later, in nine, the couple sailed back to Australia. Parannella then bought the land, waterfall and all where he planned to build his castle. He started by installing a grand staircase of forty seven steps to help him move materials from one level to another.

From there, he constructed a stone cottage for him and his bride to live in while he worked on the rest of the castle. The cottage even had indoor plumbing, a first for their part of Australia. Paranella used concrete made with sand from a nearby river to build the castle of his dreams, a castle inspired by the ones

his grandmother used to tell him about. It featured a ballroom, a tower, balconies, twin staircases on each side, and balustrades along the various edges held up by ornate balusters, again all made from concrete. There was even a theater inside the castle, as well as refreshment rooms and an outdoor fountain. Around nineteen thirty three, Paranella installed a major upgrade to his home, a hydro electric plant which got its power

from the churning water of the falls. Paranella Park, as it was called, officially opened in nineteen thirty five, too great to claim. Jose and Margharita hosted many parties, fundraisers, and dinners there for local residents, especially the Spanish community living in the area. When World War Two brought US soldiers to Australia, Paranella Park became a kind of resort for the troops. They spent their downtime swimming in the local waters and eating food made by Margharita with homegrown

herbs and vegetables. Unfortunately, the castle had been built on a precarious location. A railway bridge upstream was destroyed by a pile of branches and logs in nineteen forty six, sending debris crashing down towards Paranella Park. The refreshment rooms, theater and hydroelectric plants were all damaged in the process, and even though those rooms were eventually fixed, the following

years brought all kinds of disasters upon the home. Tropical storms, fires, and floods all took their toll on the house built with love by Jose Paranella, who died of cancer. In his family did their best to keep up the property well into the nineteen seventies, before finally selling it in nineteen seventy seven. Two years later, a devastating fire tore through the park. When it was finally extinguished, only the

concrete structure remained. Everything else, including the interiors, had been destroyed. Today, Paranella Park stands as a ghostly anomaly in the middle of the forest. Its stairs and walkways are covered in moss, as though the environment is slowly trying to reclaim the property for itself. It's a testament to human engineering, one

that desperately tried to sis alongside nature and failed. But it's continued existence is a reminder that hard work and dedication can pay off, and that a couple's first home doesn't have to be a cramped one bedroom apartment in New York. It can be a concrete castle in the middle of the forest, just waiting for love to turn it into a home. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting

Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.