Read more »
Read more »
↧
1409 GERMANY (Rhineland-Palatinate) - Mainz Cathedral
Read more »
↧
0378, 1410 GERMANY (Lower Saxony) - Fagus Factory in Alfeld (UNESCO WHS)
Only few structures erected in the 20th century managed to be included on UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and among these is Fagus Factory in Alfeld(Germany), considered "a landmark in the development of modern architecture and industrial design". Commissioned by Carl Benscheidt, who wanted a structure to express the company's break from the past, the factory was designed by Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus School, and Adolf Meyer, also a prominent representative of this school, based on a project by Eduard Werner. Constructed between 1911 and 1913, with additions and interiors completed in 1925, the buildings were influenced by AEG’s Turbine factory, designed by Peter Behrens, but also by some industrial buildings in the USA, presented in Werkbund publication.
The building that is commonly referred as the Fagus building is the main building (in image), constructed in 1911 and expanded in 1913, containing mainly offices. The other two big buildings on the site are the production hall (a one-storey building) and the warehouse (a four-storey building with few openings). The ten buildings of the site give a common image, because the architects used some common elements, as the floor-to-ceiling glass windows on steel frames, and the brick structure (all buildings have a base of black bricks and the rest is built of yellow bricks). The design of the building was oriented to the railroad side, because Benscheidt considered important the point of view of the passengers on the trains.
Read more »
↧
↧
1411 ROMANIA - Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889)
On 15 January 1850 was being born in the village of Ipoteşti, near of Botoşani (then located in the Principality of Moldavia), Mihail Eminovici, the seventh of eleven children of George and Raluca Eminovici. He spent his childhood in Botoşani and Ipoteşti, then he attended school in Cernăuţi, in Bucovina (then in Austria-Hungary). The first evidence of Eminescu as a writer is from 1866, when he published the poem La mormântul lui Aron Pumnul (At the Grave of Aron Pumnul) in a booklet issued by the students on the occasion of the death of their teacher. Another poem was published in Iosif Vulcan's literary magazine Familia in Pest, and this began a steady series of published poems. Iosif Vulcan, who disliked the Slavic suffix "-ici" of the poet's last name, chose for him the more Romanian "nom de plume" Mihai Eminescu.
Read more »
↧
1412 UNITED KINGDOM (Pitcairn Islands) - Daily life of the locals
The Pitcairn Islands, the last British Overseas Territory in the Pacific, are a group of four islands spread over several hundred miles of ocean, but only one of these, Pitcairn, the second largest, measuring about 3.6km from east to west, is inhabited. All the residents are descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians who accompanied them. This history is still apparent in the surnames of many of the islanders. With only about 56 inhabitants, originating from four main families, Pitcairn is the least populous national jurisdiction in the world. The only settlement is Adamstown, which practically houses the entire population, and currently holds the record for being the smallest capital in the world. Given all this, it can be said that half of the population of the island appears on this postcard.
Read more »
↧
1316, 1413 UNITED NATIONS - Ban Ki-moon, the eighth Secretary-General of the UN
Posted on 25.10.2014, and 19.01.2015
The Secretary-General of the United Nations (UNSG) is the head of the UN Secretariat, and acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the organization. He is appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council, and serves for five-year terms that can be renewed indefinitely, although none so far has held office for more than two terms. The selection is subject to the veto of any of the five permanent Members of the Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The current UNSG is Ban Ki-moon, elected in 2006, and re-elected in 2010. He was named the world's 32nd most powerful person by Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People in 2013, the highest among Koreans.
Born on 13 June 1944, Ban Ki-moon was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the UN. He entered diplomatic service the year he graduated from university, accepting his first post in New Delhi, India. In the foreign ministry, he established a reputation for modesty and competence. When Ban became Secretary-General, The Economist listed the major challenges facing him in 2007: "rising nuclear demons in Iran and North Korea, a haemorrhaging wound in Darfur, unending violence in the Middle East, looming environmental disaster, escalating international terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the spread of HIV/AIDS. And then the more parochial concerns, such as the largely unfinished business of the most sweeping attempt at reform in the UN's history"
Read more »
↧
↧
1414 GERMANY (Baden-Württemberg) - "Baroque in Bloom" at Ludwigsburg Palace
Located in Ludwigsburg, at about 12km north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar, Ludwigsburg Palace (Schloss Ludwigsburg) is one of the country's largest Baroque palaces and features an enormous garden in that style. From the 18th century to 1918 it was the principal royal palace of the dukedom that became in 1806 the Kingdom of Württemberg. It wasn't destroyed during WWII, so today, the palace and its surrounding gardens are in a state similar to their appearance around 1800. It contains three museums (Baroque Gallery, Porcelain Museum, and Baroque Fashion Museum), and its theatre (Europe's oldest preserved theatre) and its stage machinery from 1758 are still operational. The continuous garden show "Baroque in Bloom" (Blühendes Barock), that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, opened in 1953.
Read more »
↧
1415 MONGOLIA (Bulgan) - Uvgun Khiid on Khugnou Khan Mountain
Located at 280km southwest of Ulaanbaatar, Khugnou Khan Mountain (1967m) was considered by locals since immemorial times a sacred place. The mountain and its surrounding is special because it represents forest, mountain steppe and desert zone in a single area. Rich in wild animals, it keeps also many historical items such as ancient tombs, burial mounds, rock inscriptions, monasteries and ruins of cities. At its base there are the ruins of Erdene Khamba Khiid (Erdene Khamba Monastery), which was one of the most beloved sanctuaries of Zanabazar, the first Mongolian Buddhist saint, and also the first Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism for the Khalkha Mongols in Outer Mongolia. In its thriving years the monastery was hosting over a thousand lamas at a time.
Read more »
↧
1416 UNITED STATES (California) - Panning for Gold
Gold is usually found in two forms: in veins or lodes and in river beds or near them, where the metal is called alluvial gold. Gold is also found with other elements such as copper or iron, but usually with silver. The simplest form of gold mining is panning, which applies to alluvial gold. The miner shovels sand and gravel that have gold in them into a pan which he tilts slightly and works with a rotation motion. The particles of gold, being heaviest, sink to the bottom of the pan while the lighter materials are washed away. It is the oldest (but also the least productive) method of mining gold, the first recorded instances of placer mining being from ancient Rome. This method is still used today, sporadic and with minor results, but its peak period was in the 19th century, during the major gold rushes.
Read more »
↧
1417 CZECH REPUBLIC (Zlin) - Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž (UNESCO WHS)
Inhabited by slavs from the 7th century, Kroměříž was founded in 1260 by Bruno von Schauenburg, bishop of Olomouc, six years later being already called a town. Bruno chose it to become his see, he made his castle the centre of his dominion in Moravia, and also established what was to become the famous Archbishop's Palace. The town was badly damaged in the Thirty Years' War, was plundered twice by Swedish troops (1643 and 1645), after this the Black Death came. Bishop Karl II von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn rebuilt the city and the palace after the war. Now, the town's main landmark is the Baroque Kroměříž Bishop's Palace, where some scenes from Amadeus (1984) and Immortal Beloved (1994) were filmed. The Palace and the Flower Garden in Kroměříž were added by UNESCO to the list of World Heritage Sites in 1998.
Read more »
↧
↧
1418 UNITED STATES (Iowa) - A farm after sunset
Even if Iowa is generally not flat, the predominant landform being the rolling hills, much of the state surface is used for agriculture. In nowadays crops cover 60% of the state, grasslands (mostly pasture and hay) cover 30%, and forests cover 7%; urban areas and water cover another 1% each. As a result it is often viewed as a farming state, although in reality agriculture is a small portion of a diversified economy. This is undoubtedly a historical cliché, due to the fact that Iowa was a major agricultural producer after the 1850s and 1860s, when were introduced the railroads.
Read more »
↧
1419 RUSSIA (Saint Petersburg) - The Chapel in Alexander's Park (Tsarskoye Selo) - part of Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments (UNESCO WHS)
Read more »
↧
1420 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (Dubai) - Got milk?
Dromedary was first domesticated in central or southern Arabia, thought to be around 4000 years ago, and became popular in the Near East in the 9th or 10th century BCE. The Persian invasion of Egypt in 525 BC introduced domesticated camels to the area, but they became common after the Islamic conquest of North Africa. While the invasion was accomplished largely on horseback, the new links to the Middle East allowed camels to be imported en masse. They were well-suited to long desert journeys and could carry a great deal of cargo. Aristotle was the first to describe it, but the animal was given its binomial name, Camelus dromedarius, by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Today, almost 13 million domesticated dromedaries exist, found mainly from western India via Pakistan through Iran to north Africa.
Read more »
↧
0990-0995, 1009, 1422-1423 UNITED STATES (New York) - The bridges in New York City
 |
| 0990 - Brooklyn Bridge & Downtown Manhattan |
Posted on 26.01.2014, 21.02.2014, and 28.01.2015
New York City is home to over 2,000 bridges and tunnels, some of which were premieres or set records. For example the Holland Tunnel was the world's first vehicular tunnel when it opened in 1927, and the Brooklyn, Williamsburg, George Washington, and Verrazano-Narrows bridges were the world's longest suspension bridges when were opened in 1883, 1903, 1931, and 1964 respectively. The first bridge in New York, King's Bridge, was constructed in 1693, over Spuyten Duyvil Creek between Manhattan and the Bronx. Now the oldest crossing still standing is High Bridge, which connects Manhattan to the Bronx over the Harlem River. On the other hand, the George Washington, High Bridge, Hell Gate, Queensboro, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Macombs Dam, Carroll Street, University Heights and Washington bridges have all received landmark status.
 |
| 0991 - Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan |
New York features bridges of all lengths and types, carrying everything from cars, trucks and subway trains to pedestrians and bicycles. The George Washington Bridge, spanning the Hudson River between New York City and Fort Lee (New Jersey), is the world's busiest bridge in terms of vehicular traffic, but also, togheter with Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge, is considered among the most beautiful in the world. Others are more well known for their functional importance such as the Williamsburg Bridge, which has two heavy rail transit tracks, eight traffic lanes and a pedestrian sidewalk.
 |
| 1009 - Brooklyn Bridge |
The Brooklyn Bridge stretches 1.825m over the East River, connecting Lower Manhattan at Canal Street with Downtown Brooklyn at the Flatbush Avenue Extension, is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States, and also the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed. Designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, it was completed in 1883, and has become in a short time an icon of New York City. The architectural style is Neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the towers, built of limestone, granite blocks (quarried and shaped on Vinalhaven Island, Maine), and Rosendale cement.
 |
| 0992 - Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan |
Roebling designed a bridge and truss system that was six times as strong as he thought it needed to be. Because of this, the Brooklyn Bridge is still standing when many of the bridges built around the same time have vanished into history and been replaced. At the time it opened, and for several years, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Its paint scheme is "Brooklyn Bridge Tan" and "Silver", although it has been argued that the original paint was "Rawlins Red". Since the 1980s, it has been floodlit at night to highlight its architectural features. The bridge originally carried horse-drawn and rail traffic, with a separate elevated walkway along the centerline for pedestrians and bicycles. Since 1950, the main roadway has carried six lanes of automobile traffic.
 |
| 1422 - The Brooklyn Bridge silhouetted by a glittering downtown New York skyline at dusk |
A bronze plaque is attached to one of the bridge's anchorages, which was constructed on a piece of property occupied by a mansion, the Osgood House, at 1 Cherry Street in Manhattan. It served as the first Presidential Mansion, housing George Washington, his family, and household staff from April 23, 1789 to February 23, 1790, during the two-year period when New York City was the national capital. The centennial celebrations on May 24, 1983, saw a cavalcade of cars crossing the bridge, led by President Ronald Reagan. In 2006, a Cold War-era bunker was found by city workers in the Manhattan tower. The bunker, hidden within the masonry anchorage, still contained the emergency supplies that were being stored for a potential nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.
 |
| 0993 - Manhattan Bridge at twilight |
The Manhattan Bridge is the last of the three suspension bridges built across the lower East River (following the Brooklyn and the Williamsburg bridges), connecting Lower Manhattan (at Canal Street) with Brooklyn (at Flatbush Avenue Extension). The main span is 448 m long, with the suspension cables being 983 m long (its total length is 2,089 m). It is considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension bridges and this design served as the model for many of the long-span suspension bridges built in the first half of the 20th century. It has four vehicle lanes on the upper level, split between two roadways. The original pedestrian walkway on the south side of the bridge was reopened after forty years in June 2001.
 |
| 1423 - Manhattan Bridge, looking up Berenice Abbott / gelatine silver print The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| 0994 - Verrazano-Narrows Bridge |
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge that connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn, marking the gateway to New York Harbor. It is named for both the Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano (the first European to enter New York Harbor and the Hudson River), and for the body of water it spans: the Narrows. It has a central span of 1,298m, and was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its completion in 1964. Its massive towers can be seen throughout a good part of the New York metropolitan area, and all cruise ships and most container ships arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey must pass underneath it.
 |
| 0995 - Queensboro Bridge & Midtown Manhattan (aerial view) |
The Queensboro Bridge (also known as the 59th Street Bridge) is a double cantilever bridge over the East River, which connects the neighborhood of Long Island City in the borough of Queens with the Upper East Side of Manhattan, passing over Roosevelt Island. The plans were finished in 1903 and construction soon began, but lasted until 1909 to be completed, due to delays from the collapse of an incomplete span during a windstorm and from labor unrest (including an attempt to dynamite one span). The bridge doesn't have suspended spans, so the cantilever arm from each side reaches to the midpoint of the span. Until it was surpassed by the Quebec Bridge in 1917, the span between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island was the longest cantilever span in North America. In December 2010, the bridge was renamed Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge in honor of the former mayor Ed Koch, a decision unpopular among Queens residents and business leaders.
Read more »
↧
↧
1424 NICARAGUA (León) - Church of La Recolección in León
Read more »
↧
1425 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - The Old Light on Lundy Island
Read more »
↧
1426 JAPAN (Chūgoku) - The Hirose Family, Hiroshima, 1987
Read more »
↧
1427 SRI LANKA - Mihintale, the cradle of Buddhism in Sri Lanka
The peak Mihintale (the plateau of Mihindu), located near the city of Anuradhapura, is the site of several religious monuments and abandoned structures, but also a pilgrimage site, because it is believed by Sri Lankans to be the place of a meeting between the Buddhist monk Mahinda (the son of Emperor Ashoka of India) and King Devanampiyatissa, which inaugurated the presence of Buddhism in the island. Its various shrines are connected by a total of some 1,840 steps, built in the reign of Bhathika Abhaya (22BC-7AD), that ultimately lead to the summit, steep enough to require deep breaths and a meditative pace. Mihintale was neglected from the beginning of the 11th century and abandoned from the middle of the 13th century as a result of the collapse of the Rajarata civilization. Only in the beginning of the 20th century attention was again paid to this complex and the structures we see today have been restored.
Read more »
↧
↧
1428 RUSSIA (Republic of Karelia) - Cape Besov Nos petroglyphs
In addition to the Pogost Kizhi, Lake Onega has another well known and very interesting site, placed on Cape Besov Nos (Devil's nose), on the eastern coast of the lake: about 1200 petroglyphs scattered over the 20 km area. The engravings are 1-2 mm deep, depict animals, people, boats and geometrical shapes of circular and crescent shapes, and date back to 4th-2nd millennia BC. The main part of this petroglyphs have been found at the western sector of the site. The bedrock here has many color anomalies, cracks and upheavals which makes the place very attractive. Descriptions from previous centuries tell about the hollow sound coming from the inside of the rock when working around it. One peculiarity of Besov Nos carvings is also the abundance of unique petroglyphs. Also common figures here have unique features which has brought on still more discussion about the meaning.
Read more »
↧
1429 BURKINA FASO - At the market
Read more »
↧
1430 UNITED STATES (Idaho) - The map of the State of Idaho
Bordered by the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north, Montana to the northeast, Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington and Oregon to the west, Idaho is a mountainous state with an area larger than that of all of New England. The landscape is rugged (snow-capped mountain ranges, rapids, vast lakes and steep canyons) with some of the largest unspoiled natural areas in the US (the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area is the largest contiguous area of protected wilderness in the continental US). Its highest point is Borah Peak (3,859m), and Shoshone Falls plunges down rugged cliffs from a height greater than that of Niagara Falls.
Read more »
↧