FEATURE image: July 1984. Marienplatz, Munich, Germany. 7.91mb 91%
August 1978. Knappogue Castle, County Clare, Ireland. The castle tower was built in 1467. Author with Irish singer. 1.05mbJune 1979. Author studying at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Opened in 1967, the Berkeley Library building is at Trinity College, Ireland’s oldest university founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), in the heart of Dublin, Ireland. The library building is an example of modern Brutalist architecture — exposed unpainted concrete, monochrome palette, steel, timber, and glass – a style that emerged in the United Kingdom in the 1950s as an alternative to nostalgic architecture. The library was named for George Berkeley (1685-1753), an 18th century scholar whose philosophical and scientific ideas on perception and reality presage the work of Albert Einstein (1879-1955). In 2023 Berkeley’s name was removed from the library by Trinity’s governing board because Berkeley had been a slave owner who actively defended slavery. Berkeley had been a Trinity fellow and, apt for the library building. its former librarian. George Berkeley is also the namesake of the University of California, Berkeley, and Berkeley College at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. – see https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/05/09/berkeley-name-dropped-trinity-college-library – retrieved October 5, 2023. In 1979 I was researching Irish History (13th to 16th centuries) at Trinity College and utilized the Berkeley and Old Library begun in 1712 as well as the National Library of Ireland (1877) around the corner on Kildare Street.
October 2002. Anne Fontaine, Paris (3rd arr.). 204 kb 65%October 2002. Au Petit Tonneau, 20, rue Surcouf, Paris (7th arr.). 65%October 2022. Paris. 400kb 75%June 1985. Tapas. Madrid, Spain.September 1993. Cathédrale Saint-Lazare d’Autun (1120). Statue St. Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879). Autun, France. 1.15 mbOctober 2002. La Pagode, 57 bis rue de Babylone and rue Monsieur, Paris, 7th arr., France. 65%
In 1895 M. Morin, an executive at Le Bon Marché, looked to give his wife a gift. Since the 1860s, Japanese art and its influences and practices (known as “japonisme”) had a profound impact on France’s own fine and popular arts, and this craze became even more popular by the 1890s. It was only natural for M. Morin to build a real pagoda as a lavish and fashionable statement next door to the couple’s house in Paris. Pieces were shipped from Asia and reassembled in Paris under the design and direction of Alexandre Marcel (1860-1928) at 57 bis, rue de Babylone on the corner with rue Monsieur in the 7th arrondissement. Built in the middle of a residential neighborhood it boasted all things Japanese including stone figures of dragons, lions, buddhas and birds as well as distinctive Asian-style rooflines. In 1930 it became a 400-seat cinema movie theatre that became an art-house cinema in the 1970s and, after 85 years of operation, closed its doors in 2015. SOURCE: 1000 Buildings of Paris, Kathy Borrus, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York, 2003, p. 275 and http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6906 – retrieved January 4, 2023.
June 1984. Eiffel Tower, Paris, 7th arr., France. 15%June 1984. Lucerne, Switzerland. 6.12mb 99% (10)March 2002. Château de Versailles, Versailles, France. 140kb 65%March 1992. Katschhof, Aachen, Germany 7.77mb 74%
A fruit and vegetable market on the Katschhof square (above) in Aachen, Germany, in March 1992 was held the day before Ash Wednesday. The historic square has Aachen Cathedral on one side and the town hall on the other side and is brought to life during its numerous festivals, markets, and events. In Carolingian history, the Katschhof represented the connection between Charlemagne’s palace hall and his St. Mary’s Church with his throne and tomb. In 2014 it was announced by a team of scientists who started to study the tomb’s bones and bone fragments in 1988 that if they are those of Charlemagne (747-814), the 66-year-old Holy Roman Emperor was tall and thin. See- https://www.archaeology.org/news/1782-140131-charlemagne-bones-sarcophagus – retrieved October 6, 2023.
March 2002. The Louvre (Statue of Winged Victory, c. 200 BCE), Paris. France. 660kb.June 1984. Vienna, Austria. 15%July 1984. Dachau Concentration Camp, Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany. 316 kbJuly 1984. Dachau Concentration Camp. Sculpture memorial to Dachau prisoners from 1933 to 1945 by Yugoslav artist Nandor Glid (1924-1997). Glid was a Holocaust survivor who had been a forced laborer and whose father and most of his family were murdered in Auschwitz. July 1984. Neuschwanstein Castle (1869-1886), Hohenschwangau, Germany. 62% 7.85 mbFebruary 1992. Wijde Heisteeg & Singel, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 22%February 1992. Tournai, Belgium 87% 7.94mb
Dating from the late 1100s, these houses in Belgium are among the oldest surviving domiciles in Europe.
February 1992. Rubens House, 1610. Antwerp, Belgium 7.39mb 99% (20)
A 10-minute walk from the city center, the Rubens House (Rubenshuis in Dutch) is an older Flemish house transformed into an Italian palazzo by the artist, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) in 1610. Married that year to his first wife Isabella Brandt (1591-1626), Rubens purchased and renovated the house on today’s Wapper street whose layout included the couple’s home, the artist’s studio, a monumental portico and interior courtyard (pictured above). The courtyard also opens into the Baroque garden designed by Rubens. Isabella and Peter Paul Rubens had three children together when Isabella died of the plague at 34 years old. Centuries later, in 1937, Antwerp bought the house and opened it to the public in 1946.
July 1984. Munich Germany. Marienplatz. March 2002. Paris (9th arr.) 404 kb 65%June 1984. “Tresors de l’ancien Nigéria,” Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, May 16 – July 23, 1984. Paris. 15%June 1984. Grand’ Place, Brussels, Belgium. Buildings in the photograph include Le Roy d’Espagne, La Brouette, Le Sac, La Louve, Le Cornet and Le Renard. The construction of the Grand’ Place took place over 600 years from the 1000’s to the 1600’s. In 1695, during the Nine Years’ War (1688-1697), most of the square was destroyed during the bombardment of Brussels by French troops. The buildings were rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries giving the square its appearance today. In 1998 the Grand’ Place was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered one of the world’s most beautiful squares. 1.03mbJune 1984. Hotel Ambassador, Kärntner Straße 22, Neuer Markt 5, Wien (Vienna). January 1993. Red Square, Moscow, Russia. January 1993. View of upper hall of Belorusskaya (Belarus) Metro Station (Koltsevaya Line) (Moscow, Russia). Below ceiling’s molding in passageway, a statue of Belarussian partisans during World War II who opposed Nazi Germany from 1941 until 1944. In their military and political resistance, the partisans took direction from Moscow. 1/1993 35%January 1993. Lenin’s Tomb, Moscow, Russia. It is the mausoleum for Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) whose preserved body has been on public display since shortly after his death in January 1924. Just days after Lenin’s death, Soviet architect Alexey Shchusev (1873-1949) was given the task to build a structure suitable for viewing the body by mourners. In 1930, a new mausoleum was designed by Shchusev and is the structure seen today made of marble, porphyry, granite, and labradorite. From 1953 to 1961 the embalmed body of Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was in this mausoleum next to Lenin but removed by Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) and buried in the nearby Kremlin Wall national cemetery. While incorporating elements of various ancient world mausoleums, the tomb’s architectural style is an experiment in early 20th century Constructivism. 35%January 1993. GUM department store, Moscow, Russia. GUM is the main department store in cities of the former Soviet Union and during the Soviet period (until 1991) was known as the State Department Store with one vendor – the State. The most famous GUM is this store facing Red Square. Built in 1890-93 by architect Alexander Pomerantsev (1849-1918) and engineer Vladimir Shukhov (1853-1939) as the Upper Trading Rows, by the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the building contained some 1,200 stores. The trapezoid-shaped building with a steel framework and glass roof is Moscow’s Crystal Palace (London,1851) and, in turn, influenced parts of La Samaritaine department store (Paris, 1907). The site of GUM had been a designed trade area since the time of Catherine II of Russia (1729-1796) though its early structures by Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi (1744-1817) were destroyed in the 1812 Fire of Moscow which accompanied Napoleon’s invasion. After the Revolution of 1917, GUM was nationalized but closed in 1928 and converted to office space by Stalin. It did not reopen as a consumer goods store until after 1953. 50%. January 1993. Novoslobodskaya station (Ring Line), Moscow, Russia. The station with its 32 stained glass panel decorations opened on January 30, 1952. It is on the Koltsevaya Line, between Belorusskaya and Prospekt Mira stations. Though the man in the middle is an American tourist, the others are Russians. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, there was a fire sale on its effects, including old uniforms. 55% (30)January 1993. Red Square, Moscow, Russia. Left to right: State Historical Museum. GUM store. 50%January 1993. Saint Basil’s Cathedral (1555-1561), Red Square, Moscow, Russia. The Orthodox church was constructed by order of Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584). January 1993. Church on the Spilled Blood (1883-1907), Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in Saint Petersburg, Russia, stands on the site where Czar Alexander II (1818-1881) was assassinated in March 1881. The Russian Revival building was built between 1883 and 1907 by the Romanov Imperial family as a memorial to the slain czar. Though Alexander II freed the serfs in 1861 and abolished capital punishment, his government remained autocratic and repressed liberalizing political forces. Starting in 1879 the czar became the focus for a number of attacks when he was finally murdered in March 1881. That day Alexander II was riding close to the Griboyedov canal when a bomb was tossed beneath his carriage. One of the czar’s Cossack guards was killed and several others injured but the czar emerged unharmed. Immediately, a second, suicide bomber, Ignatiy Grinevitsky, threw a bomb at close range that landed at the czar’s feet and exploded. Mortally wounded, Alexander II was whisked to the Winter Palace (today’s Hermitage) about a mile away where he bled to death. The terrorist group called The People’s Will (“Narodnaya Volya”) claimed responsibility for the elaborate attack. They were a group of radicals and reformers seeking liberty and land reforms from the autocratic regime. Though Alexander II had signed an order creating a Duma, or parliament, his son and successor, Alexander III (1845-1894) withdrew it and began to suppress anew civil liberties using the Okhrana or Imperial Russian secret police. The church is a building rich in decoration and one of St. Petersburg’s best known landmarks. 50% see – See – http://www.saint-petersburg.com/rivers-and-canals/griboedov-canal/ – retrieved January 18, 2024.January 1993. Detsky Mir, Lubyanka Square, Moscow, Russia. On Lubyanka Square in central Moscow is “Detsky Mir” (“Children’s World”), Russia’s largest toy and children’s goods store. It took architect Alexey Nikolayevich Dushkin (1904-1977), Moscow Metro and railways architect, three years to build Detsky Mir in its eclectic mix of post-Stalin Soviet-era architectural styles. The children’s wonderland opened on June 6, 1957. Its neighbor was, curiously, a massive KGB headquarters that had its 15-ton monument to its Bolshevik revolutionary founder, Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926), in the middle of the square. Dzerzhinsky was one of the architects of the Red Terror and de-Cossackization. In January 1993 the statue, sculpted in 1958 by Yevgeny Vuchetich (1908-1974), had been torn down leaving an empty pedestal. Today the pedestal, too, is gone. Detsky Mir was the first building in the Soviet Union to install escalators and in 2015, after nearly a decade-long reconstruction, reopened its doors as Russia’s central children’s store. 60% see – https://www.rbth.com/history/335795-soviet-children-store-detsky-mir http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2273462.stmJanuary 1993. Bolshoi Theatre (1825), Moscow, Russia. The Bolshoi (“Big”) Theatre opened on January 18, 1825. The main building of the theatre, rebuilt and renovated several times during its history, is a landmark of Moscow and Russia. It was originally designed by architect Joseph Bové (1784-1834) who supervised the Moscow reconstruction after the Fire of 1812 during the Napoleonic Wars. When Czar Alexander I (1777-1825) visited the city he decreed that Moscow buildings should be only in pale, limited colors, of which the Bolshoi Theatre building is one. The chariot drawn by four horses (“quadriga”) atop the portico pediment was sculpted by Russian sculptor Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg (1805-1867). Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake premiered at the Bolshoi in March 1877. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, Russia,is one of the oldest and most famous such theatre companies in the world. 50%May 2005. Chenonceau (16th century), France. The château was built in 1514–1522 on the foundations of an old mill and was extended over the river Cher in stages – first, its bridge (1556-59) and then its gallery (1570-76). These were designed, respectively, by architects Philibert de l’Orme (1514-1570) and Jean Bullant (1515-1578). The chateau was famously occupied by Diane de Poitiers (1500-1566), the mistress of the King of France, Henry II (1519-1559), who gifted it to the legendary beauty. Diane de Poitiers is the one who commissioned the bridge to be built across the river and planted its gardens. When the king was suddenly killed in a ceremonial jousting match, Queen Catherine de’ Medici (1519-1589) who married Henry II in 1533 and who would have three sons become of King of France in succession over the next 30 years, quickly took over Chenonceau and expelled Diane. 845 kb. May 2005. Musee d’Orsay, Paris. Going in to see Le néo-impressionnisme, de Seurat à Paul Klee, from March 15 to July 10, 2005. The large show made clear to me that there may be many disciples – here, painters of trendy 1890’s Pointillism – but few masters. 65%
May 2005. Pontlevoy Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey founded in the 11th century by a local knight in the town of Pontlevoy in the Loire Valley. The Gothic church was built at this time. In the early 17th century Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) was named abbot. It was no honorary title for his “Red Eminence.” In the 1640’s Richelieu had the buildings updated and repaired and re-enforced the monks’ numbers. By the 1770s, a small monastery community was running a school when King Louis XVI (1754-1793) ascended the throne. The king made the school one of France’s royal military academies which lasted until the French Revolution. The huge cedar was planted in 1776 to honor the new King Louis XVI. 65%May 2005. Interior, St. Pierre Gothic Church, Pontlevoy, France. The church is over 1000 years old. 65%May 2005. Château de Versailles. Parterre du Midi. (40)May 2005. Debbie at Château de Versailles. Courtyard. 65%July 1985. The bridge above Nicosia, Italy was built by Arabs 1000 years ago during the Emirate of Sicily, an Islamic Kingdom, that ruled on the island of Sicily between 831 and 1091. I am with my cousin Filippo. July 1985. Torino (Turin), Italy.
September 1993. Gislebertus (active 1120-1135), Autun, France. The artist carried out the decoration of Autun cathedral including these capitals. The three kings sleep under their counterpane touched by an angel’s single finger. When the artist’s decoration of the cathedral of Autun was completed around 1135 church architecture was beginning its transition to the Gothic, a style that would mark the glory of medieval French architecture (including Notre Dame de Paris in 1163) for the next 250 years. 1.44mb
September 1993. German tourists. Cluny Abbey, Cluny, Saône-et-Loire. A highly influential Benedictine abbey started in 910 in Cluny, its third and final church was started in 1088 by abbot Hugh of Semur (1024–1109). It became the largest church building in Europe and remained so until the 16th century, when the new St. Peter’s Basilica was built in Rome. Hézelon de Liège was Cluny’s architect. 1.43mbSeptember 1993. Château de Bussy-Rabutin is in the commune of Bussy-le-Grand, in the Côte-d’Or department, Bourgogne, about 37 miles (one hour by car) northwest of Dijon. The castle was founded in the 12th century by Renaudin de Bussy and rebuilt in the 14th century, The Renaissance galleries were added in the 1520s. It was again altered during the reigns of Henri II (1547–1559) and Louis XIII (1610–1643). Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy (1618–1693) fell into disgrace at court and was ordered by Louis XIV to self-exile at this estate. Here Bussy-Rabutin wrote his Histoire amoureuse des Gaules, an account of various love affairs at court, which embroiled the author in more scandal. He was sent to the Bastille and released on condition that he return to self-exile and live there in silence which he did for the next 17 years. Bussy -Rabutin died at the chateau in 1693. His collection of portraits of historical and contemporary French figures are a highlight of a tour of the chateau as they serve to fuel the various stories he told. The chateau was restored in the 19th century and acquired by the French state in 1929.September 1993. Palais Jacques Coeur (completed 1453), Bourges, France. May 2005. Medici Fountain (1630), Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, France. Along with a Left Bank palace built for Marie de’ Medici (1575-1642) by French architect Salomon de Brosse (1571-1626) between 1623 and 1630, the fountain and grotto was also made at this time. It was likely the work of Tommaso Francini (1571-1651), a water works engineeer from Italy who emigrated to France in 1598 by invitation of Henry IV (1553-1610), the eventual husband (in 1600) of Marie de’ Medici. By the 19th century the fountain had had a series of owners and fell into disrepair hastened by the relocation of the court to Versailles and changing tastes as well as the eventual upheaval of the French Revolution. Attention began to paid to it again under Napoleon I (1769-1826) who had the grotto restored. By the mid 1850s the old orangerie behind the fountain was demolished as were its adjoining arcades. When Baron Haussmann (1809-1891) looked to put in Rue de Medicis in 1864 the fountain was moved about 90 feet further into the park. Its simple basin and water spout was replaced with an elongated basin and, in 1866, a sculpture of a giant Polyphemus surprising lovers Acis and Galatea by Auguste Ottin (1811-1890) was added to the fountain. A different fountain, the Fontaine de Léda, built in 1806 under Napoleon and relocated from another neighborhood, was placed directly behind the Medici Fountain that created mutually supporting walls of stone. 2.49 mbMarch 2002. Pont Marie (1635), Paris, France. Looking from the Île Saint-Louis to the Right Bank. It was the first bridge built after the aristocracy clamored for development of the island to expand their neighborhood in the early 17th century. The stone bridge is one of the oldest in Paris. The Pont-de-la-Tournelle which continued the Pont-Marie was completed in 1654 and connected the Île Saint-Louis to the Left Bank. Houses used to be built on the bridge. The structure is substantially the same since the 18th century. Each of the pedimented arches of the Pont Marie is unique with niches in abutments that have always stood empty.
June 1985. Beaune, France. The man in the middle told me he had been a French soldier in combat in World War I (1914-1918). (50)February 1992. Me in Prüm, Westeifel in far western Germany. It was the site of Prüm (Benedictine) Abbey founded in the 8th century. Behind me is Sankt-Salvator-Basilika built in 1721. The remaining monastery buildings adjacent to it are now a high school. Mentioned by Pepin (714-768) in the deed of 762, the church houses the relic of the sandals of Jesus Christ. Pepin received them as a gift from the pope. Over the next centuries, the monastery became wealthy though it had its ups and downs. While its abbot was a prince in the Holy Roman Empire and ruled over dozens of towns, villages and hamlets, outside secular powers increasingly looked to take it over. Despite the monastery’s internal strife and external pressures even from the pope, its more than 50 abbots through history refused to submit until the late 16th century. Controlled afterward by the archbishops-electors of Trier, the abbey once again flourished until the French Revolution. In 1794 Prümwas occupied by French troops and annexed to France. Soon after, the monastery was dissolved by Napoleon Bonaparte and its assets sold. In the course of the 19th century, Prüm became part of modern Germany in the State of Rhineland-Palatinate. During World War II, most of the town was destroyed by bombing and ground fighting. February 1992. Situated along the road to Lille is the chapel of the Ladrerie du Val d’Orcq in Tournai, Belgium, whose chevet (apse) was built in 1153. The church was enlarged in the 1690’s. Made of rubble stone and covered with a tiled roof resting on stone corbels, the chapel has retained its original appearance and is an active parish today. The charming Romanesque building bears witness to a large medieval leper colony called ‘Bonne Maison du Val’ that was dependent on the Tournai magistrate and cathedral chapter of canons and destroyed under Louis XIV (1638-1715). The small open portal in the west façade is characterized by its harped jambs and basket-handle arch and is surmounted by a niche of the same shape. The roof of the nave is crowned by a square bell tower with a pyramidal roof. The sanctuary was classified as an official historic monument in 1936.July 1984. Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge, Venice, Italy.
