Category Archives: Worldwide

Luzern at night

Luzern (German: Lozärn) is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Due to its location on the shore of Lake Lucerne (der Vierwaldstättersee), within sight of Mount Pilatus and Rigi in the Swiss Alps, Luzern has long been a destination for tourists.

One of the city’s famous landmarks is the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge first erected in the 14th century. Luzern was voted the fifth most popular tourism destination in the world in 2010 by Tripadvisor.

Tarragona – the Roman corner of Catalonia

Tarragona is located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. Even if you are in Spain, you can feel the roman flavours everywhere, including food (e.g. pizza, cappucino) or architecture (e.g. the palace of Augustus, the amphitheatre, the tower of Scipios). You can say it’s the Roman corner of Catalonia.

In Roman times, the city was named Tarraco and was capital of the province of Hispania Tarraconensis (after being capital of Hispania Citerior in the Republican era).

The Roman ruins of Tarraco have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Part of the bases of large Cyclopean walls near the Cuartel de Pilatos are thought to pre-date the Romans. The 2nd century amphitheatre, near the sea-shore, was extensively used as a quarry after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Throughout the town Latin, and even apparently Phoenician, inscriptions on the stones of the houses mark the material used for buildings in the town.

Urban artworks in Frankfurt

Frankfurt has some interesting urban sculptures. Besides the enormous Euro signs in front of the European Bank office, you can see a 21 meters tall Hammering Man, an enormous tie in front of an office building and a train wagon crashed halfway through the pavement.

The “Inverted Collar and Tie” you can see above is a sculpture designed in 1994 by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. The DG Bank (Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank) ordered the artwork in 1993 and it was made in California. The artwork is an ironic allusion to the business people wearing “collar and tie” who work in the Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank’s office tower and in the Frankfurt banking district around.

Stockholm at night

Founded circa 1250, Stockholm is strategically located on the south-central east coast of Sweden, where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic Sea. The central parts of the city consist of 14 islands that are continuous with Stockholm archipelago. The geographical city centre is situated on the water, in the bay Riddarfjärden. Over 30% of the city area is made up of waterways and another 30% is made up of parks and green spaces; in 2009, Stockholm was awarded title of first European Green Capital by the European Commission.

Stockholm’s core of the present Old Town (Gamla Stan) was built on the central island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid-13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League. After a fire in 1697 when the original medieval castle was destroyed, Stockholm Palace was erected in a baroque style. Storkyrkan Cathedral, the episcopal seat of the Bishop of Stockholm, stands next to the castle. It was founded in the 13th century but is clad in a baroque exterior dating to the 18th century.

During the 19th century and the age of industrialization Stockholm grew rapidly, with plans and architecture inspired by the large cities of the continent such as Berlin and Vienna. Notable works of this time period include public buildings such as the Royal Swedish Opera and private developments such as the luxury housing developments on Strandvägen.

Autumn Day

Lord, it is time. Let the great summer go,
Lay your long shadows on the sundials,
And over harvest piles let the winds blow.
Rainer Maria Rilke – Autumn Day

Herr: es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß.
Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,
und auf den Fluren laß die Winde los.
Rainer Maria Rilke – Herbsttag

Hampton Court

Hampton Court has grown from humble beginnings in the 11th century to one of the finest palaces in the world. Thomas Wolsey, Chief Minister of King Henry VIII, took over Hampton Court Palace in 1514. Also Wolsey was attempting to create a Renaissance cardinal’s palace, the architecture is an excellent and rare example of a thirty-year era when English architecture was in a harmonious transition from domestic Tudor, strongly influenced by perpendicular Gothic, to the Italian Renaissance classical style.

The essence of Wolsey — the plain English churchman who nevertheless made his sovereign the arbiter of Europe and who built and furnished Hampton Court to show foreign embassies that Henry VIII’s chief minister knew how to live as graciously as any cardinal in Rome.
Sir John Summerson – Architecture in Britain

In 1528, knowing that his enemies and the King were engineering his downfall, he passed the palace to the King as a gift. A gesture proven to be useless as Wolsey died the following year.

In 1604, the palace was the site of King James’ meeting with representatives of the English Puritans, known as the Hampton Court Conference; while agreement with the Puritans was not reached, the meeting led to James’s commissioning of the King James Version of the Bible.

King Charles II and his successor James II, visited Hampton Court, but did not prefer to reside there as, by current French court standards, Hampton Court appeared old-fashioned. It was in 1689, shortly after Louis XIV’s court had moved permanently to Versailles, that the palace’s antiquated state was addressed in order to emulate Versailles’ repetitive Baroque form. However, Hampton Court, unlike Versailles, is given an extra dimension by the contrast between the pink brick and the pale Portland stone quoins, frames and banding.

After the reign of George II, no monarch ever resided at Hampton Court. In 1838, during the reign of Queen Victoria, the restoration was completed and the palace opened to the public.

Il Duomo di Milano

They say that the Cathedral of Milan is second only to St. Peter’s at Rome. I cannot understand how it can be second to anything made by human hands.
Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad (1867)

It all started in 1386 when Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo laied down the first stone of a late Gothic style cathedral. Enthusiasm for the immense new building soon spread among the population, and large donations have been collected. The construction had exclusive use of the Candoglia marble.

Between 1500 and 1510, the cupola was completed and decorated in the interior with four series of 15 statues each, portraying saints, prophets, sibyls and other characters of the Bible. The exterior long remained without any decoration.

After 1571, the cathedral’s engineers strove for a new, Renaissance appearance for the cathedral, that would emphasise its Italian nature, and subdue the Gothic style, which was now seen as foreign.

The Cathedral is an awful failure. Outside the design is monstrous and inartistic. The over-elaborated details stuck high up where no one can see them; everything is vile in it; it is, however, imposing and gigantic as a failure, through its great size and elaborate execution.
Oscar Wilde, Letter from Milan (1875)

As the façade still was largely incomplete, at the end of the 16th century, the cathedral received a “Roman” style one, with columns, obelisks and a large tympanum.

In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte, about to be crowned King of Italy, ordered the façade to be finished. Napoleon was crowned King of Italy at the Duomo.

The last details of the cathedral were finished only in 1965 which is considered to be the  end date of a process that took almost 600 years. The Duomo’s main facade went under renovation between 2003 and 2009 when it showed again the original colours of the Candoglia marble.

A structure not supremely interesting, not logical, not … commandingly beautiful, but grandly curious and superbly rich. … If it had no other distinction it would still have that of impressive, immeasurable achievement … a supreme embodiment of vigorous effort
Henry James, Italian Hours (1909)

Sunsets of Crete

Photos taken on Crete’s north coast, a place of whitewashed stones surrounded by sparkling Mediterranean blue waters. Nearby, the traditional Cretan village style architecture is spread around colorful gardens from where sunset views may captivate your senses.

Retro-style Mediterranean cruise ship

Cruise ships are not always organized like floating hotels, with a complete hospitality staff in addition to the usual ship’s crew. Within the calm Mediterranean waters (Southern Greece – Northern Africa) you may find some retro style jewelries like the one bellow sailing over sparkling waters.

I just couldn’t resist the temptation of capturing reflections; I used no filters or digital processing for the sparkling effect, just my old loyal camera and the calm mediterranean waters.