1.
Nadar (photographer)
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Nadar was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, and balloonist. Photographic portraits by Nadar are held by many of the national collections of photographs. Nadar was born in April 1820 in Paris and his father, Victor Tournachon, was a printer and bookseller. After his fathers death, Nadar decided to quit his studies for economic reasons. Nadar started working as a caricaturist and novelist for various newspapers and he fell in with the Parisian bohemian group of Gérard de Nerval, Charles Baudelaire and Théodore de Banville. His friends picked a nickname for him, Tournadar, which later became Nadar and his work was published in Le Charivari for the first time in 1848. In 1849, he founded the Revue comique and the Petit journal pour rire, from work as a caricaturist, he moved on to photography, particularly portraits. He opened his studio in rue Saint Lazare in 1854. Nadar photographed a wide range of personalities, politicians, stage actors, writers, painters, portrait photography was going through a period of native industrialization and Nadar refused to use the traditional sumptuous decors, preferred natural daylight and despised useless accessories. In 1886, with his son Paul, he did what may be the first photo-report and it was published in Le Journal Illustré. He took his first photographs in 1853 and in 1855 opened a studio at 25 Boulevard des Capucines. He also pioneered the use of lighting in photography, working in the catacombs of Paris. He was the first person to photograph above ground with his balloons, as well as the first to photograph below ground, Le Géant was badly damaged at the end of its second flight, leading Nadar to the conviction that heavier-than-air machines would be more successful. Later, The Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier than Air Machines was established, with Nadar as president, Nadar was the inspiration for the character of Michael Ardan in Vernes From the Earth to the Moon. On his visit to Brussels with Le Géant, on 26 September 1864, crowd control barriers are still known in Belgium as Nadar barriers. In April 1874, he lent his studio to a group of painters to present the first exhibition of the Impressionists. He photographed Victor Hugo on his death-bed in 1885 and he is credited with having published the first photo-interview, and also took erotic photographs. From 1895 until his return to Paris in 1909, the Nadar photo studio was in Marseilles, Nadar died in 1910, aged 89
2.
Prix de Rome
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The Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them to stay in Rome for three to five years at the expense of the state, the prize was extended to architecture in 1720, music in 1803, and engraving in 1804. The prestigious award was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, the Minister of Culture, the Prix de Rome was initially created for painters and sculptors in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by completing a very difficult elimination contest, the prize, organised by the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, was open to their students. From 1666, the winner could win a stay of three to five years at the Palazzo Mancini in Rome at the expense of the King of France. In 1720, the Académie Royale d’Architecture began a prize in architecture, six painters, four sculptors, and two architects would be sent to the French Academy in Rome founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert from 1666. Expanded after 140 years into five categories, the contest started in 1663 as two categories, painting and sculpture, in 1803, music was added, and after 1804 there was a prix for engraving as well. The primary winner took the First Grand Prize and the Second Prizes were awarded to the runners-up, in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte moved the French Academy in Rome to the Villa Medici with the intention of preserving an institution once threatened by the French Revolution. At first, the villa and its gardens were in a sad state, in this way, he hoped to retain for young French artists the opportunity to see and copy the masterpieces of antiquity and the Renaissance. Jacques-Louis David, having failed to win the three years in a row, considered suicide. Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Ernest Chausson and Maurice Ravel attempted the Prix de Rome, but did not gain recognition. Ravel tried a total of five times to win the prize, during World War II the prize winners were accommodated in the Villa Paradiso in Nice. The Prix de Rome was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, since then, a number of contests have been created, and the academies, together with the Institut de France, were merged by the State and the Minister of Culture. Selected residents now have an opportunity for study during an 18-month stay at The Academy of France in Rome, the heyday of the Prix de Rome was during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Prix de Rome for Architecture was created in 1720, the engraving prize was created in 1804. A Prix de Rome was also established in the Kingdom of Holland by Lodewijk Napoleon to award young artists and architects, during the years 1807–1810 prize winners were sent to Paris and onwards to Rome for study. Suspended in 1851 it was reinstated in 1870 by William III of the Netherlands, since then the winners have been selected by the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam under the main headings of architecture and the visual arts. The Belgian Prix de Rome is an award for artists, created in 1832
3.
Palais Garnier
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The Palais Garnier is a 1, 979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. The Paris Opera now mainly uses the Palais Garnier for ballet, the Palais Garnier has been called probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica. This opinion is far from unanimous however, the 20th-century French architect Le Corbusier once described it as a lying art, the Palais Garnier is a building of exceptional opulence. The style is monumental and considered Second-Empire Beaux-Arts style with axial symmetry in plan and these include very elaborate multicolored marble friezes, columns, and lavish statuary, many of which portray deities of Greek mythology. The principal facade is on the side of the building, overlooking the Place de lOpéra. Fourteen painters, mosaicists and seventy-three sculptors participated in the creation of its ornamentation, the two gilded figural groups, Charles Gumerys LHarmonie and La Poésie, crown the apexes of the principal facades left and right avant-corps. They are both made of gilt copper electrotype, the facade also incorporates other work by Gumery, Alexandre Falguière, and others. On the left and right lateral returns of the front facade are busts of the librettists Eugène Scribe and Philippe Quinault, when the Empire fell, work stopped, leaving unfinished dressed stonework. It is covered by a 13.5 metre diameter dome, two pairs of obelisks marking the entrances of the Rotunda to the north and the south. The interior consists of interweaving corridors, stairwells, alcoves and landings allowing the movement of large numbers of people, rich with velvet, gold leaf, and cherubim and nymphs, the interior is characteristic of Baroque sumptuousness. The building features a ceremonial staircase of white marble with a balustrade of red and green marble. Its design was inspired by Victor Louiss grand staircase for the Théâtre de Bordeaux, the pedestals of the staircase are decorated with female torchères, created by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. When they were first fixed in two months before the opening of the building it was obvious to Garnier that they were too dark for the space. With the help of two of his students, Pils had to rework the canvases while they were in place overhead on the ceiling and, at the age of 61, he fell ill. His students had to finish the work, which was completed the day before the opening and this hall 18 meters high,154 meters long and 13 meters wide was designed to act as a drawing room for Paris society. Its ceiling was painted by Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry and represents various moments in the history of music, the foyer opens into an outside loggia at each end of which are the Salon de la Lune and Salon du Soleil. The auditorium has a traditional Italian horseshoe shape and can seat 1,979, the stage is the largest in Europe and can accommodate as many as 450 artists. The canvas house curtain was painted to represent a draped curtain, complete with tassels, the ceiling area, which surrounds the chandelier, was originally painted by Jules Eugène Lenepveu
4.
Rue Mouffetard
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Rue Mouffetard is a street in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. Situated in the arrondissement of Paris, Rue Mouffetard is one of Pariss oldest and liveliest neighbourhoods. These days the area has restaurants, shops, and cafés. It is centered on the Place de la Contrescarpe, at the junction of the rue Mouffetard and its southern terminus is at the Square Saint-Médard where there is a permanent open-air market. At its northern terminus, it becomes the rue Descartes at the crossing of the rue Thouin and it is closed to normal motor traffic much of the week, and is predominantly a pedestrian avenue. The origins of this thoroughfare are ancient, dating back to Neolithic times, as with todays rue Galande, rue Lagrange, rue de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève and rue Descartes, it was a Roman road running from the Roman Rive Gauche city south to Italy. From the Middle Ages a church along this section of roadway became centre of a bourg Saint-Médard, the Diderot family moved at #6 rue Mouffetard in April 1746, where lived also François-Jacques Guillotte, a police officer who wrote an article for the Encyclopédie by Diderot. The area remained relatively unchanged because of its location on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, in 1910 Alexander Bogdanov delivered a lecture about Empiriomonism. Lenin replied quoting his own Materialism and Empiriocriticism in response, at the beginning of Chapter IV of The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway describes a taxicab heading down the Rue Mouffetard from the Place Contrescarpe. The area and the street featured prominently in Krzysztof Kieślowskis Trois Couleurs, the iconic Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph Boy With Bottles. was taken on rue Mouffetard in 1954
5.
Sarthe
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Sarthe is a French department situated in the Grand-Ouest of the country. It is named after the River Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers, in the late 18th century, before it was officially Sarthe, the nobility built their Mansions and Chateaus there, as an escape from Paris. The department was created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, pursuant to the law of 22 December 1789, the latter was divided into two departments, Sarthe to the east and Mayenne to the west. In Roman times, this contained the city of Mans. The Roman Thermal Bathhouse attracts many tourists, as does the Theater of Aubigné-Racan, marin Mersenne, perhaps the most important scientific figure in the early 17th century, was born in the vicinity of Sarthe. The department of Sarthe is at the end of the administrative region of Pays-de-la-Loire. It is south of Normandy and on the edge of the Armorican Massif. It is bordered by the departments of Orne, Eure-et-Loir, Loir-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire, approximately 300,000 people, comprising more than half of the departments population, live in Le Mans, its conurbation, or the essentially urban communes close by. The rest of the department retains a rural character, with agriculture as the part of the economy. The arrival of the railways in 1854 boosted trade for the local economy, a TGV connection was constructed in 1989, connecting the community to high-speed transport. In terms of connections, the A11 autoroute, which was constructed to Le Mans from the east in 1978. The department was the base of former Prime Minister Francois Fillon
6.
Louis-Hippolyte Lebas
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Louis-Hippolyte Lebas was a French architect working in a rational and severe Neoclassical style. He was trained in the atelier of Percier and Fontaine, the architects of Napoleon. He also assisted Éloi Labarre in completing the Palais Brongniart, the seat of the Paris Bourse, named after its architect, one of his best known works is the Parisian church Notre-Dame-de-Lorette for which he was commissioned in 1823 and that completed in 1836. He built the prison of Petite Roquette, which was the first example in France of a progressive panoptic prison. Lebas taught the History of Architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts, in this teaching role, applying the art-historical method of Johann Joachim Winckelmann to the study of historical architecture, he set a mark on several generations of young French architects. His daughter married the historian and civil servant Léon Halévy, barbara Boifava, Théorie, Pratique et Histoire de lArchitecture, Lenseignement de Louis-Hippolyte Lebas à lEcole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. 1842-1856, History of art thesis, Paris, Université Paris VIII,2003, françoise Largier, Louis-Hippolyte Lebas, architecte, historien de l’art, Mémoire de diplôme détudes supérieures de lÉcole du Louvre,2004. Françoise Largier, Louis-Hippolyte Lebas et lhistoire de lart, Livraisons dhistoire de larchitecture,9.1, vassiliki Petridou, La doctrine de lImitation dans l’architecture française dans la première moitie du XIXe siècle. Du Neo-classicisme au Romantisme a travers l’œuvre de Louis Hippolyte Lebas, Doctoral thesis Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV,1992, vol II
7.
Salon (Paris)
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The Salon, or rarely Paris Salon, beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world, at the 1761 Salon, thirty-three painters, nine sculptors, and eleven engravers contributed. From 1881 onward, it has been managed by the Société des Artistes Français, in 1667, the royally sanctioned French institution of art patronage, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, held its first semi-public art exhibit at the Salon Carré. The Salons original focus was the display of the work of recent graduates of the École des Beaux-Arts, exhibition at the Salon de Paris was essential for any artist to achieve success in France for at least the next 200 years. Exhibition in the Salon marked a sign of royal favor, in 1725, the Salon was held in the Palace of the Louvre, when it became known as Salon or Salon de Paris. In 1737, the exhibitions, held from 18 August 1737 to 5 September 1737 at the Grand Salon of the Louvre and they were held, at first, annually, and then biennially, in odd-numbered years. They would start on the feast day of St. Louis, once made regular and public, the Salons status was never seriously in doubt. In 1748 a jury of awarded artists was introduced, from this time forward, the influence of the Salon was undisputed. The Salon exhibited paintings floor-to-ceiling and on every inch of space. The jostling of artwork became the subject of other paintings. Printed catalogues of the Salons are primary documents for art historians, critical descriptions of the exhibitions published in the gazettes mark the beginning of the modern occupation of art critic. The French revolution opened the exhibition to foreign artists, the vernissage of opening night was a grand social occasion, and a crush that gave subject matter to newspaper caricaturists like Honoré Daumier. Charles Baudelaire, Denis Diderot and others wrote reviews of the Salons, the 1848 revolution liberalized the Salon. The amount of refused works was greatly reduced, the increasingly conservative and academic juries were not receptive to the Impressionist painters, whose works were usually rejected, or poorly placed if accepted. The Salon opposed the Impressionists shift away from traditional painting styles, in 1863 the Salon jury turned away an unusually high number of the submitted paintings. An uproar resulted, particularly from regular exhibitors who had been rejected, in order to prove that the Salons were democratic, Napoleon III instituted the Salon des Refusés, containing a selection of the works that the Salon had rejected that year. It opened on 17 May 1863, marking the birth of the avant-garde, the Impressionists held their own independent exhibitions in 1874,1876,1877,1879,1880,1881,1882 and 1886. In 1881, the government withdrew official sponsorship from the annual Salon, in December 1890, the leader of the Société des Artistes Français, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, propagated the idea that Salon should be an exhibition of young, not-yet awarded, artists
8.
Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
9.
Temple of Aphaea
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The Temple of Aphaia or Afea is located within a sanctuary complex dedicated to the goddess Aphaia on the Greek island of Aigina, which lies in the Saronic Gulf. Formerly known as the Temple of Jupiter Panhellenius, the great Doric temple is now recognized as dedicated to the mother-goddess Aphaia and it was a favorite of the neoclassical and romantic artists such as J. M. W. Turner. It stands on a c.160 m peak on the side of the island approximately 13 km east by road from the main port. Aphaia was a Greek goddess who was worshipped exclusively at this sanctuary, the extant temple of c.500 BC was built over the remains of an earlier temple of c.570 BC, which was destroyed by fire c.510 BC. The elements of this temple were buried in the infill for the larger, flat terrace of the later temple. Abundant traces of paint remain on many of these buried fragments, there may have been another temple in the 7th century BC, also located on the same site, but it is thought to have been much smaller and simpler in terms of both plan and execution. The last temple is of a plan and is also significant for its pedimental sculptures. These sculptures are on display in the Glyptothek of Munich, with a number of fragments located in the museums at Aigina and on the site itself. The periegetic writer Pausanias briefly mentions the site in his writings of the 2nd century AD, the temple was made known in Western Europe by the publication of the Antiquities of Ionia. Minor excavations of the east peribolos wall were carried out in 1894 during reconstruction of the last temple, systematic excavations at the site were carried out in the 20th century by the German School in Athens, at first under the direction of Adolf Furtwängler. The area of the sanctuary was defined and studied during these excavations, the area under the last temple could not be excavated, however, because that would have harmed the temple. In addition, significant remains from the Bronze Age were detected in pockets in the surface of the hill. Ernst-Ludwig Schwandner and Martha Ohly were also associated with this dig, the sanctuary of Aphaia was located on the top of a hill c.160 m in elevation at the northeast point of the island. The last form of the sanctuary covered an area of c.80 by 80 m, earlier phases were less extensive and less well defined. In its earliest phase of use during the Bronze Age, the area of the hilltop was an unwalled, open-air sanctuary to a female fertility. Bronze Age figurines outnumber remains of pottery, open vessel forms are also at an unusually high proportion versus closed vessels. There are no settlements or burials in the vicinity, arguing against the remains being due to either usage. Large numbers of small pottery chariots and thrones and miniature vessels have been found and it is less easy to trace the cult through the Sub-Mycenean period and into the Geometric where cult activity is once more reasonably certain
10.
Aegina
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Aegina is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf,27 kilometres from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina the mother of the hero Aeacus, during ancient times Aegina was a rival of Athens, the great sea power of the era. The municipality of Aegina consists of the island of Aegina and a few offshore islets and it is part of the Islands regional unit, Attica region. The municipality is subdivided into the five communities, Aegina Kypseli Mesagros Perdika Vathy The capital is the town of Aegina. Due to its proximity to Athens, it is a vacation place during the summer months. The province of Aegina was one of the provinces of the Piraeus Prefecture and its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Aegina and Agkistri. Aegina is roughly triangular in shape, approximately 15 km from east to west and 10 km from north to south, with an area of 87.41 km2, an extinct volcano constitutes two thirds of Aegina. Economically, the fisheries are of notable importance. The southern volcanic part of the island is rugged and mountainous and its highest rise is the conical Mount Oros in the south, and the Panhellenian ridge stretches northward with narrow fertile valleys on either side. The beaches are also a popular tourist attraction, hydrofoil ferries from Piraeus take only forty minutes to reach Aegina, the regular ferry takes about an hour, with ticket prices for adults within the 4–15 euro range. There are regular bus services from Aegina town to destinations throughout the island such as Agia Marina, portes is a fishing village on the east coast. Aegina, according to Herodotus, was a colony of Epidaurus and its placement between Attica and the Peloponnesus made it a site of trade even earlier, and its earliest inhabitants allegedly came from Asia Minor. Minoan ceramics have been found in contexts of ca.2000 BC, the famous Aegina Treasure, now in the British Museum is estimated to date between 1700 and 1500 BC. It is probable that the island was not doricised before the 9th century BC. e. not later than the half of the 7th century BC. Its early history reveals that the importance of the island dates back to pre-Dorian times. It is usually stated on the authority of Ephorus, that Pheidon of Argos established a mint in Aegina, the first city-state to issue coins in Europe, one stamped stater can be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. It is an electrum stater of a turtle, a sacred to Aphrodite. The fact that the Aeginetic standard of weights and measures was one of the two standards in use in the Greek world is sufficient evidence of the early commercial importance of the island
11.
Institut de France
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The Institut de France is a French learned society, grouping five académies, the most famous of which is the Académie française. The Institute, located in Paris, manages approximately 1,000 foundations, as well as museums and it also awards prizes and subsidies, which amounted to a total of €5,028,190.55 for 2002. Most of these prizes are awarded by the Institute on the recommendation of the académies, the Institut de France was established on 25 October 1795, by the French government. Académie française – initiated 1635, suppressed 1793, restored 1803 as a division of the institute, Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres – initiated 1663. Académie des sciences – initiated 1666, the Royal Society of Canada, initiated 1882, was modeled after the Institut de France and the Royal Society of London
12.
Napoleon III
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Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the only President of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I and he was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution, during the first years of the Empire, Napoleons government imposed censorship and harsh repressive measures against his opponents. Some six thousand were imprisoned or sent to penal colonies until 1859, thousands more went into voluntary exile abroad, including Victor Hugo. From 1862 onwards, he relaxed government censorship, and his came to be known as the Liberal Empire. Many of his opponents returned to France and became members of the National Assembly, Napoleon III is best known today for his grand reconstruction of Paris, carried out by his prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann. He launched similar public works projects in Marseille, Lyon, Napoleon III modernized the French banking system, greatly expanded and consolidated the French railway system, and made the French merchant marine the second largest in the world. He promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, Napoleon III negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier free trade agreement with Britain and similar agreements with Frances other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike and the right to organize, womens education greatly expanded, as did the list of required subjects in public schools. In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and he was a supporter of popular sovereignty and of nationalism. In Europe, he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War and his regime assisted Italian unification and, in doing so, annexed Savoy and the County of Nice to France, at the same time, his forces defended the Papal States against annexation by Italy. Napoleon doubled the area of the French overseas empire in Asia, the Pacific, on the other hand, his armys intervention in Mexico which aimed to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection ended in failure. Beginning in 1866, Napoleon had to face the power of Prussia. In July 1870, Napoleon entered the Franco-Prussian War without allies, the French army was rapidly defeated and Napoleon III was captured at the Battle of Sedan. The French Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris, and Napoleon went into exile in England, charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, later known as Louis Napoleon and then Napoleon III, was born in Paris on the night of 20–21 April 1808. His presumed father was Louis Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. His mother was Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter by the first marriage of Napoleons wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, as empress, Joséphine proposed the marriage as a way to produce an heir for the Emperor, who agreed, as Joséphine was by then infertile. Louis married Hortense when he was twenty-four and she was nineteen and they had a difficult relationship, and only lived together for brief periods
13.
Salle Le Peletier
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The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul, however, the project to build a chapel was never carried out due to the 1830 revolution. Today the Fontaine Louvois in the Square Louvois occupies the spot where the chapel would have been built, the Salle de la rue de Richelieu had been the principal venue of the Paris Opera since 1794. During the construction the opera and ballet companies occupied the Théâtre Favart, although the theatre was meant to be temporary and was built of wood and plaster, it continued to be used by the Opéra for more than fifty years. The theatre, which was 14,000 square metres in area with a 104 ft. stage, was advanced for its time. On 6 February 1822 gas was used for the first time in order to light the stage effects in Nicolas Isouards opera Aladin ou La Lampe merveilleuse. The stage and orchestra pit were able to be removed in order to transform the auditorium into a hall which could accommodate large balls. Among these works, La Sylphide, Giselle, Paquita, Le corsaire, Le papillon, La source, and Coppélia. Among the great ballerinas to grace the stage of the Opéra during this time were Marie Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Carolina Rosati, Fanny Elssler, Lucile Grahn, the game was played in the Dukes private box during a performance of Bellinis Norma. In 1875 the new theatre, today known as the Palais Garnier, was inaugurated, Opera in Paris, 1800–1850, A Lively History. Fauser, Annegret, editor, Everist, Mark, editor, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press. Totowa, New Jersey, Rowman and Littlefield, the Paris Opéra, an encyclopedia of operas, ballets, composers, and performers. Opéra National de Paris Notes on the Académie Royale de Musique from the Scholarly Societies Project
14.
Alphonse Royer
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Alphonse Royer, was a French author, dramatist and theatre manager, most remembered today for having written the librettos for Gaetano Donizettis opera La favorite and Giuseppe Verdis Jérusalem. From 1853 to 1856, he was the director of the Odéon Theatre and from 1856 to 1862 director of the Paris Opéra, in his later years, he wrote a six volume history of the theatre and a history of the Paris Opéra. He also translated the works of the Italian dramatist Carlo Gozzi, as well those of the Spanish writers, Cervantes, Tirso de Molina. A Chevalier and later Officier of the Légion dhonneur, Royer died in Paris, Alphonse Royer was born in Paris to a prosperous family with various commercial interests. His father was a commissaire-priseur and lawyer, as a young man, Royer belonged to a literary circle inspired by Romanticism and Liberalism, movements for which he maintained a sympathy throughout his life. He initially trained to be a lawyer, but was interested in poetry. His father sent him abroad where for years he travelled in Italy and the Middle East. Royer was in Constantinople during the 1826 revolt of the Janissaries against Mahmud II and later wrote an account of it in his 1844 novel, Les janissaires. His experiences during those years served as the inspirations for several other works, including his novels Venezia la bella and Robert Macaire en Orient. On his return to Paris, Royer made his debut with a novel set in the Middle Ages, Les Mauvais Garçons. It was published in 1830, the year as his first venture into drama, Henry V et ses compagnons. The play premiered to great success at the Théâtre des Nouveautés on 27 February 1830 with incidental music by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Carl Maria von Weber and their first major collaboration was the translation and adaptation of Donizettis opera, Lucia di Lammermoor for the French stage. They always worked closely with the composers and were praised for the way their writing respected the movement, in the case of translated librettos, this was made all the more difficult by having to adapt their poetry to a pre-existing score intended to be sung in another language. An anonymous critic in LIllustration wrote of their translation for Rossinis Otello, By virtue of work and skill, MM. In addition to their work on opera librettos, Royer and Vaëz co-wrote many plays, ranging from drama to comédie en vaudeville. He held salons at his apartment in the Rue de Navarin, attended by literary figures, artists, composers and journalists, all of whom were close friends. Amongst Royers circle of friends at this time, in addition to Barbier and Vaëz, were Alphonse Karr, Camille Rogier, Joseph Méry, Balzac, Gérard de Nerval, Théophile Gautier, Heine, Gautier and Royer had a particularly close friendship. At several points they all lived near each other on the Rue de Navarin, Royer and Gautier and their mistresses were also frequent visitors to Heines summer house in Montmorency
15.
Alphonse de Gisors
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He was born in Paris, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts with Charles Percier and his uncle Guy de Gisors, who helped him obtain a position with the Bâtiments Civils in 1822. He won second place in the Prix de Rome in 1823 and was promoted to Architecte in 1824, early in his career he used the classical style of Percier, designing fire stations, theatres, town halls, and other public buildings in Paris and the provinces. Around 1828 he designed the Hôtel de la Préfecture and the Hôtel de Ville in Ajaccio, the new wing included a library with a cycle of paintings by Eugène Delacroix. The garden facade of his addition is so similar to the original that at first glance it is difficult to distinguish the new from the old. In 1840 he rebuilt the facade of the chapel of the former Convent of the Daughters of Calvary. From 1841 to 1847 he worked on the Ecole Normale Supérieure, in the 1850s he joined together a first-floor suite of rooms in the Luxembourg Palace on the courtyard side of the original corps de logis, creating the highly ornate Salle des Conférences. Inspired by the Galerie dApollon of the Louvre, it influenced the nature of subsequent official interiors of the Second Empire, in 1861 he shifted the Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Gardens slightly closer to the palace to make way for the rue de Médicis. He also restored the arms of France and of the Medici on the fountain, in 1864 the extension of the rue de Rennes prompted Gisors to move the Fontaine du Regard and to attach it to the back of the Medici Fountain. 12, pp. 746–747, in The Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner, Paris Buildings and Monuments, p.209. Alphonse de Gisors at insecula French Senate
16.
Battle of Sedan
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The Battle of Sedan was fought during the Franco–Prussian War on 1 September 1870. Marshal MacMahon was wounded during the attacks and command passed to General Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot, after its defeat at Gravelotte, Marshal Bazaines Army of the Rhine retreated to Metz where it was besieged by over 150,000 Prussian troops of the First and Second Armies. Emperor Napoleon III, along with Marshal MacMahon, formed the new French Army of Châlons to march on to Metz to rescue Bazaine. The Prussians had repeatedly outmaneuvered the French in the string of victories through August 1870, the Prussians, under the command of von Moltke, took advantage of this maneuver to catch the French in a pincer grip. After a hard-fought battle with the French losing 5,000 men and 40 cannons in a sharp fight, the French withdrew towards Sedan. Their intention was to rest the army, which had involved in a long series of marches, resupply them with ammunition and then retreat. Having reformed in Sedan, the Army of Châlons deployed the First Corps to check the Prussian advance and they could not retreat owing to the exhaustion of their troops, and they were short on ammunition. The French rear was protected by the Fortress of Sedan, and offered a position at Calvaire dIlly. Moltke divided his forces into three groups, one to detain the French where they were, another to race forward and catch them if they retreated, the French were unable to move and had to fight where they stood. The Prussians thus encircled the French, Napoleon had ordered MacMahon to break out of the encirclement, and the only point where that seemed possible was La Moncelle, whose flank was protected by a fortified town. The Prussians also picked La Moncelle as one point where they would mount a breakthrough, prince George of Saxony and the Prussian XI Corps was assigned to the task, and General Baron von der Tann were ordered to attack Bazeilles on the right flank. This was the engagement, as the French First Corps had barricaded the streets. Von der Tann sent a brigade across pontoon bridges at 0400 hours, the combat drew new forces, as French brigades from the First, Fifth, and Twelfth Corps arrived. At 0800 the Prussian 8th Infantry Division arrived, and von der Tann decided it was time for a decisive attack. He had not been able to bring artillery to bear from long range, so he committed his last brigade to storm the town and his artillery reached Bazeilles at 0900 hours. Fighting began in earnest at 0600, and the wounded MacMahon had appointed General Auguste Ducrot to command, Wimpffen then threw his forces against the Saxons at La Moncelle. This led to a rally for the French, who drove back the artillery around La Moncelle and pressed the Bavarians. However, with the taking of Bazeilles, and the arrival of waves of Prussian troops
17.
Paris Commune
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The Paris Commune was a radical socialist and revolutionary government that ruled Paris from 18 March to 28 May 1871. Following the defeat of Emperor Napoleon III in September 1870, the French Second Empire swiftly collapsed, in its stead rose a Third Republic at war with Prussia, which laid siege to Paris for four months. A hotbed of radicalism, Frances capital was primarily defended during this time by the often politicized. In February 1871 Adolphe Thiers, the new executive of the French national government, signed an armistice with Prussia that disarmed the Army. Soldiers of the Communes National Guard killed two French army generals, and the Commune refused to accept the authority of the French government, the regular French Army suppressed the Commune during La semaine sanglante beginning on 21 May 1871. Debates over the policies and outcome of the Commune had significant influence on the ideas of Karl Marx, on 2 September 1870, after Frances unexpected defeat at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War, Emperor Napoleon III surrendered to the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. When the news reached Paris the next day, shocked and angry crowds came out into the streets, Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the Emperors regent, fled the city, and the Government of the Second Empire swiftly collapsed. Republican and radical deputies of the National Assembly went to the Hôtel de Ville, proclaimed the new French Republic, though the Emperor and the French Army had been defeated at Sedan, the war continued. The German army marched swiftly toward Paris, in Paris, however, the republican candidates dominated, winning 234,000 votes against 77,000 for the Bonapartists. Only about 40,000 were employed in factories and large enterprises, most were employed in industries in textiles, furniture. There were also 115,000 servants and 45,000 concierges, in addition to the native French population, there were about 100,000 immigrant workers and political refugees, the largest number being from Italy and Poland. The working class and immigrants suffered the most from the lack of activity due to the war. The Commune resulted in part from growing discontent among the Paris workers and this discontent can be traced to the first worker uprisings, the Canut Revolts, in Lyon and Paris in the 1830s. Many Parisians, especially workers and the classes, supported a democratic republic. They also wanted a more just way of managing the economy, if not necessarily socialist, socialist movements, such as the First International, had been growing in influence with hundreds of societies affiliated to it across France. In early 1867, Parisian employers of bronze-workers attempted to de-unionize their workers and this was defeated by a strike organized by the International. Later in 1867, a public demonstration in Paris was answered by the legal dissolution of its executive committee. The International had considerable influence even among unaffiliated French workers, particularly in Paris, the killing of journalist Victor Noir incensed Parisians, and the arrests of journalists critical of the Emperor did nothing to quiet the city
18.
Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta
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Marshal Marie Esme Patrice Maurice, Count de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta, was a French general and politician, with the distinction of Marshal of France. He served as Chief of State of France from 1873 to 1875 and as the president of the Third Republic. MacMahon won national renown and the presidency on the basis of his actions in the war against the Germans. MacMahon was a devout conservative Catholic, a traditionalist who despised socialism and he took very seriously his duty as the neutral guardian of the Constitution and rejected suggestions of a monarchist coup détat. He also refused to meet with Gambetta, the leader of the Republicans and he moved for a parliamentary system in which the assembly selected the ruling government of the Third Republic, but he also insisted on an upper chamber. He later dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, resulting in public outrage, MacMahon soon resigned and retired to private life. Patrice de MacMahon was born in Sully, in the département of Saône-et-Loire and he was the 16th of 17 children of a family already in the French nobility. His ancestors were part of the Dál gCais and were Lords of Corcu Baiscind in Ireland and they applied for French citizenship in 1749. Patrice de MacMahon was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and at the Academy of St-Cyr, before commencing regimental duty MacMahon undertook two years of specialized training for the general staff from 1825 to 1827. He was then appointed as a sous-lieutenant to the 4th Hussars and he subsequently served In Algeria as a junior officer with the 20th Regiment of Line Infantry. MacMahon served as aide-de-camp to General Achard, and participated in the occupation of Algiers in 1830 and he stayed in Algeria from 1834–1854, and was wounded during an assault on Constantine in 1837. In December 1841 he was placed in command of a battalion of chasseurs à pied, designated regimental commander of the 2nd Foreign Regiment of the Foreign Legion in 1843, he was promoted to Divisional General in 1852. In the Crimean War, MacMahon distinguished himself in the Battle of Malakoff at Sevastopol, during which he uttered the famous quotation now attributed to him, Jy suis. He was offered the top French Army post after the war but declined, MacMahon was appointed to the French Senate in 1856. MacMahon fought in the Second Italian War of Independence as commander of the Second Corps and he secured the French victory at Magenta and rose to the rank of Maréchal de France while in the field. He was later created Duke of Magenta by Napoléon III as a result, in the Franco-Prussian War MacMahon commanded the I and V French Corps on the Army of the Rhines Southern line. On 4 August 1870 the Prussian 3rd Army attacked the Southern line and they quickly moved on to capture the city of Wörth two days later. After less than a week of fighting, the entire Army of the Rhine Southern line could not withstand the Prussian attacks and retreated west, MacMahon led the 120,000 strong remnants of the Army of the Rhine, reformed as the Army of Châlons, with Napoléon III
19.
Alfonso XII of Spain
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Alfonso XII was King of Spain, reigning from 1874 to 1885, after a coup détat restored the monarchy and ended the ephemeral First Spanish Republic. Having been forced into exile after the Glorious Revolution deposed his mother Isabella II from the throne in 1868, Alfonso studied in Austria and his mother abdicated in his favour in 1870, and he returned to Spain as king in 1874 following a military coup. Alfonso died aged 27 in 1885, and was succeeded by his unborn son, Alfonso was born in Madrid as the eldest son of Queen Isabella II. Officially, his father was her husband, King Francis, alfonsos biological paternity is uncertain, there is speculation that his biological father may have been Enrique Puigmoltó y Mayans. These rumours were used as propaganda against Alfonso by the Carlists. His mothers accession created the second cause of instability, which was the Carlist Wars, the supporters of the Count of Molina as king of Spain rose to have him enthroned. This led to the cause of instability of note, the Independence of the American Kingdoms. When Queen Isabella and her husband were forced to leave Spain by the Revolution of 1868, from there, he was sent to the Theresianum at Vienna to continue his studies. On 25 June 1870, he was recalled to Paris, where his mother abdicated in his favour, after Amadeos abandonment in 1873, Parliament declared the Federal Republic, the first act of President Estanislao Figueras was to extend the Abolition Act to Puerto Rico. Cuban slaves would have to wait until 1889, but the republicans were not in agreement either, and they had to contend with the War in Cuba, and Muslim uprisings in Spanish Morocco. By 1872, the Third Carlist War erupted and this unrest led to the creation of a group in favor of the Bourbon restoration, made by some sectors of the conservatives led by Canovas del Castillo. The Prince of Asturias, Alfonso, was the chosen to develop the new road map proposed by Canovas. The new road map, which indeed ended the eternal crisis begun in 1810 was called Alfonsismo, as having Alfonso in Spain would be a problem, Cánovas became responsible for his education. He sent Alfonso to the Sandhurst Military Academy in England, where the training Alfonso received was severe but more cosmopolitan than in Spain, on 1 December 1874, Alfonso issued the Sandhurst Manifesto, where he set the ideological basis of the Bourbon Restoration. It was drafted in reply to a greeting from his followers. Thereupon the President resigned, and his power was transferred to the kings plenipotentiary and adviser, the 29 December 1874 military coup of Gen. Martinez Campos in Sagunto ended the failed republic and meant the rise of the young Prince Alfonso. In 1876, a campaign against the Carlists, in which the young king took part, resulted in the defeat of Don Carlos. Cánovas was the architect of the new regime of the Restoration
20.
Claude Debussy
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Achille-Claude Debussy, known since the 1890s as Claude-Achille Debussy or Claude Debussy, was a French composer. He and Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music and he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Debussys music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of nontraditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, Debussy, the oldest of five children, was born Achille-Claude Debussy on 22 August 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. His father, Manuel-Achille Debussy, owned a shop there, his mother. The family moved to Paris in 1867, but in 1870 Debussys pregnant mother fled with Claude to his aunts home in Cannes to escape the Franco-Prussian War. At the age of seven, he began lessons with an Italian violinist in his early 40s named Jean Cerutti. In 1871 he drew the attention of Marie Mauté de Fleurville, Debussy always believed her, although there is no independent evidence to support her claim. His talents soon became evident, and in 1872, at age ten, Debussy entered the Paris Conservatoire and he also became a lifelong friend of fellow student and distinguished pianist Isidor Philipp. After Debussys death, many pianists sought Philipps advice on playing his works, Debussy was experimental from the outset, favouring dissonances and intervals that were not taught at the Academy. Like Georges Bizet, he was a brilliant pianist and a sight reader. However, Debussy never once won a competition, and his personal opinion on competitions are that it is rather. The rules are taught in places called Conservatories, Art Schools, the contests, preceded by strict training, take place once a year and the umpires of the game are members of the institute —Monsieur Croche. The pieces he played in public at this time included sonata movements by Beethoven, Schumann and Weber,2, a movement from the Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Allegro de concert, during the summers of 1880,1881, and 1882, he accompanied Nadezhda von Meck, the wealthy patroness of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as she travelled with her family in Europe. Despite von Mecks closeness to Tchaikovsky, the Russian master appears to have had effect on Debussy. In September 1880 she sent his Danse bohémienne for Tchaikovskys perusal, a month later Tchaikovsky wrote back to her, It is a pretty piece. Not a single idea is expressed fully, the form is terribly shriveled, Debussy did not publish the piece, and the manuscript remained in the von Meck family, it was eventually sold to B
21.
Andrea Palladio
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Andrea Palladio was an Italian architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is considered to be the most influential individual in the history of architecture. All of his buildings are located in what was the Venetian Republic, the city of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Palladio was born on 30 November 1508 in Padua and was given the name and his father, Pietro, called Della Gondola, was a miller. From early on, Andrea Palladio was introduced into the work of building, in Padua he gained his first experiences as a stonecutter in the sculpture workshop of Bartolomeo Cavazza da Sossano, who is said to have imposed particularly hard working conditions. At the age of sixteen he moved to Vicenza where he would reside for most of his life, here he became an assistant in the Pedemuro studio, a leading workshop of stonecutters and masons. He joined a guild of stonemasons and bricklayers and he was employed as a stonemason to make monuments and decorative sculptures. These sculptures reflected the Mannerist style of the architect Michele Sanmicheli, perhaps the key moment that sparked Palladios career was being employed by the Humanist poet and scholar, Gian Giorgio Trissino, from 1538 to 1539. While Trissino was reconstructing the Villa Cricoli, he took interest in Palladios work, Trissino was heavily influenced by the studies of Vitruvius, who later influenced Palladios own ideals and attitudes toward classical architecture. It was also Trissino who gave him the name by which he became known, Palladio, indeed, the word Palladio means Wise one. The powerful Barbaros introduced Palladio to Venice, where he finally became Proto della Serenissima after Jacopo Sansovino, in addition to the Barbaros, the Corner, Foscari, and Pisani families supported Palladios career. Andrea Palladio began to develop his own architectural style around 1541, the Palladian style, named after him, adhered to classical Roman principles he rediscovered, applied, and explained in his works. Andrea Palladio is known to be one of the most influential architects in Western architecture and his architectural works have been valued for centuries as the quintessence of High Renaissance calm and harmony. He designed many palaces, villas, and churches, but Palladios reputation, initially, the palladian villas are located mainly in the province of Vicenza, while the palazzi are concentrated in the city of Vicenza and the churches in Venice. A number of his works are now protected as part of the World Heritage Site City of Vicenza, other buildings by Palladio are to be found within the Venice and its Lagoon World Heritage Site. Palladios first major public project began when his designs for building the loggias for the town hall and he proposed an addition of two-storey stone buttresses reflecting the Gothic style of the existing hall while using classical proportions. The construction was completed in 1617 after Palladios death, aside from Palladios designs, his publications contributed to Palladianism. During the second half of his life, Palladio published many books, above all, Palladio is most known for his designs of villas and palaces as well as his books
22.
Jacopo Sansovino
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Jacopo dAntonio Sansovino was an Italian sculptor and architect, known best for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Andrea Palladio, in the Preface to his Quattro Libri was of the opinion that Sansovinos Biblioteca Marciana was the best building erected since Antiquity, giorgio Vasari uniquely printed his Vita of Sansovino separately. He was born in Florence and apprenticed with Andrea Sansovino whose name he subsequently adopted, in Rome he attracted the notice of Bramante and Raphael and made a wax model of the Deposition of Christ for Perugino to use. He returned to Florence in 1511 where he received commissions for sculptures of St. James for the Duomo. In the period of 1510-17 he shared a studio with the painter Andrea del Sarto, like all sixteenth-century Italian architects, Sansovino devoted considerable energy to elaborate but temporary structures related to courtly ritual. The triumphant entry of Pope Leo X into Florence in 1515 was a highpoint of this genre and he subsequently returned to Rome where he stayed for nine years, leaving for Venice in the year of the Sack of Rome. In 1529, Sansovino became chief architect and superintendent of properties to the Procurators of San Marco, the appointment came with a salary of 80 ducats and an apartment near the clocktower in San Marco. Within a year his salary was raised to 180 ducats per year, among palaces and buildings are the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, Ca de Dio, Palazzo Dolfin Manin, Palazzo Corner, Palazzo Moro, and the Fabbriche Nuove di Rialto. His masterpiece is the Library of Saint Marks, the Biblioteca Marciana, one of Venices most richly decorated Renaissance structures, construction spanned fifty years and cost over 30,000 ducats. In it he made the architectural language of classicism, traditionally associated with severity and restraint. This paved the way for the architecture of Andrea Palladio. He died in Venice and his sepulchre is in the Baptistery of St and his most important follower in the medium of sculpture was Alessandro Vittoria, another disciple was the architect and sculptor Danese Cataneo. Jacopo Sansovinos works Renaissance Classicism Boucher, Bruce, monograph and catalogue raisonné of the sculpture. Jacopo Sansovino Architecture and Patronage in Renaissance Venice
23.
Michelangelo
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered to be the greatest living artist during his lifetime, he has since described as one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of Michelangelos works of painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence and he sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library, at the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peters Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification. Michelangelo was unique as the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive, in his lifetime he was often called Il Divino. One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, the attempts by subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelos impassioned and highly personal style resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, at the time of Michelangelos birth, his father was the Judicial administrator of the small town of Caprese and local administrator of Chiusi. Michelangelos mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, the Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa, this claim remains unproven, but Michelangelo himself believed it. Several months after Michelangelos birth, the returned to Florence. There Michelangelo gained his love for marble, as Giorgio Vasari quotes him, If there is good in me. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, as a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to Florence to study grammar under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino. The young artist, however, showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches, the city of Florence was at that time the greatest centre of the arts and learning in Italy. Art was sponsored by the Signoria, by the merchant guilds and by patrons such as the Medici. The Renaissance, a renewal of Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had laboured for fifty years to create the bronze doors of the Baptistry, which Michelangelo was to describe as The Gates of Paradise. The exterior niches of the Church of Orsanmichele contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence – Donatello, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Nanni di Banco. The interiors of the churches were covered with frescos, begun by Giotto. During Michelangelos childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican, among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing, and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence at that period
24.
Monte Carlo Casino
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Officially named Casino de Monte-Carlo, the Monte Carlo Casino is a gambling and entertainment complex located in Monaco. It includes a casino, the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo, the Casino de Monte-Carlo is owned and operated by the Société des bains de mer de Monaco, a public company in which the Monaco government and the ruling family have a majority interest. The company also owns the principal hotels, sports clubs, foodservice establishments, the idea of opening a gambling casino in Monaco belongs to Princess Caroline, a shrewd, business-minded spouse of Prince Florestan I. Revenues from the venture were supposed to save the House of Grimaldi from bankruptcy. Granted the concession of 30 years to operate a bathing establishment and gaming tables, Aubert, intended to be only a temporary location, the building was a modest mansion in La Condamine. In the late 1850s, Monaco was a place for a resort to succeed. Unable to raise the capital needed to operate the enterprise, Aubert and Langlois ceded their rights to Frossard de Lilbonne. During this initial period, the casino had been moved several times, construction at this site began on 13 May 1858 to designs of the Parisian architect Gobineau de la Bretonnerie and was completed in 1863. Gobineau de la Bretonnerie also designed the neighboring Hôtel de Paris, although the casino began to make a profit in 1859, Daval was not up to the task. Just like his predecessors, he was incompetent and lacked the ability to bring the gambling enterprise to the scale envisioned by Princess Caroline. Frustrated, she dispatched her private secretary M. Eyneaud to Germany, hoping to recruit François Blanc and it took a lot of time and persuasion on the part of Princess Caroline to convince the Blancs to move to Monaco. Princess Caroline even appealed to Madame Blanc, whom she befriended during her first visit to Bad Homburg, finally, in 1863 François Blanc agreed to take over the Monacos casino business. To manage the new venture, a company—the Societe des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers—was formed with capital of 15 million francs, among the prominent investors were Charles-Bonaventure-François Theuret, Bishop of Monaco, and Cardinal Pecci, the future Pope Leo XIII. Blanc became the majority stockholder in the company and received a 50-year concession. Blanc used his connections to quickly raise the capital. On Blancs insistence, the Spelugues area where the complex was located was renamed to make it sound more attractive to casino visitors. A few suggestions were considered, and the name Monte Carlo was chosen in Prince Charles honor. In 1878–79, the building was transformed and expanded to designs of Jules Dutrou and Charles Garnier
25.
Bordighera
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Bordighera is a town and comune in the Province of Imperia, Liguria. Bordighera is located at 20 km from France and it is possible to see the French coast with an eye from the town. Having the Capo Sant’Ampelio which protrudes into the sea, it is the southernmost commune of the region, the cape is at around the same latitude of Pisa and features a little church built in the XIth Century for Sant’Ampelio, the patron saint of the city. Since Bordighera is built where the Maritime Alps plunge into the sea it benefits from the Foehn effect which creates a microclimate that has warmer winters. The name of the city appears for the first time as Burdigheta in 1296, the area was particularly prosperous during Roman times because it was situated on the via Julia Augusta in the Ist Century B. C. The Moorish pirates started becoming rarer and rarer even though some particularly cruel ones still occasionally happened such as the one by the pirate Hayreddin Barbarossa in 1543. With pirate attacks diminishing the importance of the area became obvious to the Dukes of Savoy. The small village was transformed into a fortified town and gained importance until it became independent from the rival city Ventimiglia in 1683. Bartholomew Oratory to build what will be called Magnifica comunità degli otto luoghi, the goal of this meeting is to unite and gain independence from the nearby rival city of Ventimiglia. In 1797 Bordighera loses its independence completely and becomes part of the Palms Jurisdiction, the next change of power inside the region comes in 1815 in which the whole Liguria is annexed to the Kingdom of Sardegna after the Congress of Vienna. That zone is what constitutes Bordighera today and the old town is simply called Old Bordighera or High Bordighera due to its position over the hill. The Golden Age of the city comes in the XIXth Century when the low city is constructed next to the Corniche road and the sea which attracted English tourists. The touristic interest in Bordighera seems to have been sparked by a novel from Giovanni Ruffini, Il Dottor Antonio which was published in 1855 in Edinburgh and featured the town. The institution hosts its first famous resident in 1861, the British Prime Minister Lord John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, in 1873, the railway station is inaugurated, it allowed to travel from Paris to Bordighera in only 24hrs, which at the time was remarkably fast. With the opening of the Calais-Rome Express railway on the 8th December 1883, in 1887, Stéphen Liégard, in his famous book La Cote d’Azur, dedicated several pages to Bordighera and gave it a name that will stick, Queen of the Palm Trees. He also quotes the fact that the Empress Eugenie was hosted at the Grand Hotel de Bordighera in the autumn of 1886, in July 1947, Evita Peron visited Bordighera and, in order to honour her visit the seaside promenade was named Lungomare Argentina. The road is 2. 300m long, which makes it the longest promenade out of all present in the Riviera. Bordighera was the first town in Europe to grow date palms, casa Coraggio, Bordighera is one of the historic buildings in the city, there lived writers George MacDonald and Edmondo De Amicis
26.
Nice Observatory
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The Observatoire de Nice is an astronomical observatory located in Nice, France on the summit of Mont Gros. The observatory was founded in 1879 by the banker Raphaël Bischoffsheim, the architect was Charles Garnier, and Gustave Eiffel designed the main dome. The 77 cm refractor telescope made by Henry and Gautier became operational around 1886–1887, was the largest in a privately funded observatory, and the first at such high altitude. It was slightly bigger in aperture, several metres longer, and located at a higher altitude than the new 76 cm at Pulkovo observatory in the Russian Empire, and the 68 cm at Vienna Observatory. In the records for the largest refracting telescopes all three were outperformed by the 91 cm refractor installed at the Lick Observatory at 1,283 m altitude in 1889, as a scientific institution, the Nice Observatory no longer exists. It was merged with CERGA in 1988 to form the Côte dAzur Observatory, the Nice Observatory was featured in the unsuccessful 1999 film Simon Sez. It was also the setting for the scene in the 2014 Woody Allen flick Magic in the Moonlight. Henri Joseph Anastase Perrotin 1880–1904 General J. A. L
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Montparnasse Cemetery
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Montparnasse Cemetery is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, part of the citys 14th arrondissement. Created from three farms in 1824, the cemetery at Montparnasse was originally known as Le Cimetière du Sud, cemeteries had been banned from Paris since the closure, owing to health concerns, of the Cimetière des Innocents in 1786. At the heart of the city, and today sitting in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, is Passy Cemetery, Montparnasse Cemetery is the resting place of many of Frances intellectual and artistic elite as well as publishers and others who promoted the works of authors and artists. There are also graves of foreigners who have made France their home, as well as monuments to police. The cemetery is divided by Rue Émile Richard, the small section is usually referred to as the small cemetery and the large section as the big cemetery. Although Baudelaire is buried in this cemetery, there is also a cenotaph to him, because of the many notable people buried there, it is a highly popular tourist attraction. Divisions 5 and 30 were originally Jewish enclosures and contain many Jewish graves, the main entrance to the cemetery is on Boulevard Edgar Quinet which leads to the big cemetery. There are smaller entrances to both the big and small cemeteries on Rue Émile Richard, list of burials at Montparnasse Cemetery A list of many buried at the cemetery Montparnasse Cemetery at Find a Grave Information and help in touring Montparnasse cemetery In English
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Jean-Louis Pascal
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Jean-Louis Pascal was an academic French architect. Born in Paris, Pascal was taught at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts by Émile Gilbert and he won the Grand Prix de Rome for Architecture in 1866, which put him in residency at the Villa Medici in Rome from 1867 through 1870. After brief service in the Franco-Prussian War, he returned to Paris to assist Hector Lefuel with the restoration of the Louvre, and succeeded Questel as the head of his own old atelier. In 1875, his star rising in the system, Pascal was appointed the head architect for the National Library of France upon the death of the previous architect. Pascal brought this project nearly to completion, contributing interiors and exteriors, the Oval Room, the Salon Voltaire, the periodical room. In 1914 Pascal was awarded both the American AIA Gold Medal in 1914 and the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Pascal may have had his greatest influence as a teacher, both for French architects and particularly for students who adapted the lessons of the Beaux-Arts to their home countries. Pascals atelier was credited with a total of four grand prizes and fifteen second prizes while he was patron
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Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
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Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was a French sculptor and painter during the Second Empire under Napoleon III. Born in Valenciennes, Nord, son of a mason, his studies were under François Rude. Carpeaux entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1844 and won the Prix de Rome in 1854, staying in Rome from 1854 to 1861, he obtained a taste for movement and spontaneity, which he joined with the great principles of baroque art. Carpeaux sought real life subjects in the streets and broke with the classical tradition, Carpeaux debuted at the Salon in 1853 exhibiting La Soumission dAbd-el-Kader alEmperuer, a bas-relief in plaster that did not attract much attention. Carpeaux was an admirer of Napoléon III and followed him from city to city during Napoléons official trip through the north of France, Carpeaux soon grew tired of academicism and became a wanderer on the streets of Rome. He spent free time admiring the frescoes of Michelangelo at the Sistine Chapel, Carpeaux said, When an artist feels pale and cold, he runs to Michelangelo in order to warm himself, as with the rays of the sun. While a student in Rome, Carpeaux submitted a version of Pêcheur napolitain à la coquille. He carved the marble version several years later, showing it in the Salon exhibition of 1863 and it was purchased for Napoleon IIIs empress, Eugénie. The statue of the smiling boy was very popular, and Carpeaux created a number of reproductions and variations in marble. There is a copy, for instance, in the Samuel H. Kress Collection in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, some years later, he carved the Girl with a Shell, a very similar study. In 1861, he made a bust of Princess Mathilde, then in 1866, he established his own atelier in order to reproduce and make work on a grander scale. In 1866, he was awarded the chevalier of the Legion of Honour and he employed his brother as the sales manager and made a calculated effort to produce work that would appeal to a larger audience. On 12 October 1875, he died at the Chateau de Bécon, among his students were Jules Dalou, Jean-Louis Forain and the American sculptor Olin Levi Warner. Carpeaux died at age 48 in Courbevoie, ugolin et ses fils with versions in other museums including the Musée dOrsay, Paris. Partly complete at his death, Carpeaux finished the terrestrial globe with the points represented by the four figures of Asia, Europe. LAmour à la folie, part of a group La danse for the facade of the Opera Garnier A page from insecula
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Jacques Offenbach
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Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and he was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were revived during the 20th century. The Tales of Hoffman remains part of the opera repertory. Born in Cologne, the son of a cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but found academic study unfulfilling, from 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose pieces for the musical theatre. Finding the management of Paris Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, there he presented a series of his own small-scale pieces, many of which became popular. In 1858, Offenbach produced his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers, during the 1860s, he produced at least 18 full-length operettas, as well as more one-act pieces. His works from this period included La belle Hélène, La Vie parisienne, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Offenbach became associated with the Second French Empire of Napoleon III, the emperor and his court were genially satirised in many of Offenbachs operettas. Napoleon III personally granted him French citizenship and the Légion dHonneur, with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Offenbach found himself out of favour in Paris because of his imperial connections and his German birth. He remained successful in Vienna and London, however and he re-established himself in Paris during the 1870s, with revivals of some of his earlier favourites and a series of new works, and undertook a popular U. S. tour. In his last years he strove to finish The Tales of Hoffmann, but died before the premiere of the opera, Offenbach was born Jacob or Jakob Offenbach to a Jewish family, in the German city of Cologne, which was then a part of Prussia. His birthplace in the Großen Griechenmarkt was a distance from the square that is now named after him. He was the son and the seventh of ten children of Isaac Juda Offenbach né Eberst and his wife Marianne. Isaac, who came from a family, had abandoned his original trade as a bookbinder and earned an itinerant living as a cantor in synagogues. He was generally known as der Offenbacher, after his native town, Offenbach am Main, in 1816 he settled in Cologne, where he became established as a teacher, giving lessons in singing, violin, flute and guitar, and composing both religious and secular music. When Jacob was six years old, his father taught him to play the violin, within two years the boy was composing songs and dances, and at the age of nine he took up the cello
31.
Montmartre Cemetery
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Montmartre Cemetery is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France, that dates to the early 19th century. Officially known as the Cimitière du Nord, it is the third largest necropolis in Paris, after the Père Lachaise cemetery and the Montparnasse cemetery. In the mid-18th century, overcrowding in the cemeteries of Paris had created numerous problems, in the 1780s, the Cimetière des Innocents was officially closed and citizens were banned from burying corpses within the city limits of Paris. The Montmartre Cemetery was opened on January 1,1825 and it was initially known as la Cimetière des Grandes Carrières. The name referenced the cemeterys unique location, in a gypsum quarry. The quarry had previously used during the French Revolution as a mass grave. It was built below street level, in the hollow of a gypsum quarry located west of the Butte near the beginning of Rue Caulaincourt in Place de Clichy. As is still the case today, its entrance was constructed on Avenue Rachel under Rue Caulaincourt. A popular tourist destination even today, Montmartre Cemetery is the resting place of many famous artists who lived and worked in the Montmartre area. See the full list of notable interments below and it should be noted however, that the Zola family grave is still there, with Émiles name on it. Montmartre cemetery information In English Photos of Montmartre Documenting funerary statuary in Paris cemeteries, on pariscemeteries. com
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Costume
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Costume is the distinctive style of dress of an individual or group that reflects their class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. The term also was used to describe typical appropriate clothing for certain activities, such as riding costume, swimming costume, dance costume. Appropriate and acceptable costume is subject to changes in fashion and local cultural norms, before the advent of ready-to-wear apparel, clothing was made by hand. Costume comes from the same Italian word, inherited via French, National costume or regional costume expresses local identity and emphasizes a cultures unique attributes. They are often a source of national pride, examples include the Scottish kilt or Japanese kimono. In Bhutan there is a national dress prescribed for men and women. These have been in vogue for thousands of years and have developed into a dress style. The dress worn by men is known as Gho which is a robe worn up to knee-length and is fastened at the waist by a called the Kera. The front part of the dress which is formed like a pouch, in olden days was used to hold baskets of food and short dagger, but now it is used to keep cell phone, purse and the betel nut called Doma. The dress worn by women consist of three known as Kira, Tego and Wonju. The long dress which extends up to the ankle is Kira, the jacket worn above this is Tego which is provided with Wonju, the inner jacket. However, while visiting the Dzong or monastery a long scarf or stoll, called Kabney is worn by men across the shoulder, women also wear scarfs or stolls called Rachus, made of raw silk with embroidery, over their shoulder but not indicative of their rank. Some stylized theatrical costumes, such as Harlequin and Pantaloon in the Commedia dellarte, exaggerate an aspect of a character, the wearing of costumes is an important part of holidays developed from religious festivals such as Mardi Gras, and Halloween. Christmas costumes typically portray characters such as Santa Claus, in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States the American version of a Santa suit and beard is popular, in the Netherlands, the costume of Zwarte Piet is customary. Easter costumes are associated with the Easter Bunny or other animal costumes, in Judaism, a common practice is to dress up on Purim. During this holiday, Jews celebrate the change of their destiny and they were delivered from being the victims of an evil decree against them and were instead allowed by the King to destroy their enemies. A quote from the Book of Esther, which says, On the contrary is the reason that wearing a costume has become customary for this holiday. Buddhist religious festivals in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia and Lhasa and Sikkim in India perform the Cham dance, parades and processions provide opportunities for people to dress up in historical or imaginative costumes
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Theatrical scenery
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Theatrical scenery is that which is used as a setting for a theatrical production. The history of theatrical scenery is as old as the theatre itself, what we tend to think of as traditional scenery, i. e. By the Shakespearean era, the painted backdrop or theatrical prop was in evidence. However, this means that todays set designers must be much more careful. Our more modern notion of scenery, which dates back to the 19th century, finds its origins in the spectacle of opera buffa. Its elaborate settings were appropriated by the straight, or dramatic, theatre, through their use in comic operettas, burlesques, pantomimes and the like. Everything came together in the 1980s and 1990s and, continuing to today, until there is no established style of scenic production, modern stagecraft has grown so complex as to require the highly specialized skills of hundreds of artists and craftspeople to mount a single production. The construction of scenery is frequently one of the most time-consuming tasks when preparing for a show. As a result, many theatres have a place for storing scenery so that it can be used for multiple shows, since future shows typically are not known far in advance, theatres will often construct stock scenery that can be easily adapted to fit a variety of shows. Common stock scenery types include, Curtains Flats Platforms Scenery wagons Production sets Scenic design Set construction Scenography
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Menton
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Menton is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region in southeastern France. Situated on the French Riviera, along the Franco-Italian border, it is nicknamed perle de la France. The Menton area has been inhabited since the era, and is the site of the original Grimaldi Man find of early modern humans, as well as remains of Neanderthals. In Roman times, the Via Julia Augusta, a road connecting Placentia with Arelates passed through Menton, running along the Rue Longue in the old town. The first major settlement occurred during the 11th century CE, when the Count of Ventimiglia constructed the Château de Puypin on the Pépin hill, north, Menton was thus incorporated into the Republic of Genoa. The first mention of Menton dates from 21 July 1262, in the treaty between Charles of Anjou and Genoa. Its position on the border between the Angevin-ruled Provence and the Republic of Genoa, which at the time claimed Monaco as its western limit, acquired in 1346 by Charles Grimaldi, Lord of Monaco, Menton was ruled by the Princes of Monaco until the French Revolution. Annexed during the Revolution, Menton remained part of France through the First Empire and it belonged to the district of Sanremo in the department of Alpes-Maritimes, which at the time included Monaco and Sanremo. In 1814, Menton was included in a reconstituted principality of Monaco which, after Napoleons Hundred Days in 1815, the Princes of Monaco were obliged to do homage to the King for Menton, although not for Monaco itself. In 1848, Menton, along with its neighbour Roquebrune, seceded from Monaco, due at least in part to a tax imposed on lemon exports. The county of Nice was thus annexed to France that June, and Napoleon III paid 4 million francs in compensation to the prince of Monaco, by the end of the 19th century, tourism was an important factor in Mentons growth. The town was popular with English and Russian aristocrats who built many of the hotels, villas. Many of these hotels and palaces were pressed into service as hospitals during World War I to allow injured troops to recuperate in a pleasant climate, Menton was the only sizable settlement captured by Italy during its invasion of France in June 1940. Following the armistice of June 22,1940, two-thirds of the territory of the commune was annexed by Italy as terra irredenta, the annexation lasted until 8 September 1943. Although officially returned to Vichy France, Menton was in fact occupied by Nazi Germany until its liberation by American and Canadian troops of the First Special Service Force on 8 September 1944. Menton, nicknamed the Pearl of France, is located on the Mediterranean Sea at the Franco-Italian border, the fishing industry was devastated in the 1980s and 1990s when a combination of overfishing and hypoxia in the bay. At the time, the devastation was attributed to the dubiously nicknamed killer algae Caulerpa taxifolia spread throughout the coastal sea floor. Menton has got a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, frosts are extremely rare but occasionally occur every few year
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Vittel
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Vittel is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Mineral water is bottled and sold here by Nestlé Waters France, in 1854, after visiting the baths at nearby Contrexéville, lawyer Louis Bouloumié purchased the Fontaine de Gérémoy, site of the modern-day town of Vittel. Two years later, Bouloumie built a pavilion from which developed the grand, in 1968, the Club Med was opened. Home to U. S. Army Base Hospital 36 from Detroit and this unit was formed at the Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery now Wayne State University, School of Medicine. They occupied the five hotels in the city plus the casino. During the Battle of France in the summer of 1944, a grass airstrip north of the town was used for light liaison aircraft by the United States Army Air Forces. The Twelfth Air Force headquartered several fighter wings in Vittel during their drive east into Germany, in 1945, that flat, grassy area of land was used as a holding area for captured Luftwaffe aircraft before their shipment to England and the United States for evaluation. Communes of the Vosges department Vittel served as an internment camp for enemy aliens of the German Reich during World War II, hundreds of American and British families were interned there from September 1942 until liberation by the US Army on September 10th,1944. Also The order of Catholic nuns, Soeurs du Sainte Esprit, were charged with looking after Jewish girls who were interned there and it is said that the girls committed suicide when they learned that they were being deported. INSEE Town council website Spa house website
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Gustave Eiffel
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Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French civil engineer and architect. A graduate of École Centrale Paris, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network and he is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his contribution to building the Statue of Liberty in New York. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel focused on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, Gustave Eiffel was born in France, in the Côte-dOr, the first child of Catherine-Mélanie and Alexandre Bönickhausen. He was a descendant of Jean-René Bönickhausen, who had emigrated from the German town of Marmagen, the family adopted the name Eiffel as a reference to the Eifel mountains in the region from which they had come. Although the family used the name Eiffel, Gustaves name was registered at birth as Bönickhausen. The business was successful enough for Catherine Eiffel to sell it in 1843, both men spent a lot of time with the young Eiffel, teaching him about everything from chemistry and mining to theology and philosophy. During his second year he chose to specialize in chemistry, however, shortly afterwards Nepveus company went bankrupt, but Nepveu found Eiffel a job designing a 22 m sheet iron bridge for the Saint Germaine railway. These were constructed with the aid of compressed air caissons and hydraulic rams, Eiffel was initially given the responsibility of assembling the metalwork and eventually took over the management of the entire project from Nepveu, who resigned in March 1860. Following the completion of the project on schedule Eiffel was appointed as the engineer of the Compagnie Belge. Further promotion within the company followed, but the business began to decline, at the same time he was employed by Jean-Baptiste Kranz to assist him in the design of the exhibition hall for the Exposition Universelle which was to be held in 1867. Eiffels principal job was to draw up the arch girders of the Galerie des Machines, at the end of 1866 Eiffel managed to borrow enough money to set up his own workshops at 48 Rue Fouquet in Levallois-Perret. On 6 October 1868 he entered partnership with Théophile Seyrig, like Eiffel a graduate of the École Centrale. In 1875, Eiffel et Cie were given two important contracts, one for a new terminus for the line from Vienna to Budapest, the station in Budapest was an innovative design. The bridge over the Douro came about as the result of a competition held by the Royal Portuguese Railroad Company and this was greater than the longest arch span which had been built at the time. Eiffels proposal was for a bridge deck was supported by five iron piers. The price quoted by Eiffel was FF, the members included Jean-Baptiste Krantz, Henri Dion and Léon Molinos, both of whom had known Eiffel for a long time, their report was favorable, and Eiffel got the job. On-site work began in January 1876 and was complete by the end of October 1877, the Exposition Universelle in 1878 firmly established his reputation as one of the leading engineers of the time. As well as exhibiting models and drawings of work undertaken by the company, one of these, a pavilion for the Paris Gas Company, was Eiffels first collaboration with Stephen Sauvestre, who was later to become the head of the companys architectural office
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Monaco
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Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a sovereign city-state and microstate, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. France borders the country on three sides while the other side borders the Mediterranean Sea, Monaco has an area of 2.02 km2 and a population of about 38,400 according to the last census of 2015. With 19,009 inhabitants per km², it is the second smallest, Monaco has a land border of 5.47 km, a coastline of 3.83 km, and a width that varies between 1,700 and 349 m. The highest point in the country is a pathway named Chemin des Révoires on the slopes of Mont Agel, in the Les Révoires Ward. Monacos most populous Quartier is Monte Carlo and the most populous Ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins, through land reclamation, Monacos land mass has expanded by twenty percent, in 2005, it had an area of only 1.974 km2. Monaco is known as a playground for the rich and famous, in 2014, it was noted about 30% of the population was made up of millionaires, more than in Zürich or Geneva. Monaco is a principality governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, although Prince Albert II is a constitutional monarch, he wields immense political power. The House of Grimaldi have ruled Monaco, with brief interruptions, the official language is French, but Monégasque, Italian, and English are widely spoken and understood. The states sovereignty was recognized by the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1861. Despite Monacos independence and separate foreign policy, its defense is the responsibility of France, however, Monaco does maintain two small military units. Economic development was spurred in the late 19th century with the opening of the countrys first casino, Monte Carlo, since then, Monacos mild climate, scenery, and gambling facilities have contributed to the principalitys status as a tourist destination and recreation center for the rich. In more recent years, Monaco has become a major banking center and has sought to diversify its economy into services and small, high-value-added, the state has no income tax, low business taxes, and is well known for being a tax haven. It is also the host of the street circuit motor race Monaco Grand Prix. Monaco is not formally a part of the European Union, but it participates in certain EU policies, including customs, through its relationship with France, Monaco uses the euro as its sole currency. Monaco joined the Council of Europe in 2004 and it is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Monacos name comes from the nearby 6th-century BC Phocaean Greek colony, according to an ancient myth, Hercules passed through the Monaco area and turned away the previous gods. As a result, a temple was constructed there, the temple of Hercules Monoikos, because the only temple of this area was the House of Hercules, the city was called Monoikos. It ended up in the hands of the Holy Roman Empire, an ousted branch of a Genoese family, the Grimaldi, contested it for a hundred years before actually gaining control
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