Ukraine
Ukraine, sometimes called the Ukraine, is a country in Eastern Europe. Excluding Crimea, Ukraine has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. Its capital and largest city is Kiev. Ukrainian is the official language and its alphabet is Cyrillic; the dominant religions in the country are Greek Catholicism. Ukraine is in a territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world; the territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus' forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, but its territory was split between Poland and the Russian Empire, merged into the Russian-dominated Soviet Union in the late 1940s as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1991 Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in the aftermath of its dissolution at the end of the Cold War. Before its independence, Ukraine was referred to in English as "The Ukraine", but most sources have since moved to drop "the" from the name of Ukraine in all uses. Following its independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. In 2013, after the government of President Viktor Yanukovych had decided to suspend the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement and seek closer economic ties with Russia, a several-months-long wave of demonstrations and protests known as the Euromaidan began, which escalated into the 2014 Ukrainian revolution that led to the overthrow of Yanukovych and the establishment of a new government; these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic component of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the European Union.
Ukraine is ranks 88th on the Human Development Index. As of 2018, Ukraine has the second lowest GDP per capita in Europe. At US$40, it has the lowest median wealth per adult in the world, it suffers from a high poverty rate and severe corruption. However, because of its extensive fertile farmlands, Ukraine is one of the world's largest grain exporters. Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia; the country is home to a multi-ethnic population, 77.8 percent of whom are Ukrainians, followed by a large Russian minority, as well as Georgians, Belarusians, Crimean Tatars, Jews and Hungarians. Ukraine is a unitary republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers: legislative and judicial branches; the country is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the GUAM organization, one of the founding states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. There are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older widespread hypothesis, it means "borderland", while some more recent linguistic studies claim a different meaning: "homeland" or "region, country"."The Ukraine" used to be the usual form in English, but since the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, "the Ukraine" has become less common in the English-speaking world, style-guides recommend not using the definite article.
"The Ukraine" now implies disregard for the country's sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. The Ukrainian position is that the usage of "'The Ukraine' is incorrect both grammatically and politically." Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites which include a mammoth bone dwelling. The territory is considered to be the location for the human domestication of the horse. Modern human settlement in Ukraine and its vicinity dates back to 32,000 BC, with evidence of the Gravettian culture in the Crimean Mountains. By 4,500 BC, the Neolithic Cucuteni–Trypillia culture flourished in wide areas of modern Ukraine including Trypillia and the entire Dnieper-Dniester region. During the Iron Age, the land was inhabited by Cimmerians and Sarmatians. Between 700 BC and 200 BC it was Scythia. Beginning in the sixth century BC, colonies of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and the Byzantine Empire, such as Tyras and Chersonesus, were founded on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea.
These colonies thrived well into the 6th century AD. The Goths stayed in the area but came under the sway of the Huns from the 370s AD. In the 7th century AD, the territory of eastern Ukraine was the centre of Old Great Bulgaria. At the end of the century, the majority of Bulgar tribes migrated in different directions, the Khazars took over much of the land. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the Antes were located in the territory of; the Antes were the ancestors of Ukrainians: White Croats, Polans, Dulebes and Tiverians. Migrations from Ukraine throughout the Balkans established many Southern Slavic nations. Northern migrations, reaching to the Ilmen l
Piacenza
Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, the capital of the eponymous province. The etymology is long-standing, tracing an origin from the Latin verb placēre, "to please." In French, in English, it is called Plaisance. The name means a "pleasant abode", or as James Boswell reported some of the etymologists of his time to have translated it, "comely"; this was a name "of good omen."Piacenza is located at a major crossroads at the intersection of Route E35/A1 between Bologna and Milan, Route E70/A21 between Brescia and Turin. Piacenza is at the confluence of the Trebbia, draining the northern Apennine Mountains, the Po, draining to the east. Piacenza hosts two universities, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Polytechnic University of Milan. Before its settlement by the Romans, the area was populated by other peoples. Before says Polybius, "These plains were anciently inhabited by Etruscans" before the Gauls took the entire Po Valley from them. Piacenza and Cremona were founded as Roman military colonies in May 218 BC.
The Romans had planned to construct them after the successful conclusion of the latest war with the Gauls ending in 219 BC. In the spring of 218 BC, after declaring war on Carthage, the Senate decided to accelerate the foundation and gave the colonists 30 days to appear on the sites to receive their lands, they were each to be settled by 6,000 Roman citizens. The reaction of the region's Gauls was swift. Taking refuge in Mutina, the latter sent for military assistance. A small force under Lucius Manlius was prevented from reaching the area; the Senate sent two legions under Gaius Atelius. Collecting Manlius and the colonists, they descended on Piacenza and Cremona and placed castra there of 480 square metres to support the building of the city. Piacenza must have been walled as the walls were in place when the Battle of the Trebia was fought around the city in December. There is no evidence either archaeological of a prior settlement at that exact location. Piacenza was the 53rd colony to be placed by Rome since its foundation.
It was the first among the Gauls of the Po valley. It had to be supplied by boat after the Battle of Trebbia, when Hannibal controlled the countryside, for which purpose a port was constructed. In 209 BC, Hasdrubal Barca crossed the Alps and laid siege to the city, but he was unable to take it and withdrew. In 200 BC, the Gauls burned it, selling the population into slavery. Subsequently, the victorious Romans managed to recover 2000 citizens. In 198 BC, a combined force of Gauls and Ligurians plundered the whole region; as the people had never recovered from being sold into slavery, in 190 BC they complained to Senate of underpopulation. The construction of the Via Aemilia in the 180's made the city accessible from the Adriatic ports, which improved trade and the prospects for timely defense; the Liver of Piacenza, a bronze model of a sheep's liver for the purposes of haruspicy discovered in 1877 at Gossolengo just to the south of Piacenza, bears witness to the survival of the disciplina Etrusca well after the Roman conquest.
Although sacked and devastated several times, the city always recovered and by the 6th century Procopius was calling it "the principal city in the country of Aemilia". The first Bishop of Piacenza, San Vittorio, declared Saint Antoninus of Piacenza, a soldier of the Theban Legion, the patron saint of Piacenza and had the first basilica constructed in his honor in 324; the basilica was restored in 903 and rebuilt in 1101, again in 1562, is still a church today. The remains of the bishop and the soldier-saint are in urns under the altar; the theme of Antoninus, protector of Piacenza, is well known in art. Piacenza was sacked during the course of the Gothic War. After a short period of being reconquered by the Roman emperor Justinian I, it was conquered by the Lombards, who made it a duchy seat. After its conquest by Francia in the ninth century, the city began to recover, aided by its location along the Via Francigena that connected the Holy Roman Empire with Rome, its population and importance grew further after the year 1000.
That period marked a gradual transfer of governing powers from the feudal lords to a new enterprising class, as well to the feudal class of the countryside. In 1095, the city was the site of the Council of Piacenza, in which the First Crusade was proclaimed. From 1126, Piacenza was an important member of the Lombard League. In this role, it took part in the war against Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, in the subsequent battle of Legnano, it successfully fought the neighbouring communes of Cremona and Parma, expanding its possessions. Piacenza captured control of the trading routes with Genoa, where the first Piacentini bankers had settled, from the Malaspina counts and the bishop of Bobbio. In the 13th century, despite unsuccessful wars against Frederick I, Piacenza managed to gain strongholds on the Lombardy shore of the Po; the primilaries of the Peace of Cons
AT&T Mobility
AT&T Mobility LLC known as AT&T Wireless, marketed as AT&T, is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides wireless services to 153 million subscribers in the United States including Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands. AT&T Mobility is the second largest wireless telecommunications provider in the United States and Puerto Rico behind Verizon Wireless and the largest wireless telecommunications provider in North America when including AT&T Mexico. Known as Cingular Wireless from 2000 to 2007, a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth, the company acquired the old AT&T Wireless in 2004. In January 2007, Cingular confirmed. Although the legal corporate name change occurred for both regulatory and brand-awareness reasons both brands were used in the company's signage and advertising during a transition period; the transition concluded in late June, just prior to the rollout of the Apple iPhone. On March 20, 2011, AT&T Mobility announced its intention to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion.
If it had received government and regulatory approval, AT&T would have had more than 130 million subscribers. However, the U. S. Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T Mobility's competitors opposed the move on the grounds that it would reduce competition in the cellular network market. In December 2011, in the face of both governmental and widespread consumer opposition, AT&T withdrew its offer to complete the merger. Customers can choose to have one of the AT&T's Mobile Share Unlimited plans; as of January 8, 2016 AT&T no longer offers 2 year contracts for subsidized smart phones to its consumer customers. Customers who have 2 year contracts are grandfathered, until they upgrade to a new device they will have to choose from AT&T's NEXT installment plans for smartphones. AT&T reintroduced unlimited data plans for its customers who have either AT&T U-verse or AT&T's DirecTV. Unlimited data plans may be speed throttled. On the TV requirement was dropped for the Unlimited Plan followed by the introduction of the new Unlimited Plus and Choice plan series.
The new Unlimited Plans come with Entertainment perks for DirecTV, Uverse TV and DirecTV Now customers. With the inclusion of these new plans AT&T has introduced a free roaming in Mexico for its postpaid customers on select Mobile Share Plans and free Canada and Mexico roaming on Unlimited Plans. On May 21, 2018 AT&T dropped its roaming restrictions on the Unlimited Plans allowing customer to roam in Canada and Mexico without limits. AT&T allows existing customers to stay on legacy right plans. Within AT&T's 21-state landline footprint, other AT&T services are offered at the AT&T retail stores, including signing up for home phone, U-verse. AT&T stores outside of its footprint offer wireless services. All AT&T company-owned stores nationwide sell DirecTV. A large number of AT&T Mobility employees are unionized, belonging to the Communications Workers of America; the CWA represented 15,000 of the previous 20,000 AT&T Wireless employees as of early 2006. As of the end of 2009, the CWA website claims 40,000 workers of AT&T Mobility are represented by the union.
Cingular Wireless was founded in 2000 as a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth. The joint venture created the nation's second-largest carrier. Cingular grew out of a conglomeration of more than 100 companies, with 12 well-known regional companies with Bell roots; the 12 companies included: Three companies spun off from Advanced Mobile Phone Service Ameritech Mobile Communications BellSouth Mobility Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems BellSouth Mobility DCS BellSouth Wireless Data CCPR Services d/b/a Cellular One of Puerto Rico and U. S. Virgin Islands Pacific Bell Wireless Pacific Bell Wireless Northwest SBC Wireless SNET Mobility Southwestern Bell WirelessSBC Wireless had operated in several northeast markets under the "Cellular One" brand, while BellSouth's wireless operations incorporated the former Houston Cellular. Cingular's lineage can be traced back to Advanced Mobile Phone Service, a subsidiary of AT&T created in 1978 to provide cellular service nationwide. AMPS was divided among the Regional Bell Operating Companies as part of the Bell System divestiture.
With the exception of Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS, the digital network consisted of D-AMPS technology. The Pacific Bell and BellSouth Mobility DCS networks used GSM technology on the PCS frequency band. In October 2007, AT&T's president and chief executive officer Stan Sigman announced his retirement. Ralph de la Vega, group president-Regional Telecom & Entertainment, was named as president and CEO of AT&T Mobility. In February 2004, after a bidding war with Britain's Vodafone Plc Cingular announced that it would purchase its struggling competitor, AT&T Wireless Services, for $41 billion This was more than twice the company's trading value; the merger was completed on October 26, 2004. The combined company had a customer base of 46 million people at the time, making Cingular the largest wireless provider in the United States. AT&T Wireless was legally renamed New Cingular Wireless Services. Shortly after, new commercials were shown with the "AT&T" transforming into the Cingular logo, with the Cingular logo's text turned blue to acknowledge the change.
Some of the companies that co
Armenians in Italy
Armenians in Italy covers the Armenians who live in Italy. There are 2,500-3,500 Armenians in Italy residing in Milan and Venice. Besides the general population, there are monastic communities on the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni as well as Armenian clergy at the Holy See. Armenians in Italy have had a presence since ancient Roman times. Teacher and rhetorician Prohaeresius was sent by the Emperor to Rome, where he became an object of popular veneration, culminating in the erection of his statue, which bore the inscription Regina rerum Roma, Regi Eloquentiae i.e. " Rome, the queen of cities, to the king of eloquence". Justinian's Armenian general Narses attacked resistance to Roman rule wherever it was located and remained a celebrated governor of Venice. In the 9th-10th centuries, a great number of Armenians moved to Italy from Thrace and Macedonia, they were the descendants of Paulicians chased from Armenia by emperor Constantin. An Armenian Byzantine princess, Maria Argyra, became Dogaressa of Venice in 1003.
As to Armenian communities, they were formed in Italy in the 12th-13th centuries, when active trade was going on between Cilician Armenia and Italian big city-republics as Genoa and Pisa. Under Cilician Armenian king Levon II, treaties were signed between the two parties, according to which Italian merchants had the right to open factories and to develop industrial activities in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and Armenian merchants could do the same in Italian towns; these treaties were periodically renewed. In the 13th century the number of Armenians in Italy increased because of the new wave of emigrants after the invasion of Tatars and Mongols. Leonardo da Vinci made drawings of Armenians living in Italy. Surians were a Venetian patrician family of Armenian origin and members of the Great Council of Venice. Antonio Surian was the Patriarch of Venice from 1504 to 1508. Michel Surian was instrumental in assisting Pope Pius V with creating the Holy League, which gathered its fleets to defeat the Turkish armada in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
Another Antonio Surian, known as "The Armenian", was the Serene Republic's ambassador to England. The Palazzo Surian Bellotto was built on the Cannaregio Canal by Surians in the 17th century, they were famous for reorganising Venetian Arsenal. The Seriman family from Isfahan had gained importance in Venice during the 17th century and owned the Palazzo Contarini-Sceriman. Art historians like Josef Strzygowski write about Armenian impact on Italian architecture. For example, he writes: "Brunelleschi may be said to have completed the Gothic cathedral of Florence in the Armenian style. Looking at the East end from without, one might take it for the work of an Armenian architect". Beginning with the 15th-16th centuries the process of catholicizing Armenians was strengthened in Italy which contributed to their assimilation with Italian people; some Armenian organizations continued to function with the aim to preserve national identity. According to Italian historical sources, it was more common to hear the Armenian language on the cosmopolitan lanes and canals of the Veneto than to hear English or German.
As a result, the first Armenian books were printed in Venice. Besides, in the beginning of the 18th century the Armenian Congregation of the Mechitarists, was founded in Venice, on the St. Lazzaro Island, it exists up till now with its monastery, manuscripts depository and publishing house, is considered as a centre of Armenian culture in Italy. There was the reputable Moorat-Raphael College in Venice for general education with student body from Armenians from many countries, founded in 1836 and functioned until 1997, the Collegio Armeno in Rome for preparation of clergy in the Armenian Catholic Church. In 1895 the whole complex of Villa Contarini degli Armeni in Asolo became the ownership of the Mechitarists of Venice. Two streets in Venice are bearing Ruga Giuffa and Sotoportego dei Armeni. In Livorno there are streets with Armenian names; the Church of St Bartholomew of The Armenians built in 1308 in Genoa, Italy is known for the Holy Face of Genoa kept in the church. In 1924 a village for Armenian exiles, Nor Arax, was founded in the countryside of Bari.
In 1968 a Department of Armenian Studies was opened at the Polytechnic University of Milan. In June 1976 the Centre for the Study and Conservation of Armenian Culture was established by Prof. Adriano Alpago Novello in Milan. Since 1986 the Padus-Araxes Cultural Association organizes annual summer intensive courses of Armenian language and culture at Ca' Foscari University of Venice; the Monastic headquarters of the Mekhitarist Order is on the island of St. Lazarus in Venice, it is located on San Lazzaro degli Armeni, a small island in the Venetian Lagoon, lying west of the Lido. It is considered as one of the world's foremost centers of Armenian culture; the beginnings of the island's Armenian history started when Mekhitar da Pietro and his seventeen monks built a monastery, restored the old church, enlarged the island to its present 30,000 square metres, about four times its original area. Its founder's temperament and natural gifts for scholarly pursuits set the Mekhitarist Order in the forefro
Turin
Turin is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Turin and of the Piedmont region, was the first capital city of Italy from 1861 to 1865; the city is located on the western bank of the Po River, in front of Susa Valley, is surrounded by the western Alpine arch and Superga Hill. The population of the city proper is 878,074 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million. The city has a rich culture and history, being known for its numerous art galleries, churches, opera houses, parks, theatres, libraries and other venues. Turin is well known for its Renaissance, Rococo, Neo-classical, Art Nouveau architecture. Many of Turin's public squares, castles and elegant palazzi such as the Palazzo Madama, were built between the 16th and 18th centuries. A part of the historical center of Turin was inscribed in the World Heritage List under the name Residences of the Royal House of Savoy.
The city used to be a major European political center. From 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the Royal House of Savoy, the first capital of the unified Italy from 1861 to 1865. Turin is sometimes called "the cradle of Italian liberty" for having been the birthplace and home of notable individuals who contributed to the Risorgimento, such as Cavour; the city hosts some of Italy's best universities, academies and gymnasia, such as the University of Turin, founded in the 15th century, the Turin Polytechnic. In addition, the city is home to museums such as the Mole Antonelliana. Turin's attractions make it one of the world's top 250 tourist destinations and the tenth most visited city in Italy in 2008. Though much of its political significance and importance had been lost by World War II, Turin became a major European crossroad for industry and trade, is part of the famous "industrial triangle" along with Milan and Genoa. Turin is ranked third after Milan and Rome, for economic strength.
With a GDP of $58 billion, Turin is the world's 78th richest city by purchasing power. As of 2018, the city has been ranked by GaWC as a Gamma World city. Turin is home to much of the Italian automotive industry. Turin is well known as the home of the Shroud of Turin, the football teams Juventus F. C. and Torino F. C. the headquarters of automobile manufacturers Fiat and Alfa Romeo, as host of the 2006 Winter Olympics. The Taurini were an ancient Celto-Ligurian Alpine people, who occupied the upper valley of the Po River, in the center of modern Piedmont. In 218 BC, they were attacked by Hannibal as he was allied with their long-standing enemies, the Insubres; the Taurini chief town was captured by Hannibal's forces after a three-day siege. As a people they are mentioned in history, it is believed that a Roman colony was established in 9 BC under the name of Julia Augusta Taurinorum. Both Livy and Strabo mention the Taurini's country as including one of the passes of the Alps, which points to a wider use of the name in earlier times.
In the 1st century BC, the Romans founded Augusta Taurinorum. The typical Roman street grid can still be seen in the modern city in the neighborhood known as the Quadrilatero Romano. Via Garibaldi traces the exact path of the Roman city's decumanus which began at the Porta Decumani incorporated into the Castello or Palazzo Madama; the Porta Palatina, on the north side of the current city centre, is still preserved in a park near the Cathedral. Remains of the Roman-period theater are preserved in the area of the Manica Nuova. Turin reached about 5,000 inhabitants at all living inside the high city walls. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the town was conquered by the Heruli and the Ostrogoths, recaptured by the Romans, but conquered again by the Lombards and the Franks of Charlemagne; the Contea di Torino was founded in the 940s and was held by the Arduinic dynasty until 1050. After the marriage of Adelaide of Susa with Humbert Biancamano's son Otto, the family of the Counts of Savoy gained control.
While the title of count was held by the Bishop as count of Turin it was ruled as a prince-bishopric by the Bishops. In 1230–1235 it was a lordship under the Marquess of Montferrat, styled Lord of Turin. At the end of the 13th century, when it was annexed to the Duchy of Savoy, the city had 20,000 inhabitants. Many of the gardens and palaces were built in the 15th century; the University of Turin was founded during this period. Emmanuel Philibert known under the nickname of Iron Head, made Turin the capital of the Duchy of Savoy in 1563. Piazza Reale and Via Nuova were added along with the first enlargement of the walls, in the first half of the 17th century. In the second half of that century, a second enlargement of the walls was planned and executed, with the building of the arcaded Via Po, connecting Piazza Castello with the bridge on the Po through the regular street grid. In 1706, during the Battle of Turin, the French besieged the city for 117 days without conquering it. By the Treaty of Utrecht the Duke of Savoy acquir
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum located at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it is the permanent home of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art and features special exhibitions throughout the year. The museum was established by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, under the guidance of its first director, the artist Hilla von Rebay, it adopted its current name after the death of its founder, Solomon R. Guggenheim, in 1952. In 1959, the museum moved from rented space to its current building, a landmark work of 20th-century architecture. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the cylindrical building, wider at the top than the bottom, was conceived as a "temple of the spirit", its unique ramp gallery extends up from ground level in a long, continuous spiral along the outer edges of the building to end just under the ceiling skylight.
The building underwent extensive expansion and renovations in 1992 and from 2005 to 2008. The museum's collection has grown organically, over eight decades, is founded upon several important private collections, beginning with Solomon R. Guggenheim's original collection; the collection is shared with the museum's sister museums in Bilbao and elsewhere. In 2013, nearly 1.2 million people visited the museum, it hosted the most popular exhibition in New York City. Solomon R. Guggenheim, a member of a wealthy mining family, had been collecting works of the old masters since the 1890s. In 1926, he met artist Hilla von Rebay, who introduced him to European avant-garde art, in particular abstract art that she felt had a spiritual and utopian aspect. Guggenheim changed his collecting strategy, turning to the work of Wassily Kandinsky, among others, he began to display his collection to the public at his apartment in the Plaza Hotel in New York City. As the collection grew, he established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, in 1937, to foster the appreciation of modern art.
The foundation's first venue for the display of art, the "Museum of Non-Objective Painting", opened in 1939 under the direction of Rebay, in midtown Manhattan. Under Rebay's guidance, Guggenheim sought to include in the collection the most important examples of non-objective art available at the time by early modernists such as Rudolf Bauer, Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Marc Chagall, Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger, Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso. By the early 1940s, the foundation had accumulated such a large collection of avant-garde paintings that the need for a permanent museum building had become apparent. In 1943, Rebay and Guggenheim wrote a letter to Frank Lloyd Wright asking him to design a structure to house and display the collection. Wright accepted the opportunity to experiment with his organic style in an urban setting, it took him 15 years, 700 sketches, six sets of working drawings to create the museum. In 1948, the collection was expanded through the purchase of art dealer Karl Nierendorf's estate of some 730 objects, notably German expressionist paintings.
By that time, the foundation's collection included a broad spectrum of expressionist and surrealist works, including paintings by Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka and Joan Miró. After Guggenheim's death in 1949, members of the Guggenheim family who sat on the foundation's board of directors had personal and philosophical differences with Rebay, in 1952 she resigned as director of the museum, she left a portion of her personal collection to the foundation in her will, including works by Kandinsky, Alexander Calder, Albert Gleizes and Kurt Schwitters. The museum was renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952. Rebay conceived of the space as a "temple of the spirit" that would facilitate a new way of looking at the modern pieces in the collection, she wrote to Wright that "each of these great masterpieces should be organized into space, only you... would test the possibilities to do so.... I want a temple of spirit, a monument!" The critic Paul Goldberger wrote that, before Wright's modernist building, "there were only two common models for museum design: Beaux-arts Palace... and the International Style Pavilion."
Goldberger thought the building a catalyst for change, making it "socially and culturally acceptable for an architect to design a expressive, intensely personal museum. In this sense every museum of our time is a child of the Guggenheim." From 1943 to early 1944, Wright produced four different sketches for the initial design. While one of the plans had a hexagonal shape and level floors for the galleries, all the others had circular schemes and used a ramp continuing around the building, he had experimented with the ramp design in 1948 at the V. C. Morris Gift Shop in San Francisco and on the house he completed for his son in 1952, the David and Gladys Wright House in Arizona. Wright's original concept was called an inverted "ziggurat", because it resembled the steep steps on the ziggurats built in ancient Mesopotamia, his design dispensed with the conventional approach to museum layout, in which visitors are led through a series of interconnected rooms and forced to retrace their steps when exiting.
Wright's plan was for the museum guests to ride to the top of the building by elevator, to descend at a leisurely pace along the gentle slope of the continuous ramp, to view the atrium of the building as the last work of art. The open rotunda afforded viewers the unique possibility of seeing several bays of work on different levels and to interact with guests on other levels. At the
Milan
Milan is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with the city proper having a population of 1,372,810 while its metropolitan city has a population of 3,245,308. Its continuously built-up urban area has a population estimated to be about 5,270,000 over 1,891 square kilometres; the wider Milan metropolitan area, known as Greater Milan, is a polycentric metropolitan region that extends over central Lombardy and eastern Piedmont and which counts an estimated total population of 7.5 million, making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world. Milan served as capital of the Western Roman Empire from 286 to 402 and the Duchy of Milan during the medieval period and early modern age. Milan is considered a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the field of the art, design, entertainment, finance, media, services and tourism, its business district hosts Italy's stock exchange and the headquarters of national and international banks and companies.
In terms of GDP, it has the third-largest economy among European cities after Paris and London, but the fastest in growth among the three, is the wealthiest among European non-capital cities. Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and one of the "Four Motors for Europe"; the city has been recognized as one of the world's four fashion capitals thanks to several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair, which are among the world's biggest in terms of revenue and growth. It hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015; the city hosts numerous cultural institutions and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students. Milan is the destination of 8 million overseas visitors every year, attracted by its museums and art galleries that boast some of the most important collections in the world, including major works by Leonardo da Vinci; the city is served by a large number of luxury hotels and is the fifth-most starred in the world by Michelin Guide.
The city is home to two of Europe's most successful football teams, A. C. Milan and F. C. Internazionale, one of Italy's main basketball teams, Olimpia Milano; the etymology of the name Milan remains uncertain. One theory holds that the Latin name Mediolanum planus. However, some scholars believe that lanum comes from the Celtic root lan, meaning an enclosure or demarcated territory in which Celtic communities used to build shrines. Hence Mediolanum could signify the central sanctuary of a Celtic tribe. Indeed, about sixty Gallo-Roman sites in France bore the name "Mediolanum", for example: Saintes and Évreux. In addition, another theory links the name to the boar sow an ancient emblem of the city, fancifully accounted for in Andrea Alciato's Emblemata, beneath a woodcut of the first raising of the city walls, where a boar is seen lifted from the excavation, the etymology of Mediolanum given as "half-wool", explained in Latin and in French; the foundation of Milan is credited to two Celtic peoples, the Bituriges and the Aedui, having as their emblems a ram and a boar.
Alciato credits Ambrose for his account. The Celtic Insubres, the inhabitants of the region of northern Italy called Insubria, appear to have founded Milan around 600 BC. According to the legend reported by Livy, the Gaulish king Ambicatus sent his nephew Bellovesus into northern Italy at the head of a party drawn from various Gaulish tribes; the Romans, led by consul Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus, fought the Insubres and captured the city in 222 BC. They conquered the entirety of the region, calling the new province "Cisalpine Gaul" – "Gaul this side of the Alps" – and may have given the site its Latinized Celtic name of Mediolanum: in Gaulish *medio- meant "middle, center" and the name element -lanon is the Celtic equivalent of Latin -planum "plain", thus *Mediolanon meant " in the midst of the plain". In 286 the Roman Emperor Diocletian moved the capital of the Western Roman Empire from Rome to Mediolanum. Diocletian himself chose to reside at Nicomedia in the Eastern Empire, leaving his colleague Maximian at Milan.
Maximian built several gigantic monuments, the large circus, the thermae or "Baths of Hercules", a large complex of imperial palaces and other services and buildings of which fewer visible traces remain. Maximian increased the city area surrounded by a new, larger stone wall encompassing an area of 375 acres with many 24-sided towers; the monumental area had twin towers. From Mediolanum the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, granting tolerance to all religions within the Empire, thus paving the way for Christianity to become the dominant religion of Roman Europe. Constantine had come to Mediolanum to celebrate the wedding of his sister
