Elounda
Elounda, alternatively transliterated as Elounta or Elouda, is a small town on the northern coast of the island of Crete, Greece. It is part of the municipality of Agios Nikolaos. Elounda is formed of an uninhabited island area; the village of Schisma is by far the most populated one and is understood as'Elounda Centre'. The community of Elounda has a total of 2,193 inhabitants according to the 2011 census; the areas making up the community are with Greek names and head count: Agia Paraskevi – Ἁγία Παρασκευή – 23 Epano Elounda – Ἐπάνω Ἐλοῦντα – 115 Epano Pine – Ἐπάνω Πιναί – 35 Kalydon – Καλυδών Kato Elounda – Κάτω Ἐλοῦντα – 86 Kato Pine – Κάτω Πιναί – 62 Mavrikianon – Μαυρικιανόν – 142 Schisma – Σχίσμα – 1,730The area of Kalydon is made up of the island of Spinalonga, the Peninsula Spinalonga and the island of Kolokythas along with other smaller maritime structures. The road into Elounda from Agios Nikolaos is 12 km in length and follows the shore as it climbs to the top of a small mountain.
On a clear day it is possible to see the whole of Mirabello Bay and all the way to the eastern tip of Crete. The small fishing village of Plaka, which overlooks the island of Spinalonga and the Kolikithia Peninsula, is located a mere 5 km from the main square of Elounda heading north away from Agios Nikolaos, it is the closest major town to the former leper colony of Spinalonga, located on an island named Kalydon. Elounda is a famous tourist attraction visited by VIPs for its seaside luxury resorts. Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou used to spend his summers in Elounda; the earliest recorded settlement at Elounda was the ancient Greek city of Olous, whose people were in intermittent conflict with the citizens of Dorian Lato, until a peace treaty was reached. Elounda has a history as part of the Venetian era. Elounda has changed during its lifespan; the bulk of the ancient city of Olous was reclaimed by the sea towards the end of the Ancient Greek period and is still visible, in part, when diving in the bay of Elounda.
During the early 1900s, Elounda acted as a stopping off point for lepers being transported to the leper colony at Spinalonga. In 1984, the President of France, François Mitterrand, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya met in a luxurious Elounda resort to discuss conflict resolution in Chad. Bus services in Elounda are operated by the KTEL bus company, with scheduled services running to Plaka and Agios Nikolaos throughout the day. Elounda was used for the filming of the popular BBC television series Who Pays the Ferryman? in the late 1970s. It is the setting for the Belinda Jones novel Out of the Blue, it features in Victoria Hislop's novel The Island, the novel, adapted for Greek television and aired as a mini series in the winter of 2010-11. It features in'Yannis' by Beryl Darby. Hislop, Victoria; the Island. See The Moon-Spinners by Disney. Together with'The Island', by Victoria Hislop there is available a much more substantial work on the same subject called YANNIS by Beryl Darby who wrote the first guide book to Spinalonga.
Elounda travel guide from Wikivoyage Municipality of Aghios Nikolaos, Elounda info page Elounda info and elounda guide
Giudecca
Giudecca is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, in northern Italy. It is a locality of the comune of Venice. Giudecca lies south of the central islands of Venice, from which it is separated by the Giudecca Canal. San Giorgio Maggiore lies off its eastern tip. Giudecca was known in ancient times as the Spinalunga; the name Giudecca may represent a corruption of the Latin "Judaica" and so may be translated as "the Jewry": a number of towns in Southern Italy and Sicily have Jewish quarters named Giudecca or Judeca. However, the original Venetian Ghetto was in Cannaregio, in the north of the city, there is no evidence, but for the name, of Jews having lived in Giudecca. Furthermore, the term "Giudecca" was not used to denote the Jewish quarters of towns in northern Italy. Giudecca was an area of large palaces with gardens, the island became an industrial area in the early 20th century with shipyards and factories, in addition to a film studio. Much of the industry went into decline after World War II, but it is now once more regarded as a quiet residential area of working-class housing with some chic apartments and exclusive houses.
It is known including the Palladio-designed Il Redentore. The island was the home of a huge flour mill, the Molino Stucky, converted into a luxury hotel and apartment complex. At the other end of Giudecca is the famous five-star Cipriani hotel with large private gardens and salt-water pool. Modern renovations of some antique architecture in Giudecca have bolstered the island's reputation as a vacation locale. In 2011, Venetian developers reopened the lodgings of a prominent 16th-century mansion as long-term rentals under the name "Villa F." List of islands of Italy Satellite image from Google Maps Guide, events in Giudecca Mini Guide to Giudecca
Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718)
The Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War was fought between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire between 1714 and 1718. It was the last conflict between the two powers, ended with an Ottoman victory and the loss of Venice's major possession in the Greek peninsula, the Peloponnese. Venice was saved from a greater defeat by the intervention of Austria in 1716; the Austrian victories led to the signing of the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718. This war was called the Second Morean War, the Small War or, in Croatia, the War of Sinj. Following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in the Second Siege of Vienna in 1683, the Holy League of Linz gathered most European states in a common front against the Ottomans. In the resulting Great Turkish War the Ottoman Empire suffered a number of defeats such as the battles of Mohács and Zenta, in the Treaty of Karlowitz, was forced to cede the bulk of Hungary to the Habsburg Monarchy, Podolia to Poland-Lithuania, while Azov was taken by the Russian Empire. Further south, the Republic of Venice had launched its own attack on the Ottoman Empire, seeking revenge for successive conquests of its overseas empire by the Turks, most the loss of Crete.
Venetian troops, under the command of the able general Francesco Morosini, were able early in the conflict to seize the island of Cephalonia in 1684, the Peloponnese peninsula and parts of Continental Greece, although attempts to conquer Chalkis, recover Crete and hold on to Chios failed. In the Treaty of Karlowitz, Venice gained recognition of its control over Cephalonia and the Morea, restored the situation in the Aegean to its pre-war status quo, leaving only the island of Tinos in Venetian hands; the Ottomans were from the outset determined to reverse these losses the Morea, whose loss had been keenly felt in the Ottoman court: a large part of the income of the Valide Sultan had come from there. In 1702, there were tensions between the two powers and rumours of war because of the Venetian confiscation of an Ottoman merchant vessel; the Venetian position there was weak, with only a few thousand troops in the whole peninsula, plagued by supply and morale problems. Peace was maintained between the two powers for twelve more years.
In the meantime, the Ottomans began a reform of their navy, while Venice found itself isolated diplomatically from the other European powers: the Holy League had fractured after its victory, the War of the Spanish Succession and the Great Northern War preoccupied the attention of most European states. The Ottomans took advantage of the favourable international situation to settle their scores with Russia, inflicting on them a heavy defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1710–1711; this victory encouraged the Ottoman leadership and after the Russo-Turkish Treaty of Adrianople in June 1713, the way was open for an attack on Venice. A pretext was easy to find: the seizure of an Ottoman ship carrying the treasures of the former Grand Vizier, Damad Hasan Pasha, as well as the Venetians' granting of sanctuary to Danilo I, the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro, after he had launched an abortive revolt against the Turks; as a result, on 9 December 1714, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Venice. During the early months of 1715, they assembled an army of c. 70,000 men in Macedonia under the Grand Vizier Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha.
On 22 May, Grand Vizier marched south from Thessalonica, arriving at Thebes on 9 June, where he held a review of the troops. Although the accuracy of his figures is open to doubt, the journal of the French interpreter Benjamin Brue, reports 14,994 cavalry and 59,200 infantry as present at Thebes on 9 June, with the total number of men involved in the campaign against the Morea placed at 110,364. After a war council on 13 June, 15,000 Janissaries under Kara Mustafa Pasha were sent to capture Lepanto, while the main body of the army under Yusuf Pasha and the Agha of the Janissaries moved onto the Isthmus of Corinth and the two fortresses of Acrocorinth and Nauplia, the main Venetian strongholds in the Morea. In the meantime, the Ottoman Fleet, numbering 80 warships under Canum Hoca, had captured the last Venetian possessions in the Aegean, the islands of Tinos and Aigina; the Venetians, who did not have any standing army and relied on mercenaries, could only muster 8,000 men and 42 small ships, under the command of the Captain-General Daniel Delfin.
This force was not only insufficient to meet the Ottoman army in the field, but inadequate to man the many fortifications that the Venetians had built or enhanced during the past decades. In addition, the local Greek population disliked Venetian rule, something Damad Ali exploited, by ensuring that his troops respected their safety and property, thus he was able to count on the good will of the Greeks, who provided his troops with ample provisions, while the Venetians, who hoped to recruit a militia amongst the native population, were left isolated in their forts. On 25 June, the Ottoman army entered the Morea; the citadel of Acrocorinth, which controlled the passage to the peninsula, surrendered after a brief siege, on terms of safe passage for the garrison and the civilians. However, some Janissaries, eager for plunder, entered the citadel. A large part of the garrison, including the provveditore Giacomo Minoto, most of the civilians were massacred or sold to slavery. Only 180 Venetians were saved and tr
Regional units of Greece
The 74 regional units are administrative units of Greece. They are subdivisions of the country's 13 regions, further subdivided into municipalities, they were introduced as part of the "Kallikratis" administrative reform on 1 January 2011 and are comparable in area and, in the mainland, coterminous with the pre-"Kallikratis" prefectures of Greece
Gramvousa
Gramvousa Grampousa refers to two small uninhabited islands off the coast of a peninsula known Gramvousa Peninsula in north-western Crete in the regional unit of Chania. The Gramvousa Peninsula forms the westernmost of the two pairs of peninsulae in north-western Crete and is the western part of Kissamos Bay; the Gramvousa islands are administered from the municipality of Kissamos. Imeri Gramvousa, which translates to Tame Gramvousa, hosts the remains of a Venetian fort and the remains of buildings left behind by Cretan insurgents, who were compelled to live as pirates during the Greek War of Independence. Today, Imeri Gramvousa is a popular tourist attraction. Agria Gramvousa, which translates to Wild Gramvousa, is much less hospitable and is located due north of Imeri Gramvousa, it has been named False Gramvousa. In ancient times the larger island was known as Korykos; the island was name "Gramvousa" in honour of Vousa, the wife of a pirate chief and the only inhabitant of the island to evade capture when the pirates were forcibly removed.
The fort at Imeri Gramvousa was built between 1579 and 1584 during Venetian rule over Crete to defend the island from the Ottoman Turks. The fort remained in Venetian hands throughout the prolonged Cretan War, in the treaty of 16 September 1669, which surrendered Crete to the Ottomans, along with the fortresses of Souda and Spinalonga, was retained by Venice; these three forts defended Venetian trade routes and were strategic bases in the event of a new Ottoman–Venetian war for Crete. On 6 December 1691, during the Morean War, the Neapolitan Captain de la Giocca betrayed the Venetians by surrendering Gramvousa to the Ottoman Turks for a generous bribe, he lived the rest of his life in Constantinople and was well known by the nickname "Captain Grambousas". Not long after the start of Turkish rule, Cretan insurgents used to gather at the three coastal forts which included Gramvousa. With the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, the fort fell to the insurgents' hands. In 1823, Emmanouil Tombazis, the Greek provisional government's commissioner for Crete, failed to strengthen the defences at Gramvousa when he had the opportunity, soon after his arrival on the island.
Towards the summer of 1825, a body of three to four hundred Cretans, who had fought with other Greeks in the Peloponnese, journeyed to Crete. On 9 August 1825, led by Dimitrios Kallergis and Emmanouil Antoniadis, this group of Cretans, disguised as Turks, captured the fort at Gramvousa, which became their base; these and subsequent actions revitalized the Cretan insurgency, ushering the so-called "Gramvousa period". Although the Ottomans did not manage to retake the fort, they were successful in blocking the spread of the insurgency to the islands' western provinces; the insurgents were besieged in Gramvousa for more than two years and they had to resort to piracy to survive. Gramvousa became a hive of piratical activity that affected Turkish-Egyptian and European shipping in the region. During that period the population of Gramvousa became organised and they built a school and a church; the church was called Panagia i Kleftrina and was dedicated to the wives of the klephts, namely the pirates.
In 1828, the new Governor of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, sent Alexander Mavrocordatos with British and French ships to Crete to deal with the pirates. This expedition resulted in the destruction of all pirate ships at Gramvousa and the fort came under British control. On 5 January 1828, on Kapodistrias' orders Hatzimichalis Dalianis landed at Gramvousa with 700 men. During the Cretan revolt of 1878, only the forts at Gramvousa, Spinalonga, Rethymnon, Izeddin and Kissamos could not be captured by the insurgents because they did not have the necessary artillery. There is a lagoon, named the Balos lagoon, between the coast of Crete. There is an islet which forms part of a cape, through the lagoon, called Cape Tigani. North of Balos, at the Korykon cape, are the ruins of the small ancient Roman city of Agnion, with a temple to the god Apollo. List of islands of Greece Maltezou, Chrysas A.. "Η Κρήτη κατα τη Βενετοκρατία". In Panagiotakis, Nikolaos M. Crete and Civilization. II. Vikelea Library, Association of Regional Associations of Regional Municipalities.
Pp. 105–162. Detorakis, Theocharis. "Η Τουρκοκρατία στην Κρήτη". In Panagiotakis, Nikolaos M. Crete and Civilization. II. Vikelea Library, Association of Regional Associations of Regional Municipalities. Pp. 333–436. Severin, The Ulysses Voyage: Sea Search for the Odyssey
Free Love and Other Stories
Free Love and Other Stories is a short story collection by Scottish Booker-shortlisted author Ali Smith, first published in 1995 by Virago Press. It won the Saltire First Book of the Year award, and a Scottish Arts Council award"A Sweetly memorable collection" - The Times Ali Smith chose the cover of the first edition, a picture of Louise Brooks from the G. W. Pabst film Diary of a Lost Girl; the cover includes a quote from Irish writer Bernard MacLaverty: "What a great bunch of stories". It contains 12 stories:- "Free Love": A teenage girl finds unexpected sexual freedom on a trip to Amsterdam... "A story of folding and unfolding": A father unpacks his dead wife's underwear and is reminded of his first contact with her as an electrician rewiring a WAF dormitory... "Text for the day": Melissa disappears and her concerned friend Austen discovers that nothing in her flat has been touched except her large book collection which lies scattered in a state of disarray. Melissa is soon in touch and asks Austen to send her a selection of her books annually as she is travelling the world, re-reading and distributing the pages as she goes...
"A quick one": A girl waits to meet her ex in a cafe and reminisces over the relationship... "Jenny Robertson your friend is not coming": A girl has a meal with her friend Elizabeth in a restaurant in the Grassmarket before going to watch a film... "To the cinema": A Sunday morning cinema usher describes her favourite films, the loss of her faith and her relationship with her boyfriend Geoff. Meanwhile a regular in the audience is secretly obsessed with her... "The touching of wood": A girl describes a visit to the Greek island Spinalonga with her girlfriend... "Cold Iron: Anne McGregor has fond memories of her mother who has died... "College": Following the death of her elder sister Gillian and her parents travel to her Cambridge College for the dedication of a bench in her honour. Afterwards her family plan a day in Kent but Alex hitches a ride in a lorry to Brighton instead... "Scary": Linda travels with her boyfriend Tom to spend a night at his ex-girlfriend Zoe and her new partner Richard's.
When the arrive they discover their host's scary obsession with River Phoenix... "The unthinkable happens to people every day": In which a man suffers a nervous breakdown and drives to Scotland where he meets a young girl skimming stones by the edge of a loch... "The world with love": A girl meets an old school friend and remembers when their French teacher'went mad'... Crazy by Patsy Cline features in "A Quick One" Queen Christina features in "Jenny Robertson your friend is not coming" My first book -- A literary adventure from The Times 11 Dec 2004
Blockhouse
In military science, a blockhouse is a small fortification consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It refers to an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive strong point against any enemy that does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, air force and cruise missiles. A fortification intended to resist these weapons is more to qualify as a fortress or a redoubt, or in modern times, be an underground bunker. However, a blockhouse may refer to a room within a larger fortification a battery or redoubt; the term "blockhouse" is of uncertain origin related to Middle Dutch blokhus and 18th-century French blocus. Blockhouses existed for example the one near Mycenae. Early blockhouses were designed to protect a particular area by the use of artillery, they had accommodation only for the short-term use of the garrison; the first known example is the Cow Tower, built in 1398, of brick and had three storeys with the upper storeys pierced for six guns each.
The major period of construction was in the maritime defence programmes of Henry VIII between 1539 and 1545. They were built to protect important maritime approaches such as the Thames Estuary, the Solent, Plymouth. Sited in pairs, the blockhouses were not built to a common design, but consisted of a stone tower and bastion or gun platform, which could be semi-circular, rectangular or irregular in shape; the last blockhouse of this type was Cromwell's Castle, built in Scilly in 1651. Blockhouses were an ubiquitous feature in Malta's coastal fortifications built in the 18th century by the Order of St. John. Between 1714 and 1716, dozens of batteries and redoubts were built around the coasts of the Maltese Islands, while a few others were built in the subsequent decades; every battery and redoubt had a blockhouse, which served as gun crew accommodation and a place to store munitions. Many of the batteries consisted of a semi-circular or polygonal gun platform, with one or two blockhouses at the rear.
The blockhouses had musketry loopholes, in some cases were linked together by redans. Surviving batteries include Mistra Battery and Ferretti Battery, which both have two blockhouses, Saint Mary's Battery and Saint Anthony's Battery, which have a single blockhouse. Many of the redoubts consisted of a pentagonal platform with a rectangular blockhouse at the rear, although a few had semi-circular or rectangular platforms. Surviving redoubts with blockhouses include Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq Redoubt and Briconet Redoubt, both of which have a pentagonal plan. A few of the redoubts consisted of a single tower-like blockhouse without a platform, were known as tour-reduits. Of the four tour-reduits that were built, only the Vendôme Tower survives today. Blockhouses were constructed as part of a large plan, to "block" access to vital points in the scheme, but from the Age of Exploration to the nineteenth century standard patterns of blockhouses were constructed for defence in frontier areas South Africa, New Zealand and the United States.
Blockhouses may be made of masonry where available, but were made from heavy timbers, sometimes logs arranged in the manner of a log cabin. They were two or three floors, with all storeys being provided with embrasures or loopholes, the uppermost storey would be roofed. If the structure was of timber the upper storey would project outward from the lower so the upper storey defenders could fire on enemies attacking the lower storey, or pour water on any fires; when the structure had only one storey, its loopholes were placed close to the ceiling, with a bench lining the walls inside for defenders to stand on, so that attackers could not reach the loopholes. Blockhouses were entered via a sturdy, barred door at ground level. Most blockhouses were square in plan, but some of the more elaborate ones were hexagonal or octagonal, to provide better all-around fire. In some cases, blockhouses became the basis for complete forts, by building a palisade with the blockhouse at one corner, a second tower at the opposite corner.
Many historical stone blockhouses have survived, a few timber ones have been restored at historical sites. In New Zealand, the Cameron Blockhouse, near Whanganui, is one of the few blockhouses to survive from the New Zealand land wars. During the Second Boer War the British forces built a large number of fortifications in South Africa. Around 441 were solid masonry blockhouses, many of which stand today. Different designs were used in the construction of these blockhouses, but most were either two or three story structures built using locally quarried stone; however the vast scale of British strategy led the British to develop cheaper, double-skinned corrugated iron structures. These could be prefabricated, delivered to site by armoured train, have locally sourced rocks or rubble packed inside the double skin to provide improved protection. A circular design developed by Major Rice in February 1901 had good all round visibility, the lack of corners did away with the need for a substructure. Failure due to wood rot and splintering when hit by bullets or shrapnel were eliminated.
The steel door to the blockhouse was sheltered by another piece of corrugated iron. The Major Rice blockhouse could be erected in six hours by six trained men. With the change from square gabled roofs to a circular design, they were given the nickname "Pepperpot blockhouse". With mass production the cost to build a blockhouse dropped down to £16, compared to several hundred pounds for masonry ones; these blockhouses played a vital role in the p
