1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Palazzo Pubblico
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The Palazzo Pubblico is a palace in Siena, Tuscany, central Italy. Construction began in 1297 and its purpose was to house the republican government, consisting of the Podestà. The outside of the structure is an example of Italian medieval architecture with Gothic influences, the lower story is stone, the upper crenelatted stories are made of brick. The facade of the palace is curved inwards to reflect the outwards curve of the Piazza del Campo. The campanile or bell tower, Torre del Mangia, was built between 1325 and 1344 with its crown designed by the painter, Lippo Memmi. The tower was designed to be taller than the tower in neighboring rival Florence and it was fitted with a mechanical clock during the mid-14th century. Nearly every major room in the palace contains frescoes and these were unusual for the time in that they were commissioned by the governing body of the city, rather than by the Church or by a religious fraternity. They are also unusual in many of them depict secular subjects instead of the religious subjects which are overwhelmingly typical of Italian art of this era. The most famous of the frescoes are three panels in the series on government in the Hall of the Nine by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. These frescoes are collectively known as The Allegory of Good and Bad Government, the Allegory of Good Government depicts the personification of Justice as a woman. She gestures to the scales of balance, held by the personification of Wisdom floating over her throne, on the viewers left, a convicted criminal is beheaded, on the right, figures receive the rewards of justice. The men face towards the largest figure in the image, a located in the center right. The judge is surrounded by additional personifications including Peace, who is represented as a fashionable, the allegory carries a strong social message of the value of the stable republican government of Siena. It combines elements of life with references to the importance of religion in the city at the time. The figure of Justice resembles the figure of Mary, Queen of Heaven, the Judge reflects the tradition in the Christian Last Judgment to have God or Christ judging the saved on the left, the damned on the right. While classified as medieval or proto -renaissance art, these show a transition in thought. Flanking the Allegory are two paintings on perpendicular walls, Effects of Good Government and Effects of Bad Government. Both these frescoes depict a view of Siena and its countryside
3.
Tower
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A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, Towers are specifically distinguished from buildings in that they are not built to be habitable but to serve other functions. Towers can be stand alone structures or be supported by adjacent buildings or can be a feature on top of a structure or building. Old English torr is from Latin turris via Old French tor, the Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language, connected with the Illyrian toponym Βου-δοργίς. The oldest known may be the stone tower in walls of Neolithic Jericho. Some of the earliest towers were ziggurats, which existed in Sumerian architecture since the 4th millennium BC, the most famous ziggurats include the Sumerian Ziggurat of Ur, built the 3rd millennium BC, and the Etemenanki, one of the most famous examples of Babylonian architecture. The latter was built in Babylon during the 2nd millennium BC and was considered the tallest tower of the ancient world, some of the earliest surviving examples are the broch structures in northern Scotland, which are conical towerhouses. These and other examples from Phoenician and Roman cultures emphasised the use of a tower in fortification, for example, the name of the Moroccan city of Mogador, founded in the first millennium BC, is derived from the Phoenician word for watchtower. The Romans utilised octagonal towers as elements of Diocletians Palace in Croatia, which monument dates to approximately 300 AD, while the Servian Walls, the Chinese used towers as integrated elements of the Great Wall of China in 210 BC during the Qin Dynasty. Towers were also an important element of castles, other well known towers include the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy built from 1173 until 1372 and the Two Towers in Bologna, Italy built from 1109 until 1119. The Himalayan Towers are stone towers located chiefly in Tibet built approximately 14th to 15th century, up to a certain height, a tower can be made with the supporting structure with parallel sides. However, above a height, the compressive load of the material is exceeded. This can be avoided if the support structure tapers up the building. A second limit is that of buckling—the structure requires sufficient stiffness to avoid breaking under the loads it faces, many very tall towers have their support structures at the periphery of the building, which greatly increases the overall stiffness. A third limit is dynamic, a tower is subject to varying winds, vortex shedding and these are often dealt with through a combination of simple strength and stiffness, as well as in some cases tuned mass dampers to damp out movements. Varying or tapering the outer aspect of the tower with height avoids vibrations due to vortex shedding occurring along the building simultaneously. Although not correctly called towers many modern skyscraper are often called towers, in the United Kingdom, tall domestic buildings are referred to as tower blocks. In the United States, the original World Trade Center had the nickname the Twin Towers, the tower throughout history has provided its users with an advantage in surveying defensive positions and obtaining a better view of the surrounding areas, including battlefields
4.
Siena
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Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena, the historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nations most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008, Siena is famous for its cuisine, art, museums, medieval cityscape and the Palio, a horse race held twice a year. Siena, like other Tuscan hill towns, was first settled in the time of the Etruscans when it was inhabited by a called the Saina. A Roman town called Saena Julia was founded at the site in the time of the Emperor Augustus, the first document mentioning it dates from AD70. Some archaeologists assert that Siena was controlled for a period by a Gaulish tribe called the Senones, according to local legend, Siena was founded by Senius and Aschius, two sons of Remus and thus nephews of Romulus, after whom Rome was named. Supposedly after their fathers murder by Romulus, they fled Rome, taking them the statue of the she-wolf suckling the infants. Additionally they rode white and black horses, giving rise to the Balzana, some claim the name Siena derives from Senius. Other etymologies derive the name from the Etruscan family name Saina, Siena did not prosper under Roman rule. It was not sited near any major roads and lacked opportunities for trade and its insular status meant that Christianity did not penetrate until the 4th century AD, and it was not until the Lombards invaded Siena and the surrounding territory that it knew prosperity. Siena prospered as a trading post, and the constant streams of pilgrims passing to, the oldest aristocratic families in Siena date their line to the Lombards surrender in 774 to Charlemagne. This ultimately resulted in the creation of the Republic of Siena, the Republic existed for over four hundred years, from the late 11th century until the year 1555. During the golden age of Siena before the Black Death in 1348, in the Italian War of 1551–59, the republic was defeated by the rival Duchy of Florence in alliance with the Spanish crown. After 18 months of resistance, Siena surrendered to Spain on 17 April 1555, the new Spanish King Felipe II, owing huge sums to the Medici, ceded it to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, to which it belonged until the unification of Italy in the 19th century. A Republican government of 700 Sienese families in Montalcino resisted until 1559, the picturesque city remains an important cultural centre, especially for humanist disciplines. The city lies at 322 m above sea level, the Siena Cathedral, begun in the 12th century, is a masterpiece of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture. Its main façade was completed in 1380, the original plan called for an ambitiously massive basilica, the largest then in the world, with, as was customary, an east-west nave. However, the scarcity of funds, in due to war and plague, truncated the project
5.
Tuscany
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Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, traditions, history, artistic legacy, Tuscany produces wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino. Having a strong linguistic and cultural identity, it is considered a nation within a nation. Tuscany is traditionally a popular destination in Italy, and the main tourist destinations by number of tourist arrivals are Florence, Pisa, Montecatini Terme, Castiglione della Pescaia and Grosseto. The village of Castiglione della Pescaia is also the most visited destination in the region. Additionally, Siena, Lucca, the Chianti region, Versilia and Val dOrcia are also internationally renowned, Tuscany has over 120 protected nature reserves, making Tuscany and its capital Florence popular tourist destinations that attract millions of tourists every year. In 2012, the city of Florence was the worlds 89th most visited city, roughly triangular in shape, Tuscany borders the regions of Liguria to the northwest, Emilia-Romagna to the north and east, Umbria to the east and Lazio to the southeast. The comune of Badia Tedalda, in the Tuscan Province of Arezzo, has an exclave named Ca Raffaello within Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany has a western coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea, containing the Tuscan Archipelago, of which the largest island is Elba. Tuscany has an area of approximately 22,993 square kilometres, surrounded and crossed by major mountain chains, and with few plains, the region has a relief that is dominated by hilly country used for agriculture. Hills make up nearly two-thirds of the total area, covering 15,292 square kilometres, and mountains. Plains occupy 8. 4% of the total area—1,930 square kilometres —mostly around the valley of the River Arno, many of Tuscanys largest cities lie on the banks of the Arno, including the capital Florence, Empoli and Pisa. The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the late Bronze and Iron Ages parallels that of the early Greeks, following this, the Villanovan culture saw Tuscany, and the rest of Etruria, taken over by chiefdoms. City-states developed in the late Villanovan before Orientalization occurred and the Etruscan civilization rose, the Etruscans created the first major civilization in this region, large enough to establish a transport infrastructure, to implement agriculture and mining and to produce vibrant art. The Etruscans lived in Etruria well into prehistory, throughout their existence, they lost territory to Magna Graecia, Carthage and Celts. Despite being seen as distinct in its manners and customs by contemporary Greeks, the cultures of Greece, one reason for its eventual demise was this increasing absorption by surrounding cultures, including the adoption of the Etruscan upper class by the Romans. Soon after absorbing Etruria, Rome established the cities of Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, and ensured peace. These developments included extensions of existing roads, introduction of aqueducts and sewers, however, many of these structures have been destroyed by erosion due to weather. The Roman civilization in the West collapsed in the 5th century AD, in the years following 572, the Longobards arrived and designated Lucca the capital of their Duchy of Tuscia
6.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
7.
Piazza del Campo
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Piazza del Campo is the principal public space of the historic center of Siena, Tuscany, Italy and is regarded as one of Europes greatest medieval squares. It is renowned worldwide for its beauty and architectural integrity, the Palazzo Pubblico and its Torre del Mangia, as well as various palazzi signorili surround the shell-shaped piazza. At the northwest edge is the Fonte Gaia, the twice-a-year horse-race, Palio di Siena, is held around the edges of the piazza. Siena may have had earlier Etruscan settlements, but it was not a considerable Roman settlement, the number of divisions is held to be symbolic of the rule of The Nine who laid out the campo and governed Siena at the height of its mediaeval splendour between 1292-1355. The Campo was and remains the point of public life in the City. From the piazza, eleven narrow shaded streets radiate into the city, at the foot of the Palazzo Pubblicos wall is the late Gothic Chapel of the Virgin built as an ex voto by the Sienese, after the terrible Black Death of 1348 had ended. Under the direction of the Committee of Nine, many miles of tunnels were constructed to bring water in aqueducts to fountains and thence to drain to the surrounding fields. The white marble Fonte Gaia was originally designed and built by Jacopo della Quercia, whose bas-reliefs from the basins sides are conserved in the Ospedale di St. Maria della Scala in Piazza Duomo. When they were set up in 1419, Jacopo della Quercias nude figures were the first two female nudes, who were neither Eve nor a repentant saint, to stand in a place since Antiquity. Two Weeks in Tuscany The Sight in the Piazza ItalyGuides. com, Piazza del Campo Many pictures Siena Piazza del Campo English Video Introduction
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Piazza
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A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, piazza, plaza, most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets, music concerts, political rallies, and other events that require firm ground. Being centrally located, town squares are surrounded by small shops such as bakeries, meat markets, cheese stores. At their center is often a fountain, well, monument, many of those with fountains are actually called fountain square. In urban planning, a city square or urban square is an open area in a city. Red Square in Moscow was originally used as a marketplace and later became the stage for Soviet military parades. Similarly, Beijings Tiananmen Square was the scene of both communist parades and anti-government protests, john-F. -Kennedy-Platz was the site of the West Berlin town hall and John F. Kennedys famous Ich bin ein Berliner speech. New York Citys Times Square as well as Bryant Park, Washington, D. C. s National Mall, trafalgar Square in London does the same for the United Kingdom. Saint Peters Square in Vatican City, the enclave within Rome. Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto is a renowned and famous square in Canada, nathan Phillips Square is a popular square in front of Torontos landmark City Hall. Hviezdoslavovo námestie is one of the squares in Bratislava and a centre of a social life. Dam Square in Amsterdam for the Netherlands, Main Market Square in Kraków, Market Place in Warsaw and Wrocław Main Square for Poland. The City Hall Square, Copenhagen for Denmark, praça do Comércio, in Lisbon, Portugal, was formerly known as the Terreiro do Paço. It was destroyed after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake but was rebuilt, the symmetrical buildings around the square hold government bureaus and ministries. Wenceslas Square is one of the city squares in the New Town of Prague. In Mainland China, Peoples Square is a designation for the central town square of modern Chinese cities. These squares are the site of government buildings, museums and other public buildings, the probably best-known and largest such square in China is Tienanmen Square. The German word for square is Platz, which also means Place and these have been focal points of public life in towns and cities from the Middle Ages to today
9.
Secularity
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Secularity is the state of being separate from religion, or of not being exclusively allied with or against any particular religion. Historically, the secular was not related or linked to religion. The idea of a dichotomy between religion and the secular originated in the 18th century European Enlightenment, one can regard eating and bathing as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them. Nevertheless, some religious traditions see both eating and bathing as sacraments, therefore making them religious activities within those world views, saying a prayer derived from religious text or doctrine, worshipping through the context of a religion, and attending a religious school are examples of religious activities. The secular is experienced in diverse ways ranging from separation of religion and state to being anti-religion or even pro-religion, a related term, secularism, involves the principle that government institutions and their representatives should remain separate from religious institutions, their beliefs, and their dignitaries. Many businesses and corporations, and some operate on secular lines. This stands in contrast to theocracy, government with deity as its highest authority, Secular and secularity derive from the Latin word saeculum which meant of a generation, belonging to an age or denoted a period of about one hundred years. In the ancient world, saeculum was not defined in contrast to any sacred concerns and had a usage in Latin. It was in Christian Latin of medieval times, that saeculum was used for distinguishing this temporal age of the world from the realm of God. The Christian doctrine that God exists outside time led medieval Western culture to use secular to indicate separation from specifically religious affairs and involvement in temporal ones. This does not necessarily imply hostility to God or religion, though some use the term this way, routinization — institutionalizing through integration into the society. Differentiation — a redefined place such as when accepting its status as one religion in a plural religious field or morphing into a more generic, disengagement — the detachment of certain facets of social life from religion. Transformation — gradual change over time in a sense that Protestantism became for Christianity. Generalization — a particular kind of change in which it becomes less specific, more abstract, has moderation of controversial and divisive claims. Desacralization — culture and rationality guide people while leaving out religious beings, segmentation — the development of specialized religious institutions, which take their place beside other specialized social institutions. Secularism — the only form that leads to rejection of religion. Examples of secular used in this way include, Secular authority, which involves legal, police, and military authority, as distinct from clerical authority, or matters under church control. Secular clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, who, traditionally, do not live the lives of the regular clergy and are therefore, in a sense
10.
Cremona
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Cremona listen is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana. It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local city, Cremona is first mentioned in history as a settlement of the Cenomani, a Gallic tribe that arrived in the Po valley around 400 BC. However, the name Cremona most likely back to earlier settlers and puzzled the ancients. In 218 BC the Romans established on that spot their first military outpost north of the Po river, Cremona and nearby Placentia, were founded in the same year, as bases for penetration into what became the Roman Province of Gallia Cisalpina. Cremona quickly grew into one of the largest towns in northern Italy, as it was on the road connecting Genoa to Aquileia. The famous poet Virgil, who went to school in Cremona, had to forfeit his ancestral farm, when the Lombards invaded much of Italy in the second half of the 6th century AD, Cremona remained a Byzantine stronghold as part of the Exarchate of Ravenna. The city expanded towards the north-west, with the creation of a great trenched camp outside the walls, in 603, it was conquered by the Lombard king Agilulf and again destroyed. Its territory was divided between the two duchies of Brescia and Bergamo, however, in 615 queen Theodelinda, a devout Roman Catholic intent on converting her people, had Cremona rebuilt and re-installed a bishop there. Control of the city fell increasingly to its bishop, who became a Holy Roman Empire vassal after Charlemagnes conquest of Italy, in this way, Cremona increased its power and its prosperity steadily and some of its bishops had important roles between the 10th and 11th centuries. Bishop Liutprand of Cremona was a member of the Imperial court under the Saxony dynasty and its economy was boosted by the creation of a river port out of the former Byzantine fortress. However, the two bishops Lambert and Ubaldo created discord with the citys people, Emperor Conrad II settled the quarrel by entering in Cremona in 1037 together with the young Pope Benedict IX. Under Henry IV, Cremona refused to pay the oppressive taxes requested by the Empire, according to a legend, the great gonfaloniere Giovanni Baldesio of Cremona faced the emperor himself in a duel. As Henry was knocked from his horse, the city was saved the annual payment of the 3 kg golden ball, which, for that year, was instead given to Berta, Giovannis girlfriend, as her dowry. The first historical news about a free Cremona is from 1093, as it entered into an alliance led by Mathilde of Canossa, together with Lodi, Milan. The conflict ended with the defeat of Henry IV and his famous humiliation of Canossa to Pope Urban II in 1098, Cremona gained the Insula Fulcheria, the area around the nearby city of Crema, as its territory. After that time, the new commune warred against nearby cities to enlarge its territory, in 1107 Cremona conquered Tortona, but four years later its army was defeated near Bressanoro. As in many northern Italian cities, the people were divided into two opposing parties, the Guelphs, who were stronger in the new city, and the Ghibellines, the parties were so irreconcilable that the former built a second Communal Palace, the still existing Palazzo Cittanova. When Frederick Barbarossa descended into Italy to assert his authority, Cremona sided with him in order to gain his support against Crema, the subsequent victory and its loyal imperial stance earned Cremona the right to create a mint for its own coinage in 1154
11.
Torrazzo di Cremona
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The Torrazzo is the bell tower of the Cathedral of Cremona, Lombardy, in northern Italy. However the Torrazzo is older than the Landshut tower and the Bruges tower, according to popular tradition, construction on the tower began in 754. The seven bells are tuned in the scale of A major, archaeological excavations made in the 1980s have discovered the presence of underlying structures which are supposed to be the remains of a more ancient churchyard, or even previous Roman buildings. In the Torrazzos fourth storey resides the largest astronomical clock in the world, the mechanism was built by Francesco and Giovan Battista Divizioli between 1583 and 1588. Galeati, G. Il Torrazzo di Cremona, Il Torrazzo ed il suo restauro. Loffi, F. Il Torrazzo di Cremona, ghidotti, P. Il Torrazzo di Cremona. Archeologia e storia di un monumento medievale
12.
Towers of Bologna
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The Towers of Bologna are a group of medieval structures in Bologna, Italy. The two most prominent ones, known as the Two Towers, are the landmark of the city, between the 12th and the 13th century, the number of towers in the city was very high, possibly up to 180. The reasons for the construction of so many towers are not clear, one hypothesis is that the richest families used them for offensive/defensive purposes during the period of the Investiture Controversy. Besides the towers, one can see some fortified gateways that correspond to the gates of the 12th-century city wall. During the 13th century, many towers were taken down or demolished, many towers have subsequently been utilized in one way or the other, as prison, city tower, shop or residential building. The last demolitions took place during the 20th century, according to an ambitious, the Artenisi Tower and the Riccadonna Tower at the Mercato di mezzo were demolished in 1917. Of the numerous towers originally present, fewer than twenty can still be seen today, the construction of the towers was quite onerous, the usage of serfs notwithstanding. To build a tower with a height of 60 m would have required between three and 10 years of work. Each tower had a square cross-section with foundations between five and ten meters deep, reinforced by poles hammered into the ground and covered with pebble, the towers base was made of big blocks of selenite stone. Usually, some holes were left in the wall as well as bigger hollows in the selenite to support scaffoldings and to allow for later coverings and constructions. He based his analysis mostly on the archives of real estate deeds. His approach resulted in the number of 180 towers, an enormous amount considering the size. More recent estimates reduced therefore the number to a total between 80 and 100, where not all existed at the same time. They are located at the intersection of the roads lead to the five gates of the old ring wall. It was located at the site of the early medieval Gate to the Via Emilia, the taller tower is called the Asinelli while the smaller but more leaning tower is called the Garisenda. Le torri di Bologna, quando e perché sorsero, come vennero costruite, chi le innalzò, come scomparvero, associazione Guglielmo Marconi, Le due Torri Google Map view of the two towers
13.
Bologna
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Bologna is the largest city of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, located in the heart of an area of about one million. The first settlements back to at least 1000 BC. The city has been a centre, first under the Etruscans. Home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna is also an important transportation crossroad for the roads and trains of Northern Italy, where many important mechanical, electronic and nutritional industries have their headquarters. According to the most recent data gathered by the European Regional Economic Growth Index of 2009, Bologna is the first Italian city, Bologna is home to numerous prestigious cultural, economic and political institutions as well as one of the most impressive trade fair districts in Europe. In 2000 it was declared European capital of culture and in 2006, the city of Bologna was selected to participate in the Universal Exposition of Shanghai 2010 together with 45 other cities from around the world. Bologna is also one of the wealthiest cities in Italy, often ranking as one of the top cities in terms of quality of life in the country, after a long decline, Bologna was reborn in the 5th century under Bishop Petronius. According to legend, St. Petronius built the church of S. Stefano. After the fall of Rome, Bologna was a stronghold of the Exarchate of Ravenna in the Po plain. In 728, the city was captured by the Lombard king Liutprand, the Germanic conquerors formed a district called addizione longobarda near the complex of S. Stefano. Charlemagne stayed in this district in 786, traditionally said to be founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is widely considered to be the first university. The university originated as a centre of study of medieval Roman law under major glossators. It numbered Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarca among its students, the medical school is especially famous. In the 12th century, the families engaged in continual internecine fighting. Troops of Pope Julius II besieged Bologna and sacked the artistic treasures of his palace, in 1530, in front of Saint Petronio Church, Charles V was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII. Then a plague at the end of the 16th century reduced the population from 72,000 to 59,000, the population later recovered to a stable 60, 000–65,000. However, there was also great progress during this era, in 1564, the Piazza del Nettuno and the Palazzo dei Banchi were built, along with the Archiginnasio, the centre of the University
14.
Siena Cathedral
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Siena Cathedral is a medieval church in Siena, Italy, dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church, and now dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. Previously the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Siena, from the 15th century the Archdiocese of Siena, the cathedral itself was originally designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has the form of a Latin cross with a slightly projecting transept, a dome, the dome rises from a hexagonal base with supporting columns. The lantern atop the dome was added by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the nave is separated from the two aisles by semicircular arches. The exterior and interior are constructed of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes, Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena, etiologically linked to black and white horses of the legendary citys founders, Senius and Aschius. The origins of the first structure are obscure and shrouded in legend, there was a 9th-century church with bishops palace at the present location. In December 1058 a synod was held in this resulting in the election of pope Nicholas II. In 1196 the cathedral masons’ guild, the Opera di Santa Maria, was put in charge of the construction of a new cathedral. Works were started with the north - south transept and it was planned to add the main, larger body of the cathedral later, by 1215 there were already daily masses said in the new church. There are records from 1226 onwards of the transport of black and white marble, probably for the construction of the façade, the vaults and the transept were constructed in 1259-1260. In 1259 Manuello di Ranieri and his son Parri carved some wooden choir stalls, in 1264, Rosso Padellaio was paid for the copper sphere on top of the dome. A second massive addition of the body of the cathedral was planned in 1339. It would have more than doubled the size of the structure by means of a new nave. The construction was begun under the direction of Giovanni di Agostino, construction was halted by the Black Death in 1348. Basic errors in the construction were already evident by then, however, the outer walls, remains of this extension, can now be seen to the south of the Duomo. The floor of the nave now serves as a parking lot and museum, and, though unfinished, the remains are testament to Sienese power, ambition. Underneath the choir of the Duomo, a narthex containing important late 13th-century frescoes was found, the frescoes depict scenes from the Old Testament and the life of Christ. This was part of the entrance of an earlier church, but when the baptistry was built, this under-church was filled with rubble
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Giovanni di Balduccio
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Giovanni di Balduccio was an Italian sculptor of the Medieval period. The artist was born in Pisa, and likely did not train directly with the famous Pisan sculptor Andrea Pisano and he travelled to Milan to help sculpt the arc of St. Peter Martyr now in the Portinari Chapel, in the Basilica of SantEustorgio, work signed in 1339. He also worked on the portal of the church of the Brera in Milan and he also worked in San Casciano in Val di Pesa and in the monument of Guarniero in Sarzana. His style is known from four signed works and these formed the basis for a reconstruction of his oeuvre. Dizionario degli architetti, scultori, pittori, intagliatori in rame ed in pietra, coniatori di medaglie, musaicisti, gaetano Schiepatti, Digitized by Googlebooks, Jan 24,2007. Media related to Giovanni di Balduccio at Wikimedia Commons
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Loggia
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A loggia is an architectural feature which is a covered exterior gallery or corridor usually on an upper level, or sometimes ground level. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns or arches, Loggias can be located either on the front or side of a building and are not meant for entrance but as an out-of-door sitting room. From the early Middle Ages, nearly every Italian comune had an arched loggia in its main square which served as a symbol of communal justice and government. The main difference between a loggia and a portico is the role within the layout of the building. The portico allows entrance to the inside from the exterior and can be found on vernacular, the loggia is accessed only from inside and intended as a place for leisure. Thus, it is mainly on noble residences and public buildings. A classic use of both is that represented in the Mosaics of Basilica of Sant Apollinare Nuovo of the Royal Palace, a double loggia occurs when a loggia is located on an upper floor level above a loggia on the floor beneath. In Italian architecture, a loggia often takes the form of a small, often ornate, summer house built on the roof of a residence to enjoy cooling winds and they were especially popular in the 17th century and are prominent in Rome and Bologna, Italy. Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, contains three sets of dorms connected by loggias. In the town center of Chester in the United Kingdom, a number of timber-framed buildings dating from the Tudor to Victorian periods have first-floor loggias called the Chester Rows, in Russia, a loggia can be a recessed balcony on a residential apartment building. A loggia was added to the Sydney Opera House in 2006, at the archeological site of Hagia Triada on the Greek island of Crete, several loggias constructed around 1400 BC have been located and whose column bases still remain. Peristyle Portico Veranda Curl, James Stevens, a Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. The dictionary definition of loggia at Wiktionary Media related to Loggias at Wikimedia Commons
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Mary, mother of Jesus
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Mary, also known by various titles, styles and honorifics, was a 1st-century Galilean Jewish woman of Nazareth and the mother of Jesus, according to the New Testament and the Quran. The gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament and the Quran describe Mary as a virgin, the miraculous birth took place when she was already betrothed to Joseph and was awaiting the concluding rite of marriage, the formal home-taking ceremony. She married Joseph and accompanied him to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, the Gospel of Luke begins its account of Marys life with the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced her divine selection to be the mother of Jesus. According to canonical gospel accounts, Mary was present at the crucifixion and is depicted as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. According to the Catholic and Orthodox teaching, at the end of her life her body was assumed directly into Heaven. Mary has been venerated since Early Christianity, and is considered by millions to be the most meritorious saint of the religion and she is claimed to have miraculously appeared to believers many times over the centuries. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches believe that Mary, there is significant diversity in the Marian beliefs and devotional practices of major Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church holds distinctive Marian dogmas, namely her status as the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity, many Protestants minimize Marys role within Christianity, based on the argued brevity of biblical references. Mary also has a position in Islam, where one of the longer chapters of the Quran is devoted to her. Marys name in the manuscripts of the New Testament was based on her original Aramaic name ܡܪܝܡ. The English name Mary comes from the Greek Μαρία, which is a form of Μαριάμ. Both Μαρία and Μαριάμ appear in the New Testament, in Christianity, Mary is commonly referred to as the Virgin Mary, in accordance with the belief that she conceived Jesus miraculously through the Holy Spirit without her husbands involvement. The three main titles for Mary used by the Orthodox are Theotokos, Aeiparthenos as confirmed in the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, Catholics use a wide variety of titles for Mary, and these titles have in turn given rise to many artistic depictions. For example, the title Our Lady of Sorrows has inspired such masterpieces as Michelangelos Pietà, the title Theotokos was recognized at the Council of Ephesus in 431. However, this phrase in Greek, in the abbreviated form ΜΡ ΘΥ, is an indication commonly attached to her image in Byzantine icons. The Council stated that the Church Fathers did not hesitate to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God, some Marian titles have a direct scriptural basis. For instance, the title Queen Mother has been given to Mary since she was the mother of Jesus, the scriptural basis for the term Queen can be seen in Luke 1,32 and the Isaiah 9,6. Queen Mother can be found in 1 Kings 2, 19-20 and Jeremiah 13, other titles have arisen from reported miracles, special appeals or occasions for calling on Mary
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Pilaster
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The pilaster is an architectural element in classical architecture used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the wall surface, usually treated as though it were a column, with a capital at the top, plinth at the bottom. In contrast to a pilaster, a column or buttress can support the structure of a wall. It may be defined as a column which has lost its three-dimensional. A pilaster appears with a capital and entablature, also in low-relief or flattened against the wall and these vertical elements can also be used to support a recessed archivolt around a doorway. The pilaster can be replaced by ornamental brackets supporting the entablature or a balcony over a doorway, when a pilaster appears at the corner intersection of two walls it is known as a canton. As with a column, a pilaster can have a plain or fluted surface to its profile, during the Renaissance and Baroque architects used a range of pilaster forms. In the giant order pilasters appear as tall, linking floors in a single unit
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Antonio Federighi
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Antonio Federighi was an Italian architect and sculptor of the Renaissance period. He was born and active mainly in Siena, Italy and he began as a sculptor for the Duomo of Siena, and worked there alongside Jacopo della Quercia. In 1448, he rose to Capomaestro dellOpera del Duomo, working with Pietro di Tommaso del Minella, among his work at the Cathedral of Siena is the marble intarsio design of the Erythraean Sibyl. He was also Capomaestro for the Cathedral of Orvieto and he designed the Palazzo delle Papesse and the nearby Loggia del Papa. He may have contributed to the design of Santa Maria delle Nevi
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Il Sodoma
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Il Sodoma was the name given to the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi. Giovanni Bazzi was of the family de Bazis, and born at Vercelli in Piedmont in 1477 and his first master was the archaic Martino Spanzotti, he also appears to have been a student of the painter Giovenone. Along with Pinturicchio, Sodoma was one of the first to practice in Siena the style of the High Renaissance, gaining fluency in the prevailing popular style of Pinturicchio, Sodoma completed the set in 1502 and included a self-portrait with badgers. Sodoma was invited to Rome in 1508 by the celebrated Sienese merchant Agostino Chigi and was employed there by Pope Julius II in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican. Vasaris rhetorical story that Sodomas larger works did not satisfy the pope, who engaged Raphael to substitute a program of Justice, Poetry, and Theology is not borne out by the documents. Before October 1510 he was in Siena, where he painted the exterior of Palazzo Chigi in monochrome chiaroscuro with scenes from the Bible and from Antiquity and his painting at this time began to show distinct Florentine influences, especially of Fra Bartolommeo. When Leo X became pope, Sodoma presented him with a picture of the Death of Lucretia, Leo gave him a large sum of money as a reward and created him a cavaliere. Sodoma returned to Siena and, at a date, sought work in Pisa, Volterra. From Lucca he returned to Siena not long before his death on 14 February 1549 and he had supposedly squandered his property and is said, without documentary support, to have died in penury in the great hospital of Siena. One of his pupils was Giomo del Sodoma, in his youth, Sodoma had married, but he and his wife soon separated. A daughter married Bartolomeo Neroni, called also Riccio Sanese or Maestro Riccio, instead, he was considered by contemporaries to have been homosexual, and was known from 1512 on as Il Sodoma. Giorgio Vasari, in particular, stressed this aspect, perhaps it was a nickname that resulted from a joke, but Bazzi seems to have used the name with pride. Some critics see in Sodomas Madonna in the Pinacoteca di Brera the direct influence of this master, in the Oratory of San Bernardino, are scenes from the history of the Virgin, painted in conjunction with Pacchia and Beccafumi. These frescoes depict the Visitation and the Assumption, in San Francesco are the Deposition from the Cross and Christ Scourged. Many critics regard one or the other of these paintings as Sodomas masterpiece, in the choir of the Pisa Cathedral is the Sacrifice of Abraham, and in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence a St. Sebastian. Some of his works, including the Holy Family now in the Pinacoteca and his easel pictures are rare, there are two in the National Gallery, London. C. Rape of the Sabine Women - Galleria Nazionale dArte Antica, Rome St, according to Vasari, the name by which Bazzi was known was Il Mattaccio, this epithet having been bestowed upon him by the monks of Monte Oliveto. He dressed gaudily, like a mountebank, and his house was a Noahs ark and he was a cracker of jokes, fond of music, and he sang poems composed by himself on indecorous subjects
21.
Fresco
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Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster. Because of the makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster, after a number of hours, many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later, new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, if the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. This area is called the giornata, and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, if mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area—or to change them later, a secco. An indispensable component of this process is the carbonatation of the lime, the eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark outlining of his central figures within his frescoes, in a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has fallen off. One of the first painters in the period to use this technique was the Isaac Master in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist, a secco or fresco-secco painting is done on dry plaster. The pigments thus require a medium, such as egg. Blue was a problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli. By the end of the century this had largely displaced buon fresco
22.
Lippo Memmi
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Lippo Memmi was an Italian painter from Siena. He was the foremost follower of Simone Martini, who was his brother-in-law and he was one of the artists who worked at Orvieto Cathedral, for which he finished the Virgin of Mercy. Later he followed Martini to the Papal court in Avignon, where he worked until the mid-14th century, after his return to Siena, Memmi continued to work until his death in 1356. Memmis famed artwork, La Madonna della Febbre was the first venerated image of the Blessed Virgin Mary granted with a Canonical coronation by a Pope on 27 May 1631. The image has long been since held miraculous and is enshrined at the Sacristy chapel of the Blessed Sacrament inside Saint Peters Basilica in Rome, Memmis figures retain the static and generally frontal view found in the earlier generation of late Duecento masters such as Guido da Siena. A description of his St. Agnes panel shows how Memmis pictorial style was less severe and angular than the Duecento works his imagery recalled, “. has softer qualities and its spirit is tranquil”. Indeed, his depiction of emotion and realism is also subdued by this soft tranquility, leaving figures to read as somewhat archaic, Memmi is remembered for distinctive stamped tin halos with ray patterns in gold leaf. This interest in design carries over to Memmis observation of fabric patterns, Memmis interest in detail is evident in his innovative compositional devices using simple geometric shapes such as the circular arrangement of the angels in the Assumption of the Virgin. The term “Lippesque, coined by Joseph Polzer, describes the effect of Memmis visual devices found in several Madonna. “The seated Christ Child in the image, and especially his head which is axially and frontally ordered. Heads close to spheroid in shape and share a large forehead crowned by an identical centrally located whirl of hair”. Thus, a complete understanding of his style and artistic achievements continues to emerge. His status as an artist of personal expression, rather simply a craftsman. Research in the 1920s began to separate the works of Lippo Memmi from those of Guido da Siena and it was also accepted that an artist bearing the name Barna was a fellow student under Simone Martini and an artistic collaborator with Memmi. The New Testament cycle of frescos in the Collegiate Church of San Gimignano and this suggests that other works attributed to Barna could be works of Memmi and thus his stylistic adherence to Simone Martini is less binding. The Memmi workshop began with Lippos father, Memmo di Filippucci and its early works, such as the 1317 San Gimignano Maestà in the Palazzo Comunale, are a collaboration of the two. In the 1330s the shop produced the Orvieto Polyptych panels, Lippos brother Federigo Memmi belonged to the shop before 1343, during the time the New testament cycle and other works attributed to Barna of Siena were produced. Simone Martini was the brother-in-law of Lippo, after Lippo returned to Siena from Avignon there is little evidence of interaction with Simone Martini
23.
Parapet
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A parapet is a barrier which is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian parapetto, the German equivalent Brustwehr has the same meaning. Parapets were originally used to defend buildings from attack, but today they are primarily used as guard rails. Parapets may be plain, embattled, perforated or panelled, which are not mutually exclusive terms, plain parapets are upward extensions of the wall, sometimes with a coping at the top and corbel below. Embattled parapets may be panelled, but are pierced, if not purely as stylistic device, perforated parapets are pierced in various designs such as circles, trefoils, or quatrefoils. Panelled parapets are ornamented by a series of panels, either oblong or square, and more or less enriched and these are common in the Decorated and Perpendicular periods. The Mosaic law prescribed parapets for newly constructed houses as a safety measure, the Mirror Wall at Sigiriya, Sri Lanka built between 477 and 495 AD is one of the few surviving protective parapet walls from antiquity. Built onto the side of Sigiriya Rock it ran for a distance of approximately 250 meters and provided protection from inclement weather. Only about one hundred meters of this exists today, but brick debris. Parapets surrounding roofs are common in London and this dates from the Building Act of 1707 which banned projecting wooden eaves in the cities of Westminster and London as a fire risk. Instead an 18-inch brick parapet was required, with the set behind. This was continued in many Georgian houses, as it gave the appearance of a roof which accorded with the desire for classical proportions. Many firewalls are required to have a parapet, a portion of the wall extending above the roof, the parapet is required to be as fire resistant as the lower wall, and extend a distance prescribed by building code. Parapets on bridges and other highway structures prevent users from falling off where there is a drop and they may also be meant to restrict views, to prevent rubbish passing below, and to act as noise barriers. Bridge parapets may be made any material, but structural steel, aluminium, timber. They may be of solid or framed construction, in European standards, parapets are defined as a sub-category of vehicle restraint systems or pedestrian restraint systems. In terms of fortification, a parapet is a wall of stone, wood or earth on the edge of a defensive wall or trench. In medieval castles, they were often crenellated, in later artillery forts, parapets tend to be higher and thicker
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Corbel
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In architecture a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a piece of material in the wall. A piece of projecting in the same way was called a tassel or a bragger in the UK. The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a support a projecting wall or parapet, has been used since Neolithic, or New Stone Age. A console is more specifically an S-shaped scroll bracket in the classical tradition, keystones are also often in the form of consoles. Whereas corbel is rarely used outside architecture, console is used for furniture, as in console table. The word corbel comes from Old French and derives from the Latin corbellus, a diminutive of corvus, similarly, the French refer to a bracket-corbel, usually a load-bearing internal feature, as a corbeau. Norman corbels often have an appearance, although they may be elaborately carved with stylised heads of humans, animals or imaginary beasts. Similarly, in the Early English period, corbels were sometimes carved, as at Lincoln Cathedral. Corbels sometimes end with a point apparently growing into the wall, or forming a knot, in the later periods the carved foliage and other ornaments used on corbels resemble those used in the capitals of columns. Throughout England, in work, wooden corbels abound, carrying window-sills or oriel windows in wood. The corbels carrying balconies in Italy and France were sometimes of great size and richly carved, taking a cue from 16th-century practice, the Paris-trained designers of 19th-century Beaux-Arts architecture were encouraged to show imagination in varying corbels. A corbel table is a moulded string course supported by a range of corbels. Sometimes these corbels carry a small arcade under the string course, as a rule the corbel table carries the gutter, but in Lombard work the arcaded corbel table was utilized as a decoration to subdivide the storeys and break up the wall surface. In Italy sometimes over the corbels will form a moulding, in modern chimney construction, a corbel table is constructed on the inside of a flue in the form of a concrete ring beam supported by a range of corbels. The corbels can be either in-situ or pre-cast concrete, the corbel tables described here are built at approximately ten metre intervals to ensure stability of the barrel of refractory bricks constructed thereon. In medieval architecture the technique was used to support upper storeys or a parapet projecting forward from the wall plane and this later became a decorative feature, without the openings. Corbelling supporting upper stories and particularly supporting projecting corner turrets subsequently became a characteristic of the Scottish baronial style, medieval timber-framed buildings often employ jettying, where upper stories are cantilevered out on projecting wooden beams in a similar manner to corbelling
25.
Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower
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The Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, or simply Old Joe, is a clock tower and campanile located in Chancellors court at the University of Birmingham, in the suburb of Edgbaston. It is the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world, although its height is the subject of some confusion. The university lists it as both 110 metres and 99 metres tall, whereas other sources state that it is 100 metres tall, the nicknames Old Joe, Big Joe, or simply The Clock Tower are used by the student population and local residents. A prominent landmark in Birmingham, the grade II listed tower can be seen for miles around the campus, the tower is modelled on the Torre del Mangia in Siena. The original tower designs were amended due to Chamberlains great admiration for the Italian citys campanile, on 1 October 1905, the Birmingham Post reported that Chamberlain had announced to the University Council an anonymous gift of £50,000. In 1940, Sir Mark Oliphant used the tower for radar experiments, the tower remained the tallest structure in Birmingham until 1969, when construction on the 152 m tall BT Tower was completed in the Jewellery Quarter area of the city. However, Old Joe is still one of the fifty tallest buildings in the UK, the asteroid 10515 Old Joe, discovered in 1989, is named in the clock towers honour. There is a superstition that if students walk through the archway when it chimes. The base is solid concrete,50 ft square by 10 ft thick, the clock hands are made out of sheet copper. There are ten floors served by a lift in the SW corner. The tower was built from the inside, without scaffolding, up to the level of the balcony and it is built of Red Accrington brick with Darley Dale dressings and tapers from 29 ft square to 23 ft below the balcony. Owing to its having been built from the inside it was not pointed and had to be pointed in 1914 and was subsequently repointed in 1957 and its weight, solid brick corners linked by four courses of brick resists the overturning wind forces. The original design for Old Joe is thought to have been based upon St Marks Campanile in Venice, the final design is thought to have been inspired by Torre del Mangia which is of similar design but for the clock being placed towards the bottom of the tower. It is also said to have been inspiration for the Eye of Sauron in J. R. R Tolkiens Lord of the Rings due to the clock face. However, The Two Towers themselves are widely accepted as having been inspired by Edgbaston Waterworks, general Article from the Birmingham Magazine, including some history of the Clock Tower A 360° view of the Clock Tower
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University of Birmingham
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The University of Birmingham is a public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It is a member of both the Russell Group of British research universities and the international network of research universities, Universitas 21. The university was ranked 15th in the UK and 82nd in the world in the QS World University Rankings for 2016-17, in 2013, Birmingham was named University of the Year 2014 in the Times Higher Education awards. The 2016 Global Employability University Ranking places Birmingham at 90th world-wide, Birmingham is also ranked 9th in the UK for Graduate Prospects in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017. The student population includes 21,495 undergraduate and 12,335 postgraduate students, the annual income of the institution for 2015–16 was £625.6 million of which £135.5 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £562.1 million. Academics and alumni of the university include former British Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain, and Stanley Baldwin and these classes were the first ever held outside London or south of the Scottish border in the winter of 1767–68. The first clinical teaching was undertaken by medical and surgical apprentices at the General Hospital, the medical school which grew out of the Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary was founded in 1828 but Cox began teaching in December 1825. Queen Victoria granted her patronage to the Clinical Hospital in Birmingham and it was the first provincial teaching hospital in England. In 1843, the college became known as Queens College. The college was founded in 1875 and it was this institution that would eventually form the nucleus of the University of Birmingham. In 1882, the Departments of Chemistry, Botany and Physiology were transferred to Mason Science College, soon followed by the Departments of Physics and Comparative Anatomy. The transfer of the Medical School to Mason Science College gave considerable impetus to the importance of that college. As the result of the Mason University College Act 1897 it became incorporated as Mason University College on 1 January 1898 and it was largely due to Chamberlains enthusiasm that the university was granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria on 24 March 1900. The Calthorpe family offered twenty-five acres of land on the Bournbrook side of their estate in July, the Court of Governors received the Birmingham University Act 1900, which put the royal charter into effect on 31 May. Birmingham was therefore arguably the first so-called red brick university, although several other universities claim this title, the transfer of Mason University College to the new University of Birmingham, with Chamberlain as its first chancellor and Sir Oliver Lodge as the first principal, was complete. All that remained of Josiah Masons legacy was his Mermaid in the chief of the university shield and of his college. It became the first civic and campus university in England, consequently, the faculty, the first of its kind in Britain, was founded by Sir William Ashley in 1901, who from 1902 until 1923 served as first Professor of Commerce and Dean of the Faculty. From 1905 to 1908, Edward Elgar held the position of Peyton Professor of Music at the university and he was succeeded by his friend Granville Bantock
27.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
28.
Victorian architecture
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Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. Victorian refers to the reign of Queen Victoria, called the Victorian era, however, many elements of what is typically termed Victorian architecture did not become popular until later in Victorias reign. The styles often included interpretations and eclectic revivals of historic styles mixed with the introduction of middle east, the name represents the British and French custom of naming architectural styles for a reigning monarch. Within this naming and classification scheme, it follows Georgian architecture and later Regency architecture, during the early 19th century, the romantic medieval Gothic revival style was developed as a reaction to the symmetry of Palladianism, and such buildings as Fonthill Abbey were built. Paxton also continued to build houses as Mentmore Towers, in the still popular English Renaissance styles. In this era of prosperity new methods of construction were developed, other notable Scottish architects of this period are Archibald Simpson and Alexander Marshall Mackenzie whose stylistically varied work can be seen in the architecture of Aberdeen. Victorian architecture usually has many intricate window frames inspired by the famous architect Elliot Rae, some chose the United States, and others went to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Normally, they applied architectural styles that were fashionable when they left England, thus, the influence of English architecture spread across the world. Several prominent architects produced English-derived designs around the world, including William Butterfield, the Victorian period flourished in Australia and is generally recognised as being from 1840 to 1890, which saw a gold rush and population boom during the 1880s in the state of Victoria. There were fifteen styles that predominated, The Arts and Crafts style and Queen Anne style are considered to be part of the Federation Period, during the British colonial period of British Ceylon, Sri Lanka Law College, Sri Lanka College of Technology and the Galle Face Hotel. In the United States, Victorian architecture generally describes styles that were most popular between 1860 and 1900, a list of these styles most commonly includes Second Empire, Stick-Eastlake, Folk Victorian, Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque, and Shingle. As in the United Kingdom, examples of Gothic Revival and Italianate continued to be constructed during this period, some historians classify the later years of Gothic Revival as a distinctive Victorian style named High Victorian Gothic. Stick-Eastlake, a manner of geometric, machine-cut decorating derived from Stick, on the other hand, terms such as Painted Ladies or gingerbread may be used to describe certain Victorian buildings, but do not constitute a specific style. The names of architectural styles varied between countries, many homes combined the elements of several different styles and are not easily distinguishable as one particular style or another. San Francisco is well known for its extensive Victorian architecture, particularly in the Haight-Ashbury, Lower Haight, Alamo Square, Noe Valley, Castro, Nob Hill, the extent to which any one is the largest surviving example is debated, with numerous qualifications. The Distillery District in Toronto, Ontario contains the largest and best preserved collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America, cabbagetown is the largest and most continuous Victorian residential area in North America. Other Toronto Victorian neighbourhoods include The Annex, Parkdale, and Rosedale, in the USA, the South End of Boston is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest and largest Victorian neighborhood in the country. Old Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky also claims to be the nations largest Victorian neighborhood, richmond, Virginia is home to several large Victorian neighborhoods, the most prominent being The Fan
29.
Red brick university
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The term is now used more broadly to refer to British universities founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in major cities. Six of the original institutions, or their predecessor institutes. Eight of the nine institutions are members of the Russell Group, the term red brick or redbrick was first coined by Edgar Allison Peers, a professor of Spanish at the University of Liverpool, to describe the civic universities. Although Peers used red brick in the title of the book, he used redbrick adjectivally in the text. He is said to have regretted his use of red brick in the title. Peers reference was inspired by the fact that The Victoria Building at the University of Liverpool is built from a distinctive red pressed brick, with terracotta decorative dressings. On this basis the University of Liverpool claims to be the red brick institution, although the titular. The University of Birmingham grew from the Mason Science College, a red brick. In this sense they owed their structural heritage to the Humboldt University of Berlin, scotlands ancient universities were founded on a different basis between 1400 and 1600. These universities developed out of various 19th-century private research and education institutes in industrial cities, the 1824 Manchester Mechanics Institute formed the basis of the Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and thus led towards the current University of Manchester formed in 2004. The University of Birmingham has origins dating back to the 1825 Birmingham Medical School, the University of Leeds also owes its foundations to a medical school, the 1831 Leeds School of Medicine. Reading was established as a college by Oxford University in 1892, incorporating pre-existing schools of art and science. All of the redbricks, with the exception of Reading, were non-residential, in contrast to Oxford, Cambridge, graduates of Oxford, Cambridge, and London had already been enfranchised and graduates of the University of Wales were enfranchised at the same time. Reading University was added to the Combined English Universities constituency in 1928, the constituency was abolished in 1950. Various other civic institutions with origins dating from the 19th and early to mid-20th centuries have also described as Red Brick. According to historian William Whyte of the University of Oxford, Truscotts original definition includes the University of Dundee, Newcastle University, notably, Whyte does not include Reading or Nottingham, which Truscot lists in his second edition. The Robbins Report lists Reading, Nottingham, Southampton, Hull, Exeter and Leicester, as a result it meets the dictionary definition of a red brick university, and is sometimes named as such. The term red brick is also used more widely to mean any of the non-ancient universities
30.
Waterbury Union Station
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The Waterbury Union Station building is located on Meadow Street in the city of Waterbury, Connecticut, United States. It is a building dating to the first decade of the 20th century. Its tall clock tower, built by the Seth Thomas Company, is the citys most prominent landmark. Designed by the New York City architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, it handled 66 passenger trains a day at its peak. Later in the 20th century, when the rail service had declined to its current level of one commuter route. Today it is in use again as the offices of the Republican-American, the station building is located just west of downtown Waterbury, where Meadow and Grand streets intersect. To its north and south are other buildings, southwest is the current platform station used by Metro-North. On the west are 12 tracks, most of which are used, beyond them are industrial buildings, the Naugatuck River. A short distance down Meadow Street are the on-ramps to the Interstate 84 viaduct carrying it over the river, tracks, there are four sections to the building, counting the clock tower. The two-story main block has a low hip roof with the tower rising from the southeast corner. Two wings with a hip roof project from either side of the main block. All are of brick laid in common bond on a granite foundation, on the east facade of the main block are three two-story round-arched window openings, filled in near the top where a new floor was later added. They are outlined in terra cotta in a vine pattern, bordered by pearl, egg-and-dart. Spacing them are four round medallions made of two rings of raised radial brick and a ring of fasces molding. Above is a course of terra cotta round-arched corbel table topped by egg-and-dart, the level above has a series of small rectangular windows, three above each arch and one above each medallion. At the roofline is a similar to the one below but more intricate, with carved modillions. The west facade is similar, although smaller windows and awnings have been added, the lower two stages of the square tower have one narrow opening and the same cornices as the rest of the main block. Above its roofline the tower is plain for most of its 240-foot height, the station clock faces on each side, marked in Roman numerals, are three-quarters of the way to the top
31.
McKim, Mead & White
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McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm that thrived at the turn of the twentieth century. The firms founding partners were Charles Follen McKim, William Rutherford Mead and they hired many other architects, partners, associates, designers and draftsmen, who came to prominence during or after their time at the firm. The firms New York City buildings include Manhattans former Pennsylvania Station, the Brooklyn Museum, elsewhere in New York State and New England, the firm designed college, library, school and other buildings such as the Boston Public Library and Rhode Island State House. In Washington, D. C. the firm renovated the West and East Wings of the White House, and designed Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair and the National Museum of American History. Across the United States, the firm designed buildings in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, other examples are in Canada, Cuba and Italy. McKim and Mead joined forces in 1872 and they were joined in 1879 by White, who, like McKim, had worked for architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Its vision was to clean up the confusion of American cities and imbue them with a sense of order. The firm retained its name long after the deaths of founding partners White, McKim, among the firms final works under the name McKim, Mead & White was the National Museum of American History in Washington, D. C. Designed primarily by partner James Kellum Smith, it opened in 1964, Smith died in 1961, and the firm was soon renamed Steinmann, Cain and White. In 1971, it became Walker O. Cain and Associates, lewis Colt Albro – who formed a partnership with Harrie T. Lindeberg from 1906 to 1914. Henry Bacon – worked at the firm from about 1886 through 1897, boring – worked at the firm in 1890 before forming a separate partnership with Edward Lippincott Tilton. Page Brown - worked with the beginning in the 1880s, went to California. Walker O. Cain – worked at the firm, he took it over in 1961, john Merven Carrère – worked with McKim, Mead & White from 1883 through 1885, then joined Thomas Hastings to form the firm Carrère and Hastings. Arthur Loomis Harmon – later of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, Thomas Hastings – of Carrère and Hastings, worked with McKim, Mead & White from 1883 through 1885. William Mitchell Kendall, worked with the firm from 1882 until his death, Harrie T. Lindeberg – started at the firm in 1895 as an assistant to Stanford White and remained with the firm until Whites death in 1906. Austin W. James Kellum Smith – a member of the firm from 1924 to 1961, full partner in 1929, and he primarily designed academic buildings, but his last major work was the National Museum of American History. Egerton Swartwout of Tracy and Swartwout – both Tracy and Swartwout worked together for the firm on multiple projects prior to starting their own practice, robert von Ezdorf – took over much of the firms business after Whites death. William M. Wells – worked as firms first Chief Draftsman from 1879–90, often considered to be the fourth partner
32.
Waterbury, Connecticut
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Waterbury is a city in the U. S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River,33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City. Waterbury is in New Haven County, Connecticut and it was noted for the manufacture of watches and clocks. The city is along Interstate 84 and Route 8 and has a Metro-North railroad station with connections to Grand Central Terminal, the original settlement of Waterbury in 1674 was in the area now known as the Town Plot section. In 1675, the turbulence of King Philips War caused the new settlement to be vacated until the resumption of peace in 1677, the original Algonquin inhabitants called the area Matetacoke meaning the interval lands. Thus, the name was Anglicised to Mattatuck in 1673. At that time, it included all or parts of what became the towns of Watertown, Plymouth, Wolcott, Prospect, Naugatuck, Thomaston. Growth was slow during Waterburys first hundred years, the lack of land due to the constant flooding of the Naugatuck River in particular. Furthermore, the residents suffered through a flood in 1691. After a century, Waterburys population numbered just 5,000, the new brass industry attracted many immigrant laborers from all over the world, leading to an influx of diverse nationalities. Waterbury was incorporated as a city in 1853 and, as the Brass Capital of the World, Brass and copper supplied by Waterbury was notably used in Nevadas Boulder Dam and found myriad applications across the United States, as well. Another famous Waterbury product of the century was Robert H. Ingersolls one-dollar pocket watch. After this, the industry became as important as Waterburys famed brass industry. Evidence of these two important industries can still be seen in Waterbury, as numerous clocktowers and old factories have become landmarks of the city. In June 1920, labor unrest occurred in the town, with striking workers fighting with police on the street, over 30 were arrested, mostly Lithuanians, Russians, Poles, and Italians. The strikers numbered some 15,000, with most being employed at Scovill, Chase Rolling Mill, one striker was shot to death by police. At its peak during World War II,10,000 people worked at the Scovill Manufacturing Co, the citys metal manufacturing mills occupied more than 2 million square feet and more than 90 buildings. Michael J. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus in New Haven, Connecticut, though the first councils were all in Connecticut, the Order spread throughout the United States in the following years. Established in 1894, St. Josephs Church holds the distinction of being the first Lithuanian worshiping community in Connecticut, the first Unico Club was founded in Waterbury in 1922
33.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
34.
Pilgrim Monument
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This 252-foot-7. 5-inch-tall campanile is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States, and is part of the Provincetown Historic District. In 1620, the Pilgrims spent five weeks exploring Cape Cod before they sailed to Plymouth, after spending weeks at sea, the Pilgrims resolved not to set foot on land until the Mayflower Compact was written and signed. In a ceremony on August 20,1907, President Theodore Roosevelt officiated at the laying of the cornerstone, after the monuments completion, President William H. Taft dedicated it at a ceremony held on August 5,1910. The design was controversial because of its lack of any relevance to the Pilgrim Fathers. One Boston architect derided it, saying If all they want is a curiosity, then why not select the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was also noted that Boston itself already had a copy of the same tower, Bostons fire tower. Its good enough, and it has this in its favor, that it resembles many lighthouses on the coast of Portugal and on Portuguese Islands, tourists from around the world visit Provincetown to climb the monument, and view the Provincetown Museum at its base. The monument commemorates the Pilgrims, and the museum pays tribute to Provincetowns vibrant, Provincetown residents take great pride in the structure. Christmas lights are strung from the top of the monument to its base annually, and are lit in November to much fanfare
35.
Provincetown, Massachusetts
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Provincetown /ˈprɒvɪnsˌtaʊn/ is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal town with a year-round population of just under 3,000. Often called P-town or Ptown, the town is known for its beaches, harbor, artists, tourist industry, at the time of European encounter, the area was long settled by the historic Nauset tribe, who had a settlement known as Meeshawn. They spoke Massachusett, a Southern New England Algonquian language dialect that they shared in common with their closely related neighbors, on May 15,1602, having made landfall from the west and believing it to be an island, Bartholomew Gosnold initially named this area Shoal Hope. Later that day, after catching a great store of codfish, notably, that name referred specifically to the area of modern-day Provincetown, it wasnt until much later that that name was reused to designate the entire region now known as Cape Cod. On November 9,1620, the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sighted Cape Cod while en route to the Colony of Virginia. After two days of failed attempts to sail south against the winter seas, they returned to the safety of the harbor, known today as Provincetown Harbor. It was here that the Mayflower Compact was drawn up and signed and they agreed to settle and build a self-governing community, and came ashore in the West End. In 1654, the Governor of the Plymouth Colony purchased this land from the Chief of the Nausets, the collected fees were used to defray the costs of schools and other projects throughout the colony. In 1678, the grounds were opened up to allow the inclusion of fishermen from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1692, a new Royal Charter combined the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies into the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Cape Cod was thus officially renamed the Province Lands. The first record of a government with jurisdiction over the Province Lands was in 1714, with an Act that declared it the Precinct of Cape Cod. On June 14,1727, after harboring ships for more than a century, the name chosen by its inhabitants was Herringtown, which was rejected by the Massachusetts General Court in favor of Provincetown. The act of incorporation provided that inhabitants of Provincetown could be land holders and they received a quit claim to their property, but the Province retained the title. The land was to be used as it had been from the beginning of the colony — a place for the making of fish, all resources, including the trees, could be used for that purpose. In 1893 the Great and General Court changed the Towns charter, giving the townspeople deeds to the properties they held, the population of Provincetown remained small through most of the 18th century. The town was affected by the American Revolution the same way most of Cape Cod was, the effective British blockade shut down most fish production and shipping and the town dwindled. It was, by happenstance, the location of the wreck of a British warship, following the American Revolution, Provincetown grew rapidly as a fishing and whaling center
36.
Willard T. Sears
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Willard Thomas Sears was a prominent New England architect of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who worked primarily in the Gothic Revival and Renaissance Revival styles. In 1861, Sears opened a studio with Charles Amos Cummings. The firm of Sears and Cummings were also capable of designing utilitarian projects and did the design of a number of aqueducts, the executive in charge was Judge Hiram Bond. In 1896, Sears was hired by Isabella Stewart Gardner to design her home, Fenway Court, upon her death Fenway Court became the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. In 1897, he designed what would become the Roosevelt Cottage for Mrs. Hartman Kuhn at what would become the Roosevelt Campobello International Park in New Brunswick, in 1898, Sears was commissioned to design the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, Massachusetts
37.
Granite
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Granite is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture. Granites can be white, pink, or gray in color. The word granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the structure of such a holocrystalline rock. By definition, granite is a rock with at least 20% quartz. The term granitic means granite-like and is applied to granite and a group of igneous rocks with similar textures and slight variations in composition. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a texture is known as a granite porphyry. Granitoid is a general, descriptive field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks, petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids. The extrusive igneous rock equivalent of granite is rhyolite, Granite is nearly always massive, hard and tough, and therefore it has gained widespread use throughout human history, and more recently as a construction stone. The average density of granite is between 2.65 and 2.75 g/cm3, its compressive strength usually lies above 200 MPa, and its viscosity near STP is 3–6 •1019 Pa·s. The melting temperature of dry granite at ambient pressure is 1215–1260 °C, it is reduced in the presence of water. Granite has poor primary permeability, but strong secondary permeability, true granite according to modern petrologic convention contains both plagioclase and alkali feldspars. When a granitoid is devoid or nearly devoid of plagioclase, the rock is referred to as alkali feldspar granite, when a granitoid contains less than 10% orthoclase, it is called tonalite, pyroxene and amphibole are common in tonalite. A granite containing both muscovite and biotite micas is called a binary or two-mica granite, two-mica granites are typically high in potassium and low in plagioclase, and are usually S-type granites or A-type granites. A worldwide average of the composition of granite, by weight percent, based on 2485 analyses. Much of it was intruded during the Precambrian age, it is the most abundant basement rock that underlies the relatively thin veneer of the continents. Outcrops of granite tend to form tors and rounded massifs, granites sometimes occur in circular depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the metamorphic aureole or hornfels. Granite often occurs as small, less than 100 km² stock masses
38.
Pilgrim
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A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a journey to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system. Pilgrims and the making of pilgrimages are common in many religions, including the faiths of ancient Egypt, Persia in the Mithraic period, India, China, and Japan. The Greek and Roman customs of consulting the gods at local oracles, such as those at Dodona or Delphi, in Greece, pilgrimages could either be personal or state-sponsored. In the early period of Hebrew history, pilgrims traveled to Shiloh, Dan, Bethel, while many pilgrims travel toward a specific location, a physical destination is not always a necessity. One group of pilgrims in early Celtic Christianity were the Peregrinari Pro Christ, or white martyrs and this sort of pilgrimage was an ascetic religious practice, as the pilgrim left the security of home and the clan for an unknown destination, trusting completely in Divine Providence. These travels often resulted in the founding of new abbeys and the spread of Christianity among the population in Britain and in continental Europe. Many religions still espouse pilgrimage as a spiritual activity, the great Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, is an obligatory duty at least once for every Muslim who is able to make the journey. Other Islamic devotional pilgrimages, particularly to the tombs of Shia Imams or Sufi saints, are popular across the Islamic world. International Bible Students Association pilgrims were excellent speakers, and their talks were typically well-publicized and well-attended. A modern phenomenon is the cultural pilgrimage which, while involving a journey, is secular in nature. An example might be a baseball fan visiting Cooperstown, New York, destinations for cultural pilgrims include Auschwitz concentration camp, Gettysburg Battlefield or the Ernest Hemingway House. Under communist regimes, devout secular pilgrims visited locations such as the Mausoleum of Lenin, the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, sites such as these continue to attract visitors. The distinction between religious, cultural or political pilgrimage and tourism is not necessarily always clear or rigid, pilgrimage could also refer symbolically to journeys, largely on foot, to places where the concerned person expect to find spiritual and/or personal salvation. In the words of adventurer-author Jon Krakauer in his book Into The Wild, many national and international leaders have gone on pilgrimages for both personal and political reasons
39.
South End, Boston
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The South End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is bordered by Back Bay, Chinatown, and Roxbury and it is distinguished from other neighborhoods by its Victorian style houses and the many parks in and around the area. The South End is the largest intact Victorian row house district in the country, eleven residential parks are scattered around the South End. In 1973, the South End was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the construction of the South End began in 1849 when the neighborhood was built on tidal marshes. It is home to diverse groups, including immigrants, young families, and professionals. Since the 1880s the South End has been characterized by its diversity, with substantial Irish, Lebanese, Jewish, African-American, the South End has five primary and secondary schools that offer education from kindergarten to grade 12. It has a selection of restaurants, bars, art galleries. It is conveniently located within the radius of three libraries which offer many different programs for children and adults, the South End lies south of the Back Bay, northwest of South Boston, northeast of Roxbury, north of Dorchester, and southwest of Bay Village. Despite the name, it is not directly south of the center of downtown Boston, the neighborhood is built upon a former tidal marsh, a part of a larger project of the filling of Bostons Back Bay and South Bay, from the 1830s to the 1870s. Fill was brought in by trains from large trenches of gravel excavated in Needham, the South End was filled and developed before Back Bay, which was mostly built after the American Civil War. Nineteenth-century technology did not allow for driving piles into bedrock. Recent decreases in water levels have caused damage to some wood pilings by exposing them to air. A series of monitoring wells have been drilled and the level is now checked by the Boston Groundwater Trust. The South End was once bordered to the north and west by the Boston and Providence Railroad, the railroad line is now covered by the Southwest Corridor Park and terminates at Back Bay Station. The primary business thoroughfares of the South End are Columbus Avenue, Tremont Street, Washington Street, the original causeway that connected Roxbury to Boston, experienced considerable reinvestment in the 1990s. The street was once defined by the Washington Street Elevated, a train that was moved to below Southwest Corridor Park in the 1980s. Currently, two branches of the Silver Line, Bostons first bus rapid transit line, run along Washington Street, Columbus Avenue, the third main street of the South End, also has numerous restaurants and provides a remarkable straight-line view to the steeple of Park Street Church. Today the modern MBTA Orange Line rapid transit train runs along the partially covered Southwest Corridor, with stops at Back Bay
40.
Boston
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies
41.
Edmund M. Wheelwright
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Edmund March Wheelwright was one of New Englands most important architects in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and served as city architect for Boston, Massachusetts from 1891–1895. Wheelwright was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, educated at Roxbury Latin School and he studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later in Europe, after which he worked in the offices of Peabody and Stearns and of firms in New York and Albany. In 1883 he started a business of his own and afterwards became a member of the firm of Wheelwright & Haven, more recently Wheelwright, in June 1887, Wheelwright married Elizabeth Boott Brooks. In 1893 Wheelwright and R. Wheelwright, who designed the Harvard Lampoon Building and it was first opened on February 19,1909. Wheelwright while attending Harvard University was one of the founders of the Harvard Lampoon, wheelwrights design was inspired in part by an old church in Jamestown, Virginia, and by the Flemish Renaissance details of Auburn Street buildings in its vicinity. He was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, serving on its Board of Directors from 1892-1894 and 1898-1900 and he published two books on school architecture, The American Schoolhouse and School Architecture. Charles Donagh Maginnis had been his apprentice, after suffering a nervous breakdown from overwork, he lived at a Thompsonville, CT sanitarium for 2 years before passing away on August 14,1912. He was just 57 years of age and his obituary is in the August 15,1912 edition of the New York Times. In 1892 Wheelwright designed and built a 156 foot tall tower in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts, which was originally designed as part of the central fire station and used as a fire lookout. Since Wheelwright wanted the building to stand out, it was modeled after the 14th century Torre del Mangia in Siena, Italy and it is the citys only Florentine-inspired building. By 1897 he had formed a partnership and created the firm of Wheelwright & Haven and this later became Wheelwright, Haven and Hoyt, and Haven and Hoyt. The Haven and Hoyt Collection at the Boston Public Library holds a variety of related to Wheelwright, including renderings. Wheelwright, Edmund March, School architecture, a treatise for the use of architects and others, Boston. 1,1912, American Institute of Architects, page 251, Marquis, Albert Nelson, Whos who in New England, Chicago, A. N. Marquis & Company,1909
42.
Grimsby Dock Tower
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Grimsby Dock Tower is a hydraulic accumulator tower and a maritime landmark at the entrance to the Royal Dock, Grimsby, in North East Lincolnshire, England. The tower was built to water pressure to power the hydraulic machinery at the Grimsby Docks. The tower was built to carry a tank 200 feet above the ground with a direct feed into the machinery, small pumps topped up the tank as the hydraulic machinery drew off water. The well was also fed by seven borings of 5 in in diameter, at intervals in a length of 300 ft, all the engines, pumps and pipes and the whole of the machinery were made by Mr Mitchell of the Perran Foundry, Cornwall. During the building of the tower, Armstrong developed another system using weighted accumulators, the working hydraulic pressure was greater, permitting more compact and cheaper machinery and everything was at ground level. The first such installation was at New Holland dock and pier, the tower was designed by James William Wild who based its appearance on that of the Torre del Mangia on the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. It was built under the supervision of J. M. Rendel, the ground floor of the tower was lined with pink, white and blue drapery when Queen Victoria came with Prince Albert to visit the dock and open the tower in October 1854. The bricks of this plain brick tower were made from clay obtained from excavations in the adjoining the docks. Hoop iron bond is used in the walls to a considerable extent, the foundation of the tower is a solid masonry wall built upon a timber bearer piling. Approximately one million bricks were used in its construction, present dock and lock machinery are powered by electric or electro-hydraulic energy. During the Second World War, there were plans to demolish the tower, later, a plaque was placed on the bricks paying tribute to the minesweeper crews of the war. The towers lift is no longer in operation access to the top via a spiral staircase in one corner of the building. The second balcony is used for the transmission and reception of radio signals. The tower is Grade I listed and is the subject of a Preservation Order, there is a model of the Grimsby Dock Tower entirely constructed of Lego, at Legoland in Windsor. While the tower itself is correct, a building has been incorrectly added to the base of the tower. Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, also based on the Torre del Mangia Hydraulic engine house, Bristol Harbour
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Madrid
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Madrid is the capital city of the Kingdom of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has a population of almost 3.2 million with an area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union after London and Berlin, the municipality itself covers an area of 604.3 km2. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid, this community is bordered by the communities of Castile and León. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic, the current mayor is Manuela Carmena from Ahora Madrid. Madrid is home to two football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid. Madrid is the 17th most liveable city in the according to Monocle magazine. Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI, while Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Cibeles Palace and Fountain have become one of the monument symbols of the city, the first documented reference of the city originates in Andalusan times as the Arabic مجريط Majrīṭ, which was retained in Medieval Spanish as Magerit. A wider number of theories have been formulated on possible earlier origins, according to legend, Madrid was founded by Ocno Bianor and was named Metragirta or Mantua Carpetana. The most ancient recorded name of the city Magerit comes from the name of a built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD. Nevertheless, it is speculated that the origin of the current name of the city comes from the 2nd century BC. The Roman Empire established a settlement on the banks of the Manzanares river, the name of this first village was Matrice. In the 8th century, the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula saw the changed to Mayrit, from the Arabic term ميرا Mayra. The modern Madrid evolved from the Mozarabic Matrit, which is still in the Madrilenian gentilic, after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo. With the surrender of Toledo to Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085, Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the centre of the city, while Muslims and Jews settled in the suburbs. The city was thriving and was given the title of Villa, since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Ferdinand III of Castile
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Palio di Siena
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The Palio di Siena is a horse race that is held twice each year, on 2 July and 16 August, in Siena, Italy. Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the colours, represent ten of the seventeen contrade. The Palio held on 2 July is named Palio di Provenzano, in honour of the Madonna of Provenzano, the Palio held on 16 August is named Palio dellAssunta, in honour of the Assumption of Mary. The last one was in year 2000, to celebrate the entering of the city in the new century, a pageant, the Corteo Storico, precedes the race, which attracts visitors and spectators from around the world. The race itself, in which the jockeys ride bareback, circles the Piazza del Campo, the race is run for three laps of the piazza and usually lasts no more than 90 seconds. The earliest known antecedents of the race are medieval, the towns central piazza was the site of public games, largely combative, pugna, a sort of many-sided boxing match or brawl, jousting, and in the 16th century, bullfights. Public races organized by the contrade were popular from the 14th century on, called palii alla lunga, when the Grand Duke of Tuscany outlawed bullfighting in 1590, the contrade took to organizing races in the Piazza del Campo. The first such races were on buffalo-back and called bufalate, asinate, races on donkey-back, later took their place, the first modern Palio took place in 1633. At first, one race was held each year, on 2 July, a second, on 16 August, was added from 1701, though initially, the August race was run intermittently rather than every year. The August race, which coincided with the Feast of the Assumption, was probably introduced spontaneously as part of the feasting and celebration associated with this important festival. The August Palio started out as an extension of the celebrations of the July Palio and was organized and funded by Julys winning contrada, though only if the contrada in question could afford it. After 1802, however, organisation and funding the August race became a responsibility of the city. It was originated in 1581 on 15 August, the seventeen contrade are, In each race, only ten of the seventeen contrade participate, the seven which did not participate in the previous years Palio and three others chosen by drawing lots. The first race is held on 2 July, which is both the Feast of the Visitation and the date of a festival in honour of the Madonna of Provenzano. The second race is held on 16 August, the day after the Feast of the Assumption, after exceptional events and on important anniversaries, the Sienese community may decide to hold a third Palio between May and September. The most recent was in 2000 to mark the millennium, the field consists of ten horses, so not all seventeen contrade can take part in the Palio on any occasion. The seven contrade that did not take part in that month of the year are automatically included. A lottery then determines which horse will run for each contrada, six trial races are run, the first on the evening of the horse selection and the last on the morning before the Palio
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Google Earth
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It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and geographic information system onto a 3D globe. It was originally available with three different licenses, but has since reduced to just two, Google Earth and Google Earth Pro, which is now free and is intended for commercial use. The third original option, Google Earth Plus, has been discontinued. The product, re-released as Google Earth in 2005, is available for use on computers running Windows 2000 and above, Mac OS X10.3.9 and above, Linux kernel,2.6 or later. Google Earth is also available as a plugin which was released on May 28,2008. It was also available for mobile viewers on the iPhone OS on October 28,2008, as a free download from the App Store. In addition to releasing an updated Keyhole based client, Google also added the imagery from the Earth database to their web-based mapping software, as of October 2011, Google Earth has been downloaded more than a billion times. Google Earth displays satellite images of varying resolution of the Earths surface, Imagery resolution ranges from 15 meters of resolution to 15 centimeters. Most areas in Google Earth are only shown in 2D aerial imagery, Google Earth uses digital elevation model data collected by NASAs Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. This means one can view almost the entire earth in three dimensions, since November 2006, the 3D views of many mountains, including Mount Everest, have been improved by the use of supplementary DEM data to fill the gaps in SRTM coverage. Google Earth allows users to search for addresses for some countries, enter coordinates, some people use the applications to add their own data, making them available through various sources, such as the Bulletin Board Systems or blogs mentioned in the link section below. Google Earth is able to show various kinds of images overlaid on the surface of the earth and is also a Web Map Service client, Google Earth supports managing three-dimensional Geospatial data through Keyhole Markup Language. In December 2006, Google Earth added a new layer called Geographic Web that includes integration with Wikipedia, in Wikipedia, entries are scraped for coordinates via the Coord templates. There is also a community-layer from the project Wikipedia-World, More coordinates are used, different types are in the display and different languages are supported than the built-in Wikipedia layer. Google announced on May 30,2007 that it is acquiring Panoramio, in March 2010, Google removed the Geographic Web layer. The Panoramio layer became part of the layers and the Wikipedia layer was placed in the More layer. In Google Earth v4.2 a flight simulator was included as a hidden feature, starting with v4.3 it is no longer hidden. The flight simulator could be accessed by holding down the keys Ctrl, Alt, initially the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the Cirrus SR-22 were the only aircraft available, and they could be used with only a few airports
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Tourism in Italy
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With 48.6 million tourists a year, Italy is the fifth most visited country in international tourism arrivals. People mainly visit Italy for its art, cuisine, history, fashion and culture, its beautiful coastline and beaches, its mountains. Italy also contains more World Heritage Sites than any country in the world. Tourism is one of Italys fastest growing and most profitable industrial sectors, traders and merchants came to Italy from several different parts of the world. Pilgrims, for centuries and still today, would come to the city, the trade empires of Venice, Pisa and Genoa meant that several traders, businessmen and merchants from all over the world would also regularly come to Italy. In the 16th and early 17th century, with the height of the Renaissance, several came to Italy to study Italian architecture. Real tourism only affected in Italy in the half of the 17th century. This was a period in which European aristocrats, many of whom were British, visited parts of Europe, Italy, Greece and this was in order to study ancient architecture and the local culture. The Grand Tour was in essence triggered by the book Voyage to Italy, by Roman Catholic priest Richard Lassels, due to the Grand Tour, tourism became even more prevalent - making Italy one of the most desired destinations for millions of people. Once inside what would be modern-day Italy, these tourists would begin by visiting Turin for a short while. On the way there, Milan was also a stop, yet a trip to the city was not considered essential. If a person came via boat, then they would remain a few days in Genoa, yet, the main destination in Northern Italy was Venice, which was considered a vital stop, as well as cities around it such as Verona, Vicenza and Padua. Tourists rarely, yet occasionally, got to Trieste, as the Tour went on, Tuscan cities were also very important itinerary stops. Florence was an attraction, and other Tuscan towns, such as Siena, Pisa, Lucca. The most prominent stop in Central Italy, however, was Rome, later, they would go down to the Bay of Naples, and after their discovery in 1756, Pompeii and Herculaneum were popular too. Sicily was considered a significant part of the trail, and several, such as Goethe, throughout the 17th to 18th centuries, the Grand Tour was mainly reserved for academics or the elite. Nevertheless, circa 1840, rail transport was introduced and the Grand Tour started to fall out of vogue, hence. The 1840s saw the period in which the Victorian middle classes toured the country, several Americans were also able to visit Italy, and many more tourists came to the peninsula
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