The tour was made available in 2016 when Theresa May was the PM.
Nothing special and watching pictures of the building has the same result.
"The property was part of a building project by diplomat George Downing who built it on the site of Hampden House, which was destroyed in the late 18th century. The site was also once host to the Axe brewery. In 1682, Downing employed Sir Christopher Wren to design houses, but as they were built on marshland and cheaply made, they have been in an almost constant state of repair since their construction." Jasmeet Barker in the article "The Dawn of 10 Downing Street".
Inhabited since prehistoric times, this Nabataean caravan-city, situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, was an important crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia. Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. It is one of the world's most famous archaeological sites, where ancient Eastern traditions blend with Hellenistic architecture.
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the rock-cut capital city of the Nabateans, became during Hellenistic and Roman times a major caravan centre for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia. Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. An ingenious water management system allowed extensive settlement of an essentially arid area during the Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine periods. It is one of the world's richest and largest archaeological sites set in a dominating red sandstone landscape.
The Outstanding Universal Value of Petra resides in the vast extent of elaborate tomb and temple architecture; religious high places; the remnant channels, tunnels and diversion dams that combined with a vast network of cisterns and reservoirs which controlled and conserved seasonal rains, and the extensive archaeological remains including of copper mining, temples, churches and other public buildings. The fusion of Hellenistic architectural facades with traditional Nabataean rock-cut temple/tombs including the Khasneh, the Urn Tomb, the Palace Tomb, the Corinthian Tomb and the Deir ("monastery") represents a unique artistic achievement and an outstanding architectural ensemble of the first centuries BC to AD. The varied archaeological remains and architectural monuments from prehistoric times to the medieval periods bear exceptional testimony to the now lost civilisations which succeeded each other at the site.Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the rock-cut capital city of the Nabateans, became during Hellenistic and Roman times a major caravan centre for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia. Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. An ingenious water management system allowed extensive settlement of an essentially arid area during the Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine periods. It is one of the world's richest and largest archaeological sites set in a dominating red sandstone landscape.
The Outstanding Universal Value of Petra resides in the vast extent of elaborate tomb and temple architecture; religious high places; the remnant channels, tunnels and diversion dams that combined with a vast network of cisterns and reservoirs which controlled and conserved seasonal rains, and the extensive archaeological remains including of copper mining, temples, churches and other public buildings. The fusion of Hellenistic architectural facades with traditional Nabataean rock-cut temple/tombs including the Khasneh, the Urn Tomb, the Palace Tomb, the Corinthian Tomb and the Deir ("monastery") represents a unique artistic achievement and an outstanding architectural ensemble of the first centuries BC to AD. The varied archaeological remains and architectural monuments from prehistoric times to the medieval periods bear exceptional testimony to the now lost civilisations which succeeded each other at the site.
"It is hideous beyond believe." That's what David Sewes think about the Basilica, the statues... in short everything in the Basilica, the square, maybe Florence, It is amusing such a display of narcissism coming from a critic. Basilica's history: "The Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy is much more than just a church. Santa Croce is one of the oldest and largest Franciscan basilicas in the world and by far the most magnificent. Some of history’s most influential artists have made their mark on the church, from frescoes by Giotto and Agnolo Gaddi, to architecture by Brunelleschi and Donatello. While many basilicas in Italy contain the works of great artists, Santa Croce is unlike any other in the fact that it contains more than just their art; it contains their remains as well. Dubbed “The Temple of the Italian Glories,” Santa Croce contains more skeletons of Renaissance masters than any other church in Italy. Santa Croce was built in 1294 of a design by the great architect Arnolfo di Cambio. Its most notable features are its 16 chapels, many of them decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his pupils, and its tombs and cenotaphs designed by artists of the Renaissance. The church has lived through more than seven centuries of history and has an artistic and cultural heritage so profound that it has become one of the best-loved and most visited sites in Florence. Santa Croce was established as a Franciscan church and was decorated as such. A fundamental feature of early Franciscan churches was the frescoed narration of the stories of Christ and saints. Several of the great Florentine families, including the Bardi, the Peruzzi, the Alberti, the Baroncelli and the Rinuccini, acquired the patronage of chapels in Santa Croce, thereby assuming the honor of decorating and furnishing them. Some of the 14th century decoration has survived, including that painted by the great Giotto, who frescoed the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels with scenes from the life of St. Francis and scenes from the lives of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. Giotto’s closest followers, Taddeo Gaddi, Bernardo Daddi and Maso di Banco, painted frescoes in the chapels patronized by the Baroncelli, Pulci, Berardi, and Bardi di Vernio. In the mid-14th century, the walls of the aisles and the Sacristy were frescoed by Andrea Orcagna, Giovanni da Milano, Niccolò di Pietro Gerini and Agnolo Gaddi. The 14th century decoration was crowned by Agnolo Gaddi’s frescoes for the chapel of the high altar, commissioned by the Alberti and illustrating the Story of the True Cross. In the 15th century, Santa Croce received important architectural additions. In 1429, Andrea de’ Pazzi undertook the construction of the Chapter House (known as the Pazzi Chapel), which was designed and begun by Filippo Brunelleschi but not completed until long after his death. It is one of the most harmonious buildings of the Florentine Renaissance and is decorated not by frescoes but by glazed terracotta roundels created by Luca della Robbia and his followers. In the late 15th century, sculptural works, tombs, altars and pulpits were created by some of the greatest Florentine masters, including Donatello, Antonio and Bernardo Rossellino, Desiderio da Settignano and Benedetto da Maiano. Santa Croce underwent an architectural transformation in the late 16th century which involved the erection of large altars embellished with paintings by the greatest Tuscan artists of the time. However, it was with the construction of the tomb of Michelangelo that the basilica became a favorite resting place of Italian greats and would earn its title as “The Temple of the Italian Glories.” Upon entering Santa Croce, the first tomb visitors encounter is that of Michelangelo. Legend has it that the Renaissance master chose this spot so that the first thing he would see on Judgment Day, when the graves of the dead fly open, would be Brunelleschi's dome through Santa Croce's open doors. Michelangelo died in 1564 in Rome, miles away from his beloved Florence. However, the people of Florence were so determined to return Michelangelo’s remains to his home that a group broke into Rome’s church of Santissimi Apostoli, stole the great artist’s body and smuggled it back to Florence. Michelangelo is buried beneath a monument with allegorical figures of sculpture, architecture and painting designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1570. The structure was so beautiful that it served as a model for all other tombs that would be built in the church. Directly across from Michelangelo is the tomb of Galileo who died in 1642. The great astronomer was born in Pisa, yet spent the later part of his life in Florence under the patronage of the Medicis after the Roman Inquisition had intimidated him into recanting his belief that the earth revolves around the sun. His monument was not constructed until 1737 when his remains were finally allowed a Christian burial. The structure was designed by Giovanni Battista Foggini. Nearby the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo is a 19th century tribute to Dante Alighieri. The remains of Italy’s greatest poet are buried in Ravenna, as he was exiled from Florence for his political activities in 1302 and was not allowed to return. Dante died in Ravenna in 1321 and the city had refused to allow Florence to reclaim his body. Nearly halfway down the nave of Santa Croce stands the tomb of Niccolò Machiavelli, the political theoretician whose brutally pragmatic philosophy so influenced the Medici. Though he died in 1527, his tomb was not built until 1787. Despite his reputation as a contemptuous political theorist, Machiavelli was an honest servant of the Florentine state. The great Italian statesman could have easily taken bribes from competing parties, yet he never did. Machiavelli’s monument is a marble structure created by Spinazzi that bears the inscription, “Tanto nomini nullum par eulogium,” or “No elegy is equal to such a name.” The tomb of Lorenzo Ghiberti, creator of the bronze doors of the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral which Michelangelo called the "Gates of Paradise," is far simpler than that of his contemporaries. Ghiberti’s remains are marked by the emblem of an eagle on the floor of the basilica. Further into the church adjacent to the magnificent “Annunciation” sculpture by Donatello is the tomb of Leonardo Bruni. A renowned orator and Florentine diplomat, Bruni was an eminent scholar known for his translations of Plato and Aristotle and his writings on the history of Florence. When Bruni died in 1444, his last wishes were for his remains to be housed in an antique-style funerary monument. The structure, executed by Bernardo Rossellino, features ancient Roman art rather than religious imagery, thus complying with Bruni’s final request. At the very end of Santa Croce’s nave is the tomb of opera composer Gioachino Rossini, who died in 1868. Rossini penned 39 operas, including the famous “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” and “La Cenerentola.” Until his retirement in 1829, Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history. His monument was created in 1900 by Giuseppe Cassioli. In the late 19th century, Santa Croce became not only a resting place for the greatest Italians, but for ordinary individuals as well. Private tombs inspired by a romantic mourning for lost affections also found their place in the Basilica. The great Italian writer Ugo Foscolo, whose remains were transported from London so that he could be buried in Santa Croce, once wrote that the tombs of Santa Croce were “urns of the strong, that kindle strong souls to great deeds.” These words could not be more true, as those put to rest in the church of Santa Croce are among the most inspirational individuals in history." Source: The Tombs of Santa Croce The Italian Tribune 27 March, 2014 at 14:21
Inspired by Canadians,
More than 135 milk cartons + food dye + water + (mostly) Finnish winter = an Ice Fort to be made.
All that adds up to ice bricks used to create an ice fort. It was a blast making this but a lot of work. At the end, the weather did not entirely co-operate.
Thanks to the Kiwi guy in Canada who inspired this. Not quite the igloo and not quite 500 cartons and certainly not the time needed but still thanks!
I forgot the source of this post. I love stain-glasses and also mosaics. Byzantine art is on my list of the ten wonders of the world. Next post will be about... guess who?
I found it at Facebook: 136.173.000 shares and numerous comments.
It seems something went wrong with the Industrial Revolution. Some people want to grow their own food because of GMO and pesticides and others think that men are not meant to live in boxes. Medicines from plants and other sources other than pills are also a dream.
We would have to start things all over again.
"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."
Two years of blog and I didn't write a single post about Julio Cortázar? This is amazing, quite an accomplishment since he is in that strange and restrictive category we call favorites authors.
From where to begin talking about someone whose work deals with so many issues and has numerous attributes ?
I just came across with this interview and I believe it's great start. The interviewer, a writer himself, Jason Weiss focused on Cortázar's process of writing that also reveals biographical and ideological views of a man who was deeply concerned with what was happening around him without losing the passion for literature, art, philosophy, music, architecture, practically all the fields that the word humanities have. Excerpts:
Cortázar: "When my characters are children and adolescents, I have a lot of tenderness for them. I think they are very alive in my novels and in my stories; I treat them with a lot of love. When I write a story where the character is an adolescent, I am the adolescent while I am writing it. With the adult characters, it’s something else."
Jason Weiss: Are many of your characters based on people that you’ve known?
Cortázar: "I wouldn’t say many, but there are a few. Very often there are characters who are a mixture of two or three people. I have put together a female character, for example, from two women I have known. That gives the character in the story or the book a personality that’s more complex, more difficult."
Jason Weiss: Do you mean that when you feel the need to thicken a character, you combine two together?
Cortázar: "Things don’t work like that. It’s the characters who direct me. That is, I see a character, he’s there, and I recognize someone I knew, or occasionally two who are a bit mixed together, but then that stops. Afterwards, the character acts on his own account. He says things . . . I never know what any of them are going to say when I’m writing dialogue. Really, it’s up to them. Me, I’m just typing out what they’re saying. Sometimes I burst out laughing, or I throw out a page and say, “There, there you’ve said silly things. Out!” And I put in another page and start over again with their dialog."
Jason Weiss: So it’s not the characters you’ve known that impel you to write?
Cortázar: "No, not at all. Often, I have an idea for a story, but there aren’t any characters yet. I’ll have a strange idea: something’s going to happen in a house in the country, I see . . . I’m very visual when I write, I see it all, I see everything. So, I see..."
(read the interview here) you will not regret. He is quite a genius and has a lot to say. At the end he tells a story to explain his views on success. I didn't full you with such a title for this post.)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1720-1778, was an Italian whose engravings and etchings of Rome and imaginary structures are being studied now by universities.
However in an exhibition of his work in the Carnegy Museum of Art, the public was invited to use a magnifying glasses to see the details.
It sounds contradictory but still at the same exhibition photographies of Pittsburgh were displayed:
" These dramatic photographs of the Allegheny County Court House bare a striking resemblance to some of Piranesi’s imagined architecture. The photographs, by Clyde Hare, show just how relevant these ancient etchings are."
“Despite being an old master, Piranesi’s fantasy environments will likely resonate with today’s audience,” says Amanda Zehnder, assistant curator of fine arts and organizer of Giovanni Battista Piranesi. “Contemporary imaginary virtual reality, aesthetics of electronically or digitally constructed experiential and social environments, and even the aesthetics of horror, recall Piranesi’s work."
The creator of imaginary never-ending staircases and chains still influences artists, architects, psychologists and other fields of knowledge. I believe you can understand now what is the meaning of "piranesian" at the post below.
Images: Two of the fifteen Carceri's (Prisons) series Piranesi published.
You can see them all here.
It is very interesting to see Piranesi this way because he was considered to influence Surrealism. I never thought it was very fair. Not everything that deals with imagination is so detached from reality and has to be related to surrealism.
"The dreams of the reason produces monsters." Goya wrote once which will be the next post.
"The Stata Center's main pieces are about twelve 120-foot towers and an assortment of adjoining small elements””about six or seven by my count””that accommodate lecture rooms, class rooms, and social spaces on the lower floors. The cluster packs around a public space on the fourth floor that spills out onto a raised outdoor plaza facing south. The whole center””one cannot call it a single building””houses the newly formed Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Linguistics Departments (yes, that is Noam Chomsky's department) and the Philosophy Department, as well as other offices and social spaces, like a café. It contains over 700,000 square feet.
The Stata is already receiving critical accolades, a routine that is now customary for all the Gehry blockbusters that have opened recently. It does deserve its share of critical acclaim. The subtraction of solid surfaces on the inside create piranesian effects of complex visual penetration from one space into another into another with walkways that stream all over the place. It reminds me a bit of Portman's Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. Sunlight pours through all kinds of crevasses bouncing off shiny surfaces outside and colorful walls inside. The communal spaces for the research teams connect from one floor to another. The offices seem very comfortable. There are tons of operable windows."
More details here.
If you want information about the courses that MIT is doing using Internet you must visit their sites. It is great to have an opportunity to have classes from MIT.
Hmmm... I am still trying to decide which one I will do first. Many interesting topics. I still didn't find Chomsky name at the list. Maybe he is lost on the piranesian walkways of the Stata center.
Oh! You do not who Piranesi is or any of his work? You will know at the next post.
