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Nestled in San Francisco's Marina District, the Palace of Fine Arts stands as an enduring symbol of architectural grandeur and historical significance. Originally built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the palace was designed by renowned architect Bernard Maybeck, who drew inspiration from ancient Roman and Greek architecture. The intricate Corinthian columns and the massive central rotunda create a sense of classical elegance that contrasts beautifully with the surrounding lagoon and lush greenery.
Although intended to be a temporary structure, the Palace of Fine Arts became so beloved by locals that it was rebuilt in the 1960s with more durable materials, preserving its iconic beauty. Today, it serves as a serene escape for both residents and visitors alike. You’ll often find people strolling around the tranquil lagoon, capturing photos of the stunning reflections in the water, or enjoying a peaceful picnic on the lawns.
As you explore, notice the intricately detailed friezes and sculptures, which tell stories of Greek mythology and human creativity. The Palace also houses an event venue in its adjoining exhibition hall, making it a popular location for weddings, corporate events, and even Hollywood films.
For those seeking a quieter San Francisco experience, this hidden gem is a must-visit, offering a perfect blend of history, art, and nature. Whether you’re drawn by its romantic architecture or the peaceful atmosphere, the Palace of Fine Arts invites you to step back in time while remaining rooted in the heart of a modern, vibrant city.
月光下遇見陌生 可愛的一家人＜三代同堂＞！
The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a Taiwanese national monument, landmark and tourist attraction erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China.
The monument, surrounded by a park, stands at the east end of Memorial Hall Square. The structure is framed on the north and south by the National Theater and National Concert Hall.
Taipei, Taiwan.
2016/7/20
f84309+298L
A most beautiful church of the world is in Colombia.
La iglesia más hermosa del mundo está en Colombia.
Framed by soaring Corinthian columns and shadowed by the coffered ceiling above, this image offers a quiet, symmetrical view looking outward from within the monumental rotunda of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, architect Bernard Maybeck designed this Beaux-Arts fantasy as a crumbling Roman ruin reborn in the American West.
The grandeur of the arches, captured here in a moment of stillness, calls attention to the harmony of classical design—deep entablatures, sculpted acanthus capitals, and guardian statues perched above. Through the twin arches, the eye is gently led across the lagoon’s edge toward the surrounding trees and the white dome of the Exploratorium’s former home in the distance, blending art, science, and nature into a single, evocative scene.
What once was a temporary plaster structure meant to evoke nostalgia now serves as a serene civic monument. This angle emphasizes the human scale beneath towering ornamentation, where visitors wander, artists sketch, and couples take wedding portraits. The urns and benches beneath the towering piers offer grounding contrast to the weightless vault above, where light filters through cloudy skies into this sacred architectural space.
Whether you’re here for reflection, photography, or simply to feel small under grand arches, the Palace continues to deliver Maybeck’s original vision: a place where beauty transcends function, and ruins never truly decay.
You might argue I was for wrong reasons in Russia - Russian women are unbelievable gorgeous - but I took hardly any photos of this great city. This is one of the few I could upload but actually the city itself deserves much more attention.
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Count Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, completed 25 years later in 1789 by the Neva River. The academy promoted the neoclassical style and technique, and sent its promising students to European capitals for further study. Training at the academy was virtually required for artists to make successful careers. Formally abolished in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, the academy was renamed several times. It established free tuition; students from across the country competed fiercely for its few places annually. In 1947 the national institution was moved to Moscow, and much of its art collection was moved to the Hermitage. The building in Leningrad was devoted to the Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, named in honor of one of Russia's foremost realist artists. Since 1991 it has been called the St. Petersburg Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
old buildings in Gyeongbok-gung Palace, the main royal palace of Seoul, built in14C Joseon Dynasty
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The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta ... Siena Cathedral rising majestically in the eponymous city square, is one of Italy's most illustrious Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals. Entering the Cathedral means not only experiencing spiritual elevation but also opening up to beauty and exploring one of the city's most valuable art treasures.
I love seeing blimps - there's something both peaceful and threatening as they float overhead.
This one drifted above the city of Boston during a Red Sox game. I saw it from Christian Science Plaza, an amazing complex of imposing buildings.
With elegant rhythm and commanding presence, this view captures one of the many grand arches and fluted Corinthian columns of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Originally conceived by architect Bernard Maybeck for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the structure was meant to evoke a fallen Roman ruin—romantic, reflective, and timeless. But what was designed to be ephemeral has become a fixture of the city’s cultural and architectural identity.
In this photo, the massive columns dominate the foreground, their verticality drawing the eye upward toward the intricately carved capitals and open arch beyond. A soft, diffused sky offers contrast to the warm-toned faux-stonework of the Palace, which was originally made of wood and plaster, but rebuilt in concrete during the 1960s to preserve its beauty for generations to come. The symmetry of urns and repeating architectural motifs reinforces the Beaux-Arts principles that guided its design.
Seen through the arch is a glimpse of the colonnade and gardens that circle the central rotunda, reminding us how Maybeck’s vision was not just architectural, but experiential—meant to inspire awe, reverence, and quiet contemplation. Today, the Palace remains one of the most photographed and cherished spaces in the city. Locals walk their dogs here, wedding parties pose beneath its arches, and visitors marvel at how ephemeral design became eternal. The silence of the image captures that quiet San Francisco magic—where grandeur and grace still coexist.
The County Sessions House was built between 1882 and 1884 to house the Quarter Sessions for the West Derby Hundred of the county of Lancaster. The county's coat of arms appears in the pediment over the main entrance. Quarter Sessions were courts in which cases involving non-capital offences were tried by magistrates. Until 1877, they were held in Liverpool at the court in Basnett Street and at the Kirkdale Sessions House attached to Kirkdale gaol. When the Prison Act of 1877 transferred prisons like Kirkdale from local authority control to the state, a new home had to be found for the Sessions. They were housed temporarily in St George's hall until the new Sessions House opened in Islington. The magistrates held their first meeting here on Monday 4th August 1884.
The architects of the new building were Messrs. Francis and George Holme, members of an important Liverpool family of builders and railway contractors. Francis Usher Holme (1843/4-1913) trained as an architect in Edinburgh and London, and worked in the office of Sir Charles Barry, designer of the Houses of Parliament, before retuning to Liverpool. He was Surveyor to the County of Lancaster, and in this role he did much work in connection with the design of roads and bridges. In partnership with his uncle George Holme (1822/3-1915) he designed the Conservative Club in Dale Street (built 1882-3, now the Municipal Annexe) and the Homeopathic Hospital in Hope Street (1887, now the Hahnemann Building of John Moores University). In the 1880s and 90s F. & G.Holme regularly exhibited designs for buildings in the annual Liverpool Autumn Exhibitions held at the Walker Art Gallery. These included houses in the Sefton Park area and in West Derby, churches in Crosby and Oxton, the Town Hall in Widnes, and various buildings associated with the Snowdon Railway
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/about/countysessions.aspx
Framed by massive urn-topped plinths and towering Corinthian columns, this quiet passage at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts evokes the grandeur of an ancient Roman ruin, frozen in a timeless California dream. At the heart of the image lies the sculpted frieze of garland-bearing women, designed to harmonize with the architectural language of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Architect Bernard Maybeck, deeply inspired by classical antiquity and romantic melancholy, created this sanctuary of stone and stillness as a counterpoint to the technological optimism of the surrounding fair.
In this perspective, we look down a gravel path curving toward the rotunda. The symmetrical placement of the urns and careful alignment of verticals enhances the photograph’s compositional serenity. Beyond the foreground’s intimate architectural framing, tall trees quietly rise behind the colonnade, adding a natural softness that echoes the original intent—Maybeck wanted the Palace to feel as though it were a ruin being reclaimed by nature.
The urns and entablature brim with ornament: Greek key patterns, acanthus leaves, and classically draped figures that hint at the myths of antiquity without directly quoting them. The entire scene feels staged, almost theatrical, as if waiting for a chorus to step from behind the columns.
This vantage point invites quiet admiration—away from the lagoon, tourists, and main dome, it captures the quieter corners of a landmark built as a temporary structure but preserved in the hearts of locals and visitors alike. Every line, every sculptural fold, speaks to the Palace’s enduring beauty and the artistic ambition that helped shape early 20th-century San Francisco.
Templo de Niké.
Acrópolis de Atenas. Grecia.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
TODOS LOS DERECHOS RESERVADOS.
lorenzo orikain © 2025
In a break from my normal type of Imagery, I spent a few days out in London trying out some street photography.
With all my ❤️ I thank you for your ⭐ or 💬 or just for 👀 it.
A 📷 taken by me + Camera Raw ps oil
THIS PHOTO IT'S NOT AI 📀
You can look at the Exif data on your right.➡️ in pc, and on phone below the comments 👇
History resonates through columns worn by time.
This black and white image of the Parthenon, captured from a low and dramatic angle, reveals the serene strength of one of humanity’s most iconic monuments.
The ongoing restoration, visible within its core, reminds us that art and memory demand constant care.
A timeless symbol of Western civilization, classical beauty, and the harmony of proportion and reason.
Børsen (English: The Stock Exchange) is a building on Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It was built by Christian IV in 1619–1640 and is the oldest stock exchange in Denmark. It is known especially for its Dragon Spire shaped as the tails of four dragons twined together, reaching a height of 56 metres.
Christian IV had ambitions to turn Copenhagen into a metropolis and to strengthen the city's position as a commercial centre, he wanted a stock exchange along with the new merchant town Christianshavn he was constructing on the other side of the harbour. He asked Lorentz and Hans van Steenwinckel the Younger to design a building in Dutch renaissance with 40 small stalls at the ground floor and one big room at the upper floor.
The building was restored by Nicolai Eigtved in 1745 and internally renovated in 1855. It housed the Danish stock-market until 1974. In 1918, unemployed anarchists attacked Børsen, an attack that went to the Danish history books as "stormen på Børsen" (the storm at the stock exchange).
Oudemanhuispoort, one of the historic buildings of the University of Amsterdam (UvA).
Technical notes: Contax G1 + 45mm Carl Zeiss F2 on Hema (rebranded) 400 asa film. Scanned with a Nikon Coolscan V Ed (LS-50) + VueScan.
A neo gothic impressive architecture has artificial light for highlighting its beauty.
Una arquitectura neogótica impresionante tiene luz artificial para resaltar su belleza.
The House of Nobility (Riddarhuset) is a corporation and building that maintains records and acts as an interest group on behalf of the Swedish nobility.
Statue of Gustav Vasa, the king of Sweden 1523-1560.
La Casa de la Nobleza (Riddarhuset ) es una corporación y un edificio que mantiene registros y actúa como un grupo de interés en nombre de la nobleza sueca.
Estatua de Gustav Vasa, rey de Suecia 1523-1560
Stockholm (Sweden).
From across the still waters of the lagoon, the Palace of Fine Arts emerges like a vision—its domed rotunda and pink Corinthian columns rising from a lush frame of trees and reflections. In this wide view, the grandeur of the architecture meets the softness of nature, where birds perch on sunken branches and gentle ripples move across the surface of the water. It’s a place where you can breathe easier. For the sensitive observer, there’s a subtle emotional pull—something timeless, poetic, and grounding. The scene whispers of stillness, beauty, and a slower rhythm that exists just beyond the noise of the city.
Location: Les Sables-d'Olonne, a seaside town in the department of Vendee in Western France, on the Atlantic Ocean.
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old buildings in Gyeongbok-gung Palace, the main royal palace of Seoul, built in14C Joseon Dynasty
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Rising proudly from the heart of Blackpool’s Stanley Park is the elegant Cocker Clock Tower — a dignified tribute to Dr. William Cocker, the man who generously gifted the park’s 256 acres to the people of the town.
The tower was unveiled in 1926, the same year Stanley Park officially opened. Its clean classical lines and symmetrical form are typical of early 20th-century civic architecture, combining function with commemorative flair. The sculpted plaque above the door honours Dr. Cocker’s contribution, while the four clock faces keep time ticking across the surrounding gardens, sports fields, and promenades.
Standing serene beneath moody skies or summer sun, the Cocker Tower is more than just a timepiece — it’s a pillar of public generosity and urban planning foresight.
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🇫🇷 S’élevant au centre du Stanley Park de Blackpool, la tour horloge Cocker rend hommage au Dr William Cocker, bienfaiteur local qui fit don des 256 acres du parc aux habitants de la ville.
Inaugurée en 1926, la même année que le parc lui-même, la tour incarne l’architecture civique classique du début du XXe siècle — sobre, équilibrée, et empreinte de solennité. Une plaque sculptée rend hommage au Dr Cocker, tandis que les quatre cadrans dominent les jardins, terrains de sport et allées alentour.
Tantôt majestueuse sous un ciel d’orage, tantôt paisible au soleil, la tour Cocker n’est pas seulement une horloge : c’est un symbole de générosité et de vision urbaine.