View allAll Photos Tagged ClockTower
Nineteenth Century former offices and admin block of the Staveley Coal & Ironworks between Hollingwood and Barrow Hill, near Chesterfield. Now a Business Centre.
Feb. 18, 2017
City of Green Administration Building
Fuji GX680 III -50mm. lens
Fuji Acros 100 - APH09 - 1:50
Under the modern city lies the Roman city of Sellium. After the conquest of the region from the Moors in the Portuguese Reconquista, the land was granted in 1159 as a fief to the Order of the Knights Templar. Its Grand Master in Portugal, and Tomar's somewhat mythical founder, Gualdim Pais, laid in 1160 the first stone of the Castle and Monastery that would become the headquarters of the Order in Portugal.
Local traditional legends preach that the choice was for mystical reasons and by divine inspiration, from practices like geomancy by the Grand Master, based on exercises taken from luck and predestination. Reinforcing this magical view is the fact that the lot was part of a small chain of seven elevations (lugar dos sete montes), which became known as the city of seven hills, as the seven hills of Jerusalem, the seven hills of Rome or the seven columns of Constantinople.
The foral or feudal contract was granted in 1162 by the Grand Master to the people. The Templars ruled from Tomar a vast region of central Portugal which they pledged to defend from Moorish attacks and raids. Like many lords of the unpopulated former frontier region of central Portugal, the villagers were given relatively liberal conditions in comparison with those of the northern regions of Portugal, in order to attract new immigrants. Those inhabitants who could sustain a horse were obliged to pay military service in return for privileges. They were not allowed the title of Knight which was reserved to the monks. Women were also admitted to the Order, although they didn't fight.
In 1190 Abu Yusuf al-Mansur, a Moroccan caliph, and his army attacked Tomar. However the crusader Knights and their 72-year-old leader kept them at bay. A plaque commemorates this bloody battle at the Porta do Sangue at the Castelo Templário (Castle of Tomar). In 1314, under pressure from the Pope Clement V, who wanted the Templars banned throughout Europe, King Dinis negotiated instead to transfer the possessions and personnel of the Order in Portugal to a newly created Order of Christ. This Order in 1319 moved south to Castro Marim, but in 1356 it returned to Tomar. In the 15th century the position of (cleric) Grand Master of the Order was henceforth nominated by the Pope, and the (lay) Master or Governor by the King, instead of being elected by the monks.
Henry the Navigator was made the Governor of the Order, and it is believed that he used the resources and knowledge of the Order to succeed in his enterprises in Africa and in the Atlantic. The cross of the Order of Christ that was painted in the sails of the caravels that crossed the seas, and the Catholic missions in the new lands were under the authority of the Tomar clerics until 1514.
Henry, enriched by his overseas enterprises, was the first ruler to ameliorate the buildings of the Convento de Cristo since its construction by Gualdim Pais. He also ordered dams to be built to control the river Nabão and swamps to be drained. This allowed the burgeoning town to attract more settlers. Henry ordered the new streets to be designed in a rational, geometrical fashion, as they can still be seen today.
In 1438, King Duarte, away from Lisbon because of the Black Death, died there instead.
View of the round Templar church (12th century) of the Convent of the Order of Christ
Church of Santa Maria do Olival, burial place for the Knights Templar of Tomar
Just after 1492 with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the town increased further with Jewish refugee artisans and traders. The very large Jewish minority dynamized the city with new trades and skills. Their experience was vital in the success of the new trade routes with Africa. The original synagogue still stands.
In the reign of Manuel I of Portugal the convent took its final form within the Manueline renaissance style. With the growing importance of the town as master of Portugal's overseas empire, the leadership of the Order was granted to the King by the Pope.
However, under pressure from the monarchs of Spain, the King soon proclaimed by Edict that all the Jews remaining within the territory of Portugal would be after a short period considered Christians, although simultaneously he forbade them to leave, fearing that the exodus of Jewish men of knowledge and capital would harm Portugal's burgeoning commercial empire. Jews were largely undisturbed as nominal Christians for several decades, until the establishment of a Tribunal of the Portuguese Inquisition by the initiative of the Catholic Clergy in the town. Under persecution, wealthier Jews fled, while most others were forced to convert. Hundreds of both Jews and New Christians were arrested, tortured and burned at the stake in autos da fé, in a frenzy of persecution that peaked around 1550. Many others were expropriated of their property. Jewish ascendancy, more than Jewish religion, together with personal wealth determined whom would be persecuted, since the expropriations reverted to the institution of the Inquisition itself. The town lost then with the persecution of its merchants and professionals most of its relevance as a trading centre. New Christian names among the inhabitants are very common today.
In 1581 the city was the seat of the Portuguese Cortes (Feudal Parliament) which acclaimed the King of Spain Felipe II as Portugal's Filipe I.
During the 18th century Tomar was one of the first regions of Portugal in industry. In the reign of Maria I, with royal support, a textile factory of Jácome Ratton was established against the opposition of the Order. The hydraulic resources of the river Nabão were used to supply energy to this and many other factories, namely paper factories, foundries, glassworks, silks and soaps.
Tomar was occupied by the French during the Napoleonic invasions, against which it rebelled. Duke of Wellington with his Portuguese and English troops liberated the city afterwards.
In 1834 all the religious orders, including the Order of Christ, were disbanded.
The masked figure in Neapolitan costume who strikes the hour on the clocktower is Pulcinella. The English Punch and Danish Mester Jakel both derive from the character Pulcinella in the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, a staged comedy going back to at least the 16th century. Pulcinella is normally presented as a Naples bumpkin named after the Italian for a young chicken due to his beaklike nose and disoriented stupidity. His basic characteristics are a mean, vicious temperament and a propensity to knock everyone – including his wife – around. These characteristics reappear of course in the English Punch version.
The Torre di Pulcinella has been standing in Montepulciano for several hundred years. Some claim it was erected by a bishop from Naples longing for and eager to share some of his hometown folklore.
180608 063
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All images are the property of the photographer and may not be reproduced, copied, downloaded, transmitted or used in any way without the written permission of the photographer -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nearly a year to the day since we were last in Palmerston North, we were here again.
This time for my Nan's 80th Birthday celebration with the wider family.
My Website : Twitter : Facebook : Instagram : Photocrowd
As was the nature of our trip to Tuscany, we never had very long in any one place. Siena was no different as we arrived at about 5pm and spent about two hours there. Whilst it was a great time to wander round the city and the light was great unfortunately the famous tower and most churches etc were already closed. I'd definitely like to go back some time and spend a few days there.
More photos from Tuscany here : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/albums/72157714689304067
From Wikipedia : "The Torre del Mangia is a tower in Siena, in the Tuscany region of Italy. Built in 1338-1348, it is located in the Piazza del Campo, Siena's premier square, adjacent to the Palazzo Pubblico (Town Hall). When built it was one of the tallest secular towers in medieval Italy. At 102 m, it is second tallest after Cremona's Torrazzo (112 m (367 ft)), the Asinelli tower in Bologna at 97 m being third.
The tower was built to be exactly the same height as the Siena Cathedral as a sign that the church and the state had equal amounts of power. Literally meaning "Tower of the Eater", the name refers to its first bellringer, Giovanni di Balduccio, nicknamed Mangiaguadagni ("Eat-the-profits", that is "Profit eater") either for his spendthrift tendency, idleness or gluttony."
© D.Godliman
One of the landmarks of downtown Staunton, Virginia, is the clock tower. The building was completed around 1890 and later remodeled by architect T.J. Collins. The building housed the YMCA for many years. Information from Staunton's tourist website and the book Staunton by Sergei Troubetzkoy.
Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo. The church was built in the 13th C but was badly damaged and largely rebuilt in 1755. Much of the clock tower is considered to be original however. The oversized clocks date from the 19th Century.
Now an office building, the Chelsea clocktower in Chelsea, Michigan, was built as a water tower for the Glazier Stove Company. It was erected after the company twice suffered damaging fires to its manufacturing complex. The stove company is more than a century gone, but the clocktower still stands.
Sun setting on the belltower atop the Daniels & Fisher Clocktower, Denver.... yes, it's VERY windy up there...
_________________
House: Everybody's happy until they unwrap the pretty present and find they got a wall clock in the shape of Africa...
--"House" (FOX)
(...that's it on the left of the picture). I actually climbed the darn thing -- the narrowest staircase I've ever been on!
Enjoy
_FX41952a
All Rights Reserved © 2018 Frederick Roll ~ fjroll.com
Please do not use this image without prior permission
'Ye Olde Clocktower', Whitehorse Road. Formerly 'The Coach & Horses' and 'The Mailcoach'. For sale, with planning permission for flats to be built on the site.
Back in the 1880s, the Mail Coach was still running along Whitehorse Road; no doubt from London to major points south. The horses were changed at this pub, and the stable building still exists in the back yard.