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Como gostaria de escrever algo Diferente de tudo que existe.
Uma mensagem sem rodeios ou uma so gota de tristeza molhando suas letras.
Que ao lê-a seu coração se enchesse de alegria e teus olhos brilhassem e voce pudessem sorrir.
Uma mensagem simples, mas espontânea , que deixasse voce feliz!
Queria encher sua vida so de flores, de estrelas, de sorrisos, ao nível do teu merecimento.
Queria por dentro de um texto todos os corações que te amam incondicionalmente.
Eh muita pretensão mas eu queria isto tudo, porque gosto muito de você
Que esta felicidade que te desejo hoje te acompanhe sempre, para todo o sempre.
Que bom que voce existe,
E como maravilhoso ser seu Amigo....
A Cris foi um presente vindo dos Ceus que ganhei alguns anos, que logo se tormou parte da minha vida mesmo estando Distante, desde de 84 que ela vive em Londres
Foi Graças a sua insistencia que comprei minha camera e hoje voces veem diariamente estas imagens e tambem foi graças a ela que minha mãe tirou as ultimas fotos que tenho dela e junto a ela.
A Cris fez parte do grupo Som Maior, este grupo faz parte da historia da musica Gospel no Brasil, um grupo formado por Jovens da Convençao Bastista Brasileira e que fez muito sucesso no inicio dos anos 80 e que teve sua musicas eternizadas nas mentes de pessoas de todas as religioes no Brasil, tocando inclusive em algumas novelas...
Clicando Aqui & Aqui voces podem escutar duas destas canções.
Foto: Flor Silvestre - Mirante Dois Irmãos - Leblon - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
Serie homenagens
The era of 'deregulation' of bus services spawned many a newcomer to the industry as provision on profitable routes burgeoned. Some of those it was thought would benefit and take up the challenge simply gave up and retired, whilst others expanded themselves into oblivion. The new era brough numerous 'fly-by-night' operations, many of whom weren't fit to hold a licence, but there were other commendable efforts. Many of those in the latter category were enthusiast run, people simply wanting to provide a service to others via the medium of their hobby. They put their heart and soul into doing things properly but seldom was there the financial return to make the sums add up... which I know from bitter experience.
I don't know the ins and outs of Dorset based Verwood Transport, but the small fleet always appeared well turned out in their two tone blue livery with gold lining. Here ex Glasgow Alexander bodied Leyland Atlantean HGD 863L is seen with blinds set for a journey to Christchurch (Bournemouth) in 1987. Sadly, the business no longer exists, but even if it did, it wouldn't legally be possible to provide service nowadays with the sort of vehicles an enthusiast owner would have a preference for using. Better to have no service than one provided by a bus with a step entrance eh?
Existant depuis le XIIe siècle, le palais Pretorio ou del Vicariato, a été reconstruit au XVe siècle.
La façade est ornée d'armoiries en faïence, en terre cuite ou en marbre des différents capitaines de la ville.
During the Falklands war, British Paratroopers of 2 Para were under heavy fire in Darwin/Goose Green. They called in air support. A flight of three RAF Harrier Gr.3's came at dawn to provide close air support. The first dropped BL755 cluster bombs, the second two unleashed an almighty salvo of SNEB 2.7 inch rockets. The Argentine's surrendered soon after, with the Paratroopers giving credit to the shock caused by the airstrike. This is an attempt to recreate one of my favorite photos of all time by Richard Cooke. I had a post card of it as a kid when we moved to the UK and it helped instill a fascination with the harrier and vertical flight that still exists to this day!
One of only two surviving samples known to exist. And the only one complete with the original never-ready case and box.
For more on the 1950 Beauty Six, see:
camera-wiki.org/wiki/Frank_Six
This Beauty Six also appears on the cover of "A Brief History of Photograpphy", published by Rocky Nook Press, and available in February 2025. Look for it in your favourite bookstore or camera store. Details are here: furnfeather.ca/
There is a fascinating story about this camera, which can be found, here: furnfeather.ca/Stories.html
Photographed with an OM-1 and Olympus 12~40/2.8 PRO using the in-camera focus stacking. Twelve shots.
Grazalema es un municipio español de la provincia de Cádiz, Andalucía. Se encuentra enclavado al noreste de la provincia de Cádiz, en la zona de reserva del Parque Natural Sierra de Grazalema, del que lleva su nombre. Sus espaldas son custodiadas por el Peñón Grande lugar donde nace el río Guadalete. Forma parte de la Ruta de los Pueblos Blancos: al norte Sierra Morena, al sur Sierra del Endrinal, al este Parque Natural Sierra de las Nieves, al oeste Cerro de San Cristóbal (1555 m. de altitud), y al noroeste Sierra del Pinar (punto orográfico más alto de la provincia con 1654 m. de altitud).
Sus actividades tradicionales son las agropecuarias, que van siendo progresivamente abandonadas por su escasa rentabilidad, habiendo sido compensadas en gran medida por el auge del turismo, vinculado a la declaración del Parque Natural Sierra de Grazalema.
Es el municipio más lluvioso de Andalucía. En el corazón de la Sierra de Grazalema se enclava este pintoresco pueblo blanco gaditano que goza de un microclima especial. Aunque existen en la zona huellas de asentamientos prehistóricos, como el Dolmen de la Giganta, el origen de Grazalema coincide con la ciudad romana de Lacílbula. En su casco urbano, declarado Conjunto Histórico, la típica arquitectura popular se combina a la perfección con la riqueza monumental. La joya patrimonial de la villa es la Iglesia barroca de Nuestra Señora de la Aurora, junto a la que se dan cita la Iglesia de San José, la Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación, la Iglesia de San Juan y las ermitas del Calvario y de los Ángeles. Famosa por sus tradicionales mantas, éstas se exponen junto a otros oficios artesanales en el Museo de Artesanía Textil.
Esta hermosa pedanía de Grazalema enclavada en un paraje impresionante, fue llamada por los árabes Ben-Mahoma, hijos de Mahoma. La influencia islámica se puede apreciar en el trazado de las calles y en la constante presencia del agua.
There exists a vast ring-shaped area of hydrogen-alpha emissions, Coalsack Loop, overlapping Coalsack Nebula. Slightly bluish-white faint reflection nebula is widely in front. Jewel Box, NGC 4755 is near the left upper corner.
Here is a wider frame.
www.flickr.com/photos/hiroc/48017850973
equipmnent: Takahashi FSQ-130ED and Canon EOS 5Dmk3-sp4, modified by Seo-san on Takahashi EM-200FG-Temma 2Z-BL, autoguided with Fujinon 1:2.8/75mm C-Mount Lens, Pentax x2 Extender, Starlight Xpress Lodestar Autoguider, and PHD2 Guiding
exposure: 3 times x 25 minutes, 5 x 15 min, 5 x 4 min, and 4 x 1 minute at ISO 3,200 and f/5.0
site: 2,430m above sea level at lat. 24 39 52 South and long. 70 16 11 West near Cerro Armazones Chile
- Le Bali Bird Park est une attraction touristique de Bali. Il est situé dans la régence de Gianyar et a une superficie de 2 000 mètres carrés. Le parc abrite plus de 1 300 oiseaux représentant plus de 250 espèces dans une volière fermée.
- Le Bali Bird Park a pour objectif de devenir un « centre d’excellence » pour la reproduction des oiseaux de paradis et des étourneaux de Bali. De nombreux oiseaux nichent dans le parc tout au long de l’année.
Le parc a été aménagé de manière à créer des habitats naturels. Il abrite une collection botanique diversifiée, avec 52 espèces différentes de palmiers, des arbres fruitiers rares de la jungle, des cycadales, des bambous et des cactus. Trois lacs du parc abritent diverses espèces d'oiseaux aquatiques. Il existe 60 enclos à oiseaux avec des habitats pour abriter la collection.
- Merci pour vos passages sur les vues, favoris et commentaires.
- Thanks all for the views, favs and comments, very appreciated.
- Mes vidéos ICI : www.youtube.com/@Poulbeau19/videos
Introducción histórica a la Colegiata de Santa Juliana en Santillana del Mar
Santillana está documentada como villa desde el siglo X pero es más que probable que ya existiese desde comienzos de la Reconquista y la repoblación allá por los siglos VIII y IX con el nombre de Planes y aquí existiese un primitivo monasterio, probablemente particular.
Imponente cabecera y cimborrio de la colegiata de Santillana del Mar
Precisamente, este lugar -Planes- cambiaría de nombre con la llegada de las reliquias de Santa Juliana de Bitinia (Sancta Luliana que pasará por contracción a Santillana), martirizada durante las feroces persecuciones de Diocleciano a fines del siglo III. d.C. Tales restos fueron traídos por monjes peregrinos en los años setenta del siglo IX.
Calle de la Carrera. Al fondo la colegiata
De aquel pequeño cenobio altomedieval no queda nada, puesto que las edificaciones románicas del siglo XII renovaron completamente el solar donde se asentaría las estancias monacales y el templo (¿De estilo asturiano o mozárabe?).
El casco antiguo de Santillana ofrece rincones deliciosos
La protección primero de los condes y luego reyes de Castilla propició el crecimiento en prestigio y en propiedades. Ya en el siglo XII el cenobio de Santa Juliana -siglo que coincide con la mayor importancia- aparece citado como colegiata, habiendo sido sustituidos los monjes benedictinos por canónigos de San Agustín.
Cabecra de la Colegiata de Santillana del Mar
El declive comienza a principios del siglo XIII hasta hacerse mucho más patente en la centuria siguiente.
Arquitectura y escultura románicas de la Colegiata de Santillana del Mar
La Colegiata de Santillana del Mar es monumento Nacional desde 1889.
Canecillo
De todo el enorme complejo que actualmente constituye la colegiata, lo más antiguo es el conjunto de construcciones románicas que luego sufrirían añadidos y modificaciones.
La obra románica se iniciaría en las primeras décadas del siglo XII y costa de una iglesia de generosas dimensiones estructurada en tres naves, transepto y cabecera tripartita, con cimborrio sobre el crucero, gran puerta meridional, torre cilíndrica adosada al muro meridional y un magnífico claustro de finales de siglo.
El claustro es una de las partes más interesantes de la colegiata
Libro: Iconografía y Simbolismo RománicoLuego llegarían las adiciones y reformas:
La torre de planta cuadrada de los pies -seguramente del siglo XIV- que parece se puso como enorme contrafuerte sobre la fachada occidental para estabilizar la estructura.
Del siglo XV parece ser la capilla tardogótica añadida al brazo norte del transepto, conocida como del Marqués de Robledo y que cuenta con una bóveda de crucería estrellada.
Del siglo XVII serían la sacristía adosada al hastial del brazo sur del transepto, que casi lo para completamente; la galería sobre la nave meridional, el zaguán y la casa del abad. También se ría de estos momentos la modificación de la puerta románica del muro sur con construcción de un frontón renacentista.
La construcción románica
Exterior
Fachada sur
La fachada sur es la más vistosa por su tamaño, riqueza de elementos y disposición a la vista de los transeúntes que alcanzan la colegiata por las principales calles de la Carrera, Cantón y Río.
Puerta principal de la colegiata
De época románica, lo primero que observamos es la portada con arquivoltas de medio punto sin decoración y columnas con capiteles meteorizados que todavía dejan ver animales como leones y basiliscos.
Gallos o basiliscos en la puerta principal
Mayor interés tiene el friso escultórico superior y las estatuas encastradas en las enjutas. Además de apóstoles y obispos, hay una escena de Adán y Eva en el Pecado Original.
Uno de los relieves de la portada
Lo más espectacular es el Maiestas Domini que bendice con la mano derecha y porta el Libro de la Vida con su contraria, dentro de una mandarla sujeta por las manos de cuatro ángeles en curiosa postura horizontal y paralela. Esta iconografía podría estar relacionada con el Juicio Final aunque nos inclinamos a pensar más en la Ascensión.
Relieve escultórico románico de Cristo en la mandorla entre cuatro ángeles
También nos llama la atención la no muy alta torre cilíndrica con cuerpos separados por impostas taqueadas y el superior con vano ajimezado. Ante su contemplación nos salta a la memoria algunas torres del románico lombardo o las que flanquean la fechada de San Martín de Frómista. En todo caso, nada tiene que ver este campanario con otras torres prismáticas importantes del románico cántabro como las de San Pedro de Cervatos o Castañeda.
Tronera de la torre cilíndrica
Del hastial del crucero en su extremo meridional, poco podemos ver por haberse construido la citada sacristía. No obstante se vislumbra un ventanal en el extremo superior así como una serie de canecillos.
Hastial sur del transepto
En el remate de todas estas estructuras queda el cimborrio de planta cuadrada, que disponía de arquerías murales sobre columnas, aunque alguna restauración las eliminó de parte del contorno.
Arquerías del cimborrio
Cabecera
A pesar de que la ausencia de ábside románico en el lado norte, así como la adición de sacristía y capilla, no cabe duda de que la cabecera de la colegiata de Santillana es una de las más espectaculares del románico español gracias a la articulación mural de los ábsides central y meridional.
Ábside meridional
En concreto, el ábside principal cuenta con finas columnas en tres tramos con sus respectivas basas. Loas paños resultantes llevan aspilleras de iluminación rodeados por estructuras tipo portadas, con dos amplias arquivoltas de medio punto y chambrana sobre dos parejas de columnillas.
Ventanal del ábside sur
capitel de la cabeceraPor su parte, el absidiolo lateral sur es, en su menor tamaño, otra joya que repite el juego de columnas y ventanal pero adaptándose a su menor superficie.
Aunque el conjunto de capiteles tienen dispar nivel de conservación, todavía pueden vislumbrarse interesantes tallas como el capitel que muestra un mono boca abajo.
Interior
Las naves y la cabecera
El templo de la Colegiata de Santillana del Mar es un edificio de tres amplias naves deparadas por arcos formeros de medio punto sobre pilares cruciformes con medias columnas en sus caras externas. El abovedamiento de los ábsides es el habitual románico y también el del transepto con bóveda de medio cañón.
Interior de la nave central y la sur de la colegiata
No se sabe si las tres naves -más alta la central- también tuvieron cubierta de piedra o de simple madera. Las actuales de crucería son del siglo XIII.
Arcos formeros. Interior de la colegiata de Santillana del Mar
En el crucero se levantó un cimborrio basado en sobreelevadas pechinas que soportan la cúpula semiesférica, que hoy parece ovalada como consecuencia de reformas ulteriores.
Interior del cimborrio
La estructura columnaria ofrece un riquísimo repertorio de capiteles. Varios de ellos son vegetales o contienen volutas con cabecitas entre ellas. Entre las cestas con temática zoomorfa tenemos los que muestran leones, aves y un mono con una cuerda al cuello. En uno de los ábsides hay uno de temática erótica con un personaje itifálico o el más conocido de todos donde dos guerreros luchan con escudos y enormes espadas.
Capitel
Relieves de los ábsides y otros elementos escultóricos muebles
Nada sabemos de lo que hubo en la fachada occidental de la iglesia ya que en el siglo XIV se adosó una gruesa torre prismática con el fin de apuntalar el edificio. Lo lógico es que hubiese una portada monumental y tal extremo puede justificar la existencia de una serie de relieves descontextualizados en los tres ábsides, que procederían de ella:
En el ábside del Evangelio hay un relieve de la Virgen con el Niño en la clásica iconografía bizantina de Sedes Sapientiae y rodeada de estructuras arquitectónicas.
Relieve con la Virgen
En el ábside central, empleado como frontal de altar, tenemos un grupo de cuatro apóstoles.
En el ábside de la Epístola se conserva un nuevo relieve con la santa patrona domeñando al diablo.
También procedería de la puerta occidental un espléndido relieve con un Maiestas Domini que se guarda en la Capilla del Marqués de Robledo. Se atribuye a Pedro Quintana, artista que esculpió el tímpano de la iglesia de Yermo en 1202.
Ábside septentrional
Al margen de estas piezas, debemos también citar dos más guardadas en distintos lugares del templo colegial: la pila bautismal y el Sepulcro de Doña Fronilde.
La pila bautismal románica se encuentra en cuerpo inferior de la torre occidental usada como baptisterio. Es de forma caliciforme y amplias dimensiones. Destaca por un rudo relieve de Daniel en el foso de los leones.
Pila bautismal
Junto a la entrada a la sacristía del brazo sur del transepto encontramos el citado sepulcro -posiblemente del siglo XII- y con una enigmática inscripción que parece pertenecer a un infante.
El claustro
El famoso claustro de la Colegiata de Santillana del Mar fue levantado al norte de la iglesia a finales del siglo XII o comienzos del XIII.
Claustro de la Colegiata
Es un espacio cuadrangular ligeramente irregular con cuatro pandas abiertas a un patio central mediante arquerías. De época románica son sólo tres de ellas puesto que el ala este es muy posterior.
Dragón
Los arcos de las crujías románicas son de medio punto y caen sobre dobles columnas de fustes gruesos y bajos, lo que tiene la virtud de de permitir al espectador la contemplación de los capiteles casi a la altura de la vista.
Claustro
En total son un total de 43 los capiteles románicos que podemos disfrutar en este claustro, lo que ofrece un repertorio muy amplio de motivos vegetales, geométricos, zoomorfos y de escenas bíblicas.
Arcángel San Miguel y el dragón
De todos ellos, destacamos los siguientes:
Bautismo de Cristo y degollación de San Juan Bautista.
Maiestas Domini en la mandarla.
Pesaje de las almas por parte de San Miguel
Un grupo de animales maléficos de orejas picudas que se encuentran dentro de tallos que los envuelven.
Daniel en el foso de los leones
Escena caballeresca de la despedida de un caballero de su dama.
Caballero luchando contra un dragón.
Pastor ahuyentando a los lobos que atacan a su rebaño.
Daniel en el foso de los leones
La comunicación del claustro con la iglesia se practica a través de una armónica y sencilla puerta de arquivoltas de medio punto. De hecho los visitantes han de acceder al claustro primero a través de una puerta de acceso a la panda oeste y desde aquí penetrar en el templo por dicha puerta, ya que la principal descrita del muro meridional está casi siempre cerrada.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlovsk_Palace
Pavlovsk Palace is an 18th-century Russian Imperial residence built by Paul I of Russia in Pavlovsk, near Saint Petersburg. After his death, it became the home of his widow, Maria Feodorovna. The palace and the large English garden surrounding it are now a Russian state museum and public park.
Creation
In 1777 The Empress Catherine II of Russia gave a parcel of a thousand hectares of forest along the winding Slavyanka River, four kilometers from her residence at Tsarskoye Selo, to her son and heir Paul I and his wife Maria Feodorovna, to celebrate the birth of their first son, the future Alexander I of Russia.
At the time the land was given to Paul and Maria Feodorovna, there were two rustic log lodges in the called 'Krik' and 'Krak.' Paul and his wife spent the summers of 1777 to 1780 in Krik, while their new homes and the garden were being built.[1]
They began by building two wooden buildings, one kilometer apart. Paul's house, a two-story house in the Dutch style, with small gardens, was called "Marienthal", or the "Valley of Maria." Maria's house was a small wooden house with a cupola, flower beds, named "Paullust", or "Paul's Joy." Paul and Maria Feodorovna began to create picturesque "ruins", a Chinese kiosk, Chinese bridges and classical temples in the English landscape garden style which had spread rapidly across Europe in the second half of the 18th century.[2]
In 1780, Catherine the Great loaned her official architect, the Scotsman Charles Cameron, to design a palace on a hillside overlooking the Slavyanka River, near the site of Marienthal.
Cameron had studied under English architect Isaac Ware, who was close to the architect of Chiswick House, the villa of Lord Burlington one of the earliest and finest Palladian houses in England. Through this connection Cameron became familiar with the original plans of Palladio, which were in the personal collection of Lord Burlington. This style was the major influence on Cameron when he designed Pavlovsk.[3]
Cameron began his project not with the palace itself but with two classical pavilions. The first was the Temple of Friendship, a circular Dorian temple with sixteen columns supporting a low dome, containing a statute of Catherine the Great. It was placed at a bend of the Slavyanka River, below the future palace, and was surrounded by silver poplars and transplanted Siberian pines. The second was the Apollo Colonnade, a double row of columns with an entablature, forming a setting for a reproduction of a reproduction of the Belvedere Apollo. It was placed at the entrance of the park, and it was made of porous limestone with a coarse finish the surfaces to suggest that they had been aged by centuries of weather. At the same time the Slavyanka River was dammed, to create a lake which would mirror the facade of the palace above.[4]
Maria Feodorovna also insisted in having several rustic structures which recalled the palace where she grew up at Étupes, forty miles from Basel, in what was then the Duchy of Württemberg and today is in Alsace. Cameron constructed a small Swiss chalet with a library; a dairy of rough stones with a thatched roof, where milk products were kept and prepared, and an aviary in the form of a small classical temple with metal netting between the Dorian columns, which was filled with nightingale, goldfinch, starling and quail.
For the palace itself, Cameron conceived a country house which seems to have been based on a design of Palladio shown in a woodcut in his book Quattro libri dell'architectura, for the Villa Tressino at Meledo in Italy. This same drawing was later used by Thomas Jefferson in his design for the University of Virginia. The palace he designed had a cube-shaped central block three stories high with a low dome supported by sixty-four columns. On either side of the building were two single story colonnades of curved open winged galleries connected to service buildings one and a half stories high. Each facade of the palace was decorated with molded friezes and reliefs.[5]
In September 1781, as construction of the Pavlovsk Palace began, Paul and Maria set off on a journey to Austria, Italy, France and Germany. They traveled under the incognito of "The Count and Countess of the North". During their travels they saw the palaces and French gardens of Versailles and Chantilly, which strongly influenced the future appearance of Pavlovsk Park. King Louis XVI presented them with four Gobelins tapestries, Marie Antoinette presented Maria Feodorovna with a sixty-piece toilet set of Sèvres porcelain, and they ordered more sets of porcelain and purchased statues, busts, paintings, furniture and paintings, all for Pavlovsk. While they traveled, they kept in contact almost daily with Kuchelbecker, the supervisor of construction at Pavlovsk, sending back and forth drawings, plans and notes on the smallest details.[6]
Paul and Maria Feodorovna returned in November 1782, and they continued to fill Pavlovsk with art objects. A shipment of antique marbles, statues, busts, urns, and pottery discovered and purchased at Pompei, arrived in 1783. Sixteen sets of furniture, over two hundred pieces, were ordered from Paris between 1783 and 1785 for the State Rooms. In 1784, twelve Hubert Robert landscapes were commissioned for Pavlovsk. The couple purchased ninety-six clocks from Europe. The Imperial Glass factory, made special chandeliers for each room.
In the midst of the construction, and tensions grew between her and Cameron; Cameron was used to the unlimited budget for materials given him by Catherine the Great, while Catherine gave very little money to Paul; and Cameron was annoyed by the furniture, tapestries and fireplaces brought back from Europe by Maria Feodorovna without consulting him. Maria Feodorovna in turn was annoyed by the bright polychrome decoration and Pompeian arabesques used by Cameron, and wanted more delicate colors, and Paul did not like anything that resembled the style of his mother's house, the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo.
The tensions led to a parting in 1786. Cameron left to build a new palace for Catherine in the Crimea. He had finished entry vestibule and the five rooms of the private apartments. The work of decorating the interior was taken over by an Italian architect, Vincenzio Brenna, from Florence, who had come to Russia in 1783. Brenna designed interiors which reflected Paul's taste for Roman classicism. He created the white and gold Halls of War and Peace, on either side of the Greek Hall by Cameron, which had a colonnade of green false marble columns, resembling a Greek temple. He made the Italian hall into a replica of a Roman temple, and he built the State Bedroom for Maria Feodorovna as an imitation of the state bedroom of the King of France, with a huge gilded bed, and cream silk wallpaper painted in tempura with colorful flowers, fruit, musical instruments and gardening tools.[6]
Catherine the Great died in 1796, and Paul became Emperor. He decided to enlarge Pavlovsk into a palace suitable for a royal residence, adding two new wings on either side of the main building, and a church attached to the south wing. Between 1797 and 1799, he lavished money and the finest materials on Brenna's interiors.
The reign of Emperor Paul did not last long. He alienated the nobles, and became increasingly fearful of conspiracies. His fears were justified; the Emperor Paul was murdered by members of his court in 1801, and his son Alexander became Emperor. Pavlovsk Palace became the residence of the Empress Maria Feodorovna (1759–1828), the mother of both Emperor Alexander I of Russia and Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. She turned the house into a memorial to her murdered husband, filled with his furniture and portraits, and made the house a showcase for finest 18th century French furnishings, paintings, sculpture and porcelain.
Another disaster struck Pavlovsk in 1803; a fire caused by a defective chimney destroyed a major part of the interior of the palace, including all the decor of the State Apartments and living rooms. Most of the furniture was saved, along with some door panels, fireplaces and mirrors, but most of the Palace had to be rebuilt.
Maria Feodorovna brought Cameron and Brenna's young assistant, the Italian architect Carlo Rossi, to help restore the Palace. She also employed a Russian architect, Andrei Voronykhin, who had been born a serf, and was trained in decoration and design, who rose to become the architect of Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Voronykhin was named chief architect of Pavlovsk by Maria Feodorovna. He brought back the architect Quarenghi, who had redecorated five rooms on the main floor, to recreate his work. He remade some of the rooms, such as the Tapestry Room and the State Bedroom, exactly as they had been, but for other rooms he added decoration inspired by Roman models discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum; Roman-style lamps, furniture, Roman couches, and chairs copied after those of Roman senators. Following the French taste of the time for Egyptian art, he added black Egyptian statues in the entry vestibule of the Palace, He also redesigned the Greek and Italian halls, replacing the molding on the walls with false marble, and he added a Russian touch; fireplaces faced with Russian lapis-lazuli and jasper, which had originally been in the Mikhailovsky Palace that Paul had built in St. Petersburg. Voronykhin also made plans for a semi-circular library in one of the wings, which was later built by Carlo Rossi, and he redesigned the private apartments of Maria Feodorovna on the ground floor, which included a library, boudoir and bedroom. He installed French doors and large windows in the apartment, so the flower garden outside seemed to be part of the interior.[7]
In 1805 Voronykhin built the Centaur bridge in the park, and the Visconti bridge, which crossed the Slavyanka at a point it was filled with water lilies. His last construction in the park was the Rose Pavilion, built in 1811, a simple structure surrounded entirely by rosebushes. The Rose Pavilion was the site of a grand fete on July 12, 1814, celebrating the return of Alexander I to St. Petersburg after the defeat of Napoleon. For the occasion the architect Pietro de Gottardo Gonzaga built a ballroom the size of the Rose Pavilion itself in just seventeen days, and surrounded it with huge canvases of Russian villagers celebrating the victory. The ball inside the pavilion opened with a Polonaise led by Alexander and his mother, and ended with a huge display of fireworks.
In her later years Maria Feodorovna had a literary salon at Pavlovsk, which was frequented by the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, the fable writer Ivan Krylov, and the historian Nikolai Karamzin.
The last great St. Petersburg architect to work at Pavlovsk was Carlo Rossi, who in 1824 designed the library, which contained more than twenty thousand books as well as collections of rare coins and butterflies. He also designed the Corner Salon, where Maria Feodorovna received guests such as the first American Ambassador to Russia, John Quincy Adams, and the Lavender Room, whose walls were made of lilac-colored false marble, matching the lilac flowers outside the windows. These rooms were furnished with furniture made of native Russian woods, including Karelian birch, poplar and walnut.[8]
Maria Feodorovna died on October 24, 1828, fourteen days after her sixty-seventh birthday. She left the house to her younger son, Michael, and specified that none of the furniture should be taken away. After Michael's death, it went to the second son of Nicholas I, Constantine Nikolayevich. It then passed to his widow and then their eldest son, Constantine Constantinovich. Her descendants respected the will, and turned the house into a family museum, just as it was when she died.
After the Russian Revolution
At the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917, the eldest son of Constantine Constantinovich, Prince Jean, along with his wife Helen, the daughter of the King of Serbia, and the sister of Constantine, Queen Olga of Greece, were living in one of the wings of Pavlovsk. As the political situation deteriorated, they left, and the house was left to the care of Alexander Polovotsoff, director of the Art Institute and the Museum of Applied Arts in St. Petersburg, When Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power in November 1917, Polovtsoff went to the Winter Palace, found Anatoly Lunacharsky, the Commissar of Enlightenment of the new government, and demanded that Pavlovsk be saved as a museum. Lunacharsky agreed and named him Commissar Curator of Pavlovsk. He returned to the Palace and found that a group of revolutionary sailors had searched the Palace for weapons and taken a few sabers, but otherwise everything was in its place. He hired former soldiers to guard the house, put all the furniture into the main building, made an inventory of all the treasures in the Palace, and successfully resisted demands from various revolutionary committees for dishes, chairs, tables, and all the books from the library. He was able to persuade Lunacharsky himself to come to Pavlovsk, After Lunacharsky's visit, Pavlovsk was officially confiscated, but turned into a museum, open to the public two or three days a week. Having succeeded in saving the Palace, Polovtsoff took family and belongings and slipped across the border to Finland and moved to Paris.
World War II
The German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 and the swiftness of the German advance took the Soviet government by surprise. The morning after the attack, the curators of Pavlovsk, under the direction of museum curator Anatoliy Kuchumov, began to pack as many of art objects as possible, starting with the Sèvres porcelain toilet set given by Louis XVI to Maria Feodorovna and Paul in 1780. Ninety-six hours after the announcement of the beginning of the war, the first thirty-four crates were being carried from the palace by horse-drawn cart. Boards were put over the windows, and sand on the floor of the Palace. The thirty curators often worked by candlelight, and by July there were air raids. The paintings, chandeliers, crystal, porcelain, rare furniture, and works of ivory and amber were packed and sent first. They worked with great care – each piece of furniture had to be carefully dismantled, porcelain vases had to be separated from the bases, and delicate clocks had to have their casing and mechanisms separated and packed separately, with diagrams on how to put them back together. One piece of each set of furniture was saved, and the others left behind. The Roman and Greek antiquities were too heavy and delicate to move, so they were taken to the basements, placed as close together as possible, and then hidden by a brick wall.
By the third week of August thirteen thousand objects, plus all the documentation, had been packed and sent away. Some crates were sent to Gorky, others to Sarapul, and the last group, on August 20, 1941, went to Leningrad, where the crates were stored in the basement of St. Isaac's Cathedral. The last shipment included the chandelier from the Italian Hall and the jasper vases from the Greek Hall. On August 30, the last rail link from Leningrad to Moscow was cut, and the city was under blockade. By August 28 the Germans were fifty kilometers from Pavlovsk. A Soviet division headquarters was located in one wing of the palace,
As the Germans came closer, the park and Palace came under bombardment. The museum staff began to bury the statues which were too heavy to evacuate. They calculated that the Germans would not dig deeper than one meter eighty centimeters, so they buried all the statues as deep as three meters. The statues of the Three Graces were buried three meters beneath the private garden of Maria Feodorovna. Their calculations were correct; the statues were still there after the war. On September 16, the last soldiers left, and the Germans occupied Pavlovsk Palace, which was still occupied by a group of elderly women guardians.
The Germans occupied Pavlovsk palace for two and a half years. Officers were quartered in the salons on the first floor, and the ballroom was made into a garage for cars and motorcycles. Barracks were located in the north wing and a hospital in the south wing. German soldiers, Dutch soldiers and Spanish soldiers in special units of the German army occupied the buildings in the Park. The sculpture and furniture that remained in the house and all the books of the Rossi Library were taken to Germany. The statue of Emperor Paul in the courtyard was used as a telephone pole. Fortunately the Germans did not discover the antiquities hidden behind the brick wall in the basement.
Pavlovsk was liberated on January 24, 1944. When the Soviet troops arrived, the Palace had already been burning for three days. The main building of the Palace was a hollow shell, without a roof or floors. The north wall had fallen. Most of the parquet floors of the palace had been used as firewood; a few pieces were found in unburned portions of the palace near the stoves. Of the over one hundred thousand trees that had been in the park before the War, seventy thousand had been cut down or destroyed by the shelling. All the decorative bridges in the park had been blown up. Eight hundred bunkers had been dug in the park. The Rose Pavilion was gone; the Germans had used the materials to construct a fortified dugout.
Restoration
On February 18, 1944, a meeting was held at the House of Architects in Leningrad to discuss the fate of the ruined Palaces. The academician and architect Aleksei Shchusev, who had designed the Lenin Mausoleum, called for the immediate reconstruction of the Palaces. "If we do not do this", he said, "we who know and remember these palaces in all their glory as they were, then the next generation will never be able to reconstruct them." [11] Even before the war had ended, the Soviet government decided to restore Pavlovsk and the other ruined palaces around Leningrad.
First the mines had to be cleared from the ruins and palace and the park. Then the remaining walls were supported with scaffolding, and casts were made of the remaining molding. Fragments of plaster molding were collected, sorting, and casts made. The color of paint still on the remaining walls was carefully noted for later copying. Photographs and early plans of the palace were brought together to help with the restoration.
As soon as the war ended, a search began for treasures stolen from the Palace. Curators collected pieces of furniture, fabric, the legs of tables and pieces of doors and gilded cornices from the German fortifications around the Palace. In the buildings which had been German headquarters, they found chairs, marble statues and rolled-up paintings from the Palace. They found other furniture and objects as far away as Riga, Tallinn, and in Konigsberg, in Germany.
Some precious objects from Pavlovsk left Russia even before the war. Four Gobelins tapestries from Pavlovsk were sold by the Soviet Government to J. Paul Getty, and are now on display in the Getty Museum in Malibu, California.[12]
The restorers used only the original variants of the architectural decoration; those created by Cameron, Brenna, Voronykhin, and Rossi. The only changes permitted were to use modern materials. Columns made of wood were replaced by poured concrete or bricks, and the ceilings of the Italian and Greek Halls were made of steel and concrete so they would be fireproof.
A special school, the Mukhina Leningrad Higher Artistic Industry School, was created in Leningrad to teach the arts of restoring architectural details, furniture, and art objects. This school produced a corps of restoration experts who worked on all the palaces around Leningrad.
The work was meticulous and difficult, and proceeded very slowly. In 1950, after six years of planting new trees, parts of the Park opened to the public. In 1955, the restoration of the facade of the Palace was completed, and restoration of the interiors began.
Fortunately for the restorers, the original plans by Cameron, Brenna, Voronykhin and Rossi still existed. Also, fragments of the original interior molding, cornices, friezes and the frames for the carvings, bas-reliefs, medallions and paintings still remained, and could be copied. In addition, there were twenty-five hundred photographic negatives taken in the early century by Benois, and another eleven thousand photographs taken just before the war.[12]
The chief of the restoration, Feodor Oleinik, was insistent that all the restoration be faithful to the original work: "Pay attention and do not use later details", he demanded. "Only the original variant, only that done by Cameron, Brenna, Vornykhin, or Rossi." Old techniques of artisans of the 18th century, such as painting false marble and gilding furniture, had to be relearned and applied. A silk workshop was opened in Moscow to recreate the original woven fabrics for wall coverings and upholstery, copying the texture, color and thread counts of the originals. In forty rooms of the Palace, painted decoration on the walls and ceilings had to be precisely recreated in the original colors and designs. A Master painter and six helpers recreated the original trompe l'oeil ceilings and wall paintings.[13]
Once the interior walls and decoration had been exactly recreated, the next step was the furnishings. The twelve thousand pieces of furniture and art objects removed from their original places, from paintings and tapestries to water pitchers and glasses, had to be put back where they belonged. Furniture, doors, and parquet floors of many different colors of wood which had been burned or stolen were remade exactly like the originals. The crystal chandeliers of the 18th century were exactly copied.
In 1957, thirteen years after the Palace had been burned, the first seven rooms were opened to the public. In 1958, four more rooms were opened, and eleven more in 1960. The Egyptian Vestibule was finished in 1963, and the Italian Room opened in 1965. Eleven more rooms were ready by 1967. By 1977, on the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the Palace, fifty rooms were finished, and the Palace looked again as it had in the time of Maria Feodorovna.
© Ton Khivintsev
Atmospheric electricity existed long before the advent of man. It caused fires and posed an immediate danger to ancient people. Seeing the approach of a thunderstorm, our ancestors took it for the wrath of the formidable gods and prudently tried not to leave their hiding places.
An unknown force attracted, therefore, knowing about the dangers of electricity, people still tried to use it for their own purposes. Unfortunately, little data has come down to our time. Therefore, the answer to the question of who first came up with the use of electricity, it seems, will forever remain hidden in the darkness of history.
We owe the appearance of the term "electricity" to the Greek philosopher Thales. It was he who in the 7th century BC. NS. found that amber rubbed against wool attracts light objects. Of course, the weak charge that occurs in amber is nothing compared to the charges generated by modern power plants. However, we still name this type of energy after amber. "Amber" in Greek is "electron".
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The Müngstener pavilion, in valley of the river Wupper, is built in neo-Gothic style and has a 7 angular basic form. He was established in 1901. In 1905 Diederichs also allowed to paint this cover, nevertheless, nothing from this more exists. Presently the roof has a sheet metal covering. The cement stucco imitates on the outer walls a natural stone. The columns are provided with a cervical ring and gotisierenden bud capitals.
About that a narrow bulge profile, a wide more flatly plastered stripe and the put a tread cornice join. The embowed bonnet is booked with stamped copper tins and with a weather vane at top.
A dome spans the inside area. Between the columns there are hip-high smith-iron railings and the sharp curve openings are connected by decorated iron anchors.
In the presentation year the regional in 2006 it was redeveloped of the Diederichstempel extensively. The Diederichstempel was put down on the 11th of November, 1987 on the monument list of the city of Remscheid.
“things only exist if they are told/narrated”
(attributed to Alessandro Baricco);
“le cose esistono solo se vengono raccontate”
(attribuita ad Alessandro Baricco).
POSTER - LOCANDINA –
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click to activate the small icon of slideshow: the small triangle inscribed in the small rectangle, at the top right, in the photostream (it means the monitor);
or…. Press the “L” button to zoom in the image;
clicca sulla piccola icona per attivare lo slideshow: sulla facciata principale del photostream, in alto a destra c'è un piccolo rettangolo (rappresenta il monitor) con dentro un piccolo triangolo nero;
oppure…. premi il tasto “L” per ingrandire l'immagine;
www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-...
www.fotografidigitali.it/gallery/2726/opere-italiane-segn...
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This "photographic story" ideally follows the previous one, for two reasons, first because in this case too, as in the previous story we talk about "angels", they are the "Golden Angels" of San Pier Niceto (in the province of Messina), and second, because this singular and beautiful religious festival, with its procession, also takes place during the Easter period, specifically during "Holy Tuesday". The photographs that I post (not a few, I wish in this way to pay homage to the inhabitants of San Pier Niceto, who can find themselves in these photos, especially for those fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts and uncles, in seeing their beloved and very sweet "angels - angiolette"); if you look closely at some of the photographed subjects, you will notice a "temporal disconnect", in fact in some cases, the same girls are present, with two different ages, they will be dressed differently, this is because the photos were taken during Holy Tuesday of 2024 and that of 2025. The temporal sequence of the photographs does not take into account either the year in which they were taken, nor the moments attributable to the phases of the ceremony and subsequent procession.
In San Pier Niceto, on the Peloritani Mountains in Sicily, during the Holy Tuesday takes place the SS. Crucifix procession, whose roots are ancient. The Church of St. James houses and cares for the precious Crucifix, Which is brought to the procession by the streets of the country preceded by very young children, of both sexes, who imitate little Angels, Angels and Grieving young Nuns, dressed in elaborate dresses covered with many gold jewelery, sewn by handy hands that with pins, necklaces , Bracelets and many other gold jewelry applied to their little clothes, they make real works of art whose designs are reminiscent of Easter symbols. Gold for dressing is collected home from home by people who have to melt a "vote", gold that will be returned at the end of the procession. Everything begins during Lent when parents decide to dress their baby by little Angels, Angels or Grieving Nuns .The Little Angels are usually 3 or 4 year olds, the Angels are a little bigger, the Nuns are little young girls. Thus the preparations for the elaboration of the elaborate clothes begin: Parents during Lent are knocking at every door of the country, among friends and relatives, to borrow bracelets, brooches, necklaces and all the gold necessary for the composition of embroidery . The Little Angel's dress is white, short down to the knee, made up of a gold-plated bodice and a skirt with some golden embroidery; Arms are adorned by bracelets, the head is adorned by a collier, small wings (white dove feathers) sprout from behind. The Angels have a white tunic, on which sacred icons are embroidered in gold, the head is covered by a collier, wings lie on their shoulders. The Nun's dress is black, on which are stitched the crowns of the S.S. Rosary, on the head is placed a white veil, held by a rose crown. At 16:30 on Holy Tuesday, a tapping of bells together with the band's fanfare in the village, set off at the "Crucifixion Procession" of San Pier Niceto: at the foot of the Crucifix there are red roses, behind it are located branches of cypress (at the end of the event the faithful will carry with them a piece of cypress as a relic), finally the red ribbons are tied to the arms of the Crucifix, they will mark the procession of the procession until the arrival at the Mother Church, a century church to St. Peter the Apostle, where the celebration of the Holy Mass will take place (the reverse path will bring the SS Crucifix to the Church of St. James): in perfect order the faithful in religious silence, with votive candles in their hands, walk the streets of the country never crossing the red ribbons as they delimit the path of the Golden Little Angels, Angels and the Grieving young Nuns .
Questo "racconto fotografico" segue idealmente il precedente, per due motivi, innanzitutto perchè anche in questo caso, come nel racconto precedente si parla di "angeli", sono "gli Angioletti d'oro" di San Pier Niceto (in provincia di Messina), e secondo, perchè questa singolare e bella festa religiosa, con la sua processione, si svolge anch'essa durante il periodo pasquale, nello specifico durante il "Martedì Santo". Le fotografie che posto (non poche, desidero in tal modo omaggiare gli abitanti di San Pier Niceto, che possano ritrovarsi in queste foto, soprattutto per quei papà, mamme, nonni, nonne, zie e zii, nel rivedere i loro adorati e dolcissimi "angioletti - angiolette"); a ben guardare in alcuni dei soggetti fotografati, si noterà uno "scollamento temportale", infatti in qualche caso, sono presenti le stessi bimbe, con due età diverse, saranno vestite diversamente, questo perchè le foto sono state realizzate durante il Martedì Santo del 2024 e quello del 2025. La sequenza temporale delle fotografie non tiene conto nè dell'anno nel quale sono state realizzate, nè dei momenti ascrivibili alle fasi della cerimonia e successiva processione.
A San Pier Niceto, sui monti Peloritani in Sicilia, durante il Martedì Santo prende vita la processione per le vie del paese del SS. Crocifisso, le cui radici sono antichissime. La Chiesa di San Giacomo ospita e custodisce il pregevole Crocifisso, che viene portato in processione per le vie del paese preceduto da bambini anche molto piccoli, di entrambi i sessi, che impersonano Angioletti ed Addoloratine vestiti con elaboratissimi abiti ricoperti con tantissimi monili d’oro, cuciti dalle mani abili di sarte che con spille, collane, bracciali e tanti altri monili in oro applicati sui loro piccoli vestiti, realizzano vere opere d’arte i cui disegni ricordano simboli pasquali. L’oro per la realizzazione dei vestitini viene raccolto di casa in casa da persone che hanno da sciogliere un “voto”, oro che verrà restituito alla fine della processione. Tutto ha inizio durante la Quaresima, quando dei genitori decidono per “voto” di vestire il proprio bambino da Angioletto, Angiolone o Monachella.
Gli Angioletti sono solitamente bimbi di 3 o 4 anni, gli Angioloni sono un po’ più grandi, le Monachelle sono delle bambine. Così iniziano i preparativi per la realizzazione degli elaboratissimi vestiti: i genitori durante la Quaresima bussano ad ogni porta del paese, tra la cerchia di amici e parenti, per prendere in prestito bracciali, spille, collane e tutto l’oro necessario alla composizione dei ricami. Il vestito degli Angioletti è bianco, corto fino al ginocchio, composto da un corpetto ricoperto d’oro ed una gonna segnata da alcuni ricami d’oro; le braccia sono adornate da bracciali, la testa è adornata da un collier, da dietro le spalle spuntano delle piccole ali (piume di colomba bianca). Gli Angioloni hanno una tunica bianca sulla quale vengono ricamate delle icone sacre in oro, la testa è cinta da un collier, sulle spalle trovano posto delle ali. Il vestito delle Monachelle invece è nero, sul quale vengono cucite delle coroncine del S.S. Rosario, sul capo viene posto un velo bianco, trattenuto da una corona di rose. Alle 16:30 del Martedì Santo un rintocco di campane insieme alla fanfare della banda del paese, danno il via alla “Processione del Crocifisso” di San Pier Niceto: ai piedi della Croce vi sono delle rose rosse, dietro di essa trovano posto dei rami di cipresso (alla fine dell’evento i fedeli porteranno con se un pezzetto di rametto come reliquia), infine dei nastri rossi vengono legati alle braccia del Crocifisso, essi segneranno il percorso della processione, fino all’arrivo al Duomo, una chiesa cinquecentesca dedicata a San Pietro apostolo, ove si terrà la celebrazione della Santa Messa ( il percorso inverso riporterà il S.S. Crocifisso nella Chiesa di San Giacomo): in perfetto ordine i fedeli in religioso silenzio, con ceri votivi in mano, percorrono le vie del paese, non oltrepassando i nastri rossi poiché essi delimitano il percorso degli Angioletti d’oro e delle Addoloratine.
“... - Ah! patrício! Deus existe!...
No refilão daquele tormento, olhei para diante e vi... as Três-Marias luzindo na água... o cusco encarapitado na pedra, ao meu lado, estava me lambendo a mão... e logo, logo, o zaino relinchou lá em cima, na barranca do riacho, ao mesmíssimo tempo que a cantoria alegre de um grilo retinia ali perto, num oco de pau!...
- Patrício! não me avexo duma heresia; mas era Deus que estava no luzimento daquelas estrelas, era ele que mandava aqueles bichos brutos arredarem de mim a má tenção ..."
Fragmento de “Trezentas onças”, de João Simões Lopes Neto
Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil
The Amanda Blast Furnace of Ashland, Kentucky existed for six decades between the Kentucky hills and the Ohio River. Since its days as Armco Steel Works, Amanda, a 234-foot tall blast furnace was a proud company that never anticipated its permanent closure in 2015.
"We hate to see the structure come down, but that needs to happen for that property to move forward," said Josh Blanton, an Ashland City Commissioner. "We hate to see it go, but we’re ready to try to do something else there."
"Amanda" was demolished in February of 2022. #abandonedky #historic #blastfurnace #industrialarcheology #nightphotography #lightpainting #longexposure
note:
A tribute to each and every one of the photographers who had inspire me.
Sorry for the 'not very original' title btw.
p/s: My original selfie didn't turn out the way i wanted today. So I did this shot with my sister, Ava. I've wanted to do this shot for a while, originally planned for a selfie as well. But I felt my sister would make a better subject. Plus, she's a lot better than me at staying very still for the 10-13 seconds shutter time. :)
This high-resolution image shows newly discovered frost at the top of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano not only on Mars but in the entire Solar System. The frost appears blue on the floor of the volcano’s caldera (summit crater) and around its northern rim. It is absent on the well-lit steep slopes seen on the left of this image.
This frost was recently discovered by ESA’s ExoMars and Mars Express missions. The researchers spotted frost on not only Olympus Mons but on the other Tharsis volcanoes of Arsia Mons, Ascraeus Mons and Ceraunius Tholus. This is the first time that water frost has been found near Mars’s equator, a part of the planet where it was thought improbable for frost to exist.
The landscape on the right side of the image is filled with wrinkle ridges that lie inside the caldera, while the rippled structures on the centre-left are collapsed caldera rim terraces.
The image is false colour, meaning that the colours shown here are not those that would be seen by the human eye. This is because the CaSSIS instrument onboard ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is sensitive to near-infrared light (which is invisible to our eyes), and the image has stretched contrast to better show the details of the terrain. In this false-colour image the water ice frost appears blue. False-colour images are really useful for scientists, revealing more information than can be seen with the human eye. Read more on how CaSSIS constructs its blue-hued images, and how this allows us to explore the Red Planet.
The image resolution is 4.5 m/pixel, and the Local Solar Time is 7:11 AM.
[Image description: This rectangular slice of Mars shows the terrain atop Mars’s volcano Olympus Mons. Rippled, uneven, stepped terrain can be seen, with different illuminations. The right-hand side of the image is blue-toned, representing the newly discovered water ice frost.]
Credits: ESA/TGO/CaSSIS; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
++++ from WIKIPEDIA ++++++
Abruzzo (UK: /æˈbrʊtsoʊ/,[5] US: /ɑːˈbruːtsoʊ, əˈ-/; Italian: [aˈbruttso]; Abbrùzze [abˈbruttsə], Abbrìzze [abˈbrittsə] or Abbrèzze [abˈbrɛttsə] in Neapolitan Abruzzese; Aquilano: Abbrùzzu) or Abruzzi is a region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km (4,156 sq mi) and a population of 1.3 million. It is divided into four provinces: L'Aquila, Teramo, Pescara, and Chieti. Its western border lies 80 km (50 mi) east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east. Geographically, Abruzzo is divided into a mountainous area in the west, which includes the Gran Sasso d'Italia, and a coastal area in the east with beaches on the Adriatic Sea.
Abruzzo is considered a region of Southern Italy in terms of its culture, language, history and economy, although geographically it may also be considered central.[8] The Italian Statistical Authority (ISTAT) also deems it to be part of Southern Italy, partly because of Abruzzo's historic association with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Abruzzo is known as "the greenest region in Europe" as almost half of its territory, the largest in Europe,[9] is set aside as national parks and protected nature reserves. There are three national parks, one regional park, and 38 protected nature reserves. These ensure the survival of 75% of Europe's living species, including rare species such as the golden eagle, the Abruzzo (or Abruzzese) chamois, the Apennine wolf and the Marsican brown bear.[10] Abruzzo is also home to Calderone, Europe's southernmost glacier.
The visiting nineteenth-century Italian diplomat and journalist Primo Levi (1853–1917) said that the adjectives "forte e gentile" (strong and kind) best describe the beauty of the region and the character of its people. "Forte e gentile" has since become the motto of the region and its inhabitants.
Provinces and politics
Abruzzo provinces
Provinces
Abruzzo is divided into four administrative provinces:
Province Area (km2) Population Density (inh./km2)
Chieti 2,588 396,190 153.1
L'Aquila 5,034 308,876 61.3
Pescara 1,225 318,701 260.1
Teramo 1,948 308,769 158.5
Politics
History
Human settlements in Abruzzo have existed since at least the Neolithic times. A skeleton from Lama dei Peligni in the province of Chieti dates back to 6,540 BC under radiometric dating.[13] The name Abruzzo appears to be derivative of the Latin word "Aprutium". In Roman times, the region was known as Picenum, Sabina et Samnium, Flaminia et Picenum, and Campania et Samnium.[14] The region was known as Aprutium in the Middle Ages, arising from four possible sources: it is a combination of Praetutium, or rather of the name of the people Praetutii, applied to their chief city, Interamnia, the old Teramo.
Many cities in Abruzzo date back to ancient times. Corfinio was known as Corfinium when it was the chief city of the Paeligni, and later was renamed Pentima by the Romans. Chieti is built on the site of the ancient city of Teate, Atri was known as Adria. Teramo, known variously in ancient times as Interamnia and Teramne, has Roman ruins which attract tourists.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, a string of invasions and rulers dominated the region, including the Lombards, Byzantines, and Hungarians. Between the 9th and 12th centuries, the region was dominated by the popes. Subsequently, the Normans took over, and Abruzzo became part of the Kingdom of Sicily, later the Kingdom of Naples. Spain ruled the kingdom from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The French Bourbon dynasty took over in 1815, establishing the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and ruled until Italian unification (also known as the Risorgimento) in 1860.
Until 1963, Abruzzo was part of the combined Abruzzi e Molise region. The term Abruzzi (plural of Abruzzo) derives from the time when the region was part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The territory was administered as Abruzzo Citeriore (nearer Abruzzo) and Abruzzo Ulteriore I and II (farther Abruzzo I and II) from Naples, the capital of the kingdom.[14] Abruzzo Citeriore is now Chieti province. Teramo and Pescara provinces now comprise what was Abruzzo Ulteriore I. Abruzzo Ulteriore II is now the province of L'Aquila.
In the twentieth century, war had a great impact on the region. During the Second World War, Abruzzo was on the Gustav Line, part of the German's Winter Line. One of the most brutal battles was the Battle of Ortona. Abruzzo was the location of two prisoner of war camps, Campo 21 in Chieti,[18] and Campo 78 in Sulmona. The Sulmona camp also served as a POW camp in World War 1; much of the facility is still intact and attracts tourists interested in military history.
Geography
Geographically, Abruzzo is located in central Italy and southern Italy, stretching from the heart of the Apennines to the Adriatic Sea, and includes mainly mountainous and wild land. The mountainous land is occupied by a vast plateau, including Gran Sasso, at 2,912 metres (9,554 ft) the highest peak of the Apennines, and Mount Majella at 2,793 metres (9,163 ft). The Adriatic coastline is characterized by long sandy beaches to the North and pebbly beaches to the South. Abruzzo is well known for its landscapes and natural environment, parks and nature reserves, characteristic hillside areas rich in vineyards and olive groves, and one of the highest densities of Blue Flag beaches.
Climate
The Abruzzo region has two types of climate that are strongly influenced by the Apennine Mountains, dividing the climate of the coastal and sub-Apennine hills from the interior's high mountain ranges. Coastal areas have a Mediterranean climate with hot dry summers and mild winters and rainy hills with a sublittoral climate where temperatures decrease progressively with increasing altitude and precipitation with altitude. Precipitation is also strongly affected by the presence of the Apennines mountain ridges of the region; it increases with the proportion being more abundant in the field and on the slopes exposed to the west, instead of decreasing towards the east and east-facing slopes. Often the Adriatic coast are sidelined rainfall from the west to the barrier effect of the Apennines undergoing the action of gentle winds descending from it (or Libeccio).[21] The minimum annual rainfall, however, is found in some inland valleys, sheltered from much disturbance to the blocking action of mountain ridges, such as the Peligna Valley, or the valley of the river Tirino, which in some places (Ofena, Capestrano) showed barely 500 millimetres (19.7 inches), and not along the coast where it never falls below 600 millimetres (23.6 inches); for if Teramo is relatively little watered by rain (Teramo less than 800 millimetres (31.5 inches)), the metre is exceeded in Chieti, reaching maximum levels in the Adriatic, while between Ortona and Vasto in Costa dei Trabocchi decrease again.[21] The highest rainfall occurs in upland areas on the border with Lazio; they are especially vulnerable to Atlantic disturbances. Around 1,500 to 2,000 millimetres (59 to 79 inches) of precipitation is typical (Pescara in 2010 showed a value close to 2,800 millimetres (110.2 inches)).
Flora and fauna
As with many Mediterranean regions, Abruzzo's vegetation is characterized by different Mediterranean ecosystems. The coast and the surrounding areas are characterized by the presence of typical plants of Mediterranean shrubland, such as myrtle, heather and mastic, while in the hilly areas other species grow, including olive, pine, willow, oak, poplar, alder, arbutus, broom, acacia, capers, rosemary, hawthorn, licorice and almond trees, interspersed with oak trees. At elevations between 600 and 1,000 metres (2,000 and 3,300 ft) there is sub-montane vegetation, mainly characterized by mixed forests of oak and turkey oak, maple and hornbeam; shrubs include dog rose and red juniper. Elevations between 1,000 and 1,900 metres (3,300 and 6,200 ft) are dominated by beech trees. In the Apennine Mountains at elevations above 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) species include alpine orchid, mountain juniper, silver fir, black cranberry and the Abruzzo edelweiss.
The fauna of Abruzzo is highly varied, including the region's symbol, the Abruzzo chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica ornata), which has recovered from near-extinction. Animals typical of this region include: marsican brown bear, along with Italian wolf, deer, lynx, roe deer, snow vole, fox, porcupine, wild cat, wild boar, badger, otter, and viper.
The natural parks of the region include the Abruzzo National Park, the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park,[24] the Maiella National Park and the Sirente-Velino Regional Park, as well as many other natural reserves and protected areas.
Economy
Until a few decades ago, Abruzzo was a region of poverty in Southern Italy; over the past decades, however, it has developed to such an extent that it has escaped from the spiral of underdevelopment to become the 'first' region of the 'Italian Mezzogiorno'. This confirms its pivotal role in the national economic system. Since the 1950s, Abruzzo has had steady economic growth. In 1951, Abruzzo per capita income or GDP was 53% of that of Northern Italy, the nation's richest region. By 1971, Abruzzo was at 65% and, by 1994, per capita income was at 76% of Northern Italy's per capita income, giving Abruzzo the highest per capita GDP of Southern Italy and surpassing the growth of every other region of Italy. The construction of autostrade (motorways) from Rome to Teramo (A24) and Rome to Pescara (A25) opened Abruzzo to easy access. State and private investment in the region increased, and Abruzzo attained higher per capita education levels and greater productivity growth than the rest of the South. As of 2003, Abruzzo's per capita GDP was €19,506 or 84% of the national average of €23,181 and well outpacing that of the South (€15,808). The region's average GDP per capita was approximately 20,100 EUR.
The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake led to a sharp economic slowdown. However, according to statistics at the end of 2010, it seems that the economy of Abruzzo is recovering, despite the negative on regarding employment.[28] In fact, at the end of 2010, Abruzzo's growth was 1.47%, which placed it fourth among the Italian regions with the highest annual growth rates after Lazio, Lombardy and Calabria.[30] In 2011 Abruzzo's economic growth was +2.3%, the highest percentage among the regions of Southern Italy.[31] The region is also the richest region of Southern Italy, with a GDP per capita of €25,700.[21]
Travel poster from the 1920s.
Abruzzo's industrial sector expanded rapidly, especially in mechanical engineering, transportation equipment and telecommunications. The structure of production in the region reflects the transformation of the economy from agriculture to industry and services. Although industry has developed strongly, it retains weak points due to the existence of only a few large businesses alongside a huge fabric of small and medium-sized businesses. Both pure and applied research are carried out in the region, where there are major institutes and factories involved in research in the fields of pharmaceutics, biomedicine, electronics, aerospace and nuclear physics. The industrial infrastructure is spread throughout the region in industrial zones. The most important of these are: Val Pescara, Val Sangro, Val Trigno, Val Vibrata and Conca del Fucino. A further activity worthy of note is seaside and mountain tourism, which is of considerable importance to the economy of the region.[33] Agriculture, involving small holdings, has succeeded in modernising and offering high-quality products. The mostly small, agricultural holdings produce: wine, cereals, sugar beet, potatoes, olives, vegetables, fruit and dairy products. Traditional products are saffron and liquorice. Most famous in the world is Abruzzo's wine Montepulciano d'Abruzzo; in the late 20th and early 21st century, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo earned a reputation as being one of the most widely exported DOC classed wine in Italy.[34]
In the past decade, tourism has increased, in particular by internal and European arrivals. Abruzzo is world-famous for its wildlife parks (Abruzzo National Park, Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park, Maiella National Park) and regional park (Sirente Velino), and 38 protected areas between oasis, regional reserves, and state reserves. The inland mountainous region contains several ski resorts, and coastal tourism is also well-developed, in particular, the Trabocchi Coast. Abruzzo's castles and medieval towns, especially around the town of L'Aquila, have earned it in some quarters the nickname of "Abruzzoshire", by analogy with the "Chiantishire", nickname sometimes used to refer to the Chianti area of Tuscany, but Abruzzo is still off the beaten path for most visitors to Italy.[35]
Chieti
Although the population density of Abruzzo has increased over recent decades, it is still well below the Italian national average: in 2008, 123.4 inhabitants per km2, compared to 198.8. In the provinces, the density varies: as of 2008 Pescara is the most densely populated with 260.1 inhabitants per km2, whereas L'Aquila is the least densely populated with 61.3 inhabitants per km2, although it has the largest area. After decades of emigration from the region, the main feature of the 1980s is immigration from third world countries. The population increase is due to the positive net migration. Since 1991 more deaths than births were registered in Abruzzo (except for 1999, when their numbers were equal).[36] In 2008, the Italian national institute of statistics ISTAT estimated that 59,749 foreign-born immigrants live in Abruzzo, equal to 4.5% of the total regional population.
The most serious demographic imbalance is between the mountainous areas of the interior and the coastal strip. The largest province, L'Aquila, is situated entirely in the interior and has the lowest population density. The movement of the population of Abruzzo from the mountains to the sea has led to the almost complete urbanization of the entire coastal strip especially in the province of Teramo and Chieti. The effects on the interior have been impoverishment and demographic aging, reflected by an activity rate in the province of L'Aquila which is the lowest among the provinces in Abruzzo – accompanied by geological degradation as a result of the absence of conservation measures. In the coastal strip, however, there is such a jumble of accommodations and activities that the environment has been negatively affected. The policy of providing incentives for development has resulted in the setting-up of industrial zones, some of which (Vasto, Avezzano, Carsoli, Gissi, Val Vibrata, Val di Sangro) have made genuine progress, while others (Val Pescara, L'Aquila) have run into trouble after their initial success. The zones of Sulmona and Guardiagrele have turned out to be more or less failures. Outside these zones, the main activities are agriculture and tourism.
Main settlements
L'Aquila is both the capital city of the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila and second largest city (pop. 73,000). L'Aquila was hit by an earthquake on 6 April 2009, which destroyed much of the city centre. The other provincial capitals are Pescara, which is Abruzzo's largest city and major port (pop. 123,000); Teramo (pop. 55,000) and Chieti (pop. 55,000). Other large municipalities in Abruzzo include the industrial and high tech center Avezzano (pop. 41,000), as well as three important industrial and touristic centers such as Vasto (pop. 40,636), Lanciano (pop. 36,000), and Sulmona (pop. 25,000).
Transport
Airports
Abruzzo International Airport is the only international airport in the region. Open to civilian traffic since 1996, the number of passengers has increased over the years because of low-cost air carriers' use of the facility. Today, the airport has a catchment area of over 500,000 passengers annually and connects the city of Pescara and the entire region with many Italian and Europe destinations.
L'Aquila-Preturo Airport is located in the nearby village of Courts and was recently renovated and modernized to accommodate presidential flights for G8 activities.
Ports
There are four main ports in Abruzzo: Pescara, Ortona, Vasto and Giulianova.
Over the years the Port of Pescara became one of the most important tourist ports of Italy and the Adriatic Sea. Heavily damaged in World War II, it underwent some sixty years of major restoration and was reborn as a modern marina with advanced moorings and shipbuilding facilities. It has been honored with the European Union's blue flag for the quality of services offered. The port of Pescara has lost passenger traffic because of its shallowness and silting, but its fishery and aquaculture activities are thriving.[38]
Railways
There is a significant disparity between the railways of the Abruzzo coast and the inland areas, which badly need modernization to improve the service, in particular, the Rome-Pescara line.
Existing railway lines:
Adriatic railway runs through the whole of Italy from north to south, along the Adriatic Sea.
Train Rome – Sulmona – Pescara
Sulmona – Carpinone
Sulmona–Terni railway
Avezzano railroad – Roccasecca
Giulianova – Teramo
Sangritana (Lanciano – Castel di Sangro)
Highways
There are three highways that serve the region:
Highway A24 Rome – L'Aquila – Teramo, was built in the 1970s and connects Rome with Lazio and more specifically to the Abruzzo Teramo via L'Aquila. It performs an important liaison function of the region, both Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic, due to the presence of several interchanges of connecting roads and highways. The Gran Sasso tunnel, the longest road tunnel entirely on Italian territory, was opened in 1984. It connects L'Aquila and Teramo on the A24 making the northern Abruzzo coast reachable within two hours from Rome.
Highway A25 Turin – Avezzano – Pescara makes the connection between Rome and Pescara. The road running out of Turin begins its journey where it branches off the A24, runs into the Conca del Fucino, crosses the Abruzzo Apennines, comes to the valley of Peligna, and ends at the exit for Pescara-Villanova to join the A14.
Motorway A14 Bologna – Taranto known as the A14 "Adriatica", includes 743 km (461.68 mi) of road, including lengths in the cities of Bologna and Taranto. Opened to traffic in 1965, it is now a major tourist road, running through the coastal towns of Emilia Romagna, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, and Apulia.
Culture
Castel del Monte, one of Abruzzo's little-known hill towns
Gabriele d'Annunzio from Pescara
Abbazia di San Liberatore a Majella (Serramonacesca)
Ovid from Sulmona
Cathedral of San Giustino (Chieti)
Fishing trabucco of San Vito Chietino
The museum Museo Archeologico Nazionale d'Abruzzo in Chieti houses the famed warrior statue Warrior of Capestrano which was found in a necropolis from 6th century B.C. Of cultural importance are: Teramo Cathedral, its archeological museum and Roman theater, the Castello della Monica, the Collurania-Teramo Observatory, the famous L'Aquila Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio (which holds the remains of Pope Celestine V), the Museo Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Santa Maria del Suffragio, the Forte Spagnolo, the Fountain of 99 Spouts, Gabriele D'Annunzio's house in Pescara, Campli's Scala Sancta and its church, the church of Santissima Annunziata in Sulmona, the cathedrals of Chieti, Lanciano, Guardiagrele, Atri and Pescara along with the castles of Ortona, Celano and Ortucchio.
Every 28–29 August, L'Aquila's Santa Maria di Collemaggio commemorates the Perdonanza Celestiniana, the indulgence issued by Pope Celestine V to any who, "truly repentant and confessed" would visit that Church from the Vespers of the vigil to the vespers of 29 August.[39] Sulmona's Holy Week is commemorated with traditional celebrations and rituals, such as 'La Madonna che Scappa in Piazza', where a large statue of the Madonna, carried by a group of Sulmonesi part of Confraternities, is taken through the square towards her resurrected Son.[40] Cocullo, in the province of L'Aquila, holds the annual 'Festa dei serpari' (festival of snake handlers) in which a statue of St. Dominic, covered with live snakes, is carried in a procession through the town; it attracts thousands of Italian and foreign visitors. In many Abruzzo villages, Anthony the Great's feast is celebrated in January with massive and scenic bonfires.[41] In the past, the region of Abruzzo was well known for the transumanza, the migratory movement of sheep principally south to the region of Puglia during the cold winter months.[42] The Feast of St. Biagio, protector of wool dealers, is the most widespread in Abruzzo. On the third of February in Taranta Peligna every year since the sixteenth century an evocative ritual is carried out, entailing the distribution of panicelle, which are small loaves made of flour and water, in the shape of a blessing hand, which are distributed to the faithful.
Historical figures include: the Roman orator Asinius Pollio; Latin poets Sallust and Ovid, who were born in L'Aquila and Sulmona respectively, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Roman senator and leading instigator of the plot to kill Julius Caesar; and Pontius Pilate, who was born in the province of Teramo and is best known for authorizing the crucifixion of Jesus. Abruzzo's religious personalities include Saint Berardo; John of Capistrano, who led a crusade against the Ottoman Empire; Thomas of Celano, author of three hagiographies about Saint Francis of Assisi; and Alessandro Valignano, who introduced Catholicism to the Far East and Japan. The Polish Pope John Paul II loved the mountains of Abruzzo, where he would retire often and pray in the church of San Pietro della Ienca. When he died, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, gave the local Abruzzo community some of the late pontiff's blood as a token of the love he had felt for the mountainous area.[43] The greatest Italian poet of the 20th century Gabriele D'Annunzio was from Pescara; other notable Abruzzo personalities in the field of humanities include: poet Ignazio Silone, director Ennio Flaiano who co-wrote La dolce vita, philosopher Benedetto Croce, composer Sir Paolo Tosti and the sculptor Venanzo Crocetti.
American artists and celebrities such as: Madonna, Dean Martin, Bradley Cooper, Perry Como, Henry Mancini, Nancy Pelosi, Rocky Marciano, Rocky Mattioli, Bruno Sammartino, Mario Batali, John and Dan Fante, Tommy Lasorda, Dan Marino, Mario Lanza, Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall, Al Martino, Ariana Grande and Canadian Michael Bublé have Abruzzo origins.
Some international movies shot in Abruzzo include The American, Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose, Fellini's La Strada and I Vitelloni, Schwarzenegger's Red Sonja, Ladyhawke, King David, Francesco, Keoma, The Barbarians, The Fox and the Child and Krull.
Medieval and Renaissance hill towns
The fortress of Civitella is the most visited monument in Abruzzo
For most of its history, a large number of the Abruzzese people have been hill people, often working as shepherds in mountainous areas, or establishing hill towns, especially in the parts of Abruzzo further from the Adriatic coast.[citation needed] Before the 2009 earthquake, Abruzzo was the region with the highest number of castles and hill towns in Italy, but it still holds many of Italy's best-preserved medieval and Renaissance hill towns, twenty-three of which are among The Most Beautiful Villages in Italy.[44] These awards are not only for aesthetic beauty but also for art and culture, historical importance and livability.
The abrupt decline of Abruzzo's agricultural economy in the early to mid-20th-century saved some of the region's historic hill towns from modern development. Many lie entirely within regional and national parks. Among the most well preserved are Castel del Monte and Santo Stefano di Sessanio, which lie in the Gran Sasso National Park on the edge of the high plain of Campo Imperatore and nestled beneath the Apennines' highest peaks. Both hill towns, which were ruled by the Medicis for over a century-and-a-half, have relatively little tourism. Between the two towns sits Rocca Calascio, the ruin of an ancient fortress popular with filmmakers. Both Monteferrante and Roccascalegna are two of the most representative Abruzzo villages in the province of Chieti. Within the Gran Sasso National Park is also found Castelli, an ancient pottery center whose artisans produced ceramics for most of the royal houses of Europe.
Civitella del Tronto played a crucial role in the history of the unification of Italy. The fortress of Civitella is the most visited monument in the Abruzzo region today.[45] Other medieval hill towns located fully within Abruzzo's park system are Pacentro in the Maiella National Park and Pescasseroli in the Abruzzo National Park. Pacentro, which features a 14th-century castle with two intact towers, has been little touched by modernisation. The Shrine of Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, in the province of Teramo, which attracts some two million visitors per year, is one of the 15 most-visited sanctuaries in the world.[46] Capestrano, a small town in the province of L'Aquila, is the hometown of Saint John of Capistrano, Franciscan friar and Catholic priest, as well as the namesake of the Franciscan missions San Juan Capistrano in Southern California, the mission Mission San Juan Capistrano (Texas) and the city of San Juan Capistrano in Orange County. Giulianova is a notable example of a Renaissance "ideal city."
The proximity to Rome, the protected natural reserves and landscapes which make the region one of the greenest in Europe, the presence of some of the most beautiful Italian villages, its rich and heterogeneous gastronomy, along with a long history of deep-rooted local tradition and authentic Italian culture, make Abruzzo fifth among Italian regions for tourist visits after Calabria, Marche, Sardinia and Trentino. In 2010, visitors included 6,381,067 Italians and 925,884 foreign tourists.
In 2015, the American organization Live and Invest Overseas included Abruzzo on its list of World's Top 21 Overseas Retirement Havens. The study was based on such factors as climate, infrastructure, health care, safety, taxes, cost of living and more. In 2017 the Chamber of Commerce of Pescara presented Abruzzo region to the Annual conference of Live and Invest Overseas in Orlando (USA). One year later, in October 2018, Live and Invest Overseas held its first conference in Abruzzo.
Universities
There are three universities in the Abruzzo region:
University of L'Aquila
D'Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara
University of Teramo
Harvard University bases an intensive summer Italian language and culture program in Vasto, a resort town on Abruzzo's southern coast.
Science
Between the province of Teramo and L'Aquila, under the Gran Sasso Tunnel, is the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) of the INFN, one of the three underground astroparticle laboratories in Europe.
The Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise "Giuseppe Caporale", which conducts research in veterinary and environmental public health, is located in Teramo.
The Gran Sasso Science Institute, located in L'Aquila, is an advanced research institute which offers doctorates in astroparticle physics, computer science, and mathematics as well as urban studies and regional science, and which also conducts scientific research.
Sports
Interamnia World Cup, the largest international youth handball competition worldwide, takes place yearly in Teramo.[51]
There are several football clubs in Abruzzo. Delfino Pescara 1936 is a Serie B club; based in Pescara, its home stadium is Stadio Adriatico – Giovanni Cornacchia.
Dialects
The regional dialects of Abruzzo include Teramano, Abruzzese Orientale Adriatico and Abruzzese Occidentale. The first two form part of the dialect of southern Italy also known simply as "Neapolitan" since the region has been part of the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, while Aquilano is related to the Central Italian dialects including Romanesco. The dialects spoken in the Abruzzo region can be divided into three main groups:
Sabine dialect, in the province of L'Aquila (central Italian dialects)
Abruzzo Adriatic dialect, in the province of Teramo, Pescara and Chieti, that is virtually abandoned in the province of Ascoli Piceno (southern Italian dialects)
Abruzzo western dialect, in the province of L'Aquila (southern Italian dialects)
Cuisine
Renowned for its variety and richness due to the heterogeneity of its territory, Abruzzo's cuisine is among the best in Italy. In 2013 an Italian organization Confesercenti survey of foreign tourists showed that Abruzzo is the best Italian region to eat in. Both the agricultural and coastal aspects of Abruzzo have contributed to its cuisine. Due to the mountains, much of Abruzzo was isolated from international influence until the 20th century. As a result, the region's cuisine remained unique.
Popular dishes
One of the most popular regional dishes is spaghetti alla chitarra which is made by pressing or cutting pasta through a chitarra, an implement to form long thin noodles similar to spaghetti. The pasta is served with a tomato-based sauce, often flavored with peppers, pork, goose, or lamb. This dish is complemented by regional side dishes, such as the bean and noodle soup, sagne e fagioli. This soup is traditionally flavored with tomatoes, garlic, oil, and peperoncini. In terms of common ingredients, cuisine in Abruzzo often includes:
Lamb and mutton, primarily in the mountains.[54] Sheep's milk (or ricotta) is an important source of Abruzzese cheese, and lamb intestines are used as sausage casing or for stuffed meat rolls.[54][55] Mountain goat meat is also common in Abruzzo.
Truffles and mushrooms, particularly wild mushrooms from the forests and hills
Garlic, especially red garlic
Rosemary
Hot chili pepper or peperoncini, regionally known as diavolilli or diavoletti, is common in Abruzzese cuisine and often used to add spice to dishes. Abruzzo residents are well known for frequently adding peperoncini, or hot peppers, to their meals.
Vegetables such as lentils, grasspeas and other legumes, artichoke, eggplant, and cauliflower[54][55][56][57]
Other popular dishes include:
Gnocchi carrati, flavored with bacon, eggs and pecorino cheese
Scrippelle, a rustic French-style crêpe served either mbusse (a type of soup) or used to form a sort of soufflé with some ragù and stuffed with chicken liver, meatballs, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese
Pastuccia, a polenta stew with sausage, eggs, and cheese
Across the region, roast lamb is enjoyed in several variations. Some of these variations include:
Arrosticini, a skewered lamb dish
Pecora al cotturo, lamb stuffed with a variety of mountain herbs and cooked in a copper pot
Lamb cooked whole in a bread oven
Agnello cacio e ovo, a lamb-based fricassee
Mazzerella: lamb intestines stuffed with lamb, garlic, marjoram, lettuce, and spices
Le virtù: a soup from Teramo filled with legumes, vegetables and pork, usually eaten in the spring at celebrations
Timballo abruzzese: lasagna-like dish with pasta sheets (scrippelle) layered with meat, vegetables and rice; often served for Christmas and Easter[58]
Porchetta abruzzese: moist boneless-pork roast, slow-roasted with rosemary, garlic, and pepper[58]
Seafood is also popular, especially in coastal areas. The variety of fish available to the area has resulted in several fish-based Brodetti (broths), coming from such places as Vasto, Giulianova, and Pescara. These broths are often made by cooking fish, flavored with tomatoes, herbs, and peperoncino, in an earthenware pot. Rustic pizzas are also very common. Some of these are:
Easter Pizza, a rustic cake with cheese and pepper from the Teramo area
Fiadoni from Chieti, a dough of eggs and cheese well risen, cooked in the oven in a thin casing of pastry
A rustic tart pastry filled with everything imaginable: eggs, fresh cheeses, ricotta, vegetables, and all sorts of flavorings and spices.
Also from Teramo are the spreadable sausages flavored with nutmeg, and liver sausages tasting of garlic and spices. The ventricina from the Vasto area is made with large pieces of fat and lean pork, pressed and seasoned with powdered sweet peppers and fennel all encased in the dehydrated stomach of the pig itself. Atri and Rivisondoli are famous for cheeses. Mozzarella, either fresh or seasoned, is made from ewe's milk, although a great number of lesser known varieties of these cheeses can be found all over Abruzzo and Molise.
Sweets
The Abruzzo's sweets are world-famous and include:
Confetti, sugar-coated almonds, from Sulmona
Torrone Nurzia, a chocolate nougat from L'Aquila
Parrozzo , a cake-like treat made from a mixture of crushed almonds, and coated in chocolate.
Ferratelle (also known as Pizzelle). A wafer cookie, often flavored with anise
Croccante, a type of nougat made from almonds and caramelized suger, often flavored with lemon[59]
A Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine labelled as being made from old vines.
Olive oil
The extra-virgin olive oil produced in Colline Teramane (Teramo hills) is marked by the DOP.[60]
The region has several cultivars that includes Carboncella, Dritta (Dritta Francavillese and Dritta di Moscufo), Gentile del Chieti, Nostrana (Nostrana di Brisighella), and Sargano olive cultivars.[61]
Wines and liquors
Renowned wines like Montepulciano DOCG and Trebbiano d'Abruzzo DOC are judged to be amongst the world's finest.[62] In 2012, a bottle of Trebbiano d'Abruzzo ranked No. 1 in the top 50 Italian wine awards.[63] In recent decades these wines have been joined, particularly, by wines from lesser known (heritage) white grapes, such as, Pecorino, Cococciola, Passerina, Montonico Bianco and Fiano.[64]
The region is also well known for the production of liquors such as Centerbe, Limoncello, Ratafia and Genziana.
These exist at three levels, each level joined by steps. This is quite impressive and gives a good impression of how it must have been to be a performer at the Theatre.
Chegamos a Fortaleza, alguns imprevistos nos tiraram do rumo certo e venho infelizmente informar-lhes que o nosso Capitao Sr. Fruc, resolveu nos abandonar temporariamente, ele encontrou um novo amor, uma nova profissao e uma missao nova na vida real, sentiremos muito sua falta e todos aqueles de acordo, assinem em baixo, desejando-lhe sucesso, felicidades, amor (muito amor), ele eh jovem neh e muitos sorrisos, sentiremos sua falta Capitao e com carinho todos nos da comitiva deixamos lhe um grande abraco e beijos, nossos melhores votos de felicidades em sua vida, e volte sempre, esse posto sera sempre seu no barco de nossas vidas....
Agora, quem entrou pra seu lugar foi a Lucilia, que broto galera, espero que os solteiros nao se apaixonem.
T Glow tambem foi promovido e agora ele eh o engenheiro de bordo, vai nos ensinar tudo inclusive sua metodologia de mestre e otimo retratista do cotidiano, de noturna e estrelas ele conhece e eh tao presciso que parece ser ate de outro planeta, talvez quem sabe ate da Polonia,seja bem vindo.
Dal ta botando pra quebrar, nao existe DJ como ela no universo, afinal, ela estava em outro planeta, voces viram a
foto dela de Marte? Demais, eu acho que ela comunica com os extra-terrestres, afinal, vive em Brasilia, cidade aviao...
A Dal ta legal e ponto final...
Eliana achou a chave do cadeado, ufa, eu ja estava preocupado, tava achando que alguem iria ter que abrir aquele coracao com talhadeira...
Carol Fernandez voltou tambem, mas perdeu o posto de DJ neh, agora tera que achar outra funcao.
Simone ta arrumando uns leites de cabra no meio da rua, pois elas sao menores e evitam menos engarrafamento.
Eu decisto, levanto as maos, e peco entao desculpas pelos acontecimentos.
Mas como minha filosofia e so alegria, mais uma vez, chegamos a Fortaleza, e vamos todos entao para o Bododromo, pegar a cabra pelo chifre por que o show tem que continuar....
Afinal, aqui so tem cabra macho, cabra da peste bixim.
Schilo puxou um dia a peixeira pra mim, estavamos perto do farol da Barra e eu tive que explicar pra ele que seus pensamentos estavam improprios para menores de 29 anos, vejam so, ele estava perturbando sua mina pertinho da praia, entre a areia e o matinho, e ela ate falou vinte vezes que ali nao podia nao.
Gente, o cara ta com suite presidencial nesse barco, mas eh naturalista, adora Trancoso ou Espelho na Bahia, por isso que sumiram por uma temporada.
Eu, bom, eu tava sumido porque estava com visitas entao desculpintao pela ausencia.
Isabelula ta cacando confusao la no seu quintal, nao sobra nada, se tem vitima ela retrata tudo.
Bruno e Carla, hum, esses dois nao sei nao, fim de semana eles somem, ou se trancam no quarto, so os dois, cheios de amor pra dar.
Herminia vai soltar os cachoros, alguem fez uma spy foto dela debaixo de uma prateleira cheia de buzum, num bar la no Rio, mas ja disse, no meu livro nao havera crime nem suspense e ja esta tudo resolvido, Maria Castro ja pediu desculpas e mandou mil beijos...
J.C. ta meio ocupado, sumiu...
Voces viram quem voltou? O mais profundo pensador, inconformado com as tendencias desumanas dos seres humanos, nosso querido Juarezam,
rapaz, que bom te-lo de volta, agora ja posso parar de escrever.
Surprisingly, because the metals are such perfect expressions of archetypal energies, we can actually learn quite a bit about people by studying the properties of metals and the behavior of planets. That same correspondence exists in the human temperament. For instance, the leaden person is someone who has, like Saturn, lost their bid to become a star. They have accepted a mere physical existence and believe the created world is all that counts. The positive characteristics of the saturnine person are patience, responsibility, somberness, structure and realism, true knowledge of history and karma. The black messenger crows of Chronos bring black moods, depression and despair to us, but they also alert us to illusion and fakeness in our lives.
While we have already discussed the planetary archetypes, it is worth reminding ourselves at this point exactly how the alchemists looked on the relationship between the planet and its metal. They believed that the metals had the same “virtue” as the corresponding planet, that a single spirit infuses both the planet and the metal. In other words, the planet was a celestial manifestation and the metal a terrestrial manifestation of the same universal force. Therefore, the metals are the purest expression of the planetary energies in the mineral kingdom, which is the basis for material reality on earth. The next stage of evolution on our planet is the plant kingdom, and the alchemists assigned a metal and its corresponding planet to describe the characteristics of every known herb, flower, and plant. Similarly, on the next level in the evolution of matter in the animal kingdom, all creatures carry their own metallic or planetary signatures, which are expressed in their behavior. In human beings, the alchemists referred to the sum total of the cosmic signatures of the metals as a person’s “temperament.” Originally, that word referred to the metallurgical process of “tempering” or mixing different metals to produce certain characteristics in an alloy. Although the alchemists considered lead the lowest of the base metals, they treated it with a great deal of respect, as they did its corresponding planet Saturn. Lead was said to carry all the energy of its own transformation, and it was that hidden energy that the alchemists sought to free. To the alchemists, the ancient metal was a powerful “sleeping giant” with a dark and secret nature that encompassed both the beginning and end of the Great Work.
Lead is the heaviest of the seven metals; it is very tied to gravity, form, and manifested reality. It is also a very stubborn metal known for its durability and resistance to change. Lead products dating from 7000 BC are still intact, and lead water pipes installed by the Romans 1,500 years ago are still in use today. Alchemists depicted lead in their drawings as the god Saturn (a crippled old man with a sickle), Father Time, or a skeleton representing death itself. Any of these symbols in their manuscripts meant the alchemist was working with the metal lead in the laboratory or a leaden attitude in his accompanying meditation.Lead is a boundary of heaviness for matter. Metals of greater atomic weight are too heavy and disintegrate over time (by radioactive decay) to turn back into lead. So radioactive decay is really a Saturnic process that introduces a new characteristic in the metals – that of time. All the hyper-energetic metals beyond lead are trapped in time to inexorably return to lead. There is no natural process more unalterably exact than radioactive decay. Atomic clocks, the most precise timekeeping devices we have, are based on this leaden process. Geologists measure the age of radioactive rocks by how much lead they contain, and the age of the earth is estimated by taking lead isotope measurements. In many ways, lead carries the signature of Father Time.Native lead, which is lead metal found in a chemically uncombined state, is actually extremely rare. It is found in the earth's crust in a concentration of only about 13 parts per billion. Lead does not form crystals easily, and thus the pure mineral form is very rare and extremely valuable as rock specimens. Such elemental lead can also be found in very unusual “metamorphosed” limestone and marble formations that are equally rare.Surprisingly, lead is in the same group in the Periodic Table as gold, and when it occurs in nature, it is always found with gold and silver. In fact, the chemical symbol for lead (Pb) is from the Latin word plumbum, which means “liquid silver.” We derive our words “plumbing” and “plumb bob” from the use of lead in those applications. In the smelting of silver, lead plays an important role by forming a layer over the emerging molten silver and protecting it from combining with the air and splattering out. The volatile molten lead covering is gradually burnt away, until only the pure silver metal “peeks out” (in the smelter’s terminology) in a stabilized form. Thus, lead protects and even sacrifices itself for the nobler metals.The planet Saturn and its metal and the planet have the same symbol (L) in alchemy. The Hermetic interpretation is that the symbol is basically the cross of the elements that depicts the division between the Above and Below or spirit and matter. The lunar crescent of the soul is below the cross, representing the manifestation (or entrapment) of soul below in matter. Despite these associations with the noble metals, lead itself never makes it to such heights among the metals. The silvery luster of fresh cut lead quickly fades, as if it were “dying” before your eyes. Furthermore, alchemists considered lead to be “hydrophobic” or against the life nourishing archetype of water. Lead ores lack the slightest water content and tend to form machine-like structures.The most common ore of lead is galena, which also contains the noble metals silver and gold. Galena is lead sulfide, a favorite of rock collectors because of its distinctive cubic shapes, characteristic cleavage, and high density. In fact, the structure of galena is identical to that of natural table salt. The two minerals have exactly the same crystal shapes, symmetry and cleavage, although galena crystals are thousands of times larger. Some galena may contain up to 1% silver and often contains trace amounts of gold. The large volume of galena that is processed for lead produces enough silver as a by product to make galena the leading ore of silver as well Galena definitely has the signature of lead. Its color is silver gray with a bluish tint. The luster ranges from metallic to dull in the weathered faces, and the isometric crystals are opaque to light. The massive crystals of galena almost always take the form of a cube or octahedron, and the cleavage is perfect in four direction always forming cubes. Because of the perfect cleavage, fractures are rarely seen and the dark crystalline structure is nearly perfect.Lead is also found in other sulfuric minerals like calcite and dolomite, as well as lead oxidation minerals such as and anglesite and cerussite, which is found in the oxidation zone of lead deposits usually associated with galena. Some formations show cerussite crusts around a galena core as if the act of oxidation was frozen in time. Cerrussite is lead carbonate and also a favorite of rock hounds. Its very high luster is due mostly to the metallic lead content, and just as leaded crystal glass sparkles more brilliantly because of its lead content, so too does cerussite. Cerussite has one of the highest densities for a transparent mineral. It is over six and a half times as dense as water. Most rocks and minerals average only around three times the density of water. Cerussite is famous for its great sparkle and density, and its amazing twinned (or double) crystals. The mineral forms geometrically intricate structures and star shapes that simply amazing to behold – sometimes the twinned crystals form star shapes with six "rays" extending out from the star.When freed from its ores, lead metal has a bluish-white color and is very soft – capable of being scratched by a fingernail. With its dull metallic luster and high density, lead cannot easily be confused with any other metal. It is also malleable, ductile, and sectile – meaning it can be pounded into other shapes, stretched into a wire, and cut into slices. However, lead is a dark, sluggish, base metal. Of the seven metals, it is the slowest conductor of electricity and heat, the least lustrous or resonant. Its Saturnic signature of heaviness is expressed not only in its being the heaviest metal but also in its tendency to form inert and insoluble compounds. No other metal forms as many. Although it tarnishes upon exposure to air like silver, lead is extremely resistant to corrosion over time and seems to last forever. Lead pipes bearing the insignia of Roman emperors, used as drains from the baths, are still in service. The surface of lead is protected by a thin layer of lead oxide, and it does not react with water. The same process protects lead from the traditional “liquid fire” of the alchemists – sulfuric acid. In fact, lead bottles are still used to store the highly corrosive acid. Lead is so inalterable, that half of all the lead in the world today is simply recovered from scrap and formed directly into bullion for reuse.Lead is truly a destroyer of light. It is added to high-quality glassware (lead crystal) to absorb light reflections and make the glass clearer. Lead salts in glass are not changed by light but change light itself by absorbing it. Incoming light in lead crystal meets with high resistance, but once it is within the glass, light is immediately absorbed or dispersed without any reflected light escaping. Sheets of lead are also impermeable to all forms of light, even high energy X-rays and gamma rays, which makes lead the perfect shield against any form of radiation and is why it is used to transport and store radioactive materials.Lead is an extremely poor conductor of electricity and blocks all kinds of energy transmission. Indeed, one of the signatures of lead is its ability to “dampen” or absorb energy. Unlike other metals, when lead is struck, the vibrations are immediately absorbed and any tone is smothered in dullness. Lead is an effective sound proofing medium and tetraethyl lead is still used in some grades of gasoline as an antiknock compound to “quiet” the combustion of gasoline.Thin lead sheets are used extensively in the walls of high-rise buildings to block the transmission of sound, and thick pads of lead are used in the foundations to absorb the vibrations of street traffic and even minor earthquakes. Lead sheets are widely used in roofing to block solar rays, and lead foil is used to form lightproof enclosures in laboratory work. Ultimately, lead corresponds to the galactic Black Hole that absorbs all forms of radiation and light.Lead reacts with more chemicals than any other metal, however, instead of producing something new and useful, lead “kills” the combining substance by making it inert, insoluble and unable to enter into further chemical reactions. Its salts precipitate out of solutions heavily and copiously. Lead has the same effect in the plant kingdom. It accumulates in the roots and slows down the “breathing” process in plants. Young plants are adversely affected by even the smallest amount of lead in the soil.Lead is poisonous and accumulates over time in the bones of the human body, where it cannot be flushed out. It has also been found in high concentrations in gallstones and kidney stones. The old alchemical graphic for lead – a skeleton – was grotesquely appropriate. The symptoms of lead poisoning (known as “Saturnism”) are lack of energy, depression, blindness, dizziness, severe headaches at the back of the head, brain damage, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities and mental retardation, antisocial behavior and anger, atrophy of muscular tissue and cramping, excess growth of connective tissue resulting in a rigid appearance, rapid aging, coma, and early death. Rats fed only 5 parts per million of lead had a lifespan 25% shorter than normal rats. Children are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning, and it is believed to be an important factor in stillborn fetuses. Children with more than just 0.3 parts per million of lead in their blood suffer a significant slowing of brain function and corresponding drop in IQ. Lead in paint has caused mental retardation and premature aging in hundreds of children who ingested old flaking paint from the walls of their homes. Lead paint was used extensively until the poisonous effects were documented in the 1960s. Because of its lasting durability, lead paint is still used outdoors in advertising and the yellow lines on highways and curbs. The subtly controlling aspect of those applications is another signature of lead and of “leaden” persons in general.Not surprisingly, lead has found use as an insecticide and was even once considered for use as a military weapon. Lead metal reacts violently with fluorine and chlorine to form the highly poisonous gases, lead fluoride and lead chloride. Lead is also used in all kinds of ammunition – another appropriate application of lead’s esoteric signature as Father Time and the Grim Reaper. There are many research studies linking lead exposure to anger and violence, especially in adolescents. One recent study of all counties in the United States conducted by Colorado State University revealed that the murder rate in counties with the highest lead levels were four times higher than in counties with the lowest levels of lead.More benevolent uses of lead are in storage batteries, covering for underground and transoceanic cables, waste plumbing, shielding around X-ray equipment and nuclear reactors, solder, pewter, fine lead crystal glass, and flint glass with a high refractive index for achromatic lenses.Even the elemental metal carries the seed of its own redemption. The alchemists knew that Fire is lord over lead, for the metal has a low melting point and is easily separated from its ore by roasting in an open flame, and the metal itself melts in a candle flame. Lead expands on heating and contracts on cooling more than any other solid heavy metal. (Silver is the opposite and is considered an antidote to lead.)Perhaps owing to its dual nature, lead carries deeply hidden within its structure the fire of its own transformation. Many lead salts reveal a whole rainbow of brilliant colors, with the solar colors of yellow, orange, and red predominating. This is why lead has been used in paints for so many centuries. Finely divided lead powder is pyrophoric (“fire containing”) and easily catches fire or erupts spontaneously in flames. When made into a fine powder, lead metal must be kept in a vacuum to keep from catching fire. Otherwise, it ignites and burns down to a bright yellow ash, revealing its deeply hidden solar signature. So, the wonder of lead is that hidden deep inside the gray, dead metal is a tiny, eternal spark that is the seed of its own resurrection. In the eyes of alchemists, this makes lead the most important metal despite its unattractive darkness. For dull lead and gleaming gold are really the same things, only at different stages of growth or maturity.The Secret Fire inside lead is really the alchemical basis for transforming lead into gold, and correspondingly, gives mankind hope for its own spiritual transformation. That tiny spark of light in the darkest part of matter makes resurrection part of the structure of the universe. So, deep down inside, the metal lead also yearns to be transformed. It wants to rise in the air and fly, leave matter and form behind, and be free as Fire. Lead unites two contrasting forces: rigid heaviness and revivifying inner fire. Archetypically, the lead process is concerned with death and resurrection. Greek myth says that after death our soul is put on a scale, and the weights of the scale are made from lead, the metal that carries Saturn's signature.Lead is used in magical rituals, spells, and amulets to promote contact with deep unconscious levels (the underworld), deep meditation, controlling negativity, breaking bad habits and addictions, protection, stability, grounding, solidity, perseverance, decisiveness, concentration, conservation, and material constructions (buildings). Pick up a hunk of lead and the first thing you notice is its weight – its connection to gravity. It is that connection to something beyond matter and light, the very form of the universe that is the physical basis for this experiment. During the winter months, preferably on some clear night in late January or early February, go outside and find the planet Saturn in the northern sky. Relax and try to focus all your attention on the golden sphere. Relax completely with an open and quiet mind. Become empty and let the planet influence you. Do this until you feel a real connection with the distant planet. Continue gazing upon Saturn and place a piece of lead metal in your hand. You should be able to feel a strange resonance building. That eerie, cold vibration is not your imagination. It is what alchemists refer to as the “call of lead.” You are experiencing the metal’s true signature or living correspondence with its planetary twin.The strange connection between lead and Saturn has been documented by modern scientists, who have shown that lead compounds react differently depending on Saturn’s position in the sky. For instance, solutions of lead nitrate produce the greatest weight of crystallization (or manifestation) during February, when Saturn rules the sky, and the least during June, when Saturn is barely visible. Lead compounds also exhibit different properties when Saturn aligns with other planets. For example, lead sulfate solution rises 60% higher on strips of filter paper during conjunctions of Saturn with Mars than at other times. It is also known that the ease of making lead solutions (the “solubility coefficient” of lead) varies with the position of Saturn relative to the other planets. NASA is even considering a series of astrochemical experiments to see if the Saturn-lead effects become more pronounced in outer space.Surprisingly, because the metals are such perfect expressions of archetypal energies, we can actually learn quite a bit about people by studying the properties of metals and the behavior of planets. That same correspondence exists in the human temperament. For instance, the leaden person is someone who has, like Saturn, lost their bid to become a star. They have accepted a mere physical existence and believe the created world is all that counts. The positive characteristics of the saturnine person are patience, responsibility, somberness, structure and realism, true knowledge of history and karma. The black messenger crows of Chronos bring black moods, depression and despair to us, but they also alert us to illusion and fakeness in our lives. Surprisingly, because the metals are such perfect expressions of archetypal energies, we can actually learn quite a bit about people by studying the properties of metals and the behavior of planets. That same correspondence exists in the human temperament. For instance, the leaden person is someone who has, like Saturn, lost their bid to become a star. They have accepted a mere physical existence and believe the created world is all that counts. The positive characteristics of the saturnine person are patience, responsibility, somberness, structure and realism, true knowledge of history and karma. The black messenger crows of Chronos bring black moods, depression and despair to us, but they also alert us to illusion and fakeness in our lives. Surprisingly, because the metals are such perfect expressions of archetypal energies, we can actually learn quite a bit about people by studying the properties of metals and the behavior of planets. That same correspondence exists in the human temperament. For instance, the leaden person is someone who has, like Saturn, lost their bid to become a star. They have accepted a mere physical existence and believe the created world is all that counts. The positive characteristics of the saturnine person are patience, responsibility, somberness, structure and realism, true knowledge of history and karma. The black messenger crows of Chronos bring black moods, depression and despair to us, but they also alert us to illusion and fakeness in our lives. Because the lusterless metal is so “dead” and resists interaction with other substances, it is used as containers for acids, like automobile batteries, and is used as a lining in pipes that carry corrosive substances. Similarly, the lead tempered person is like an acid-proof container that stores up caustic feelings and anger. Phrases like “acid tongued” and “vitriolic” have their origins in this alchemical process of storing negative emotional energy.On the psychological level, lead is symbolic of a person’s inertness and unwillingness to change. There is a denial of all higher or spiritual energies, and the alchemists often portrayed the leaden person as lying in an open grave or hopelessly chained to matter in some way. A feeling of being trapped in material reality is symptomatic of a leaden attitude. Leaden people are stubborn, unyielding, and often control other people by making them wait. They must always be right, rarely accept blame or admit to being in error, and have no real regard for the truth of a situation. They may be religious but not spiritual. They tend to be suspicious of genius and inspiration, which they will often attribute to fantasy, They feel threatened by freedom of thought and expression, and sometimes use ridicule or try to “push people’s buttons” to control it. They tend to be very uncreative, judgmental, and smug.On the other hand, leaden people are grounded, earthy, and practical. They are good friends during times of bereavement – a rock of support at funerals and deathbeds. Such people secretly crave stimulation, excitement, and new ideas. They gravitate to people who supply energy and entertainment in their lives. This craving for stimulation often makes them focus on nervous energy instead of higher inspiration. Therefore, Saturn’s children can be very reactive and excitable instead of lethargic, as they try to escape from their prison of matter.As soon as bright, fresh lead metal is exposed to air, it forms a dull-gray oxide layer called the “litharge” that resists any further chemical interaction. In alchemy, air is associated with spiritual energy, and lead reacts to it by instantly forming a barrier or blocking it. Likewise, one of the distinguishing characteristics of someone with a lead temperament is their lack of interest in spiritual ideas. There is also a general lack of interest in life in general, and leaden people often seem lazy, lethargic, or unresponsive.In the individual, lead absorbs the inner light or insight necessary for personal growth and blocks all outside “radiations,” such as attempts at spiritual instruction by others. Because psychological lead absorbs both the deeper vibrations of intuition and higher spiritual energies and aspirations, the person with a lead temperament is uninspired, unimaginative, and lacks that creative spark so necessary for positive change. Before long the lead person starts to feel trapped in his or her dull environment and seeks out excitement, death-defying feats, lively people, and challenging conversation. Their favorite color is often red, and unconsciously, they are seeking the alchemical element of Fire. Fire is one of the Four Elements that represents activity, energy, creative thinking, and transformation. Fire is the tool alchemists use to begin the transmutation of lead into gold as well as transform leaden consciousness into a golden awareness of higher reality. In the laboratory, the changes in the metal and in the alchemist take place simultaneously. Otherwise, there can be no real transformation. The alchemists transmuted the Lead temperament using the Fire operation of Calcination. Physically, lead and Saturn rule the bones, teeth, spleen, and slow chronic processes such as aging. The therapeutic effects are contracting, coagulating, drying, and mineralizing. Saturn-ruled plants enhance the structures of life. They give a sobriety of disposition, en-abling one to see limitations. These plants give steadiness, solidity of pur-pose, subtlety, diplomacy, patience, and an ability to work on the physical plane better.Saturnic or leaden energies are needed for those who have a hard time finishing pro-jects or for those with plenty of ideas but never realize them. Alchemists seeking to produce physical effects found in saturnine elixirs the essential vibratory rate that enabled materialization. Alchemists seeking to produce physical effects found in saturnine elixirs the essential vibratory rate that enabled materialization. Generally speaking, any other elixir mixed with a Saturn elixir will be earthed, which makes them of great value when working on physical plane phenomenon. Their physical therapeutic properties become refrigerant, anti-pyretic, sedative, styptic, and astringent.For instance, if one mixes a saturnine elixir with a mercurial one, the alchemists believed it would release knowledge contained in secret magical manuscripts or in ancient hermetic traditions, because the Saturn-Mercury vibration contains all hidden knowledge of an esoteric nature within it. Alchemical oils were mixed in the same way. For example, to treat leukemia, alchemists would prescribe an equal mixture of lead oil and gold oil. The alchemists made an Oil of Lead that was good for “growth of bones after breaking, strengthening the skeleton, osteoporosis and atrophy of the bones, stimulation of the spleen, drying tissue, reducing secretions and discharges, stopping bleeding, reducing fever, increasing patience, and stopping visions and an overactive imagination.” They also suggested it for hallucinations due to neurological disorders that have delirious after-effects such as encephalitis and post-traumatic stress syndrome. In the “like cures like” philosophy of homeopathy, lead is used to treat sclerosis, the hardening of bones and arteries, which is the hallmark of old age and signature of lead. The homeopathic name of lead is Plumbum metallicum. Native tin is known as stannum, which is the Latin word for tin and also gives the metal its chemical symbol (Sn). The alchemical symbol is K, which shows the lunar principle of soul above the cross of the elements or emerging from the darkness of matter.
Tin is a shiny, silvery-white metal that is malleable, somewhat ductile and sectile, and seems like a perfected form of lead to the casual observer. In fact, the Romans called tin Plumbum album or “white lead.” Tin resists weathering and does not oxidize, and tin utensils buried underground or lost at sea in sunken ships shone like new when rediscovered after hundreds of years. “Tinkers” were gypsy craftsmen who wandered from neighborhood to neighborhood in Europe repairing tin kettles and utensils or melting them down and recasting them. Native or elemental tin is extremely rare in nature and is found with gold and copper deposits. The metal was considered “semi-noble” in ancient times and was used for jewelry in Babylonia and Egypt. The Romans used it to make mirrors, and it was used as coinage in Europe at one time.
Tin has a highly crystalline structure, and due to the breaking of these crystals, a "cry" is heard when a tin bar is bent. Unlike lead, tin has pleasing acoustic effects and is used in the making of bells. The crystals in common grey tin have a cubic structure, but when heated or frozen it changes into white tin, which has a tetragonal structure. After further heating or freezing, white tin disintegrates into a powdery substance. This powder has the ability to “infect” other tin surfaces it comes in contact with by forming blisters that spread until all the metal “sickens” and disintegrates. This transformation is encouraged by impurities such as zinc and aluminum and can be prevented by adding small amounts of antimony or bismuth to the metal. The sickness of tin was called the “tin plague” and was the scourge of tin roofs during Europe’s frigid winters. The mysterious effect was first was first noticed as “growths” on organ pipes in European cathedrals, where it was thought to be the work of the devil to disfigure god’s work.Tin metal has only a few practical uses and most tin is used in alloys. Bronze is an alloy of 5% tin and 95% copper, and the development of bronze by humans marked a new age of advancement known as the Bronze Age. Most solder is a combination of tin and lead; pewter is also an alloy of tin and lead. Other tin alloys are used to make tin cans and tin roofs, and tin has significant use as a corrosion fighter in the protection of other metals. Tin resists distilled, sea and soft tap water, but is attacked by strong acids, alkalis, and acid salts. When heated in air, tin forms tin oxide, which is used to plate steel and make tin cans. Other uses are in type metal, fusible metal, Babbitt metal, and die casting alloys. Tin chloride is used as a reducing agent and mordant in calico printing. Tin salts sprayed onto glass are used to produce electrically conductive coatings, which are used for panel lighting and for frost-free windshields. Window glass is made by floating molten glass on molten tin to produce a flat surface. A crystalline tin-niobium alloy is superconductive at very low temperatures, and shoebox-sized electromagnets made of the wire produce magnetic fields comparable to conventional electromagnets weighing hundreds of tons.The distribution of tin on earth follows an ecliptic at an angle of 23.5 º to the equator that is an exact track of the orbit of Jupiter slicing through the planet. Even stranger, these jovian forces seem to form tin veins that zigzag through the rocks in a lightening bolt pattern. This is no haphazard effect, but an astonishing confirmation of Jupiter freeing the metals from their Saturnic prison on earth. Goethe was just one great alchemical philosopher who believed this. “A remarkable influence proceeds from the metal tin,” he wrote. “This has a differentiating influence, and opens a door through which a way is provided for different metals to be formed from primeval rocks.”Tin ore minerals include oxide minerals like cassiterite and a few sulfides such as franckerite. By far the most tin comes from cassiterite or tin oxide. Reduction of this ore in burning coal results in tin metal and was probably how tin was made by the ancients. Cassiterite is a black or reddish brown mineral that has ornately faceted specimens with a greasy, high luster. It is generally opaque, but its luster and multiple crystal faces cause a sparkling surface. Cassiterite has been an important ore of tin for thousands of years and is still the greatest source of tin today. Most aggregate specimens of cassiterite show crystal twins, with the typical twin bent at a near-60-degree angle to form a distinctive "Elbow Twin." Other crystalline forms include eight-sided prisms and four-sided pyramids. Cassiterite is sometimes found in nature associated with topaz and fluorite gemstones.Tin has a surprising affinity for silica and shares its crystalline structure. In the jovian ring on our planet where native tin is found, the metal lies in silica veins of quartz and granite. In the body, high concentrations of tin and silica are found in the boundary layer of the skin, and tin reacts with silica acid in many of the “shaping” processes of growth. In the Middle Ages, sick people were served food on a tin plate and drinks in a tin vessel to help them regenerate and recover their strength. Today, we know that tin acts as a bactericide and pesticide.Native tin is known as stannum, which is the Latin word for tin and also gives the metal its chemical symbol (Sn). The alchemical symbol is K, which shows the lunar principle of soul above the cross of the elements or emerging from the darkness of matter.
Tin is a shiny, silvery-white metal that is malleable, somewhat ductile and sectile, and seems like a perfected form of lead to the casual observer. In fact, the Romans called tin Plumbum album or “white lead.” Tin resists weathering and does not oxidize, and tin utensils buried underground or lost at sea in sunken ships shone like new when rediscovered after hundreds of years. “Tinkers” were gypsy craftsmen who wandered from neighborhood to neighborhood in Europe repairing tin kettles and utensils or melting them down and recasting them. Native or elemental tin is extremely rare in nature and is found with gold and copper deposits. The metal was considered “semi-noble” in ancient times and was used for jewelry in Babylonia and Egypt. The Romans used it to make mirrors, and it was used as coinage in Europe at one time.
Tin has a highly crystalline structure, and due to the breaking of these crystals, a "cry" is heard when a tin bar is bent. Unlike lead, tin has pleasing acoustic effects and is used in the making of bells. The crystals in common grey tin have a cubic structure, but when heated or frozen it changes into white tin, which has a tetragonal structure. After further heating or freezing, white tin disintegrates into a powdery substance. This powder has the ability to “infect” other tin surfaces it comes in contact with by forming blisters that spread until all the metal “sickens” and disintegrates. This transformation is encouraged by impurities such as zinc and aluminum and can be prevented by adding small amounts of antimony or bismuth to the metal. The sickness of tin was called the “tin plague” and was the scourge of tin roofs during Europe’s frigid winters. The mysterious effect was first was first noticed as “growths” on organ pipes in European cathedrals, where it was thought to be the work of the devil to disfigure god’s work.Tin metal has only a few practical uses and most tin is used in alloys. Bronze is an alloy of 5% tin and 95% copper, and the development of bronze by humans marked a new age of advancement known as the Bronze Age. Most solder is a combination of tin and lead; pewter is also an alloy of tin and lead. Other tin alloys are used to make tin cans and tin roofs, and tin has significant use as a corrosion fighter in the protection of other metals. Tin resists distilled, sea and soft tap water, but is attacked by strong acids, alkalis, and acid salts. When heated in air, tin forms tin oxide, which is used to plate steel and make tin cans. Other uses are in type metal, fusible metal, Babbitt metal, and die casting alloys. Tin chloride is used as a reducing agent and mordant in calico printing. Tin salts sprayed onto glass are used to produce electrically conductive coatings, which are used for panel lighting and for frost-free windshields. Window glass is made by floating molten glass on molten tin to produce a flat surface. A crystalline tin-niobium alloy is superconductive at very low temperatures, and shoebox-sized electromagnets made of the wire produce magnetic fields comparable to conventional electromagnets weighing hundreds of tons.The distribution of tin on earth follows an ecliptic at an angle of 23.5 º to the equator that is an exact track of the orbit of Jupiter slicing through the planet. Even stranger, these jovian forces seem to form tin veins that zigzag through the rocks in a lightening bolt pattern. This is no haphazard effect, but an astonishing confirmation of Jupiter freeing the metals from their Saturnic prison on earth. Goethe was just one great alchemical philosopher who believed this. “A remarkable influence proceeds from the metal tin,” he wrote. “This has a differentiating influence, and opens a door through which a way is provided for different metals to be formed from primeval rocks.”Tin ore minerals include oxide minerals like cassiterite and a few sulfides such as franckerite. By far the most tin comes from cassiterite or tin oxide. Reduction of this ore in burning coal results in tin metal and was probably how tin was made by the ancients. Cassiterite is a black or reddish brown mineral that has ornately faceted specimens with a greasy, high luster. It is generally opaque, but its luster and multiple crystal faces cause a sparkling surface. Cassiterite has been an important ore of tin for thousands of years and is still the greatest source of tin today. Most aggregate specimens of cassiterite show crystal twins, with the typical twin bent at a near-60-degree angle to form a distinctive "Elbow Twin." Other crystalline forms include eight-sided prisms and four-sided pyramids. Cassiterite is sometimes found in nature associated with topaz and fluorite gemstones.Tin has a surprising affinity for silica and shares its crystalline structure. In the jovian ring on our planet where native tin is found, the metal lies in silica veins of quartz and granite. In the body, high concentrations of tin and silica are found in the boundary layer of the skin, and tin reacts with silica acid in many of the “shaping” processes of growth. In the Middle Ages, sick people were served food on a tin plate and drinks in a tin vessel to help them regenerate and recover their strength. Today, we know that tin acts as a bactericide and pesticide.
Flowers last longer in tin vases, and food has been preserved in the tin cans (actually a thin layer of tin on iron) for over a century. Beer (ruled by the jovial Jupiter) is said to taste best from a tin mug. Jupiter rules growth, the metabolic system, the liver, and the enrichment of the blood from food. Jupiter therapeutic effects are anti-spasmodic and hepatic. Jupiter-ruled plants preserve the body and promote healthy growth and are the natural healing herbs of the planetary system. They af-fect the mind in such a way as to promote an understanding of ritual form from the highest point of view, and religious leaders, doctors, lawyers, etc. will find great benefit from jovian herb remedies. They also attune one to the wealth vibration and open up channels for growth and expansion, materi-ally as well as spiritually.Jupiter controls the circulation of blood in the human body. If mixed with a solar herbal eider, it will give the alchemist access to the highest plane. Jupiter-Mercury combinations produce insight into the philosophical principles of any system and their part in the cosmic scheme and provide an intuitive understanding of the great spiritual masters. This particular herbal mixture also produces a lightheartedness and gaiety, which can be very useful to those with a predisposition to depression or gloominess. The physical properties of such a mixture are anabolic and antispasmodic.The alchemists made an Oil of Tin that was used to treat the liver (jaundice, hepatitis, cirrhosis), certain types of eczema, liquid ovarian cysts, inflammatory effusions, pleurisies, acne, water retention, and certain types of obesity. This oil was said to be excellent for someone "loosing shape." The oil was also used as a sweat inducer, wormer, antispasmodic, cathartic, and laxative.The polar (opposite) metal to tin is mercury, and Oil of Tin was said to be an excellent antidote for mercury poisoning, and likewise mercury was said to balance the bad effects of tin. Tin and mercury oil combined are said to provide deep insight and cure lightheadedness and certain phases of manic-depressive syndrome.The homeopathic form of tin is called Stannum, a remedy which is said to strengthen and regenerate muscle and brain tissue. It is also a remedy for the joints and connective tissue of ligaments and cartilage. Stannum is allegedly beneficial in liver disease and is used for congestion, hardening, encephalitis, and other illnesses where the fluid balance is upset.During the early Spring, preferably sometime in March, go outside and find the red planet Mars in the night sky. Relax and try to focus all your attention on the tiny red sphere. Relax completely with an open and quiet mind. Become empty and let the planet influence you. Do this until you feel a real connection with the distant planet. Continue gazing upon Mars and place a piece of iron in your hand or a small cast iron pot or other object but not something of made of steel or chromed. You should be able to feel a resonance building. It is what alchemists refer to as the “call of iron.” You are experiencing the metal’s true signature or living correspondence with its planetary twin. See how your feelings compare to how the alchemists felt about this powerful metal.When mixed with solar herbs, iron herbs increase energy and activate the energetic potentials of other herbs. Martian elixirs release the action poten-tial of the soul of something. When mixed with other herbs, martian herbs acti-vate the potentialities of the other herbs to a great degree making them more forceful in applica-tion and generally more active. Mars herbs are wonderful tonics when mixed with Sun herbs. The combination gives great physical energy, tones the muscles, and increases sexual potency. They also provoke self-reliance, spontaneity, and indepen-dence of attitude. If the alchemist is involved in magical evocation, a mixture of a mars, moon, and mercurial elixirs will help produce the physical plane vehicle of manifestation.Copper is a reddish-brown metal with a bright metallic luster. It is in the same group in the Periodic Table as gold, and like gold, it is remarkably ductile. It is also very malleable and sectile (it can be pounded into other shapes and cut into slices) and is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. Molten copper is a sea green color, and copper tarnishes with a green color and burns with a blue-green flame with flashes of red, and the alchemists sometimes described Venus, the metal’s archetypal planetary source, as dressed in a blue cloak over a red gown.Pick up a piece of copper and the first thing you notice is its surprising feeling of warmth and moisture. It is that connection to something archetypal and nourishing that makes up the signature of this metal. It is easy to connect with copper, just as its planet (Venus) is easy to see in the sky. It is so brilliant it is often mistaken for a bright star or even a UFO. The best time to see it is in the early evening or morning when it is close to the horizon. In fact, Venus has been called both the “Morning Star” and the “Evening Star” and is associated with magical energies. It is the “first star I see tonight” upon you make you wish that will come true with the sympathetic venusian energies. On some clear night or morning, go outside and find the planet Venus. Relax and try to focus all your attention on the brilliant white sphere. Relax completely with an open and quiet mind. Become empty and let the planet influence you. Do this until you feel a real connection with the distant planet. Continue gazing upon the planet and grab a piece of copper, a fistful of pennies, or even a copper cooking utensil. You should be able to feel a warm resonance building. That deep and soothing vibration is not your imagination. It is what alchemists refer to as the “call of copper.” You are experiencing the metal’s true signature or living correspondence with its planetary twin.The venusian signature gives refinement of senses and the ability to appreciate beauty. Artists, actors, and others in the public eye will find these elixirs a great aid to performing their work. Venus herbs also enhance the taste perceptions, promote affection, give an amiable disposition, and make one more psychically sensitive to astral influences. For those who feel a lack of charm, or some of the softer human qualities, a venusian elixir will stimulate the right vibration in your aura. Venusian elixirs also promote harmony and balance within our being and in our dealings with others. Venusian elixirs are said to give access to that realm of the astral that is intimately connected with the working and forces of the most intimate magic of nature. They are a great aid to alchemists who wish to make herbal alchemy their life work, as they open up the human consciousness to the secrets of the plant kingdom. Naturalists will find these elixirs most illuminating, as they will give conscious con-tact with the various “deities” of long past nature religions.Mercury is truly unique. It is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature and the heaviest natural liquid on the planet. According to alchemical theory, all the metals began in the liquid state on deep in the earth, but only mercury was able to retain it original innocence and life force and resist taking on a final form, and for that reason, the ancients called it Mercurius vivens (the “living mercury”). This silvery liquid metal (also known as “Quicksilver”) was known to ancient Chinese and Hindus before 2000 BC and has been found in sacred tubes in Egyptian tombs dated from 1500 BC. It was first used to form alloys with other metals around 500 BC. The Greeks applied germ-killing ability of mercury in healing ointments (to the benefit of those afflicted with wounds and skin infections), and in the Middle Ages, Paracelsus used it successfully to treat syphilis. However, the ancient Romans applied mercury compounds for long-term use in cosmetics, and many beautiful women eventually died of its cumulative poisonous effects. Today, many popular brands of eye makeup still contain low levels of mercury.In the East, metallic mercury was the main ingredient in most Tantric medicinal preparations. In his travels through India, Marco Polo observed that many people drank a concoction of mercury and sulfur twice monthly from early childhood with no observable ill effects. They believed the drink gave them longevity. Tantric alchemists in India still take metallic mercury in place of food as an elixir of life, although they caution that the body must be perfectly attuned and strengthened to tolerate the intense cosmic infusion of life force. In Indian alchemy, mercury is called rasa, which refers to the subtle essence that is the origin of all forms of matter. The cosmic chaos from which the universe sprang is called the Rasasara or “Sea of Mercury.” The craft of alchemy is referred to as Rasayana or “Knowledge of Mercury.” Go outside on the night of the full moon and gaze up at the silver orb. Relax and try to focus all your attention on the surface of the moon. Relax completely with an open and quiet mind. Become empty and let our closest planetary body influence you. Do this until you feel a real connection. Now, pick up piece of silver jewelry or dinnerware, and hold it in your left hand until it gets warm. You should be able to feel a liquid-like sensation of cool metallic energy. This is what alchemists refer to as the “call of silver.” You are experiencing the metal’s true signature or living correspondence with the moon itself. Try to remember how this feels in your body. Has the taste in your mouth changed? Has your eyesight altered? How does your skin feel.The alchemists prepared an Oil of Silver they used to treat disorders of the brain and cerebellum, reduce stress, balance emotions, improve memory, treat nervous disorders and epilepsy, improve both melancholia and mania. It was also used as a physical purgative and mental purifier. It was said to affect the subconscious mind, see into the past clearly, remove fears and blockages, allow one to unwind, produce “homey” feelings, give a feeling of grace and sensitivity, and enhanced imagination.Using elaborate mixing and heating techniques, Egyptian alchemists tried making gold by changing the proportions of the Four Elements in the base metals or by attempting to speed up natural growth of lesser metals into gold. Around 100 AD, Egyptian alchemist Maria Prophetissa used mercury and sulfur to try to make gold. Around 300 AD, the alchemist Zosimos, whose recipes often came to him in dreams, was working to transmute copper. “The soul of copper,” he wrote must be purified until it receives the sheen of gold and turns into the royal metal of the Sun." A technique known as "diplosis" (“doubling”) of gold became popular. One such recipe called for heating a mixture of two parts gold with one part each of silver and copper. After appropriate alchemical charging that brought the seed of gold alive, twice as much of a gold as originally added was produced. Egyptian alchemists believed that the gold acted as a seed in metals, especially copper and silver. According to their view, the seed of gold grew, eating the copper and silver as food, until the whole mixture was transformed into pure gold.Gold is a stubbornly pure metal when it comes to reacting or even associating with “lesser” elements. That signature explains a lot of the chemical characteristics of gold. Unlike nearly every other metal, there are no plants that contain even trace amounts of metallic gold. There are very few gold ores, because the noblest metal never alloys with the baser metals, but does alloy with the noble metal silver and makes an amalgam with mercury.Gold is extremely ductile, malleable, and sectile, and so soft it can be cut with a knife, which makes gold impractical to use for tools. It is also very heavy. A gold bar is twice as heavy as an equal-sized bar of lead. Furthermore, gold embodies an inner equilibrium of forces that make it pretty much indestructible. Gold never tarnishes like copper or silver or rust like iron and, whether found buried in the ground, at the bottom of the ocean, in an ancient tomb, or in the ring on your finger, it always looks the same. It cannot be damaged by heat and was considered completely inalterable until around 1100 AD, when alchemists concocted a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids known as Agua Regia (“Royal Water”) that could dissolve gold. The immortal metal is endlessly recycled, and all the gold known today is very nearly equal to all the gold that has ever been mined. One ounce of gold can be stretched into a single wire 35 miles long, or it can be beaten to just a few atoms thick. It is the most flexible, enduring, and beautiful of all metals.
Gold shows a distinct affinity for sulfur and forms an ore with a rare element called tellurium. It is one of the few elements gold easily bonds with. In fact, telluride is rarely found without gold. Gold also appears in minerals that are part of a group of tellurium sulfides called the tellurides. However, the amount of gold in these minerals is really miniscule next to the amount of gold found in its native metallic state. Native gold seems to like the company of the purest white quartz and is also found mixed with deposits of pyrite and a few other sulfide minerals. Gold is six times rarer than silver, and it takes about three tons of gold ore to extract an ounce of gold metal.Around the world, nearly every culture associated their supreme god or goddess with gold. For many centuries only the images of gods graced gold coins, until Alexander the Great began the trend of rulers’ images appearing on gold coins around 30 BC. Even the most primitive societies recognize the sacred properties of gold. For example, the Makuna tribes of modern Brazil believe that gold contains “the light of the sun and stars." The chemical symbol for gold (Au) comes from the Latin word aurum meaning "gold.” The alchemical cipher for gold is a rendition of the sun (A), and gold was considered a kind of congealed light. Sol is the King of alchemy, and his royal purple-red color is revealed in gold colloidal solutions, and red is his symbolic color. Sol Philosophorum was the name the alchemists gave to this living spirit of gold, which they saw as the refined essence of heat and fire. Gold was known and considered sacred from earliest times. Gold became popular because it reminded people of the sun with its warm, life-giving properties. Because of its imperishability, the ancient Chinese thought that gold conveyed immortality to its owners. Egyptian inscriptions dating back to 2600 BC describe these same associations with gold. Gold replaced bartering around 3500 BC when the people of Mesopotamia started using it as a kind of money because of it eternal value. By 2800 BC, gold was being fashioned into standardized weights in the form of rings. People started carried black stones called “touchstones” onto which they scraped a piece of gold to leave a streak. Depending on the brightness of the streak, one could estimate how much gold was in the sample. Around 1500 BC, Mesopotamian alchemists discovered a process for purifying gold known as "cuppellation," which involved heating impure gold in a porcelain cup called a “cuppel.” Impurities were absorbed by the porcelain, leaving a button of pure gold behind. Later alchemists used cuppels to test the quality of their transmutations.Using elaborate mixing and heating techniques, Egyptian alchemists tried making gold by changing the proportions of the Four Elements in the base metals or by attempting to speed up natural growth of lesser metals into gold. Around 100 AD, Egyptian alchemist Maria Prophetissa used mercury and sulfur to try to make gold. Around 300 AD, the alchemist Zosimos, whose recipes often came to him in dreams, was working to transmute copper. “The soul of copper,” he wrote must be purified until it receives the sheen of gold and turns into the royal metal of the Sun." A technique known as "diplosis" (“doubling”) of gold became popular. One such recipe called for heating a mixture of two parts gold with one part each of silver and copper. After appropriate alchemical charging that brought the seed of gold alive, twice as much of a gold as originally added was produced. Egyptian alchemists believed that the gold acted as a seed in metals, especially copper and silver. According to their view, the seed of gold grew, eating the copper and silver as food, until the whole mixture was transformed into pure gold.According to the medieval alchemists, Nature sought continually to create the perfection achieved in gold, and they looked at every metal as gold in the making. Alchemists also thought that the objective of every metal was to become gold, and every metal was tested for corrosion and strength and ranked as to how far it was from gold. Many alchemists felt that mercury was the closest metal to gold and that it could be transmuted directly into gold. Their intuition was correct, for mercury can indeed be turned into gold. Gold and mercury are next to each other on the Periodic Table. Mercury is element 80 (has 80 protons) and gold is element 79 (has 79 protons). In the 1960s, physicists were able to knock out a proton in mercury atoms using neutron particle accelerators, and thereby create minute quantities of gold.Gold is at the head of the metals, paired with what in the medieval mind was the strongest planet, the Sun. The alchemists were obsessed with gold’s signature of perfection. Medieval Italian alchemist Bernard Trevisan speculated, "Is not gold merely the Sun’s beams condensed into a solid yellow?" Seventeenth-century alchemist John French asked fervently: “Is there no sperm in gold? Is it not possible to exalt it for multiplication? Is there no universal spirit in the world? Is it not possible to find that collected in One Thing which is dispersed in all things? What is that which makes gold incorruptible? What induced the philosophers to examine gold for the matter of their medicine? Was not all gold once living? Is there none of this living gold, the matter of philosophers, to be had anymore?”Gold is highly valued in the everyday world too. It is used as coinage and is a standard for monetary systems in many countries. It is used to make jewelry and artwork, and also in dentistry, electronics, and plating. Since it is an excellent reflector of infrared energy (such as emerges from the sun), the metal is used to coat space satellites and interstellar probes. Chlorauric acid is used in photography for toning the silver image. It is also used in medicine to treat degenerative diseases such as arthritis and cancer.Chemist Lilly Kolisko performed experiments with gold chloride and showed its chemical behavior coincided with events that altered the strength of the sun, such as the weakening in solar forces during solar eclipses or their increase during the summer solstice. Moreover, she found that both silver and gold salts seemed to be equally influenced by the sun. In the case of silver, it was the forms or patterns that changed, whereas in the gold, it was the colors that changed. Silver shapes moved from jagged spikes to smooth rolling forms but the colors remained hues of grey, while the basic shape of gold patterns remained the same but the colors changed from brilliant yellows through violet to reddish-purple hues. This work presents an amazing confirmation of how the King and Queen, Sol and Luna, work together in creation, with the female principle representing soul and form and the male principle representing spirit and energy. Kolisko’s innovative work with the metals is presented in the Appendix. Her work has been duplicated by dozens of other chemists and has been confirmed many times.The signatures of gold are invoked in rituals, magical spells, and talismans concerning solar deities, the male force, authority, self-confidence, creativity, financial riches, investments, fortune, hope, health, and worldly and magical power. Gold talismans can be very expensive, but you can make one of gold colored cardboard or write the symbols on it with gold paint or plate an object with gold. Gold jewelry is said to improve self-confidence and inner strength. To charge water with the signature of gold, put a gold object in a glass of water and let sit in the sunlight for 6-10 hours.During sunrise or sunset, face the sun and try to feel it archetypal presence. If not too bright, gaze into the rising or setting sun and try to see the metallic solar disk of which the Egyptian alchemists spoke. Relax and try to focus all your attention on the golden sphere. Relax completely with an open and quiet mind. Become empty and let the presence at the center of our solar system influence you. Do this until you feel a real connection with the distant sun. Continue facing the sun as you pick up a piece of gold jewelry or a vial of pure gold flakes (such as sold in some novelty shops) into your right palm. You should be able to feel a electric warmth building. That eerie, warm vibration is not your imagination. It is what alchemists refer to as the “call of gold” – the resonation of the metal with its “planet.” You are experiencing the metal’s true signature or living correspondence, and for gold, this is the most perfect expression of all materials. If you can connect with this archetype, you will realize that it a very personal as well as divine presence. As Above, so Below. This is perfection on all levels of your mind, body, and soul resonating with the perfection inherent in the Whole Universe.For those with weaker wills or loss of contact with the divine presence, gold represents a psychological cure. The solar essences gives great ambition, courage, self-re-liance, dignity, authority, and the ability to manage oneself and others. The creative principle, no matter how small and insignificant it is within us can be enhanced to a great degree by tapping into the solar archetype. Just as the Sun represents the di-vine creative force in our immediate solar system, gold represents the same thing in our inner temperament. For lasting manifestation, the golden temperament needs to be firmly grounded in the world, and the danger at this phase of transformation is that the individual become too focused on the workings Above and forget his or her connection to the real world. Gold and the blazing Sun correspond to personal ambition, courage, and creative energy and vitality, but without a constant effort to remain pure and alive in the real world, the golden temperament can quickly transmute into the leaden qualities of despair, poor self esteem, lack of confidence, and impurity. Most important for the golden temperament, however, is to realize that once having reached this plateau, one has certain personal and karmic obligations. The golden attitude of this temperament is what brings the rewards of health, wealth, and happiness through synchonistic responses from the universe. Go against these archetypal powers at this level of achievement and even the slightest deviation from the golden path of righteousness and personal integrity can have disastrous and immediate consequences. The alchemists transmuted the Gold temperament using the operation of Coagulation.Chrysotherapy is the name given to healing with gold. The mystical metal has been used for both spiritual and medical purposes as far back as ancient Egypt. Over 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians used gold in dentistry and ingested it for mental, bodily, and spiritual purification. The ancients believed that gold in the body worked by stimulating the life force and raising the level of vibration on all levels. In Alexandria, alchemists developed a powerful elixir known as “liquid gold,” which reportedly had the ability to restore youth and perfect health. In ancient Rome, gold salves were used for the treatment of skin ulcers, and today, gold leaf plays an important role in the treatment of chronic skin ulcers. The great alchemist and founder of modern medicine, Paracelsus, developed many highly successful medicines from metallic minerals including gold. In medieval Europe, gold-coated pills and “gold waters” were extremely popular. Alchemists mixed powdered gold into drinks to "comfort sore limbs," and today, it is widely used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. In the 1900s, surgeons implanted a $5.00 gold piece under the skin near an inflamed joint, such as a knee or elbow. In China, peasants still cook their rice with a gold coin in order to help replenish gold in their bodies, and fancy Chinese restaurants put 24-karat gold-leaf in their food preparations.The alchemists believed that gold represented the perfection of matter, and that its presence in the body would enliven, rejuvenate, and cure a multitude of “dis-eases.” Gold is never corrodes or even tarnishes, is completely non-toxic, and exhibits no interactions with other drugs. Gold is the only heavy metal that has a right-hand atomic spin and is therefore easily tolerated by the body.The alchemists believed that gold represented the perfection of matter, and that its presence in the body would enliven, rejuvenate, and cure a multitude of “dis-eases.” Gold is never corrodes or even tarnishes, is completely non-toxic, and exhibits no interactions with other drugs. Gold is the only heavy metal that has a right-hand atomic spin and is therefore easily tolerated by the body.Sun-ruled plants affect the soul in its positive phase of manifestation, which manifests on the personal level as our idea of ourselves as a progressive unified entity. Solar herbs help us realize our evolutionary epoch as an individual among many other individuals, helping to synthesize and synchronize our goals with those of the macrocosm. In this sense they are ego fortifiers, but with a divine purpose.Solar herbs heal inferiority complexes, bolstering people and giving them a sense of purpose beyond the norm. The Sun represents the Christ and Osiris consciousness in man, as well as Hercules in his monumental strength. For those with weaker wills, Sun ruled herbs will provide the springboard for more posi-tive action; they also bestow the quality of generosity to our souls. Solar plants, when alchemically charged, will reveal the divine purpose of our solar system, and will let you be-come aware of the will of God in manifestation. Solar essences give great ambition.
60026 Helvellyn is at the head of 6N84 04.50 Tyne Coal Terminal - Lynemouth Power Station loaded biomass, pictured approaching Bedlington on the line from Morpeth. 66712 Peterborough Power Signalbox is on the rear, and will lead the train after its reversal south of Bedlington. [Pole, 3/6 sections (~4m)]
This was my main reason for spending a few days in the north-east. Lynemouth biomass trains were being diverted via Morpeth while work to prepare their normal route south of Bedlington for the reintroduction of passenger services was being completed. The line between Bedlington and Morpeth normally sees very little traffic, essentially only the alumina trains between North Blyth and Fort William, which run two or three times each week, and at times which make them very difficult to photograph on the line. I'd seen a heavily backlit shot of the empties along this stretch, taken a few years ago late one summer evening, and realised that the light angle would be perfect early in the morning... The diverted biomass trains looked like they would provide the perfect opportunity to do the shot, especially after driving along here when I visited in April. The line runs almost east-west at this point.
But the first biomass train was booked to arrive at Bedlington at around 6am - and back in April, that was just before sunrise. The empties going back (with a loco on the rear, of course) and the next loaded train (if it ran) would be over four hours later, by which time the sun would be almost exactly in line with the track. My only hope was that there would be some good weather during May half term week (when it would be light enough at 6am), and that this train ran.
But the weather during half term was poor, and I stayed at home. However, a few weeks later (closer to the summer solstice - so a slightly earlier sunrise) there was a sunny week forecast, so I took a week off work. Unfortunately, I wasn't free to drive up until Monday and, typically, the forecast changed so that Monday was wall-to-wall sun but Tuesday and Wednesday mornings were to be thick cloud (Wednesday was also misty), and Thursday and Friday were "sun and cloud". Early Saturday morning was initially looking very good (that subsequently changed to full cloud), but there were no trains running - I assume there was an engineering possession. In the end I drove up on Wednesday (having spent much of Monday ill in bed!) - although that meant I was around at home when GBRf's Colas-liveried 60096 was hired to DCR and worked to and from Brandon (getting three shots of it on Tuesday's empties).
Then the news came through of a serious warehouse fire at the Port of Tyne, which had started on Wednesday afternoon, and it looked like there would be no trains to Lynemouth on Thursday - and there weren't (although the train which had spent the night there did eventually make it back to Tyne Dock - see this photo). But it was looking good for Friday's trains - one set of wagons only, so just two return trips rather than the four for which schedules existed - with 6N84 having been "called" (activated) and with locos showing before I went to bed the previous evening. The alarm was set for 4.15am.
Bedlington is about half an hour's drive from my mother's house (as long as there are no traffic queues at the Tyne Tunnel), so I was here in plenty of time, although the train had set off before I did. But as I drove along Barrington Road, I began to wonder if it had all been in vain: I'd not accounted for the low sun still being behind some tall trees on the north side of the road - and where I'd planned to shoot the train, a stretch completely clear of lineside vegetation and with the railway only a few feet higher than the road, was still in shadow. There was also a lot of cloud around, and it was difficult to see whether the sun would rise enough in the short time to at least light the train, but it looked very unlikely. Luckily I found a spot further along that was shadow-free, but the difference in levels between the road and railway was greater and, more significantly, a few low bushes partly blocked the view of the train; the shot wouldn't be anything like as good.
So I set up here to make the best of the situation. The original plan to use a slight telephoto lens went out of the window because the gap between the bushes was so short, and I needed to stand closer to make the most of the gap. There was also the added complication that the lower road meant I needed to use the pole, but it was a very windy morning... I just about managed to hold it steady at this height, but I've had to combine two frames in order to restore the top of the lamppost to the shot where the loco was in the best position. The sun had been out when I arrived, but had soon dropped back behind some thin cloud, although there was another gap on the way - but probably not soon enough, so I was resigned to getting a dull shot. However, miraculously, as the train came into view - six minutes early (so just before 6am), there was a brighter burst, with some weak shadows; I clung onto the pole to try my best to keep it steady, pressed the shutter, and hoped for the best!
I was amazed how well it has come out, especially given the aperture is larger than I usually like to use. When the images were viewed on the back of the camera, the train leapt out (probably helped by the dark sky), and I drove off happy. In processing, I've increased the brightness slightly and used the haze reduction function a little, albeit less than I sometimes do on sunny pictures.
Bedlington railway station was built slightly to the east of Bedlington, and, as has happened in many places, a new settlement grew up around the station - so this area is officially known as Bedlington Station, although both Bedlington and Bedlington Station have expanded to become a single built-up area. Barrington Industrial Estate (as on the road sign) was built on the site of Barrington Colliery, established in 1821 on land leased from Lord Barrington, and closed in 1948. All the "Barrington" references in the area are about the one-time local landowner - but it made me smile as I'd started this week photographing the spoil empties from the landfill site that was once Barrington Cement Works close to the Cambridgeshire village of Barrington!
I ended my day of photography, over fourteen and a half hours later, stood further down this road and looking the other way...
Visit Brian Carter's Non-Transport Pics to see my photos of landscapes, buildings, bridges, sunsets, rainbows and more.
Let the morning rise, it is time for a new day.
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Madis Sarglepp All Rights Reserved
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Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.
Primo Levi
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Il existe des liens que le temps ne peut éroder, des âmes qui se reconnaissent au premier regard et se promettent, sans un mot, de ne jamais se lâcher. Louna et Dmi faisaient partie de ces âmes-là.
Depuis toujours, ils avançaient côte à côte, inséparables face aux tempêtes de la vie. Ils connaissaient les failles et les forces de l’autre, les silences lourds et les éclats de rire sincères. Là où l’un tombait, l’autre tendait la main. Là où l’un doutait, l’autre soufflait des mots d’espoir.
Le monde autour d’eux changeait, les saisons défilaient, les épreuves s’enchaînaient. Mais jamais ils ne faiblissaient. On tenta de les éloigner, de briser leur confiance, de semer la discorde entre eux. En vain. Leur amitié n’était pas une simple promesse lancée à la légère, mais une certitude gravée dans leur cœur.
Ils savaient que quoi qu’il arrive, où qu’ils aillent, ils se retrouveraient toujours.
Car une amitié véritable ne tremble pas sous les doutes, ne s’efface pas avec la distance, ne disparaît pas avec le temps.
Elle demeure.
Indestructible.
Inébranlable.
Built May 1879 at Cardiff TVR West Yard Works
Withdrawn by GWR as loco 450 in Oct 1926
Sold to Longmoor Military Railway and named "Gordon" number WD285.
Sold in 1947 to National Coal Board South Hetton County Durham
Presented in 1962 to British Railways (Western) and sent to Caerphilly works (see photo).
Last loco to be overhauled at Caerphilly before closure in 1963 back to TVR Black livery as no.28.
Stored at Swindon and Stratford.
Custody given to the National Museum of Wales on behalf of the National Rail Museum
Returned to Caerphilly in July 1967 and ran on the short Caerphilly Rail Soc site.
May 1983 saw Taff Vale engine number 28 returned to steam at Caerphilly. In 1991 it was taken to Cathays Depot, Cardiff for display during the Taff Vale 150 celebrations there. Unfortunately, after this event, lack of funds prevented the Society returning this magnificent loco back to steam and it was placed in store at Caerphilly.
After the demise of the Caerphilly venture in 1996 due to constant vandalism No 28 was moved in May 1996 and dismanted on the Dean Forest Railway apparently for assessment and restoration for a return to steam by 2000. However the necessary repairs were going to be expensive.
Now its still dismanted 13 years on with some parts at Llangollen scattered in bushes.
National Welsh heritage scandal, come on National Museum of Wales / NRM at least put it back together on display.
2014 all the bits finally put back together and put on display as a non steamer at the Gwilli Railway in West Wales.
[Ref : The last survivor, National Museum of Wales, 1990]
Não existe fórmula única para o sucesso, pois há diversos caminhos para se chegar lá. Você já deve ter ouvido isso diversas vezes, mas sempre vale a pena lembrar: há mais pessoas que desistem do que pessoas que fracassam.
Se você desistir, restará sempre a dúvida do "se". Nem sempre é possível conseguir da primeira vez, e isso não representa motivos para a desistência pura e simples.
Só erra quem tenta e a melhor forma de aprendizado é por meio da análise e entendimento dos próprios erros. Aprendemos muito mais com os erros do que com os acertos, mesmo porque sempre quando acertamos tocamos em frente e não damos conta do caminho que utilizamos para conseguir acertar.
Lembre-se de que quem bate esquece, quem apanha não esquece jamais, e vai sempre se lembrar do tombo ou da surra que levou e, principalmente, recordar-se-á da forma, dos atores e demais condicionantes do cenário em que o erro aconteceu.
Os alpinistas quando escalam uma montanha, os exploradores quando entram em uma caverna e os navegantes de mares abertos sempre registram o caminho trilhado para saber o que terão de fazer na viagem de retorno, ou para empreenderem uma nova viagem.
O mesmo se aplica em nossas vidas. É importante conhecer o caminho do sucesso e registrá-lo para repeti-lo novamente.
Boa sorte na conquista de sua liberdade!
Texto: Luiz Roberto Carnier. Adaptação do livro: "Marketing Silencioso - Quando a Propaganda Não é a Alma do Negócio".
Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland.
Konstanz es una ciudad alemana del estado federado de Baden-Wurtemberg ubicada en la orilla sur del lago de Constanza (Bodensee en alemán) y fronteriza con Suiza. Es la ciudad más grande y de mayor densidad poblacional de este gran lago, el más extenso de Alemania, alimentado por el río Rin y que comparte con dos países más: Suiza y Austria. La ciudad de Constanza forma un solo casco urbano real junto con la localidad suiza de Kreuzlingen, sobrepasando entre ambas los 100.000 habitantes.
Hay un puente que divide la ciudad en dos zonas, bajo el cual el Rin alimenta el lago de Constanza.
A pesar de ser una ciudad pequeña, su climatología la convierte en destino turístico e incrementa notablemente sus habitantes estacionales.
El casco antiguo y, por lo tanto, lugar de máximo interés de la ciudad se encuentra en la orilla sur del Rin, donde sólo existe esta porción de tierra alemana rodeada por territorio suizo. Desde el mismo puente sobre el Rin (Rheinbrücke) que accede al casco antiguo desde el norte de la ciudad, se observan dos de los monumentos más característicos de la ciudad: las torres de Pulverturm y Rheintorturm, de origen medieval.
Más hacia el centro de la ciudad antigua destacan las plazas más importantes, la Markstätte y la Münsterplatz, donde, como indica su nombre, se halla la catedral de Nuestra Señora. Dentro de la misma es destacable la cripta románica primigenia, construida entre los años 1052 y 1089 y situada bajo el altar actual. En los meses de verano, la torre de 76 metros del edificio está abierta al público y permite unas espléndidas vistas del lago. Como cabe esperar en todo edificio europeo de estas características, el edificio románico original tiene importantes elementos y modificaciones góticas y barrocas posteriores.
También en la Münsterplatz se encuentran los restos de una fortaleza romana, los cuales son perfectamente visibles por medio de una pirámide acristalada en el suelo de la plaza, a los pies mismos de la catedral.
La puerta "Schnetztor" desde el interior de la muralla de Constanza.
Numerosas calles del centro histórico de la ciudad, como la Wessenbergstrasse o la Rosgartenstrasse, poseen gran cantidad de edificios medievales con bonitos balcones y pinturas en las que se puede leer la fecha de su construcción, nombre o gremio. Muchas de ellas son anteriores al siglo XV y entre las posteriores destacan también interesantes edificios barrocos.
La Wessenbergstrasse, una de las arterias principales del casco antiguo de la ciudad, desemboca en la Hussenstrasse y esta a su vez en la torre Schnetztor, puerta principal de la muralla antigua de la ciudad, parte de la cual todavía se conserva, y salida directa hacia la ciudad de Kreuzlingen, ya en Suiza, pero completamente integrada con Constanza, con la que forma un mismo núcleo urbano.
Konstanz is a German city in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg located on the southern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee in German) and bordering Switzerland. It is the largest and most densely populated city of this great lake, the largest in Germany, fed by the Rhine River and shared with two other countries: Switzerland and Austria. The city of Constanza forms a single real urban area together with the Swiss town of Kreuzlingen, surpassing both 100,000 inhabitants.
There is a bridge that divides the city into two zones, under which the Rhine feeds Lake Constance.
In spite of being a small city, its climatology turns it into a tourist destination and it increases remarkably its seasonal inhabitants.
The old town and, therefore, place of maximum interest of the city is on the southern bank of the Rhine, where only this portion of German land surrounded by Swiss territory exists. From the same bridge over the Rhine (Rheinbrücke) that accesses the old town from the north of the city, there are two of the most characteristic monuments of the city: the Pulverturm and Rheintorturm towers, of medieval origin.
More towards the center of the old city, the most important squares stand out, the Markstätte and the Münsterplatz, where, as its name indicates, there is the Cathedral of Our Lady. Inside it is remarkable the original Romanesque crypt, built between 1052 and 1089 and located under the current altar. In the summer months, the 76-meter tower of the building is open to the public and allows a splendid view of the lake. As expected in any European building of these characteristics, the original Romanesque building has important elements and subsequent Gothic and Baroque modifications.
Also on the Münsterplatz are the remains of a Roman fortress, which are perfectly visible by means of a glass pyramid on the floor of the square, at the very foot of the cathedral.
The "Schnetztor" door from inside the wall of Constance.
Numerous streets in the historic center of the city, such as the Wessenbergstrasse or the Rosgartenstrasse, have a large number of medieval buildings with beautiful balconies and paintings in which you can read the date of its construction, name or guild. Many of them date from before the 15th century and interesting baroque buildings also stand out among the later ones.
The Wessenbergstrasse, one of the main arteries of the old part of the city, flows into the Hussenstrasse and this in turn into the Schnetztor tower, the main gate of the old city wall, part of which is still preserved, and direct exit towards the city of Kreuzlingen, already in Switzerland, but completely integrated with Constance, with which it forms the same urban nucleus.
Vittoria -Angelicata di tutincommon
flickr.com/photos/10647023@N04/3114602286/in/photostream/
Se cliccate sul codice di collegamento qui sopra potrete postare il commento all'esecutore di questa opera che non e' mia !!!!!!! Ma di Tutincommon che mi ha tanto gentilmente dedicato , con voi condivido la grande gioia della visualizzazione, a lui va pero' ogni merito e lode, oltre al mio ringraziamento per il tempo che mi dedica e la maestria con cui lavora !!!!!! ..
The old British Transport Commission (that existed from 1948 until 1962) - and of which British Transport Catering was a subsidiary - had very high standards of graphic design and typography as this menu card and wine list cover shows. I suspect that the artwork is by Eric Fraser (although it is unusual for them not to show "EF" I will admit) as he undertook others in this series of 'named train' cards. The design is based around the mythical 'Liver Bird".
The "Merseyside Express" not surpringly ran between London Euston and Liverpool and is the shortened name for the "London - Merseyside Express" that had been introduced by the pre-nationalisation London Midland & Scottish Railway in 1927 although an earlier version, the name conferred on the 1730 ex-Euston, was introduced by the LNWR in 1905.
Dinner - quite an event - was prices at 12/- (12 shillings - about 60p in decimal coinage).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOYBifKHVcA
Símbolo da Páscoa - porquê o
coelho?
A tradição do Coelhinho da Páscoa foi levada para a América pelos imigrantes alemães, entre o final do século XVII e o início do século XVIII.
No Antigo Egito, o coelho simbolizava o nascimento e a nova vida. Além disso, alguns povos da Antiguidade consideravam o coelho como o símbolo da Lua, portanto é possível que ele se tenha tornado um símbolo pascal, devido ao fato de a Lua determinar a data da Páscoa.
O certo é que os coelhos são notáveis pela sua capacidade de reprodução e geram grandes ninhadas, e a Páscoa marca a ressurreição e a vida nova.
Existe também a lenda de que uma mulher pobre coloriu alguns ovos de galinha e escondeu-os para dá-los aos filhos como presente de Páscoa. Quando as crianças descobriram os ovos, um coelho passava pelo local e espalhou-se, então, a história de que o coelho é que tinha trazido os ovos.
FELIZ PÁSCOA A TODOS!!
So, I was searching for quotes about love because of the graffiti on the wall behind me, and I came across this one below. I read it again, as I have before and the truth of so many of the things he said struck a cord with me. The thing is that Bob Marley said "only once in your life" this happens. I really hope he's wrong about that and that I'm lucky to have this kind of love in my life again.
I hope you're having a great weekend!! Mine is full, full, full and all photography-related, so that's fun!! I had a senior session this morning that went really well and I'm off shortly to go do head shots at my brother's lodge tonight. And tomorrow I'll be assisting on a fashion shoot with my friend, Pete.
“Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that you've never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face. In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation, but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”
~ Bob Marley
Multiple-exposure taken from outside the fence at Hershey Park the other night. If this coaster existed, I'd ride it.
Camera: Holga
“Fictitious capital” is a term for the kind of wealth that exists on paper but which is susceptible to simply disappearing when there is a market failure. If you sell it or invest it in something actually productive, well, you’re doing well. But if you hold it until the market fails – and markets always fail, eventually – all that “wealth” you had simply goes away. It had no real productive value when left unused.
So too with a pumpkin, taken in from the doorstep after Hallowe’en, and planned by its owners to be put in a soup. A soup that was never produced. Finally, the owner (that was me, by the way) discovered a soft spot and realised the pumpkin wasn’t fit to eat anymore. So he (I) put it on the back doorstep until, uhh, I can get it into the compost pile.
And it has collapsed, like so much fictitious capital.
Mind you, I *will* get it into the compost, and it will be productive. But that’s sort of like saying that you can turn your bankruptcy to some good by writing a memoir of your losses.
“things only exist if they are told/narrated”
(attributed to Alessandro Baricco);
“le cose esistono solo se vengono raccontate”
(attribuita ad Alessandro Baricco).
POSTER - LOCANDINA –
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This "photographic story" ideally follows the previous one, for two reasons, first because in this case too, as in the previous story we talk about "angels", they are the "Golden Angels" of San Pier Niceto (in the province of Messina), and second, because this singular and beautiful religious festival, with its procession, also takes place during the Easter period, specifically during "Holy Tuesday". The photographs that I post (not a few, I wish in this way to pay homage to the inhabitants of San Pier Niceto, who can find themselves in these photos, especially for those fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts and uncles, in seeing their beloved and very sweet "angels - angiolette"); if you look closely at some of the photographed subjects, you will notice a "temporal disconnect", in fact in some cases, the same girls are present, with two different ages, they will be dressed differently, this is because the photos were taken during Holy Tuesday of 2024 and that of 2025. The temporal sequence of the photographs does not take into account either the year in which they were taken, nor the moments attributable to the phases of the ceremony and subsequent procession.
In San Pier Niceto, on the Peloritani Mountains in Sicily, during the Holy Tuesday takes place the SS. Crucifix procession, whose roots are ancient. The Church of St. James houses and cares for the precious Crucifix, Which is brought to the procession by the streets of the country preceded by very young children, of both sexes, who imitate little Angels, Angels and Grieving young Nuns, dressed in elaborate dresses covered with many gold jewelery, sewn by handy hands that with pins, necklaces , Bracelets and many other gold jewelry applied to their little clothes, they make real works of art whose designs are reminiscent of Easter symbols. Gold for dressing is collected home from home by people who have to melt a "vote", gold that will be returned at the end of the procession. Everything begins during Lent when parents decide to dress their baby by little Angels, Angels or Grieving Nuns .The Little Angels are usually 3 or 4 year olds, the Angels are a little bigger, the Nuns are little young girls. Thus the preparations for the elaboration of the elaborate clothes begin: Parents during Lent are knocking at every door of the country, among friends and relatives, to borrow bracelets, brooches, necklaces and all the gold necessary for the composition of embroidery . The Little Angel's dress is white, short down to the knee, made up of a gold-plated bodice and a skirt with some golden embroidery; Arms are adorned by bracelets, the head is adorned by a collier, small wings (white dove feathers) sprout from behind. The Angels have a white tunic, on which sacred icons are embroidered in gold, the head is covered by a collier, wings lie on their shoulders. The Nun's dress is black, on which are stitched the crowns of the S.S. Rosary, on the head is placed a white veil, held by a rose crown. At 16:30 on Holy Tuesday, a tapping of bells together with the band's fanfare in the village, set off at the "Crucifixion Procession" of San Pier Niceto: at the foot of the Crucifix there are red roses, behind it are located branches of cypress (at the end of the event the faithful will carry with them a piece of cypress as a relic), finally the red ribbons are tied to the arms of the Crucifix, they will mark the procession of the procession until the arrival at the Mother Church, a century church to St. Peter the Apostle, where the celebration of the Holy Mass will take place (the reverse path will bring the SS Crucifix to the Church of St. James): in perfect order the faithful in religious silence, with votive candles in their hands, walk the streets of the country never crossing the red ribbons as they delimit the path of the Golden Little Angels, Angels and the Grieving young Nuns .
Questo "racconto fotografico" segue idealmente il precedente, per due motivi, innanzitutto perchè anche in questo caso, come nel racconto precedente si parla di "angeli", sono "gli Angioletti d'oro" di San Pier Niceto (in provincia di Messina), e secondo, perchè questa singolare e bella festa religiosa, con la sua processione, si svolge anch'essa durante il periodo pasquale, nello specifico durante il "Martedì Santo". Le fotografie che posto (non poche, desidero in tal modo omaggiare gli abitanti di San Pier Niceto, che possano ritrovarsi in queste foto, soprattutto per quei papà, mamme, nonni, nonne, zie e zii, nel rivedere i loro adorati e dolcissimi "angioletti - angiolette"); a ben guardare in alcuni dei soggetti fotografati, si noterà uno "scollamento temportale", infatti in qualche caso, sono presenti le stessi bimbe, con due età diverse, saranno vestite diversamente, questo perchè le foto sono state realizzate durante il Martedì Santo del 2024 e quello del 2025. La sequenza temporale delle fotografie non tiene conto nè dell'anno nel quale sono state realizzate, nè dei momenti ascrivibili alle fasi della cerimonia e successiva processione.
A San Pier Niceto, sui monti Peloritani in Sicilia, durante il Martedì Santo prende vita la processione per le vie del paese del SS. Crocifisso, le cui radici sono antichissime. La Chiesa di San Giacomo ospita e custodisce il pregevole Crocifisso, che viene portato in processione per le vie del paese preceduto da bambini anche molto piccoli, di entrambi i sessi, che impersonano Angioletti ed Addoloratine vestiti con elaboratissimi abiti ricoperti con tantissimi monili d’oro, cuciti dalle mani abili di sarte che con spille, collane, bracciali e tanti altri monili in oro applicati sui loro piccoli vestiti, realizzano vere opere d’arte i cui disegni ricordano simboli pasquali. L’oro per la realizzazione dei vestitini viene raccolto di casa in casa da persone che hanno da sciogliere un “voto”, oro che verrà restituito alla fine della processione. Tutto ha inizio durante la Quaresima, quando dei genitori decidono per “voto” di vestire il proprio bambino da Angioletto, Angiolone o Monachella.
Gli Angioletti sono solitamente bimbi di 3 o 4 anni, gli Angioloni sono un po’ più grandi, le Monachelle sono delle bambine. Così iniziano i preparativi per la realizzazione degli elaboratissimi vestiti: i genitori durante la Quaresima bussano ad ogni porta del paese, tra la cerchia di amici e parenti, per prendere in prestito bracciali, spille, collane e tutto l’oro necessario alla composizione dei ricami. Il vestito degli Angioletti è bianco, corto fino al ginocchio, composto da un corpetto ricoperto d’oro ed una gonna segnata da alcuni ricami d’oro; le braccia sono adornate da bracciali, la testa è adornata da un collier, da dietro le spalle spuntano delle piccole ali (piume di colomba bianca). Gli Angioloni hanno una tunica bianca sulla quale vengono ricamate delle icone sacre in oro, la testa è cinta da un collier, sulle spalle trovano posto delle ali. Il vestito delle Monachelle invece è nero, sul quale vengono cucite delle coroncine del S.S. Rosario, sul capo viene posto un velo bianco, trattenuto da una corona di rose. Alle 16:30 del Martedì Santo un rintocco di campane insieme alla fanfare della banda del paese, danno il via alla “Processione del Crocifisso” di San Pier Niceto: ai piedi della Croce vi sono delle rose rosse, dietro di essa trovano posto dei rami di cipresso (alla fine dell’evento i fedeli porteranno con se un pezzetto di rametto come reliquia), infine dei nastri rossi vengono legati alle braccia del Crocifisso, essi segneranno il percorso della processione, fino all’arrivo al Duomo, una chiesa cinquecentesca dedicata a San Pietro apostolo, ove si terrà la celebrazione della Santa Messa ( il percorso inverso riporterà il S.S. Crocifisso nella Chiesa di San Giacomo): in perfetto ordine i fedeli in religioso silenzio, con ceri votivi in mano, percorrono le vie del paese, non oltrepassando i nastri rossi poiché essi delimitano il percorso degli Angioletti d’oro e delle Addoloratine.
On Friday 24 March, hundreds gathered in central London to protest the rolling out of a red carpet at Number 10 Downing Street for Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
يوم الجمعة 24 مارس 2023 ، تجمع المئات في وسط لندن للاحتجاج على طرح السجادة الحمراء في رقم 10 داونينج ستريت لرئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو
ביום שישי ה-24 במרץ 2023, מאות התאספו במרכז לונדון במחאה על פריצת השטיח האדום ברחוב דאונינג מספר 10 עבור ראש ממשלת ישראל, בנימין נתניהו
Israeli liberals, angry at Netanyahu's attempt to crush the independence of the judiciary and protect himself from a corruption indictment, joined Palestinian and other activists infuriated by 56 years of Apartheid, since Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967.
Netanyahu is still on trial for corruption in three separate cases. In 2019 he had already been officially indicted for breach of trust, accepting bribes and fraud, and, as a consequence, he lost the support of his coalition partners in parliament. However, last November, he returned to power in coalition with the ultra-orthodox and ultra nationalist factions, forming what almost commentators agree is the most right wing government Israel has witnessed since its independence in 1948.
Israel has been rocked by massive protests and strikes ever since Netanyahu's justice minister, Yariv Levin, revealed the government's plan to overhaul the country's justice system in January. Activists pointed out that its intent was clear. To weaken judicial independence and to shield Netanyahu from corruption charges.
Resistance to the government's proposals escalated even further two days after this photograph was taken when Netanyahu returned to Israel and fired his defence minister, Yoav Gallant. Within an hour tens of thousands had taken to the streets in central Jerusalem and also surrounded Netanyahu's home.
Returning to Friday morning in London when this photo was taken, protesters waiting peacefully on the pavement opposite 10 Downing Street were doubtless surprised at the huge number of police, including dogs, deployed on Whitehall. Later, and despite heavy rain, around a hundred protesters made their way to the Savoy Hotel where Netanyahu was rumoured to be staying, where the police presence was far more low key.
Many activists carried placards such as "democracy and occupation cannot coexist" and "Free Palestine = Free Israel." They pointed out that Palestinians live in what both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have concluded is an Apartheid state, many without any access to clean water or electricity, many fearing the demolition of their homes and others the detention for lengthy periods of their relatives and children for protesting the continuing occupation. Meanwhile, Britain's ongoing military and diplomatic support for Israel make us complicit in the continued oppression of the Palestinian people.