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Activities include group guided tours, archaeological digs available in July for anyone to explore this ancient village. War broke out on August 14, 1858 between inhabitants of the Fraser Canyon and miner militias of the American West. Bookings for Corporate Retreat available. Group sweats, teepee camping, earth ovens, storytelling session, private meeting space, obstacle course training etc. Use the teepees for team building exercises and visioning or planning sessions as well. [Photo by Ray Van Eng. www.vancouver21.com ]
Every year Tewkesbury hosts Europe’s largest medieval festival which includes the re-enactment of the battle. We attended on the Saturday in July 2011, with mixed weather but some very fine displays. The battle of Tewkesbury took place on May 4th 1471 between the royal houses of York, The White Rose, and Lancaster, The Red Rose. It started because Henry VI was considered insane and the country was without a strong leader. Edward of York, the most able leader left, was declared King in 1461. He had Henry locked in the tower of London and his wife Margaret of Anjou fled to France with their son also called Edward. When he reached 18 she decided to return to England and re-claim the throne for him. She landed at Weymouth on April 14, 1471, and set off for Wales, where Jasper Tudor awaited with re-enforcements for her army. Gathering supporters as they went, they headed for Gloucester to cross the Severn, only to find the city locked against them, by King Edward's orders. They headed for the next crossing point, Tewkesbury, but found that Edward's army was so close behind they had to stand and fight, rather than cross. Exhausted and outnumbered battle ensued but they were easily defeated, and so many of them were killed trying to get to the river that the field they ran through is still known today as Bloody Meadow. Margaret fled the scene with some of her ladies and was later found in a priory at Little Malvern. Prince Edward was killed either during the battle or just afterwards and he is interned in Tewkesbury Abbey. A brass plaque in the choir marks his last resting place, directly beneath a ceiling boss depicting the Yorkist badge.
This is a Lundby classic. It includes a combined sink/towel rack, toilet, bathroom, shower and wall cupboard. I think this set came in 1973, but the shower was introduced one year later. It has the following parts:
* Single sink with towel rack
* Toilet
* Wall cupboard with mirror (not in picture)
* Shower
* Bathtub
♥ Design Inspiration ♥: This necklace includes a classical heart-formed design with gold-plated ties attached to the top, representing the closeness between enthusiasts. The glittering zirconia inside keeps dancing just like a heart beating for love. The straightforward and smooth curves highlights the good thing about the look. Put on it to achieve good luck for love. ♥ Specs ♥: 925 Silver Chain: 17+2 “Or45+5cm (could be adjusted to enhance any neckline) Pendant Size: .75 * .55 inch/1.9*1.4cm Internet Weight: .11 oz/3.12g. ♥ Occasion ♥: Perfect gift for mother, wife, girlfriend, daughter, mother in law, aunt, niece, granny, daughter, best
www.inspiredbycreativityjewels.co.uk/product/alex-perry-w...
August 15, 2019- New York City, NY- Governor Andrew Cuomo advances First-In-The-Nation Domestic Terrorism Law to include mass violence motivated hate.
Variable coquina clam trails in Florida, USA. (December 2012)
Bivalves are bilaterally symmetrical molluscs having two calcareous, asymmetrical shells (valves) - they include the clams, oysters, and scallops. In most bivalves, the two shells are mirror images of each other (the major exception is the oysters). They occur in marine, estuarine, and freshwater environments. Bivalves are also known as pelecypods and lamellibranchiates.
Bivalves are sessile, benthic organisms - they occur on or below substrates. Most of them are filter-feeders, using siphons to bring in water, filter the water for tiny particles of food, then expel the used water. The majority of bivalves are infaunal - they burrow into unlithified sediments. In hard substrate environments, some forms make borings, in which the bivalve lives. Some groups are hard substrate encrusters, using a mineral cement to attach to rocks, shells, or wood.
The fossil record of bivalves is Cambrian to Recent. They are especially common in the post-Paleozoic fossil record.
Shown above are numerous winding trails in a supratidal sandy marine shoreline environment. Prima facie, these were suspected to be worm trails, but they were actually made by variable coquina clams, Donax variabilis. This clam species has a smooth, small, Tellina-like shell that varies considerably in color (hence the species name). It is common in shallow marine sandy environments, ranging from the intertidal zone to moderately shallow subtidal settings. The individuals that made these trails were in the supratidal part of a sandy marine shoreline. They likely reached this area during a then-recent storm, which usually results in a temporarily high sea level (storm surge). After the storm, the clams found themselves in a non-permanently wet or moist environment and made trails in search of water before dying.
Variable coquina clams can be abundant in intertidal zone sandy beach environments of southwestern Florida. When the sand is disturbed (pick up a couple handfuls in the swash zone and place it back down), many Donax are often visible - they immediately burrow back down into the sediments.
Classification: Animalia, Mollusca, Bivalvia, Heterodonta, Veneroida, Donacidae
Locality: supratidal zone of marine beach near the southern end of the western shoreline of Cayo Costa Island, Gulf of Mexico coast of southwestern Florida, USA (vicinity of 26° 36' 51.30" North latitude, 82° 13' 24.39" West longitude)
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More info. at:
The Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP) currently includes almost 100 Issuing Banks in the EBRD region and more than 800 Confirming Banks worldwide. The event gave EBRD confirming and issuing banks the opportunity to review and discuss industry challenges and opportunities with leading specialists, including International Chamber of Commerce and Chief Economist Office. It also featured 25th anniversary award ceremony which will recognize most active banks in EBRD Countries of Operations.
14:30 – 14:45 Opening and Welcome Speeches
• Alexander Saveliev, Director, Financial Institutions, EBRD
• Rudolf Putz, Head of Trade Facilitation Programme, EBRD
14:50 – 15:30 Panel Discussion: Development of Trade & Trade Finance - SEMED
Moderator: Kamola Makhmudova, Senior Banker, EBRD
• Alexander Plekhanov, Office of the Chief Economist, EBRD
• Hanane El Boury, Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP), the Kingdom of Morocco
• Ahmed Benyahya, BMCE Bank, the Kingdom of Morocco
• Hossam Mustafa Rageh, Commercial International Bank (CIB), the Arab Republic of Egypt
• Anas AlMasri, Bank Al Etihad, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 15:30 –
15:50 – 16:30 Panel Discussion: EBRD’s new Partner Banks
Moderator: Marco Nindl, Principal Banker, EBRD
• Sally Hamdalla, QNB Alahli, the Arab Republic of Egypt
• Malliotis Achilleas, Eurobank Cyprus, Republic of Cyprus
• Vladislav Berezhny, Credit Agricole Bank, Ukraine
• Ahu Heper Dolu, Fibabanka, Republic of Turkey
• Andrew Wood, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, the United Kingdom
16:35 – 17:15 Panel Discussion: Trade Finance Solutions for Imports of Energy Efficient Machinery & Equipment – Gaps and Constraints
Moderator: Terry McCallion, Director, Energy Efficiency and Climate Change, EBRD
• Sergiy Kostogryz, Raiffeisen Bank Aval, Ukraine
• Gagik Sahakyan, Ameriabank, Armenia
• Maria Mogilnaya, Associate Banker, EBRD
• Holger Kautzky, Commerzbank
• Eugenia Zhiglova, KBC Bank
17:35 – 18:10 TFP Annual Awards Ceremony
Hosted by Nick Tesseyman, Managing Director, Financial Institutions, EBRD
Congratulations from Ambassador Chih-Kung Liu, Head of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK
A Ferrari 250 GTO/64 during Friday's running at the Goodwood Revival - such a shame it had a accident during Saturday's running.
The Test House provides UKAS-accredited testing services to industry. Our comprehensive, professional service includes mechanical testing, non-destructive testing, failure analysis/metallurgy and specimen manufacture.
We have 25 years’ experience of conducting independent, confidential tests on metals to national and international standards.
Testing is carried out by a multidisciplinary team of experts using state-of-the-art technologies, either on-site or in the custom-built facility we moved into in 2015.
In addition to testing and results analysis, The Test House offers consultancy and advice services, including weld procedure and welder qualification approvals, standards interpretation and dispute resolution.
Our short lead times, competitive pricing and ability to respond flexibly to our clients’ needs have earned us a reputation for responsiveness, reliability and value for money.
The Test House provides UKAS-accredited testing services to industry. Our comprehensive, professional service includes mechanical testing, non-destructive testing, failure analysis/metallurgy and specimen manufacture. We have 25 years’ experience of conducting independent, confidential tests on metals to national and international standards. Testing is carried out by a multidisciplinary team of experts using state-of-the-art technologies, either on-site or in the custom-built facility we moved into in 2015. In addition to testing and results analysis, The Test House offers consultancy and advice services, including weld procedure and welder qualification approvals, standards interpretation and dispute resolution. Our short lead times, competitive pricing and ability to respond flexibly to our clients’ needs have earned us a reputation for responsiveness, reliability and value for money.
For more information www.thetesthouse.co.uk/
If you wish to use this image each use should be accompanied by the credit line and notice, "Courtesy of TWI Ltd".
From Today's Super Car Sunday Breakfast Club gathering at Goodwood. Strangely warm and sunny today - almost ice cream weather. Well if you have the money for one of these, then a bit more for a fancy number plate isn't going to be a problem
www.flickr.com/photos/22310427@N08/collections/7215762620...
Washington Park is a public urban park in Portland, Oregon, USA. It includes a zoo, forestry museum, arboretum, children's museum, rose garden, Japanese garden, amphitheatre, memorials, archery range, tennis courts, soccer field, picnic areas, playgrounds, public art and many acres of wild forest with miles of trails. Washington Park covers more than 410 acres (166 hectares) on mostly steep, wooded hillsides which range in elevation from 200 feet (61 m) at 24th & W Burnside to 870 feet (265 m) at SW Fairview Blvd. It comprises 159.7 acres (64.63 hectares) of city park land that has been officially designated as "Washington Park" by the City of Portland,[1] as well as the adjacent 64 acre Oregon Zoo and the 187 acre Hoyt Arboretum, which together make up the area described as "Washington Park" on signs and maps.[2]
Contents
1 History
2 Notable features
2.1 Statues and fountains
3 Public access
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
History
Garden near north entrance
A blossoming tree at night in Washington park.
The City of Portland purchased the original 40.78 acres (16.5 hectares) in 1871 from Amos King for $32,624, a controversially high price for the time.[3][4] The area, designated "City Park", was wilderness with few roads. Thick brush, trees and roaming cougar discouraged access. In the mid-1880s, Charles M. Meyers was hired as park keeper. A former seaman without landscape training, he transformed the park by drawing on memories of his native Germany and European parks. By 1900, there were roads, trails, landscaped areas with lawns, manicured hedges, flower gardens, and a zoo. Cable cars were added in 1890 and operated until the 1930s.
In 1903, John Charles Olmsted of Olmsted Brothers, a nationally known landscape architecture firm, recommended several changes to the park including the present name, location of the entrance, separate roads and pedestrian paths, and replacement of formal gardens with native species. The name was officially changed from City Park to Washington Park in 1909.[5]
When the county poor farm closed in 1922, the 160 acres (64.75 hectares) were added to Washington Park.
Portland's zoo was founded in Washington Park in 1887 near where the reservoirs are presently located. It moved in 1925 to what is now the Japanese Garden, and moved again in 1959 to its present location at the park's southern edge. The only surviving structure from the old zoo is the elephant barn, now converted into a picnic shelter and decorated with tile mosaic of various animals and a life-size brick relief sculpture of an elephant and calf.
The City of Portland plans to demolish the existing number 3 and 4 outdoor reservoirs, then replace them with underground reservoirs covered by reflecting pools, due to their age and a federal mandate to cover all reservoirs.[6] The $67 million project has attracted opposition from historical preservationists and residents concerned about construction impacts.[7]
The Rovaniemi Church (Finnish: Rovaniemen kirkko) is a church located in the city center of Rovaniemi in Lapland, Finland. The 850-seat church, designed by architect Bertel Liljequist, was completed in 1950. The earlier church building, completed in 1817, was burnt down by the Nazis during the Lapland War on October 16, 1944.
The specialties of the church include a Christian cross on the roof, which is lit with a red neon light (only visible at night). The choice of color once sparked widespread debate. The color of the cross is red because of its symbolic meaning: "Bloody Cross on top of the Promissory Note." During 2005, Rovaniemi Church was renovated. The most visible change was the renewal of the water cover made copper.
The large altar fresco (14 meters high and 11 meters wide) was made by Professor Lennart Segerstråle in 1951. The work is called Elämän lähde ("The Source of Life").
Rovaniemi is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland, and its southern part Peräpohjola. The city centre is situated about 6 kilometres (4 miles) south of the Arctic Circle and is between the hills of Ounasvaara and Korkalovaara, at the confluence of the river Kemijoki and its tributary, the Ounasjoki. It is the second-largest city of Northern Finland after Oulu, and, together with the capital city Helsinki, it is one of Finland's most significant tourist cities in terms of foreign tourism.
The city and the surrounding Rovaniemen maalaiskunta (Rural municipality of Rovaniemi) were consolidated into a single entity on 1 January 2006. Rovaniemi municipality has an approximate population of 65,000. The urban area of Rovaniemi has a population of 53,361, in an area of about 59 km2 (23 sq mi). Rovaniemi is a unilingual Finnish-speaking municipality and, uncommonly for larger Finnish towns, it is also known by its Finnish name and spelling in the Swedish language.
The coat of arms of Rovaniemi was designed by Toivo Vuorela. Its explanation is "in the green field, a silver pall with light-height upper branches; accompanied by a golden flame in the upper corner". It was approved on 15 August 1956 by the Rovaniemi Rural Municipal Council and confirmed on October 26 at the Ministry of the Interior as the coat of arms of the Rovaniemi Rural Council.
Name
The rova part in the name Rovaniemi has often been considered to be of Saami origin, as roavve in Northern Saami denotes a forested ridge or hill or the site of an old forest fire. The niemi part of the name means "cape". The name of the town in the Saami languages spoken in Finland are Inari Sami: Ruávinjargâ, Northern Sami: Roavenjárga and Roavvenjárga and Skolt Sami: Ruäʹvnjargg.
History
Periodic clearance of new land for agriculture and the practice of slash-and-burn cultivation began around 750–530 BC. Artifacts found in the area suggest that an increasing number of travellers from Karelia in the east, Häme in the south and the Arctic Ocean coast in the north must have come there from 500 AD onwards. The Sami are indigenous to Lapland.
Rovaniemi is first mentioned by name in official documents in 1453, existing as a set of small villages whose inhabitants earned their living mainly in agriculture and animal husbandry—with fishing and hunting the most important offshoots.[citation needed]
The exploitation of Lapland's natural resources in the 1800s boosted Rovaniemi's growth. Extensive logging sites and gold fever attracted thousands of people to Lapland. As the mining of natural resources was increased, Rovaniemi became the business centre of the province of Lapland.
The township decree was promulgated on 27 June 1928, as a result of which Rovaniemi seceded from the old rural municipality as its own market town on 1 January 1929.
Second World War
During the Second World War, Finland signed the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944 and was required to expell forces of its former German ally. In the Lapland War retreating German forces utilised scorched earth tactics, and though initially German General Lothar Rendulic ordered only the public buildings in Rovaniemi to be destroyed, on 13 October 1944, the German army received orders to destroy all the buildings in Rovaniemi, only excluding hospitals and houses where inhabitants were present.
While the German rearguard was going about the destruction, an ammunition train in Rovaniemi station exploded and set fire to the wooden houses of the town. The German troops suffered many casualties, mainly from glass splinters. A Finnish commando unit claimed to have blown up the ammunition train and may well have been the primary cause of the town's ruin. The cause was then unknown and assumed to be the deliberate intent of Rendulic.[citation needed] During these hostilities, 90% of all the buildings in Rovaniemi were destroyed. There is a German cemetery 19 km from Rovaniemi where soldiers killed fighting in Lapland during the war are buried.
Although there has been continuous human settlement in the Rovaniemi area since at least the Stone Age, few of the buildings date back before 1944, since most of the city was destroyed during the Second World War. When the city was rebuilt, it was designed with input by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who planned the city's footprint in the shape of a reindeer's head, with the city roads forming the antlers, and the local sports stadium as the reindeer's eye.
Due to its location near the Arctic Circle, Rovaniemi has a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) with short, pleasant summers, while the winters are long, cold and snowy. The city lies just south of the 0 °C (32 °F) mean annual isotherm, but freezing in the soil is very limited even during the winter due to typical heavy snow cover. Its extreme northerly location combined with frequent overcast skies leads to very low levels of sunshine in the winter months; December averages just under six minutes of sunshine daily.
Winters are somewhat modified by marine air from the North Atlantic Current that ensures average temperatures are less extreme than expected for an inland area at such a northerly latitude. On 26 April 2019, Rovaniemi recorded its warmest April day on record with 19 °C (66 °F).
From 1 to 6 July 2021, Rovaniemi recorded 122 hours of continuous sunshine, which is a new world record. The sun shone continuously from 02:00 on 1 July 2021 to 04:00 on 6 July 2021. The previous record was 112 hours and 10 minutes at Cape Evans, Antarctica, from 16 to 21 November 1911.
The average annual temperature in Rovaniemi is 0.9 °C (33.6 °F). Snow stays on the ground 175 days a year on average. The lowest temperature ever recorded at the airport is −38.1 °C (−37 °F), recorded on 28 January 1999. However, on the same day temperatures as cold as -47.5 C were recorded at nearby weather stations. The highest temperature ever recorded is 32.2 °C (90 °F), recorded on 18 July 2018 at the railway station.
Despite the fact that Rovaniemi experiences polar day between 7 June and 6 July (30 days) it does not experience polar night. However, the sun barely gets above the horizon in the winter.
Demographics
Population
The city of Rovaniemi has 65,285 inhabitants, making it the 17th most populous municipality in Finland. The Rovaniemi region has a population of 68,884. In Rovaniemi, 4.1% of the population has a foreign background, which is below the national average.
Rovaniemi is a monolingual Finnish-speaking municipality. The majority of the population - 61,699 people or 95.6% - speak Finnish as their first language. In Rovaniemi, 137 people, or 0.2% of the population, speak Swedish. The number of Sámi speakers, Finland's third official language, is 143 inhabitants, or 0.3% of the population. 3.9% of the population of Rovaniemi have a mother tongue other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. As English and Swedish are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon.
At least 40 different languages are spoken in Rovaniemi. The most common foreign languages are Russian (0.6%), English (0.3%), Arabic (0.3%) and Chinese (0.3%).
In 2022, there were 2,635 persons with a migrant background living in Rovaniemi, or 4.1% of the population. The number of residents who were born abroad was 3,278, or 5.1% of the population. The number of persons with foreign citizenship living in Rovaniemi was 1,795. Most foreign-born citizens came from the Sweden, former Soviet Union, China and Russia.
The relative share of immigrants in Rovaniemi's population is below to the national average. However, the city's new residents are increasingly of foreign origin. This will increase the proportion of foreign residents in the coming years.
Religion
In 2022, the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the largest religious group with 70.6% of the population of Rovaniemi. Other religious groups accounted for 1.6% of the population. 27.7% of the population had no religious affiliation.
Of the revival movements within the church, Conservative Laestadianism is particularly active in the locality, with three peace associations in the locality: the Rovaniemi Peace Association, the Rautionsaari Peace Association and the Viirinkylä Peace Association.
Other local communities include the Rovaniemi Pentecostal Church, a member of the Finnish Pentecostal Church, and the Rovaniemi Adventist Church, part of the Finnish Adventist Church.
Economy
Since Rovaniemi is the capital of the region of Lapland, many government institutions have their offices there. About 10,000 of the inhabitants are students. Rovaniemi is home to not only the University of Lapland but also the Lapland University of Applied Sciences (formerly known as the Rovaniemi Polytechnic), which comprises institutes of information and traditional technology, business, health and social care, culinary studies, forestry, rural studies, and sports. Local newspapers include the Lapin Kansa, Uusi Rovaniemi and Lappilainen.
Tourism
Because of the unspoiled nature of the area and numerous recreational opportunities, tourism is an important industry in Rovaniemi. The city has a number of hotels and restaurants located both in the centre and on the outskirts of the town, hosting over 481,000 visitors in 2013. Tourism can be seen and heard in the city's streetscape, at the Arctic Circle and at Rovaniemi Airport, one of Finland´s busiest airports in terms of passenger numbers.
Rovaniemi is also considered by Finns to be the official home town of Santa Claus. It is home to the Santa Claus Village at the Arctic Circle and Santa Park Arctic World, which is located 8 km (5 mi) north of the centre.
Directly across the river from the town is the Ounasvaara ski centre. There have been recreational activities in the Ounasvaara area since 1927, when the first winter sports were also organized. The top of the Ounasvaara hill bears the site of some of the earliest known human settlements in the area.
A phenomenon also attracting numerous tourists is the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. In Finnish Lapland, the number of auroral displays can be as high as 200 a year, whereas in southern Finland, the number is usually fewer than 20.
Attractions
Rovaniemi's most prominent landmarks include the Jätkänkynttilä bridge with its eternal flame over the Kemijoki river, the Arktikum Science Museum, which rises out of the bank of the Ounasjoki river, the Rovaniemi city hall, the Lappia Hall, which serves as a theatre, concert hall, and congress centre, and the library.
The last three mentioned buildings are designed by Alvar Aalto. The Arktikum Science Museum is a comprehensive museum of Finland's, and the world's, Arctic regions.
Sports
The city is home to the football clubs Rovaniemen Palloseura, or RoPS, part of the Veikkausliiga, the Finnish premier division, and FC Santa Claus, part of the third division; to the ice hockey team Rovaniemen Kiekko, or RoKi, whose home arena is Lappi Areena and which competes in Mestis, the second-highest league in Finland; and to the volleyball team called Team Lakkapää (formerly Rovaniemen Santasport and Perungan Pojat), which plays in the Finland Volleyball League and won the national championship in 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2011. The Rovaniemi Nordmen, an American Football team, was formed in 2013 and has played at various levels throughout the Finnish American Football Association.
Rovaniemi has hosted several international ski competition, including the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1984, several FIS Nordic Combined World Cup and FIS Ski Jumping Continental Cup events, the 2005 FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships, the 1970 Winter Universiade and the 2008 Winter Transplant Games.
In 2021, Rovaniemi hosted the World Rally Championship for 2021 Arctic Rally Finland, the first WRC event held inside the Arctic Circle.
Transport
VR Group, the Finnish state railway system, operates direct daytime and overnight passenger trains from Rovaniemi Station to Oulu, Tampere, Helsinki and Turku. Diesel-powered passenger trains operated northeast of Rovaniemi to Kemijärvi until March 2014, when electrification to Kemijärvi was completed. Rovaniemi Airport is located about 10 kilometres (6 mi) north of the Rovaniemi city centre, and it is the third-busiest airport in Finland after Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and Oulu Airport. The busiest time for the airport is in the Christmas season, when many people go on Santa Flights.
Notable inhabitants
See also: Category:People from Rovaniemi
Snowboarder and 2005 Winter X Games gold medalist Antti Autti, Rovaniemi native, in April 2005 received his own piece of land in the city for being named to the 2006 Finnish Olympic team
Antti Iivari (born 1992), ice hockey player
writer Timo K. Mukka died in Rovaniemi in 1974
Nätti-Jussi ("Pretty John"), legendary lumberjack and forester
Harri Olli, ski jumper
Tanja Poutiainen Alpine skier
Tomi Putaansuu, better known as Mr. Lordi lead singer of the hard rock band and 2006 Eurovision Song Contest winner Lordi
Jari Tervo, author
Antti Tuisku, singer
Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, said to be the residence of Father Christmas
Progressive rock band Absoluuttinen Nollapiste
The black metal band Beherit came from Rovaniemi
Twin towns – sister cities
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Finland
Rovaniemi is twinned with:
Ajka, Hungary
Alanya, Turkey
Cadillac, United States
Grindavík, Iceland
Harbin, China
Kassel, Germany
Kiruna, Sweden
Narvik, Norway
Neustrelitz, Germany
Olsztyn, Poland
Sankt Johann in Tirol, Austria
Veszprém, Hungary
In March 2022, Rovaniemi suspended the agreement with Murmansk, Russia due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In popular culture
Hand prints and signatures of Lordi's line-up at the time can be seen at the Lordi's Square
A 1996 Christmas episode of Tots TV called "Lapland Out" took place in Rovaniemi.
The 1998 Spanish romantic film Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Los amantes del Círculo Polar), by director Julio Medem, partly takes place in Rovaniemi.
Rovaniemi appears in the video game Tom Clancy's EndWar as a possible battlefield. In the game, Rovaniemi houses military facilities critical to a missile shield for a European Federation.
Rovaniemi is a central scene in a documentary film Reindeerspotting.
TV-Star Bam Margera and his friends travelled to Rovaniemi in their film Bam Margera Presents: Where the ♯$&% Is Santa? in order to find Santa Claus who is assumed to live in Rovaniemi.
A version of the music video for Lordi's song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" was filmed near Rovaniemi for the opening of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. After winning the contest, a square called the Lordi's Square (Lordin aukio) in the city center of Rovaniemi has been named after the band.
The video for the Nightwish single "The Islander" was filmed in Rovaniemi by Stobe Harju.
Rovaniemi used to have the northernmost location of any McDonald's in the world until the opening of a McDonald's in Murmansk in 2013, 23 years after it first opened in that country. However, the title of the northernmost in the world returned to Rovaniemi in 2022, when in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, all Russian McDonald's restaurants were closed, and rebranded to Vkusno i tochka. From January 2024, Rovaniemi will once again lose the title of having the northernmost McDonald's in the world as a new restaurant will open in Tromsø, Norway.
Rovaniemi appears as one location of Gavin Lyall's 1963 book The Most Dangerous Game, a spy-thriller set in Lapland and the northern USSR.
Rovaniemi was featured in the first episode of The Reluctant Traveler.
Child survivors of Auschwitz, wearing adult-size prisoner
jackets, stand behind a barbed wire fence.
Among those pictured are Tomasz Szwarz; Alicja Gruenbaum;
Solomon Rozalin; Gita Sztrauss; Wiera Sadler; Marta Wiess;
Boro Eksztein; Josef Rozenwaser; Rafael Szlezinger; Gabriel
Nejman; Gugiel Appelbaum; Mark Berkowitz (a twin); Pesa
Balter; Rut Muszkies (later Webber); Miriam Friedman; and
twins Miriam Mozes and Eva Mozes wearing knitted
hats.
STILL PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE SOVIET FILM of the liberation of
Auschwitz, taken by the film unit of the First Ukrainian
Front.
Eva Kor (born Etu Mozes) is the youngest child of Alexandru
Mozes and Zseni (Jaffa) Mozes. She and her twin sister,
Miriam (Matu), were born on January 31, 1934. The twins
also had two older sisters, Edit (Rivku), born in January
1930 and Aliz (Hencsi), born in July 1932. The family
lived in Port, a small farming village in Transylvania.
They were the only Jews in the village. Alexandru was
deeply religious and quite prosperous owning many cows,
sheep, and thousands of acres of fields. In 1940, after
Hungary assumed control of the previously Romanian region,
antisemitism increased, and Jews could no longer travel
freely. By 1942, Jews were forbidden to hire Aryan
laborers, and Alexandru had to fire all his farm hands. In
1943 Jews were required to wear the yellow star. In
October, Alexandru and Zseni, having decided the situation
was becoming increasingly intolerable, woke up their
daughters in the middle of night and told them to put on
their warmest clothes. They decided to try to sneak over
the border to Romania, but before they reached edge of
their property, Hungarian Nazi youths stopped them and
forced them to return. Soon after returning, Zseni became
extremely ill with typhoid and spent most of the following
months in bed. The following March, shortly after her
recovery, Hungarian gendarmes came to the Mozes home and
told the family to pack clothing and two weeks of food for
their immediate relocation to a labor camp. In fact, they
sent the family to the nearby town of Simleul Silvaniei
where they were sealed in a ghetto with approximately 7000
other Jews. Alexandru was tortured to force him to reveal
where the family had hidden their valuables. After about a
month, the family was deported by cattle car to Auschwitz
in early May. Throughout this period, Eva and Miriam were
dressed identically. Upon their arrival at the camp,
guards spotted that they were twins and pulled them aside.
Eva assumes that her mother, who was still weak from
typhoid, was probably killed immediately. She does not
know exactly what happened to her father and older sisters,
but none survived the war. Besides Miriam and Eva, there
were sixteen other sets of twins on the transport including
the Csengeri sisters from Simleul Silvaniei. Their mother,
Mrs. Csengeri, was selected to accompany the children to
camp II b. The twins were tattooed, given short haircuts
but allowed to keep their own clothes since there were no
prison uniforms small enough for them to wear. However, a
big red cross was painted on the back of their dresses to
prevent their escape. For the next half-year, Eva and
Miriam were subjected to medical experiments about three
times a week, for six to eight hours at a time. Josef
Mengele and other Nazi physicians took blood samples,
measurements and photographs of their bodies, and injected
them with various pathogens. As a result of these
experiments, Eva became deathly ill and had to remain in
the infirmary for three weeks. Though not expected to
live, she recovered to find Miriam also near death. Eva
managed to smuggle in some potatoes from the kitchen for
Miriam and nurse her back to health. When Auschwitz was
evacuated in January 1945, many of the twins including Eva
and Miriam remained behind. They were more or less on
their own for the next few weeks, scavenging food that had
been left behind until Soviet troops liberated the camp in
late January. About two weeks later, the Soviets brought
the children to a convent in Katowice. Eva and Miriam felt
uncomfortable in the convent and wanted to return home to
Port to search for surviving relatives. Though they were
free to roam around the city, they could only be released
from the orphanage if an adult relative took them under her
care. They discovered that Mrs. Csengeri was living in
town in a DP camp with her twin daughters. Mrs. Csengeri
agreed to tell the convent she was an aunt so that the Eva
and Miriam could leave to live with her. Eva and Miriam
stayed with Mrs. Csengeri from February until September
1945 first in Katowice and then in Cernauti. After
additional time spent in Schultz, in the Soviet interior,
Mrs. Csenghery and the four girls eventually arrived in
Simleul Silvaniei. Eva and Miriam returned to Port to find
their home looted, their farm overgrown in the care of one
surviving cousin. He told the girls that Iren, Alexandru's
youngest sister, had survived and was looking for them.
She had also been in Auschwitz and had lost her first
husband and son. Eva and Miriam went to live with Iren and
her new husband in Cluj and resume their education. They
became involved with the local Communist youth movement but
later got into trouble with the party. Iren decided that
she did not want to live under a new dictatorship and
pretended that her son had survived and was living in
Israel in order to obtain exit visas. In 1950 the family
immigrated to Israel, and Eva and Miriam settled in the
youth aliyah village, Mosad Magdiel near Kfar Saba.
[Source: Kor, Eva Mozes; Echoes from Auschwitz. Terra
Haute, Candles, 1995.]
The Soviet film about the liberation of Auschwitz was
shot over a period of several months beginning on January
27, 1945, the day of liberation. It consists of both
staged and unrehearsed footage of Auschwitz survivors
(adults and children) taken in the first hours and days of
their liberation, as well as scenes of their evacuation,
which took place weeks or months later. The film includes
the first inspection of the camp by Soviet war crimes
investigators, as well as the initial medical examination
of the survivors by Soviet physicians. It also records the
public burial ceremony that took place on February 28, 1945
for Auschwitz victims who died just before and after the
liberation. The order to make the film was issued by
Mikhael Oschurkow, head of the photography unit, and was
carried out by Alexander Voronzow and others in his group.
Eighteen minutes of the film was introduced as evidence at
the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Another
segment of the film disappeared for forty years before
resurfacing in Moscow in 1986.
[Source: Alexander Voronzow interview, Chronos-Films, The
Liberation of Auschwitz, 1986]
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of
Belarusian State Archive of Documentary Film and Photography
The Lidl Run Kildare Events 2013 were held at the Curragh Racecourse, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland on Sunday 12th May 2013. There were three events: a 10KM, a half marathon, and a full marathon. This is a selection of photographs which includes all events. The photographs are taken from the start and finish of the marathon, the finish of the 10KM, and the finish of the half marathon. Due to the large numbers participating we did not manage to photograph everyone - which was not helped by the weather. Congratulations to Jo Cawley and her RunKildare crew for another great event. The weather didn't dampen the spirits of the many happy participants.
Electronic timing was provided by Red Tag Timing [www.redtagtiming.com/]
Overall Race Summary
Participants: There were approximately 3,000 participants over the 3 race events - there were runners, joggers, and walkers participating.
Weather: A cold breezy morning with heavy rain at the start. The weather dried up for the 10KM and the Half Marathon races
Course: This is an undulating course with some good flat stretches on the Curragh.
Viewing this on a smartphone device?
If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".
Some Useful Links
GPS Garmin Trace of the Kildare Marathon Route: connect.garmin.com/activity/175709313
Homepage of the Lidl Run Kildare Event: www.kildaremarathon.ie/index.html
Facebook Group page of the Lidl Run Kildare Event: www.facebook.com/RunKildare
Boards.ie Athletics Discussion Board pages about the race series: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056815306
Our photographs from Run Kildare 2012: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157629707887620/
Our photographs from Run Kildare 2011: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157626725200956/
A small selection of photographs from Run Kildare 2010: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157623899845567/ (first event)
Can I use the photograph with the watermark?
Yes! Absolutely - you can post this photograph to your social networks, blogs, micro-blogging, etc.
How can I get a full resolution, no watermark, copy of these photographs?
All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available, free, at no cost, at full resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. We do not know of any other photographers who operate such a policy. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember - all we ask is for you to link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. Taking the photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.
If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Some people offer payment for our photographs. We do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would pay for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
Some more tinkering with the driver's side door, windows and seals on the car today. Replacing the perished seal around the quarterlight glass, removing, cleaning up and hammeriting the rear glass channel, replacing the perished rear glass channel felt and fitting a missing rubber seal. All back together again now, but more to do.
The new collection includes a jacket, made from a ochre or light brown cotton denim with the cutest delicate stripes ; ).
The jacket has a matching pants, but is sold seperately. Although jackets are one of the most time consuming pieces, I love to include them and of course, a collection for the colder season wouldn't be complete without a jacket!
Which combination do you like best? I'm curious to know : )!
-------------------------------
Dear friends,
Coming today to my Etsy store is my new collection “Falling leaves” that features many lovely designs for the colder days in autumn colors and with beautiful floral prints.
There are, as usual, many photos uploaded to my flickr stream, I’d be honored if you took the time to browse through them. Enjoy the colourful season!
Dearest greetings,
Nina*
For enquiry email: jintan@realtyagent.com
The Orchard Residences is a 99-years leasehold apartment development located at 238 Orchard Boulevard, Singapore 237973, in District 09, and just above the Orchard MRT Station. With expected completion in December 2010, it comprises 175 units. The Orchard Residences is situated along the vibrant Orchard Road shopping and entertainment belt. It is also close to the Singapore Botanic Gardens and Mount Elizabeth Hospital. Above MRT Station. Condo Facilities at The Orchard Residences Facilities at The Orchard Residences include a swimming pool, spa, and clubhouse. Condo Amenities near The Orchard Residences Numerous feeder bus services are available near The Orchard Residences. Established local and international schools are mostly a short drive away, such as Raffles Girls’ School, Overseas Family School, and ISS International School. Its prime location along Orchard Road means several one-stop shopping destinations are just a short walk away. These include Ion Orchard, Tangs Plaza, Wisma Atria, The Paragon, and Takashimaya. In addition, prestigious clubs, such as American Club and Tanglin Club, are located nearby. For vehicle owners, driving to the business hub from The Orchard Residences takes less than 10 minutes, via River Valley Road.
Lunch with the guys from the Ricardo China office started with some pig's stomach - quite tasty, if a bit chewy. Luckily some beef and chicken also came along.
Today the Butler Farm includes the renovated but original Nathan Enroughty house, much of which dates from about 1847. There are a few earthworks on the edge of the property, probably built just after the battle. These Enroughtys were part of the family who famously pronounced their name "Darby" but spelled it Enroughty because of a divisive family squabble. The historic Darbytown Road ended near their farm.
During the fighting at First Deep Bottom, Confederate sharpshooters used this house to harass the oncoming Union soldiers.
CWPT has saved more than 125 acres of the First Deep Bottom battlefield in Henrico County, Virginia.
www.photojunkie.ca/archive/2006/07/my-toronto-includes-wi...
Winona Tong, UI Engineer
At one of the waterfalls at Edwards Gardens, Leslie and Lawrence.
What is your most favourite place in the city? Edwards Gardens
What is it that you like about this location? I've spent many weekend afternoons there as a child. My parents liked to take me there on picnics because that was where they had their wedding portraits taken. I was so awestruck by all the beautiful brides and bridesmaids that showed up in their puffy gowns. I used to pretend that it was a magical kingdom of fairy princesses.
Where is the best place to eat in the city? I'm going to have to go with something a little outside the box. My favourite restaurants are in Richmond Hill. Particularly the eateries that First Markham Place have to offer. My restaurant of choice depends on my mood, though.
What do you like about living in Toronto? The city is still full of surprises. I've lived in Toronto most of my life and I have yet to see and experience all of the interesting things around town.
What do you hate about living in Toronto? It takes too long to get from point A to point B on the TTC if you're coming from or going to a place that is not serviced by the subway system.
Where would I find you on a lazy Sunday afternoon in the city? Shopping downtown. I love walking along Queen Street West.
Who is your favourite Local Celebrity? The Barenaked Ladies -- so talented and witty!
Car, Bike or Transit? Transit.
In August of 2003, my best Internet friend flew in to Toronto from California to meet me in person for the first time. I was really excited and planned a series of social activities so I could introduce him to all of my friends IRL. Fortunately, the great power outage of 2003 hit and derailed all of my plans. I ended up spending the entire weekend 1-on-1 with my Internet friend. The experience underscored our compatibility and cemented our friendship. I've since moved to California to live happily ever after with my Internet friend. I owe it all to that fateful day in Toronto for helping a pair of best friends to affirm that they were soul mates.
My Toronto Includes the GTA Bloggers -- the friendliest people I've ever known. There is something very endearing about being brought together by the mere fact that we all love and live in the same city. The GTA Bloggers set an excellent example for all Torontonians. Imagine if everyone in Toronto was unafraid of coming together to socialize with one another despite disparate interests. That would be so Utopian.
I had various things planned for this afternoon. The list didn't include attending the November meeting of the West London Meccano Society (WLMS) with Chris (Meccano is one of his hobbies). Ended up doing just that, though. Chris is editor of the Society's newsletter, and photographer & chronicler of events and the models exhibited at these gatherings. But he arrived at Greenford Community Centre this afternoon only to find that he'd left the camera behind. A beseeching phone to me, and I agreed to take it up there. Well, how could I say no? Particularly since the November meeting is the one where they award the Bert Love Trophy - and if you know anything about Meccano and those who rank highly in the Meccano modelling community, you'll have an idea how important that presentation is! But it took me ages to get there (horrendously long wait for bus), so I was persuaded to stay for the rest of the meeting and come home with Chris.
Don't get me wrong - they're really nice people - they've always been very welcoming and friendly on the odd occasion when I've accompanied Chris to an exhibition or meeting. But while I find Meccano quite interesting, it's generally not interesting enough to tear me away from my computer for a whole afternoon. But this time Meccano (and the cold weather and the vagaries of the local buses) won, and I stayed on until the end of the meeting, thus getting a lift home from one of Chris's friends - many thanks Howard.
And win is also what the superb model Oshkosh lorry in this photograph did, as it is the model which won its constructor, Richard Payn, the Bert Love Trophy for this year. Congratulations Richard!
See where this picture was taken. [?]
See where this photo was taken at maps.yuan.cc.
This is a photograph from the Forest Marathon festival 2013 which was held in the beautiful Coillte forest of Portumna in Co. Galway, Ireland on Saturday 15th June 2013. The event includes a 10k, a full marathon, a half marathon and two ultra-running events - a 50k and 100k race. The races started at 08:00 with the 100KM, the 50KM at 10:00, and subsequent races at two hour intervals onwards. All events started and finished within the forest with the exception of the half marathon and marathon which started outside of the forest. All events see participants complete 5KM loops of the forest which start and end at the car-park/amenity end of the forest. There is an official Refreshment/Handling Zones at this point on the loop.
The event was organised by international coach Sebastien Locteau from SportsIreland.ie and his fantastic team of volunteers from Galway and beyond. Congratulations to Seb on organising a very professionally run event and an event which is growing bigger and more prestigious with each passing year. There was an incredible atmosphere amongst the runners, the spectators, and the organisers. Hats off to everyone involved.
The marathon, 50KM, and 100KM events are sanctioned by Athletics Ireland and AIMS (the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races). The event has also achieved IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners) Bronze Label status for 2013.
Electronic timing was provided by RedTagTiming: www.redtagtiming.com/
Energy Bars, Gels, Drinks etc were provided by Fuel4Sport: www.fuel4sport.ie/
This is a set of photographs taken at various points on the 5KM loop in the Forest and contains photographs of competitors from all of the events except the 10KM race.
Viewing this on a smartphone device?
If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".
Overall Race Summary
Participants: Approximately 600 people took part across all of the events which were staged: 10km, half marathon, marathon, 50km, and 100KM.
Weather: The weather was unfortunately not what a summer's day in June should be like - there was rain, some breeze, but mild temperatures.
Course: This is a fast flat course depending on your event. The course is left handed around the Forest and roughly looks like a figure of 8 in terms of routing.
Location Map: Start/finish area on Google StreetView [goo.gl/maps/WWTgD] are inside the parklands and trails
Refreshments: There are no specific refreshments but the race organizers provide very adequate supplies for all participants.
Some Useful Links
Official Race Event Website: www.forestmarathon.com/
The Boards.ie Athletics Forum Thread for the 2013 Event: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056874371
A GPS Garmin Trace of the Course Profile (from the 50KM event) connect.garmin.com/activity/189495781
Our Flickr Photographs from the 2012 Events: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157630146344494/
Our Flickr Photographs from the 2011 Events: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157626865466587/
Title Sponsors Sports Ireland Website: sites.google.com/a/sportsireland.ie/welcome-sports-irelan...
A VIDEO of the Course: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2FLxE...
Google StreetView of the Entrance to Portuma Forest: goo.gl/maps/MX62O
Wikipedia: Read about Portumna and Portumna Forest Park: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portumna#Portumna_Forest_Park
Coilte Ourdoors Website: www.coillteoutdoors.ie/?id=53&rec_site=115
Portumna Forest on EveryTrails: www.everytrail.com/guide/portumna-forest-park-woodland-tr...
More about the IAU Bronze Label: www.iau-ultramarathon.org/index.asp?menucode=h07&tmp=...
How can I get a full resolution copy of these photographs?
All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available offline, free, at no cost, at full image resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember - all we ask is for you to link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. Taking the photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.
If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
Florenz - Kathedrale
Florence Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Firenze), formally the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower (Italian: Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore [katteˈdraːle di ˈsanta maˈriːa del ˈfjoːre]), is the cathedral of Florence, Italy. It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink, bordered by white, and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.
The cathedral complex, in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. These three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major tourist attraction of Tuscany. The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, and until the development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.
The cathedral is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is Giuseppe Betori.
History
Santa Maria del Fiore was built on the site of Florence's second cathedral dedicated to Saint Reparata; the first was the Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze, the first building of which was consecrated as a church in 393 by St. Ambrose of Milan.The ancient structure, founded in the early 5th century and having undergone many repairs, was crumbling with age, according to the 14th-century Nuova Cronica of Giovanni Villani, and was no longer large enough to serve the growing population of the city. Other major Tuscan cities had undertaken ambitious reconstructions of their cathedrals during the Late Medieval period, such as Pisa and particularly Siena where the enormous proposed extensions were never completed.
City council approved the design of Arnolfo di Cambio for the new church in 1294. Di Cambio was also architect of the church of Santa Croce and the Palazzo Vecchio. He designed three wide naves ending under the octagonal dome, with the middle nave covering the area of Santa Reparata. The first stone was laid on 9 September 1296, by Cardinal Valeriana, the first papal legate ever sent to Florence. The building of this vast project was to last 140 years; Arnolfo's plan for the eastern end, although maintained in concept, was greatly expanded in size.
After Arnolfo died in 1302, work on the cathedral slowed for almost 50 years. When the relics of Saint Zenobius were discovered in 1330 in Santa Reparata, the project gained a new impetus. In 1331, the Arte della Lana, the guild of wool merchants, took over patronage for the construction of the cathedral and in 1334 appointed Giotto to oversee the work. Assisted by Andrea Pisano, Giotto continued di Cambio's design. His major accomplishment was the building of the campanile. When Giotto died on 8 January 1337, Andrea Pisano continued the building until work was halted due to the Black Death in 1348.
In 1349, work resumed on the cathedral under a series of architects, starting with Francesco Talenti, who finished the campanile and enlarged the overall project to include the apse and the side chapels. In 1359, Talenti was succeeded by Giovanni di Lapo Ghini (1360–1369) who divided the centre nave in four square bays. Other architects were Alberto Arnoldi, Giovanni d'Ambrogio, Neri di Fioravanti and Andrea Orcagna. By 1375, the old church Santa Reparata was pulled down. The nave was finished by 1380, and only the dome remained incomplete until 1418.
On 19 August 1418, the Arte della Lana announced an architectural design competition for erecting Neri's dome. The two main competitors were two master goldsmiths, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi, the latter of whom was supported by Cosimo de Medici. Ghiberti had been the winner of a competition for a pair of bronze doors for the Baptistery in 1401 and lifelong competition between the two remained sharp. Brunelleschi won and received the commission.
Ghiberti, appointed coadjutor, drew a salary equal to Brunelleschi's and, though neither was awarded the announced prize of 200 florins, was promised equal credit, although he spent most of his time on other projects. When Brunelleschi became ill, or feigned illness, the project was briefly in the hands of Ghiberti. But Ghiberti soon had to admit that the whole project was beyond him. In 1423, Brunelleschi was back in charge and took over sole responsibility.
Work on the dome began in 1420 and finished in 1436. The cathedral was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV on 25 March 1436, (the first day of the year according to the Florentine calendar). It was the first 'octagonal' dome in history to be built without a temporary wooden supporting frame. It was one of the most impressive projects of the Renaissance. During the consecration in 1436, Guillaume Dufay's motet Nuper rosarum flores was performed.
The decoration of the exterior of the cathedral, begun in the 14th century, was not completed until 1887, when the polychrome marble façade was completed with the design of Emilio De Fabris. The floor of the church was relaid in marble tiles in the 16th century.
The exterior walls are faced in alternate vertical and horizontal bands of polychrome marble from Carrara (white), Prato (green), Siena (red), Lavenza and a few other places. These marble bands had to repeat the already existing bands on the walls of the earlier adjacent baptistery the Battistero di San Giovanni and Giotto's Bell Tower. There are two side doors: the Doors of the Canonici (south side) and the Door of the Mandorla (north side) with sculptures by Nanni di Banco, Donatello, and Jacopo della Quercia. The six side windows, notable for their delicate tracery and ornaments, are separated by pilasters. Only the four windows closest to the transept admit light; the other two are merely ornamental. The clerestory windows are round, a common feature in Italian Gothic.
Exterior
Plan and structure
The cathedral of Florence is built as a basilica, having a wide central nave of four square bays, with an aisle on either side. The chancel and transepts are of identical polygonal plan, separated by two smaller polygonal chapels. The whole plan forms a Latin cross. The nave and aisles are separated by wide pointed Gothic arches resting on composite piers.
The dimensions of the building are enormous: building area 8,300 m2 (89,340 sq ft), length 153 m (502 ft), width 38 m (125 ft), width at the crossing 90 m (300 ft). The height of the arches in the aisles is 23 m (75 ft). The height of the dome is 114.5 m (375.7 ft). It has the fifth tallest dome in the world.
Planned sculpture for the exterior
The Overseers of the Office of Works of Florence Cathedral the Arte della Lana, had plans to commission a series of twelve large Old Testament sculptures for the buttresses of the cathedral. Donatello, then in his early twenties, was commissioned to carve a statue of David in 1408, to top one of the buttresses of Florence Cathedral, though it was never placed there. Nanni di Banco was commissioned to carve a marble statue of Isaiah, at the same scale, in the same year. One of the statues was lifted into place in 1409, but was found to be too small to be easily visible from the ground and was taken down; both statues then languished in the workshop of the opera for several years. In 1410 Donatello made the first of the statues, a figure of Joshua in terracotta. In 1409–1411 Donatello made a statue of Saint John the Evangelist which until 1588 was in a niche of the old cathedral façade. Between 1415 and 1426, Donatello created five statues for the campanile of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, also known as the Duomo. These works are the Beardless Prophet; Bearded Prophet (both from 1415); the Sacrifice of Isaac (1421); Habbakuk (1423–25); and Jeremiah (1423–26); which follow the classical models for orators and are characterized by strong portrait details. A figure of Hercules, also in terracotta, was commissioned from the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio in 1463 and was made perhaps under Donatello's direction. A statue of David by Michelangelo was completed 1501–1504 although it could not be placed on the buttress because of its six-ton weight. In 2010 a fiberglass replica of "David" was placed for one day on the Florence cathedral.
Dome
After a hundred years of construction and by the beginning of the 15th century, the structure was still missing its dome. The basic features of the dome had been designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296. His brick model, 4.6 m (15.1 ft) high, 9.2 m (30.2 ft) long, was standing in a side aisle of the unfinished building, and had long been sacrosanct. It called for an octagonal dome higher and wider than any that had ever been built, with no external buttresses to keep it from spreading and falling under its own weight.
The commitment to reject traditional Gothic buttresses had been made when Neri di Fioravanti's model was chosen over a competing one by Giovanni di Lapo Ghini. That architectural choice, in 1367, was one of the first events of the Italian Renaissance, marking a break with the Medieval Gothic style and a return to the classic Mediterranean dome. Italian architects regarded Gothic flying buttresses as ugly makeshifts. Furthermore, the use of buttresses was forbidden in Florence, as the style was favored by central Italy's traditional enemies to the north. Neri's model depicted a massive inner dome, open at the top to admit light, like Rome's Pantheon, partly supported by the inner dome, but enclosed in a thinner outer shell, to keep out the weather. It was to stand on an unbuttressed octagonal drum. Neri's dome would need an internal defense against spreading (hoop stress), but none had yet been designed.
The building of such a masonry dome posed many technical problems. Brunelleschi looked to the great dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions. The dome of the Pantheon is a single shell of concrete, the formula for which had long since been forgotten. The Pantheon had employed structural centring to support the concrete dome while it cured. This could not be the solution in the case of a dome this size and would put the church out of use. For the height and breadth of the dome designed by Neri, starting 52 m (171 ft) above the floor and spanning 44 m (144 ft), there was not enough timber in Tuscany to build the scaffolding and forms. Brunelleschi chose to follow such design and employed a double shell, made of sandstone and marble. Brunelleschi would have to build the dome out of brick, due to its light weight compared to stone and being easier to form, and with nothing under it during construction. To illustrate his proposed structural plan, he constructed a wooden and brick model with the help of Donatello and Nanni di Banco, a model which is still displayed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The model served as a guide for the craftsmen, but was intentionally incomplete, so as to ensure Brunelleschi's control over the construction.
Brunelleschi's solutions were ingenious. The spreading problem was solved by a set of four internal horizontal stone and iron chains, serving as barrel hoops, embedded within the inner dome: one at the top, one at the bottom, with the remaining two evenly spaced between them. A fifth chain, made of wood, was placed between the first and second of the stone chains. Since the dome was octagonal rather than round, a simple chain, squeezing the dome like a barrel hoop, would have put all its pressure on the eight corners of the dome. The chains needed to be rigid octagons, stiff enough to hold their shape, so as not to deform the dome as they held it together.
Each of Brunelleschi's stone chains was built like an octagonal railroad track with parallel rails and cross ties, all made of sandstone beams 43 cm (17 in) in diameter and no more than 2.3 m (7.5 ft) long. The rails were connected end-to-end with lead-glazed iron splices. The cross ties and rails were notched together and then covered with the bricks and mortar of the inner dome. The cross ties of the bottom chain can be seen protruding from the drum at the base of the dome. The others are hidden. Each stone chain was supposed to be reinforced with a standard iron chain made of interlocking links, but a magnetic survey conducted in the 1970s failed to detect any evidence of iron chains, which if they exist are deeply embedded in the thick masonry walls. Brunelleschi also included vertical "ribs" set on the corners of the octagon, curving towards the center point. The ribs, 4 m (13 ft) deep, are supported by 16 concealed ribs radiating from center.The ribs had slits to take beams that supported platforms, thus allowing the work to progress upward without the need for scaffolding.
A circular masonry dome can be built without supports, called centering, because each course of bricks is a horizontal arch that resists compression. In Florence, the octagonal inner dome was thick enough for an imaginary circle to be embedded in it at each level, a feature that would hold the dome up eventually, but could not hold the bricks in place while the mortar was still wet. Brunelleschi used a herringbone brick pattern to transfer the weight of the freshly laid bricks to the nearest vertical ribs of the non-circular dome.
The outer dome was not thick enough to contain embedded horizontal circles, being only 60 cm (2 ft) thick at the base and 30 cm (1 ft) thick at the top. To create such circles, Brunelleschi thickened the outer dome at the inside of its corners at nine different elevations, creating nine masonry rings, which can be observed today from the space between the two domes. To counteract hoop stress, the outer dome relies entirely on its attachment to the inner dome and has no embedded chains.
A modern understanding of physical laws and the mathematical tools for calculating stresses were centuries in the future. Brunelleschi, like all cathedral builders, had to rely on intuition and whatever he could learn from the large scale models he built. To lift 37,000 tons of material, including over 4 million bricks, he invented hoisting machines and lewissons for hoisting large stones. These specially designed machines and his structural innovations were Brunelleschi's chief contribution to architecture. Although he was executing an aesthetic plan made half a century earlier, it is his name, rather than Neri's, that is commonly associated with the dome.
Brunelleschi's ability to crown the dome with a lantern was questioned and he had to undergo another competition, even though there had been evidence that Brunelleschi had been working on a design for a lantern for the upper part of the dome. The evidence is shown in the curvature, which was made steeper than the original model. He was declared the winner over his competitors Lorenzo Ghiberti and Antonio Ciaccheri. His design (now on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo) was for an octagonal lantern with eight radiating buttresses and eight high arched windows. Construction of the lantern was begun a few months before his death in 1446. Then, for 15 years, little progress was possible, due to alterations by several architects. The lantern was finally completed by Brunelleschi's friend Michelozzo in 1461. The conical roof was crowned with a gilt copper ball and cross, containing holy relics, by Verrocchio in 1469. This brings the total height of the dome and lantern to 114.5 m (376 ft). This copper ball was struck by lightning on 17 July 1600 and fell down. It was replaced by an even larger one two years later.
The commission for this gilt copper ball [atop the lantern] went to the sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, in whose workshop there was at this time a young apprentice named Leonardo da Vinci. Fascinated by Filippo's [Brunelleschi's] machines, which Verrocchio used to hoist the ball, Leonardo made a series of sketches of them and, as a result, is often given credit for their invention.
Leonardo might have also participated in the design of the bronze ball, as stated in the G manuscript of Paris "Remember the way we soldered the ball of Santa Maria del Fiore".
The decorations of the drum gallery by Baccio d'Agnolo were never finished after being disapproved by no one less than Michelangelo.
A huge statue of Brunelleschi now sits outside the Palazzo dei Canonici in the Piazza del Duomo, looking thoughtfully up towards his greatest achievement, the dome that would forever dominate the panorama of Florence. It is still the largest masonry dome in the world.
The building of the cathedral had started in 1296 with the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was completed in 1469 with the placing of Verrochio's copper ball atop the lantern. But the façade was still unfinished and would remain so until the 19th century.
Facade
The original façade, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio and usually attributed to Giotto, was actually begun twenty years after Giotto's death. A mid-15th-century pen-and-ink drawing of this so-called Giotto's façade is visible in the Codex Rustici, and in the drawing of Bernardino Poccetti in 1587, both on display in the Museum of the Opera del Duomo. This façade was the collective work of several artists, among them Andrea Orcagna and Taddeo Gaddi. This original façade was completed in only its lower portion and then left unfinished. It was dismantled in 1587–1588 by the Medici court architect Bernardo Buontalenti, ordered by Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici, as it appeared totally outmoded in Renaissance times. Some of the original sculptures are on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo, behind the cathedral. Others are now in the Berlin Museum and in the Louvre.
The competition for a new façade turned into a huge corruption scandal. The wooden model for the façade of Buontalenti is on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo. A few new designs had been proposed in later years, but the models (of Giovanni Antonio Dosio, Giovanni de' Medici with Alessandro Pieroni and Giambologna) were not accepted. The façade was then left bare until the 19th century.
In 1864, a competition held to design a new façade was won by Emilio De Fabris (1808–1883) in 1871. Work began in 1876 and was completed in 1887. This neo-gothic façade in white, green and red marble forms a harmonious entity with the cathedral, Giotto's bell tower and the Baptistery, but some think it is excessively decorated.
The whole façade is dedicated to the Mother of Christ.
Cracking of the dome
The unreinforced masonry that Brunelleschi used to construct the dome is weak in tension which leads to cracking when tensile stresses exceed the limited masonry tensile strength. The material is especially susceptible to damage from seismic loading due to its heterogeneity and many surfaces between different materials (stones to mortar connection).
Cracking of the dome was observed even before its construction was completed. It is possible that the first cracks were caused by a strong earthquake in 1453.[
The first written evidence about the presence of cracks appears in a report by Gherardo Silvani report dated 18 September 1639 which refers to "peli" ("hairs"). In 1694 Gianbattista Nelli and Vincenzo Viviani surveyed the cracks with Nelli recording that there were two major cracks with a maximum width of 29 mm (1.1 in). They believed that the cracks were caused by the weight of the dome, and the resulting the horizontal thrusts on the pillars. A commission, headed by Vincenzo Viviani carried out investigations in 1695 and came to the conclusion that the cracking was due to the dead weight of the buildings, it was proposed that the dome be strengthened by installing four large iron belts; three on the outside of the dome between the bugling area of the dome and the circular windows, while the fourth would be installed internally in the second walkway between the two shells. This was similar to what had been done on the dome of St. Peter's in Rome. After a long debate, a decision was made to leave the dome as it was.
The first most complete survey of the cracks was published in 1757 by the Jesuit Leonardo Ximenes (1716–1786). In his document he described 13 different crack typologies. In 1934, Pier Luigi Nervi, who was head of a special commission established by the Opera del Duomo to study the cracking observed that the cracks opened and closed with the seasons. In the winter, the dome's stone and bricks would contract causing the cracks to widen while over the summer the materials would expand and the cracks would close up. While modern buildings by design incorporate expansion joints, the cathedral's dome does not include any and so subsequently developed its own expansion joints in the form of these cracks which allowed the structure to "breathe". To date they have not caused any catastrophic damage to the dome.
In 1955 the Opera del Duomo installed 22 mechanical deformometers, which were read four times a year to record the variations in the width of the major cracks in the inner dome. At the same time the dome's internal and external temperatures were also recorded. This remained in service until 2009.
In 1975 a commission was appointed by the Italian government to safeguard the dome. In 1978 a government culture agency decided to restore the frescoes. Brunelleschi left forty eight 600 mm (24 in) holes in the base of the dome. They are open on the inside and covered by the outer skin of the dome. It has long been assumed that the holes simply served as mounts for the scaffold used when frescoes were painted on the inside of the dome. While the holes had been able to support the scaffolding used for the creation of the frescos on the interior of the dome they were not strong enough for the network of modern metal scaffolding necessary to provide access for the restoration work undertaken on the frescos between 1979 and 1995. To strengthen the scaffolding, the private company contracted to build scaffolding for the work was allowed in 1982 to fill the holes with concrete so that steel beams could be anchored in them.
In 1985 local architect Lando Bartoli noticed that additional cracks were forming around the sealed holes. It was theorized at the time that in summer the four major masses separated by the "A" cracks expanded into the fissures, but now, at the base of the dome, the masses come up against the unyielding concrete that now fills the 48 holes acts as a fulcrum which causes the energy that was once dissipated with the closing of the fissures and into the holes to be transferred into the upper areas of the dome. However analysis by Andrea Chiarugi, Michele Fanelli and Giuseppetti (published in 1983) found that the principal source of the cracks was a dead-weight effect due to the geometry of the dome, its weight (estimated to be 25,000 tons) and the insufficient resistance of the ring beam, while thermal variations, has caused fatigue loading and thus expanding of the structure. This is a well-known collapse mechanism typical of domed structures: a lowering of the top of the structure under its own weight with significant horizontal thrusts on the bearing elements.
In 1985 a commission established by the Italian Ministry of Cultural and Monumental Heritage accepted this theory. The debate about the filling of the scaffolding holes was finally settled in 1987 when it was demonstrated that closing the 48 holes had had no impact on the expansion and contraction of the dome. A survey completed in 1984 counted a total of 493 cracks of various sizes, sorted into categories identified by the letters "A" through "D". These are as follows:
Type A. These are sub-vertical major cracks that start from the ring beam and continue upwards for approximately two-thirds of the height of the dome; they pass through both the internal and external layer of the even webs and their range in thickness from 55 mm (2.2 in) to 60 mm (2.4 in) (webs 4 and 6) and 25 mm (0.98 in) to 30 mm (1.2 in) (webs 2 and 8). The dome has eight webs numbered counter clockwise from 1, which faces the main nave of the cathedral. These effectively divide the dome into quarters and never completely close in summer. There is a theory that the plaster used to patch the cracks over the years and crumbling building materials have jammed the fissures.
Type B. These sub-vertical minor cracks are located near the circular windows.
Type C. These are sub-vertical minor cracks that are present around the eight edges of the dome.
Type D. These are four sub-vertical minor cracks in the internal part of the odd webs. They do not pass through the width of the dome.
All have formed in a symmetrical pattern.
The development of the Type "A" cracks means that the dome now permanently behaves as four drifting half-arches linked below the upper oculus. The abutments of these half-arches are constituted by the pillars, the chapels and the nave of the church. The differences in the cracking patterns between even and odd webs is believed to be due to variations in the stiffness of the supporting ring beam structure under the dome as it is supported by four heavy pillars which line up with the even webs while the odd webs are located over four arches which connect the pillars.
In 1987 a second and more comprehensive digital system (which automatically collects data every six hours) was installed by ISMES (in cooperation with the "Soprintendenza", the local branch of the Ministry of Culture, which is responsible for the conservation of all historical monuments in Florence) in 1987. It consists of 166 instruments, among which are 60 thermometers measuring the masonry and air temperature at various locations, 72 inductive type displacement transducers (deformometers) at various levels on the main cracks of the inner and outer domes; eight plumb-lines at the centre of each web, which measure the relative displacements between pillars and tambour; eight livellometers and two piezometers, one near the web 4 and the other below the nave which register the variation of the underground water level. A linear regression analysis of the recorded data has shown that the major cracks are widening by approximately 3 mm (0.12 in) per century. Another source quotes a movement of 5.5mm.
Using software that had been used to model the structures of large dam a computer model of the dome was developed in 1980 in a collaboration between Italian National Agency for Electric Power and Structural and Hydraulic Research Centre (CRIS) by a group of researcher leaded by Michele Fanelli and Gabriella Giuseppetti in cooperation with the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Florence, under the supervision of Andrea Chiarugi. Because of limited computational resources and for reasons of symmetry only a quarter of the dome was modelled. The resulting finite elements analysis confirmed that the main cracks was essentially being created by self-weight of the dome. Since then series of numerical models of increasing complexity have been developed. To assist in monitoring of the dome an extensive photogrammetric and topographical survey of the entire dome was commissioned in 1992 by the "Soprintendenza". The results of this survey were then used to further develop the finite elements model of the dome.
(Wikipedia)
Die Kathedrale Santa Maria del Fiore (italienisch Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria del Fiore) in Florenz ist die Bischofskirche des Erzbistums Florenz und somit Metropolitankirche der Kirchenprovinz Florenz. Sie wurde von Papst Eugen IV. am 24. März 1436 geweiht und trägt den Titel einer Basilica minor. Das Kirchenschiff fasst circa 4.000–5.000 Personen. Ihre gewaltige Kuppel, das Hauptwerk Brunelleschis, gilt als technische Meisterleistung der frühen Renaissance.
Dimensionen
Der Florentiner Dom ist, bezogen auf die Länge des Längsschiffs, nach dem Petersdom im Vatikan, St Paul’s Cathedral in London und dem Mailänder Dom die viertgrößte Kirche in Europa (nach der bebauten Fläche rangiert allerdings noch die Kathedrale von Sevilla in Spanien an dritter Stelle). Seine Abmessungen: 153 m Länge, 38 m Breite, Breite des Kuppelfundaments 90 m. Die Seitenschiffe haben eine Gewölbehöhe von 23 m, das Mittelschiff ist um etwa 12 Meter höher. Die lichte Höhe der Kuppel beträgt vom Boden bis zur Laterne 90 m. Außen ist die Kuppel mit Laterne mehr als 114 m hoch.
Baugeschichte
Bis ins 13. Jahrhundert hatten den Bewohnern der Stadt das Baptisterium San Giovanni sowie einige kleine Kirchen zur Repräsentation genügt. Erst 1296 entschloss man sich zum Bau eines Doms nach Plänen von Arnolfo di Cambio. Der Bau sollte Ausmaße haben, wie sie die Toskana nie zuvor gesehen hatte. Der Entschluss kam nicht aus einem religiösen Impuls, sondern aus dem Wunsch nach einem weithin sichtbaren Monument, nicht zuletzt in Konkurrenz zu Venedig, Pisa und zum 1229 begonnenen Dombau in Siena.
Baubeginn
Noch im gleichen Jahre wurde mit der Errichtung der Westfassade begonnen. Die ursprüngliche Bischofskirche, Santa Reparata, wurde dabei zunächst von dem Neubau umgeben und weiter liturgisch genutzt. Nach dem Tod Arnolfos kamen die Arbeiten zum Erliegen, da die Ressourcen zum Bau der dritten Stadtmauer und zur Errichtung des Palazzo della Signoria genutzt wurden. Von der Fassade war nach Arnolfos Entwürfen bis dahin nur der untere Teil vollendet.
Der Campanile Giottos
Erst die spätere Berufung Giottos brachte neue Impulse. Doch Giotto, schon 68 Jahre alt, richtete seine ganze Energie auf den Campanile, der in kürzerer Zeit zu vollenden war. So wollte er Florenz wenigstens mit dem Campanile ein alles überragendes Wahrzeichen schenken.
Die Turmfundamente waren bereits 1298 zu Beginn der Bauarbeiten an der neuen Kathedrale unter Arnolfo di Cambio gelegt worden. Die für die italienische Gotik ungewöhnliche Position des Glockenturms – in einer Linie mit der Westfassade – wird zum einen als Indiz für die besondere Betonung der Vertikalen als Zentrum der Bischöflichen Insel gewertet, andererseits wollte man die Sichtachse auf die geplante große Kuppel freihalten.
Giotto di Bondone entwarf einen Campanile, der eine pyramidenförmige Spitze mit einer Höhe von 50 florentinischen Braccia (Armlängen), also etwa 30 Metern gehabt hätte; insgesamt wäre er 110–115 Meter hoch geworden. Bei Giottos Tod im Jahr 1337 war erst das erste Geschoss fertiggestellt. Andrea Pisano und Francesco Talenti beendeten den Bau 1359 mit einigen Änderungen. Der Turm bekam ein niedriges Pyramidendach und wurde nur 85 m hoch.
Im Turm sind insgesamt zwölf Kirchenglocken untergebracht. Eine Glocke befindet sich abgestellt auf dem Boden des Glockengeschosses. Sie ist die 1516 von Lodovico di Guglielmo gegossene 2500 Kilogramm schwere Apostolica. Zudem hängen auf allen vier Seiten, jeweils zwischen Glockenstube und Fenster vier kleinere Glocken (Beona, Maria Anna, Campana Piccola, Campana Più Piccola), die nicht geläutet werden können. Die übrigen sieben Glocken bilden das Hauptgeläut, das seit 2000/2001 über einen neuen elektrischen Läuteantrieb verfügt.
Wiederaufnahme der Bauarbeiten am Dom
Ab 1330 übernahm die Wollweberzunft die Verantwortung für den Dombau. Neue Baumeister modifizierten die Pläne immer wieder, bis sie 1368 gebilligt und das danach entstandene Ziegelmodell (Maßstab 1:10) für verbindlich erklärt wurden. Der Bau konnte nun schneller vorangetrieben werden. Schon 1379 wurde das Langhaus für den Gottesdienst in Gebrauch genommen.
Fassade
Die unter Arnolfo di Cambio begonnene Fassade wurde schon 1588 als unzeitgemäß empfunden und abgerissen, um Platz für eine neue Fassadengestaltung zu schaffen, für die die Mittel dann allerdings nicht ausreichten. Die heutige Westfassade ist eine neogotische Vervollständigung des späten 19. Jahrhunderts, die den Stil des Langhauses, die Gestaltung in dreifarbigem Marmor, fortsetzt. Sie wurde nach Entwürfen von Emilio de Fabris und Guglielmo Calderini (Obergeschoss) bis 1887 vollendet.
Kuppel
Brunelleschis Kuppel
1417 legte Brunelleschi sein erstes Kuppelmodell vor, nachdem vorher beschlossen worden war, eine noch prächtigere und größere Kuppel zu erstellen, als das erste Modell vorgesehen hatte. Der Bau der 107 Meter hohen Kuppel mit einem Durchmesser von 45 Metern dauerte 16 Jahre (1418 bis 1434). Von Anfang an trug die aus zwei Schalen bestehende Konstruktion sich selbst und wurde ohne Lehrgerüst errichtet. Aufgrund ihrer Einzigartigkeit wird sie noch heute als Höhepunkt der Renaissance gesehen. Der Dom wurde nach der Fertigstellung der Kuppel am 25. März 1436 in Anwesenheit von Donatello, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Michelozzo und Alberti durch Papst Eugen IV. geweiht. Für die Ausführung der Glasfenster wurde 1436 der Glasmaler Francesco Livi aus Lübeck nach Florenz berufen. Die Laterne wurde nach einem Entwurf Brunelleschis von 1446 bis 1461, zuletzt unter der Aufsicht von Michelozzo, erbaut. Bis zum Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts gab es immer wieder kleinere Arbeiten am Dom.
Ausmalung der Kuppel
Die Innenbemalung der Kuppel war nach früherer einhelliger Meinung der Kunsthistoriker missglückt. Kein Geringerer als Giorgio Vasari, der Vater der Kunstgeschichtsschreibung und der Schöpfer des gleichnamigen Korridors über den Ponte Vecchio, hatte 1572 dieses Fresko begonnen, das 1579 von Federico Zuccari vollendet wurde. Es ist in seinen Ausmaßen riesig und gilt nach der Fläche als der größte Fresken-Zyklus zu einem christlichen Thema. Hunderte von Kolossalfiguren gruppieren sich auf insgesamt 4000 m² um den Weltenrichter, den man in der unteren Mitte mühsam erkennen kann. Vasaris Traum soll es gewesen sein, Michelangelos Jüngstes Gericht in der Sixtinischen Kapelle zu übertreffen.
Das Riesenwerk ist nicht unproblematisch. Denn es ist so weit vom Boden entfernt, dass man kaum ein Detail hinreichend erkennen kann – der Kuppelraum ist normalerweise dunkler als auf den Fotos –, und vor allem: Das Fresko Vasaris lässt die Kuppel nicht höher erscheinen, sondern niedriger. Das Kuppelfresko wurde seit 1979 restauriert und ist 1994 wieder enthüllt worden, wobei die beiden Kunsthistorikerinnen Cristina Acidini und Cristina Danti bisher ungewürdigte künstlerische Qualitäten dokumentiert haben.
Vasari war schon krank, als er 1572 im Alter von 61 Jahren das Gerüst zur Ausmalung der Kuppel bestieg und starb bereits zwei Jahre danach 1574 lange vor der Vollendung des Freskos. Federico Zuccari übermalte und modernisierte teilweise Vasaris Malerei. Dabei unterliefen ihm auch einige Fehler. So bekam beispielsweise ein Esel die massigen Beine eines Bären, der seinerseits mit Hufen ausgestattet wurde, was vom Boden der Kathedrale aus jedoch nicht sichtbar ist.
Einzelne Aspekte zum Florentiner Kuppelbau
Vorgeschichte
Die Kuppel des Domes von Florenz ist nicht die Bekrönung der Vierung eines lateinischen Kreuzes, also einer Kreuzung von Langhaus und Querhaus, sondern einer Drei-Konchen-Anlage, somit also ein Zentralbau, der erste der Renaissance. Zumindest hieß es so lange Zeit in der Fachliteratur. Aber dieser Zentralbau ist eine Idee der Gotik und seine Durchführung wurde mit gotischen Mitteln erreicht. Man sagt also besser: Dieser gotische Plan kam den Tendenzen der Renaissance entgegen.
Die Bewunderung für das antike römische Pantheon und die architektonische Tradition hatten sich vereint, um die Kuppel zum idealen und zentralen Bestandteil der Kirche zu machen. Es scheint, dass man auch in jenen Fällen, in denen man keinen Zentralbau durchführen konnte, weil – wie hier am Florentiner Dom – ein Langhaus bereits vorgegeben war, sich als Ersatz dafür im Ostbau wenigstens die Illusion eines Zentralbaus mit der Kuppel als wichtigstem Bestandteil hat verschaffen wollen.
Dabei gab es eine prinzipielle Schwierigkeit in der Renaissance bei der Verbindung des Zentralbauideals mit rein liturgischen Erfordernissen. Sollte ein Zentralbau eine Kuppel erhalten, dann konnte er nicht allzu groß werden, weil die Konstruktion der Kuppel das schwierigste von allem war. Deshalb wurde das Ideal des reinen Zentralbaus meistens bei kleineren Kirchen erfüllt.
In großen Kirchen sollten aber auch viele Menschen zusammenkommen, und das widersprach den technischen Grenzen des Zentralbaus. Deshalb wurden häufig Kompromisse gebildet, indem man an einen zentralbauähnlichen Ostteil ein Langhaus anschloss. Jetzt konnten zwar viele Gläubige im Innenraum zusammengefasst werden, aber ein idealer Zentralbau war das nicht, wie man am Grundriss sehen kann.
Besonders dramatisch waren später diese Auseinandersetzungen beim Neubau von St. Peter in Rom. Auch hier siegte im Endeffekt die politische Wirkung eines solchen bedeutenden Baues über das architektonische Ideal Michelangelos. Und die Politik spielte auch hier in Florenz eine Rolle.
Die Kuppel als Träger der Staatsidee
Von jeher war Architektur in den italienischen Stadtstaaten dazu ausersehen, Träger der Staatsideen zu werden. Und die Kuppel des Florentiner Doms hier war der deutlich sichtbare Ausdruck eines neuen Machtanspruchs einer Stadt, die mit 50.000 Einwohnern so viele Bewohner hatte wie London. Durch Brunelleschi wurde die Kuppel zu einer neuen Pathosformel erhoben – und das merkt man bis hin zum Kapitol in Washington von 1857. Im Mittelalter war der Turm oder die Turmgruppe das höchste architektonische Zeichen städtischer Majestät. Jetzt in der Neuzeit, in der Renaissance, wurde die Kuppel das Symbol staatlicher Macht.
Hier spielt sicher auch eine Rolle, dass zur damaligen Zeit Florenz mit Kunstwerken deutlich weniger ausgestattet war als seine italienischen Konkurrenten. Nach den Zeiten der Protorenaissance im 11. Jahrhundert gab es seltsamerweise eine lange Pause in der Entwicklung der Kunst. Erst 1246 mit der Dominikanerkirche Santa Maria Novella wurde wieder eine neue Periode in der Kunstgeschichte der Stadt eröffnet.
Im ganzen 12. Jahrhundert und noch im frühen 13. Jahrhundert, als in Pisa bereits der Dom erweitert wurde, der Campanile, das Baptisterium und der Camposanto erbaut wurden, als man in Lucca, in Pistoia, in Prato und später auch in Arezzo und Siena Dome und Kirchen errichtete, entstand in Florenz kein Bauwerk gleichen Ranges. Während sich Pisa und Lucca zu Zentren der Bildhauerkunst und der Malerei entfalteten, ist für Florenz kaum eine Skulptur und kein Gemälde bezeugt. In dieser fast 150 Jahre dauernden Pause schuf Florenz stattdessen die wirtschaftlichen und politischen Voraussetzungen für seine spätere Vormachtstellung, die dann durch den Bau des Domes und vor allem durch die dominierende Kuppel neuen, majestätischen Ausdruck erhalten sollte. Also: Die Kuppel des Doms hatte für Florenz wortwörtlich überragende Bedeutung. Hier musste mit einem Schlag ein langer künstlerischer Rückstand übersprungen werden. Florenz hatte gleichsam keine Wahl. Die Kuppel musste gelingen.
Das Interessante daran ist, dass möglicherweise bereits Arnolfo di Cambio, der 1296 mit dem Bau begonnen hatte, eine solche Kuppel vorgesehen hatte. Inspiriert war diese Idee sicher damals schon vom Baptisterium und von den gigantischen Kuppelbauten der römischen Antike, vor allem auch hier vom Pantheon in Rom und von der Hagia Sophia in Byzanz. Als weiteres Vorbild darf sicher die Kuppel des Pisaner Domes angenommen werden und die des Doms von Siena, einer Stadt, zu der Florenz in besonderer Konkurrenz stand. Aber die Verbindung dieser Idee einer so gigantischen Kuppel mit einem gotischen Langhaus war neu.
Die Probleme eines Kuppelbaus
Der Plan zu einer riesigen Kuppel war auch 1367 vorherrschend, als nach langer Bauunterbrechung eine Kommission der Baumeister und Maler die Ausdehnung der Vierung selbstbewusst auf 42 Meter erhöhte und eine Gewölbehöhe der noch zu bauenden Kuppel von 83 Metern vorsah.[9] Damit sollte die Florentiner Kuppel nicht nur die breiteste, sondern auch die höchste jemals errichtete Kuppel werden. Man hatte dabei sicher das Pantheon in Rom vor Augen, dessen Kuppeldurchmesser 42,70 Meter beträgt, also fast identisch mit den Florentiner Plänen.
Die aus diesen gewaltigen Ausmaßen resultierenden Schwierigkeiten erkannte man erst später. Denn man wusste nicht, wie man ein solch riesiges Gewölbe von 42 Metern Durchmesser über dem achteckigen Grundriss errichten konnte. Es erwies sich nämlich beispielsweise als unmöglich, die Gerüstbalken zu beschaffen, die für den Bau einer solchen Wölbung benötigt wurden. Denn man war zuvor – 1410–1413 – auf die kühne Idee gekommen, auf das 42 Meter hohe oktogonale Grundgeschoss noch ein Tambourgeschoß von knapp zehn Metern Höhe und 4½ Metern Dicke aufzusetzen, so dass die Kuppel erst in der unglaublichen Höhe von 52 Metern ansetzte, also in einer Höhe, die über den höchsten Gewölben der französischen gotischen Kathedralen lag – das höchste gotische Gewölbe hat die Kathedrale von Beauvais mit 48 Metern.
Übrigens erhielt die Kirche erst jetzt ihren heutigen Namen Santa Maria del Fiore. Bis dahin hieß sie wie die Vorgängerkirche Santa Reparata.
Und damit niemand auf die Idee kam, diesen neuen, kühnen Plan von 1367 zugunsten älterer, einfacherer Lösungen zu verlassen und damit den neuen Machtanspruch von Florenz zu reduzieren, vernichtete man alle älteren Dokumente, die sich mit dem Dombau befassten. Man hat also gleichsam alle Brücken hinter sich abgebrochen. Entweder diese neue Kuppel mit bisher noch nie erreichter Höhe – oder gar keine. Daher ist nur unzulänglich bekannt, wie sich Arnolfo di Cambio und seine frühen Nachfolger den Dom eigentlich vorgestellt hatten.
Die Konkurrenzsituation
Damals, in der 2. Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts herrschte eine scharfe Konkurrenz zwischen den großen norditalienischen Städten in Bezug auf ihre zentralen großen Kirchenbauten. In Florenz wurden teilweise über acht Prozent der gesamten Staatseinkünfte für den Bau des Domes aufgewandt.
1388 wurde in Bologna der Dom San Petronio begonnen, der den im Bau befindlichen Florentiner Dom noch übertreffen sollte, aber nie vollendet wurde. Zwei Jahre zuvor, 1386, war der Mailänder Dom begonnen worden, der nicht nur die italienischen, sondern alle Kathedralen des Abendlandes übertreffen sollte – allerdings ohne große Türme und ohne Kuppel. Die Kuppelwölbung war das große Problem und sie blieb es bis in unsere Zeit hinein, daher auch ihre große Bedeutung für die Repräsentation. Noch in der Nikolaikirche in Potsdam in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, im Kapitol von Washington 1857 und in den Großmacht-Fantasien des NS-Architekten Albert Speer für das Neue Berlin der 40er Jahre des 20. Jahrhunderts wirkte diese Idee nach.
1414 war in Florenz der Bau wieder ins Stocken geraten. Als vorerst letztes Glied wurde der zehn Meter hohe achteckige Tambour mit seinen runden Lichtöffnungen von 3,5 Meter Durchmesser errichtet. Die oktogonale Basis als Auflager für die Dachkonstruktion war damit vorgegeben.
Der Wettbewerb
Das Problem wurde über einen Wettbewerb im Jahr 1418 gelöst. Man schrieb am 19. August einen Wettbewerb aus, den Brunelleschi nach diversen Widerständen mit einem Rohentwurf gewann.
Die revolutionäre Idee Brunelleschis bestand darin, das Baugerüst gar nicht auf dem Boden aufsetzen zu lassen, sondern als Klettergerüst innerhalb der noch zu bauenden Kuppel zu verankern. Die Gutachterkommission lehnte seinen Vorschlag zunächst mehrmals ab. Brunelleschi bestand aber auf seinem Plan, teilweise so beharrlich, dass man ihn mehrmals aus den Sitzungen der Gutachterkommission hinaustragen musste. Außerdem war Brunelleschi nicht bei einem Baumeister in die Lehre gegangen, sondern bei einem Goldschmied, gehörte also nicht zur Gilde der Steinmetze, sondern derjenigen der Seidenweber an, die sich mit den Goldschmieden zusammengeschlossen hatten.
Erst als auf Seiten der Stadt keine brauchbare Alternative zu Brunelleschis Plan gefunden wurde, ließ man sich doch auf dessen Idee ein. Brunelleschi wurde nach der Annahme seines Rohentwurfes gebeten, einen genauen Plan auszuarbeiten. Ihm wurde zwar die Bauleitung übertragen, aber als unerfahrenem Baumeister wurde ihm – zur Vorsicht – Lorenzo Ghiberti an die Seite gestellt, was ihn sehr geärgert haben muss. Beide sollen sich zeitlebens wenig verstanden haben, nachdem 1401 Brunelleschi im Wettbewerb um die zweite Bronzetür des Baptisteriums Ghiberti unterlegen war. Trotzdem arbeiteten sie 18 Jahre lang an der Kuppel des Florentiner Domes zusammen, anfangs mit gleichem Gehalt. Um Ghibertis Inkompetenz bloßzustellen, soll Brunelleschi eine Krankheit fingiert haben, deretwegen die Bauarbeiten ins Stocken kamen.
Der Baubeginn der Kuppel
Der Baubeginn der Kuppel fand am 7. August 1420 in 52 Metern Höhe statt. Im gleichen Jahr war Brunelleschi mit einer weiteren genialen Idee aufgetreten. Er übernahm ein Bauprinzip aus der nordeuropäischen Gotik, die Rippenwölbung. Er verlegte Rippen an jeder Ecke des Oktogons und jeweils zwei zusätzliche im Innern jeder Gewölbekappe, also insgesamt 24, die miteinander durch waagerechte Querbalken verbunden waren. Die äußeren sind die weithin sichtbaren acht großen Marmorrippen mit einem Maß von 4,4 × 3,5 Metern. Jedes der acht Segmente der Kuppelschale ist an seiner Basis 17 Meter breit, 3,50 Meter dick und vollwandig aus massivem Kalksandstein geschichtet.
Durch diese insgesamt 24 Rippen entstand ein Skelettsystem, das mit zwei Ziegelschalen, einer inneren und einer äußeren, ausgefugt wurde. Die Schalen aus Ziegeln wurden in einzelnen Ringen von unten nach oben aufgemauert; die Kuppel wurde ohne Lehrgerüst errichtet. Das Deckenloch wurde zuerst wie im Pantheon in Rom offen gelassen. Später wurde die Laterne aufgesetzt.
Um einen Begriff davon zu bekommen, um welche Dimensionen an Hölzern es sich hier handelte: Für die Halbkuppel der südlichen Apsis, die im Jahr 1418 mit einem solchen Lehrgerüst konstruiert wurde, benötigte man 32 Baumstämme, die in Bohlen von insgesamt 280 Metern Länge und 135 Balken zersägt wurden. Die Halbkuppel ist aber weitaus kleiner im Vergleich zur Vierungskuppel, für die nach einer Schätzung zwanzig Mal so viel Holz benötigt wurde.
Das waren bis dahin kaum vorstellbare und schwerlich finanzierbare Dimensionen, und auch die technische Realisierbarkeit blieb weiterhin fraglich. Brunelleschi, der sich in antiker Architektur auskannte, nahm die alte Idee der Doppelschaligkeit auf und erfand ganz neue Techniken für die einzelnen Arbeitsschritte.
Zugringe aus Stein
Eine doppelschalige Kuppelkonstruktion entsprach der antiken Tradition. Auch das Baptisterium besitzt in Ansätzen eine solche doppelte Schale. Die Idee stammt aus dem mittelalterlichen Persien und stellte das typische Merkmal islamischer Moscheen dar. Trotz der Doppelschaligkeit blieben bauliche Schwierigkeiten.
Die Kuppel musste – auch als Rippenkonstruktion – zusätzlich abgestützt werden, genauso wie in der gotischen Architektur Nordeuropas, wo diese Idee herkam. Aber in Italien gibt es außer beim Mailänder Dom kein äußeres, stützendes Strebewerk wie in Frankreich oder Deutschland. Die riesige Kuppel in Florenz kann seitlich nicht abgestützt werden, da sie in zu großer Höhe thront. Um den horizontalen Schub des Gewölbes zu neutralisieren und nur noch Vertikalkräfte in die Tambourwände einzuleiten, erfand Brunelleschi „ein System so genannter Steinketten, um die beiden Gewölbeschalen zusammenzuhalten. Sie setzen an den Rippen an und sind durch Metallklammern verbunden, so dass sie Zugspannung aufnehmen können. Ohne sie würden die Rippen unter der Gesteinslast nach außen gedrückt“ und bersten.
Die Kuppel: Gotik oder Renaissance?
Die Kuppelkonstruktion hatte nachhaltige Konsequenzen für die Architektur der gesamten Renaissance. Deswegen setzte die Kunstgeschichte den Beginn der Renaissance lange Zeit auf diesen Kuppelbau von 1420 bis 1436.
Gegen diese Sichtweise ist aber einiges einzuwenden. Die Kuppel war unzweifelhaft eine Glanzleistung, die von niemandem übertroffen worden ist, auch nicht von Michelangelo später am Petersdom in Rom. Aber in diesem Fall war Brunelleschi in erster Linie als Ingenieur gefordert, die in der Planung bereits festgelegte Vierungskuppel zu erbauen. „Das ganze Werk hat bezeichnenderweise ein spitzbogiges, gotisches Profil, denn es ist nach dem gotischen Prinzip der tragenden Rippen erbaut. Selbst wenn Brunelleschi die Kuppel des Pantheon studiert hat, um seine Technik zu vervollkommnen, haben die beiden Werke doch nichts miteinander gemein: die Kuppel des Pantheon ist eine echte Halbkugel, […], die von den riesigen Mauern getragen wird. […] Die Florentiner Kuppel ist ein ins Gigantische gesteigertes Spitzbogengewölbe, das als Kuppel getarnt ist. Nur in den untergeordneten Bauelementen erscheint der Stil Brunelleschis – und damit Renaissancekunst.“ Auch das Motiv des Kapellenkranzes, der sich um die Vierung herumlegt, kommt aus der nordeuropäischen Architektur, ist also Gotik (oder sogar Romanik) und keine Renaissance.
Das erste wirkliche Renaissance-Bauwerk Brunelleschis ist die nicht weit entfernte Kirche von San Lorenzo.
Es ist wahrscheinlich nicht so, dass sich Brunelleschi von Anfang an über alle Details der Konstruktion im Klaren war. Auf viele Ideen kam er erst während der 16-jährigen Bauzeit. Und der obere spätere Teil der Kuppel war der schwierigere, weil hier die Wölbung wesentlich stärker ist. Genaue Informationen über Brunelleschis Pläne und Phantasien sind nicht bekannt, weil er in dieser Hinsicht schweigsam war. Er befürchtete, dass andere ihm seine Ideen stehlen könnten. Deshalb informierte er nur seine nächsten Mitarbeiter über seine Pläne – und das auch nur spät. Brunelleschi ist in Sichtweite des Domes aufgewachsen, kannte von Kindesbeinen an die Probleme, die seine Vorgänger mit der Wölbung hatten, informierte sich jahrelang auch in Rom über antike Architektur und hatte mit Sicherheit diverse Pläne im Kopf, wie eine solche Kuppel zu konstruieren sei. Aber er wusste, dass er der einzige war, der so etwas konnte, und behielt sein Wissen möglichst bei sich. Wenn er für sich selbst Pläne aufzeichnete, bediente er sich einer Geheimschrift, die niemand anderer lesen konnte.
Eisenkette
So gibt es beispielsweise seit ewigen Zeiten Gerüchte über eine Eisenkette, die Brunelleschi angeblich zusätzlich zu den bekannten Steinketten um den Sockel der Kuppel hat legen lassen. Eine magnetische Untersuchung, die in den 1970er Jahren durchgeführt wurde, erbrachte keinen Beweis, dass diese Ketten tatsächlich existieren.
Holzkette
Was es aber außer den vier Steinketten wirklich gibt, ist eine 1424 hinzugefügte Holzkette 7½ Meter über der untersten Steinkette – bestehend aus Balken aus Kastanienholz von sechs Metern Länge und einem Querschnitt von 30 × 30 Zentimetern. Dieses Holz musste gefunden und sorgfältig mit einem speziellen Verfahren verarbeitet werden, was mehrere Jahre in Anspruch nahm. Dass man außer an Stein- auch an Holzketten dachte, hat damit zu tun, dass man eine solche Holzkonstruktion für widerstandsfähiger bei Erdbeben hielt. Bei der Hagia Sophia in Konstantinopel war man so vorgegangen und bei einigen anderen Bauten in den gefährdeten Gebieten beispielsweise in Persien. Und tatsächlich erlitt die cupola bei den Erdbeben von 1510, 1675 und 1895 keine Schäden. Die Holzkette musste übrigens im 18. Jahrhundert ausgetauscht werden, weil das Holz zu verrotten begann.
Baumaschinen
Zu Brunelleschis Glanzleistungen zählen unter anderem auch die Maschinen, die er entworfen hat, um mit ihnen die Steine in die Höhe zu ziehen. Hier waren Konstruktionen notwendig, die zur damaligen Zeit noch nicht existierten. Die Materialaufzüge und Kräne, die Filippo entwarf, wurden zu den meistbewunderten mechanischen Geräten der Renaissance. Das Seil für den Lastenaufzug wurde in Pisa bestellt, einer Hochburg des Schiffbaus. Aber auch die dortigen Fachleute sahen sich einer neuen Aufgabe gegenüber, denn es wurde das längste und schwerste Seil benötigt, das jemals angefertigt worden war: 180 Meter lang, mehr als sieben Zentimeter dick und mit einem Gewicht von nahezu einer halben Tonne. Dieser Aufzug bewegte täglich ca. 50 Mal die Steine in die Höhe, also ungefähr eine Fuhre alle zehn Minuten.
Bevor die einzelnen Steine in der Kuppel eingesetzt wurden, mussten sie natürlich genau zugehauen werden. Die Schablonen dafür wurden auf einem Grundstück hergestellt, das Brunelleschi im Sommer 1420 flussabwärts auf einem Uferbereich des Arno auf einer Fläche von 800 m² präpariert hatte. Dort wurde ein Plan der Kuppel im Verhältnis 1:1 in den Sand geritzt. Bei den gotischen Kathedralen Nordeuropas war man ähnlich vorgegangen. Diese Schablonen von über 2½ Metern Größe wurden anschließend am Mauerwerk der inneren Kuppelschale befestigt und dienten als Richtmaß.
Ziegel
Bei der Herstellung der Ziegel ging man ebenfalls von Schablonen aus, da nicht nur einheitliche Maße benutzt wurden, sondern auch außergewöhnliche – dreieckige Formen, Ziegel mit Verzahnungen oder mit hervorstehendem Rand, Ziegel, die genau in die Ecken passten etc. Aber bis es überhaupt so weit war, musste ein langer Weg zurückgelegt werden.
Die Brennöfen befanden sich nicht in der Stadt, sondern auf dem Land in der Nähe der Tongruben. Es war natürlich etwas anderes, ob man Ziegel brauchte für ein kleines Haus, die man im Bedarfsfalle leicht ersetzen konnte, oder ob es sich um Ziegel handelte für die Riesenkuppel von Florenz, wo ein kleiner Fehler massive Konsequenzen haben könnte. Jedenfalls gab es umfangreiche Regeln dafür, wie und wo und wann der Ton gewonnen werden sollte, wie lange er vor dem Brennen trocknen sollte – das konnte bis zu zwei Jahren dauern –, wie der Mörtel beschaffen sein sollte usw.
Der geknetete Ton wurde in entsprechenden Holzformen an der Luft getrocknet und vorgehärtet. Danach erfolgte das Brennen, das mehrere Tage dauerte. Da die Temperatur im Ofen um 1000 Grad Celsius betrug, ließ man die Ziegel zwei Wochen abkühlen, damit sie bruchfester wurden, bevor man sie zur Baustelle transportierte. Ein Brennofen konnte im Durchschnitt 20.000 Ziegel aufnehmen; wurde er alle drei Wochen befeuert, ergab dies eine jährliche Kapazität von mehr als 300.000 Ziegeln. Doch selbst bei dieser Leistung hätte es mit nur einem Brennofen mehr als 13 Jahre gedauert, die für den Bau der Kuppel erforderlichen vier Millionen Ziegel herzustellen.
Das Tempo der acht Maurermannschaften wurde durch das Abbinden des Mörtels im zuletzt gemauerten Horizontalring auf weniger als einen Ring pro Woche begrenzt. Die Kuppel wuchs somit jeden Monat um ungefähr 30 Zentimeter in die Höhe.
Trotz der schwierigen Arbeitsbedingungen soll während der 16-jährigen Bauzeit der Kuppel nur ein einziger Arbeiter ums Leben gekommen sein.
Loggia
Am Ansatz der Kuppel wurde 1508–12 versucht, eine Loggia anzubringen, die den gesamten Ostbau plastisch aufgelockert hätte und die auch zu Brunelleschis Plan gehörte. Aber deren Gestaltung ist zu zierlich geraten und – der Überlieferung nach – soll Michelangelo sich sehr abschätzig über diese Idee geäußert haben – sie sehe aus „wie ein Grillenkäfig“ –, weshalb der Plan nicht vollendet wurde.Quelle?
Risse
Insgesamt wiegt allein die Kuppel ca. 37.000 Tonnen und hat bis heute gehalten, trotz der insgesamt 1.500 Haarrisse, die mittlerweile aufgetreten sind. Das Phänomen der Risse ist an sich nicht neu. Angeblich sollen schon um 1500, also kurz nach Fertigstellung des Bauwerks, solche Risse aufgetreten sein. Jetzt scheinen die Risse so zahlreich zu werden, dass man überlegt, Maßnahmen zu ihrer Beseitigung zu ergreifen.
Man weiß nicht, wie Brunelleschi selber dieses Problem gesehen hat, denn er hat keinerlei Aufzeichnungen hinterlassen. Michelangelo hat bei der Konstruktion der Kuppel des Petersdomes in Rom eine schwere Eisenkette um deren Sockelzone vorgesehen. Als Grund für die jetzt zunehmend auftretenden Risse in Florenz werden von fachlicher Seite die normalen Temperaturschwankungen angegeben, die im Laufe der Jahrhunderte dem Mauerwerk langsam zugesetzt hätten. Eine Lösung des Problems ist trotz zahlreicher Kommissionen offenbar noch nicht in Sicht, deren erste bereits 1934 angetreten war. Aktuell wird die Kuppel durch ständiges Deformationsmonitoring überwacht, um kleinste Veränderungen sofort nachvollziehen zu können.
Andererseits gilt: „Da in der Regel schon beim Ausschalen des Gewölbes solche Spannungen auftreten und erste Risse provozieren, ist der gerissene Zustand als der normale anzusehen und das jeweilige Rißbild im Gewölbe Zeichen einer letztlich individuellen Statik.“
Treppensystem
Brunelleschi baute die Kuppel auf einem hohen Tambour in den besagten zwei Schalen, wobei die innere Schale die dickere ist. Die äußere dient lediglich der Bedachung. Zwischen beiden Schalen liegt ein Treppensystem, das über 463 Stufen begehbar ist und auf die Laterne an der Kuppelspitze in 106 Meter Höhe führt.
Nachwirkungen des Florentiner Kuppelbaus
Dieser gewaltige Kirchenbau, dessen Konzeption bereits 1367 festgelegt war, sollte Ausdruck des Stolzes einer Stadt sein, die damals ein außerordentliches Maß an Macht und Reichtum erworben hatte. Florenz zählte gegen Ende des 13. Jahrhunderts mit ungefähr 100.000 Einwohnern zu den größten Städten der damaligen Welt.
Von vergleichbarer Größe ist die ebenfalls doppelschalige Kuppel des Petersdoms (1590) mit 42,3 Metern Durchmesser, das größte freitragende Ziegelbauwerk der Erde, und das Pantheon (118) mit der größten in unbewehrtem Beton gegossenen Kuppel von 43,2 Metern, beide in Rom. Einen größeren Durchmesser hatte mit 108 Metern erst die zur Weltausstellung 1873 gebaute Rotunde in Wien aus Stahl, die 1937 einem Brand zum Opfer fiel.
(Wikipedia)
Some snippets from Sunday at the Goodwood Revival. A bright sunny start, but very wet by the end. The winner of Sunday's St. Marys Trophy race - Bill Sheppard's mighty Ford Galaxie
Includes:
figure
black fedora
painted BA lever action rifle
painted BA m1851 navy revolver
silver BA combat knife
bronze BA ammo link
brown satchel
black holster
brown treasure chest
1x1 gold round studs x4
1x2 gold bar x2
1x2 tile 100 dollar bill
tan 1x1 tile (ammo box)
silver horn (powder horn)
pan
brown bucket w/ handle
brown horse
saddle
silver telescope
shovel
all this for the low price of $30.00 !!!
not actually for sale, do you like it?
Washington Park is a public urban park in Portland, Oregon, USA. It includes a zoo, forestry museum, arboretum, children's museum, rose garden, Japanese garden, amphitheatre, memorials, archery range, tennis courts, soccer field, picnic areas, playgrounds, public art and many acres of wild forest with miles of trails. Washington Park covers more than 410 acres (166 hectares) on mostly steep, wooded hillsides which range in elevation from 200 feet (61 m) at 24th & W Burnside to 870 feet (265 m) at SW Fairview Blvd. It comprises 159.7 acres (64.63 hectares) of city park land that has been officially designated as "Washington Park" by the City of Portland,[1] as well as the adjacent 64 acre Oregon Zoo and the 187 acre Hoyt Arboretum, which together make up the area described as "Washington Park" on signs and maps.[2]
Contents
1 History
2 Notable features
2.1 Statues and fountains
3 Public access
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
History
Garden near north entrance
A blossoming tree at night in Washington park.
The City of Portland purchased the original 40.78 acres (16.5 hectares) in 1871 from Amos King for $32,624, a controversially high price for the time.[3][4] The area, designated "City Park", was wilderness with few roads. Thick brush, trees and roaming cougar discouraged access. In the mid-1880s, Charles M. Meyers was hired as park keeper. A former seaman without landscape training, he transformed the park by drawing on memories of his native Germany and European parks. By 1900, there were roads, trails, landscaped areas with lawns, manicured hedges, flower gardens, and a zoo. Cable cars were added in 1890 and operated until the 1930s.
In 1903, John Charles Olmsted of Olmsted Brothers, a nationally known landscape architecture firm, recommended several changes to the park including the present name, location of the entrance, separate roads and pedestrian paths, and replacement of formal gardens with native species. The name was officially changed from City Park to Washington Park in 1909.[5]
When the county poor farm closed in 1922, the 160 acres (64.75 hectares) were added to Washington Park.
Portland's zoo was founded in Washington Park in 1887 near where the reservoirs are presently located. It moved in 1925 to what is now the Japanese Garden, and moved again in 1959 to its present location at the park's southern edge. The only surviving structure from the old zoo is the elephant barn, now converted into a picnic shelter and decorated with tile mosaic of various animals and a life-size brick relief sculpture of an elephant and calf.
The City of Portland plans to demolish the existing number 3 and 4 outdoor reservoirs, then replace them with underground reservoirs covered by reflecting pools, due to their age and a federal mandate to cover all reservoirs.[6] The $67 million project has attracted opposition from historical preservationists and residents concerned about construction impacts.[7]
Description: Mock up label includes reduction of size instructions. Handwritten note reads 'Reduce to 4 5/16. Top label reads 'Melrose's Tea. Registered trademark. A W Melrose Co'. Bottom label reads 'Blended & packed by Melroses Ltd, Edinburgh. By appointment Tea and coffee merchants to the late George V. Established 1812.'
Accession number: SH.2008.170.3
Further Notes: Smith and Ritchie were established in Edinburgh in 1853. The firm were multi colour offset printers who were specialist suppliers to the food packaging industry. They were located at Amphion Works in Albert Street. In 1963 Smith & Ritchie became the first printing company in Scotland to use a gravure press and produced reel fed work up to five colours. Smith & Ritchie moved to Livingston in 1986 and in 1991 became the first printing firm in Scotland to use a 10 station gravure press.
Smith & Ritchie have subsequently moved out to Livingston and survive today as Amcor Flexibles S & R. Amcor are originally an Australian company and now have operations in 36 countries around the world specialising in many printed products of which the food packaging that Amcor Flexibles S & R is one.
History: Smith & Ritchie were located at 71 Albert Street, Edinburgh.
Edinburgh City of Print is a joint project between City of Edinburgh Museums and the Scottish Archive of Print and Publishing History Records (SAPPHIRE). The project aims to catalogue and make accessible the wealth of printing collections held by City of Edinburgh Museums. For more information about the project please visit www.edinburghcityofprint.org
EH7 5LL
This is a photograph from the Forest Marathon festival 2013 which was held in the beautiful Coillte forest of Portumna in Co. Galway, Ireland on Saturday 15th June 2013. The event includes a 10k, a full marathon, a half marathon and two ultra-running events - a 50k and 100k race. The races started at 08:00 with the 100KM, the 50KM at 10:00, and subsequent races at two hour intervals onwards. All events started and finished within the forest with the exception of the half marathon and marathon which started outside of the forest. All events see participants complete 5KM loops of the forest which start and end at the car-park/amenity end of the forest. There is an official Refreshment/Handling Zones at this point on the loop.
The event was organised by international coach Sebastien Locteau from SportsIreland.ie and his fantastic team of volunteers from Galway and beyond. Congratulations to Seb on organising a very professionally run event and an event which is growing bigger and more prestigious with each passing year. There was an incredible atmosphere amongst the runners, the spectators, and the organisers. Hats off to everyone involved.
The marathon, 50KM, and 100KM events are sanctioned by Athletics Ireland and AIMS (the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races). The event has also achieved IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners) Bronze Label status for 2013.
Electronic timing was provided by RedTagTiming: www.redtagtiming.com/
Energy Bars, Gels, Drinks etc were provided by Fuel4Sport: www.fuel4sport.ie/
This is a set of photographs taken at various points on the 5KM loop in the Forest and contains photographs of competitors from all of the events except the 10KM race.
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If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".
Overall Race Summary
Participants: Approximately 600 people took part across all of the events which were staged: 10km, half marathon, marathon, 50km, and 100KM.
Weather: The weather was unfortunately not what a summer's day in June should be like - there was rain, some breeze, but mild temperatures.
Course: This is a fast flat course depending on your event. The course is left handed around the Forest and roughly looks like a figure of 8 in terms of routing.
Location Map: Start/finish area on Google StreetView [goo.gl/maps/WWTgD] are inside the parklands and trails
Refreshments: There are no specific refreshments but the race organizers provide very adequate supplies for all participants.
Some Useful Links
Official Race Event Website: www.forestmarathon.com/
The Boards.ie Athletics Forum Thread for the 2013 Event: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056874371
A GPS Garmin Trace of the Course Profile (from the 50KM event) connect.garmin.com/activity/189495781
Our Flickr Photographs from the 2012 Events: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157630146344494/
Our Flickr Photographs from the 2011 Events: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157626865466587/
Title Sponsors Sports Ireland Website: sites.google.com/a/sportsireland.ie/welcome-sports-irelan...
A VIDEO of the Course: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2FLxE...
Google StreetView of the Entrance to Portuma Forest: goo.gl/maps/MX62O
Wikipedia: Read about Portumna and Portumna Forest Park: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portumna#Portumna_Forest_Park
Coilte Ourdoors Website: www.coillteoutdoors.ie/?id=53&rec_site=115
Portumna Forest on EveryTrails: www.everytrail.com/guide/portumna-forest-park-woodland-tr...
More about the IAU Bronze Label: www.iau-ultramarathon.org/index.asp?menucode=h07&tmp=...
How can I get a full resolution copy of these photographs?
All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available offline, free, at no cost, at full image resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember - all we ask is for you to link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. Taking the photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.
If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
After the snowmobile safari, we visited a husky farm - the pups we almost irresistible, such gorgeous eyes. Some have one brown, one blue
From this morning's Petit Depart as Ken Scott started out on his 'round Britain walk. He will be raising money for Parkinson's and the RNLI. Wife Carolyn and son Gavin kept him company for the first stretch across the Adur Ferry Bridge. Good luck, Ken.
The Lidl Run Kildare Events 2013 were held at the Curragh Racecourse, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland on Sunday 12th May 2013. There were three events: a 10KM, a half marathon, and a full marathon. This is a selection of photographs which includes all events. The photographs are taken from the start and finish of the marathon, the finish of the 10KM, and the finish of the half marathon. Due to the large numbers participating we did not manage to photograph everyone - which was not helped by the weather. Congratulations to Jo Cawley and her RunKildare crew for another great event. The weather didn't dampen the spirits of the many happy participants.
Electronic timing was provided by Red Tag Timing [www.redtagtiming.com/]
Overall Race Summary
Participants: There were approximately 3,000 participants over the 3 race events - there were runners, joggers, and walkers participating.
Weather: A cold breezy morning with heavy rain at the start. The weather dried up for the 10KM and the Half Marathon races
Course: This is an undulating course with some good flat stretches on the Curragh.
Viewing this on a smartphone device?
If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".
Some Useful Links
GPS Garmin Trace of the Kildare Marathon Route: connect.garmin.com/activity/175709313
Homepage of the Lidl Run Kildare Event: www.kildaremarathon.ie/index.html
Facebook Group page of the Lidl Run Kildare Event: www.facebook.com/RunKildare
Boards.ie Athletics Discussion Board pages about the race series: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056815306
Our photographs from Run Kildare 2012: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157629707887620/
Our photographs from Run Kildare 2011: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157626725200956/
A small selection of photographs from Run Kildare 2010: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157623899845567/ (first event)
Can I use the photograph with the watermark?
Yes! Absolutely - you can post this photograph to your social networks, blogs, micro-blogging, etc.
How can I get a full resolution, no watermark, copy of these photographs?
All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available, free, at no cost, at full resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. We do not know of any other photographers who operate such a policy. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember - all we ask is for you to link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. Taking the photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.
If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Some people offer payment for our photographs. We do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would pay for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
Hindu deities are the gods and goddesses in Hinduism. The terms and epithets found in Indian culture, that are translated as deity, varies with the text and diverse traditions within Hinduism, and include Deva, Devi, Ishvara, Bhagavan and Bhagavathi.[1][2][note 1]
The deities of Hinduism have evolved from Vedic era (2nd millennium BCE) through medieval era (1st millennium CE), regionally within India and in southeast Asia, and across Hinduism's diverse traditions.[3][4] The Hindu deity concept varies from a personal god as in Yoga school of Hindu philosophy,[5][6] to 33 Vedic deities,[7] to hundreds of Puranic deities, to millions of deities in Tantra traditions of Hinduism.[8] Illustrations of major deities include Vishnu, Sri (Lakshmi), Shiva, Parvati (Durga), Brahma and Saraswati. These deities have distinct and complex personalities, yet often viewed as aspects of the same Ultimate Reality called Brahman.[9][note 2] From ancient times, the idea of equivalence has been cherished in Hinduism, in its texts and in early 1st millennium sculpture with concepts such as Harihara (half Shiva, half Vishnu),[10] Ardhanarishvara (half Shiva, half Parvati) or Vaikuntha Kamalaja (half Vishnu, half Lakshmi),[11] with mythologies and temples that feature them together, declaring they are the same.[12][13][14] Major deities have inspired their own Hindu traditions, such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism, but with shared mythology, ritual grammar, theosophy, axiology and polycentrism.[15][16][17] Some Hindu traditions such as Smartism from mid 1st millennium CE, have included multiple major deities as henotheistic manifestations of Saguna Brahman, and as a means to realizing Nirguna Brahman.[18][19][20]
Hindu deities are represented with various icons and anicons, in paintings and sculptures, called Murtis and Pratimas.[21][22][23] Some Hindu traditions, such as ancient Charvakas rejected all deities and concept of god or goddess,[24][25][26] while 19th-century British colonial era movements such as the Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj rejected deities and adopted monotheistic concepts similar to Abrahamic religions.[27][28] Hindu deities have been adopted in other religions such as Jainism,[29] and in regions outside India such as predominantly Buddhist Thailand and Japan where they continue to be revered in regional temples or arts.[30][31][32]
In ancient and medieval era texts of Hinduism, the human body is described as a temple,[33][34] and deities are described to be parts residing within it,[35][36] while the Brahman (Absolute Reality, God)[18][37] is described to be the same, or of similar nature, as the Atman (self, soul), which Hindus believe is eternal and within every living being.[38][39][40] Deities in Hinduism are as diverse as its traditions, and a Hindu can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, agnostic, atheistic or humanist.[41][42][43]
Deities in Hinduism are referred to as Deva (masculine) and Devi (feminine).[44][45][46] The root of these terms mean "heavenly, divine, anything of excellence".[47] According to Douglas Harper, the etymological roots of Deva mean "a shining one," from *div- "to shine," and it is a cognate with Greek dios "divine" and Zeus, and Latin deus (Old Latin deivos).[48]
In the earliest Vedic literature, all supernatural beings are called Asuras.[49][50] By the late Vedic period (~500 BCE), benevolent supernatural beings are referred to as Deva-Asuras. In post-Vedic texts, such as the Puranas and the Itihasas of Hinduism, the Devas represent the good, and the Asuras the bad.[3][4] In some medieval Indian literature, Devas are also referred to as Suras and contrasted with their equally powerful, but malevolent half-brothers referred to as the Asuras.[51]
Hindu deities are part of Indian mythology, both Devas and Devis feature in one of many cosmological theories in Hinduism.[52][53]
Characteristics of Vedic era deities[edit]
In Vedic literature, Devas and Devis represent the forces of nature and some represent moral values (such as the Adityas, Varuna, and Mitra), each symbolizing the epitome of a specialized knowledge, creative energy, exalted and magical powers (Siddhis).[54][55]
The most referred to Devas in the Rig Veda are Indra, Agni (fire) and Soma, with "fire deity" called the friend of all humanity, it and Soma being the two celebrated in a yajna fire ritual that marks major Hindu ceremonies. Savitr, Vishnu, Rudra (later given the exclusive epithet of Shiva), and Prajapati (later Brahma) are gods and hence Devas.[30]
The Vedas describes a number of significant Devis such as Ushas (dawn), Prithvi (earth), Aditi (cosmic moral order), Saraswati (river, knowledge), Vāc (sound), Nirṛti (destruction), Ratri (night), Aranyani (forest), and bounty goddesses such as Dinsana, Raka, Puramdhi, Parendi, Bharati, Mahi among others are mentioned in the Rigveda.[58] Sri, also called Lakshmi, appears in late Vedic texts dated to be pre-Buddhist, but verses dedicated to her do not suggest that her characteristics were fully developed in the Vedic era.[59] All gods and goddesses are distinguished in the Vedic times, but in the post-Vedic texts (~500 BCE to 200 CE), and particularly in the early medieval era literature, they are ultimately seen as aspects or manifestations of one Brahman, the Supreme power.[59][60]
Ananda Coomaraswamy states that Devas and Asuras in the Vedic lore are similar to Angels-Theoi-Gods and Titans of Greek mythology, both are powerful but have different orientations and inclinations, the Devas representing the powers of Light and the Asuras representing the powers of Darkness in Hindu mythology.[61][62] According to Coomaraswamy's interpretation of Devas and Asuras, both these natures exist in each human being, the tyrant and the angel is within each being, the best and the worst within each person struggles before choices and one's own nature, and the Hindu formulation of Devas and Asuras is an eternal dance between these within each person.[63][64]
The Devas and Asuras, Angels and Titans, powers of Light and powers of Darkness in Rigveda, although distinct and opposite in operation, are in essence consubstantial, their distinction being a matter not of essence but of orientation, revolution or transformation. In this case, the Titan is potentially an Angel, the Angel still by nature a Titan; the Darkness in actu is Light, the Light in potentia Darkness; whence the designations Asura and Deva may be applied to one and the same Person according to the mode of operation, as in Rigveda 1.163.3, "Trita art thou (Agni) by interior operation".
— Ananda Coomaraswamy, Journal of the American Oriental Society[65]
Characteristics of medieval era deities[edit]
In the Puranas and the Itihasas with the embedded Bhagavad Gita, the Devas represent the good, and the Asuras the bad.[3][4] According to the Bhagavad Gita (16.6-16.7), all beings in the universe have both the divine qualities (daivi sampad) and the demonic qualities (asuri sampad) within each.[4][66] The sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita states that pure god-like saints are rare and pure demon-like evil are rare among human beings, and the bulk of humanity is multi-charactered with a few or many faults.[4] According to Jeaneane Fowler, the Gita states that desires, aversions, greed, needs, emotions in various forms "are facets of ordinary lives", and it is only when they turn to lust, hate, cravings, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, hypocrisy, violence, cruelty and such negativity- and destruction-inclined that natural human inclinations metamorphose into something demonic (Asura).[4][66]
The Epics and medieval era texts, particularly the Puranas, developed extensive and richly varying mythologies associated with Hindu deities, including their genealogies.[67][68][69] Several of the Purana texts are named after major Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva and Devi.[67] Other texts and commentators such as Adi Shankara explain that Hindu deities live or rule over the cosmic body as well in the temple of human body.[33][70] They remark that the Sun deity is the giver of vision, the Vayu deity the nose, the Prajapati the sexual organs, the Lokapalas (directions) are the ears, moon deity the mind, Mitra deity is the inward breath, Varuna deity is the outward breath, Indra deity the arms, Brhaspati the speech, Vishnu whose stride is great is the feet, and Maya is the smile.[70]
Symbolism[edit]
Edelmann states that gods and anti-gods of Hinduism are symbolism for spiritual concepts. For example, god Indra (a Deva) and the antigod Virocana (an Asura) question a sage for insights into the knowledge of the self.[71] Virocana leaves with the first given answer, believing now he can use the knowledge as a weapon. In contrast, Indra keeps pressing the sage, churning the ideas, and learning about means to inner happiness and power. Edelmann suggests that the Deva-Asura dichotomies in Hindu mythology may be seen as "narrative depictions of tendencies within our selves".[71] Hindu deities in Vedic era, states Mahoney, are those artists with "powerfully inward transformative, effective and creative mental powers".[72]
In Hindu mythology, everyone starts as an Asura, born of the same father. "Asuras who remain Asura" share the character of powerful beings craving for more power, more wealth, ego, anger, unprincipled nature, force and violence.[73][74] The "Asuras who become Devas" in contrast are driven by an inner voice, seek understanding and meaning, prefer moderation, principled behavior, aligned with Ṛta and Dharma, knowledge and harmony.[73][74][75]
The god (Deva) and antigod (Asura), states Edelmann, are also symbolically the contradictory forces that motivate each individual and people, and thus Deva-Asura dichotomy is a spiritual concept rather than mere genealogical category or species of being.[76] In the Bhāgavata Purana, saints and gods are born in families of Asuras, such as Mahabali and Prahlada, conveying the symbolism that motivations, beliefs and actions rather than one's birth and family circumstances define whether one is Deva-like or Asura-like.[76]
Another Hindu term that is sometimes translated as deity is Ishvara, or alternatively various deities are described, state Sorajjakool et al., as "the personifications of various aspects of one and the same Ishvara".[77] The term Ishvara has a wide range of meanings that depend on the era and the school of Hinduism.[78][79][80] In ancient texts of Indian philosophy, Ishvara means supreme soul, Brahman (Highest Reality), ruler, king or husband depending on the context.[78] In medieval era texts, Ishvara means God, Supreme Being, personal god, or special Self depending on the school of Hinduism.[2][80][81]
Among the six systems of Hindu philosophy, Samkhya and Mimamsa do not consider the concept of Ishvara, i.e., a supreme being, relevant. Yoga, Vaisheshika, Vedanta and Nyaya schools of Hinduism discuss Ishvara, but assign different meanings.
Early Nyaya school scholars considered the hypothesis of a deity as a creator God with the power to grant blessings, boons and fruits; but these early Nyaya scholars then rejected this hypothesis, and were non-theistic or atheists.[25][82] Later scholars of Nyaya school reconsidered this question and offered counter arguments for what is Ishvara and various arguments to prove the existence of omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent deity (God).[83]
Vaisheshika school of Hinduism, as founded by Kanada in 1st millennium BC, neither required nor relied on creator deity.[84][85] Later Vaisheshika school adopted the concept of Ishvara, states Klaus Klostermaier, but as an eternal God who co-exists in the universe with eternal substances and atoms, but He "winds up the clock, and lets it run its course".[84]
Ancient Mimamsa scholars of Hinduism questioned what is Ishvara (deity, God)?[86] They considered deity concept unnecessary for a consistent philosophy and moksha (soteriology).[86][87]
In Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, Isvara is neither a creator-God, nor a savior-God.[88] This is called one of the several major atheistic schools of Hinduism by some scholars.[89][90][91] Others, such as Jacobsen, state that Samkhya is more accurately described as non-theistic.[92] Deity is considered an irrelevant concept, neither defined nor denied, in Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy.[93]
In Yoga school of Hinduism, it is any "personal deity" (Ishta Deva or Ishta Devata)[94] or "spiritual inspiration", but not a creator God.[81][89] Whicher explains that while Patanjali's terse verses in the Yogasutras can be interpreted both as theistic or non-theistic, Patanjali's concept of Isvara in Yoga philosophy functions as a "transformative catalyst or guide for aiding the yogin on the path to spiritual emancipation".[95]
The Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism asserted that there is no dualistic existence of deity (or deities).[96][97] There is no otherness nor distinction between Jiva and Ishvara.[98][99] God (Ishvara, Brahman) is identical with the Atman (soul) within each human being in Advaita Vedanta school,[100] and there is a monistic Universal Absolute Oneness that connects everyone and everything, states this school of Hinduism.[39][99][101] This school, states Anantanand Rambachan, has "perhaps exerted the most widespread influence".[102]
The Dvaita sub-school of Vedanta Hinduism, founded in medieval era, Ishvara is defined as a creator God that is distinct from Jiva (individual souls in living beings).[40] In this school, God creates individual souls, but the individual soul never was and never will become one with God; the best it can do is to experience bliss by getting infinitely close to God.[20]
Number of deities[edit]
Yāska, the earliest known language scholar of India (~ 500 BCE), notes Wilkins, mentions that there are three deities (Devas) according to the Vedas, "Agni (fire), whose place is on the earth; Vayu (wind), whose place is the air; and Surya (sun), whose place is in the sky".[107] This principle of three worlds (or zones), and its multiples is found thereafter in many ancient texts. The Samhitas, which are the oldest layer of text in Vedas enumerate 33 devas,[note 3] either 11 each for the three worlds, or as 12 Adityas, 11 Rudras, 8 Vasus and 2 Ashvins in the Brahmanas layer of Vedic texts.[7][47]
The Rigveda states in hymn 1.139.11,
ये देवासो दिव्येकादश स्थ पृथिव्यामध्येकादश स्थ ।
अप्सुक्षितो महिनैकादश स्थ ते देवासो यज्ञमिमं जुषध्वम् ॥११॥[111]
O ye eleven gods whose home is heaven, O ye eleven who make earth your dwelling,
Ye who with might, eleven, live in waters, accept this sacrifice, O gods, with pleasure.
– Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith[112]
Gods who are eleven in heaven; who are eleven on earth;
and who are eleven dwelling with glory in mid-air; may ye be pleased with this our sacrifice.
– Translated by HH Wilson[113]
— Rigveda 1.139.11
Millions, one or one-ness?[edit]
Thirty-three divinities are mentioned in other ancient texts, such as the Yajurveda,[114] however, there is no fixed "number of deities" in Hinduism any more than a standard representation of "deity".[115] There is, however, a popular perception stating that there are 330 million (or "33 crore") deities in Hinduism.[116] Most, by far, are goddesses, state Foulston and Abbott, suggesting "how important and popular goddesses are" in Hindu culture.[115] No one has a list of the 330 million goddesses and gods, but all deities, state scholars, are typically viewed in Hinduism as "emanations or manifestation of genderless principle called Brahman, representing the many facets of Ultimate Reality".[115][116][117]
This concept of Brahman is not the same as the monotheistic separate God found in Abrahamic religions, where God is considered, states Brodd, as "creator of the world, above and independent of human existence", while in Hinduism "God, the universe, human beings and all else is essentially one thing" and everything is connected oneness, the same god is in every human being as Atman, the eternal Self.[117][118]
Hinduism has an ancient and extensive iconography tradition, particularly in the form of Murti (Sanskrit: मूर्ति, IAST: Mūrti), or Vigraha or Pratima.[22] A Murti is itself not the god in Hinduism, but it is an image of god and represents emotional and religious value.[124] A literal translation of Murti as idol is incorrect, states Jeaneane Fowler, when idol is understood as superstitious end in itself.[124] Just like the photograph of a person is not the real person, a Murti is an image in Hinduism but not the real thing, but in both cases the image reminds of something of emotional and real value to the viewer.[124] When a person worships a Murti, it is assumed to be a manifestation of the essence or spirit of the deity, the worshipper's spiritual ideas and needs are meditated through it, yet the idea of ultimate reality or Brahman is not confined in it.[124]
A Murti of a Hindu deity is typically made by carving stone, wood working, metal casting or through pottery. Medieval era texts describing their proper proportions, positions and gestures include the Puranas, Agamas and Samhitas particularly the Shilpa Shastras.[21] The expressions in a Murti vary in diverse Hindu traditions, ranging from Ugra symbolism to express destruction, fear and violence (Durga, Kali), as well as Saumya symbolism to express joy, knowledge and harmony (Saraswati, Lakshmi). Saumya images are most common in Hindu temples.[125] Other Murti forms found in Hinduism include the Linga.[126]
A Murti is an embodiment of the divine, the Ultimate Reality or Brahman to some Hindus.[21] In religious context, they are found in Hindu temples or homes, where they may be treated as a beloved guest and serve as a participant of Puja rituals in Hinduism.[127] A murti is installed by priests, in Hindu temples, through the Prana Pratishtha ceremony,[128] whereby state Harold Coward and David Goa, the "divine vital energy of the cosmos is infused into the sculpture" and then the divine is welcomed as one would welcome a friend.[129] In other occasions, it serves as the center of attention in annual festive processions and these are called Utsava Murti.[130]
In Hinduism, deities and their icons may be hosted in a Hindu temple, within a home or as an amulet. The worship performed by Hindus is known by a number of regional names, such as Puja.[134] This practice in front of a murti may be elaborate in large temples, or be a simple song or mantra muttered in home, or offering made to sunrise or river or symbolic anicon of a deity.[135][136][137] Archaeological evidence of deity worship in Hindu temples trace Puja rituals to Gupta Empire era (~4th century CE).[138][139] In Hindu temples, various pujas may be performed daily at various times of the day; in other temples, it may be occasional.[140][141]
The Puja practice is structured as an act of welcoming, hosting, honoring the deity of one's choice as one's honored guest,[142] and remembering the spiritual and emotional significance the deity represents the devotee.[124][134] Jan Gonda, as well as Diana L. Eck, states that a typical Puja involves one or more of 16 steps (Shodasha Upachara) traceable to ancient times: the deity is invited as a guest, the devotee hosts and takes care of the deity as an honored guest, praise (hymns) with Dhupa or Aarti along with food (Naivedhya) is offered to the deity, after an expression of love and respect the host takes leave, and with affection expresses good bye to the deity.[143][144] The worship practice may also involve reflecting on spiritual questions, with image serving as support for such meditation.[145]
Deity worship (Bhakti), visiting temples and Puja rituals are not mandatory and is optional in Hinduism; it is the choice of a Hindu, it may be a routine daily affair for some Hindus, periodic ritual or infrequent for some.[146][147] Worship practices in Hinduism are as diverse as its traditions, and a Hindu can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, agnostic, atheistic or humanist.[41]
Examples[edit]
Main articles: List of Hindu deities and Rigvedic deities
Major deities have inspired a vast genre of literature such as the Puranas and Agama texts as well their own Hindu traditions, but with shared mythology, ritual grammar, theosophy, axiology and polycentrism.[16][17] Vishnu and his avatars are at the foundation of Vaishnavism, Shiva for Shaivism, Devi for Shaktism, and some Hindu traditions such as Smarta traditions who revere multiple major deities (five) as henotheistic manifestations of Brahman (absolute metaphysical Reality).[116][148][149]
While there are diverse deities in Hinduism, states Lawrence, "Exclusivism – which maintains that only one's own deity is real" is rare in Hinduism.[116] Julius Lipner, and other scholars, state that pluralism and "polycentrism" – where other deities are recognized and revered by members of different "denominations", has been the Hindu ethos and way of life.[16][150]
Trimurti and Tridevi[edit]
The concept of Triad (or Trimurti, Trinity) makes a relatively late appearance in Hindu literature, or in the second half of 1st millennium BCE.[151] The idea of triad, playing three roles in the cosmic affairs, is typically associated with Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (also called Mahesh); however, this is not the only triad in Hindu literature.[152] Other triads include Tridevi, of three goddesses – Lakshmi, Saraswati and Durga in the text Devi Mahatmya, in the Shakta tradition, who further assert that Devi is the Brahman (Ultimate Reality) and it is her energy that empowers Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.[151] The other triads, formulated as deities in ancient Indian literature, include Sun (creator), Air (sustainer) and Fire (destroyer); Prana (creator), Food (sustainer) and Time (destroyer).[151] These triads, states Jan Gonda, are in some mythologies grouped together without forming a Trinity, and in other times represented as equal, a unity and manifestations of one Brahman.[151] In the Puranas, for example, this idea of threefold "hypostatization" is expressed as follows,
They [Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva] exist through each other, and uphold each other; they are parts of one another; they subsist through one another; they are not for a moment separated; they never abandon one another.
— Vayu Purana, 5.17, Translated by Jan Gonda[151]
The triad appears in Maitrayaniya Upanishad, for the first time in recognized roles known ever since, where they are deployed to present the concept of three Guṇa – the innate nature, tendencies and inner forces found within every being and everything, whose balance transform and keeps changing the individual and the world.[152][153] It is in the medieval Puranic texts, Trimurti concepts appears in various context, from rituals to spiritual concepts.[151] The Bhagavad Gita, in verses 9.18, 10.21-23 and 11.15, asserts that the triad or trinity is manifestation of one Brahman, which Krishna affirms himself to be.[154] However, suggests Bailey, the mythology of triad is "not the influence nor the most important one" in Hindu traditions, rather the ideologies and spiritual concepts develop on their own foundations.[152]
Avatars of Hindu deities[edit]
Hindu mythology has nurtured the concept of Avatar, which represents the descent of a deity on earth.[155][156] This concept is commonly translated as "incarnation",[155] and is an "appearance" or "manifestation".[157][158]
The concept of Avatar is most developed in Vaishnavism tradition, and associated with Vishnu, particularly with Rama and Krishna.[159][160] Vishnu takes numerous avatars in Hindu mythology. He becomes female, during the Samudra manthan, in the form of Mohini, to resolve a conflict between the Devas and Asuras. His male avatars include Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and Kalki.[160] Various texts, particularly the Bhagavad Gita, discuss the idea of Avatar of Vishnu appearing to restore the cosmic balance whenever the power of evil becomes excessive and causes persistent oppression in the world.[156]
In Shaktism traditions, the concept appears in its legends as the various manifestations of Devi, the Divine Mother principal in Hinduism.[161] The avatars of Devi or Parvati include Durga and Kali, who are particularly revered in eastern states of India, as well as Tantra traditions.[162][163][164] Twenty one avatars of Shiva are also described in Shaivism texts, but unlike Vaishnava traditions, Shaiva traditions have focussed directly on Shiva rather than the Avatar concept.[155]
The back cover includes information on Kennedy's life and his ties to Ireland. At bottom (out of the range of this picture) are details about the songs on the LP. "The Ballad of Jack Kennedy" was composed in honor of President Kennedy's election. The "Death of a Hero" is a poem "written and spoken by Irish housewife model Susan Murray of Liexlip, Co. Kildare" and "is reputed to have been published in every English-speaking country in the world. Mrs. Murray, who had never written anything previously, wrote it on the day of President Kennedy's funeral." Wow. (That's her picture at upper right.)