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Published in January 1894 by The Historical Publishing Company, author J. W. Buel, this book contains 300 photographs of every aspect of the fair.
The World's Fair: Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World in 1492. At the core of the fair was an area that quickly became known as the White City for its buildings with white stucco siding and its streets illuminated by electric lights.
Published work: This is the latest release of the Wedding Directory featuring my portrait of Chuchay Maronilla on the cover.
I wanted to highlight the beautiful flow of the textile and the beautiful design of the wedding gown, while keeping the atmosphere classy and classic. I saw some antique colored bottles on location and decided to highlight these using a strobe back lit.
I have a conservative arsenal of 3 AC powered strobes and 3 Flash heads, but I always try to keep things simple, that is as a matter of taste. I used 3 strobes on this image.
Strobist Info: 250 Jinbei 3/4 power, 80x100 softbox, placed left side, another 150 Heinman Strobe at 1/4 power, bare, on the upper right rear. 430EX placed behind colored glass bottles. Triggered wireless Cactus type mixed in with remote optical triggers.
Apparently, I had the best photo of the worst thing in Nashville. But, as of yesterday, that worst thing (The I-65 Nathan B. Forrest statue which had no remaining defenders) was removed. It's actually a little bittersweet for me because it made me a little Internet famous, but I guess that won't happen any more. I'd sold the photo several times to comedy news shows, such as the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Quibi's America Today and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
This photo has appeared seemingly everywhere without a photo credit, such as all over Twitter. MSNBC never contacted me to use this photo, and they used it without permission. Hopefully, they find me and resolve this.
Original photo: flic.kr/p/iisrQ
Published by B. Kočí in Prague.
Scroll down to view the animated image. Animated gif generated with StereoPhotoMaker, a freeware program by Masuji Suto & David Sykes
cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubor:Jindrich_Eckert_-_Prague_Cas...
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Front cover of "Listen to Us!: The Children's Express Report" by Dorriet Kavanaugh, first published in 1978.
I came across this article in the The Wall Street Journal, with a predominant photo display of my work during a Miami Marlins game, almost by accident. Eventually I would have received the report from the agency.
I have countless tear sheets of published photos and captions in news articles. Somehow this was special. Being the WSJ such a prestigious publication I feel honored to have my photo capture chosen for publication among so many professionals that covered the injury incident of Mike Trout during the game.
This is a screen capture of of a section of the online article.
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Photo © Mario Houben. All Rights Reserved.
Unauthorized use or reproduction for any reason is strictly prohibited.
All my shown images are of my exclusive property, and are protected under International Copyright laws. Those images may not be reproduced, copied, transmitted or, in any way manipulated, without my written permission and use license.
If you wish to use or acquire any of my images, please contact me via Mario Houben | Photography - The Website
This book, published at Christmas 1986 had a chapter about Kevin and his work from conversations Kevin had with the author. Sadly Kevin had passed away in January that year and never got to see it.
© sergione infuso - all rights reserved
follow me on www.sergione.info
You may not modify, publish or use any files on
this page without written permission and consent.
-----------------------------
Opening-act di Juliette and the Licks, il 6 giugno al Circolo Magnolia di Segrate a Milano, i Gambardellas.
I Gambardellas nascono nel 2012 come one-man-band dalla volontà di Mauro Gambardella, batterista già attivo da anni nella scena indipendente italiana (George Merk, The R’s, Paletti), che sentiva il bisogno e l’urgenza di intraprendere un progetto solista che lo rappresentasse pienamente.
La prima uscita discografica del nuovo progetto vede la luce nel febbraio 2013: “Sloppy Sounds”, album, co-prodotto dal produttore bergamasco Fabio “FabzTheDale” Dalè e dallo stesso Mauro e mixato dal noto produttore Fabio Trentini (Guano Apes), è la piena rappresentazione delle influenze e gusti musicali del suo creatore: un caleidoscopio di sonorità che vanno dal garage rock al power pop, una musica che da notevole importanza alla struttura delle canzoni e dove predominano ritornelli catchy. L’album ottiene ottimo riscontro sia dal pubblico che dalla critica e i video dei tre singoli si aggiudicano esclusive su alcuni dei più importanti siti nazionali: Flash (rockol.it), Tito (rollingstonemagazine.it) e Needs (xl.repubblica.it).
Nello stesso anno parte lo Sloppy Sounds Tour che porta i Gambardellas ad esibirsi in più di 40 concerti in Italia, aprendo anche live di: Ministri, Fast Animals and Slow kids, Il pan del Diavolo, King of the Opera e Aucan.
Nel settembre 2013 i Gambardellas diventano una band a tutti gli effetti grazie all’ingresso ufficiale tra le fila di Glenda Frassi (chitarra-cori) e Grethel Frassi (tastiere-cori), già presenti nella precedente formazione live. Nello stesso mese la nuova formazione entra all’IndieHub studio di Milano per registrare un nuovo lavoro: “Ashes” (BigWave Records), EP prodotto da Giovanni Spinotti (ex assistente di Bob Clearmountain) e dai Gambardellas, segna un importante punto di svolta sonora per la band e rappresenta una passaggio a una maggiore maturità compositiva di una band in continua crescita. Il sound del nuovo lavoro è più scuro del precedente ed è decisamente più scarno. Anche i testi risultano essere più critici e di denuncia, ambientazioni cupe e profonde, che si rispecchiano anche nell’immagine della band.
L’Ashes tour porta i Gambardellas, tra il 2014 ed il 2015, in tutta Italia ed in Europa per più di 60 date collezionando aperture prestigiose (tra le quali: Linea77, BudSpencerBluesExplosion, Brunori SAS, Boxerin Club, Maria Antonietta, Giuradei, Luminal) e a partecipazioni a manifestazioni di spicco italiane ed estere come il Woodstock Poland Festival (unici italiani a partecipare al festival che ha contato 750.000 presenze nel 2014 e una line up di tutto rispeto: Hatebreed, Skid Row, Volbeat) e il Milano Film Festival.
Terminato il tour europeo nel novembre 2015, i Gambardellas tornano in studio di registrazione per registrare il secondo full lenght della loro carriera. L’album viene registrato e prodotto presso gli UpStudios di Pavia nei mesi tra febbraio e maggio 2015. Attualmente la band è pronta a tornare on the road in attesa dell’uscita del nuovo album.
Mauro Gambardella: lead vocals, drums
Glenda Frassi: guitars, backing vocals
Grethel Frassi: backing vocals, keys
Lord Smith has today published his recommendations for further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament.
John Swinney - Deputy First Minister & Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution & Economy.
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The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by the Photochrom Co. Ltd. They state on the divided back of the card that it is an all-British production.
The Photochrom Co. Ltd.
The Photochrom Co. Ltd. of London and Royal Tunbridge Wells originally produced Christmas cards before becoming a major publisher and printer of tourist albums, guide books, and postcards.
These mainly captured worldwide views as real photos, or were printed in black & white, monochrome, and color.
They also published many advertising, comic, silhouette, novelty, panoramic, and notable artist-signed cards in named series as well. The huge number of titles that Photochrom produced may well exceed 40,000.
In 1896 they took over Fussli’s London office established three years earlier, and began publishing similar photo-chromolithographic postcards after securing the exclusive English licence for the Swiss photochrom process.
This technique was used to produce a great number of view-cards of both England and Europe. While they captured the same fine details as the Swiss prints, their colours were much softer and reduced.
Apart from their better known photochroms, they produced their Celesque series of view-cards printed in tricolor.
One of the largest unnamed series that Photochrom produced was of view-cards printed in brown rotogravure. Many of these cards were simply hand coloured with a dominant red and blue, which gives these cards a distinct appearance. They are similar to cards produced in their Photogravure and Velvet Finish Series.
Photochrom postcard series include:
-- Night Series - Line block halftone over a blue tint depicting London.
-- Carbofoto Series - Black & white real photo cards.
-- Sepiatone Series - Sepia real photo cards.
-- Grano Series - View-cards printed in black & white.
-- Exclusive Photo-Color Series - View-cards printed in colour.
-- Duotype Process Series - View-cards printed in two tones.
The Cumberland Hotel
The building on the left is the enormous Cumberland Hotel.
The www.kzwp.com/ website created by Kattie Zion has a detailed history of the Cumberland Hotel building. She writes that:
"In 1901 the island site bounded by Oxford Street, Old Quebec Street, Bryanston Street and Great Cumberland Place, was progressively acquired by Joseph Lyons for the erection of the Cumberland Hotel.
The Cumberland project was formidable. The excavations alone entailed the removal of over 100,000 cubic yards of material, during which historical relics from all periods were unearthed. All building work was carried out by Lyons' own staff.
The Cumberland Hotel featured all the latest developments of comfort. It was sound-proofed, double glazed, air conditioned, and all 900 bed-rooms had their own en-suite. All air entering the hotel was filtered, including the supply to the kitchen areas. Here the exhaust was treated in order to eradicate cooking smells.
The structure consisted of thirteen floors, ten of them above ground and three below. Part of the hotel backbone was an enormous 100-ton girder which required the world's largest lorry to convey it. Fifteen thousand tons of steel-work was used in the hotel's construction. Four hundred thousand square feet of 'Empire grown timber' was used in the making of bedroom furniture.
The Cumberland Hotel officially opened its doors on the 12th. December 1933.
Two thousand staff were employed at the hotel, and a specially built annex provided accommodation for 300 girls who slept in single or double rooms. There was one bath to every four girls, and they ate in their own restaurant on the ground floor of the annex."
The Cumberland has seen many famous guests over the years; in the music world these include Bob Dylan, Diana Ross, Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Holly.
In the Spring of 2019 the hotel changed its name to the Hard Rock Hotel, but reverted back to the Cumberland name four years later in May 2023.
The 2014 Cumberland Hotel Hammer Attack
In April 2014 the Cumberland Hotel was the scene of a devastating hammer attack.
Three sisters, Ohoud, Khaloud and Fatima Al-Najjar were staying in adjoining rooms at the Cumberland Hotel in Marble Arch, when Philip Spence hit all three of them violently with a claw hammer.
Spence was able to enter their seventh floor room, which was not locked, after he walked in off the street.
Philip Spence
Thirty-three year old Philip Spence from Harlesden in north-west London carried out his attack in front of Khaloud’s three children, aged seven, ten and twelve.
He hit one of his victims, Ohoud al-Najjar, 34, with such force that her skull split open as her nine-year-old nephew cowered under the sheets next to her.
Spence was permanently excluded from school at the age of eight, smoked cannabis from the age of 11, and was addicted to crack cocaine and heroin by 18.
Spence’s history of violence includes chasing his landlord with a hammer and punching a woman at council offices in 2007, as well as biting a passer-by in 2011.
Spence has 37 convictions for 62 offences dating back to 1993.
The three women left their hotel rooms unlocked on the night of the attack in order to allow a fourth sister to return later in the evening.
The fourth sister, Sheika al-Mheiri, on returning discovered her sisters lying injured on the floor, with blood spattered on the walls.
Spence had fled the scene with a suitcase stuffed with iPads, gold jewellery and mobile phones, having dumped the hammer just outside the hotel.
CCTV footage captured Spence on a bus examining items that he had stolen from the women after his attack.
The Criminal Trial
A year later at his criminal trial, Spence’s barrister, William Nash, said in mitigation that his client had consumed a large amount of drugs at the time of the attack:
“He didn’t know of any other crackhead
as big as him. He can’t forgive himself.
He describes himself as being a totally
different person. He is not unempathetic.”
Nevertheless Spence was convicted of three counts of attempted murder.
The "hotel creeper" was initially ordered to serve life with a minimum of 18 years, but this was increased to 27 years on appeal.
The High Court Case
The BBC provided the following information on the 7th. May 2019 relating to the attack and its legal consequences:
"Three sisters who suffered devastating injuries in a hammer attack by a thief are suing the owners of the London hotel where it happened.
At the start of the case at the High Court, lawyers described the injuries to the women, who were from Abu Dhabi in the UAE:
-- Ohoud was left with five per cent brain capacity, and will require care for the rest of her life.
-- Khaloud has had 20 operations to rebuild her head and face.
-- Fatima cannot taste or smell, and has problems with her memory.
Spence admitted the attack,, but denied attempted murder.
The family's barrister, Susan Rodway, said that Spence - who had a history of sneaking into hotel rooms to steal - had "great knowledge and familiarity" of the Cumberland Hotel.
She said that he told his criminal trial he was a regular intruder at the hotel, and had even been able to sleep in maids' cupboards.
She added that security "failures" led Spence to directly target the hotel, where he knew he could make an easy buck from the rich pickings there.
The court heard that it was "well-known" to the hotel that it was common for Middle Eastern guests to leave doors on the latch in order to enable family members to go between rooms.
The hotel's owners deny liability, arguing that by leaving their door open, the women voluntarily assumed the obvious risk of allowing anyone to enter the room while they were asleep inside.
Neil Block QC, for the hotel, said in a written submission:
"Each guest room was fitted with a heavy duty
fire door with efficient self-closers and automatic
locks, deadlocks, security chains and spy-glasses.
The rooms were designed so that guests could
not leave them open accidentally."
He said that after the incident, police tested a closed bedroom door, and found it impossible to gain access with a hammer similar to that used by Mr Spence.
Ms Rodway said that the hotel's CCTV system was "purely reactive" and that:
"it was clearly only there to enable review
should an incident occur, but not to enable
any anticipation or prevention of an incident".
But Mr Block said the fact that there was no system for live monitoring of all 130 CCTV cameras at the hotel "was, and indeed remains, the norm for similar hotels".
He concluded:
"But for the deliberate interference with
the door's locking mechanism, the attack
would not have occurred."
The case is expected to last for two weeks."
The High Court Judgement
On Friday the 21st. June 2019, the High Court judge Mr. Justice Dingemans ruled that:
"There was no liability on the part of the
Cumberland Hotel to Ohoud, Khaloud
and Fatima for the attack carried out by
Mr Spence".
He said that the case raised issues about whether a hotel proprietor owes a duty to guests to take reasonable care to protect against injury caused by the criminal actions of third parties, and if so whether the duty was breached in this case.
Dingemans concluded that there was such a duty of care, but based on the facts of the case, there was no breach of that duty.
The judge said that:
"The hotel acted with reasonable care to
protect guests at the hotel against injury
caused by the criminal acts of third parties".
However Khaloud and Fatima said in a statement after the ruling:
"Re-living the horrors of that terrifying night
where we almost lost our lives has been
extremely traumatic for us to endure, and
we are devastated that it has all been for
nothing.
We lost our sister, and our lives were
changed forever when we were attacked
by Spence in the privacy of our own room."
Khaloud and Fatima said that they felt the decision was "a travesty" and that "justice has not been done".
A spokeswoman for the owner of the Cumberland, GLH Hotels, said after the ruling:
"We believe today's judgement is the
correct outcome.
Regardless, the al Najjar family's
experience was deeply shocking and
wholly unprecedented and we reiterate
our heartfelt concern for their well-being
as they continue to receive all necessary
support."
The Postcard
A postcard bearing an early image of the Old Temple Bar. It was published by Raphael Tuck & Sons who describe themselves on the back of the card as "Art publishers to their Majesties the King and Queen".
The card was posted in West London on Monday the 11th. January 1909 to 31, Rue du Mole, Geneva.
The Old Temple Bar
Temple Bar was the principal ceremonial entrance to the City of London from the City of Westminster. In the middle ages, London expanded city jurisdiction beyond its walls to gates, called ‘bars’, which were erected across thoroughfares. To the west of the City of London, the bar was located in the area known as the Temple.
Temple Bar was situated on the historic royal ceremonial route from the Tower of London to the Palace of Westminster, the two chief residences of the medieval English monarchs, and from the Palace of Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral. The road east of Temple Bar and within the City is Fleet Street, while the road to the west, in Westminster, is The Strand.
At Temple Bar, the Corporation of the City of London formerly erected a barrier to regulate trade into the City. The 19th. century Royal Courts of Justice are located next to it on its north side, having been moved from Westminster Hall.
To its south is the Temple Church, along with the Inner Temple and Middle Temple Inns of Court. As the most important entrance to the City of London from Westminster, it was formerly long the custom for the monarch to halt at Temple Bar before entering the City of London, in order for the Lord Mayor to offer the Corporation's pearl-encrusted Sword of State as a token of loyalty.
The term 'Temple Bar' strictly refers to a notional bar or barrier across the route, but it is also commonly used to refer to the 17th.-century ornamental Baroque arched gateway designed by Sir Christopher Wren, which spanned the road until its removal in 1878.
A memorial pedestal topped by a dragon symbol of London, and containing an image of Queen Victoria, was erected to mark the bar's location in 1880.
Wren's arch was preserved and was re-erected in 2004 in the City, in Paternoster Square next to St Paul's Cathedral.
Background
In the Middle Ages, the authority of the City of London Corporation reached beyond the City's ancient defensive walls in several places, known as the Liberties of London. To regulate trade into the City, barriers were erected on the major entrance routes wherever the true boundary was a substantial distance from the nearest ancient gatehouse in the walls.
Temple Bar was the most used of these, since traffic between the City of London (England's prime commercial centre) and the Palace of Westminster (the political centre) passed through it. It was located where Fleet Street now meets The Strand, which is outside London's old boundary wall.
Its name derives from the Temple Church, adjoining to the south, which has given its name to a wider area south of Fleet Street, the Temple, once belonging to the Knights Templar but now home to two of the legal profession's Inns of Court.
The historic ceremony of the monarch halting at Temple Bar and being met by the Lord Mayor has often featured in art and literature. It is commented on in televised coverage of modern-day royal ceremonial processions. The City of London's own website describes the ceremony as:
"The Temple Bar ceremony, which is still
occasionally re-enacted at a monument
to the Bar, involves the monarch stopping
to request permission to enter the City
and the Lord Mayor presenting the Sword
of State as a sign of loyalty".
History of Old Temple Bar
A bar is first mentioned in 1293, and was probably only a chain or bar between a row of posts. More substantial structures with arches followed. After the Battle of Evesham of 1265, Prince Edward punished the rebellious Londoners, who had befriended Simon de Montfort, by taking away all their street chains and bars, and storing them in the Tower of London.
The earliest known reference to Temple Bar is in 1327, concerning a hearing before the mayor regarding a right of way in the area. By 1351, a wooden archway had been built housing a small prison above it. In 1384, Richard II granted a licence for paving the Strand Street from Temple Bar to the Savoy, and collecting tolls to cover the expense.
On the 5th. November 1422, the corpse of Henry V was borne to Westminster Abbey by the chief citizens and nobles, and every doorway from Southwark to Temple Bar had a torch-bearer.
In 1503 the hearse of Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII, halted at Temple Bar, on its way from the Tower to Westminster, and at the Bar the Abbots of Westminster and Bermondsey blessed the corpse, and the Earl of Derby and a large company of nobles joined the funeral procession.
Anne Boleyn passed through the Bar on the 31st. May 1534, the day before her coronation, on her way to the Tower. On that occasion Temple Bar had been painted and repaired, and near it stood singing men and children—the Fleet Street conduit all the time running claret.
In 1554, Thomas Wyatt led an uprising in opposition to Queen Mary I's proposed marriage to Philip II of Spain. When he had fought his way down Piccadilly to The Strand, Temple Bar was forced open by him; but when he had been repulsed at Ludgate he was hemmed in by cavalry at Temple Bar, where he surrendered. This revolt persuaded the government to go through with the verdict against Lady Jane Grey.
The notable Scottish bookseller Andrew Millar owned his first London shop at Temple Bar, taken over from the ownership of James McEuen in 1728, to whom Millar had apprenticed.
Sir Christopher Wren's Temple Bar Gate
Although the Bar Gate escaped damage by the Great Fire of London of 1666, it was rebuilt as part of the general improvement works made throughout the City after the fire.
Commissioned by King Charles II, and attributed to Sir Christopher Wren, the fine arch of Portland stone was constructed between 1669 and 1672.
Rusticated, it is a two-storey structure consisting of one wide central arch for road traffic, flanked on both sides by narrower arches for pedestrians.
On the upper part, four statues celebrate the 1660 Restoration of the Stuart monarchy: on the west side King Charles II is shown with his father King Charles I whose parents King James I and Anne of Denmark are depicted on the east side.
During the 18th. century the heads of convicted traitors were frequently mounted on pikes and exhibited on the roof, as was the case on London Bridge.
The other seven principal gateways to London, (Ludgate, Newgate, Aldersgate, Cripplegate, Moorgate, Bishopsgate and Aldgate) were all demolished in the 1760's, but Temple Bar remained despite its impediment to the ever-growing traffic. The upper-storey room was leased to the neighbouring banking house of Child & Co. for storage of records.
In the 1853 Bleak House, Charles Dickens described it as:
"That leaden-headed old obstruction, appropriate
ornament for the threshold of a leaden-headed old corporation".
It was noted in jest that Temple Bar was "A weak spot in our defences", since one could walk through the adjoining barbershop where one door opened on to the City and the other into Westminster.
By 1874 the keystones had dropped and the arches were being propped up with timbers. The steady increase in horse and cart traffic led to complaints that Temple Bar was becoming a bottleneck, holding back the City trade.
Accordingly in 1878 the City of London Corporation, eager to widen the road but unwilling to destroy so historic a monument, dismantled it piece-by-piece over an 11-day period and stored its 2,700 stones.
In 1880 the brewer Henry Meux, at the instigation of his wife Valerie Susan Meux, bought the stones and re-erected the arch as a new gatehouse in the park of his mansion Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire. There it remained, positioned in a woodland clearing, until 2003. A plaque marks the site where Temple Bar once stood.
Temple Bar's Present Location
In March 1938 Theobalds Park was sold by Sir Hedworth Meux to Middlesex County Council, but the Temple Bar Gatehouse was excluded from the sale, and retained by the Meux trustees.
In 1984 it was purchased by the Temple Bar Trust from the Meux Trust for the sum of £1. In December 2001 the City's Court of Common Council resolved to contribute funds for the return of Temple Bar Gate to the City.
On the 13th. October 2003 the first stone was dismantled at Theobalds Park, and all were placed on 500 pallets for storage. In 2004 it was returned to the City of London where it was re-erected as an entrance to the Paternoster Square redevelopment immediately north of St. Paul's Cathedral, opening to the public on the 10th. November 2004.
The total cost of the project was over £3 million, funded mainly by the City of London, with donations from the Temple Bar Trust and several City Livery Companies.
The Temple Bar Memorial
Following the removal of Wren's gate, Horace Jones, Architect and Surveyor to the City of London, designed a memorial to mark Temple Bar, which was unveiled in 1880. The Temple Bar Memorial stands in front of the Royal Courts of Justice.
The elaborate pedestal serves as the base for a sculpture by Charles Bell Birch of a dragon (sometimes erroneously referred to as a griffin) bearing a shield of the arms of the City of London.
The pedestal is decorated with statues by Joseph Boehm of Queen Victoria and her son the Prince of Wales, the last royals to have entered the City through Wren's gate, which event is depicted in one of the reliefs which also decorate the structure.
The Boundary Waters Treaty
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 11th. January 1909, the Boundary Waters Treaty was signed by U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root and British Ambassador to the United States James Bryce, at Root's home.
Ratified by both nations in 1910, the treaty regulated the usage of all waters shared by the United States and Canada, including the Great Lakes and Niagara Falls.
Four Executions
Also on that day, the death penalty was carried out in France for the first time since the turn of the 20th. century, as the four murderers in the Pollet gang died on the guillotine as a crowd in Béthune cheered.
The Advertiser in Adelaide reported the quadruple execution on the 20th. February 1909.
"On the 11th. January at dawn the guillotine appeared again in France, and the four men whose death warrants were signed by President Fallieres on Saturday were led out to execution. It was a gloomy morning, but a crowd of some 30,000 people had assembled in the square outside the gaol where the execution was to take place.
All night long people had been gathering. At midnight there were 2,000 watchers in the square, and the main street of the town was crowded, as on the eve of a fete. Men brought ladders and benches to the square and mounted them to obtain an uninterrupted view.
Others climbed into the branches of trees, where their presence was revealed by the glow of cigarettes and pipes in the dark among the branches.
As the hours went by the crowd increased steadily. Trains bringing spectators arrived from all the large towns in the area, and even from Paris.
All the hotels were crowded, and in the cafes people passed the night drinking and discussing the exploits of the four doomed men, the leaders of "The Bandits of the North."
At 4 o'clock in the morning Deibler, the public executioner and his four assistants erected the guillotine at the pre-arranged site. The troops had trouble keeping back the crowd, who wished to examine the instrument at close quarters.
Meanwhile the four prisoners, Abel Pollet and his three accomplices, Auguste Pollet (his brother), Canut-Vroman, and Théophile Deroo, were still ignorant of their approaching end.
Each man had been found guilty of three murders. Abel Pollet had confessed of his own accord to participation in no fewer than 250 crimes, including several murders. His accomplices, to judge from their confessions, were scarcely his inferiors in crime.
At 25 minutes to 6, the Public Prosecutor entered the condemned men's cells and said, to them in the traditional formula:
"I regret to have to inform you that the President
of the Republic has rejected your appeal for mercy.
You must prepare for the extreme penalty. Have
courage."
Abel Pollet replied:
"Courage I have always had."
He and his brother accepted the ministrations of a priest, their two comrades having previously received religious consolation. In bidding farewell to the priest who officiated Abel Pollet thanked him and begged him to take care of his wife and children. He said:
"If I had listened to my wife's
advice I should not be here
now."
This was the only indication of remorse that Abel displayed.
The prison barber was then summoned, and in accordance with Deibler's instructions, shaved the prisoners' necks and ripped off their collars. Canut-Vroman asked for a cordial, but was given a large glass of brandy. On the whole, all four men maintained their courage.
At 25 minutes past 7 Deroo was led out to execution. He was dressed only in shirt and trousers, and was bareheaded. As Deroo appeared his face was livid, and he walked feebly with short steps, being shackled round the ankles.
There was a painful silence, and then an outbreak of hoots and curses from the crowd. For a moment Deroo hesitated, but he was quickly hurried forward and flung face downwards on the plank of the guillotine.
Deibler released the knife, there was a flash, a sudden jarring sound, and all was over. The head fell into a basket in front of the knife, while the trunk was hastily flung into another basket at the side.
All the savage instincts of the crowd appeared to be aroused. There were frantic shouts of "Death!" "Death!" mingled with curses. The officers of the troops shouted to their men to stand firm against the threatened rush.
The guillotine was quickly cleaned, and Canut-Vroman was brought forward. He showed no sign of flinching. A moment later his head lay in the sawdust, and the crowd was giving vent to fierce cries of exultation.
Auguste Pollet came next. He fought and screamed.
Last of the four came Abel Pollet, the leader of the gang. Just before leaving his cell, Abel had written a letter of thanks to the governor of the prison, his handwriting being firm and regular.
The crowd's excitement now reached its climax. The people yelled, hissed and shouted abuse. Pollet was unmoved. His last words were:
"Down with the priests!
Long live the Republic!"
His head fell, and there was a savage rush on the part of the crowd, which seemed bent on tearing the corpse to pieces. The troops had all they could do to restrain the public frenzy.
The whole terrible scene was completed in eight minutes.
This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 9th of September 1915.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images and have any stories and information to add please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order.
My artwork has been published in Anatomy Rocks - 30 Deluxe Postcards, along with the other talented artists' fantastic work! They are beautifully printed large postcards by 10 international artists (including Mark Ryden!), with a fancy hard cover box! You can get it on Amazon, or book stores worldwide!
More details: www.behance.net/gallery/52394263/Anatomy-Rocks-Postcard-Set
美しい解剖アートのポストカードセットに私の解剖乙女３作品も入れて頂きました！通常サイズの2倍の大きさで、箱もカードも贅沢な作りになっています。10人のアーティスト(マークライデンも！) x３枚づつで計３０枚セット。
Amazon JP他で絶賛発売中！
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Il gruppo di Oklahoma City The Flaming Lips arriva il 30 gennaio 2017 all’Alcatraz di Milano per presentare l’album «Oczy Mlody» e le canzoni del loro repertorio.
La formazione capitanata dalla carismatica figura di Wayne Coyne ha attualmente all’attivo 17 album in studio e innumerevoli collaborazioni, anche in ambito extramusicale: è di pochi mesi fa la notizia della collaborazione con la Few Spirits per il lancio sul mercato del Brainville Rye Whiskey, uno speciale distillato firmato dalla band che sarà disponibile sul mercato americano dal prossimo ottobre.
Oltre a questi bizzarri progetti paralleli, The Flaming Lips sono famosi per le loro live performance, caratterizzate da costumi e scenografie particolari, palloni gonfiabili, marionette, proiezioni video, giochi di luci, teste giganti, confetti e soprattutto quello che è ormai da anni il loro marchio di fabbrica: una palla di plastica trasparente dentro la quale Wayne Coyne attraversa il pubblico in sala. Tutti questi dettagli rendono i loro concerti assolutamente imperdibili, e nel 2002 hanno portato Q Magazine a inserirli nella lista “50 Bands to See Before You Die”.
L’ultima fatica di The Flaming Lips è “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz”, 23 pezzi sperimentali scritti insieme alla giovane popstar e resi disponibili in streaming online. L’album è stato descritto da Coyne come una combinazione tra Pink Floyd, Porthishead e una rivisitazione della visione pop della Cyrus. Secondo indiscrezioni, la band sarebbe ora al lavoro su un nuovo album.
Wayne Coyne – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, theremin
Michael Ivins – bass, keyboards, backing vocals
Steven Drozd – drums, guitar, keyboards, bass, backing vocals
Derek Brown – guitar, keyboards, percussion, backing vocals
Jake Ingalls – keyboards, guitars
Matt Duckworth – drums, percussion, keyboards
Nick Ley – percussion, drums, samples
This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 3rd of January 1916.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images and have any stories or information to add please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order.
The Postcard
A postally unused Salmon Series postcard that was printed and published by J. Salmon Ltd. of Sevenoaks.
On the back of the card they have printed:
'S.S. Canberra.
P. & O. and Orient Line.
45,000 gross tons.
Length 820 feet.
Speed 27 knots'.
The S.S. Canberra
The S.S. Canberra was an ocean liner, which later operated on cruises, in the P&O fleet from 1961 to 1997.
She was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland at a cost of £17,000,000. The ship was named on the 17th. March 1958, after the federal capital of Australia, Canberra.
She was launched on the 16th. March 1960, sponsored by Dame Pattie Menzies, wife of the then Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies.
Canberra entered service in May 1961, and made her maiden voyage in June.
One of her public rooms included a 'Cricketers Tavern', which contained a collection of bats and ties from cricket clubs all over the world; she also had the William Fawcett reading/writing room, named after the engine designer of early P&O ships.
She appeared in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.
On 2 April 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, which initiated the Falklands War. At the time, Canberra was cruising in the Mediterranean. The next day, her captain Dennis Scott-Masson received a message asking his time of arrival at Gibraltar, which was not on his itinerary.
When he called at Gibraltar, he learnt that the Ministry of Defence had requisitioned Canberra for use as a troopship. Canberra sailed to Southampton where she was quickly refitted, sailing on the 9th. April for the South Atlantic.
Nicknamed the Great White Whale, Canberra proved vital in transporting the Parachute Regiment and Royal Marines to the islands more than 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km) from the United Kingdom. Canberra was sent to the heart of the conflict.
Canberra anchored in San Carlos Water on the 21st. May as part of the landings by British forces to retake the islands. Although her size and white colour made her an unmissable target for the Argentine Air Force, Canberra, if sunk, would not have been completely submerged in the shallow waters at San Carlos.
However, the liner was not badly hit in the landings as the Argentine pilots tended to attack the Royal Navy frigates and destroyers instead of the supply and troop ships. After the war, Argentine pilots claimed they were told not to hit Canberra, as they mistook her for a hospital ship.
When the war ended, Canberra was used to repatriate captured Argentine soldiers, landing them at Puerto Madryn, before returning to Southampton to a rapturous welcome on the 11th. July.
After a lengthy refit, Canberra returned to civilian service as a cruise ship. Her role in the Falklands War made her very popular with the British public, and ticket sales after her return were elevated for many years as a result.
Age and high running costs eventually caught up with her though, as she had much higher fuel consumption than most modern cruise ships. Although Premier Cruise Line had made a bid for the old ship, P&O had already decided that they did not want the Canberra to operate under a different flag.
Canberra was withdrawn from P&O service in September 1997 and sold to ship breakers for scrapping on the 10th. October 1997, leaving for the Gadani ship-breaking yard, Pakistan on the 31st. October 1997.
Her deep draft meant that she could not be beached as far as most ships, and due to her solid construction the scrapping process took nearly a year instead of the estimated three months, being totally scrapped by the end of 1998.
In 1997 the singer and songwriter Gerard Kenny released the single "Farewell Canberra" which was specially composed for the last voyage at the request of P&O.
J. Salmon Ltd.
Alas, J. Salmon no longer produce postcards. Having churned out small coloured rectangles of card from its factory in Kent for more than 100 years, the company stopped publishing postcards in 2017.
The fifth-generation brothers who still ran the company sent a letter to their clients in the autumn of 2017, advising them that the presses would cease printing at the end of 2017, with their remaining stock being sold off throughout the following year.
The firm’s story began in 1880, when the original J. Salmon acquired a printing business on Sevenoaks high street, and produced a collection of twelve black and white scenes of the town.
In 1912, the business broke through into the big time by commissioning the artist Alfred Robert Quinton (1853 - 1934), who produced 2,300 scenes of British life for them up until his death.
From Redruth to King’s Lynn, his softly coloured, highly detailed watercolours of rosy milkmaids, bucolic pumphouses and picturesque harbour towns earned him a place in the hearts of the public, despite references to Alfred's 'chocolate-box art' by some art critics.
J. Salmon also produced photographs and cheery oils of seaside imagery captioned with a garrulous enthusiasm: “Eat More Chips!”, “Sun, Sand & Sea”, “We’re Going Camping!”
It commissioned the comic artist Reg Maurice (who often worked under the pseudonym Vera Paterson), to produce pictures of comically bulbous children with cutesy captions, alongside the usual stock images of British towns.
It was this century’s changing habits – and technology – that did for Salmon. Co-managing director Charles Salmon noted:
“People are going for shorter breaks,
not for a fortnight, so you’re back home
before your postcards have arrived."
He barely needed to say that Instagram and Facebook had made their product all but redundant, almost wiping out the entire industry in a decade.
Michelle Abadie, co-director of the John Hinde Collection, said:
“When I heard the news, I was
actually surprised they still existed."
John Hinde was once J Salmon’s biggest rival; it sold 50-60 million postcards a year at its peak in the 1960's, but it, too, shuttered four years previously. The licensing for its rich archive of images was sold off, and repurposed in art books.
However, in one sense, the death of the postcard is overstated. Like vinyl records, our fetish for the physical objects we left behind is already making its presence felt.
Michelle Abadie points out:
“If you go into Waterstones now, they
sell lots of postcards of book covers.
The idea itself isn’t dead – as a
decorative object, people still want
them.”
Suspended Animation Classic #1,027 First published August 24, 2008 (#34) (Dates are approximate)
Zinc Alloy
by Mark Allen
As a parent, I want my children to enjoy reading. As a comics fan, I want more young readers drawn to the hobby. Zinc Alloy could help on both counts.
Zack Allen is your typical, small, nerdy boy. A favorite target of bullies, noogies and wet willies are a regular occurrence. Zack is also extremely intelligent, however. He must be, since he manages to build a giant robot, primarily for the purpose of teaching said bullies a lesson. Instead, he ends up becoming a hero.
Though Zinc Alloy is a graphic novel for elementary readers, I’ll admit to my own initial excitement at finding it on the shelf of my local library. After all, actual graphic novels for children are still rare, despite increasing acceptance of the literary form. My kids love it. And, I think parents will enjoy reading it to their children, due mostly to it’s light-hearted fun and potential life lessons.
Author Donald Lemke has created a character in Zack Allen to which most young children will be able to relate. He has also produced a story that is brimming with action, humor and the potential for great learning.
As younger readers are apt to be drawn into a story by the illustrations, artist Douglas Holgate is to be commended for his ability to translate Lemke’s story into exciting visual form. His characters have individual personalities, and his robotic protagonist will no doubt illicit plenty of responses like “Cool!” and “Awesome!”. Hey, children getting excited about reading - that’s what it’s all about, right?
Additional features include a glossary of words used in the book, a short history of comics, and discussion questions that parents and/or teachers can use to drive home important points.
Zinc Alloy is highly recommended for young readers. Parents should buy it for their children, and libraries should stock it. Find it at bookstores, online retailers (Amazon lists it for under five dollars.)
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was published by Neurdein et Cie of Paris. The card has a divided back.
Abba Eban
"History teaches us that men and
nations behave wisely when they
have exhausted all other alternatives".
This was said during a speech in London UK on 16th. December 1970 by Abba Eban (1915-2002), an Israeli diplomat and writer.
Visé Paris No. 803
The reference to 'Visé Paris' in the bottom left of the photograph means that the image has been inspected by the military authorities in the French capital and deemed not to be a security risk.
'Visé Paris' signifies that the card was published during or soon after the end of the Great War.
Tilloloy
Tilloloy is a commune in the Somme département in Hauts-de-France in northern France. The village is situated in the east of the department, 29 miles (47 km) southeast of Amiens. The border with the Oise department is less than 1 mile (2 km).
The population of Tilloloy was 353 in 1917.
Blaise Cendrars recounts in "La Main Coupée" that the Foreign Legion squad he commanded in 1916 rested up in Tilloloy.
Notre-Dame de Lorette was the subject of a painting by artist Maurice Denis. It was rebuilt after the Great War.
The seventeenth-century Château of Tilloloy, which was extensively damaged in the Great War, was subsequently restored.
A Poem About the Battle of the Somme
'It was 1916 on the 1st of July
That artillery and smoke blackened the sky.
Shots rang out and men fell dead,
The sky was black, while the ground was red.
To battle the Germans the French and British had come,
To the bloodiest fight of the War, The Battle of the Somme.
While artillery rained down on the German side
The allies swallowed their fear and stood with pride.
Waiting to be ordered over the top,
To run without question, don’t look back and don’t stop.
But this is when the slaughter started,
Machine guns screamed out as bodies and limbs became parted.
Fifty-eight thousand casualties in one single day
‘A necessary loss’ the Generals would say.
‘We will rest for now and recommence tomorrow
No time for the men to indulge in their sorrow’
So they readied the next batch of men for the slaughter,
Would they fare better when faced with the mortars?
The answer to this question was obviously no
As the casualty counts continued to grow.
For every single centimetre of ground that was taken
The lives of two men were sadly forsaken.
And so the battle waged on and on,
The bloodiest battle of World War One.
Yet as they made progress towards German lines,
The allies had one thing in the front of their minds.
For the Germans had a weapon the allies had yet to discover
One that would find men even if they took cover.
As the allied assault drew nearer and nearer
The time to use this weapon had never been clearer.
The little grey canisters flew through the air
Giving the allied forces more than a scare.
The men now engaged in a fight for their lives,
They could not protect themselves with their guns or their knives.
Their only weapon now was a mask
But fitting it in time was a very hard task.
‘Gas, Gas!’ some men would cry
Most had masks, the rest would die.
Their screams could be heard as they approached their death,
Blood curdled in their lungs as they drew their last breath.
Eventually their eyes would roll back in their head
And with a final twitch and spasm they lay still, dead.
And so the battle waged on and on,
The bloodiest battle of World War One.
Even with the threat of the German gas,
It was time for a final allied assault to mass.
And with this Britain unveiled their tank
When the battle ended they had this to thank.
It stormed over No-Man’s Land, through German wire,
The Germans shook in fear as it prepared to fire.
For the British troops it opened the way,
For the deaths of their comrades the Germans would pay.
And the German death count grew and grew
As the allied assault continued to break through.
And though the fighting had not ended,
The morale of the allies began to get mended.
They pushed with valor towards their objective,
With a new vigour the Germans had not expected.
Although the enemy held, and did not retreat
This battle is viewed as a German defeat.
It was 1916 on the 21st of November
That the five month long battle was finally over.
No shots rang out but thousands were dead,
The sky was still black, the ground was stained red.
To battle the Germans the French and British had come,
To the bloodiest fight of the War, The Battle of the Somme'.
The Use of Artillery in the Great War
Artillery was very heavily used by both sides during the Great War. The British fired over 170 million artillery rounds of all types, weighing more than 5 million tons - that's an average of around 70 pounds (32 kilos) per shell.
If the 170m rounds were on average two feet long, and if they were laid end to end, they would stretch for 64,394 miles (103,632 kilometres); the line would go round the equator over two and a half times. If the artillery of the Central Powers of Germany and its allies is factored in, the figure can be doubled to 5 encirclements of the planet.
During the first two weeks of the Third Battle of Ypres, over 4 million rounds were fired at a cost of over £22,000,000 - a huge sum of money, especially over a century ago.
Artillery was the killer and maimer of the war of attrition.
According to Dennis Winter's book 'Death's Men' three quarters of battle casualties were caused by artillery rounds. According to John Keegan ('The Face of Battle') casualties were:
- Bayonets - less than 1%
- Bullets - 30%
- Artillery and Bombs - 70%
Keegan suggests however that the ratio changed during advances, when massed men walking line-abreast with little protection across no-man's land were no match for for rifles and fortified machine gun emplacements.
Many artillery shells fired during the Great War failed to explode. Drake Goodman provides the following information on Flickr:
"During World War I, an estimated one tonne of explosives was fired for every square metre of territory on the Western front. As many as one in every three shells fired did not detonate. In the Ypres Salient alone, an estimated 300 million projectiles that the British and the German forces fired at each other were "duds", and most of them have not been recovered."
To this day, large quantities of Great War matériel are discovered on a regular basis. Many shells from the Great War were left buried in the mud, and often come to the surface during ploughing and land development.
For example, on the Somme battlefields in 2009 there were 1,025 interventions, unearthing over 6,000 pieces of ammunition weighing 44 tons.
Artillery shells may or may not still be live with explosive or gas, so the bomb disposal squad, of the Civilian Security of the Somme, dispose of them.
A huge mine under the German lines did not explode during the battle of Messines in 1917. The mine, containing several tons of ammonal and gun cotton, was triggered by lightning in 1955, creating an enormous crater.
The precise location of a second mine which also did not explode is unknown. Searches for it are not planned, as they would be too expensive and dangerous. For more on this, please search for "Cotehele Chapel"
The Somme Times
From 'The Somme Times', Monday, 31 July, 1916:
'There was a young girl of the Somme,
Who sat on a number five bomb,
She thought 'twas a dud 'un,
But it went off sudden -
Her exit she made with aplomb!'
This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 15th of October 1915.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order.
Candids of audience during the Elizabethtown family movie night (shot for the Etown Advocate newspaper)
The Toronto Zoo is one of my favorite places to go and spend a day. The animals are well looked after, have lots of space and for the most part the zoo is very photographer friendly and provides lots of great photo opportunities.
This is one of my photos of the female Sumatran Tiger. (there's a breeding pair and 2 babies from 2007 housed at the Zoo). There have been days that I've gone and ended up spending the whole day at the Sumatran exhibit, leaving time for nothing else.
I submitted it to their annual photo contest and was thrilled to win first place in the Animals category. I was even more thrilled that it made the cover.
Big Ant TV Media LLC ©
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The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale published by A. Breger of 9 Rue Thenard, Paris.
The Notre-Dame Fire
On the 15th. April 2019, fire broke out in the attic beneath the cathedral's roof at 18:18. At 18:20 the fire alarm sounded and guards evacuated the cathedral. A guard was sent to investigate, but to the wrong location – the attic of the adjoining sacristy – where he found no fire. About fifteen minutes later the error was discovered, but by the time guards had climbed the three hundred steps to the cathedral attic the fire was well advanced.
The alarm system was not designed to automatically notify the fire brigade, which was summoned at 18:51 after the guards had returned. Firefighters arrived within ten minutes.
Fighting the Notre-Dame Fire
More than 400 firefighters were engaged. A hundred government employees along with police and municipal workers moved precious artefacts to safety via a human chain.
The fire was primarily fought from inside the structure, which was more dangerous for personnel, but reduced potential damage to the cathedral - applying water from outside risked deflecting flames and hot gases (at temperatures up to 800 °C) inwards. Deluge guns were used at lower-than-usual pressures to minimise damage to the cathedral and its contents. Water was supplied by pump-boat from the Seine.
Aerial firefighting was not used because water dropped from heights could have caused structural damage, and heated stone can crack if suddenly cooled. Helicopters were also not used because of dangerous updrafts, but drones were used for visual and thermal imaging, and robots for visual imaging and directing water streams. Molten lead falling from the roof posed a special hazard for firefighters.
By 18:52, smoke was visible from the outside; flames appeared within the next ten minutes. The spire of the cathedral collapsed at 19:50, creating a draft that slammed all the doors and sent a fireball through the attic. Firefighters then retreated from within the attic.
Shortly before the spire fell, the fire had spread to the wooden framework inside the north tower, which supported eight very large bells. Had the bells fallen, it was thought that the damage done as they fell could have collapsed the towers, and with them the entire cathedral.
At 20:30, firefighters abandoned attempts to extinguish the roof and concentrated on saving the towers, fighting from within and between the towers. By 21:45 the fire was under control.
Adjacent apartment buildings were evacuated due to concern about possible collapse, but on the 19th. April the fire brigade ruled out that risk. One firefighter and two police officers were injured.
Damage to Notre-Dame
Most of the wood/metal roof and the spire of the cathedral was destroyed, with about one third of the roof remaining. The remnants of the roof and spire fell atop the stone vault underneath, which forms the ceiling of the cathedral's interior. Some sections of this vaulting collapsed in turn, allowing debris from the burning roof to fall to the marble floor below, but most sections remained intact due to the use of rib vaulting, greatly reducing damage to the cathedral's interior and objects within.
The cathedral contained a large number of artworks, religious relics, and other irreplaceable treasures, including a crown of thorns said to be the one Jesus wore at his crucifixion. Other items were a purported piece of the cross on which Jesus was crucified, the Tunic of St. Louis, a pipe organ by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, and the 14th.-century Virgin of Paris statue.
Some artwork had been removed in preparation for the renovations, and most of the cathedral's sacred relics were held in the adjoining sacristy, which the fire did not reach; all the cathedral's relics survived. Many valuables that were not removed also survived.
Lead joints in some of the 19th.-century stained-glass windows melted, but the three major rose windows, dating back to the 13th. century, were undamaged. Several pews were destroyed, and the vaulted arches were blackened by smoke, though the cathedral's main cross and altar survived, along with the statues surrounding it.
Some paintings, apparently only smoke-damaged, are expected to be transported to the Louvre for restoration. The rooster-shaped reliquary atop the spire was found damaged but intact among the debris. The three pipe organs were not significantly damaged. The largest of the cathedral's bells, the bourdon, was also not damaged. The liturgical treasury of the cathedral and the "Grands Mays" paintings were moved to safety.
Environmental Damage
Airparif said that winds rapidly dispersed the smoke, carrying it away aloft along the Seine corridor. It did not find elevated levels of particulate air pollution at monitoring stations nearby. The Paris police stated that there was no danger from breathing the air around the fire.
The burned-down roof had been covered with over 400 metric tons of lead. Settling dust substantially raised surface lead levels in some places nearby, notably the cordoned-off area and places left open during the fire. Wet cleaning for surfaces and blood tests for children and pregnant women were recommended in the immediate area.
People working on the cathedral after the fire did not initially take the lead precautions required for their own protection; materials leaving the site were decontaminated, but some clothing was not, and some precautions were not correctly followed; as a result, the worksite failed some inspections and was temporarily shut down.
There was also more widespread contamination; testing, clean-up, and public health advisories were delayed for months, and the neighbourhood was not decontaminated for four months, prompting widespread criticism.
Reactions to the Notre-Dame Fire
President of France Emmanuel Macron, postponing a speech to address the Yellow Vests Movement planned for that evening, went to Notre-Dame and gave a brief address there. Numerous world religious and government leaders extended condolences.
Through the night of the fire and into the next day, people gathered along the Seine to hold vigils, sing and pray.
White tarpaulins over metal beams were quickly rigged to protect the interior from the elements. Nettings protect the de-stabilised exterior.
The following Sunday at Saint-Eustache Church, the Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, honoured the firefighters with the presentation of a book of scriptures saved from the fire.
Investigation Into The Notre-Dame Fire
On the 16th. April, the Paris prosecutor said that there was no evidence of a deliberate act.
The fire has been compared to the similar 1992 Windsor Castle fire and the Uppark fire, among others, and has raised old questions about the safety of similar structures and the techniques used to restore them. Renovation works increase the risk of fire, and a police source reported that they are looking into whether such work had caused this incident.
The renovations presented a fire risk from sparks, short-circuits, and heat from welding (roof repairs involved cutting, and welding lead sheets resting on timber). Normally, no electrical installations were allowed in the roof space due to the extreme fire risk.
The roof framing was of very dry timber, often powdery with age. After the fire, the architect responsible for fire safety at the cathedral acknowledged that the rate at which fire might spread had been underestimated, and experts said it was well known that a fire in the roof would be almost impossible to control.
Of the firms working on the restoration, a Europe Echafaudage team was the only one working there on the day of the fire; the company said no soldering or welding was underway before the fire. The scaffolding was receiving electrical supply for temporary elevators and lighting.
The roofers, Le Bras Frères, said it had followed procedure, and that none of its personnel were on site when the fire broke out. Time-lapse images taken by a camera installed by them showed smoke first rising from the base of the spire.
On the 25th. April, the structure was considered safe enough for investigators to enter. They unofficially stated that they were considering theories involving malfunction of electric bell-ringing apparatus, and cigarette ends discovered on the renovation scaffolding.
Le Bras Frères confirmed its workers had smoked cigarettes, contrary to regulations, but denied that a cigarette butt could have started the fire. The Paris prosecutor's office announced on the 26th. June that no evidence had been found to suggest a criminal motive.
The security employee monitoring the alarm system was new on the job, and was on a second eight-hour shift that day because his relief had not arrived. Additionally, the fire security system used confusing terminology in its referencing parts of the cathedral, which contributed to the initial confusion as to the location of the fire.
As of September, five months after the fire, investigators thought the cause of the fire was more likely an electrical fault than a cigarette. Determining the exact place in which the fire started was expected to take a great deal more time and work. By the 15th. April 2020, investigators stated:
"We believe the fire to have been
started by either a cigarette or a
short circuit in the electrical system".
Reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral
On the night of the fire Macron said that the cathedral, which is owned by the state, would be rebuilt, and launched an international fundraising campaign. France's cathedrals have been owned by the state since 1905, and are not privately insured.
The heritage conservation organisation Fondation du Patrimoine estimated the damage in the hundreds of millions of euros, but losses from the fire are not expected to substantially impact the private insurance industry.
European art insurers stated that the cost would be similar to ongoing renovations at the Palace of Westminster in London, which currently is estimated to be around €7 billion.
This cost does not include damage to any of the artwork or artefacts within the cathedral. Any pieces on loan from other museums would have been insured, but the works owned by the cathedral would not have been insurable.
While Macron hoped the cathedral could be restored in time for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, architects expect the work could take from twenty to forty years, as any new structure would need to balance restoring the look of the original building, using wood and stone sourced from the same regions used in the original construction, with the structural reinforcement required for preventing a similar disaster in the future.
There is discussion of whether to reconstruct the cathedral in modified form. Rebuilding the roof with titanium sheets and steel trusses has been suggested; other options include rebuilding in the original lead and wood, or rebuilding with modern materials not visible from the outside (like the reinforced concrete trusses at Reims Cathedral).
Another option would be to use a combination of restored old elements and newly designed ones. Chartres Cathedral was rebuilt with wrought iron trusses and copper sheeting after an 1836 fire.
French prime minister Édouard Philippe announced an architectural design competition for a new spire that would be:
"Adapted to the techniques
and the challenges of our era."
The spire replacement project has gathered a variety of designs and some controversy, particularly its legal exemption from environmental and heritage rules. After the design competition was announced, the French senate amended the government's restoration bill to require the roof to be restored to how it was before the fire.
On the 16th. July, 95 days after the fire, the law that will govern the restoration of the cathedral was finally approved by the French parliament. It recognises its UNESCO World Heritage Site status and the need to respect existing international charters and practices, to:
"Preserve the historic, artistic and architectural
history of the monument, and to limit any
derogations to the existing heritage, planning,
environmental and construction codes to a
minimum".
On the 15th. April 2020, Germany offered to restore some of the large clerestory windows located far above eye level with three expert tradesmen who specialize in rebuilding cathedrals. Monika Grütters, Germany's Commissioner for Culture was quoted as saying that her country would shoulder the costs.
As of the 30th. November all of the tangled scaffolding was removed from the spire area, and was therefore no longer a threat to the building.
The world will now have to wait for Notre-Dame de Paris to be restored to its former magnificence.
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale published by Lévy et Neurdein Réunis, 44 Rue Letellier, Paris.
The Gardens of Versailles
The Gardens of Versailles are situated to the west of the palace. They cover some 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of land, much of which is landscaped in the classic French formal garden style perfected here by André Le Nôtre.
Beyond the surrounding belt of woodland, the gardens are bordered by the urban areas of Versailles to the east and Le Chesnay to the north-east, by the National Arboretum de Chèvreloup to the north, the Versailles plain (a protected wildlife preserve) to the west, and by the Satory Forest to the south.
In 1979, the gardens along with the château were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List due to its cultural importance during the 17th. and 18th. centuries.
The gardens are now one of the most visited public sites in France, receiving more than six million visitors a year.
The gardens contain 200,000 trees, 210,000 flowers planted annually, and feature meticulously manicured lawns and parterres, as well as many sculptures.
50 fountains containing 620 water jets, fed by 35 km. of piping, are located throughout the gardens. Dating from the time of Louis XIV and still using much of the same network of hydraulics as was used during the Ancien Régime, the fountains contribute to making the gardens of Versailles unique.
On weekends from late spring to early autumn, there are the Grandes Eaux - spectacles during which all the fountains in the gardens are in full play. Designed by André Le Nôtre, the Grand Canal is the masterpiece of the Gardens of Versailles.
In the Gardens too, the Grand Trianon was built to provide the Sun King with the retreat that he wanted. The Petit Trianon is associated with Marie-Antoinette, who spent time there with her closest relatives and friends.
The Du Bus Plan for the Gardens of Versailles
With Louis XIII's purchase of lands from Jean-François de Gondi in 1632 and his assumption of the seigneurial role of Versailles in the 1630's, formal gardens were laid out west of the château.
Claude Mollet and Hilaire Masson designed the gardens, which remained relatively unchanged until the expansion ordered under Louis XIV in the 1660's. This early layout, which has survived in the so-called Du Bus plan of c.1662, shows an established topography along which lines of the gardens evolved. This is evidenced in the clear definition of the main east–west and north–south axis that anchors the gardens' layout.
Louis XIV
In 1661, after the disgrace of the finance minister Nicolas Fouquet, who was accused by rivals of embezzling crown funds in order to build his luxurious château at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Louis XIV turned his attention to Versailles.
With the aid of Fouquet's architect Louis Le Vau, painter Charles Le Brun, and landscape architect André Le Nôtre, Louis began an embellishment and expansion program at Versailles that would occupy his time and worries for the remainder of his reign.
From this point forward, the expansion of the gardens of Versailles followed the expansions of the château.
(a) The First Building Campaign
In 1662, minor modifications to the château were undertaken; however, greater attention was given to developing the gardens. Existing bosquets (clumps of trees) and parterres were expanded, and new ones created.
Most significant among the creations at this time were the Versailles Orangerie and the "Grotte de Thétys". The Orangery, which was designed by Louis Le Vau, was located south of the château, a situation that took advantage of the natural slope of the hill. It provided a protected area in which orange trees were kept during the winter months.
The "Grotte de Thétys", which was located to the north of the château, formed part of the iconography of the château and of the gardens that aligned Louis XIV with solar imagery. The grotto was completed during the second building campaign.
By 1664, the gardens had evolved to the point that Louis XIV inaugurated the gardens with the fête galante called Les Plaisirs de L'Île Enchantée. The event, was ostensibly to celebrate his mother, Anne d'Autriche, and his consort Marie-Thérèse but in reality celebrated Louise de La Vallière, Louis' mistress.
Guests were regaled with entertainments in the gardens over a period of one week. As a result of this fête - particularly the lack of housing for guests (most of them had to sleep in their carriages), Louis realised the shortcomings of Versailles, and began to expand the château and the gardens once again.
(b) The Second Building Campaign
Between 1664 and 1668, there was a flurry of activity in the gardens - especially with regard to fountains and new bosquets; it was during this time that the imagery of the gardens exploited Apollo and solar imagery as metaphors for Louis XIV.
Le Va's enveloppe of the Louis XIII's château provided a means by which, though the decoration of the garden façade, imagery in the decors of the grands appartements of the king and queen formed a symbiosis with the imagery of the gardens.
With this new phase of construction, the gardens assumed the design vocabulary that remained in force until the 18th. century. Solar and Apollonian themes predominated with projects constructed at this time.
Three additions formed the topological and symbolic nexus of the gardens during this phase of construction: the completion of the "Grotte de Thétys", the "Bassin de Latone", and the "Bassin d'Apollon".
The Grotte de Thétys
Started in 1664 and finished in 1670 with the installation of the statuary, the grotto formed an important symbolic and technical component to the gardens. Symbolically, the "Grotte de Thétys" related to the myth of Apollo - and by association to Louis XIV.
It represented the cave of the sea nymph Thetis, where Apollo rested after driving his chariot to light the sky. The grotto was a freestanding structure located just north of the château.
The interior, which was decorated with shell-work to represent a sea cave, contained the statue group by the Marsy brothers depicting the sun god attended by nereids.
Technically, the "'Grotte de Thétys" played a critical role in the hydraulic system that supplied water to the garden. The roof of the grotto supported a reservoir that stored water pumped from the Clagny pond and which fed the fountains lower in the garden via gravity.
The Bassin de Latone
Located on the east–west axis is the Bassin de Latone. Designed by André Le Nôtre, sculpted by Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy, and constructed between 1668 and 1670, the fountain depicts an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Altona and her children, Apollo and Diana, being tormented with mud slung by Lycian peasants, who refused to let her and her children drink from their pond, appealed to Jupiter who responded by turning the Lycians into frogs.
This episode from mythology has been seen as a reference to the revolts of the Fronde, which occurred during the minority of Louis XIV. The link between Ovid's story and this episode from French history is emphasised by the reference to "mud slinging" in a political context.
The revolts of the Fronde - the word fronde also means slingshot - have been regarded as the origin of the use of the term "mud slinging" in a political context.
The Bassin d'Apollon
Further along the east–west axis is the Bassin d'Apollon. The Apollo Fountain, which was constructed between 1668 and 1671, depicts the sun god driving his chariot to light the sky. The fountain forms a focal point in the garden, and serves as a transitional element between the gardens of the Petit Parc and the Grand Canal.
The Grand Canal
With a length of 1,500 metres and a width of 62 metres, the Grand Canal, which was built between 1668 and 1671, prolongs the east–west axis to the walls of the Grand Parc. During the Ancien Régime, the Grand Canal served as a venue for boating parties.
In 1674 the king ordered the construction of Petite Venise (Little Venice). Located at the junction of the Grand Canal and the northern transversal branch, Little Venice housed the caravels and yachts that were received from The Netherlands and the gondolas and gondoliers received as gifts from the Doge of Venice.
The Grand Canal also served a practical role. Situated at a low point in the gardens, it collected water that drained from the fountains in the garden above. Water from the Grand Canal was pumped back to the reservoir on the roof of the Grotte de Thétys via a network of windmill- and horse-powered pumps.
The Parterre d'Eau
Situated above the Latona Fountain is the terrace of the château, known as the Parterre d'Eau. Forming a transitional element from the château to the gardens below, the Parterre d'Eau provided a setting in which the symbolism of the grands appartements synthesized with the iconography of the gardens.
In 1664, Louis XIV commissioned a series of statues intended to decorate the water feature of the Parterre d'Eau. The Grande Command, as the commission is known, comprised twenty-four statues of the classic quaternities and four additional statues depicting abductions from the classic past.
Evolution of the Bosquets
One of the distinguishing features of the gardens during the second building campaign was the proliferation of bosquets. Expanding the layout established during the first building campaign, Le Nôtre added or expanded on no fewer that ten bosquets between 1670 and 1678:
-- The Bosquet du Marais
-- The Bosquet du Théâtre d'Eau, Île du Roi
-- The Miroir d'Eau
-- The Salle des Festins (Salle du Conseil)
-- The Bosquet des Trois Fontaines
-- The Labyrinthe
-- The Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe
-- The Bosquet de la Renommée (Bosquet des Dômes)
-- The Bosquet de l'Encélade
-- The Bosquet des Sources
In addition to the expansion of existing bosquets and the construction of new ones, there were two additional projects that defined this era, the Bassin des Sapins and the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses.
-- The Bassin des Sapins
In 1676, the Bassin des Sapins, which was located north of the château below the Allée des Marmoset's was designed to form a topological pendant along the north–south axis with the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses located at the base of the Satory hill south of the château.
Later modifications in the gardens transformed this fountain into the Bassin de Neptune.
-- Pièce d'Eau des Suisses
Excavated in 1678, the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses - named after the Swiss Guards who constructed the lake - occupied an area of marshes and ponds, some of which had been used to supply water for the fountains in the garden.
This water feature, with a surface area of more than 15 hectares (37 acres), is the second largest - after the Grand Canal - at Versailles.
(c) The Third Building Campaign
Modifications to the gardens during the third building campaign were distinguished by a stylistic change from the natural aesthetic of André Le Nôtre to the architectonic style of Jules Hardouin Mansart.
The first major modification to the gardens during this phase occurred in 1680 when the Tapis Vert - the expanse of lawn that stretches between the Latona Fountain and the Apollo Fountain - achieved its final size and definition under the direction of André Le Nôtre.
Beginning in 1684, the Parterre d'Eau was remodelled under the direction of Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Statues from the Grande Commande of 1674 were relocated to other parts of the garden; two twin octagonal basins were constructed and decorated with bronze statues representing the four main rivers of France.
In the same year, Le Vau's Orangerie, located to south of the Parterrre d'Eau was demolished to accommodate a larger structure designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart.
In addition to the Orangerie, the Escaliers des Cent Marches, which facilitated access to the gardens from the south, to the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses, and to the Parterre du Midi were constructed at this time, giving the gardens just south of the château their present configuration and decoration.
Additionally, to accommodate the anticipated construction of the Aile des Nobles - the north wing of the château - the Grotte de Thétys was demolished.
With the construction of the Aile des Nobles (1685–1686), the Parterre du Nord was remodelled to respond to the new architecture of this part of the château.
To compensate for the loss of the reservoir on top of the Grotte de Thétys and to meet the increased demand for water, Jules Hardouin-Mansart designed new and larger reservoirs situated north of the Aile des Nobles.
Construction of the ruinously expensive Canal de l'Eure was inaugurated in 1685; designed by Vauban it was intended to bring waters of the Eure over 80 kilometres, including aqueducts of heroic scale, but the works were abandoned in 1690.
Between 1686 and 1687, the Bassin de Latone, under the direction of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, was rebuilt. It is this final version of the fountain that one sees today at Versailles.
During this phase of construction, three of the garden's major bosquets were modified or created. Beginning with the Galerie des Antiques, this bosquet was constructed in 1680 on the site of the earlier and short-lived Galerie d'Eau. This bosquet was conceived as an open-air gallery in which antique statues and copies acquired by the Académie de France in Rome were displayed.
The following year, construction began on the Salle de Bal. Located in a secluded section of the garden west of the Orangerie, this bosquet was designed as an amphitheater that featured a cascade – the only one surviving in the gardens of Versailles. The Salle de Bal was inaugurated in 1685 with a ball hosted by the Grand Dauphin.
Between 1684 and 1685, Jules Hardouin-Mansart built the Colonnade. Located on the site of Le Nôtre's Bosquet des Sources, this bosquet featured a circular peristyle formed from thirty-two arches with twenty-eight fountains, and was Hardouin-Mansart's most architectural of the bosquets built in the gardens of Versailles.
(d) The Fourth Building Campaign
Due to financial constraints arising from the War of the League of Augsburg and the War of the Spanish Succession, no significant work on the gardens was undertaken until 1704.
Between 1704 and 1709, bosquets were modified, some quite radically, with new names suggesting the new austerity that characterised the latter years of Louis XIV's reign.
Louis XV
With the departure of the king and court from Versailles in 1715 following the death of Louis XIV, the palace and gardens entered an era of uncertainty.
In 1722, Louis XV and the court returned to Versailles. Seeming to heed his great-grandfather's admonition not to engage in costly building campaigns, Louis XV did not undertake the costly rebuilding that Louis XIV had.
During the reign of Louis XV, the only significant addition to the gardens was the completion of the Bassin de Neptune (1738–1741).
Rather than expend resources on modifying the gardens at Versailles, Louis XV - an avid botanist - directed his efforts at Trianon. In the area now occupied by the Hameau de la Reine, Louis XV constructed and maintained les Jardins Botaniques.
In 1761, Louis XV commissioned Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build the Petit Trianon as a residence that would allow him to spend more time near the Jardins Botaniques. It was at the Petit Trianon that Louis XV fell fatally ill with smallpox; he died at Versailles on the 10th. May 1774.
Louis XVI
Upon Louis XVI's ascension to the throne, the gardens of Versailles underwent a transformation that recalled the fourth building campaign of Louis XIV. Engendered by a change in outlook as advocated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Philosophes, the winter of 1774–1775 witnessed a complete replanting of the gardens.
Trees and shrubbery dating from the reign of Louis XIV were felled or uprooted with the intent of transforming the French formal garden of Le Nôtre and Hardouin-Mansart into a version of an English landscape garden.
The attempt to convert Le Nôtre's masterpiece into an English-style garden failed to achieve its desired goal. Owing largely to the topology of the land, the English aesthetic was abandoned and the gardens replanted in the French style.
However, with an eye on economy, Louis XVI ordered the Palisades - the labour-intensive clipped hedging that formed walls in the bosquets - to be replaced with rows of lime trees or chestnut trees. Additionally, a number of the bosquets dating from the time of the Sun King were extensively modified or destroyed.
The most significant contribution to the gardens during the reign of Louis XVI was the Grotte des Bains d'Apollon. The rockwork grotto set in an English style bosquet was the masterpiece of Hubert Robert in which the statues from the Grotte de Thétys were placed.
Revolution
In 1792, under order from the National Convention, some of the trees in the gardens were felled, while parts of the Grand Parc were parcelled and dispersed.
Sensing the potential threat to Versailles, Louis Claude Marie Richard (1754–1821) – director of the Jardins Botaniques and grandson of Claude Richard – lobbied the government to save Versailles. He succeeded in preventing further dispersing of the Grand Parc, and threats to destroy the Petit Parc were abolished by suggesting that the parterres could be used to plant vegetable gardens, and that orchards could occupy the open areas of the garden.
These plans were never put into action; however, the gardens were opened to the public - it was not uncommon to see people washing their laundry in the fountains and spreading it on the shrubbery to dry.
Napoléon I
The Napoleonic era largely ignored Versailles. In the château, a suite of rooms was arranged for the use of the empress Marie-Louise, but the gardens were left unchanged, save for the disastrous felling of trees in the Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe and the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines. Massive soil erosion necessitated planting of new trees.
Restoration
With the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, the gardens of Versailles witnessed the first modifications since the Revolution. In 1817, Louis XVIII ordered the conversion of the Île du Roi and the Miroir d'Eau into an English-style garden - the Jardin du Roi.
The July Monarchy; The Second Empire
While much of the château's interior was irreparably altered to accommodate the Museum of the History of France (inaugurated by Louis-Philippe on the 10th. June 1837), the gardens, by contrast, remained untouched.
With the exception of the state visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1855, at which time the gardens were a setting for a gala fête that recalled the fêtes of Louis XIV, Napoléon III ignored the château, preferring instead the château of Compiègne.
Pierre de Nolhac
With the arrival of Pierre de Nolhac as director of the museum in 1892, a new era of historical research began at Versailles. Nolhac, an ardent archivist and scholar, began to piece together the history of Versailles, and subsequently established the criteria for restoration of the château and preservation of the gardens, which are ongoing to this day.
Bosquets of the Gardens
Owing to the many modifications made to the gardens between the 17th. and the 19th. centuries, many of the bosquets have undergone multiple modifications, which were often accompanied by name changes.
Deux Bosquets - Bosquet de la Girondole - Bosquet du Dauphin - Quinconce du Nord - Quinconce du Midi
These two bosquets were first laid out in 1663. They were arranged as a series of paths around four salles de verdure and which converged on a central "room" that contained a fountain.
In 1682, the southern bosquet was remodeled as the Bosquet de la Girondole, thus named due to spoke-like arrangement of the central fountain. The northern bosquet was rebuilt in 1696 as the Bosquet du Dauphin with a fountain that featured a dolphin.
During the replantation of 1774–1775, both the bosquets were destroyed. The areas were replanted with lime trees and were rechristened the Quinconce du Nord and the Quinconce du Midi.
Labyrinthe - Bosquet de la Reine
In 1665, André Le Nôtre planned a hedge maze of unadorned paths in an area south of the Latona Fountain near the Orangerie. In 1669, Charles Perrault - author of the Mother Goose Tales - advised Louis XIV to remodel the Labyrinthe in such a way as to serve the Dauphin's education.
Between 1672 and 1677, Le Nôtre redesigned the Labyrinthe to feature thirty-nine fountains that depicted stories from Aesop's Fables. The sculptors Jean-Baptiste Tuby, Étienne Le Hongre, Pierre Le Gros, and the brothers Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy worked on these thirty-nine fountains, each of which was accompanied by a plaque on which the fable was printed, with verse written by Isaac de Benserade; from these plaques, Louis XIV's son learned to read.
Once completed in 1677, the Labyrinthe contained thirty-nine fountains with 333 painted metal animal sculptures. The water for the elaborate waterworks was conveyed from the Seine by the Machine de Marly.
The Labyrinthe contained fourteen water-wheels driving 253 pumps, some of which worked at a distance of three-quarters of a mile.
Citing repair and maintenance costs, Louis XVI ordered the Labyrinthe demolished in 1778. In its place, an arboretum of exotic trees was planted as an English-styled garden.
Rechristened Bosquet de la Reine, it would be in this part of the garden that an episode of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, which compromised Marie-Antoinette, transpired in 1785.
Bosquet de la Montagne d'Eau - Bosquet de l'Étoile
Originally designed by André Le Nôtre in 1661 as a salle de verdure, this bosquet contained a path encircling a central pentagonal area. In 1671, the bosquet was enlarged with a more elaborate system of paths that served to enhance the new central water feature, a fountain that resembled a mountain, hence the bosquets new name: Bosquet de la Montagne d'Eau.
The bosquet was completely remodeled in 1704 at which time it was rechristened Bosquet de l'Étoile.
Bosquet du Marais - Bosquet du Chêne Vert - Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon - Grotte des Bains d'Apollon
Created in 1670, this bosquet originally contained a central rectangular pool surrounded by a turf border. Edging the pool were metal reeds that concealed numerous jets for water; a swan that had water jetting from its beak occupied each corner.
The centre of the pool featured an iron tree with painted tin leaves that sprouted water from its branches. Because of this tree, the bosquet was also known as the Bosquet du Chêne Vert.
In 1705, this bosquet was destroyed in order to allow for the creation of the Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon, which was created to house the statues had once stood in the Grotte de Thétys.
During the reign of Louis XVI, Hubert Robert remodeled the bosquet, creating a cave-like setting for the Marsy statues. The bosquet was renamed the Grotte des Bains d'Apollon.
Île du Roi - Miroir d'Eau - Jardin du Roi
Originally designed in 1671 as two separate water features, the larger - Île du Roi - contained an island that formed the focal point of a system of elaborate fountains.
The Île du Roi was separated from the Miroir d'Eau by a causeway that featured twenty-four water jets. In 1684, the island was removed and the total number of water jets in the bosquet was significantly reduced.
The year 1704 witnessed a major renovation of the bosquet, at which time the causeway was remodelled and most of the water jets were removed.
A century later, in 1817, Louis XVIII ordered the Île du Roi and the Miroir d'Eau to be completely remodeled as an English-style garden. At this time, the bosquet was rechristened Jardin du Roi.
Salle des Festins - Salle du Conseil - Bosquet de l'Obélisque
In 1671, André Le Nôtre conceived a bosquet - originally christened Salle des Festins and later called Salle du Conseil - that featured a quatrefoil island surrounded by a channel containing fifty water jets. Access to the island was obtained by two swing bridges.
Beyond the channel and placed at the cardinal points within the bosquet were four additional fountains. Under the direction of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the bosquet was completely remodeled in 1706. The central island was replaced by a large basin raised on five steps, which was surrounded by a canal. The central fountain contained 230 jets that, when in play, formed an obelisk – hence the new name Bosquet de l'Obélisque.
Bosquet du Théâtre d'Eau - Bosquet du Rond-Vert
The central feature of this bosquet, which was designed by Le Nôtre between 1671 and 1674, was an auditorium/theatre sided by three tiers of turf seating that faced a stage decorated with four fountains alternating with three radiating cascades.
Between 1680 and Louis XIV's death in 1715, there was near-constant rearranging of the statues that decorated the bosquet.
In 1709, the bosquet was rearranged with the addition of the Fontaine de l'Île aux Enfants. As part of the replantation of the gardens ordered by Louis XVI during the winter of 1774–1775, the Bosquet du Théâtre d'Eau was destroyed and replaced with the unadorned Bosquet du Rond-Vert. The Bosquet du Théâtre d'Eau was recreated in 2014, with South Korean businessman and photographer Yoo Byung-eun being the sole patron, donating €1.4 million.
Bosquet des Trois Fontaines - Berceau d'Eau
Situated to the west of the Allée des Marmousets and replacing the short-lived Berceau d'Eau (a long and narrow bosquet created in 1671 that featured a water bower made by numerous jets of water), the enlarged bosquet was transformed by Le Nôtre in 1677 into a series of three linked rooms.
Each room contained a number of fountains that played with special effects. The fountains survived the modifications that Louis XIV ordered for other fountains in the gardens in the early 18th. century and were subsequently spared during the 1774–1775 replantation of the gardens.
In 1830, the bosquet was replanted, at which time the fountains were suppressed. Due to storm damage in the park in 1990 and then again in 1999, the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines was restored and re-inaugurated on the 12th. June 2004.
Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe
This bosquet was originally planned in 1672 as a simple pavillon d'eau - a round open expanse with a square fountain in the centre. In 1676, this bosquet was enlarged and redecorated along political lines that alluded to French military victories over Spain and Austria, at which time the triumphal arch was added - hence the name.
As with the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines, this bosquet survived the modifications of the 18th. century, but was replanted in 1830, at which time the fountains were removed.
Bosquet de la Renommée - Bosquet des Dômes
Built in 1675, the Bosquet de la Renommée featured a fountain statue of Fame. With the relocation of the statues from the Grotte de Thétys in 1684, the bosquet was remodelled to accommodate the statues, and the Fame fountain was removed.
At this time the bosquet was rechristened Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon. As part of the reorganisation of the garden that was ordered by Louis XIV in the early part of the 18th. century, the Apollo grouping was moved once again to the site of the Bosquet du Marais - located near the Latona Fountain - which was destroyed and was replaced by the new Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon.
The statues were installed on marble plinths from which water issued; and each statue grouping was protected by an intricately carved and gilded baldachin.
The old Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon was renamed Bosquet des Dômes due to two domed pavilions built in the bosquet.
Bosquet de l'Encélade
Created in 1675 at the same time as the Bosquet de la Renommée, the fountain of this bosquet depicts Enceladus, a fallen Giant who was condemned to live below Mount Etna, being consumed by volcanic lava.
From its conception, this fountain was conceived as an allegory of Louis XIV's victory over the Fronde. In 1678, an octagonal ring of turf and eight rocaille fountains surrounding the central fountain were added. These additions were removed in 1708.
When in play, this fountain has the tallest jet of all the fountains in the gardens of Versailles - 25 metres.
Bosquet des Sources - La Colonnade
Designed as a simple unadorned salle de verdure by Le Nôtre in 1678, the landscape architect enhanced and incorporated an existing stream to create a bosquet that featured rivulets that twisted among nine islets.
In 1684, Jules Hardouin-Mansart completely redesigned the bosquet by constructing a circular arched double peristyle. The Colonnade, as it was renamed, originally featured thirty-two arches and thirty-one fountains – a single jet of water splashed into a basin center under the arch.
In 1704, three additional entrances to the Colonnade were added, which reduced the number of fountains from thirty-one to twenty-eight. The statue that currently occupies the centre of the Colonnade - the Abduction of Persephone - (from the Grande Commande of 1664) was set in place in 1696.
Galerie d'Eau - Galerie des Antiques - Salle des Marronniers
Occupying the site of the Galerie d'Eau (1678), the Galerie des Antiques was designed in 1680 to house the collection of antique statues and copies of antique statues acquired by the Académie de France in Rome.
Surrounding a central area paved with colored stone, a channel was decorated with twenty statues on plinths, each separated by three jets of water.
The Galerie was completely remodeled in 1704 when the statues were transferred to Marly and the bosquet was replanted with horse chestnut trees - hence the current name Salle des Marronniers.
Salle de Bal
This bosquet, which was designed by Le Nôtre and built between 1681 and 1683, features a semi-circular cascade that forms the backdrop for a salle de verdure.
Interspersed with gilt lead torchères, which supported candelabra for illumination, the Salle de Bal was inaugurated in 1683 by Louis XIV's son, the Grand Dauphin, with a dance party.
The Salle de Bal was remodeled in 1707 when the central island was removed and an additional entrance was added.
Replantations of the Gardens
Common to any long-lived garden is replantation, and Versailles is no exception. In their history, the gardens of Versailles have undergone no less than five major replantations, which have been executed for practical and aesthetic reasons.
During the winter of 1774–1775, Louis XVI ordered the replanting of the gardens on the grounds that many of the trees were diseased or overgrown, and needed to be replaced.
Also, as the formality of the 17th.-century garden had fallen out of fashion, this replantation sought to establish a new informality in the gardens - that would also be less expensive to maintain.
This, however, was not achieved, as the topology of the gardens favored the Jardin à la Française over an English-style garden.
Then, in 1860, much of the old growth from Louis XVI's replanting was removed and replaced. In 1870, a violent storm struck the area, damaging and uprooting scores of trees, which necessitated a massive replantation program.
However, owing to the Franco-Prussian War, which toppled Napoléon III, and the Commune de Paris, replantation of the garden did not get underway until 1883.
The most recent replantations of the gardens were precipitated by two storms that battered Versailles in 1990 and then again in 1999. The storm damage at Versailles and Trianon amounted to the loss of thousands of trees - the worst such damage in the history of Versailles.
The replantations have allowed museum and governmental authorities to restore and rebuild some of the bosquets that were abandoned during the reign of Louis XVI, such as the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines, which was restored in 2004.
Catherine Pégard, the head of the public establishment which administers Versailles, has stated that the intention is to return the gardens to their appearance under Louis XIV, specifically as he described them in his 1704 description, Manière de Montrer les Jardins de Versailles.
This involves restoring some of the parterres like the Parterre du Midi to their original formal layout, as they appeared under Le Nôtre. This was achieved in the Parterre de Latone in 2013, when the 19th. century lawns and flower beds were torn up and replaced with boxwood-enclosed turf and gravel paths to create a formal arabesque design.
Pruning is also done to keep trees at between 17 and 23 metres (56 to 75 feet), so as not to spoil the carefully designed perspectives of the gardens.
Owing to the natural cycle of replantations that has occurred at Versailles, it is safe to state that no trees dating from the time of Louis XIV are to be found in the gardens.
Problems With Water
The marvel of the gardens of Versailles - then as now - is the fountains. Yet, the very element that animates the gardens, water, has proven to be the affliction of the gardens since the time of Louis XIV.
The gardens of Louis XIII required water, and local ponds provided an adequate supply. However, once Louis XIV began expanding the gardens with more and more fountains, supplying the gardens with water became a critical challenge.
To meet the needs of the early expansions of the gardens under Louis XIV, water was pumped to the gardens from ponds near the château, with the Clagny pond serving as the principal source.
Water from the pond was pumped to the reservoir on top of the Grotte de Thétys, which fed the fountains in the garden by means of gravitational hydraulics. Other sources included a series of reservoirs located on the Satory Plateau south of the château.
The Grand Canal
By 1664, increased demand for water necessitated additional sources. In that year, Louis Le Vau designed the Pompe, a water tower built north of the château. The Pompe drew water from the Clagny pond using a system of windmills and horsepower to a cistern housed in the Pompe's building. The capacity of the Pompe 600 cubic metres per day - alleviated some of the water shortages in the garden.
With the completion of the Grand Canal in 1671, which served as drainage for the fountains of the garden, water, via a system of windmills, was pumped back to the reservoir on top of the Grotte de Thétys.
While this system solved some of the water supply problems, there was never enough water to keep all of the fountains running in the garden in full-play all of the time.
While it was possible to keep the fountains in view from the château running, those concealed in the bosquets and in the farther reaches of the garden were run on an as-needed basis.
In 1672, Jean-Baptiste Colbert devised a system by which the fountaineers in the gardens would signal each other with whistles upon the approach of the king, indicating that their fountain needed to be turned on. Once the king had passed a fountain in play, it would be turned off and the fountaineer would signal that the next fountain could be turned on.
In 1674, the Pompe was enlarged, and subsequently referred to as the Grande Pompe. Pumping capacity was increased via increased power and the number of pistons used for lifting the water. These improvements increased the water capacity to nearly 3,000 cubic metres of water per day; however, the increased capacity of the Grande Pompe often left the Clagny pond dry.
The increasing demand for water and the stress placed on existing systems of water supply necessitated newer measures to increase the water supplied to Versailles. Between 1668 and 1674, a project was undertaken to divert the water of the Bièvre river to Versailles. By damming the river and with a pumping system of five windmills, water was brought to the reservoirs located on the Satory Plateau. This system brought an additional 72,000 cubic metres water to the gardens on a daily basis.
Despite the water from the Bièvre, the gardens needed still more water, which necessitated more projects. In 1681, one of the most ambitious water projects conceived during the reign of Louis XIV was undertaken.
Owing to the proximity of the Seine to Versailles, a project was proposed to raise the water from the river to be delivered to Versailles. Seizing upon the success of a system devised in 1680 that raised water from the Seine to the gardens of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, construction of the Machine de Marly began the following year.
The Machine de Marly was designed to lift water from the Seine in three stages to the Aqueduc de Louveciennes some 100 metres above the level of the river. A series of huge waterwheels was constructed in the river, which raised the water via a system of 64 pumps to a reservoir 48 metres above the river. From this first reservoir, water was raised an additional 56 metres to a second reservoir by a system of 79 pumps. Finally, 78 additional pumps raised the water to the aqueduct, which carried the water to Versailles and Marly.
In 1685, the Machine de Marly came into full operation. However, owing to leakage in the conduits and breakdowns of the mechanism, the machine was only able to deliver 3,200 cubic metres of water per day - approximately one-half the expected output. The machine was nevertheless a must-see for visitors. Despite the fact that the gardens consumed more water per day than the entire city of Paris, the Machine de Marly remained in operation until 1817.
During Louis XIV's reign, water supply systems represented one-third of the building costs of Versailles. Even with the additional output from the Machine de Marly, fountains in the garden could only be run à l'ordinaire - which is to say at half-pressure.
With this measure of economy, the fountains still consumed 12,800 cubic metres of water per day, far above the capacity of the existing supplies. In the case of the Grandes Eaux - when all the fountains played to their maximum - more than 10,000 cubic metres of water was needed for one afternoon's display.
Accordingly, the Grandes Eaux were reserved for special occasions such as the Siamese Embassy visit of 1685–1686.
The Canal de l'Eure
One final attempt to solve water shortage problems was undertaken in 1685. In this year it was proposed to divert the water of the Eure river, located 160 km. south of Versailles and at a level 26 m above the garden reservoirs.
The project called not only for digging a canal and for the construction of an aqueduct, it also necessitated the construction of shipping channels and locks to supply the workers on the main canal.
Between 9,000 to 10,000 troops were pressed into service in 1685; the next year, more than 20,000 soldiers were engaged in construction. Between 1686 and 1689, when the Nine Years' War began, one-tenth of France's military was at work on the Canal de l'Eure project.
However with the outbreak of the war, the project was abandoned, never to be completed. Had the aqueduct been completed, some 50,000 cubic metres of water would have been sent to Versailles - more than enough to solve the water problem of the gardens.
Today, the museum of Versailles is still faced with water problems. During the Grandes Eaux, water is circulated by means of modern pumps from the Grand Canal to the reservoirs. Replenishment of the water lost due to evaporation comes from rainwater, which is collected in cisterns that are located throughout the gardens and diverted to the reservoirs and the Grand Canal.
Assiduous husbanding of this resource by museum officials prevents the need to tap into the supply of potable water of the city of Versailles.
The Versailles Gardens In Popular Culture
The creation of the gardens of Versailles is the context for the film 'A Little Chaos', directed by Alan Rickman and released in 2015, in which Kate Winslet plays a fictional landscape gardener and Rickman plays King Louis XIV.
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In apertura al concerto degli Stereophonics all'Alcatraz il 20 ottobre Viva Lion: il duo folk di Daniele Cardinale e Marco Lo Forti, musicisti romani da anni attivi nella scena rock locale. In principio è il progetto solista di Daniele. Nel 2009 si trasferisce in Canada, lascia l’indie per dedicarsi al folk e al rientro in Italia entra a far parte del roster di Cosecomuni, l’etichetta dei Velvet.
Attualmente sono in studio per registrare il primo full album, in uscita nel 2015.
Daniele Cardinale: vocals, guitar
Marco Lo Forti: guitar, vocals
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Il giorno del giudizio è arrivato.
Ilaria, Lorenzo, Madh e Mario saliranno sul gigantesco palco (1.600 metri quadrati!) del Mediolanum Forum di Assago per sfidarsi in tre manche al cardiopalma, circondati da tanti fantastici ospiti. In attesa di goderci la Finale di questa edizione incredibile, ripassiamo i brani scelti dai finalisti per l'ultima manche... e che vinca il migliore!
Una Finale incredibile, con tanti ospiti sensazionali e tre manche al cardiopalma per incoronare la nuova popstar del 2014.
Alessandro Cattelan, Fedez, Mika, Morgan e Victoria vi aspettano giovedì alle 21:10 in diretta dal Mediolanum Forum per l'incredibile Finale di #XF8!
PRIMA MANCHE
Ilaria - Sere nere (con Tiziano Ferro)
Lorenzo - Sei nell'anima (con Gianna Nannini)
Madh - Moon (con Malika Ayane)
Mario - La notte (con Arisa)
SECONDA MANCHE
Ilaria - My Name
Lorenzo - The Reason Why
Madh - Sayonara
Mario - All'orizzonte
TERZA MANCHE
Ilaria - You've Got the Love (dei Florence + The Machine)
Lorenzo - Rewind (di Paolo Nutini)
Madh - Heartbreak (di Nneka)
Mario - Use Somebody (dei Kings of Leon)
Per celebrare l'incoronazione, X Factor ha deciso di invitare tanti ospiti, italiani e internazionali, che divideranno il palco del Mediolanum Forum insieme ai nostri talenti.
#XF8 è iniziato con lui e con lui doveva terminare. Dopo la sensazionale performance del primo Live Show sulle note del suo ultimo singolo, Senza scappare mai più, Tiziano Ferro torna a regalarci grande musica d'autore su un palco ancora più grande: quello di Assago!
Per la prima volta a X Factor diamo il benvenuto a una delle rocker più importanti della musica italiana: Gianna Nannini! Con alla spalle 40 anni di carriera, centinaia di live e un album, Hitalia, appena uscito, Gianna Nannini ha scelto il palco di X Factor per regalarvi la Finale più spettacolare di sempre.
Da giudice ad amica e ora ospite della Finale, anche Arisa delizierà il pubblico della sua presenza. Reduce da un tour (Se vedo te tour) per molte tappe sold out, da un film, Colpi di fulmine e da un romanzo edito Mondadori Tu eri tutto per me, Arisa torna a X Factor per portare la sua musica.
L'ultimo ospite italiano che si esibirà sul palco del Medionalum Forum per la Finale di #XF8 è una cantautrice con all'attivo 3 album, un disco multiplatino, sette dischi di platino e due dischi d'oro. Stiamo parlando di Malika Ayane, la cantautrice classe '84 che dal 2008 fa impazzire il pubblico con brani del calibro di Ricomincio da qui e Come foglie.
Ma non è finita qui, vi avevamo parlato di ospiti stranieri... Il primo che vi sveliamo è un dj e produttore di fama internazionale, con oltre 8 milioni di album venduti in tutto il mondo e vincitore di 2 Grammy Awards: David Guetta! Per la prima volta in Italia con la sua band, eseguirà live durante la Finale il singolo Dangerous, il brano certificato platino e contenuto in Listen, il suo primo album di canzoni che vede la partecipazione di artisti del calibro di Emili Sande a John Legend, SIA, Nicki Minaj, The Script, Magic!, Ryan Tedder di One Republic.
I secondi ospiti internazionali sono la “New band of the day” come li definisce il Guardian: "Ogni loro canzone si annuncia con un fiorire e molto slancio, e c'è una leggera spolverata di ritmi caraibici, sapori tropicali e salotto-jazz." Loro sono i Saint Motel, che dal 2009 a oggi sono riusciti a suonare in tutti gli Stati Uniti aprendo i concerti degli Arctic Monkeys e degli Imagine Dragons. Durante la Finale di #XF8 canteranno il loro singolo My Type, che, dopo avere conquistato l'Inghilterra è ora ai vertici delle classifiche radio e di iTunes anche in Italia.
Il diciannovenne siciliano Lorenzo Fragola batte Madh nella finalissima del talent show in onda su Sky che registra record di ascolti e di interattività.