Touring around Tooting has given me access to some new routes to snap on my feed. The first is the 131 which mainly uses refurbished B9TLs still featuring First Group interior details like the grab bars and back seat covers. Once the route gets to Wimbledon, it runs parallel to the south western rail line and loop line to the terminus.

 

BG59FXH (WVN30) is at the Tooting Broadway Station Stand ready to leave for a service to Kingston via Wimbledon and Rayners Park. Based at Merton (AL) garage.

I was given a copy of Joe Cornish's "First Light" for Christmas, which I can recommend to any aspiring photographer. One of my favourite images in the whole book was a shot of a stream with a single rock highlighted by a shaft of light.

 

When I spied this log in the stream, lit by the sun I immediately realised it had potential for my own version of the shot. Balancing the exposure was actually a pain, as it was a little too bright for the camera to handle. In the end I got my other half to block some of the light whilst I took the shot.

 

It's not even close to competing with Joe's version, but I am pleased that it came out how I wanted it, with the orange log contrasting the water.

 

EOS1000D / 17-55 Kit Lens

The Triumph Renown is strictly the name given to the Triumph's large saloon car made from 1949 to 1954 but it is, in reality, part of a three-car series of the 1800, 2000 and Renown models. Together with the Triumph Roadster, they were the first vehicles to carry the Triumph badge following the company's takeover by the Standard Motor Company.

 

Overview

 

ManufacturerStandard Motor Company

 

Production1946–54. 15,491 made[1]

 

Body and chassis

 

Body style4 door saloon, limousine.

 

Powertrain

Engine1766 cc or 2088 cc Straight-4 overhead valve

Transmission3-speed manual

 

Dimensions

Wheelbase108 in (2,743 mm) 1800, 2000 & Renown

111 in (2,819 mm) TDC & limousine[2]

Length168 in (4,267 mm) 2000

178 in (4,521 mm)Renown

181 in (4,597 mm) TDC & limousine[2]

Width64 in (1,626 mm)[2]

Height65 in (1,651 mm)[3]

 

Bodywork[edit]

The cars were distinctively styled in the later 1930s vogue for Razor Edge coachwork used in the 1940s by others including Austin for its big Sheerline. The six light (featuring three side windows on each side) design and the thin C pillars at the rear of the passenger cabin anticipated the increased window areas that would become a feature of British cars during the 1960s. The car's side profile resembled that of the contemporary prestigious Bentley saloons, which some felt was more than a coincidence. Similar styling subsequently appeared on the smaller Triumph Mayflower. The Managing Director of the Standard Motor Company at that time, Sir John Black, commissioned the design of the Razoredge saloon. There has been much discussion over the years as to exactly which designers of that period were responsible for the styling but it is very clear from the records that Sir John drove the production forward and used the Triumph name from the prewar Triumph company that had been bought by the Standard Motor Company.

 

The body was built by Mulliners of Birmingham in the traditional coachbuilder's method of sheet metal over a wooden frame.[1] The principal panels were constructed not from steel, which was in short supply in the wake of the Second World War, but from aluminium. It had been used extensively for aircraft manufacture during the war, which had taken place in a number of car plants (known at the time as "shadow factories") in the English Midlands. But by the mid-1950s aluminium had become the more expensive metal, which may have hastened the Renown's demise.Triumph Renown Mk I TDB 1949–52[edit]

The car was renamed the Renown in October 1949. It had an entirely new chassis based on the Standard Vanguard with pressed steel sections replacing the tubes previously used. The front suspension changed to coil springing. Although the 3-speed column change transmission was retained, from June 1950 an overdrive unit was offered as an option. Inside there was a new instrument layout.

 

A Renown tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1950 had a top speed of 75.0 mph (120.7 km/h) and could accelerate from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 24.3 seconds. A fuel consumption of 23.9 miles per imperial gallon (11.8 L/100 km; 19.9 mpg-US) was recorded. The test car cost £991 including taxes.[5]

 

Of the 6501 produced, fewer than 100 are known to have survived.[4]

 

Triumph Renown Limousine 1951–54[edit]

(188 in 1952; 3 in 1953; 3 in 1954)

 

In 1951 a limousine version was announced with an extra 3 in (76 mm) in the wheelbase. A division (glass partition) was placed behind the driver separating the front and back of the car. A radio and heater were fitted as standard.

 

A limousine with overdrive tested by The Motor magazine in 1952 had a top speed of 77.5 mph (124.7 km/h) slightly quicker than they had recorded two years earlier for the saloon and could accelerate from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 25.0 seconds. The reported fuel consumption was 21.6 miles per imperial gallon (13.1 L/100 km; 18.0 mpg-US). The test car cost £1440 including taxes.[3]

 

A total of 190 were made[4] though only very small numbers remain.

 

wikipedia

Triest - Molo Audace

 

Trieste (/triˈɛst/ tree-EST, Italian: [triˈɛste]; Slovene: Trst [tə̀ɾst, tə́ɾst] is a city and seaport in northeast Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the regional decentralization entity of Trieste. As of 2025, it has a population of 198,668.

 

Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste, on a narrow strip of Italian territory lying between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia; Slovenia lies close, at approximately 8 km (5 mi) east and 10–15 km (6–9 mi) southeast of the city, while Croatia is about 30 km (19 mi) to the south of the city.

 

The city has a long coastline and is surrounded by grassland, forest, and karstic areas.

 

Trieste belonged, as Triest, to the Habsburg monarchy from 1382 until 1918. In the 19th century, the monarchy was one of the Great Powers of Europe and Trieste was its most important seaport. As a prosperous trading hub in the Mediterranean region, Trieste grew to become the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (after Vienna, Budapest, and Prague). At the turn of the 20th century, it emerged as an important hub for literature and music. Trieste underwent an economic revival during the 1930s, and the Free Territory of Trieste became a major site of the struggle between the Eastern and Western blocs after the Second World War.

 

A deep-water port, Trieste is a maritime gateway for northern Italy, Germany, Austria and Central Europe. It is considered the end point of the maritime Silk Road, with its connections to the Suez Canal and Turkey. Since the 1960s, Trieste has emerged as a prominent research location in Europe because of its many international organisations and institutions. The city lies at the intersection of Latin, Slavic and Germanic cultures, where Central Europe meets the Mediterranean Sea, and is home to diverse ethnic groups and religious communities.

 

A scholarly area, Trieste has the highest percentage of researchers, per capita, in Europe. Città della Barcolana ("City of the Barcolana"), Città della bora ("City of the bora"), Città del vento ("City of Wind"), "Vienna by the sea" and "City of Coffee" are epithets used to describe Trieste.

 

Etymology

 

The most likely origin is the word, Tergeste – with the -est- suffix typical of Venetic – and derived from the hypothetical Illyrian word *terg- "market" (etymologically cognate to the Albanian term treg 'market, marketplace' and reconstructed Proto-Slavic "*tъrgъ") Roman authors also transliterated the name as Tergestum (according to Strabo, the name of the oppidum Tergestum originated from the three battles the Roman Army had to engage in with local tribes, "TER GESTUM [BELLUM]").

 

History

 

Ancient history

 

Since the second millennium BC, the location was an inhabited site. Originally an Illyrian settlement, the Veneti entered the region in the 10th–9th c. BC and seem to have given the town its name, Tergeste, because terg* is a Venetic word meaning market (q.v. Oderzo, whose ancient name was Opitergium). Later, the town was captured by the Carni, a tribe of the Eastern Alps, before becoming part of the Roman Republic in 177 BC during the Second Istrian War.

 

After being attacked by barbarians from the interior in 52 BC, and until 46 BC, it was granted the status of Roman colony under Julius Caesar, who recorded its name as Tergeste in Commentarii de Bello Gallico (51 BC), in which he recounts events of the Gallic Wars.

 

During the imperial period the border of Roman Italy moved from the Timavo River to the Formione (today Risano). Roman Tergeste flourished due to its position on the road from Aquileia, the main Roman city in the area, to Istria, and as a port, some ruins of which are still visible. Emperor Augustus built a line of walls around the city in 33–32 BC, while Trajan built a theatre in the 2nd century. At the same time, the citizens of the town were enrolled in the tribe Pupinia. In 27 BC, Trieste was incorporated in Regio X of Augustan Italia.

 

In the early Christian era Trieste continued to flourish. Between 138 and 161 AD, its territory was enlarged and nearby Carni and Catali were granted Roman citizenship by the Roman Senate and Emperor Antoninus Pius at the pleading of a leading Tergestine citizen, the quaestor urbanus, Fabius Severus.

 

Already at the time of the Roman Empire there was a fishing village called Vallicula ("small valley") in the Barcola area. Remains of richly decorated Roman villas, including wellness facilities, piers and extensive gardens suggest that Barcola was already a place for relaxation among the Romans because of its favourable microclimate, as it was located directly on the sea and protected from the bora. At that time, Pliny the Elder mentioned the vines of the wine Pulcino ("Vinum Pucinum" – probably today's "Prosecco"), which were grown on the slopes.

 

Middle Ages

 

In 788, Trieste submitted to Charlemagne, who placed it under the authority of the count-bishop who in turn was subject to the Duke of Friùli.

 

During the 13th and 14th centuries, Trieste became a maritime trade rival to the Republic of Venice, which briefly occupied it in 1283–87, before coming under the patronage of the Patriarchate of Aquileia. After it committed a perceived offence against Venice, the Venetian State declared war against Trieste in July 1368 and by November had occupied the city. Venice intended to keep the city and began rebuilding its defences, but was forced to leave in 1372. Due to the Peace of Turin in 1381, Venice renounced its claim to Trieste and the leading citizens of Trieste petitioned Leopold III of Habsburg, Duke of Austria, to annex Trieste to his domains. The agreement of voluntary submission (dedizione) was signed at the castle of Graz on 30 September 1382.

 

The city maintained a high degree of autonomy under the Habsburgs, but was increasingly losing ground as a trade hub, both to Venice and to Ragusa. In 1463, a number of Istrian communities petitioned Venice to attack Trieste. Trieste was saved from utter ruin by the intervention of Pope Pius II who had previously been bishop of Trieste. However, Venice limited Trieste's territory to three miles (4.8 kilometres) outside the city. Trieste would be assaulted again in 1468–1469 by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. His sack of the city is remembered as the "Destruction of Trieste." He then restored the city walls for the fourth time.[9] Trieste was fortunate to be spared another sack in 1470 by the Ottomans who burned the village of Prosecco, only about 5.3 miles (8.5 kilometres) from Trieste, while on their way to attack Friuli.

 

Early modern period

 

Following an unsuccessful Habsburg invasion of Venice in the prelude to the 1508–16 War of the League of Cambrai, the Venetians occupied Trieste again in 1508, and were allowed to keep the city under the terms of the peace treaty. However, the Habsburg Empire recovered Trieste a little over one year later, when the conflict resumed. By the 18th century Trieste became an important port and commercial hub for the Austrians. In 1719, it was granted status as a free port within the Habsburg Empire by Emperor Charles VI, and remained a free port until 1 July 1791. The reign of his successor, Maria Theresa of Austria, marked the beginning of a very prosperous era for the city. Serbs settled Trieste largely in the 18th and 19th centuries, and they soon formed an influential and rich community within the city, as a number of Serbian traders came into ownership of many important businesses and built palaces across Trieste.

 

19th century

 

In the following decades, Trieste was briefly occupied by troops of the French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars on several occasions, in 1797, 1805 and 1809. From 1809 to 1813, Trieste was annexed into the Illyrian Provinces, interrupting its status of free port and losing its autonomy. The municipal autonomy was not restored after the return of the city to the Austrian Empire in 1813. Following the Napoleonic Wars, Trieste continued to prosper as the Free Imperial City of Trieste (German: Reichsunmittelbare Stadt Triest), a status that granted economic freedom, but limited its political self-government. The city's role as Austria's main trading port and shipbuilding centre was later emphasised by the foundation of the merchant shipping line Austrian Lloyd in 1836, whose headquarters stood at the corner of the Piazza Grande and Sanità (today's Piazza Unità d'Italia). By 1913, Austrian Lloyd had a fleet of 62 ships totalling 236,000 tonnes. With the introduction of constitutionalism in the Austrian Empire in 1860, the municipal autonomy of the city was restored, with Trieste becoming capital of the Austrian Littoral crown land (German: Österreichisches Küstenland).

 

With anti-clericalism on the rise in the rest of the Italian peninsula due to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardina's bellicose policies towards the church and its estates, Pope Leo XIII at times considered moving his residence to Trieste or Salzburg. However, Emperor Franz Joseph rejected the idea. Trieste, along with Rijeka (Fiume), served as an important base for the Imperial-Royal Navy, which in the first decade of the 20th century embarked on a major modernisation programme. With the construction of the Austrian Southern Railway, the first major railway in the Empire, in 1857, Trieste acquired a significant role in the trade of coal.

 

Trieste had long been home to Italian irredentist sentiment, as evidenced by the activity at Caffè Tommaseo. In 1882 this fervour culminated in an attempted assassination of Emperor Franz Joseph at the hands of Wilhem Oberdank (Guglielmo Oberdan), while His Majesty was visiting the city. The perpetrator was arrested, tried, found guilty and ultimately sentenced to death. His legacy was regarded as worthy of martyrdom status by fellow irredentists, while monarchical elements regarded his actions as ignominious. The Emperor, who went on to reign for thirty-four more years, never again visited Trieste.

 

20th century

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, Trieste was a bustling cosmopolitan city frequented by artists and philosophers. James Joyce was a long-stay tourist between 1904 and 1915. Joyce worked on Dubliners and Ulysses while in Trieste. His students included Italo Svevo and a bookshop ran by Umberto Saba was near Joyce's apartment. Other authors with roots in Trieste include Claudio Magris, Jan Morris, Fulvio Tomizza, Enzo Bettiza, Susanna Tamaro, and Ernesto Nathan Rogers. Sigmund Freud, Zofka Kveder, Dragotin Kette, Ivan Cankar, and Scipio Slataper have also been associated with Trieste. The city was the major port on the Austrian Riviera, a term used in tourist marketing.

 

World War I, annexation to Italy and Fascist era

 

Italy, in return for entering World War I on the side of the Allied Powers, had been promised substantial territorial gains, which included the former Austrian Littoral and western Inner Carniola. Italy therefore annexed the city of Trieste at the end of the war, in accordance with the provisions of the 1915 Treaty of London and the Italian-Yugoslav 1920 Treaty of Rapallo.

 

In the late 1920s, following Italian fascists burning down of the Slovene cultural centre in July 1920, the Slovene militant anti-fascist organisation TIGR carried out several bomb attacks in the city centre. In 1930 and 1941, two trials of Slovene activists were held in Trieste by the fascist Special Tribunal for the Security of the State. During the 1920s and 1930s, several monumental buildings were built in the Fascist architectural style, including the University of Trieste and the almost 70 m (229.66 ft) tall Victory Lighthouse (Faro della Vittoria), which became a city landmark. The economy improved in the late 1930s, and several large infrastructure projects were carried out.

 

World War II and aftermath

 

Following the trisection of Slovenia, starting from the winter of 1941, the first Slovene Partisans appeared in Trieste province, although the resistance movement did not become active in the city itself until late 1943.

 

After the Italian armistice in September 1943, the city was occupied by Wehrmacht troops. Trieste became nominally part of the newly constituted Italian Social Republic, but it was de facto ruled by Germany, who created the Operation Zone of the Adriatic Littoral (OZAK) out of former Italian north-eastern regions, with Trieste as the administrative centre. The new administrative entity was headed by Friedrich Rainer, Gauleiter of Carinthia, named supreme commissary of the AK zone. A semblance of indigenous Italian rule was kept in the form of Cesare Pagnini, mayor of Trieste, but every civil official was assigned a representative of the supreme commissar in the form of a Deutsche Berater (German Adviser). Under German occupation, the only concentration camp with a crematorium on Italian soil was built in a suburb of Trieste, at the Risiera di San Sabba on 4 April 1944. From 20 October 1943, to the spring of 1944, around 25,000 Jews and partisans were interrogated and tortured in the Risiera. Three to four thousand of them were murdered here by shooting, beating or in gas vans. Most were imprisoned before being transferred to other concentration camps.

 

The city saw intense Italian and Yugoslav partisan activity and suffered from Allied bombings, over 20 air raids in 1944–1945, targeting the oil refineries, port and marshalling yard but causing considerable collateral damage to the city and 651 deaths among the population. The worst raid took place on 10 June 1944, when a hundred tons of bombs dropped by 40 USAAF bombers, targeting the oil refineries, resulted in the destruction of 250 buildings, damage to another 700 and 463 victims.

 

Occupation by Yugoslav partisans

 

On 30 April 1945, the Slovenian and Italian anti-Fascist Osvobodilna fronta (OF) and National Liberation Committee (Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale, or CLN) of Edoardo Marzari and Antonio Fonda Savio, made up of approximately 3,500 volunteers, incited a riot against the Nazi occupiers. On 1 May Allied members of the Yugoslav Partisans' 8th Dalmatian Corps took over most of the city, except for the courts and the castle of San Giusto, where the German garrisons refused to surrender to anyone but the New Zealanders, due to the partisans' reputation for shooting German and Italian prisoners of war. The 2nd New Zealand Division under General Freyberg continued to advance towards Trieste along Route 14 around the northern coast of the Adriatic sea and arrived in the city the following day (see official histories The Italian Campaign and Through the Venetian Line). The German forces surrendered on the evening of 2 May, but were then turned over to the Yugoslav forces.

 

The Yugoslavs held full control of the city until 12 June, a period known in Italian historiography as the "forty days of Trieste". During this period, hundreds of local Italians and anti-Communist Slovenes were arrested by the Yugoslav authorities, and many of them were never seen again. Some were interned in Yugoslav internment camps (in particular at Borovnica, Slovenia), while others were murdered on the Karst Plateau. British Field Marshal Harold Alexander condemned the Yugoslav military occupation, stating that "Marshal Tito's apparent intention to establish his claims by force of arms...[is] all too reminiscent of Hitler, Mussolini and Japan. It is to prevent such actions that we have been fighting this war." In this most turbulent of periods, the city saw a thorough reorganisation of the political-administrative system: the Yugoslav Fourth Army, to which many figures of prominence were attached (including Edvard Kardelj, a sign of just how important the Isonzo front was in Yugoslav aims) established a provisional Military Command in the occupied areas. Fully understanding the precarious position it found itself in, the Yugoslav Command undertook great efforts to claim the success for itself, faced with the presence of the 2nd New Zealand Division under General Bernard Freyberg in Trieste, which could undermine, as it did, postwar claims of sovereignty and control over the seaport. Cox wrote that it was the first major confrontation of the Cold War and was the one corner of Europe where no demarcation line had been agreed upon in advance by the Allies.. To this effect, a Tanjug Agency communiqué stated: "The seaport of Trieste, Monfalcone and Gorizia could not be occupied by the above mentioned division [the New Zealand Division] as these cities had already been liberated...by the Yugoslav army...It is true that some Allied forces have without our permission entered into the above mentioned cities which might have undesirable consequences unless this misunderstanding is promptly settled by mutual agreement".

 

A city in limbo (1945–1947)

 

After an agreement between the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito and Field Marshal Alexander, the Yugoslav forces withdrew from Trieste, which came under a joint British-U.S. military administration. The Julian March was divided by the Morgan Line between Anglo-American and Yugoslav military administration until September 1947 when the Paris Peace Treaty established the Free Territory of Trieste. The effective turning point for Trieste's fortunes had already been established, though: President Truman's stipulations, later named the Truman Doctrine, in all but name had sealed the status quo, formalised only in the above-mentioned treaty, one that proved to be a careful balancing act between Yugoslav demands, Italian claims and international aims toward the Adriatic gulf and Eastern Europe in general. Questions arose on the structure of government as soon and even earlier than the signing of the treaty, with neither Italy nor Yugoslavia willing to recognise a joint governor. Initially, the newly established Allied Military Government (AMG) found it difficult to exercise its authority over the newly administered territories (the Italian majority provinces of Trieste, Gorizia and Pola), because of a rooted communist presence, especially in the countryside. This state of affairs did not change until a formal peace treaty with Italy had been signed, granting the AMG the full powers to administer justice and re-establish law and order in those areas under its administration. Replacing the People's Militia, the AMG recruited a civilian police force from the indigenous population along the Anglo-Saxon police model. This exercise of jurisdiction was thus articulated: pursuant to Proclamation No. 1, three tiers of tribunals were established: the Summary Military Courts, with jurisdiction over petty crime, the Superior Military Courts, which could impose punishments not exceeding 10 years imprisonment, and the General Military Court, which could impose the death penalty. Civil courts, as modelled on the Kingdom of Italy's code, were, pursuant to General Order No. 6, re-established July 12, 1945, but the Slovene minority was given the right to be heard, and for proceedings to be, in their own language.

 

Zone A of the Free Territory of Trieste (1947–54)

 

n 1947, Trieste was declared an independent city state under the protection of the United Nations as the Free Territory of Trieste. The territory was divided into two zones, A and B, along the Morgan Line established in 1945.

 

From 1947 to 1954, Zone A was occupied and governed by the Allied Military Government, composed of the American Trieste United States Troops (TRUST), commanded by Major General Bryant E. Moore, the commanding general of the American 88th Infantry Division, and the "British Element Trieste Forces" (BETFOR), commanded by Sir Terence Airey, who were the joint forces commander and also the military governors.

 

Zone A covered almost the same area of the current Italian Province of Trieste, except for four small villages south of Muggia (see below), which were given to Yugoslavia after the dissolution of the Free Territory in 1954. Occupied Zone B, which was under the administration of Miloš Stamatović, then a colonel in the Yugoslav People's Army, was composed of the north-westernmost portion of the Istrian peninsula, between the Mirna River and the cape Debeli Rtič.

 

In 1954, in accordance with the Memorandum of London, the vast majority of Zone A—including the city of Trieste—joined Italy, whereas Zone B and four villages from Zone A (Plavje, Spodnje Škofije, Hrvatini, and Elerji) became part of Yugoslavia, divided between Slovenia and Croatia. The final border line with Yugoslavia and the status of the ethnic minorities in the areas was settled bilaterally in 1975 with the Treaty of Osimo. This line now constitutes the border between Italy and Slovenia.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Molo Audace is a pier located on the shores of Trieste, Italy right in the centre of the city, a few steps from Piazza Unità d'Italia and the Grand Canal. It separates the San Giorgio basin from the San Giusto basin of the Old Port.

 

History

 

In 1740, the ship San Carlo sank in Trieste harbour, close to the shore. Instead of removing the wreck, it was decided to use it as the basis for the construction of a new pier, which was built between 1743 and 1751 and was named after San Carlo.

 

At the time, the pier was shorter than it is today; it measured only 95 m (312 ft) in length and was joined to the land by a small wooden bridge. In 1778, it was lengthened by 19 m (62 ft) and from 1860 to 1861, by a further 132 m (433 ft), thus reaching its current length of 246 m (807 ft). The bridge was also eliminated, joining the pier directly to the mainland.

 

At that time, both passenger and merchant ships docked at the San Carlo quay, with much movement of people and goods.

 

On 3 November 1918, at the end of World War I, the first ship of the Italian Royal Navy to enter the port of Trieste and dock at the San Carlo pier was the destroyer Audace, whose anchor is now displayed at the base of the Victory lighthouse.

 

In memory of this event, in March 1922, the name of the pier was changed to Molo Audace, and in 1925 a bronze compass rose was erected at the end of the pier, with an epigraph in the centre commemorating the landing, and on the side the inscription 'Cast in bronze enemy III November MCMXXV (3 November 1925)'. The rose, supported by a white stone column, replaced an earlier all-stone compass rose. The date MCMIL (1949) engraved on the column commemorates its restoration after being damaged during World War II.

 

Over time, as maritime traffic moved to other areas of the port, the Audace pier gradually lost its mercantile function, and today only passing boats occasionally dock there. The pier has thus remained a popular place for strolling, a walkway stretching out over the sea of undoubted charm, completing the promenade along the banks and in Piazza Unità d'Italia.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Triest ([triˈɛst], in Südtirol auch [ˈtriəst] triestinisch/venetisch sowie italienisch Trieste, furlanisch Triest, slowenisch, serbisch, kroatisch Trst, lateinisch Tergeste) ist eine in Norditalien am Golf von Triest gelegene Hafen- und Großstadt mit 198.668 Einwohnern (Stand 31. Dezember 2024), darunter eine slowenische Minderheit. Triest liegt an der oberen Adria direkt an der Grenze zu Slowenien, ist Hauptstadt der autonomen Region Friaul-Julisch Venetien und war bis 2017 Hauptstadt der Provinz Triest, bevor diese aufgelöst wurde.

 

Triest ist Sitz des römisch-katholischen Bistums Triest. Die Stadt ist seit 1924 Universitätsstadt und beherbergt zwei bekannte Observatorien für Astronomie bzw. für Geophysik. Sie ist Hauptsitz von weltweit tätigen Unternehmen wie dem Kaffeeproduzenten illycaffè S.p.A., der Versicherungsgesellschaft Generali, dem Schiffbauunternehmen Fincantieri und dem Schifffahrtsunternehmen Italia Marittima (ehemals Lloyd Triestino bzw. Österreichischer Lloyd).

 

Bereits 774 wurde Triest Teil des Frankenreiches unter dem späteren Kaiser Karl dem Großen. In der Kontinuität des Kaisertums entwickelte sich aus dem Ostteil des Frankenreiches das Heilige Römische Reich deutscher Nation, dessen Bestandteil Triest mit kurzen Unterbrechungen (siehe Absatz Geschichte) bis zu dessen Untergang 1806 fast 1000 Jahre lang blieb. Auch danach gehörte die Stadt als Teil des dem Deutschen Bund angehörigen Kaisertums Österreich von 1815 bis 1866 zum deutschen Staatsverband. Von 1382 bis 1918 war Triest Teil der Habsburgermonarchie bzw. von Österreich-Ungarn. Es war sein bedeutendster Handelshafen, einer der Stützpunkte der k.u.k. Kriegsmarine sowie Sitz des Statthalters des Österreichischen Küstenlandes (Litorale) bzw. der 1861 daraus gebildeten drei Kronländer Gefürstete Grafschaft Görz und Gradisca, Markgrafschaft Istrien und Reichsunmittelbare Stadt Triest.

 

Kulturell und historisch blieb Triest auch als Teil Italiens seit 1918 ein Ort des Zusammentreffens von Kulturen, Sprachen, Ethnien und Religionen („Città mitteleuropea“). Nach dem Kriegsende 1945 wurden die Stadt und ihr gemischtsprachiges Hinterland erfolgreich von Jugoslawien beansprucht; nach einem Intermezzo als Freies Territorium Triest unterstand Triest ab 1954 wieder dem italienischen Staat.

 

Triest geriet durch den Ost-West-Konflikt, als es so wie Berlin an der Bruchlinie zwischen Ost und West lag, jahrzehntelang in eine verkehrspolitische Randposition. Der Nachteil dieser Grenzlage und der daraus resultierende Verlust an wirtschaftlicher Bedeutung fielen mit dem EU-Beitritt Sloweniens 2004 und seinem Beitritt zum Schengen-Raum, der am 21. Dezember 2007 zum Wegfall der Grenzkontrollen zu Italien führte, und dem Beitritt Kroatiens zur EU im Jahr 2013 weg.

 

Triest ist mit seinem Tiefwasserhafen heute wie vor 1918 ein maritimes Tor für Norditalien, Deutschland, Österreich und Mitteleuropa und gilt als Endpunkt der maritimen Seidenstraße (Maritim Silk Road bzw. 21st Century Maritim Silk Road) mit ihren Verbindungen über den Suezkanal bzw. die Türkei und dem Landweg nach China, Japan und viele Länder Asiens.

 

Der Hafen von Triest hat ein internationales Zollfreigebiet (Freihafen) mit fünf Freizonen. Seit den 1960er Jahren ist Triest durch seine vielen internationalen Organisationen und Einrichtungen einer der wichtigsten Forschungsstandorte Europas, eine internationale Schul- und Universitätsstadt und hat einen der höchsten Lebensstandards unter Italiens Städten. Die Stadt wurde 2020 als eine der 25 kleinen Städte der Welt mit der besten Lebensqualität und 2021 als eine der zehn sichersten Städte der Welt bewertet. Sie hat in Europa den höchsten Anteil an Forschern und Wissenschaftlern im Verhältnis zur Bevölkerung.

 

Triest hat eine sehr lange Küstenlinie, freien Meerzugang in Barcola und ist von Grünland, Wald- und Karstflächen umgeben. In der Stadt befand sich auf dem Molo Sartorio der Mareograf, auf dessen festgelegte Werte aus den Jahren 1875 und 1900 sich in Mitteleuropa die meisten Bezugshöheangaben mit der Kennzeichnung „Meter über Adria“ beziehen. Triest ist auch die Città della Barcolana, wie die Hinweisschilder an den Stadteinfahrten verdeutlichen, und damit jährlicher Austragungsort dieser weltgrößten Segelregatta.

 

Triest liegt an einem Schnittpunkt der lateinischen, slawischen, griechischen und jüdischen Kultur, wo Mitteleuropa auf den mediterranen Raum trifft. Es gilt daher als eine der literarischen Hauptstädte und wurde wegen seiner unterschiedlichen Ethnien und Religionsgemeinschaften oft als frühes New York bezeichnet. Es gibt daneben noch weitere nationale und internationale Bezeichnungen für die Stadt wie zum Beispiel Trieste città della bora, Città del vento, Trieste città mitteleuropea, Trieste città della scienza – City of Science, Wien am Meer oder Stadt des Kaffees, in denen einzelne prägende Eigenschaften herausgehoben werden.

 

Geographie

 

Lage

 

Triest liegt im Nordosten Italiens am Golf von Triest, einer Meeresbucht der Oberen Adria, wenige Kilometer von der slowenischen Grenze entfernt. Die Stadt ist Teil der historischen Region Julisch Venetien (Venezia Giulia), die vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg auch als Österreichisches Küstenland bekannt war und deren Gebiet heute auf die Staaten Italien, Slowenien und Kroatien verteilt ist. Da Triest durch die Grenzziehungen des 20. Jahrhunderts einen Großteil seines Hinterlandes verlor, wurde Julisch-Venetien mit Friaul zur autonomen Region Friaul-Julisch Venetien vereinigt, deren Hauptstadt Triest seit 1962 ist.

 

Triest und sein Hinterland erstrecken sich vom Abhang einer hohen Küstenstufe des gleichnamigen Karsts (Triestiner Karst), die zum Binnenland in eine steinige, schrattige, kalkhaltige und wasserarme Hochlandschaft übergeht, hin zu einer küstennahen Flachlandzone am Adriatischen Meer. Die hoch gelegenen Landschaftsbereiche sind für ihre Höhlen, Dolinen und andere Karstformen bekannt. Das Stadtgebiet von Triest dehnt sich dabei südwärts in ein Flyschgebiet aus, das in Form einer Doppelmulde über das Stadtgebiet und die Landesgrenze hinaus bis nach Pazin reicht.

 

Charakteristisch für diese Gegend ist auch der Bodentyp Terra rossa, ein aus Kalkstein-Verwitterung hervorgegangener roter Lehm, der besonders für den Anbau von Wein geeignet ist. Im Weinbaugebiet Carso, das die Stadt Triest umschließt, wird vor allem die Weinrebe Carso Terrano, eine Varietät der Rebsorte Refosco, angebaut. Das Anbaugebiet erhielt 1985 das Qualitätssiegel DOC. 1986 eröffnete die Provinz Triest zwischen den Ortschaften Opicina und Sistiana die Terrano-Weinstraße („Strada del vino Terrano“).

 

Als wichtigster Hafen Österreichs bzw. Österreich-Ungarns (1382–1918) wurde Triest zu einem Zentrum der Nautik und der Meereskunde. Das Hafenbecken erhielt am Molo Sartorio einen langfristig beobachteten Pegel, auf den sich seit dem 19. Jahrhundert das mitteleuropäische Höhensystem Meter über Adria bezieht; er wurde von der 1841 gegründeten Wetterwarte betreut, die heute zum Geophysikalischen Institut Triest gehört.

 

Klima

 

In Triest herrscht ein feucht-subtropisches Klima (Cfa-Klima nach Köppen).[7][8][9] Es zeichnet sich durch heiße, regenreiche Sommer und milde, regenreiche Winter aus. Im Sommer wird eine Durchschnittstemperatur von 25 °C, im Winter von 8 °C erreicht.

 

Die sommerlichen Wassertemperaturen bewegen sich in Küstennähe von 24 °C bis zu 28 °C. Der jährliche Niederschlag beträgt ca. 1023 mm, die relative Luftfeuchtigkeit 64 %. In Triest herrscht an ca. 200 Tagen im Jahr Windstille. In der Stadt ist es somit im Vergleich zu anderen Meeresstädten nicht besonders windig.

 

Charakteristisch für das Klima von Triest sind verschieden auftretende Winde, wie Bora und Scirocco. Die Winde sind die Ursache für das günstige Klima der Stadt, da es selten zur selben Zeit kalt und nass ist. Manche Winde sind nicht von Jahreszeiten abhängig, sondern entstehen im Verlaufe bestimmter Wetterkonstellationen. Im Laufe der Zeit haben sich dafür traditionell überlieferte Bezeichnungen verfestigt. Sie besitzen Namen etwa wie Grecale, Libeccio, Maestrale, Tramontana oder Ponente.

 

Die oft im Winter, aber auch im sonstigen Jahr aufkommende Bora ist ein kalter, trockener Fallwind aus Nordosten, der plötzlich beginnt, auch wochenlang andauern kann und in starken Böen vom Land auf das offene Meer bläst. Er wird in der Bucht von Triest kanalisiert und erreicht dadurch in der Stadt hohe Windgeschwindigkeiten, in Einzelfällen weit über 100 km/h. Während die hohen Windgeschwindigkeiten im Stadtgebiet von Triest besonders im Winter in Verbindung mit Eis und Schnee zu Chaos führen können, hat die Bora auf das Wohlempfinden der Menschen positive Auswirkungen. Man sagt: „Die Bora bläst die schlechten Launen fort.“ Viele Kranke fühlen sich an Boratagen von ihren Leiden, der Wetterfühligkeit und den Schmerzen befreit.

 

Der seltenere Scirocco ist im Gegensatz zur Bora ein warmer, feuchter Ost-Südostwind, der von schweren Wolken und Regen begleitet wird. Im Sommer ist der Libeccio am häufigsten, eine leichte Brise aus Südwesten durch Fallwinde aus den Apenninen, die vom Meer Richtung Land weht und warme Sommernächte abkühlt. Die Tramontana ist ein kalter Winterwind und folgt der Bora oder dem Maestro in deren Anschluss. Sie kann sehr schnell aufkommen, was mit einem Temperaturabfall oder mit dem plötzlichen Ende lokaler Winde beginnt.

 

Die meteorologische Station im Triester Hafen gehört zum Istituto Tecnico Nautico “Tomaso di Savoia”. Ebenfalls betreibt die Universität Triest eine meteorologische Mess- und Beobachtungsstation im Stadtgebiet.

 

Infolge des Klimas und trotz der nördlichen Lage kann in Triest einerseits noch ausgezeichnetes Olivenöl gewonnen werden (man spricht von der Lage der Stadt an der Olivenöl-Buttergrenze) und andererseits kämpft die Stadtverwaltung bzw. kämpfen die Hauseigentümer regelmäßig mit Termitenbefall der historischen Immobilien.

 

Geschichte

 

Gründung

 

Zur Zeit der Gründung Aquileias durch die Römer war die Gegend um Triest von keltischen und illyrischen Stämmen bewohnt. Als die Römer ab 177 v. Chr. von Aquileia aus Feldzüge nach Istrien unternahmen, erhielten sie Unterstützung durch Bewohner einer Ortschaft namens Tergeste, des ersten Ortes in Illyrien, im Gebiet der Histrer. In diese Zeit fällt auch die Gründung von drei römischen Militärlagern, der 13 Hektar großen Hauptanlage San Rocco zwischen den zwei kleineren Forts in Monte Grociana Piccola im Nordosten und Montedoro im Südwesten. Im Jahr 128 v. Chr. kam es zur erstmaligen Ansiedlung römischer Bürger in Tergeste. Die Siedlung Tergeste wurde vom griechischen Geografen Artemidor von Ephesos 104 v. Chr. erwähnt und war damals bereits eine römische Ansiedlung auf dem heutigen Stadthügel San Giusto, wo auch die Siedlungsursprünge liegen.

 

In der zweiten Hälfte des 1. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. wurde im Triestiner Vorort Barcola eine aufwändige fürstliche römische Villa errichtet. Diese private Villa befand sich zwischen dem heutigen Friedhof und der Kirche San Bartolomeo, ungefähr auf der Höhe Viale Miramare 48, unmittelbar am Meer mit einmaligem Panoramablick. Die Villa Maritima erstreckte sich an der Küste entlang und gliederte sich in Terrassen in einen feudalen Repräsentationsbereich, Prunksaal, einen separaten Wohnbereich, einen Garten, einige zum Meer offene Einrichtungen und eine Therme. Erweiterungen und Umbauarbeiten lassen sich bis in die zweite Hälfte des 1. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. nachweisen. Die gefundenen Kunstwerke, Statuen und Mosaike befinden sich heute im Museum Lapidario Tergestino im Kastell San Giusto, wobei vergleichbare Werke bisher nur in Rom und Kampanien gefunden wurden.

 

Schon ab dem ersten Jahrhundert nach Christus entwickelte sich dann Barcola (als Vallicula bzw. später Valcula) mit seinen klimatischen Vorzügen und einer Reihe von Villen für Patrizier und Adligen zu einem exklusiven römischen Touristenort. An den Hängen wurden damals, wie schon Plinius der Ältere erwähnt, die Reben des Weines Pulcino (ein vermutlicher Vorgänger des Prosecco) angebaut. Es war der nur dort gezogene Lieblingswein der Kaiserin Livia, der Ehefrau des Augustus, und soll schon von den Griechen unter der Bezeichnung Prätetianum gerühmt worden sein.

 

Um Christi Geburt fungierte Triest als Grenzfestung gegen die in den Ostalpen siedelnden Japyden. Den Namen Tergeste, der wahrscheinlich „Markt“ bedeutet und aus dem Triest wurde, behielten die Römer bei, als sich Mitte des 1. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. Tergeste als römische Kolonie zu einem wichtigen Hafenort im Römischen Reich, mit Handelsstraßen entlang der Adria und über die Julischen Alpen entwickelte. Allerdings erlangte Triest damals nie die Bedeutung des dem Golf von Triest gegenüberliegenden Aquileia. Das römische Tergeste hatte durch einen Hafen Zugang zum Meer und war ab 33 v. Chr. durch neue Mauern geschützt. Im Jahr 27 v. Chr. wurde Tergeste der X. italischen Region „Venetia et Histria“ zugeteilt. Zur Zeit Trajans (98–117 n. Chr.) zählte die Stadt 12.000 Einwohner und erhielt eine Basilika und ein Theater. Gegen Ende des 3. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. wurden die reichen römischen Wohnhäuser und Villen verlassen und setzte eine Zeit der Rückentwicklung und des Rückzuges auf den Hügelbereich ein, der erneut befestigt wurde. Die Bauwerke bekamen einen ländlichen Charakter und statt Mauerwerk wurde oft Holz verwendet.

 

Nach dem Untergang des Weströmischen Reichs im Jahr 476 teilte Triest das allgemeine Schicksal Istriens, wo Ostgoten, Byzantiner und Langobarden einander in der Herrschaft folgten, bis die Stadt 774 dem Reich Karls des Großen als ein Teil der Mark Friaul einverleibt wurde. Unter Kaiser Lothar III. erhielt der Bischof von Triest weltliche Hoheit über die Stadt.

 

Triest behielt die Unabhängigkeit unter seinen Bischöfen bis zur Eroberung durch Venedig 1203. Für die nächsten 180 Jahre bestand die Geschichte Triests hauptsächlich aus einer Reihe von Konflikten mit dem mächtigen Venedig im Spannungsverhältnis zum Anspruch des Patriarchen von Aquilea. Venedig erzwang auch den Abriss der Stadtmauer, die aber im Laufe des 14. Jahrhunderts wieder aufgebaut wurde. Da Triest keine eigene Armee hatte, war es Pflicht der Bürger, der sie sich nicht entziehen konnten, selbst Wache auf den Mauern zu halten und Kriegsdienst zu leisten. Um die Unabhängigkeit Triests zu wahren, stellten sich dann die Bürger Triests selbst im Jahr 1382 unter den Schutz Leopolds III. von Österreich, der auch Landesherr des benachbarten Herzogtums Krain war. Die Eigenständigkeit der Stadt musste unangetastet bleiben und die österreichischen Vorrechte bezogen sich nur auf die Ernennung eines militärischen Statthalters.

 

Unter österreichischer Krone

 

Triest war von 1382 bis 1918 habsburgisch-österreichisch. Am 30. September 1382 nahm Herzog Leopold III. die freiwillige Unterwerfung der Stadt Triest in der Burg von Graz an. Im 15. Jahrhundert kam es in der Stadt immer wieder zu erbitterten Konflikten zwischen der kaiserlichen Partei, den Anhängern der Herren von Duino und den Venezianern. Besonders in den Jahren 1467 bis 1469 führten die Bürgerkämpfe zu Terrorakten und Verwüstungen in den Straßen Triests. Das Protektorat entwickelte sich aber langsam zu einem wirklichen Besitzverhältnis, dem Österreichischen Küstenland (Litorale). Vertreten wurde die habsburgische Herrschaft in Triest lange Zeit nominell durch das Geschlecht der Grafen von Montenari. Die Statthalterschaft wurde vorerst ad personam vom jeweiligen Monarchen (der zumeist auch Kaiser des Heiligen Römischen Reiches war, aber dort nicht in dieser Funktion entschied, sondern als Herrscher der Habsburgischen Erblande) verliehen, später dann erblich nach dem Gesetz der Primogenitur an den ältesten Sohn des Grafen von Montenari weitergegeben.

 

Abgesehen von wiederholten kurzen Besetzungen (vor allem 1508/09) durch Venedig und der napoleonischen Periode (1797, 1805–1806 und 1809–1813) blieb Triest bis zum Ende des Ersten Weltkrieges Teil des habsburgischen Österreichs.

 

Triests Aufstieg im 18. Jahrhundert

 

Triests Aufstieg in der Donaumonarchie begann 1719 mit der Erhebung der Stadt zum Freihafen durch Karl VI. – ein Status, den die Stadt bis 1891 behielt. Karls Nachfolger Maria Theresia und Joseph II. unterstützten Triests wirtschaftlichen Aufschwung durch das Anlegen städtebaulich wichtiger Viertel, der Maria-Theresien-Stadt (Borgo Teresiano) nordöstlich des heutigen Hauptplatzes und der Josephsstadt (Borgo Giuseppino) südwestlich.

 

Als einziger großer Seehafen Österreichs nahm Triest eine wichtige strategische Stellung in der Habsburgermonarchie ein und war Ausgangspunkt kurzlebiger Kolonialerwerbungen (Triestiner Handelskompanie). Der Druck Venedigs hemmte jedoch lange Zeit die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung Triests. Erst die Eroberung Venedigs durch Napoleon am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts und der anschließende Friede von Campo Formio, in dem Venedig Österreich zugesprochen wurde, leitete den Niedergang der Republik Venedig und die Blütezeit Triests ein.

 

Mit österreichischer Unterstützung löste Triest Venedig in seiner führenden Rolle im Handel mit dem Nahen Osten ab und entwickelte sich zum größten Handelszentrum der Adria. 1802 wurden im Triester Hafen 483.326 Tonnen Güter umgeschlagen, die von 5.442 Schiffen transportiert worden waren. Auf dem Höhepunkt der Blütezeit Triests waren es rund 100 Jahre später mehr als doppelt so viele Schiffe und mehr als zehnmal so viele Güter, hauptsächlich Kaffee, Zucker und Südfrüchte sowie Weine, Öle, Baumwolle, Eisen, Holz und Maschinen.

 

Gründerzeit im 19. Jahrhundert

 

1804 wurde Triest Teil des neu gegründeten Kaisertums Österreich, weiter als Teil des Litorales. Unter Napoleon wurde Triest 1809 den Illyrischen Provinzen zugeschlagen und damit bis 1813 französisch. Diese kurze Zeit hinterließ ihre Spuren in klassizistischen Bauwerken wie der Triester Oper Teatro Verdi, die nach den Plänen des Architekten Matthäus Pertsch entstand.

 

1813 eroberte Österreich Triest unter General Christoph Freiherr von Lattermann zurück. Nach dem Wiener Kongress 1815 wurde Triest im österreichischen Kaiserstaat in das neu geschaffene Königreich Illyrien eingegliedert.

 

Nachdem Triest unter der Habsburgerherrschaft bereits über Jahrhunderte Bestandteil des Heiligen Römischen Reiches deutscher Nation war, gehörte es als österreichische Stadt zum Deutschen Bund, der 1815 auf dem Wiener Kongress als Ersatz für das alte, 1806 untergegangene Reich geschaffen wurde. Die Stadt markierte in etwa die Südausdehnung des Deutschen Bundes bis zur Adria. Insofern war Triest in Folge der bürgerlichen Revolution von 1848 Teil des Wahlgebietes zur deutschen bzw. Frankfurter Nationalversammlung. Bei diesen ersten gesamtdeutschen, freien und demokratischen Wahlen wurden in den Wahlkreisen Küstenland-Triest-Stadt 1 und 2 mit Karl Ludwig von Bruck, Gabriel Jenny sowie Friedrich Moritz Burger drei Abgeordnete in das Frankfurter Parlament des sich konstituierenden Deutschen Reiches gewählt. Alle drei waren vor dem 27. Juli 1848 in der Frankfurter Paulskirche eingetroffen. Auch nach dem Scheitern der Revolution und des Reiches blieb Triest Bestandteil des wiederhergestellten Deutschen Bundes bis zu dessen Ende 1866. Mit dem in diesem Jahr zur Beendigung des Deutschen Krieges geschlossenen Prager Frieden schieden Österreich und damit auch Triest nach jahrhundertelanger Zugehörigkeit aus dem deutschen Staatenbund aus.

 

Am 1. Juli 1829 führte Josef Ressel mit dem in Triest erbauten Schiff Civetta die erste erfolgreiche Testfahrt mit einer Schiffsschraube durch. In dieser Zeit begann in Triest die Gründung von Versicherungsgesellschaften, Werften, Bankniederlassungen und Schifffahrtsunternehmen, darunter die Assicurazioni Generali (1831), der Österreichische Lloyd (1833), die Werft San Marco (1839/1840), die Werft Giuseppe Tonellos (1852) und 1860 das Lloyd-Arsenal, da die privaten Werften mit der Produktion den schnell wachsenden Schifffahrtsunternehmen nicht mehr nachkommen konnten.

 

1850 wurde Triest Sitz der kaiserlich-königlichen Zentralseebehörde. Seit 1857 verbindet die Österreichische Südbahn Triest über den Semmering mit Wien. Diese erste Gebirgsbahn Europas wurde nach den Plänen und unter der Leitung von Carl Ritter von Ghega erbaut.

 

1857/58 entstand aus der Maschinenfabrik Strudenhoff in Sant’Andrea und der Werft San Rocco das Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (S.T.T.) in Muggia, der Stadt in der Bucht gegenüberliegend. Dieses neue Großunternehmen kaufte 1897 auch die mittlerweile zur Großwerft ausgebaute Werft von Giuseppe Tonello dazu. Die S.T.T. war in der Lage, Schiffe mit einer Verdrängung von bis zu 20.500 Tonnen – etwa die großen Schlachtschiffe der k. u. k. Kriegsmarine – zu bauen.

 

Ab 1867 wurden die alten Hafenanlagen, die dem wachsenden Handel nicht mehr entsprachen, ausgebaut. Zuerst wurde der nördlich gelegene Freihafen (punto franco) erweitert. Die Hafenstadt zog in der Monarchie unter anderem den Hauptnutzen aus dem 1869 eröffneten Suezkanal. Österreichische Industrieerzeugnisse wurden nun auch in der Türkei, in Ägypten und Syrien abgesetzt, für diese Handelsbeziehungen brauchte man aber den Kanal nicht.

 

Von Triest gingen im 19. Jahrhundert Linienschiffe in die Neue Welt, vor allem die Vereinigten Staaten. Diese Linienschiffe fuhren bis in die 1960er Jahre nach New York.

 

Triest und der Nationalismus

 

In den Revolutionen von 1848 fanden in den österreichischen Provinzen Lombardei und Venetien Aufstände gegen die habsburgische Herrschaft und für einen geeinten italienischen Nationalstaat statt (siehe auch Risorgimento). 1848 wurde der Triester Hafen von der königlich sardinischen und der neapolitanischen Flotte und später von der ersteren allein unter dem italienischen Vizeadmiral Albini blockiert. Triest blieb Österreich treu und erhielt den Titel Città Fedelissima – die „allergetreuste Stadt“.

 

1849 wurde die österreichische Verwaltungseinheit Königreich Illyrien in ihre Bestandteile zerlegt. Triest und das unmittelbar angrenzende Territorium wurden als Reichsunmittelbare Stadt Triest und ihr Gebiet mit eigener Verfassung und Landtag und im Status eines Kronlandes konstituiert; ebenso Görz und Gradisca und Istrien. (Kärnten und Krain, bis dahin ebenso Teile Illyriens, wurden ebenfalls eigene Kronländer.)

 

1852–1861 wurden die drei politischen Einheiten zum Kronland Österreichisches Küstenland zusammengefasst. Die Reichsverfassung 1861 teilte die drei Teile wieder in eigenständige Kronländer, die bis 1918 bestanden. Gemeinsam blieben ihnen nur der k.k. Statthalter in Triest als Vertreter des Kaisers und der Wiener Regierung und ein gemeinsames Publikationsorgan ihrer Rechtsvorschriften. Der 1867 erfolgte Umbau des Einheitsstaates Kaisertum Österreich zur österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie änderte für die Selbstverwaltung Triests nichts; es wurde nunmehr zu Cisleithanien gerechnet und war im Abgeordnetenhaus des Reichsrats in Wien, dem cisleithanischen Parlament, mit zuletzt fünf Abgeordneten vertreten.

 

Allerdings setzte auch in dem zum größten Teil von Italienern bewohnten Triest eine zunehmende italienische irredentistische Bewegung ein, die darauf abzielte, Triest als italienischsprachiges Gebiet von Österreich-Ungarn loszulösen und dem 1861 gegründeten Nationalstaat Italien anzuschließen. Der Irredentismus hatte seinen Höhepunkt, als 1882 Kaiser Franz Joseph I. Triest anlässlich der 500-jährigen Dauer der habsburgischen Herrschaft über die Stadt besuchte. Während antiösterreichischer Demonstrationen entging der Kaiser nur knapp dem Bombenattentat von Guglielmo Oberdan (Wilhelm Oberdank) und seinen Komplizen. Triest blieb im Nationalitätenkampf bis 1914 einer der heißesten Konfliktherde Österreich-Ungarns, da Österreich auf diese für Handel und k.u.k. Kriegsmarine überaus wichtige Hafenstadt weder verzichten konnte noch wollte. (Ungarn hatte für sich die Hafenstadt Rijeka ausgebaut.)

 

Insgesamt blickte die Triestiner Elite Richtung Wien, während sich einige wenige junge italienische Irredentisten für Italien aufopferten. Nur eine Minderheit forderte eine Vereinigung mit dem Königreich von Savoyen bzw. Italien, aber von vielen italienischsprachigen Triestinern wurde der slawische Nationalismus als Herausforderung wahrgenommen.

 

Weiterer Aufschwung vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg

 

1880 betrug die Umschlagsmenge in den Triester Häfen 1,225 Millionen Tonnen. Bis 1912 stieg diese Menge auf 4,573 Millionen Tonnen. 1883 wurde der 30 Millionen Kronen teure Hafenumbau im Süden der Stadt vollendet. Die Lagerflächen sowie der neue Südbahnhof (stazione meridionale, heute Trieste Centrale), der heute als einziger Personenbahnhof der Stadt noch besteht, wurden großteils auf aufgeschüttetem Land errichtet.

 

Trotz der politischen und nationalen Probleme blühte Triest wirtschaftlich und kulturell weiter auf. Neben der Südbahn Triest–Wien mit Anschluss an das mährisch-schlesische Industriegebiet bot ab 1909 die Neue Alpenbahn über Görz und Villach nach Salzburg eine Direktverbindung nach Westösterreich und Süddeutschland. Der wichtigste Bahnhof bis 1918 war der Staatsbahnhof (stazione dello stato) der k.k. Staatsbahnen. Zwischen ihm und dem Lloydareal erstreckte sich der neue Hafen (porto nuovo), der ab 1898 ausgebaut wurde und bis zum Ende der Monarchie Josephs-Hafen hieß.

 

Um 1900 stand die Stadt in ihrer vollen wirtschaftlichen Blüte und stellte ihren Reichtum durch zahlreiche Prachtbauten zur Schau. In Triest wirkten einige der Architekten, die in Wien für prächtige Ringstraßengebäude im Stil des Historismus verantwortlich zeichneten, wie etwa Heinrich von Ferstel (z. B. Lloydpalast), Wilhelm von Flattich (z. B. Südbahnhof) und Friedrich Schachner (diverse Palais). Schriftsteller und Künstler wie James Joyce und Italo Svevo verkehrten in der Stadt. Der Ire Joyce kam gerade in der Hafenstadt Triest mit dem Vielvölkerstaat Österreich-Ungarn in Kontakt, wobei er einerseits seine Eindrücke aus Triest in seinen Werken verarbeitete und andererseits das damalige Staatswesen wie folgt beurteilte: “They called the Austrian Empire a ramshackle empire, I wish to God there were more such empires.”

 

Triest war eines der ökonomisch bestentwickelten Gebiete des Habsburgerreiches. 1906 lag das zu versteuernde Pro-Kopf-Einkommen eines Triestiners bei 54 Kronen, während jenes eines Wieners bei rund 9 Kronen lag.

 

Die Triester Innenstadt mit ihrem kosmopolitischen Bevölkerungsgemenge aus Italienern (75 %), Slawen (18 %), Deutschen (5 %) und Einwohnern anderer Völker avancierte, wie Claudio Magris Jahrzehnte später festhielt, zur literarischen Hauptstadt Mitteleuropas. Die anliegenden Bezirke zählten meist Slowenen (52 %), Italiener (43 %) und Deutsche (4 %) als Einwohner, die ländliche Umgebung war fast vollständig slowenisch (93 %). Fast jeder Triestiner war mehrsprachig, wobei Italienisch die führende Verständigungssprache war.

 

In den Jahren vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg wurde, vor allem auf Drängen von Erzherzog Thronfolger Franz Ferdinand, in Triest eine Serie von Schiffbauten für die k.u.k. Kriegsmarine durchgeführt. Der Thronfolger nahm an den Stapelläufen meist teil, z. B. 1911 bei Viribus Unitis und 1912 bei Tegetthoff.

 

Erster Weltkrieg

 

Mit dem Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges im August 1914 stockte die wirtschaftliche und künstlerisch-literarische Entwicklung in Triest schlagartig. Viele tausende Triestiner übersiedelten noch vor der Kriegserklärung Italiens an Österreich-Ungarn am 23. Mai 1915 ins Innere Österreich-Ungarns. Aus Triest zogen anfangs etwa 32.500 Männer zwischen 18 und 37 Jahren an die Front und im Laufe des Krieges wurden ungefähr 50.000 Triestiner im Alter bis 50 Jahren eingezogen. Das Hausregiment der Triestiner, das k.u.k. Infanterieregiment Nr. 97, wurde am 11. August 1914 per Eisenbahn Richtung Lemberg in Galizien transportiert und war dort in schwerste Abwehrkämpfe gegen die vordringende russische Armee verwickelt.

 

Am 23. Mai 1915 erklärte das bis dahin neutrale Italien als neues Mitglied der Triple Entente Österreich-Ungarn den Krieg. Damit entstand wenige Kilometer nordwestlich der Stadt eine Front; viele Ausländer wie James Joyce mussten Triest verlassen. Die italienische Kriegserklärung löste massive Protestkundgebungen gegen Italiener aus, insbesondere stürmte eine Menschenmenge die Redaktion der Zeitung Il Piccolo, wurde der Sitz der Lega nazionale zerstört bzw. Geschäfte und Kaffeehäuser italienischer Besitzer geplündert. Mit dem Kriegseintritt Italiens wurde Triest militarisiert. Wegen der nahen Front wurden Luftabwehr-Stellungen auf Dächern und Plätzen gebaut; Schulen und Gebäude wurden in Spitäler umfunktioniert. Junge Marinaretti und Scauti halfen älteren Soldaten bei der Überwachung der öffentlichen Ordnung. Die Stadt entvölkerte sich und es kehrten etwa 35.000 Regnicoli – in Triest lebende italienische Arbeiter – mit ihren Familien in die italienische Heimat zurück. Viele Regnicoli verließen jedoch die Stadt nicht und etwa 15.000 von ihnen wurden von den Behörden zusammen mit über tausend verdächtig erscheinenden Personen in verschiedene Lager interniert. Etwa 900 Triestiner mit italienischer Gesinnung desertierten aus dem Habsburger Heer, passierten illegal die Grenze und traten den italienischen Streitkräften bei. Oft mit Misstrauen von den italienischen Kameraden und Kommandanten betrachtet, erreichte trotzdem die Hälfte dieser Irredentisten den Dienstgrad eines italienischen Offiziers. Die italienfreundliche Einstellung mancher Triestiner und die Frontlage Triests führte zu scharfer Überwachung der Stadt durch die k.u.k. Militärbehörden. Das 10. Bataillon des k.u.k. Infanterieregiments Nr. 97 war in Triest verblieben; es war an der Verteidigung der Karstlinie in den Isonzoschlachten beteiligt und wurde 1915/16 fast vollständig aufgerieben.

 

Der altem irredentistischen istrianischen Adel entstammende, 1907 geborene Schriftsteller Diego de Castro schätzte später die Triestiner während des Krieges als weitgehend habsburgisch bzw. austrophil ein und äußerte, die kleine, unbeugsame Gruppe von Irredentisten um Mario Alberti sei auf zweieinhalb Prozent der Gesamtbevölkerung von Triest beschränkt gewesen.

 

Erst 1917 verlagerte sich die Front an den von Triest weiter entfernten Piave. Im Herbst 1918 begann sich die Doppelmonarchie aufzulösen. Am 29. Oktober 1918 wurde der neue südslawische Staat, der SHS-Staat, gegründet. Er schnitt Deutschösterreich, am 30. Oktober gegründet, und die nördlich und östlich davon gelegenen Gebiete Altösterreichs von der Adria ab. Valentino Pittoni, der Führer der Triestiner Linken, forderte im Oktober 1918 die Bildung einer „Adriarepublik Triest“, um so den Anschluss an Italien zu verhindern.

 

Der k.k. österreichische Statthalter Alfred von Fries-Skene übergab am 30. Oktober 1918 dem triestinischen Comitato di salute pubblica die Macht. Am gleichen Tag beauftragte Kaiser Karl I. Admiral Nikolaus Horthy, die k.u.k. Kriegsmarine dem südslawischen Staat zu übergeben; dies wurde am nächsten Tag vollzogen.

 

Da mit baldigem Eintreffen italienischer Truppen nicht gerechnet werden konnte und unklar war, ob Triest an den südslawischen Staat fällt, beschloss das Komitee, die italienischen Marinebehörden in Venedig um die Entsendung von Truppen zu bitten. Da k.u.k. Schiffe aber nicht mehr zur Verfügung standen, mussten sich die Triestiner von den Südslawen eine ehemalige k.u.k. Korvette ausleihen, um unter südslawischer Flagge nach Venedig zu gelangen.

 

Die Waffenstillstandskommission der zerfallenden k.u.k. Armee unter Viktor Weber von Webenau unterzeichnete am 3. November 1918 bei Padua den Waffenstillstand von Villa Giusti. Am gleichen Tag landeten Italiener, von Venedig kommend, unbehelligt am Molo San Carlo von Triest, der 1922 Molo Audace benannt wurde, und nahmen die Stadt symbolisch für Italien in Besitz. Die Begeisterung der Bevölkerung war, wie de Castro später deutete, nicht mit dem bisherigen Elitenphänomen Irredentismus zu erklären, sondern mit der Freude über das Ende der Hungerzeit während des Krieges und über den Nicht-Einschluss der Stadt in den SHS-Staat. Das Stadtzentrum war überwiegend von Italienern bewohnt, die anliegenden Viertel aber teilweise von Slowenen (18 %). Im Vertrag von Saint-Germain wurde Triest im Herbst 1919 gemeinsam mit Istrien und Ostfriaul auch formell Italien zugesprochen.

 

Viele k.u.k. Soldaten aus Triest und Umgebung kehrten erst 1920 aus der russischen Kriegsgefangenschaft zurück.

 

Faschismus

 

Nach dem Anschluss Triests an Italien strebten die nationalen Kräfte eine Italianisierung der ansässigen nichtitalienischen Bevölkerung an, was insbesondere zur Unterdrückung der slowenischen Minderheit führte. Triest wurde zu einem Zentrum der jungen faschistischen Bewegung.[36] Slowenische Vereinigungen und Versammlungen wurden verboten. Der Gebrauch der slowenischen Sprache im öffentlichen Leben wurde untersagt. Slowenische Familiennamen wurden willkürlich und ohne Einverständnis der Betroffenen italianisiert. Zahlreiche Slowenen flohen in dieser Zeit in das benachbarte Königreich der Serben, Kroaten und Slowenen. In Triest kam es wiederholt zu gewaltsamen Ausschreitungen zwischen Italienern und Slowenen.

 

Der Konflikt erreichte einen seiner Höhepunkte am 13. Juli 1920, als das Narodni dom, das Gemeindezentrum der slowenischen Bevölkerung, von italienischen Faschisten niedergebrannt wurde. Der Anschlag wurde vom späteren Sekretär der National-Faschistischen Partei (Partito Nazionale Fascista), Francesco Giunta, initiiert und wurde als Vergeltungsmaßnahme bezeichnet, weil bei Unruhen in Split zwei italienische Soldaten von jugoslawischen Sicherheitskräften erschossen worden waren.

 

Obwohl sich in der Zeit nach 1919 vor allem die Industrie in Triest entwickelte, hatte die Angliederung an Italien langfristig negative Konsequenzen für die wirtschaftliche Situation der Stadt. Die ehemals wichtigste Hafenstadt der Habsburgermonarchie wurde mit einem Schlag zu einem der zahlreichen italienischen Adriahäfen und verlor aufgrund ihrer Randlage in Italien ihre wirtschaftliche Bedeutung.

 

Seit dem 30. Oktober 1922 stand ganz Italien unter der faschistischen Herrschaft Mussolinis. Die Italianisierung der Slowenen im nordöstlichen Italien wurde nun verstärkt.

 

Zweiter Weltkrieg

 

Im Zweiten Weltkrieg war Italien mit Deutschland verbündet. Nach der Landung alliierter Truppen in Süditalien im Juli 1943 und der italienischen Kapitulation am 8. September 1943 durch König Viktor Emanuel III. wurde Norditalien von deutschen Truppen besetzt, die sich Mussolinis Repubblica Sociale Italiana bis Ende April 1945 als Marionettendiktatur hielten, um den endgültigen Zusammenbruch der Achsenmächte zu verhindern.

 

Die deutsche Besatzungsmacht fasste Triest mit Udine, Gorizia, Pula, Fiume (Rijeka) und Laibach/Lubiana zur Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland (OZAK) zusammen. Die Zone unterstand dem Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer Odilo Globocnik. Auf seine Veranlassung wurde in einem Vorort von Triest in der ehemaligen Reismühle Risiera di San Sabba das einzige nationalsozialistische Konzentrationslager auf italienischem Boden eingerichtet. Der Gebäudekomplex der ehemaligen Reismühle diente nach dem Kriegsaustritt Italiens und dem Einmarsch von Wehrmacht und SS als Gefangenenlager für entwaffnete italienische Soldaten. Von Oktober 1943 an kam die Risiera unter SS-Kommando. Das Lager diente hauptsächlich zur Inhaftierung von Geiseln, Partisanen und anderen politischen Gefangenen bzw. als Sammellager für Juden vor ihrer Deportation in die Vernichtungslager. Es wurden aber auch mobile Gaskammern installiert und ein Krematorium gebaut. Vom 20. Oktober 1943 bis zum Frühjahr 1944 wurden in der Risiera etwa 25.000 Juden und Partisanen verhört und gequält. 3000 bis 5000 von ihnen wurden hier durch Erschießen, Erschlagen oder in Gaswagen ermordet. Die Mannschaft des Konzentrationslagers bestand vorwiegend aus deutschen SS-Mitgliedern. Als 1945 jugoslawische Partisanen Triest einnahmen, sprengte die SS einige Teile des Lagers, um ihre Spuren zu verwischen.

 

Freies Territorium Triest

 

Am Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges wurde Triest von den jugoslawischen Partisanen Titos für Jugoslawien beansprucht, was mit der Existenz der dortigen slowenischen Bevölkerungsgruppe begründet wurde. Triest wurde von den jugoslawischen Partisanen besetzt, die die Stadt selbst jedoch kurz darauf auf Druck der Alliierten wieder verließen, ohne aber den Anspruch auf Triest aufzugeben. Damit begann eine Zeit, in der sich Jugoslawien und Italien um den Besitz der Stadt stritten.

 

Durch den Pariser Friedensvertrag von 1947 zwischen Italien und den Alliierten wurde Triest mit dem nordwestlichen Teil Istriens bis einschließlich Cittanova/Novigrad im Süden als Freies Territorium Triest (englisch Free Territory of Trieste, italienisch Territorio Libero di Trieste, slowenisch Svobodno tržaško ozemlje, kroatisch Slobodni teritorij Trsta) zu einem neutralen Staat unter Oberhoheit der Vereinten Nationen erklärt (ähnlich wie es die Freie Stadt Danzig unter dem Schutz des Völkerbundes in der Zwischenkriegszeit gewesen war). Der Gouverneur sollte vom Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen ernannt werden, administrativ war das Gebiet jedoch in zwei Zonen unterteilt. Die Zone A, die die Stadt Triest mit ihrer nächsten Umgebung umfasste, unterstand britisch-amerikanischer Militärverwaltung, die Zone B, die das Hinterland der Stadt und den Nordwesten Istriens umfasste, jugoslawischer Militärverwaltung.

 

Vom Provisorium zum Definitivum

 

Durch das Londoner Abkommen zwischen Italien und Jugoslawien von 1954 wurde das Freie Territorium Triest aufgelöst. Das Gebiet der bisherigen Zone A wurde provisorisch wieder italienischer Zivilverwaltung unterstellt, das Gebiet der bisherigen Zone B jugoslawischer Zivilverwaltung, wobei der jugoslawische Teil nördlich des Flüsschens Dragonja der damaligen Teilrepublik Slowenien einverleibt wurde, der Teil südlich der Dragonja jedoch Kroatien (über den Grenzverlauf bestehen bis heute Divergenzen; siehe auch: Internationale Konflikte der Nachfolgestaaten Jugoslawiens). Von 1954 bis 1961 verließen mehr als 20.000 Triestiner ihre Stadt und wanderten aus. Die Mehrzahl ging nach Australien und dabei besonders nach Melbourne und Sydney.

 

Am 10. November 1975 wurde im Vertrag von Osimo die Demarkationslinie von 1954 endgültig als italienisch-jugoslawische Grenze festgelegt und damit die Zugehörigkeit der Stadt Triest zu Italien definitiv bestätigt. 1962 wurde Triest die Hauptstadt der Region Friaul-Julisch Venetien.

 

Durch die Auflösung der Donaumonarchie und die unmittelbare Grenzlage zum nach 1945 sozialistisch regierten Jugoslawien war Triest bis Mitte der 1980er Jahre wirtschaftlich weitgehend isoliert. Mit dem Zerfall Jugoslawiens, dem Eintritt des nunmehr unabhängigen Slowenien in die EU im Jahr 2004 und dem Beitritt Sloweniens zum Schengen-Raum Ende 2007 verlor die Stadt ihre jahrzehntelange Randposition. 2004 bewarb sich Triest (erfolglos) für die EXPO 2008. Der Hafenumschlag ging zeitweise gerade wegen des Zusammenbruchs des Kommunismus bzw. der positiven Entwicklung des benachbarten Hafens von Koper (Slowenien) zurück.

 

Seit 2011 gibt es die auf Selbstbestimmung der Triestiner bzw. Ausbau des Freihafens pochende Bewegung „Trieste Libera / Svobodni Trst / Free Triest“. Diese Bewegung möchte mit Bezug auf den Friedensvertrag von 1947 bzw. 1954 an die wirtschaftlichen Erfolge eines geeinten großen mitteleuropäischen Wirtschaftsraumes anknüpfen und verlangt, dass Triest von einem Gouverneur der UNO verwaltet werden soll. Am Molo Audace kommt es immer wieder zu anti-italienischem Vandalismus. Die Organisation Trieste Pro Patria bzw. Trieste Italiana veranstaltet in Triest immer wieder Demonstrationen, um auf die italienischen Wurzeln Triests bzw. das „italienische“ Istrien aufmerksam zu machen.

 

Am Beginn der Wirtschaftskrise im Jahr 2008 stockte die umstrittene städtebauliche Entwicklung des Porto Vecchio (Alter Hafen). Im Februar 2019 genehmigte der Stadtrat die Rahmenplanung für die Erneuerung des Hafens. Auch durch das Abwandern der Industrie ist die früher erhebliche Umweltverschmutzung (vorwiegend Bleibelastung des Golfs von Triest) stark zurückgegangen. Die Jugendarbeitslosigkeit betrug 2012 17,67 % und stieg 2013 auf 23,25 %.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Molo Audace ist ein Kai am alten Hafen der norditalienischen Großstadt Triest.

 

Lage

 

Der Kai liegt zwischen den Hafenbecken Bacino San Giusto und Bacino San Giorgio in unmittelbarer Nähe des Hauptplatzes von Triest, der Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia, und dem ehemaligen Händlerviertel Borgo Teresiano.

 

Geschichte

 

Der Kai wurde 1754 über dem Wrack des spanischen Schiffes San Carlo erbaut, das 1739 an dieser Stelle gesunken war, und wurde zunächst San Carlo genannt. Ursprünglich wesentlich schmaler und kürzer, war der Kai vom Ufer losgelöst und nur über eine Holzbrücke zu erreichen. Er diente vornehmlich zur Be- und Entladung von Handelsschiffen. 1756 wurde der Kai um 19 Meter und 1860 um weitere 132 Meter verlängert. Zum Zeitpunkt der Verlängerung wurde die Mole mit dem Festland fest verbunden. 1922 erhielt der Kai seinen heutigen Namen, der vom ersten italienischen Zerstörer Audace abgeleitet ist, welcher am 3. November 1918 an dieser Stelle anlegte und die Stadt Triest unter italienische Kontrolle brachte. Zur Erinnerung an dieses Ereignis wurde am im Meer liegenden Ende der Mole eine bronzene Windrose auf weißem Natursteinsockel errichtet. Die Umschrift der Metallplatte besteht aus den Namen für die in Triest charakteristischen Winde.

 

Heute wird die Mole nicht mehr zur Beladung von Schiffen genutzt, sondern dient hauptsächlich als Uferpromenade.

 

(Wikipedia)

Given myself an alphabet soup game. Two new photos and another two from my photostream or archives, when possible.

 

I cheated a little as this isn't perfume, but it was the nearest I could get.

 

You can see the whole set/album here in alphabetic order.

www.flickr.com/photos/44506883@N04/sets/72157650127170829

 

Thank you for your favourites. :O)

2010 Mattel USA Fall Catalog. This was a catalog given to store managers, a vendor catalog, with manufacturing numbers so store managers could order items to then sell in their stores. All items in this catalog should have a packaging date of 2009, the date on the Barbie box or fashion pack should be 20098. The photographs in this catalog are similar to production, press or prototype information so the actual dolls and fashions sold in store might be slightly different have different colors, etc. This is especially true for the cheaper items and playsets. special editions and store exclusives may not be listed here. Items in this catalog include Barbie Video Girl R4093, R4087, T8157, Fab Life Day Looks Fashion Assortment N8322, R6814, R6815, R6816, N8328, R4251, R4252, R4253, Fab Life Fun Looks N4855, R6817, R6818, R6819, Fashionista Dolls N4844, R9878, R9883, T3324, T3325, T3326, T3327, S.I.S. dolls, SIS dolls, Puppy Swim School T2706, T2707, I no longer share catalogs without the website name on them because people posted my images on Facebook and Pinterest without giving me credit. You are welcome to download and repost catalog pages with the BarbieReference.com watermark on them. A link back to my website is also appreciated. If you found this useful please stop by BarbieReference.com and click an ad to support the site. More pages from this catalog are only available on BarbieReference.com

 

Givens Road. After crossing Hwy 45, AP203 looks to be on much better trackage. The old Hortonville Mfg facility is on the right. It has housed a toy business, nail production, coating/painting, amongst other things. A honey business is just up those stairs.

via Tumblr ift.tt/1NLQCLv

Given myself an alphabet soup game. Two new photos and another two from my photostream or archives, when possible.

 

I had a few options for V, but when I noticed this I thought it would be a bit different from the obvious ones.

 

You can see the whole set/album here in alphabetic order.

www.flickr.com/photos/44506883@N04/sets/72157650127170829

 

Thank you for your favourites. :O)

Given their nocturnal patterns, UPS 757s have not been the easiest to photograph - so it was a delight to capture not one, but two of these frames during my evening session at Portland.

Given the size of this individual, it must've been recently weaned. Three-toeds are excellent swimmers and are found in floodplains, while the the Two-toeds prefer high ground that does not flood...

Given to me as A gift from my sister... I luv u.

Given that it was in storage for a while, I can’t seem to get enough of this lovely item at the moment. Here it is once again, although it looks exactly the same from the back as it does from the front.

Ya just never know what I am going to come up with next, do ya? Just having some fun and sending my love to all who have been such great and consistant contacts, especially to someone like Dave Duke. A special friend, in another country, isn't that what Flickr is all about really, all of us being supportive, and helping each other, and having this marvelous opportunity to meet one another, people from every part of this planet, what a wonderful gift we have been given to all come together and share our love of creativity.

 

as I can not name each of you here, this also is for my adorable Ms. Judi, and all the other gal's who will dig it, I think! Everybody get's insomnia occasionally, and that is another great thing about Flickr.

 

And that is just my opinion..........

 

hugs and all that jazz,

 

jewelsbybillie

or please just call me Billie,

or just call, just a joking ..... smile!View On Black

for this week, I asked for and received a challenge by [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessicachuppy/] to do a nature setting, given that a lot of images have been in and around the homestead. I had a pretty good idea for setting and had the week off, but unfortunately ran into a passing rarity - thunderstorms - for a good part of the week. I always knew I had the nearby park for a backup, and was able to get out and make this shot by the river. It kind of looks like Augie's coming back in from a dip, but there's more than a few signs along the way indicating "no swimming", and, well, it's not really clean enough for that after the week's storms and drainage outflows. :-(

 

I also saw a secondary challenge by [http://www.flickr.com/photos/pessimisaurus/] for color! I know I've been a bit obsessed with monochrome, but with this early morning shooting into the sun setting, I couldn't help but keep the colors. (besides, after all the storms, there actually are colors beyond yellow & brown!) so, here we have green, and yellow, and gold, the green/blue of the river, and the roan of Augie's face.

 

I personally like the way the sun and pose have accentuated the lighter/white areas of Augie's coat, and the kind of golden rim light that come through her fringes. I also like the way she's looking forward toward me, keeping an eye on the people walking the path further behind.

 

Thanks for the challenges, Jessica & Margaret!

Not usually a massive fan of Jamie Oliver, but without any exaggeration, he genuinely has given the world a gift with this. Genius.

 

Recipe:

 

"A toasted cheese sandwich is a beautiful thing, but I'm not messing about here – this is the ultimate one and it's going to blow your mind. But there is a particular sequence of events that needs to happen in order to achieve the most ridiculously tasty, chomp-worthy sandwich. Follow this recipe, and it will always make you feel good. It is also especially useful when you're suffering from a light hangover. This is when the condiments – dolloped onto a side plate like a painter's palette – really come into their own.

 

With the No. 1 toasted cheese sarnie we don't score any points for buying expensive, artisan bread. It's important to go for something neutral, and in my eyes, only a white bloomer will do. Lightly butter the bread on both sides. To one piece of bread, add a nice grating of good-quality cheese that melts well, like Cheddar, Red Leicester or a mixture of the two. Place your second piece of bread on top, then cook in a sturdy non-stick frying pan on a medium heat for about 3 minutes on each side. This is important, because if it gets too coloured too quickly you won't get the gorgeous ooze and melt in the middle, and this is all about encouraging that internal cheese lava flow. As it cooks, I like to rest something flat with a little weight on top to ensure maximum surface area and crunch.

 

When lightly golden on both sides, lift the toastie out of the pan and grate a little layer of cheese into the pan where it was sitting. Place the toastie back on top and grate some more cheese on the top side. Leave it for just over 1 minute – wait for the cheese to bubble and the fat to spill out of it, then add a little pinch of cayenne pepper. Give the toastie a poke with a fish slice, and once it has a cheesy, doily-like crust on the bottom that moves as one, lift the toastie out of the pan and hold it on the fish slice for 30 seconds so the melted cheese hangs down, sets hard and forms an impressive cheese crown. Flip it onto the other side and once golden, serve, remembering to let it cool for a couple of minutes before attempting to tuck in".

 

Jamie Oliver's original recipe here.

Marcel Duchamp American (born France) Born 1887, died 1968

Étant donnés: 1 la chute d’eau, 2 le gaz d’éclairage… (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas…) , 1946-66

Mixed media assemblage

Exterior: wooden door, iron nails, bricks, and stucco; interior: bricks, velvet, wood, parchment over an armature of lead, steel, brass, synthetic putties and adhesives, aluminum sheet, welded steel-wire screen, and wood; Peg-Board, hair, oil paint, plastic, steel binder clips, plastic clothes-pins, twigs, leaves, glass, plywood, brass piano hinge, nails, screws, cotton, collotype prints, acrylic varinish, chalk, graphite, paper, cardboard, tape, pen ink, electric light fixures, gas lamp (Bec Auer type), foam rubber, cork, electric motor, cookie tin, and linoleum

Gift of the Cassandra Foundation, 1969-41-1

From the Placard The Philadelphia Museum of Art

www.philamuseum.org/

www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/324.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp

www.understandingduchamp.com/

www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/arts/design/28duchamp.html

youtu.be/VYqDpNmnu8I

Id 850

 

©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

 

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I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 49.599+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on Monday 11th September 2023

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1620223464 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 7,004th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Eight hundred and twenty nine metres at 15:32pm on Thursday 11th May 2023 off Crowsnest highway 3 close to Sunshine Valley at the Cascade Recreation Park in British Columbia.

  

Nikon D850 Single-lens reflex digital camera F Mount with FX CMOS 35.9mm x 23.9mm Image sensor 46.89 Million total pixels Focal length: 62mm Shutter speed: 1/125s (Mechanical shutter) Aperture f/11.0 iso100 Hand held with Tamron Vibration Control set to position 1 Image area Full Frame FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L 45.4Million pixels (8256 x 5504) 14 Bit uncompressed AF-C Priority Selection: Release Nikon Back button focusing enabled 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1, A1.00, M0.25 (5910k) Colour space: Adobe RGB Picture control: (A) Auto (Sharpening +1.00/Clarity +1.00)

  

Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.

   

LATITUDE: N 49d 3m 49.90s

LONGITUDE: W 121d 3m 20.80s

ALTITUDE: 829.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 93.0MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 46.10MB

      

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.21 (8/12/2022) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (16/01/20) LF 1.00 Nikon Codec Full version 1.31.2 (09/11/2021)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with Windows 10 Home edition AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. My Passport USB 3.0 2TB portable desktop hard drive. Nikon NX STUDIO 64bit Version 1.2.2 (08/12/2022). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.16.0 (08/12/2022). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

  

St George, Stowlangtoft, Suffolk

 

Given that our parish churches almost without exception underwent restorations in the 19th Century, it should be obvious that when we enter a medieval church, we are encountering a Victorian vision of the medieval. Even when the actual furnishings and fittings are medieval, the whole piece is still a Victorian conception.

 

Inevitably, the question arises of what was there before the restoration and what wasn't. The obvious answer is that we must assume that nothing is as it first appears.

 

A prime example of a church that assumes a continuity that may not actually be the truth is here in the flat fields between Woolpit and Ixworth. This part of Suffolk can be rather bleak in winter, but in summer the churchyard here is verdant and golden, as beautiful a place as any in the county. The church is large, and yet unusually narrow. It sits on a mound that has been cut down on one side by the road. In the churchyard you'll find the well-known memorial to the art critic Peter Fuller and his unborn son, killed in a car crash in 1990.

 

In the churchyard wall there is what appears to be broken medieval window tracery, which is worth noticing, for hereby hangs a tale.

 

St George is one of the great Suffolk churches. Although it may externally appear a little severe, and is by no means as grand as Blythburgh, Long Melford and the rest, it is a treasure house of the medieval inside. Unusually for a church of its date, it was all rebuilt in one go, in the late 14th century, and the perpendicular windows are not yet full of the 'walls of glass' confidence that the subsequent century would see. The tracery appears to have been repaired, and possibly even renewed, which may explain the tracery in the churchyard wall. However, it doesn't take much to see that the tracery in the wall is not perpendicular at all, but decorated. So it may be that the broken tracery is from the original church that the late 14th century church replaced. But the wall itself isn't medieval, so where had it been all those years? Is it possible that the current window tracery is not medieval at all?

 

Stowlangtoft church featured in Simon Jenkins' book England's Thousand Best Churches, which sends plenty of visitors to its locked door, and may help stave off the inevitable for a while, for there is no real congregation here any more and the church is moribund. Regular services are held across the fields at Pakenham, and St George is now only used on special occasions. The key is kept across the road, where the very nice lady told me in February 2018 that the church is now headed for redundancy. It seems likely that care of it will be conveyed into the hands of the Churches Conservation Trust.

 

You step in through the chancel door (the lock here is very awkward, but do persevere) and if you are anything like me you will head straight down to the west end where you will find the font. Likethe window tracery, it asks some questions. Unusually, it features a Saint on seven of the panels, Christ being on the westwards face. Mortlock dates it to the early 14th century, and the Saints it shows are familiar cults from that time: St Margaret, St Catherine, St Peter and St Paul, and less commonly St George. The cult of St George was at its height in the early years of the 14th century. Mortlock describes the font as mutilated, and it certainly isn't looking its best. But I think there is more going on here than meets the eye. Fonts were plastered over in Elizabethan times, and only relief that stood proud of the plaster was mutilated. These are all shallow reliefs, and I do not think they have been mutilated at all. To my eye at least, this stonework appears weathered. I wonder if this font was removed from the church, probably in the mid-17th century, and served an outdoor purpose until it was returned in the 19th century.

 

The story of this church in the 19th century is well-documented. In 1832, as part of his grand tour of Suffolk, David Davy visited, and was pleased to find that the church was at last undergoing repair. The chancel had been roofless, and the nave used for services. A new Rectory was being built. Who was the catalyst behind all this? His name was Samuel Rickards, and he was Rector here for almost the middle forty years of the 19th century. Roy Tricker notes that he was a good friend of John Henry Newman, the future Cardinal, and they often corresponded on the subject of the pre-Reformation ordering of English churches. It is interesting to think how, at this seminal moment, Rickards might have informed the thought of the Oxford Movement. Sadly, when Newman became a Catholic, Rickards broke off all correspondence with him.

 

During the course of the 1840s and 1850s, Rickards transformed Stowlangtoft church. He got the great Ipswich woodcarver Henry Ringham in to restore, replicate and complete the marvellous set of bench ends - Ringham did the same thing at Woolpit, a few miles away. Ringham's work is so good that it is sometimes hard for the inexperienced eye to detect it. However, as at Woolpit, Ringham only copied animals here, and the weirder stuff is all medieval, and probably dates from the rebuilding of the church. The glory of Stowlangtoft's bench ends is partly the sheer quantity - there are perhaps 60 carvings - but also that there are several unique subjects.

 

The carvings appear to be part of the same group as Woolpit and Tostock - you will recognise the unicorn, the chained bear, the bull playing a harp, the bird with a man's head, from similar carvings elsewhere. And then hopefully that little alarm bell in your heard should start to go "Hmmmm....." because some of the carvings here are clearly not from the same group. It is hard to believe that the mermaid and the owl, for example, are from the same workshop, or even from the same decade. The benches themselves are no clue, as it was common practice in the 19th century to replace medieval bench ends on modern benches, or on medieval benches, or even on modern benches made out of medieval timber (as happened at Blythburgh). Could it be that Samuel Rickards found some of these bench ends elsewhere? Could he have been the kind of person to do a thing like that?

 

Well, yes he could. As Roy Tricker recalls, the medieval roof at the tractarian Thomas Mozley's church at Cholderton in Wiltshire is East Anglian. Rickards acquired it after finding it in storage in Ipswich docks. It presumably came from one of the Ipswich churches. In the ferment of the great 19th century restoration of our English churches, there was loads of medieval junk lying around, much of it going begging. But was Samuel Rickards the kind of person to counterfeit his church's medieval inheritance?

 

Well, yes he probably was. The faux-medieval roundels in the windows of the nave are clearly not medieval at all, but were in fact the work of the young Lucy Rickards, daughter of Samuel Rickards himself. Some are clearly to the young girl's design, and Pevsner notes that others are copied from medieval manuscript illustrations in the British Museum, although the Holy Kinship and Presentation in the Temple roundels at least are very close copies of the Flemish roundels of the same subjects in Nowton church on the other side of Bury St Edmunds.

 

Truly medieval is the vast St Christopher wall-painting still discernible on the north wall. It was probably one of the last to be painted. The bench ends are medieval, of course, as is the fine rood-screen dado, albeit repainted. There is even some medieval figure glass in the upper tracery of some of the windows, including St Agnes holding a lamb and four Old Testament prophets. The laughable stone pulpit is Rickard's commission, and the work of William White. What can Rickards have been thinking of? But we step through into the chancel, and suddenly the whole thing moves up a gear. For here are some things that are truly remarkable.

 

In a county famous for its woodwork, the furnishings of Stowlangtoft's chancel are breathtaking, even awe-inspiring. Behind the rood screen dado is Suffolk's most complete set of return stalls. Most striking are the figures that form finials to the stall ends. They are participants in the Mass, including two Priests, two servers and two acolytes. The figure of the Priest at a prayer desk must be one of the best medieval images in Suffolk, and Mortlock thought the stalls the finest in England.

 

The benches that face eastwards are misericords, and beneath them are wonderful things: angels, lions and wodewoses, evangelistic symbols and crowned heads. A hawk captures a hare, a dragon sticks out its tongue. Between the seats are weird oriental faces.

 

Now, you know what I am going to ask next. How much of this is from this church originally? It all appears medieval work, and there is no reason to believe it might not have been moved elsewhere in the church when the chancel was open to the elements. What evidence have we got?

 

Firstly, we should notice that the only other Suffolk church with such a large number of medieval misericords of this quality is just a mile away, at Norton. I don't ask you to see this as significant, merely to notice it in passing. Secondly, I am no carpenter, but it does look to me as though two sets of furnishings have been cobbled together; the stalls that back on to the screen appear to have been integrated into the larger structure of stalls and desks that front them and the north and south walls.

 

However, if you look closely at the figures of the two Deacons, you will see that they are bearing shields of the Ashfield and Peche families. The Ashfield arms also appear on the rood screen, and the Ashfields were the major donors when the church was rebuilt in the 14th century. So on balance I am inclined to think that the greater part of the stall structure was in this church originally from when it was rebuilt. And the misericords? Well, I don't know. But I think they have to be considered as part of the same set as those at Norton. In which case they may have come from the same church, which may have been this one, but may not have been. Almost certainly, the stalls at Norton did not come from Norton church, and folklore has it that they were originally in the quire of Bury Abbey.

 

Other remarkable things in St George include FE Howard's beautiful war memorial in the former north doorway, and in the opposite corner of the nave Hugh Easton's unexpectedly gorgeous St George, which serves the same purpose. He's not an artist I usually admire, but it is as good as his work at Elveden. Back up in the chancel is a delightful painted pipe organ which was apparently exhibited at, and acquired from, the Great Exhibition of 1851.

 

But St George at Stowlangtoft is, of course, most famous for the Flemish carvings that flank the rather heavy altarpiece. They were given to the church by Henry Wilson of Stowlangtoft Hall, who allegedly found them in an Ixworth junk shop. They show images from the crucifixion story, but are not Stations of the Cross as some guides suggest. They date from the 1480s, and were almost certainly the altarpiece of a French or Flemish monastery that was sacked during the French Revolution. The carvings were once brightly painted, and piled up in a block rather than spread out in a line. The niches, and crowning arches above them, are 19th century.

 

One cold winter's night in January 1977, a gang of thieves broke into this locked church and stole them. Nothing more was seen or heard of them until 1982, when they were discovered on display in an Amsterdam art gallery. Their journey had been a convoluted one. Taken to Holland, they were used as security for a loan which was defaulted upon. The new owner was then burgled, and the carvings were fenced to an Amsterdam junk dealer. They were bought from his shop, and taken to the museum, which immediately identified them as 15th century carvings. They put them on display, and a Dutch woman who had read about the Stowlangtoft theft recognised them.

 

The parish instituted legal proceedings to get them back. An injunction was taken out to stop the new owner removing them from the museum. The parish lost the case, leaving them with a monstrous legal bill, but the story has a happy ending. A Dutch businessman negotiated their purchase from the owner, paid off the legal bills, and returned the carvings to Stowlangtoft. Apparently this was all at vast cost, but the businessman gave the gift in thanks for Britain's liberation of Holland from the Nazis. No, thank you, sir.

 

Today, the carvings are fixed firmly in place and alarmed, so they won't be going walkabout again. But a little part of me wonders if they really should be here at all. Sure, they are medieval, but they weren't here originally, and they weren't even in England originally. Wouldn't it be better if they were displayed somewhere safer, where people could pay to see them, and provide some income for the maintenance of the church building? And then, whisper it, when St George is taken on by the CCT they might even be able to leave it open.

 

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Any given Sunday Paseo de la reforma Mexico City

Street vendors

  

If you like this shot please go see my ALBUM "Any given Sunday in Mexico City"

 

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Or "street Shots"

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Office Gossip

 

"The Gossip Girls" (the nickname that the office has given to Customer Service Reps, Patrick McKinney, Florence "Miss Flo" Tilden and Fendi Jones), spies married man, Advertising Sales Director, Warren Rhodes, sharing a stolen moment with the Assistant to the Marketing Director, Tula Shaw. Or so they think......

Given that we'd already done a 'Bristol' ambigram design before Christmas I thought it only fair to get Brixton in on the action. Knowing my current proclivities if I did a load of them they'd all have stripes on them so I limited myself to just two versions for now. One with stripes, obviously, and one with a wavy patterned design. In all fairness I'd probably have to respray the blue and grey one if anyone wanted it as my favourite part, the Ace of Aces logo bit, hasn't really come out very well but I thought I'd wait and see if there was any interest first. They're A2 in size and I'd also be happy to re-do with any particular background colourways as requested if anyone felt so inclined as to ask. So there you have it.

 

As a side note if you're not familiar with Ram John Holder's song 'Brixton Blues' then I suggest you get yourself to Youtube pretty sharpish and give your ears a little treat.

 

Cheers

 

id-iom

Given that it’s freezing cold up here in Minneapolis right now so this pic of a gun frozen inside of a block of ice feels very appropriate to me. The first in a limited series of frozen items. If it weren’t for lack of space in my freezer I’d freeze a lot more objects and photograph them.

 

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Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred and twelve metres at 12:28pm on Thursday 25th May 2023 off Keating cross and Benvenuto Avenue at the Butterfly gardens in Victoria, located in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia.

  

This is Mango, who is forty five years old now, a beautiful bird that I have visited for over 27 years on my trips here (Since it was located at the Crystal Gardens in Victoria back in the day). The American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) is the only flamingo which naturally inhabits North America, and is also known as the Caribbean flamingo. They can reach up to 83 years old in captivity!

  

Nikon D850 Single-lens reflex digital camera F Mount with FX CMOS 35.9mm x 23.9mm Image sensor 46.89 Million total pixels Focal length 460mm Shutter speed: 1/160s (Mechanical shutter) Aperture f/13.0 iso800 Tamron Vibration Control set to position 1 Image area Full Frame FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L 45.4Million pixels (8256 x 5504) 14 Bit uncompressed AF-C Priority Selection: Release Nikon Back button focusing enabled 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1, A1.00, M0.25 (4610k) Colour space: Adobe RGB Picture control: (A) Auto (Sharpening +1.00/Clarity +1.00)

  

Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup. Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon EN-EL15a battery.

   

LATITUDE: N 48d 33m 52.30s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 26m 21.10s

ALTITUDE: 112.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 93.0MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 58.10MB

     

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HP 110-352na Desktop PC with Windows 10 Home edition AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. My Passport USB 3.0 2TB portable desktop hard drive. Nikon NX STUDIO 64bit Version 1.2.2 (08/12/2022). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.16.0 (08/12/2022). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

  

Fazıl Küçük (Turkish pronunciation: [faˈzɯl cyˈtʃyc]; Greek: Φαζίλ Κιουτσούκ; 14 March 1906 – 15 January 1984) was a Turkish Cypriot politician and a medical doctor who served as the first Vice President of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Fazıl Küçük, the son of a farmer, was born in Nicosia in 1906. After graduating from the Turkish High School in Nicosia, Küçük went on to study medicine at the Universities of Istanbul, Lausanne and Paris. Having returned to Cyprus in 1937, he started a practice, but his interest in politics soon led to him to become a voice for Turkish Cypriot rights. In 1941 Küçük founded the newspaper Halkın Sesi (The Voice of the People) and became the managing editor. Due to his campaign against the British colonial administration, his paper was not given a permit for publication until 1942, the paper is still being published to this day.

 

In 1943, he became one of the founders of the Kıbrıs Adası Türk Azınlığı Kurumu (Association of the Turkish Minority of the Island of Cyprus – known as KATAK). The aim of the party was to promote the social, economic and political well-being of the Turkish Cypriot people. Due to disagreements with some of its members, Küçük parted with KATAK and established the Kıbrıs Millî Türk Halk Partisi (Cyprus National Turkish People's Party – known as KMTHP). Following a 15-year struggle, Küçük helped for the transfer of the Evkaf (a Turkish religious fund) from British to Turkish Cypriot control.

 

During the 1959 London and Zurich Conferences for the creation of an independent Republic of Cyprus, Küçük represented the Turkish Cypriot community and was able to secure constitutional safeguards for the people. On December 3, 1959 Küçük was elected vice president of the new republic. Following Greek Cypriot proposals to modify the constitution (see Cyprus dispute), Küçük continued as the vice president of the Republic of Cyprus until 1973 when he was succeeded by Rauf Denktaş. Despite ill health, Küçük continued to support Turkish Cypriots through his Halkın Sesi newspaper.

 

Küçük died in a Westminster hospital on January 15, 1984, less than a year after the Unilateral declaration of Independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. He was the uncle of former Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus prime minister, İrsen Küçük.

 

Nicosia ( Greek : Λευκωσία (Lefkosia), English : Nicosia), located in the middle of the island of Cyprus , is the capital of the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus . It is the most populous city of Cyprus and the most important cultural, industrial, trade and transportation center. Nicosia is located at 35°10' north, 33°21' east.

 

The city is divided into two by the border called the Green Line . Although de jure the Republic of Cyprus has the administration of the entire city, de facto it only has control over South Nicosia . Northern Nicosia is under the rule of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and is considered to be under Turkish occupation by the international community. The two sectors are separated by a Buffer Zone administered by United Nations Peacekeeping Forces . With the 1960 Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, the Turkish Municipality of Nicosia was granted legal status.

 

Nicosia is known as "Lefkosia" (Λευκωσία) in Greek and "Nicosia" in English .

 

The first name of the area where the city is located was "Ledra". This name is also written as "Ledrae", "Lidir", "Ledras", "Ledron" and "Letra". Later, this city was destroyed and when it was rebuilt by Leucus, the city was named "Lefkotheon" (Λευκόθεον - city of the white gods). This name was also occasionally referred to as "Ledron". Later, the words "Kermia" and "Leucus" (Λευκούς) were used for the city. In the 7th century, Hierocles, a Byzantine geographer, mentioned the city as Lefkousia (Λευκουσία) in his book Synekdemos (Vademecum) . In the 13th century , the Patriarch of Constantinople referred to Nicosia as Kalli Nikesis (Καλλι Νίκησις - Beautiful Victory). A writer and monk, St. Neophytos referred to Nicosia as "Leucopolis" (Lefkopolis - White City) in a sermon he gave around 1176. Since the 10th century, the name "Nicosia" has become generally accepted. In the 18th century, Greek Cypriot historian Archimandrite Kyprianos stated that another name for Nicosia was "Photolampos" (Shining with Light).

 

There are various claims that the city is referred to as "Nicosia" and similar forms in European languages. According to one claim, the Latins replaced the first syllable of the word, "Lef", with "Ni" because they could not pronounce it. Another claim is that the name derives from the name "Kallinikesis". A writer from Sicily named Sindaco connects the name "Nicosia" to the town named "Nicosia" in Sicily and claimed that King Tancred from this town was with Richard I during the siege of Cyprus and named the city after his own town. . Another claim is that the name "Nicosia" emerged during the rebellion of the city's people against the Knights Templar in 1192. A German priest named Ludolf named the city "Nycosia" between 1341 and 1363. HAS Dearborn, in his book published in 1819, says that another name for Nicosia is "Nicotia". In 1856, William Curry stated that the Greeks called the city "Escosie" and the Western Europeans called it "Licosia".

 

The name of the city is mentioned in Ottoman documents as "Nicosia" or "medine-i Nicosia" . In addition, in a letter regarding the conquest of Nicosia in 1570, the name of the city is mentioned as "Nicosia". Kâtip Çelebi refers to the city as "Nicosia" (which is sometimes used today).

 

The first settlement in the area where Nicosia is located took place in the Neolithic Age . The date of the first settlement is approximately 3000-4000 BC. In 1050 BC or in the 7th century BC, a city called " Ledra " was founded in the region. This city had an important place among the other city kingdoms on the island. During archaeological excavations, a Greek inscription written in the 4th century BC was found indicating the existence of a temple dedicated to Aphrodite in Ledra. By around 330 BC it had shrunk to a small village. When this city was destroyed due to earthquakes , in 200 BC, Leucus, the son of Ptolemy I Soter , founded the city that is today Nicosia.

 

The city's importance began to increase in the late Byzantine period. In the 7th century, it became the capital of the island during the Arab raids.

 

It fell into the hands of Richard I in 1191 . It was the capital of the island during the period when the Knights Templar purchased and dominated the island. A rebellion broke out in the city on 11 April 1192. The knights suppressed this uprising with a massacre and then left the island.

 

The Lusignans purchased the island and Nicosia remained their capital. During the Lusignan period, he built many new buildings in the city. During the Venetian period, most of these were demolished and used in the construction of walls. During this period, the Lusignans also built walls around the city. These walls were in the shape of an irregular pentagon . There were no walls in the city before. King Henry I built the first walls with two towers in 1211, Peter I built a third tower, and Henry II built the first walls. Henry had the city completely surrounded by walls. The city became quite wealthy during this period. Nicosia was one of four dioceses on the island. It also became the center of an archdiocese in 1212. During this period, events were taking place between Greeks and Latins, and bloody conflicts broke out in the city in 1313 and 1360.

 

Nicosia has been damaged by many earthquakes throughout its history. The 1222 Cyprus earthquake was felt strongly in the city and caused great damage. In November 1330, a flood occurred in the city and three thousand people lost their lives. In addition, the city was heavily damaged by the Genoese in 1373 and the Mamluks in 1426.

 

On February 26, 1489, Nicosia, along with the entire island, came under the rule of the Republic of Venice . Just before the Ottoman conquest of the island, the Venetians inspected the walls and found them too weak. According to the new plans, the walls of Nicosia were reduced from eight miles to three miles. Meanwhile, all buildings outside the new walls were destroyed. According to a claim, the route of Kanlıdere was changed by the Venetians. Another claim is that the Ottomans changed the route of the stream to save the city from floods.

 

During the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottomans , Nicosia was the third largest settlement taken. Piyale Pasha and his army took action to take Nicosia on 22 July 1570. On July 25, Nicosia was besieged. Clashes began on July 27, as the Venetians did not accept the Ottomans' demands to surrender the castle. The fact that the walls were very strong ensured that Nicosia would not fall. At dawn on 9 September 1570, a new attack was launched and troops of more than 20 thousand people conquered Nicosia.

 

As part of the settlement of Turks in Cyprus during the Ottoman period, the settlement of the Turkish population in Nicosia, as well as in the entire island, started in 1572. Non-professional Greeks in the city were settled in the neighborhoods outside the city and replaced by Turks. According to a census made during this period, the city had 31 neighborhoods. In two of them ("Ermiyan" and "Karaman"), the Armenian population was in the majority.

 

During the Ottoman period, Nicosia first served as the capital of the State of Cyprus as the center of a district called "Mountain Kaza", and later became a sanjak . During the Ottoman period, St. Large churches such as the Sophia Cathedral were converted into mosques. ​​Nicosia - Larnaca road was built. The gates of the city were opened at sunrise and closed at sunset. The Governor, Judge, Interpreter and Greek Archbishop resided in Nicosia. ​​William Kimbrough Pendleton states that in 1864 most of the houses in the city were made of clay brick. As a result of a major earthquake in 1741, one minaret of the Selimiye Mosque collapsed and had to be rebuilt. There were riots in the city in 1764 and 1821.

 

On July 12, 1878, Nicosia, along with the rest of the island, came under British rule . British troops entered the city through the Kyrenia Gate and hoisted the first British flag on the Değirmen Bastion next to the Paphos Gate . Nicosia Municipality was established in 1882. Under British rule, Nicosia grew outside the city walls. Between 1930 and 1945, villages such as Ortaköy , Strovolos , Büyük Kaymaklı , Küçük Kaymaklı began to merge with the city, and the first settlements were made in regions such as Yenişehir . On January 1, 1944, Ayii Omoloyitadhes was included in the municipal boundaries. In order to provide access outside the city, the walls on the sides of the Paphos Gate in 1879, the Kyrenia Gate in 1931, and the Famagusta Gate in 1945 were cut. In 1905, a train station was built in Büyük Kaymaklı and train services to Nicosia started, this practice ended in 1955. In 1912, the first electricity came to the city. Also in the same year, kerosene-powered street lamps were replaced with electric ones. Under British rule, the sewer network was cleaned and the roads were repaired. On October 17, 1947, as a result of an explosion in the power plant that supplied energy to the city, the city was left without electricity for 116 days.

 

In 1895, Greeks attacked the Turks in the Tahtakale region of Nicosia. In 1931, Greeks rebelled against British rule and burned the government building. Founded in 1955, EOKA attacked public buildings and the radio station in the city against British rule.

 

The Republic of Cyprus was established on 16 August 1960 . The flag of the Republic of Cyprus was hoisted in the House of Representatives at midnight that night, ending British rule on the island. In accordance with Article 173 of the 1960 constitution, a Greek (Nicosia -Greek Municipality) and a Turkish ( Nicosia Turkish Municipality ) municipality were established on the island. On the night of 20–21 December 1963, the events known as " Bloody Christmas " began. Zeki Halil and Cemaliye Emirali were killed as a result of fire opened on cars in Tahtakale district of Nicosia. Between 23-30, Küçük Kaymaklı was besieged. On the night of 23-24 January, 11 people were killed in the Kumsal region, and the family of Turkish major Nihat İlhan was killed in the incident known as the Kumsal Raid. An attack was carried out against the Turks in the Kanlıdere region. As a result of the events, the governments of Turkey , Greece and the United Kingdom met on 30 December 1963 . As a result of this meeting, the border , also known as the Green Line, was drawn, dividing the city into Turkish and Greek parts. The reason why this border is called the "Green Line" is that the pen of the United Nations official who drew the line on the map was green. The borders of the city were finalized with the Cyprus Operation carried out in 1974 by the order of Turkish Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit .

 

On 29 March 1968, the suburbs of Eylence , Büyük Kaymaklı, Küçük Kaymaklı, Pallouriotissa , Strovolos (partially) and Kızılay were also included in the municipal borders. Following the de facto division of the city, the area under the administration of the Republic of Cyprus continued to grow in a southerly direction. North Nicosia also continued to grow and merged with outlying villages such as Gönyeli (which has a separate municipality) and Hamitköy (which is part of the Nicosia Turkish Municipality).

 

Kermiya Border Gate was opened in 2003, and Lokmacı Gate was opened in 2008 .

 

Nicosia is located in a central point of the island of Cyprus, in the central parts of the Mesarya Plain .

 

Nicosia has a hot semi-arid climate according to the Köppen climate classification . The hottest months are July and August, and the coldest months are January and February. The month with the most rainfall is January. Nicosia is one of the warmest places on the island.

 

Nicosia is located in the center of the geological formation called Nicosia Formation. This region dates back to the Lower Pliocene period. Gray, yellow and white marl layers, sandy and yellow limestones and sparse conglomerate bands are frequently encountered. The reconnection of the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean resulted in the rise of sea water and the formation of new sediments, which formed the Nicosia Formation. Underneath Nicosia is the Nicosia- Serdarlı aquifer , which has an area of ​​60 km² .

 

The riverside parts of Nicosia city, especially Kanlıdere , have a great biodiversity. [88] In a research conducted in the streams in a 12.5 km diameter area of ​​the city, which is rich in vegetation (especially in stream beds), 185 different plant species belonging to 62 different families were identified. Among these, there are four endemic and 16 rare species. The most common tree species found on the banks of streams in the city is the eucalyptus tree (various types can be found). There is a total of 0.262 square kilometers of forest area in the Nicosia Central agricultural region of Northern Cyprus . Two kilometers outside Nicosia (in its southern part), within the boundaries of the Municipality of Eylence, is the Pedagogical Academy National Forest Park, and to the south of the city is the Athalassa National Forest Park. In Northern Nicosia, there is the Nicosia Forest Nursery, which is 0.5 hectares in size.

 

The habitats of animals in the stream beds in some parts of the city are in danger. The reeds along the streams host many animals, especially bird species. Many creatures such as kingfishers , water chickens , striped turtles and chameleons live on the banks of the streams . There are especially many turtles in the streams.

 

Nicosia is the commercial center of Cyprus. The city hosts the central banks of the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus .

 

The city of Nicosia is divided into two parts in terms of urbanization, these are old Nicosia (the area inside the walls) and new Nicosia (outside the walls). In Old Nicosia, the roads are narrow and there are dead ends. In New Nicosia, there is more vertical and horizontal development over a wider area. Junctions and roads are wider, parks occupy larger areas.

 

In Nicosia during the Ottoman period, Greeks and Turks lived mixed in some neighborhoods, and in some neighborhoods, one of them was the majority. Mosques can be found in Turkish neighborhoods and churches in Greek neighborhoods. Armenians also lived in the city. The houses of the Armenians who used to live in Köşklüçiftlik were all made of cut stone and had their own unique architecture. Bay windows are a common feature in houses in Old Nicosia . The Büyük Han is one of the most advanced architectural works on the island, and today it is a cultural center where various activities such as exhibitions, sales of antiques and traditional items, and shadow plays take place.

 

There are fourteen museums in the part of Nicosia south of the Green Line. The Cyprus Museum was founded in 1888 and exhibits hundreds of archaeological artifacts brought from all over the island. The house of Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios, who worked as a translator for the Divan during the Ottoman period, built in 1793, is used as an ethnography museum. In the northern part of the city, the number of museums is six. Derviş Pasha Mansion is used as an ethnography museum.

 

Although there are many theaters in the south of the city, the headquarters of the Cyprus Theater Association is in Nicosia. The State Theater Building, built in the 2000s, formerly hosted this institution, which suffered from inadequate facilities, and is not allowed to be used by any other theater organization. Nicosia Municipality Theatre, built in 1967, has a capacity of 1220 people. In the north, the Turkish Cypriot State Theater performs plays and organizes tours; but it does not have a hall. Also in the north is the Nicosia Municipal Theater, which was established in 1980. The Cyprus Theater Festival, jointly organized by the Nicosia Turkish Municipality and Nicosia Municipal Theatres, is a large organization attended by institutions such as Istanbul City Theatres , and all of these can be held in only two halls.

 

There are nineteen cinemas in the southern part of the city, six of which are owned by a company called K Cineplex, and thirteen are owned by other companies. In the north of the city, the number of cinemas is four.

 

Two waterways built during the Ottoman period were used in Nicosia until the mid-20th century. These waterways were Arab Ahmed and Silihtar waterways. Apart from this, water extracted from wells was also used.

 

Telegraph was first used in the city in 1873. In 1936, a public telephone network was established covering the entire island and Nicosia.

 

The migration to the city of Nicosia as a result of the Cyprus Operation in 1974 caused problems such as development, transportation, sewerage, housing shortage and lack of infrastructure in the city.

 

Since Nicosia is a divided city, the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus education systems are implemented in the city. A university called Near East University in North Nicosia , Cyprus International University, Mediterranean Karpaz University, Anadolu University 's open education faculty, apart from these, colleges such as Atatürk Teachers Academy and Police School There are. In the area under the control of the Republic of Cyprus , there are universities named University of Cyprus , Open University of Cyprus , Frederick University , University of Nicosia , [132] and European University of Cyprus.

 

In the Nicosia District of the Republic of Cyprus, there are 42 secondary schools, 133 primary schools and three kindergartens. There are a total of 30 primary schools, kindergartens and special education centers at the primary level in the Nicosia district of Northern Cyprus .

 

The roads on the island were built to be centered in Nicosia and unite in Nicosia. All important roads meet in Nicosia. During the Ottoman period, only the Larnaca road was built, and the previously built roads were in ruins. Under British rule, these roads were rebuilt and a regular postal service was established between Nicosia and other cities. The first car arrived in the city in 1907. The first bus services from the city started in 1929, these services departed from the Kyrenia Gate and went to Strovolos, Aydemet and Büyük Kaymaklı. [139] Train services started between Nicosia and Famagusta on 21 October 1905 . Train services were organized from Nicosia to approximately 30 stops. Train services ended on December 31, 1951. Nicosia International Airport was opened in 1949 . This airport is in the Buffer Zone today and is not used.

 

Today, there is a bus service in the Republic of Cyprus controlled part of the city run by a company called Nicosia Bus Company . All buses leave from the terminal in Solomos Square and make stops every 20 to 30 minutes. There are plans to expand the bus line, increase the frequency of services and renew the bus fleet. The Department of Public Works signed an agreement to establish tram and light rail lines between Nicosia - Larnaca and Limassol . There are motorways such as A1 and A2 from the city . In addition to developing this road network, there are also projects to improve the roads within the city. Apart from this, there are also taxis . Air transportation to the city is provided by Larnaca International Airport (44 km away) and Paphos International Airport . Larnaca Airport is used more than Paphos Airport.

 

LETTAŞ company also has buses in North Nicosia. The first municipal bus was put into operation on the Göçmenköy-Yenişehir route on January 15, 1980, during Mustafa Akıncı 's term as mayor. Starting from 1984, this service was transformed into a public transportation network within the municipality and started to provide service, and later the same vehicles were privatized to be operated by the LETTAŞ company. There is a bus terminal in the Yenişehir area. The airport used by the northern part of the city is Ercan Airport . Transportation to the airport is provided by buses. It is also possible to reach the city by taxi and minibus .

 

Nicosia Municipality is a sister city with the following cities:

Germany Schwerin , Germany (1974)

Greece Athens , Greece (1988)

Ukraine Odessa , Ukraine (1996)

Iranian Shiraz , Iran (1999)

Romania Bucharest , Romania (2004)

Chinese Shanghai , China (2004)

 

The city has also collaborated with the following cities:

Russia Moscow , Russia (1997, 2002, 2003-2004, 2006-2008)

Italy Nicosia , Italy (2000-2002)

Chinese Qingdao , China (2001)

Greece Athens , Greece (2001, 2003)

Finland Helsinki , Finland (2003)

Syria Damascus , Syria (2003)

Croatia Zagreb , Croatia (2004)

Malta Valletta , Malta (2007)

 

Sister cities of Nicosia Turkish Municipality

Türkiye Izmir , Turkey (2019)

Türkiye Ankara , Turkey (1988)

Türkiye Bursa , Turkey

North Macedonia Kumanovo , North Macedonia (2007)

Gagauzia Comrat , Gagauzia

Türkiye Gaziantep Turkey​

Türkiye Istanbul Turkey

 

Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.

 

A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.

 

Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 

Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.

 

Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.

 

Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.

 

The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.

 

Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.

 

Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.

 

By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.

 

EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.

 

However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.

 

On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.

 

In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.

 

By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.

 

In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.

 

The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.

 

After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".

 

As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.

 

Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

 

On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.

 

Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.

 

The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.

 

Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.

 

Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria

An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."

 

In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.

 

Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.

 

In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.

 

Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.

 

Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.

 

Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.

 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:

 

UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.

 

The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.

 

By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."

 

After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.

 

On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.

 

The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.

 

During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.

 

In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.

 

Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.

 

A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.

Actually, no points given for guessing :-)

Bad wifi, tonight is the first time I actually got the wifi at hotel to work on laptop and 3G is almost worse :-I

So I've not uploaded anything of use so far. Will upload more when I do get back home. We'll leave Florida, (Orlando area) on the 4th of July

This was given to us by Archbishop Anastasios, head of the Orthodox Church in Albania. It is based on fresco at the Church of Chora in Istanbul. It has since been given to St Nicholas of Myra Russian Orthodox Church in Amsterdam.

 

The Harrowing of Hell / The Anastasis

 

The Paschal icon most often painted by iconographers and most frequently found in Orthodox churches and homes is the Anastasis — Christ's Descent into Hell. It is also the first Paschal icon to be displayed in the center of the church each year, for it is venerated on Great and Holy Saturday.

 

The Apostles' Creed proclaims that, before rising from the dead, Christ "descended into hell." This is what the icon shows us. Beneath his feet, falling into a pit of darkness, are the broken gates of hell, often shown as a cruciform platform upholding the Savior. "You have descended into the abyss of the earth, O Christ," the Church sings at Pascha, "and have broken down the eternal doors which imprison those who are bound, and like Jonah after three days in the whale, You have risen from the tomb."

 

The gates that seemed capable of imprisoning the dead throughout eternity are, through Christ's death on the cross, reduced to ruins. All others who have died have come to the land of death as captives, but Christ — in a white or golden robe and surrounded by a mandorla, a symbol of glory and radiant truth — comes as conqueror and rescuer. (In some versions of the icon, there is a scroll in his left hand. When the inscription is shown, it reads, "The record of Adam is torn up, the power of darkness is shattered.") Beneath the gates of hell, Satan is seen falling into his kingdom of night and disconnection.

 

The principal figures to the left and right of Christ being raised from their tombs are the parents of the human race, Adam and Eve, while behind them are gathered kings, prophets and the righteous of Israel, among them David and Solomon, Moses, Daniel, Zechariah and John the Baptist.

 

Second only to Christ in the icon are Adam and Eve, our mysterious original ancestors — so much like us! We live in a culture in which we're encouraged to find others to blame (and maybe sue) for our troubles — parents, teachers, neighbors, pastors, doctors, spouses, Hollywood, the mass media, big business, the government. But self-justification by finger pointing is nothing new — Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the snake.

 

While not forgetting that there is truly much wrong with the structures we live in and thus much that we need to resist and reform in this world, a very different way of looking at things is to focus, first of all, on our own failings.

 

One of the tougher prayers in the Orthodox Church is the prayer we recite before receiving Communion. It begins, "I believe, O Lord, that you are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first."

 

Perhaps no historian will be tempted to list me among the all-time great sinners, but such a prayer challenges me to stop making myself look relatively good by comparing myself to people who impress me as being much worse — a nice method for finding myself not guilty by reason of comparative innocence.

 

If the failure of Adam and Eve in Paradise represents the primary catastrophe in human history, the event at the roots of time from which all alienation, division and cruelty has its source, surely this image of divine mercy toward them must be a source of consolation to everyone living in hope of God's mercy. "Delivered from her chains," comments an ancient Paschal hymn, "Eve cries out in her joy" — and so may we.

 

It is only after his conquest of hell that Christ returns to his despairing disciples. "When He had freed those who were bound from the beginning of time," wrote Saint John of Damascus, "Christ returned from among the dead, having opened for us the way of resurrection."

 

The icon of Christ's Descent into Hell can be linked with our prayer not to live a fear-driven life. We live in what is often a terrifying world. Being fearful seems to be a reasonable state to be in — fear of violent crime, fear of terrorists, fear of job loss, fear of failure, fear of illness, fear for the well-being of people we love, fear of collapse of our pollution-burdened environment, fear of war, and finally fear of death. A great deal of what we see and hear seems to have no other function than to push us deeper into a state of dread. There were many elderly people who died in a heat wave in Chicago one summer simply because they didn't dare leave their apartments in order to get to the air-conditioned shelters the city had provided. Anxious about being mugged, they died of fear.

 

We can easily get ourselves into a paralyzing state of fear that is truly hellish. The icon reminds us that Christ can enter not just some other hell but the particular hell we happen to be in, grab us by the hands, and lift us out of our tombs.

 

– Jim Forest

extract from “Praying with Icons,” revised edition (Orbis Books, 2008)

Givens Estates retirement community in Asheville, North Carolina - © 2021 David Oppenheimer - Performance Impressions aerial photography archives - www.performanceimpressions.com

Dedicated in 1910 as Our Lady's Church, then renamed Holy Rosary and given current name in 1936. Services are in Italian. First Italian church in Canada. Stopped being a church in 2010.

 

"Sault Ste. Marie (/ˈsuː seɪnt məˈriː/ SOO-seint-ma-REE) is a city on the St. Marys River in Ontario, Canada, close to the Canada–US border. It is the seat of the Algoma District and the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay.

 

The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants of the area, call this area Baawitigong, meaning "place of the rapids." They used this as a regional meeting place during whitefish season in the St. Mary's Rapids. (The anglicized form of this name, Bawating, is used in institutional and geographic names in the area.)

 

To the south, across the river, is the United States and the Michigan city of the same name. These two communities were one city until a new treaty after the War of 1812 established the border between Canada and the United States in this area at the St. Mary's River. In the 21st century, the two cities are joined by the International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side, and Huron Street (and former Ontario Secondary Highway 550B) on the Ontario side. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the Saint Mary's Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal.

 

French colonists referred to the rapids on the river as Les Saults de Ste. Marie and the village name was derived from that. The rapids and cascades of the St. Mary's River descend more than 6 m (20 ft) from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes. Hundreds of years ago, this slowed shipping traffic, requiring an overland portage of boats and cargo from one lake to the other. The entire name translates to "Saint Mary's Rapids" or "Saint Mary's Falls". The word sault is pronounced [so] in French, and /suː/ in the English pronunciation of the city name. Residents of the city are called Saultites.

 

Sault Ste. Marie is bordered to the east by the Rankin and Garden River First Nation reserves, and to the west by Prince Township. To the north, the city is bordered by an unincorporated portion of Algoma District, which includes the local services boards of Aweres, Batchawana Bay, Goulais and District, Peace Tree and Searchmont. The city's census agglomeration, including the townships of Laird, Prince and Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional and the First Nations reserves of Garden River and Rankin, had a total population of 79,800 in 2011.

 

Native American settlements, mostly of Ojibwe-speaking peoples, existed here for more than 500 years. In the late 17th century, French Jesuit missionaries established a mission at the First Nations village. This was followed by development of a fur trading post and larger settlement, as traders, trappers and Native Americans were attracted to the community. It was considered one community and part of Canada until after the War of 1812 and settlement of the border between Canada and the US at the Ste. Mary's River. At that time, the US prohibited British traders from any longer operating in its territory, and the areas separated by the river began to develop as two communities, both named Sault Ste. Marie." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

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Magnificent Tempest - It had been a hot, stormy day in Melbourne which had given way to a very windy and completely cloudy evening. I happened to look out of my window and see a small break appearing in the cloud so headed out with my gear as some of the best light is usually at the end of such days. The hunch about the light paid off by the time I reached the location and I wanted to try and capture a scene that showed the huge expanse of emptiness both in the sky and on the land here in Australia, but the wind was making it almost impossible to get the camera stable on the tripod. Luckily just after another strong gust of wind I managed to fire off a couple of shots, one of which provided an image that was exactly what I was seeking.

Given our current choices, if he was running I might actually vote for him.

 

Cosplayer: Loki Hates You

 

UPDATE: The Presidential Candidate named Loki was featured in Uproxx's Chris Evans And Sebastian Stan Guest Star In The Cosplay Of The Week (06.10.16). Holy... wow. Just, wow. Even the cosplayer has shared this pic on his FB page.

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Four metres at 14:00pm on Friday 17th February 2024, off the Mall and Horse Guards Road within the grounds of St James's Park in Central London, one of the Royal parks of London situated in South West London.

  

Here we see a Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) drying it's wings on the lake. These large birds can weigh 2.8kg and have a wingspan up to 160cms. Conservation status is green in the UK with 9,018 pairs recorded in 2023.

 

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Nikon D850 Focal length 600mm Shutter speed: 1/400s (Mechanical shutter) Aperture f/6.3 ISO: Auto ISO2000 Hand held with Tamron VR Vibration reduction enabled on setting 1. Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (8256 x 5504). (14 bit uncompressed file) Focus mode AF-C focus. AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled AF-Area mode: 3D-Tracking Exposure mode: Manual mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Natural light Auto, 0, 0 Colour space: RGB. Picture control: Neutral (NL) (Sharpening +2.00)

  

Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 30m 13.20s

LONGITUDE: W 0d 7m 46.50s

ALTITUDE: 7.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 57.2MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 49.00MB

     

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

I think in Simon's list of 50 best Suffolk churches, Woolpit comes in at number 31. It is now that I remember that I cannot remember why I should go to Woolpit on what would be the last of the EA church visits this year, as Mum was home and in the care of the district nurse, and there was nothing else we could do, not in actions, money or time given. She really has to stand on her own two feet now.

 

Anyway; Woolpit.

 

I decided to go, and after looking on the map I saw that with some create route planning, I could go down the 143, then double back and join the A14 eastwards before turning south down our old friend, the A12.

 

On the way I did also visit Stowlangtoft, which was a wonderful church, a church filled with wonderful things that seemed to hang together as a whole. Woolpit would have to be something special to trup St George.

 

And it nearly did. Nearly. Woolpit is a picture perfect village, all timber framed buildings, narrow lanes and impossible to park in. I drove through it finding a kind of space just past the church. I could see from the tower and building it was a church on which the Victorians had been very busy.

 

Most glorious is Mary's roof; double hammerbeam adorned with 208 angels one of the wardens told me. It had been counted several times during a dull sermon. Or two.

 

The wardens were building the crib for Christmas, so were using a pallet as a base, or something like that. I didn't see it finished, but Ken Bruce was booming out from a radio, preaching the Gospel According to Popmaster to all who would listen.

 

The angels in the roof and on the walls of the church are indeed impressive, as is the rood screen, but not sure if they are original. There are carved pew ends aplenty, but to my eye, not as well carved or as old as at Stowlangtoft. I could be wrong. But I snap a few anyway.

 

But I received a warm welcome here, and it is a fantastic church for me.

 

-----------------------------------------

 

2008: Woolpit is a village which I often visit, and it is always a pleasure to go into the church. But the entry for St Mary was one of the last on the original Suffolk Churches site, making its appearance in late 2001. In fact, I think it was the last of the old-style entries. I was getting a bit wordy by then.

Woolpit was one of the longest entries, and this wasn't just because there is so much to see. I went off at a great tangent about the meaning of medieval iconography, and how it survived the Reformation. It certainly got some thoughts clear in my own head, even if it confused other people. I actually wrote the entry in the back of an old exercise book sitting outside a café on the Cote d'Azur in southern France. Reading that back, it seems a little pretentious, but I really was there. Here in Ipswich on a frosty February evening, I can't help remembering the heat as I scrawled in the pad.

 

I've left the original entry almost entirely as it was, apart from the removal of one absolute howler, which I won't mention. I am not sure if Woolpit still has a Sunday market, and I am sure that someone will tell me if it has not. Paul Hocking is no longer Rector of Woolpit, but to my eyes the church continues to go from strength to strength, feeling at once busy and at the heart of its community, the still centre of a busy village. I like it very much.

 

2001: The clear blue waters of the Mediterranean swirl around my legs, then past me, buffeting the rocks along the silver beach. Millions of tiny flecks of mica swarm through the current, washed out of the hills of Southern Provence. They shine for a fraction of a second with all the light the high summer sun can give, a universe caught in a moment; then turn, disappearing, making of the water a shimmering skein, an ancient memory.

 

The sea is at the start of all European civilisation. Here, history wells about me. I think of Europe, and the fragmentation of nations. I think of the Balkans, and the Reformation, and the same water surrounding, tending, isolating. I think of time passing.

 

A week before, I'd been standing in the cool nave of the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, Woolpit - or at least, that is what it probably was once, back then. Today, it is dedicated simply as 'St Mary', in common with the majority of Suffolk's medieval churches, among which it is one of the finest, some say. This is mostly by virtue of its beautiful porch, and extraordinary angel roof.

 

But is that true? For there are those who love this church that, perhaps, never look up at the porch or roof. Is it the plethora of 15th century bench ends that captures the imagination? Or could it be Richard Phipson's outrageous 1850s tower and lacy spire, straight out of the Nene Valley, its evangelistic slogans around the side in a Victorian equivalent of Piccadilly Circus neon? It ought not to work, and yet it does. Or is it that supremely articulate view to the east, perfect of proportion despite the stripping away of its medieval liturgical apparatus? Above all else, and above most others, this is a church with presence.

 

It was the bench ends that I was thinking of as I immersed myself out of the intensity of the Provencal sun. A number of questions occured to me, as they have done on other occasions, in other churches. Who made them? What did they mean by them? And how did they survive the iconoclasms of the Protestant Reformation? Here in Southern Europe, I thought I might have found some answers.

 

Woolpit, then. It is perhaps the most perfect of all Suffolk villages. Not sleepy, and chocolate boxy, but to actually live in. Its shops and pubs are arranged around the pleasant village square, and Phipson's crazy spire towers above them. Woolpit still has its school, and you wouldn't need to get in the car every time you needed a loaf of bread, as you'd have to do in some of Suffolk's more famously picturesque villages, like Kersey and Tuddenham. And Woolpit has its Sunday market, beloved of hundreds of non-sabbatarian junk-hunters each week.

 

Further, Woolpit has its mythology; the two green children, who climbed out of the ground, speaking a strange language and afraid of the sunlight. The boy died soon after, but the girl grew up and married; she learned to speak English, and told of St Martin's Land, from where she and her brother had emerged. There are holes in the ground around Woolpit, quarries where bricks were made in the 19th century. But perhaps there was once something much older, for every Suffolk schoolchild knows that the name 'Woolpit' is nothing to do with wool, but with the wolves that once lived in the pits here...

 

So, it is a well-known village. It is because of this as much as anything about St Mary itself that makes this church so well-known to people who haven't heard of the even more interesting and beautiful church of St Ethelbert, Hessett, barely three miles away.

 

Your first sight of St Mary will be Phipson's crazy spire, visible from miles away, and quite unlike anything else in East Anglia. Suffolk is a county where spires are rare enough, anyway. From the far side of the Gipping valley you can see this one and two others, piercing the soft harvest mist in autumn. They are Phipson's equally absurd Great Finborough, and the 1990s blade of St Peter and St Mary, Stowmarket. There are only about a dozen more in the whole of the county. The excuse for this one was that the tower was struck by lightning in 1852, bringing down the previous lead and timber affair (presumably like the one at Hadleigh). The font is contemporary with the tower, suggesting that the old one was destroyed by the fall.

 

In the 1950s and 1960s, the artist John Piper produced a series of screen prints of aspects of Suffolk churches; for most, he used the fine perpendicular tower, ramifying it in bold Festival of Britain primary colours. But for Woolpit, he chose the porch, because it is Suffolk's finest. Cautley thought it the best in all England. It is two-storey, 15th century, contemporary with the nave. Mortlock tells us that they were both built by wealthy Bury Abbey, who owned the living here. As at Beccles, it rises way above the south aisle, tower-like in itself.

 

A rood group of niches surmounts the shields of East Anglia above the door. More flank them. Mortlock says that the work began in the early 1430s, and the niches were filled by a bequest of 1473, suggesting that the porch was forty years in the making. The south aisle and chancel are slightly earlier, the north aisle slightly later, so it is the nave that promises us great things, and doesn't disappoint.

 

You step into cool darkness, and look up. It is breathtaking. This is Suffolk's most perfectly restored angel hammerbeam roof. It may not have the drama of Mildenhall, the exquisiteness of Blythburgh, the sheer mathematics of Needham Market, but it shows us in detail more than any other what the medieval imagination was aiming at. From the still, small silence of the church floor below, you look up into a great shout of praise. Here are hundreds of figures, both angelic and human. The profusion is ordered, as if some mighty hymn were in progress.

 

Paul Hocking thinks that it is a representation of the Te Deum Laudamus: We praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord... To thee all Angels cry aloud, the Heavens, and all the Powers therein. To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth... The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee, the noble army of Martyrs praise thee...

 

I know this, because he told me so. I was busy photographing bench ends when this very enthusiastic American bounced in with another visitor, and gave him a whistlestop tour of the church, describing the details with great knowledge and understanding. Solicitously, he talked to me afterwards about what I was doing, and asked me if I'd met the Rector of Woolpit yet. I said that I went out of my way to avoid Rectors wherever possible. He laughed, and replied that, on this occasion, I'd failed, because he was, in fact, the Rector.

 

After I'd coughed miserably, and he'd laughed again, we had a long chat, uncovering a few mutual aquaintances. He described the roof, which he has obviously spent a lot of time exploring. He pointed out the way the wall posts contained Saints, some with apostolic symbols, some with books, and some with martyr's palms. There are angels on the hammerbeams above, and bearing symbols below. John Blatchly counted 128 angels alone. Some of the shields have letters on them. Are they an acrostic, as on the east chancel wall at Blythburgh? Do they indicate individual Saints? The great Henry Ringham completely restored this roof in 1862, but Mortlock thinks that one of the angels is not his, and I agree - you'll find it in the south west corner. Paul Hocking argues that the restoration was nowhere near as complete as has been made out, and that many features are original.

 

Henry Ringham also restored the range of bench ends, by duplicating some of the medieval ones, as he did at Great Bealings and Tuddenham St Martin. All are rendered with his customary skill. If Ringham did restore this roof, then the imagery must have been destroyed at some point. One instinctively thinks of William Dowsing, the Puritan inspector of the churches of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, who progressed across the counties during the course of 1644. His delight in the destruction of angel roofs was matched only by that at the destruction of stained glass.

 

And Dowsing did visit this church. He arrived here in the afternoon of February 29th 1644. It was a Thursday, and he had come here across country from Helmingham, where he had found much to do. He also planned to visit Beyton that day, but in the end stayed overnight at the Bull hotel, and inspected All Saints there in the morning. He then rested for the weekend - the following week, he had a busy tour of southern Cambridgeshire ahead of him.

 

Dowsing records in great detail what he found to do at each church. In the case of Woolpit, the angel roof is the Dog That Didn't Bark: My Deputy. 80 superstitious pictures; some he brake down, and the rest he gave order to take down; and three crosses to be taken down in 20 days. 8s 6d. There are only two possible reasons why Dowsing doesn't mention the roof. Either he didn't notice it (extremely unlikely) or it had already been destroyed. This second option seems certain; mid-Suffolk was a strongly protestant area, and nearby Rougham, which clearly had a similar roof, was not visited by Dowsing, but was vandalised even more comprehensively than Woolpit. Most likely, the destruction at both churches dated from a hundred years earlier, although it is possible that the Rougham and Woolpit congregations had been puritan enough in the 1630s to do it to their own churches themselves.

 

Beneath the roof, the church is broad, its two aisles giving room for the panoply of medieval liturgical processions. At the east end of the south aisle was once the shrine of Our Lady of Woolpit, a site of medieval pilgrimage in connection with a nearby holy well. Apart from the front rows, many of the benches appear to be in their original positions. Some of the bench ends are 15th century, others are Ringham's 19th century copies. I wandered around the medieval bench ends, running my hands over them, crouching down and engaging them, face to face. For anyone educated in a Marxist or Weberian historical tradition, as most of my generation were, interpreting the less-obviously liturgical or theological features of a medieval church is fraught with difficulties. One possibility is to do a Cautley, and try not to interpret them at all. But it is more fun to try to do so, don't you think?

 

The bench ends of Woolpit are remarkable for their abundance. They are not representations of sacraments, virtues and vices as at Tannington and elsewhere, or Saints as at Ufford and Athelington. They are almost all non-allegorical animals, although not the art objects we find at Stowlangtoft, or the mysterious beasts of Lakenheath. Perhaps a good comparison is the similar body of work at nearby Combs. Indeed, although they do not appear to be from the same workshop, it is likely that their creators knew of each others' work. There are dogs, with geese hanging from their mouths, and another which may be a cat with a rat or lizard. There are lions and bears, and a chained monkey, and birds in profusion. So who did them, and why are they here?

 

There is one school of thought that says that they are simply there to beautify the church, and that they were made by local craftsmen doing what they were best at. If they could do lions, they did lions. If they could render a decent rabbit, then that is what they did. And so on.

 

But I think that there is rather more to it than that. On my journey down through France, I had spent an afternoon in one of my favourite towns, Autun, in Burgundy. One of the reasons I like Autun is its 11th century Cathedral of St-Lazaire; this is Lazurus, raised by Christ from the dead, and until the 18th century his relics were venerated at a shrine here. St-Lazaire is most famous for its great tympanum above the west door, generally recognised as one of the greatest Romanesque art treasures in the world, and with International Heritage status. It was created during the middle years of the 12th century, and shows the Last Judgement. To emphasise Christ's majesty over all the world, it features all manner of beasts, domestic, wild and mythical.

 

Throughout the Cathedral, animals infest the famous capitals, which tell the Gospel story. Abbe Denis Grivot, in his Un Bestiaire de la Cathedrale D'Autun (Lyon, 1973) argues that the 12th century creators of all this filled it with animals to echo the final verse of the 150th Psalm, the crowning point of that great sequence of hymns of praise: Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord!

 

Standing in the nave at Autun, I instantly recalled Paul Hocking's words about the roof at Woolpit, when he said he thought it was a representation of the Te Deum Laudamus. The Te Deum is one of the canticles; another is the Benedicite, traditionally sung through Lent: Oh all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; praise him and magnify him for ever... O ye whales, and all that move in the Waters, bless ye the Lord... O all ye Fowls of the air, bless ye the Lord... O all ye beasts and Cattle, bless ye the Lord: praise him, and magnify him for ever!

 

Could it be that the bench ends at Woolpit, and elsewhere in Suffolk, were intended to reflect and represent the praise defined in the canticles and psalms? Both would have been central to the liturgy of the medieval Catholic church. Perhaps the bench ends of Woolpit are liturgical and theological after all.

 

How would a carpenter, or group of carpenters, go about creating a set of benches like the ones at Woolpit? Who were they? Almost certainly, they were locals. They might have been itinerant jobbing carpenters, but I don't think so. The bench ends at adjacent Tostock are clearly by the same hand. But those at nearby Stowlangtoft and Norton are not, and a third hand seems to be responsible for those at Combs, as I previously mentioned. I do not think that the mutilated ones at Rougham and Elmswell are either; they were probably from the same workshop as each other.

 

So, we have a conscious attempt by skilled members of a community to create a hymn of praise in carved oak, by representing as many beasts as they felt capable of making. Where did they get their ideas from? They would have had no problems with oxen, cocks, conies - these were all around them, in their daily lives. The person who carved the hunting dog here was very familiar with it. Perhaps it was his own. What about monkeys and lions? These are more problematic. In medieval bestiaries, exotic creatures had fabulous legends attached to them, which gave them a theological symbolism.

 

But this symbolism doesn't usually seem intended when we see them on bench ends. Sometimes they are rendered accurately, but more often wild animals are fairly imaginary; I think particularly of Barningham's camel, and Hadleigh's wolf. It isn't enough to say that the carvers could have seen pictures of exotic beasts. This is fairly unlikely. Probably, the ordinary people of Woolpit never saw a book other than the missals, lectionaries and hagiographies used in church.

 

They might have seen pictures of lions and monkeys in wall paintings, either in other churches or here at Woolpit. They might have seen them carved in bench ends, for the same reason. In fact, the representation of wild animals varies so much as to suggest that this is not the case - compare, for example, the lions of Combs with those of Stowlangtoft. Probably, they were created in the imagination from descriptions and attributes in stories. But I think that there is a strong possibility that the woodcarvers of Woolpit did see lions and monkeys in real life.

 

Here in Catholic Southern Europe, there are many remote small towns which, by virtue of being so very far from each other, take on a rich and complex life of their own. Even small villages have their shops, their craftsmen, their tradespeople; they replicate a situation that existed in Suffolk until well into the 19th century, and in some cases beyond, before the great industrialisation and easy transport swept it away. Further, there are traditions here still that we have lost. Whenever I come here, I am fascinated by the itinerant entertainers, who move from village to village, giving a single performance befre moving on. This must also once have been true of England. The thing that fascinates me most is the multitude of small family circuses.

 

Many of them seem to be of Italian or Romany origin; all family members have multiple roles, from the oldest grandparent to the youngest child, selling tickets, doing acrobatics, being the straight men to the clown (who is typically Grandpa). They all put up the tent before the performance, and take it down afterwards. They move on, through the remote hills of Provence and the Languedoc, performing on village greens, wastegrounds, the corners of fields, even traffic islands.

 

As I say, I am fascinated, and can rarely resist them, even though I am shocked, even appalled, by the easy cruelty to animals. Performing animals are still often chosen for their curiosity value, if you can call running around in a circle to the crack of a whip 'performing', poor things.

 

The choices are strange indeed; camels and zebras often feature; I have seen an old bear on a chain, and at one circus in remote Languedoc a hippopotamus of all things - it caught bread thrown by the crowd. There was no safety fence between the seats and the ring, no Health and Safety Executive to penetrate these lost valleys. I do not know if such circuses existed in medieval Suffolk. But I think that they probably did. Suffolk is a maritime county, and exotic animals were widely known and exhibited in medieval Europe. Before the Protestant Reformation cut us of from the mainland, clerics and merchants thought of themselves as European, and travelled widely - English sovereignty was a hazy concept at best, and 'Britishness' was still centuries away from being formulated as an idea. People owed allegiance to their village, their parish, and their lord, not to the Crown and Parliament in London.

 

Were the woodcarvers of Woolpit and Tostock remembering this? A circus visit, perhaps back in their childhood? Exotic animals rendered inaccurately, to be sure, but with an enthusiastic nostalgia for that exciting moment in their lives? Was there a lion? A monkey, or a bear? How much more powerful if they also knew the fabulous legends about the beasts - and had seen them in real life!

 

Some of the carvings at Woolpit are allegorical. One shows a monkey dressed in monk's robes. This, I think, is a joke at the expense of the itinerant friars who went from parish to parish, preaching repentance in the streets. They were sanctioned by the Pope, but were beyond the jurisdiction of the local Bishop. They didn't always go down well with the local Priest and congregation, who considered the Friars nosey and hypocritical. A monkey is often a symbol of foolish vanity - hence, a Friar thinking he was better than anyone else. What better way to make the point than to slip him in as one of the creatures praising the Lord?

 

How did they survive? But why should they have been destroyed? We make the mistake of thinking of the Puritans as vandals. But the more you read about William Dowsing, the more he emerges as being a principled, conservative kind of chap, despite his clearly flawed and fundamentalist theological opinions. He had no reason to destroy animal bench ends. They weren't superstitious - even Dowsing didn't think Catholics worshipped animals. If he didn't think they were meant to represent the canticles, he wouldn't even have considered them religious. Amen to that.

 

So much for the 17th century. What about the 19th? St Mary is one of the most enthusiastically restored of Suffolk's churches, despite its survivng medieval detail. But it was done well. Mortlock thought that the 19th century pulpit was the work of Ringham - but the brass lectern is pre-Reformation, a fine example. The rood screen dado panels have sentimental 19th century Saints on them, that may or may not duplicate what was there before. They are actually very good, particularly the gorgeous Mary of Magdala. They have their names painted on the cross beams for the less hagiologically articulate Victorians - from left to right across the aisle they are Saints Barbara, Felix, Mary of Magdala, Peter, Paul, Mary, Edmund and Etheldreda. It is unlikely that Saint Felix would have been on a medieval roodscreen, and Mary almost certainly wasn't - it would have relegated her to a position of no more importance than the others. If it reflects anything of what was there before, it was probably St Anne with the infant Virgin.

 

The top part of the screen was renewed in 1750, and dated so. The gates are probably a Laudian imposition of 120 years earlier, as at Kedington. This may suggest that, by the time of Dowsing's visit, the chancel was being used for some other practical purpose. Above, high above, set in the east nave wall over the chancel arch, is one of the wierdest objects I've seen in a medieval church. It was installed in the 1870s, and is clearly meant to echo the coving of a rood loft. Goodness knows what it actually is, but it is painted in garish colours, and inscribed with texts. In one of those moments where Cautley and credibility part company, he describes anyone who doesn't think it is a genuine medieval canopy of honour as 'stupid'. I suppose that it has a certain curiosity value.

 

The three-light window above it would have given light to the rood. The east window contains one of Suffolk's best modern Madonna and child images which was made by the artist Ian Keen for the King workshop in the early 1960s. Ian Keen was also responsible for the beautiful St Margaret in St Margaret's church in Norwich, and for the memorable window of St Francis with a labrador at Somerleyton near Lowestoft.

 

I turned back westwards, past a superb medieval bench end of the three Marys. This is a delight, and you'd travel to London to see it if it was in the V&A. Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary the mother of James and Mary of Magdala huddle together, perhaps on the morning of the Resurrection. One of them has a lily of the Annunciation. One head is destroyed - but was it vandalised? Or is it the result of carelessness, the wear and tear of the centuries? Would 17th century puritans have destroyed it if they'd seen it?

 

Dowsing rarely mentions bench ends, so perhaps few were left by then anyway. So how could it possibly have survived the violent zeal of the 16th century Protestants, battering the Church of England into existence with their axes, pikes and bonfires? How, even after the 1540 edict of Edward VI which ordered the destruction of all statues and images of Saints, especially those of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is it still there at all?

Still more questions than answers, I suppose. I dived beneath the water, and there was beneath me a restless current, shifting and reshifting the silver sand into unique patterns, the work of millennia, still changing, never the same.

 

- le Rayol Canadel, Cote d'Azur, August 2001.

 

www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/woolpit.htm

A portrait of model retro Rob, taken on a small pier that juts out into the Thames, and given the black and white treatment.

One is born from a woman, ends up in Earth.

 

Hinduism accords the respect these deserve.

 

A woman is called Gruha Lakshmi, one who brings Prosperity to Home.

 

Tamil calls her Illal, one who owns/rules the Home.

 

Similarly Earth is given the respect it deserves for it supports from Birth to Death.

 

Earth is eulogized as Mother and there are Vedic Sukthas in praise of the Earth, Bho Suktham.

 

There is Neela Suktham, Neela is considered to be the consort of Lord Vishnu.

 

Such being the case, there is no wonder in Hinduism calling the Sanctum Sanctorum of a Temple as Garbha Gruha, Gharbha meaning The Womb and Gruha, the Home.

 

Tamil calls The Gharbhagriha as Karuvarai, meaning ‘where the Foetus stays’

 

One’s first Home is the womb.

A Hindu temple consists of an inner sanctum, thegarbha griha or womb-chamber, where the primary idol or deity is housed along with Purusa. The garbhagriha is crowned by a tower-like Shikhara, also called the Vimana. The architecture includes an ambulatory for parikrama(circumambulation), a congregation hall, and sometimes an antechamber and porch.

 

The Hindu temple architecture reflects a synthesis of arts, the ideals of dharma, beliefs, values and the way of life cherished under Hinduism. It is a link between man, deities, and the Universal Purusa in a sacred space.

 

In ancient Indian texts, a temple is a place for Tirtha – pilgrimage.It is a sacred site whose ambience and design attempts to symbolically condense the ideal tenets of Hindu way of life. All the cosmic elements that create and celebrate life in Hindu pantheon, are present in a Hindu temple – from fire to water, from images of nature to deities, from the feminine to the masculine, from kama to artha, from the fleeting sounds and incense smells to Purusha – the eternal nothingness yet universality – is part of a Hindu temple architecture.

Garbhagriha or Garbha gruha (garbha gṛha) (Sanskrit: गर्भगॄह) is the sanctum sanctorum, the innermost sanctum of a Hindu templewhere resides the murti (idol or icon) of the primary deity of the temple. Literally the word means “womb chamber”, from the Sanskritwords garbha for womb and griha for house. Only ‘priests’ (pujari) are allowed to enter this chamber.

 

Although the term is often associated with Hindu temples, it is also found in Jain and Buddhist temples…

 

In temples with a spire or vimana, this chamber is placed directly underneath it, and the two of them form the main vertical axis of the temple. These together may be understood to represent the axis of the world through Mount Meru. The garbha griham is usually also on the main horizontal axis of the temple which generally is an east-west axis. In those temples where there is also a cross-axis, the garbha gṛha is generally at their intersection.

 

Generally the garbhagriha is a windowless and sparsely lit chamber, intentionally created thus to focus the devotee’s mind on the tangible form of the divine within it. Entrance to the garbha grha may be restricted to priests who perform the services there…

 

In the Dravida style, the garbhagriha took the form of a miniature vimana with other features exclusive to southern Indian temple architecture such as the inner wall together with the outer wall creating a pradakshina around the garbhagriha. The entrance is highly decorated. The inner garbhagriha or shrine became a separate structure, more elaborately adorned over time.

 

More often garbhagriha is square and sits on a plinth, its location calculated to be a point of total equilibrium and harmony as it is representative of a microcosm of the Universe. In the centre is placed the image of the deity.

 

But sometimes, for the temples of feminine deities, the garbagriha is rectangular. For example in the temple of Varahi Deula in Chaurasi.

 

The present structure of most of these temples is a two-storeyed vimana with a square garbhagriha and a surrounding circumambulatory path, an ardha-mandapa and a narrower maha-mandapa.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbhagriha

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_temple_architecture

 

Natarja , Chidambaram Plan Image Credit. natarjatemplechidambaram.blogspot.in/

 

A return visit to St Mary.

 

I was last here about 6 years ago, parking in the little square one warm September afternoon.

 

Much colder in March, but plenty of parking spaces, and St Mary was surprisingly open.

 

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The church stands in the village square removed from the main road. The flint rubble construction and severe restoration of the exterior does not look welcoming, but the interior is most appealing with plenty of light flooding through the clerestory windows. The rectangular piers of both north and south arcades with their pointed arches and boldly carved stops are of late twelfth-century date. Between them hang some eighteenth-century text boards. The character of the church is given in the main by late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century work. The high altar has four charmingly painted panels by John Ripley Wilmer in Pre-Raphaelite style, executed in 1907. At the opposite end of the church are the organ loft, font cover and baptistry, all designed by F.C. Eden, who restored the church in the early 1900s. He also designed the west window of the south aisle as part of a larger scheme which was not completed. In the south chancel wall are two windows of great curiosity. One contains a fifteenth-century figure of St Thomas Becket while the other shows figures of David and Saul. This dates from the nineteenth century and was painted by Frank Wodehouse who was the then vicar's brother. The face of David was based on that of Mme Carlotta Patti, the opera singer, while Gladstone and Disraeli can be identified hovering in the background! It is a shame that it has deteriorated badly.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Elham

 

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ELEHAM,

OR, as it is as frequently written, Elham, lies the next parish south-eastward from Stelling. It was written in the time of the Saxons both Uleham and Æiham, in Domesday, Albam. Philipott says, it was antiently written Helham, denoting the situation of it to be a valley among the hills, whilst others suppose, but with little probability, that it took its name from the quantity of eels which the Nailbourn throws out when it begins to run. There are Seven boroughsin it, of Bladbean, Boyke, Canterwood, Lyminge, Eleham, Town, Sibton, and Hurst.

 

Eleham is said to be the largest parish in the eastern parts of this county, extending itself in length from north to south, through the Nailbourn valley, about three miles and an half; and in breadth five miles and a half, that is, from part of Stelling-minnis, within the bounds of it, across the valley to Eleham down and Winteridge, and the southern part of Swinfield-minnis, almost up to Hairn-forstal, in Uphill Folkestone. The village, or town of Eleham, as it is usually called, is situated in the above-mentioned valley, rather on a rise, on the side of the stream. It is both healthy and pleasant, the houses in it being mostly modern and wellbuilt, of brick and fashed. As an instance of the healthiness of this parish, there have been within these few years several inhabitants of it buried here, of the ages of 95, 97, and 99, and one of 105; the age of 40 years being esteemed that of a young person, in this parish. The church, with the vicarage on the side of the church-yard, is situated on the eastern side of it, and the court lodge at a small distance from it. This is now no more than a small mean cottage, thatched, of, I believe, only two rooms on a floor, and unsit for habitation. It appears to be the remains of a much larger edifice, and is built of quarry-stone, with small arched gothic windows and doors, the frames of which are of ashlar stone, and seemingly very antient indeed. It is still accounted a market-town, the market having been obtained to it by prince Edward, afterwards king Edward I. in his father's life-time, anno 35 Henry III. to be held on a Monday weekly, which, though disused for a regular constancy, is held in the market-house here once in five or six years, to keep up the claim to the right of it; besides which there are three markets regularly held, for the buying and selling of cattle, in every year, on Palm, Easter, and Whit Mondays, and one fair on Oct. 20th, by the alteration of the stile, being formerly held on the day of St. Dionis, Oct. 9, for toys and pedlary. The Nailbourn, as has been already mentioned before, in the description of Liminage, runs along this valley northward, entering this parish southward, by the hamlet of Ottinge, and running thence by the town of Eleham, and at half a mile's distance, by the hamlet of North Eleham, where there are several deep ponds, in which are from time to time quantities of eels, and so on to Brompton's Pot and Wingmere, at the northern extremity of this parish. The soil in the valley is mostly an unfertile red earth, mixed with many flints; but the hills on each side of it, which are very frequent and steep, extend to a wild romantic country, with frequent woods and uninclosed downs, where the soil consists mostly of chalk, excepting towards Stelling and Swinfield minnis's, where it partakes of a like quality to that of the valley, tance,by the hamlet of North Eleham, where there only still more poor and barren. At the north-west corner of the parish, on the hill, is Eleham park, being a large wood, belonging to the lord of Eleham manor.

 

Dr. Plot says, he was informed, that there was the custom of borough English prevailing over some copyhold lands in this parish, the general usage of which is, that the youngest son should inherit all the lands and tenements which his father had within the borough, &c. but I cannot find any here subject to it. On the contrary, the custom here is, to give the whole estate to the eldest son, who pays to the younger ones their proportions of it, as valued by the homage of the manor, in money.

 

At the time of taking the survey of Domesday, anno 1080, this place was part of the possessions of the bishop of Baieux, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in it:

 

In Honinberg hundred, the bishop of Baieux holds in demesne Alham. It was taxed at six sulins. The arable land is twenty-four carucates. In demesne there are five carucates and forty-one villeins, with eight borderers having eighteen carucates. There is a church, and eight servants, and two mills of six shillings, and twenty eight acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of one hundred hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, and afterwards, it was worth thirty pounds, now forty, and yet it yields fifty pounds. Ederic held this manor of king Edward.

 

Four years after the bishop was disgraced, and all his possessions were consiscated to the crown, whence this manor seems to have been granted to William de Albineto, or Albini, surnamed Pincerna, who had followed the Conqueror from Normandy in his expedition hither. He was succeeded by his son, of the same name, who was made Earl of Arundel anno 15 king Stephen, and Alida his daughter carried it in marriage to John, earl of Ewe, in Normandy, whose eldest son Henry, earl of Ewe, was slain at the siege of Ptolemais in 1217, leaving Alice his sole daughter and heir, who entitled her husband Ralph D'Issondon to the possession of this manor, as well as to the title of earl of Ewe. She died in the reign of king Henry III. possessed of this manor, with the advowson of the church, and sealed with Barry, a label of six points, as appears by a deed in the Surrenden library; after which it appears to have come into the possession of prince Edward, the king's eldest son, who in the 35th year of it obtained the grant of a market on a Monday, and a fair, at this manor, (fn. 1) and afterwards, in the 41st year of that reign, alienated it to archbishop Boniface, who, left he should still further inflame that enmity which this nation had conceived against him, among other foreigners and aliens, by thus increasing his possessions in it, passed this manor away to Roger de Leyborne, who died possessed of it in the 56th year of that reign, at which time it appears that there was a park here; (fn. 2) and in his name it continued till Juliana de Leyborne, daughter of Thomas, became the sole heir of their possessions, from the greatness of which she was usually called the Infanta of Kent. She was thrice married, yet she had no issue by either of her husbands, all of whom she survived, and died in the 41st year of king Edward III. upon which this manor, among the rest of her estates, escheated to the crown, there being no one who could make claim to them, by direct or even by collateral alliance. (fn. 3) Afterwards it continued in the crown till king Richard II. vested it in feoffees in trust, towards the endowment of St. Stephen's chapel, in his palace of Westminster, which he had in his 22d year, completed and made collegiate, and had the year before granted to the dean and canons this manor, among others, in mortmain. (fn. 4) All which was confirmed by king Henry IV. and VI. and by king Edward IV. in their first years; the latter of whom, in his 9th year, granted to them a fair in this parish yearly, on the Monday after Palm-Sunday, and on the Wednesday following, with all liberties, &c. In which situation it continued till the 1st year of king Edward VI. when this college was, with all its possessions, surrendered into the king's hands, where this manor did not continue long; for the king in his 5th year, granted it to Edward, lord Clinton and Saye, and he reconveyed it to the crown the same year. After which the king demised it, for the term of eighty years, to Sir Edward Wotton, one of his privy council, whose son Thomas Wotton, esq. sold his interest in it to Alexander Hamon, esq. of Acrise, who died in 1613, leaving two daughters his coheirs, the youngest of whom Catherine, married to Sir Robert Lewknor, entitled him to it; he was at his death succeeded by his son Hamon Lewknor, esq. but the reversion in see having been purchased of the crown some few years before the expiration of the above-mentioned term, which ended the last year of king James I.'s reign, to Sir Charles Herbert, master of the revels. He at the latter end of king Charles I.'s reign, alienated it to Mr. John Aelst, merchant, of London; after which, I find by the court rolls, that it was vested in Thomas Alderne, John Fisher, and Roger Jackson, esqrs. who in the year 1681 conveyed it to Sir John Williams, whose daughter and sole heir Penelope carried it in marriage to Thomas Symonds, esq. of Herefordshire, by the heirs of whose only surviving son Thomas Symonds Powell, esq. of Pengethley, in that county, it has been lately sold to Sir Henry Oxenden, bart. who is now entitled to it.

 

A court leet and court baron is held for this manor, which is very extensive. There is much copyhold land held of it. The demesnes of it are tithe-free. There is a yearly rent charge, payable for ever out of it, of 87l. 13s. 1d. to the ironmongers company, in London.

 

Shottlesfield is a manor, situated at the southeast boundary of this parish, the house standing partly in Liminge, at a small distance southward from the street or hamlet of the same name. It was, as early as the reign of king Edward II. the inheritance of a family called le Grubbe, some of whom had afterwards possessions about Yalding and Eythorne. Thomas le Grubbe was possessed of it in the 3d year of that reign, and wrote himself of Shottlesfeld, and from him it continued down by paternal descent to John Grubbe, who in the 2d year of king Richard III. conveyed it by sale to Thomas Brockman, of Liminge, (fn. 5) whose grandson Henry Brockman, in the 1st year of queen Mary, alienated it to George Fogge, esq. of Braborne, and he, in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign, sold it to Bing, who, before the end of that reign, passed it away to Mr. John Masters, of Sandwich, from whom it descended to Sir Edward Masters, of Canterbury, who at his decease, soon after the death of Charles I. gave it to his second son, then LL. D. from whose heirs it was alienated to Hetherington, whose last surviving son the Rev. William Hetherington, of North Cray place, died possessed of it unmarried in 1778, and by will devised it, among his other estates, to Thomas Coventry, esq. of London, who lately died possessed of it s. p. and the trustees of his will are now entitled to it.

 

The manor of Bowick, now called Boyke, is situated likewise in the eastern part of this parish, in the borough of its own name, which was in very antient times the residence of the Lads, who in several of their old evidences were written De Lad, by which name there is an antient farm, once reputed a manor, still known, as it has been for many ages before, in the adjoining parish of Acrise, which till the reign of queen Elizabeth, was in the tenure of this family. It is certain that they were resident here at Bowick in the beginning of king Henry VI.'s reign, and in the next of Edward IV. as appears by the registers of their wills in the office at Canterbury, they constantly stiled themselves of Eleham. Thomas Lade, of Bowick, died possessed of it in 1515, as did his descendant Vincent Lade in 1563, anno 6 Elizabeth. Soon after which it passed by purchase into the name of Nethersole, from whence it quickly afterwards was alienated to Aucher, and thence again to Wroth, who at the latter end of king Charles I.'s reign sold it to Elgar; whence, after some intermission, it was sold to Thomas Scott, esq. of Liminge, whose daughter and coheir Elizabeth, married to William Turner, esq. of the Friars, in Canterbury, at length, in her right, became possessed of it; his only surviving daughter and heir Bridget married David Papillon, esq. of Acrise, and entitled him to this manor, and his grandson Thomas Papillon, esq. of Acrise, is the present owner of it.

 

Mount and Bladbean are two manors, situated on the hills, on the opposite sides of this parish, the former near the eastern, and the latter near the western boundaries of it; the latter being antiently called Bladbean, alias Jacobs-court, a name now quite forgotten. Both these manors appear to have been in the reign of the Conqueror, part of the possessions of Anschitillus de Ros, who is mentioned in Domesday as holding much land in the western part of this county, their principal manor there being that of Horton, near Farningham. One of this family made a grant of it to the Cosentons, of Cosenton, in Aylesford, to hold of their barony of Ros, as of their manor of Horton before-mentioned, by knight's service. In the 7th year of Edward III. Sir Stephen de Cosenton obtained a charter of freewarren for his lands here. He was the son of Sir William de Cosenton, sheriff anno 35 Edward I. and was sometimes written of Cosenton, and sometimes of Mount, in Eleham. At length his descendant dying in the beginning of king Henry VIII.'s reign, without male issue, his three daughters, married to Duke, Wood, and Alexander Hamon, esq. became his coheirs, and shared a large inheritance between them, and upon their division of it, the manor of Bladbean, alias Jacobs-court, was allotted to Wood, and Mount to Alexander Hamon.

 

The manor of Bladbean, alias Jacobs-court, was afterwards alienated by the heirs of Wood to Thomas Stoughton, esq. of St. Martin's, near Canterbury, who by will in 1591 (fn. 6) gave this manor, with its rents and services, to Elizabeth his daughter and coheir, married to Thomas Wilde, esq. of St. Martin's, whose grandson Colonel Dudley Wilde, at his death in 1653, s. p. devised it to his widow, from whom it went by sale to Hills, and Mr. James Hills, in 1683, passed it away to Mr. Daniel Woollet, whose children divided this estate among them; a few years after which John Brice became, by purchase of it at different times, possessed of the whole of it, which he in 1729 conveyed by sale to Mr. Valentine Sayer, of Sandwich, who died possessed of it in 1766, and the heirs of his eldest son Mr. George Sayer, of Sandwich, are now entitled to it.

 

The manor of Mount, now called Mount court, which was allotted as above-mentioned, to Alexander Hamon, continued down to his grandson, of the same name, who died possessed of it in 1613, leaving two daughters his coheirs, the youngest of whom, Catherine, entitled her husband Sir Robert Lewknor, to it, in whose descendants it continued till Robert Lewknor, esq. his grandson, in 1666, alienated it, with other lands in this parish, to Thomas Papillon, esq. of Lubenham, in Leicestershire, whose descendant Thomas Papillon, esq. of Acrise, is the present proprietor of it.

 

Ladwood is another manor in this parish, lying at the eastern boundary of it, likewise on the hills next to Acrise. It was written in old evidences Ladswood, whence it may with probability be conjectured, that before its being converted into a farm of arable land, and the erecting of a habitation here, it was a wood belonging to the family of Lad, resident at Bowick; but since the latter end of king Edward III.'s reign, it continued uninterrupted in the family of Rolse till the reign of king Charles II. soon after which it was alienated to Williams, in which name it remained till Penelope, daughter of Sir John Williams, carried it in marriage to Thomas Symonds, esq. the heirs of whose only surviving son Thomas Symonds Powell, esq. sold it to David Papillon, esq. whose son Thomas Papillon, esq. now possesses it.

 

The manor of Canterwood, as appears by an old manuscript, seemingly of the time of Henry VIII. was formerly the estate of Thomas de Garwinton, of Welle, lying in the eastern part of the parish, and who lived in the reigns of Edward II. and III. whose greatgrandson William Garwinton, dying s. p. Joane his kinswoman, married to Richard Haut, was, in the 9th year of king Henry IV. found to be his heir, not only in this manor, but much other land in these parts, and their son Richard Haut having an only daughter and heir Margery, she carried this manor in marriage to William Isaak. After which, as appears from the court-rolls, which do not reach very high, that the family of Hales became possessed of it, in which it staid till the end of queen Elizabeth's reign, when it went by sale to Manwood, from which name it was alienated to Sir Robert Lewknor, whose grandson Robert Lewknor, esq. in 1666 sold it, with other lands in this parish already mentioned, to Thomas Papillon, esq. of Lu benham, in Leicestershire, whose descendant Thomas Papillon, esq. of Acrise, is the present owner of it.

 

Oxroad, now usually called Ostrude, is a manor, situated a little distance eastward from North Eleham. It had antiently owners of the same name; Andrew de Oxroad held it of the countess of Ewe, in the reign of king Edward I. by knight's service, as appears by the book of them in the king's remembrancer's office. In the 20th year of king Edward III. John, son of Simon atte Welle, held it of the earl of Ewe by the like service. After which the Hencles became possessed of it, from the reign of king Henry IV. to that of king Henry VIII. when Isabel, daughter of Tho. Hencle, marrying John Beane, entitled him to it, and in his descendants it continued till king Charles I.'s reign, when it was alienated to Mr. Daniel Shatterden, gent. of this parish, descended from those of Shatterden, in Great Chart, which place they had possessed for many generations. At length, after this manor had continued for some time in his descendants, it was sold to Adams, in which name it remained till the heirs of Randall Adams passed it away by sale to Papillon, in whose family it still continues, being now the property of Thomas Papillon, esq. of Acrise.

 

Hall, alias Wingmere, is a manor, situated in the valley at the northern boundary of this parish, next to Barham, in which some part of the demesne lands of it lie. It is held of the manor of Eleham, and had most probably once owners of the name of Wigmere, as it was originally spelt, of which name there was a family in East Kent, and in several antient evidences there is mention made of William de Wigmere and others of this name. However this be, the family of Brent appear to have been for several generations possessed of this manor, and continued so till Thomas Brent, of Wilsborough, dying in 1612,s. p. it passed into the family of Dering, of Surrenden; for in king James I.'s reign Edward Dering, gent. of Egerton, eldest son of John, the fourth son of John Dering, esq, of Surren den, who had married Thomas Brent's sister, was become possessed of it; and his only son and heir Thomas Dering, gent. in 1649, alienated it to William Codd, gent. (fn. 7) of Watringbury, who was succeeded in it by his son James Codd, esq. of Watringbury, who died s. p. in 1708, being then sheriff of this county, and being possessed at his death of this manor in fee, in gavelkind; upon which it came to the representatives of his two aunts, Jane, the wife of Boys Ore, and Anne, of Robert Wood, and they, in 1715, by fine levied, entitled Thomas Manley, and Elizabeth, his wife, to the possession of this manor for their lives, and afterwards to them in fee, in separate moieties. He died s. p. in 1716, and by will gave his moiety to John Pollard; on whose death s. p. it came, by the limitation in the above will, to Joshua Monger, whose only daughter and heir Rachael carried it in marriage to her husband Arthur Pryor, and they in 1750 joined in the sale of it to Mr. Richard Halford, gent. of Canterbury. The other moiety of this manor seems to have been devised by Elizabeth Manley above-mentioned, at her death, to her nephew Thomas Kirkby, whose sons Thomas, John, and Manley Kirkby, joined, in the above year, in the conveyance of it to Mr. Richard Halford above-mentioned, who then became possessed of the whole of it. He was third son of Richard Halford, clerk, rector of the adjoining parish of Liminge, descended from the Halfords, of Warwickshire, as appears by his will in the Prerogative-office, Canterbury, by which he devised to his several sons successively in tail, the estate in Warwickshire, which he was entitled to by the will of his kinsman William Halford, gent, of that county. They bear for their arms, Argent, a greybound passant, sable, on a chief of the second, three fleurs de lis, or. He died possessed of it in 1766, leaving by Mary his wife, daughter of Mr. Christopher Creed, of Canterbury, one son Richard Halford, gent. now of Canterbury; and two daughters, Mary married to Mr. John Peirce, surgeon, of Canterbury; and Sarah. In 1794, Mr. Peirce purchased the shares of Mr. Richard and Mrs. Sarah Halford, and he is now the present owner of this manor. He bears for his arms, Azure field, wavy bend, or, two unicorns heads, proper.

 

The manor OF Clavertigh is situated on the hills at the north-west boundary of this parish, next to Liminge, which antiently belonged to the abbey of Bradsole, or St. Radigund, near Dover, and it continued among the possessions of it till the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when by the act then passed, it was suppressed, as not having the clear yearly revenue of two hundred pounds, and was surrendered into the king's hands, who in his 29th year, granted the scite of this priory, with all its lands and possessions, among which this manor was included, with certain exceptions, however, mentioned in it, to archbishop Cranmer, who in the 38th year of that reign, conveyed this manor of Clavertigh, with lands called Monkenlands, late belonging to the same priory in this parish, back again to the king, who that same year granted all those premises to Sir James Hales, one of the justices of the common pleas, to hold in capite, (fn. 8) and he, in the beginning of king Edward VI.'s reign, passed them away to Peter Heyman, esq. one of the gentlemen of that prince's bedchamber who seems to have had a new grant of them from the crown, in the 2d year of that reign. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Ralph Heyman, esq. of Sellindge, whose descendant Sir Peter Heyman, bart. alienated the manor of Clavetigh to Sir Edward Honywood, of Evington, created a baronet in 1660, in whose descendants this manor has continued down to Sir John Honywood, bart. of Evington, who is the present possessor of it.

 

Charities.

Jonas Warley, D. D. gave by will in 1722, 50l. to be put out on good security, the produce to be given yearly in bread on every Sunday in the year, after divine service, to six poor widows, to each of them a two-penny loaf. The money is now vested in the vicar and churchwardens, and the produce of it being no more than 2l. 5s. per annum, only a three-halfpenny loaf is given to each widow.

 

Land in this parish, of the annual produce of 1l. was given by a person unknown, to be disposed of to the indigent. It is vested in the minister, churchwardens, and overseers.

 

Four small cottages were given to the parish, by a person unknown, and are now inhabited by poor persons. They are vested in the churchwardens and overseers.

 

Sir John Williams, by will in 1725, founded A CHARITY SCHOOL in this parish for six poor boys, legal inhabitants, and born in this parish, to be taught reading, writing, and accounts, to be cloathed once in two years; and one such boy to be bound out apprentice, as often as money sufficient could be raised for that use. The minister, churchwardens, and overseers to be trustees, who have power to nominate others to assist them in the management of it. The master has a house to live in, and the lands given to it are let by the trustees.

 

The poor constantly relieved are about seventy-five, casually fifty-five.

 

Eleham is within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of its own name.

 

The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is large and handsome, consisting of three isles, the middle one having an upper range of windows, and one chancel, having a tower steeple, with a spire shast on it, at the west end, in which are eight bells, a clock, and chimes. Within the altar-rails is a memorial for John Somner, gent. son of the learned William Somner, of Canterbury, obt. 1695; arms, Ermine, a chevron voided. In the chancel a brass plate for Michael Pyx, of Folkestone, mayor and once high bailisf to Yarmouth, obt. 1601. Another for Nicholas Moore, gent. of Bettenham, in Cranbrooke; he died at Wingmer in 1577. In the middle isle a memorial for Captain William Symons, obt. 1674; arms, Parted per pale, and fess, three trefoils slipt. A brass plate for John Hill, dean and vicar of Eleham, obt. 1730. In this church was a lamp burning, called the light of Wyngmer, given before the year 1468, probably by one of the owners of that manor.

 

The church of Eleham was given by archbishop Boniface, lord of the manor of Eleham, and patron of this church appendant to it, at the instance of Walter de Merton, then canon of St. Paul's, and afterwards bishop of Rochester, to the college founded by the latter in 1263, at Maldon, in Surry. (fn. 9) After which the archbishop, in 1268, appropriated this church to the college, whenever it should become vacant by the death or cession of the rector of it, saving a reasonable vicarage of thirty marcs, to be endowed by him in it, to which the warden of the college should present to him and his successors, a fit vicar, as often as it should be vacant, to be nominated to the warden by the archbishop; otherwise the archbishop and his successors should freely from thence dispose of the vicarage for that turn. (fn. 10)

 

¶The year before this, Walter de Merton had begun a house in Oxford, whither some of the scholars were from time to time to resort for the advancement of their studies, to which the whole society of Maldon was, within a few years afterwards, removed, and both societies united at Oxford, under the name of the warden and fellows of Merton college. This portion of thirty marcs, which was a stated salary, and not tithes, &c. to that amount, was continued by a subsequent composition or decree of archbishop Warham, in 1532; but in 1559, the college, of their own accord, agreed to let the vicarial tithes, &c. to Thomas Carden, then vicar, at an easy rent, upon his discharging the college from the before-mentioned portion of thirty marcs: and this lease, with the like condition, has been renewed to every subsequent vicar ever since; and as an addition to their income, the vicars have for some time had another lease, of some wood grounds here, from the college. (fn. 11)

 

The appropriation or parsonage of this church is now held by lease from the warden and fellows, by the Rev. John Kenward Shaw Brooke, of Town-Malling. The archbishop nominates a clerk to the vicarage of it, whom the warden and fellows above-mentioned present to him for institution.

 

This vicarage is valued in the king's books at twenty pounds, (being the original endowment of thirty marcs), and the yearly tenths at two pounds, the clear yearly certified value of it being 59l. 15s. 2d. In 1640 it was valued at one hundred pounds per annum. Communicants six hundred. It is now of about the yearly value of one hundred and fifty pounds.

 

All the lands in this parish pay tithes to the rector or vicar, excepting Parkgate farm, Farthingsole farm, and Eleham-park wood, all belonging to the lord of Eleham manor, which claim a modus in lieu of tithes, of twenty shillings yearly paid to the vicar. The manor farm of Clavertigh, belonging to Sir John Honywood, bart and a parcel of lands called Mount Bottom, belonging to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Tournay, of Dover, claim a like modus in lieu of tithes.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol8/pp95-110

This coffee mug was given to me by Phil (cmu chem prof) and really stirred up some emotions inside me. "I'm A Runner" but I'm also an injured runner who is approaching the start of Michigan's race season. I've been to rehab/physical therapy yet I can barely make 4 miles before my right leg goes numb and I start to loose feeling in it. There are nights when my right leg throbs and I lay there counting the pounding pains rather than sheep. Are my distance running days are over? Will I ever cross the finish line again? These are questions that have been racing over and over in my head. I miss running and I miss the finish line. This mug reminds me of my accomplishment and helps me remember that I did it and I can do it again. I AM A RUNNER and I must run.

 

Phil: www.flickr.com/photos/63447395@N00

Any given Sunday Paseo de la reforma Mexico City

  

If you like this shot please go see my ALBUM "Any given Sunday in Mexico City"

 

www.flickr.com/photos/luajr/albums/72157638501177336

 

Or "street Shots"

www.flickr.com/photos/luajr/albums/72177720295921392

This is Marigold, a Skunk. She was brought along to a talk given through Friends of Fish Creek Park, way back in 2009. Such a cutie.

 

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UPDATE on paint-peeling issue with my Honda HRV, email received on 3 November 2021. So annoying, as two spots can barely be seen and the main peeling is just one patch maybe 3" by 1". Apparently, it's a common problem - so why do they keep using the same lousy paint year after year?? I hate to think how many weeks (months?) this could take! There is no way I can be without a vehicle for that long, so I may be forced into using a temporary car from Honda - a Honda Civic, I believe. I dread having to drive a strange vehicle, which is why I originally said no. I would only use it to get to my local shopping area. Hopefully, I won't need to do this.

 

"Our technicians have removed the tape from the vehicle and found that every other panel except for one door has peeled paint on them. At this point I will have to do up multiple additional estimates based on the bulletin to submit to Honda for approval.

 

This is good news and bad news for you. The good news is we have exposed the problem so you we will be able to address all of the issues at once without you having this become a recurring issue over and over. The bad news is that a relatively straightforward repair has now turned into essentially a complete vehicle refinish. Because of the substantial increase in labour hours we will have your vehicle with us for quite some time.

 

I will get the estimates written up and submitted to Honda for approval and once I have that back I will follow up with you."

This bird was so far away, perched on the very furthest, large hay bale. Google Lens has given both Red-tailed Hawk and Ferruginous Hawk as IDs. I have seen both species in this rough area on various drives. Thanks so much for any help!

 

Wednesday, 7 August 2024: gloomy, and it has been raining for hours. Much needed to hopefully help prevent new wildfires and to help deal with the fires that are already burning. Firefighters are amazing! Our temperature this afternoon is only 16C, which is good news.

 

Tuesday, 6 August 2024: very overcast, gloomy day today with cooler temperatures. Only 14C at 4:00 pm. Sure beats the high 20Cs/low 30C!

 

Monday, 5 August 2024: our weather forecast for yesterday was tornado chance with severe storms! Only 19C just after noon.

 

Yay, in the evening of 3 August 2024, the wind picked up and we had thunder and rain, thank goodness. With the various wildfires in Alberta and British Columbia, along with so much hot, dry weather, we need not every drop of rain, but every bucketful! Unfortunately, the rain only lasted a very short time.

 

On 2 August 2024 (can't believe it is already August!), I did a long, exhausting day drive, covering NW, SW and SE of Calgary. My plans changed on the spur of the moment once I headed back to Calgary from the NW. Originally, I decided to go NW, as I haven't been out that way for quite a while.

 

Heading W from home, I couldn't resist stopping to check if the Common Loon I saw almost a week ago was there again. Scanning the large pond, I saw no sign of life. Then, suddenly, in the far distance, I saw a bird fly in and land on the water. 'Duck' was the first thing that went through my mind. Then, when I zoomed in on my camera, I couldn't believe my eyes - it was the Loon again! The weather was better than the awful weather/light the last time I saw it there so, fortunately, I was able to get better shots.

 

Feeling very thankful, I headed N, hoping I might just see a Turkey Vulture that a few people had been reporting. It had been seen in the same area as the rare Whooping Crane. No luck. I was curious to see if the Crane was in the wetland, as when I had seen it recently, it was far more distant than that. I pulled into the pull-off, glanced quickly and saw nothing, and was about to reverse, when I realized that a red truck that belonged to some ranch had pulled over on the road right behind me. A guy was taking photos with his cell phone and it looked like he was taking photos of my vehicle. Then I noticed a sign that said No Parking. Of course, I thought he was probably going to report me - though I was not parked, as I hadn't even turned off my engine, knowing I was only going to be there a matter of seconds. So annoying, and I couldn't get it out of my mind the rest of the day.

 

I couldn't wait to leave the whole area and head further N. Came to the town of Cochrane and ALL the construction going on. For someone with a driving phobia, trust me, it was a nightmare. Then all I could think about was knowing that I would have to go through it all again later on.

 

One thing I really wanted to see again was a beautiful old, pale grey barn, in great condition. Further on, I noticed a Kestrel perched on a high wire. I could only take three quick shots through my windscreen, which resulted in awful photos, not fit to post, but I was happy to see it. Such beautiful birds of prey.

 

It was good to see several old barns/homesteads along the way, even more so as I wasn't seeing any more birds. Also, the sky was so beautiful.

 

Once i was down SW and SE of Calgary, hawks and one Vesper Sparrow were my only sightings. Two were on their nest and two were on hay bales at different locations. One of the latter, standing on a very distant bale, looked almost like a Ferruginous Hawk. Google Lens's first ID said Red-tailed Hawk, 3rd ID Ferruginous, so I still don't know.

 

By the time I arrived home, after driving 393 km and 9 and a half hours, on a very hot day, I was dead beat. A great day, though, with the Loon being a most welcome highlight.

Given to me this morning by a cow-orker who no longer wanted it. Silver and mother of pearl, with a snakes' head detail.

Given the short growing season in Glacier National park which lasts just a few months, the plants that grow on the steep green slopes of the glacier-carved valleys start blooming really fast and in wild profusion. It is rather surprising to see the Glacier Lilies's yellow bloom surrounding large patches of snow. I guess that if life has to survive in these conditions, it has to grow fast.

 

While the initial sections of the famous Highline trail was enveloped in a lot of greenery, it was only as we got closer to the Granite Park Chalet, a rustic old stone cabin, that the blooms of these flowers became really dense and colorful (more of those in the next update). As I came around a bend, the view suddenly opened up to a large meadow dotted profusely by these lilies standing in front of the clear blue snow-capped Heaven's Peak across the glacier-carved valley.

 

It was a gorgeous view, the likes of which I had never seen before. I spent quite a bit of time trying to capture the magical spectacle presented before me.

 

View large on black for the best effect.

 

Glacier National Park

MT USA

Given the concerns over Covid-19 and the associated international response, social pressure referred to as ‘Social Distancing’, the good Mr T decided it was time to chill and hang out in the pool on the Southern Shores of Lake Ontario in tropical Grimsby, Ontario, for the duration of March Break. Some of the online paranoia suggested he may never get another chance. So grasp life by the horns and enjoy it while you can. Suitably protected from the sun by a cool set of sun glasses, a glass of wine to help take the edge off, and a good book to pass the time, Mr T reclined in the pool and settled in for the duration. - JW

 

Date Taken: 2020-03-17

 

Tech Details:

 

Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D800 fitted with an AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm 1:4.0 lense set to 28mm, ISO100, Auto WB, Aperture Priority Mode, f/9.0, 1/3 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: convert image to B&W/monochrome using green channel gamma adjustment to somewhat darken the image, crop image to 1:1 aspect ratio, set final image size to 7000 px wide, apply Tone Mapping at default levels, boost contrast in L-A-B mode, enable Shadows/Highlights and recover highlight detail, sharpen, save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the levels tool in Auto mode to establish a good base overall tonality, sharpen, save, scale image to 6000px wide, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 2048 px wide for posting online, sharpen very slightly, save.

The Marrabel Roman Catholic was built on land given by one of Marrabel’s first settlers, Mr Garrett Hannan.

There was already a temporary pine and pug Chapel. Tenders were called for in February 1867: by July the foundation stone was laid, and the church opened on 5 July 1868. Wright, Woods & Hamilton were the architects.

 

*The Very Rev John Smyth, VG, assisted by the Rev Joseph Tappeiner and the pastor of the district, laid on Sunday, 7th instant, the foundation stone of a Catholic Church, under the title of St Agnes the Martyr. Though the constant and heavy rains during the week had rendered the roads in many places almost impassable, and the day itself was unsettled and showery, yet no fewer than about 400 persons came to see laid the first stone of their church.

 

At 10 o'clock am the Rev Joseph Tappeiner celebrated mass, after which the priests and laity walked in procession from the small and unsightly building hitherto used as a chapel to the site of the new church.

 

The Vicar-General having laid the foundation stone, according to the Roman Ritual, preached an excellent sermon

 

The handsome sum of £84 14s 10d was then laid upon the stone. The building will be Gothic: the nave will measure 60 by 25 feet, besides chancel, sacristies, and porch. The plinth, quoins, and buttresses will be cut stone; and as the site is elevated, with a background of fine old gumtrees, the building will greatly contribute to the beauty of the young and rising township of Marrabel. [Ref: Express and Telegraph 11-7-1867]

 

Catholic Church, Marrabel,—

*The Very Rev John Smyth VG, assisted by the Rev Messrs Polk and Huger SJ, solemnly blessed and opened the Church of St Agnes, at Marrabel on Sunday, the 5th instant.

The very rev gentlemen preached an eloquent sermon on the occasion, and the handsome sum of £170 was received towards the liquidation of the debt, which is only a little over £400. When it is borne in mind that the building cost £1,000 independently of the stones, which were given and carted free of charge, the liberality of the congregation and friends will be more clearly understood. [Ref: Adelaide Observer from the Kapunda Herald 18-7-1868]

 

*The Rev Chas Van der Heyden – We are requested to inform our readers that this gentleman has removed from Riverton, and is now living in the new presbytery at Marrabel, recently erected by the Catholics of the district. [Ref: Irish Harp and Farmers’ Herald 12-3-1870]

 

*S. Agnes, Marrabel — A bazaar in aid of the church and new presbytery at Marrabel was held in S. Joseph's schoolroom on Wednesday, the 15th instant and following days. There was a large, effective and artistic display of useful and ornamental articles…praise is due to the ladies of the community for their enthusiastic zeal and persevering endeavours to make the Bazaar a success. [Ref: Irish Harp and Farmers’ Herald 25-3-1871]

 

*Presentations to Rev Michael Kennedy of Marrabel.

On Friday evening, April 30, many of the parishioners of the Mission of Marrabel met at Tothill's Creek to present an address and a purse of sovereigns to the Rev Michael Kennedy, in acknowledgment of the many services which had been done them by the rev gentleman during his long sojourn among them.

 

The residents of the parish of Marrabel, thought it our duty to assemble here this evening for the purpose of tendering our thanks for the able and cheerful manner in which you have for the last five years forwarded our interests … especially for the great efforts which you made to liquidate the debt which had been incurred some years ago for the purpose of building our church and parochial residence at Marrabel.

Independent of the outlay of £120 on the interior of the church, and some smaller sums spent in various other improvements, he had collected towards the debt on the church and presbytery £631 in the space of five years. [Ref: South Australian Advertiser 17-5-1877]

 

*The annual picnic in connection the with St Agnes Church, Marrabel, was held on Easter Monday. There was good attendance, notwithstanding that the weather was cold and wet.

In the evening the Rev W O’Dowling delivered an interesting lecture on the life of Dan O’Connell. The lecture was followed by a ball, which wound up a very enjoyable day. [Ref: Kapunda Herald 20-4-1900]

 

*The tender of Mr S H Roberts, of Saddleworth, has been accepted for building a sanctuary and vestry at St Agnes Church, Marrabel.

The price of the tender was £563. [Ref: Kapunda Herald 18-9-1914]

 

*Mr O Colmer of Riverton has obtained the contract for extensive repairs to the Catholic Church at Marrabel, including the putting in of a new ceiling. It is anticipated that he will start during this week. [Ref: Kapunda Herald 7-8-1936]

Given myself an alphabet soup game. Two new photos and another two from my photostream or archives, when possible.

 

She has got 4 legs!!

This cow was kept at the stables near us in Etampes, after it was found almost starving to death at a farm. Taken at Chalo St. Mars in June 2010.

 

Thank you for your favourites. :O)

A while back, I was given a roll of Lomography 100 colour print film, along with some other rolls of film. A quick wander around Abington Park was as good an opportunity as any to use it. I loaded it into the Mamiya C220. When I got to the park, I realised I had left my light meter at home, so the exposures were all informed guesswork.

 

The gentleman walking his dog was curious about the C220, you wouldn't get that with a DSLR.

 

November, 2019.

 

Mamiya C220/ 80mm lens

Lomography 100 film