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Grave of Poincaré
Jules Henri Poincaré (UK: /ˈpwæ̃kɑːreɪ/[4] [US: stress final syllable], French: [ɑ̃ʁi pwɛ̃kaʁe](About this soundlisten);[5][6] 29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The Last Universalist",[7]since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime.
Egnazio Danti (Perugia 1536 - Alatri 1586)
Mathematician, astronomer, Dominican friar and even cosmographer.
In 1567 or so, Cosimo I de Medici, Duke of Tuscany summoned him in his court to develop and share the mathematical and astronomical studies in the territory of his competence.
He became soon a Grand Ducal cosmographer working hard on the maps that are still decorating the Hall of Charts in Palazzo Vecchio.
During his permanence in Florence Danti lived at the convent of Santa Maria Novella assembling the armillary sphere, the gnomon and the gnomonic holes on the façade.
The armillary sphere, installed it on the building in 1574, is on the left side of the front of the church and was used to determine the time of the vernal or Spring equinox by the shadow of the sun on its equatorial ring.
It was with this instrument that Fra' Egnazio Danti established that the calendar was 10 days late. He presented his plan to the pope who approved it. Thus was born the Gregorian calendar which is also ours, jumping from 4 to 14 October
The Postcard
An Oilette Series postcard that was published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, Art Publishers to Their Majesties the King and Queen. The card was printed in Bavaria.
This card started life as a normal greetings card, but has been over-printed with 'A Merry Christmas.' In places the red print has been worn away and the original artwork is visible. If you search for the tag 44CPT56, you'll see that Tuck & Sons have done the same thing on another card.
The card was posted in Highgate, London using a ½d. stamp on Wednesday the 23rd. December 1908. It was sent to:
Master Kenneth Hardie,
Woodside,
Low Fell,
Gateshead,
Co. Durham.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Auntie Rhoda's love.
Wishing you a
Merry Xmas 1908."
Hilda Dix Sandford
The artwork was by Hilda Dix Sandford.
Hilda Dix Sandford was born Hilda Dix in Bristol in 1875, the daughter of a hymn writer. Hilda was a painter and illustrator who was frequently commissioned by postcard publishers. She specialised in illustrating children at play, and captured the joy and innocence of children.
In her youth, Hilda won competitions organised by Studio Magazine. She later married engineer John Sandford.
Hilda had quite an interesting style of illustration. She loved using multiples and repetition in her postcard illustrations.
Hilda died in 1946.
For other examples of her work, please search for the tags 33SPL34, 36NAC37, 34FSH35, and 74BAR75
Hugo Hadwiger
So what else happened on the day that Auntie Rhoda posted the card?
Well, the 23rd. December 1908 marked the birth in Karlsruhe, Germany of Hugo Hadwiger.
More on Hugo below.
all rights reserved,
For the competition "EXITS AND ENTRANCES" at ECOLE DES BEAUX ARTS group
www.flickr.com/groups/ecoledesbeauxartsoctober2010founded...
A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses. ~George Bernard Shaw
We don't need to eat anything which would run, swim, or fly away if it could. ~James Cromwell
Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. ~Albert Einstein
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"There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties... The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery." Charles Darwin
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"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." Thomas Edison
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"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." -Pythagoras, mathematician
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"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men." Leonardo da Vinci
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"You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity."
Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist
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If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. -Paul McCartney
I have been a vegetarian most of my life.....and yes I do wear man-made material shoes, belts, bags, etc...no leather sofas in my house.
Mathematician, navigator, and first mate of the Henri, Myles Bowditch is signing up for Eslandola and the East Trade Wind Company! For gold and country! - and the ETWC.
My sig-fig for Brethren of the Brick Seas. Check it out here!
Jack Hale. Plenary talk on the International Conference on Dynamical Systems And Applications in Atlanta (GE), 2007.
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750506082010
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The Photo was Placed as 3rd in Frame BANGLADESH Road show Photo competition on 16th Dec 2010,
This Photo represent the Wild Killing of The Best son of the soil of BANGLADESH IN 15TH dec 1971 By the then PAKISTAN ARMY at Rayer Bzar Dhaka BANGLADESH, the Place is locally known as BODDHO VUMI [ BODDHO VUMI is a BANGLA word meaning a place where Killing of innocent Bangladeshi intellectuals took place and unburied and kept unnoticed till it was discovered by Dog's and Voulchers and the place is known as BODDHO VUMI ], During the liberation war of Bangladesh The PAKISTAN Army and their alliance of East Pakistan Razaker's Now Under the trial of war criminal's took all the brilliant people of Bangladesh citizen here at a abandon place locally known as Rayer Bazar, and killed them at mid night just before a day of Independence of BANGLADESH ,
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Martyred Intellectuals Memorial (Bengali: বুদ্ধিজীবি স্মৃতি সৌধ) is a memorial built for the memory of the martyred intellectuals of Bangladesh Liberation War. The memorial, located at Rayerbazar, Mohammadpur Thana in Dhaka[1], was designed by architect Mostafa Ali Kuddus. During the entire duration of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, a large number of teachers, doctors, engineers, poets and writers were systematically massacred by Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, most notably the alleged Islamist militia groups Al-Badr and [Al-Shams (Bangladesh)|[Al-Shams]]. The largest number of assassinations took place on December 14, 1971, only two days before the surrender of Pakistan army to the joint force of Indian army and Mukti bahini.
Closer view of Rayerbazar intellectuals' memorial.
Foundation plaque of the memorial, Mirpur, Dhaka.
In the night of 14 December 1971, over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals including professors, journalists, doctors, artists, engineers, and writers were rounded up in Dhaka. They were taken blindfolded to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different sections of the city. Later they were executed en masse, most notably at Rayerbazar and Mirpur. In memory of the martyred intellectuals, December 14 is mourned in Bangladesh as Shaheed Buddhijibi Dibosh ("Day of the Martyred Intellectuals").
Even after the official ending of the war on December 16 there were reports of hostile fire from the armed Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators. In one such incident, notable film-maker Zahir Raihan was killed on January 30, 1972 in Mirpur, allegedly by the armed Beharis of Mirpur.
The number of intellectuals killed is estimated as follows: educationist 991, journalist 13, physician 49, lawyer 42, others (litterateur, artist and engineer) 16.[2]
Noted intellectuals who were killed between March 25 and December 16, 1971 in different parts of the country included Govinda Chandra Dev (Philosopher, Professor at DU), Munier Chowdhury (Litterateur, Dramatist, Professor at DU), Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury (Litterateur, Professor at DU), Anwar Pasha (Litterateur, Professor at DU), Dr. Mohammed Fazle Rabbee (cardiologist), Dr. Alim Chowdhury (ophthalmologist), Shahidullah Kaisar (journalist), Nizamuddin Ahmed (Reporter), Selina Parvin (reporter), Altaf Mahmud (lyricist and musician), Dr. Hobibur Rahman (mathematician, Professor at RU), Dhirendranath Datta (politician), Ranadaprasad Saha (philanthropist), Lt. Col. Moazzem Hossain (ex-soldier), Mamun Mahmood (Police Officer), and many others.
Martyred Intellectuals Memorial (Bengali: বুদ্ধিজীবি স্মৃতি সৌধ) is a memorial built for the memory of the martyred intellectuals of Bangladesh Liberation War. The memorial, located at Rayerbazar, Mohammadpur Thana in Dhaka[1], was designed by architect Md. Jame- Al- Shafi and Farid Uddin Ahmed. During the entire duration of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, a large number of teachers, doctors, engineers, poets and writers were systematically massacred by Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, most notably the alleged Islamist militia groups Al-Badr and [Al-Shams (Bangladesh)|[Al-Shams]]. The largest number of assassinations took place on December 14, 1971, only two days before the surrender of Pakistan army to the joint force of Indian army and Mukti bahini. Closer view of Rayerbazar intellectuals' memorial. Foundation plaque of the memorial, Mirpur, Dhaka.
In the night of 14 December 1971, over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals including professors, journalists, doctors, artists, engineers, and writers were rounded up in Dhaka. They were taken blindfolded to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different sections of the city. Later they were executed en masse, most notably at Rayerbazar and Mirpur. In memory of the martyred intellectuals, December 14 is mourned in Bangladesh as Shaheed Buddhijibi Dibosh ("Day of the Martyred Intellectuals").
Even after the official ending of the war on December 16 there were reports of hostile fire from the armed Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators. In one such incident, notable film-maker Zahir Raihan was killed on January 30, 1972 in Mirpur, allegedly by the armed Beharis of Mirpur.
The number of intellectuals killed is estimated as follows: educationist 991, journalist 13, physician 49, lawyer 42, others (litterateur, artist and engineer) 16.[2]
Noted intellectuals who were killed between March 25 and December 16, 1971 in different parts of the country included Govinda Chandra Dev (Philosopher, Professor at DU), Munier Chowdhury (Litterateur, Dramatist, Professor at DU), Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury (Litterateur, Professor at DU), Anwar Pasha (Litterateur, Professor at DU), Dr. Mohammed Fazle Rabbee (cardiologist), Dr. Alim Chowdhury (ophthalmologist), Shahidullah Kaisar (journalist), Nizamuddin Ahmed (Reporter), Selina Parvin (reporter), Altaf Mahmud (lyricist and musician), Dr. Hobibur Rahman (mathematician, Professor at RU), Dhirendranath Datta (politician), Ranadaprasad Saha (philanthropist), Lt. Col. Moazzem Hossain (ex-soldier), Mamun Mahmood (Police Officer), and many other
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Thanks In Advance for not Inviting me to any Group and using Graphics to this picture for comments .
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St Andrews was founded between 1410 and 1413, when the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII issued a papal bull to a small founding group of Augustinian clergy.
St Andrews is made up from a variety of institutions, including three constituent colleges (United College, St Mary's College, and St Leonard's College) and 18 academic schools organised into four faculties. The university occupies historic and modern buildings located throughout the town. The academic year is divided into two terms, Martinmas and Candlemas. In term time, over one-third of the town's population is either a staff member or student of the university. The student body is notably diverse: over 135 nationalities are represented with 45% of its intake from countries outside the UK; about one-eighth of the students are from the rest of the EU and the remaining third are from overseas — 15% from North America alone. The university's sport teams compete in BUCS competitions and the student body is known for preserving ancient traditions such as Raisin Weekend, May Dip, and the wearing of distinctive academic dress.
It is ranked as the third best university in the United Kingdom in national league tables, behind Oxbridge. The Guardian ranks first in the United Kingdom the Schools of Physics and Astronomy, International Relations, Computer Science, Geography, English and Mathematics, whilst The Times and Sunday Times ranks the Schools of English, Management, Philosophy, Anatomy and Physiology and Middle Eastern and African Studies first and the Complete University Guide ranks Management, Divinity and Middle Eastern and African Studies first. The Times Higher Education World Universities Ranking names St Andrews among the world's Top 50 universities for Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. St Andrews has the highest student satisfaction (joint first) amongst all multi-faculty universities in the United Kingdom.
St Andrews has many notable alumni and affiliated faculty, including eminent mathematicians, scientists, theologians, philosophers, and politicians. Recent alumni include the former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond; Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon; HM British Ambassador to China Barbara Woodward; United States Ambassador to Hungary Colleen Bell; Olympic cycling gold medalist Chris Hoy; and royals Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. Six Nobel Laureates are among St Andrews' alumni and former staff: two in Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine, and one each in Peace and Literature.
St Albans Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, is a Church of England cathedral church within St Albans, England. At 84 metres (276 ft), its nave is the longest of any cathedral in England. With much of its present architecture dating from Norman times, it was formerly known as St Albans Abbey before it became a cathedral in 1877. It is the second longest cathedral in the United Kingdom (after Winchester). Local residents often call it "the abbey", although the present cathedral represents only the church of the old Benedictine abbey.
The abbey church, although legally a cathedral church, differs in certain particulars from most of the other cathedrals in England: it is also used as a parish church, of which the dean is rector. He has the same powers, responsibilities and duties as the rector of any other parish.
Alban was a pagan living in the Roman city of Verulamium, now Verulamium Park, in St Albans, in Hertfordshire, England, about 22 miles (35 km) north of London along Watling Street. Before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, local Christians were being persecuted by the Romans. Alban sheltered their priest, Saint Amphibalus, in his home and was converted to the Christian faith by him. When the soldiers came to Alban's house looking for the priest, Alban exchanged cloaks with the priest and let himself be arrested in his place. Alban was taken before the magistrate, where he avowed his new Christian faith and was condemned for it. He was beheaded, according to legend, on the spot where the cathedral named after him now stands. The site is on a steep hill and legend has it that his head rolled down the hill after being cut off and that a well sprang up at the point where it stopped.
A well certainly exists today and the road up to the cathedral is named Holywell Hill. However the current well structure is no older than the late 19th century and it is thought that the name of the street derives from the "Halywell" river and "Halywell Bridge", not from the well.
The date of Alban's execution is a matter of some debate and is generally given as "circa 250"—scholars generally suggest dates of 209, 254 or 304.
History of the abbey and cathedral
A memoria over the execution point and holding the remains of Alban existed at the site from the mid-4th century (possibly earlier); Bedementions a church and Gildas a shrine. Bishop Germanus of Auxerre visited in 429 and took a portion of the apparently still bloody earth away. The style of this structure is unknown; the 13th century chronicler Matthew Paris (see below) claimed that the Saxons destroyed the building in 586.
Saxon buildings
Offa II of Mercia, who ruled in the 8th century, is said to have founded the Benedictine abbey and monastery at St Albans. All later religious structures are dated from the foundation of Offa's abbey in 793. The abbey was built on Holmhurst Hill—now Holywell Hill—across the River Ver from the ruins of Verulamium. Again there is no information to the form of the first abbey. The abbey was probably sacked by the Danes around 890 and, despite Paris's claims, the office of abbot remained empty from around 920 until the 970s when the efforts of Dunstanreached the town.
There was an intention to rebuild the abbey in 1005 when Abbot Ealdred was licensed to remove building material from Verulamium. With the town resting on clay and chalk the only tough stone is flint. This was used with a lime mortar and then either plastered over or left bare. With the great quantities of brick, tile and other stone in Verulamium the Roman site became a prime source of building material for the abbeys, and other projects in the area, up to the 18th century. Sections demanding worked stone used Lincolnshire limestone (Barnack stone) from Verulamium, later worked stones include Totternhoe freestone from Bedfordshire, Purbeck marble, and different limestones (Ancaster, Chilmark, Clipsham, etc.).
Renewed Viking raids from 1016 stalled the Saxon efforts and very little from the Saxon abbey was incorporated in the later forms.
The nave. The north wall (left) features a mix of Norman arches dating back to 1077 and arches in the Early English style of 1200.
Norman abbey
Much of the current layout and proportions of the structure date from the first Norman abbot, Paul of Caen (1077–1093). The 14th abbot, he was appointed by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc.
Building work started in the year of Abbot Paul's arrival. The design and construction was overseen by the Norman Robert the Mason. The plan has very limited Anglo-Saxon elements and is clearly influenced by the French work at Cluny, Bernay, and Caen and shares a similar floor plan to Saint-Étienne and Lanfranc's Canterbury—although the poorer quality building material was a new challenge for Robert and he clearly borrowed some Roman techniques, learned while gathering material in Verulamium. To take maximum use of the hilltop the abbey was oriented to the south-east. The cruciform abbey was the largest built in England at that time, it had a chancel of four bays, a transept containing seven apses, and a nave of ten bays—fifteen bays long overall. Robert gave particular attention to solid foundations, running a continuous wall of layered bricks, flints and mortar below and pushing the foundations down to twelve feet to hit bedrock. Below the crossing tower special large stones were used.
The tower was a particular triumph—it is the only 11th century great crossing tower still standing in England. Robert began with special thick supporting walls and four massive brick piers. The four-level tower tapers at each stage with clasping buttresses on the three lower levels and circular buttresses on the fourth stage. The entire structure masses 5,000 tons and is 144 feet high. The tower was probably topped with a Norman pyramidal roof; the current roof is flat. The original ringing chamber had five bells—two paid for by the Abbot, two by a wealthy townsman, and one donated by the rector of Hoddesdon. None of these bells has survived.
There was a widespread belief that the abbey had two additional, smaller towers at the west end. No remains have been found.
The monastic abbey was completed in 1089 but not consecrated until Holy Innocents' Day, 1115, (28 Dec) by the Archbishop of Rouen. King Henry I attended as did many bishops and nobles.
A nunnery (Sopwell Priory) was founded nearby in 1140.
Internally the abbey was bare of sculpture, almost stark. The plaster walls were coloured and patterned in parts, with extensive tapestries adding colour. Sculptural decoration was added, mainly ornaments, as it became more fashionable in the 12th century—especially after the Gothic style arrived in England around 1170.
In the current structure the original Norman arches survive principally under the central tower and on the north side of the nave. The arches in the rest of the building are Gothic, following medieval rebuilding and extensions, and Victorian era restoration.
The abbey was extended in the 1190s by Abbot John de Cella (also known as John of Wallingford) (1195–1214); as the number of monks grew from fifty to over a hundred, the abbey was extended westwards with three bays added to the nave. The severe Norman west front was also rebuilt by Hugh de Goldclif—although how is uncertain, it was very costly but its 'rapid' weathering and later alterations have erased all but fragments. A more prominent shrine and altar to Saint Amphibalus were also added. The work was very slow under de Cella and was not completed until the time of Abbot William de Trumpington (1214–35). The low Norman tower roof was demolished and a new, much higher, broached spire was raised, sheathed in lead.
The St Albans Psalter (ca. 1130–45) is the best known of a number of important Romanesque illuminated manuscripts produced in the Abbey scriptorium. Later, Matthew Paris, a monk at St Albans from 1217 until his death in 1259, was important both as a chronicler and an artist. Eighteen of his manuscripts survive and are a rich source of contemporary information for historians.
Nicholas Breakspear was born near St Albans and applied to be admitted to the abbey as a novice, but he was turned down. He eventually managed to be accepted into an abbey in France. In 1154 he was elected Pope Adrian IV, the only English Pope there has ever been. The head of the abbey was confirmed as the premier abbot in England also in 1154.
13th to 15th centuries
An earthquake shook the abbey in 1250 and damaged the eastern end of the church. In 1257 the dangerously cracked sections were knocked down—three apses and two bays. The thick Presbytery wall supporting the tower was left. The rebuilding and updating was completed during the rule of Abbot Roger de Norton (1263–90).
On 10 October 1323 two piers on the south side of the nave collapsed dragging down much of the roof and wrecking five bays. Mason Henry Wy undertook the rebuilding, matching the Early English style of the rest of the bays but adding distinctly 14th century detailing and ornaments. The shrine to St Amphibalus had also been damaged and was remade.
Abbey Gateway, now part of St. Albans School.
Richard of Wallingford, abbot from 1297 to 1336 and a mathematician and astronomer, designed a celebrated clock, which was completed by William of Walsham after his death, but apparently destroyed during the reformation.
A new gateway, now called the Abbey Gateway, was built to the abbey grounds in 1365, which was the only part of the monastery buildings (besides the church) to survive the dissolution, later being used as a prison and now part of St Albans School. The other monastic buildings were located to the south of the gateway and church.
In the 15th century a large west window of nine main lights and a deep traced head was commissioned by John of Wheathampstead. The spire was reduced to a 'Hertfordshire spike', the roof pitch greatly reduced and battlements liberally added. Further new windows, at £50 each, were put in the transept by Abbot Wallingford (also known as William of Wallingford), who also had a new high altar screen made.
Dissolution and after
After the death of Abbot Ramryge in 1521 the abbey fell into debt and slow decay under three weak abbots. At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and its surrender on 5 December 1539 the income was £2,100 annually. The abbot and remaining forty monks were pensioned off and then the buildings were looted. All gold, silver and gilt objects were carted away with all other valuables; stonework was broken and defaced and graves opened to burn the contents.
The abbey became part of the diocese of Lincoln in 1542 and was moved to the diocese of London in 1550. The buildings suffered—neglect, second-rate repairs, even active damage. Richard Lee purchased all the buildings, except the church and chapel and some other Crown premises, in 1550. Lee then began the systematic demolition for building material to improve Lee Hall at Sopwell. In 1551, with the stone removed, Lee returned the land to the abbot. The area was named Abbey Ruins for the next 200 years or so.
In 1553 the Lady chapel became a school, the Great Gatehouse a town jail, some other buildings passed to the Crown, and the Abbey Church was sold to the town for £400 in 1553 by King Edward VI to be the church of the parish.
The cost of upkeep fell upon the town, although in 1596 and at irregular intervals later the Archdeacon was allowed to collect money for repairs by Brief in the diocese. After James I visited in 1612 he authorised another Brief, which collected around £2,000—most of which went on roof repairs. The English Civil War slashed the monies spent on repairs, while the abbey was used to hold prisoners of war and suffered from their vandalism, as well as that of their guards. Most of the metal objects that had survived the Dissolution were also removed and other ornamental parts were damaged in Puritan sternness. Another round of fund-raising in 1681–84 was again spent on the roof, repairing the Presbytery vault. A royal grant from William and Mary in 1689 went on general maintenance, 'repairs' to conceal some of the unfashionable Gothic features, and on new internal fittings. There was a second royal grant from William in 1698.
By the end of the 17th century the dilapidation was sufficient for a number of writers to comment upon it.
In 1703, from 26 November to 1 December, the Great Storm raged across southern England; the abbey lost the south transept window which was replaced in wood at a cost of £40. The window was clear glass with five lights and three transoms in an early Gothic Revival style by John Hawgood. Other windows, although not damaged in the storm, were a constant drain on the abbey budget in the 18th century.
A brief in 1723–24, seeking £5,775, notes a great crack in the south wall, that the north wall was eighteen inches from vertical, and that the roof timbers were decayed to the point of danger. The money raised was spent on the nave roof over ten bays.
Another brief was not issued until 1764. Again the roof was rotting, as was the south transept window, walls were cracked or shattered in part and the south wall had subsided and now leant outwards. Despite a target of £2,500 a mere £600 was raised.
In the 1770s the abbey came close to demolition; the expense of repairs meant a scheme to destroy the abbey and erect a smaller church almost succeeded.
A storm in 1797 caused some subsidence, cracking open graves, scattering pavement tiles, flooding the church interior and leaving a few more arches off-vertical.
19th century
The Wallingford Screen of c. 1480—the statues are Victorian replacements (1884–89) of the originals, destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when the screen itself was also damaged. Statues of St Alban and St Amphibalus stand on either side of the altar.
This century was marked with a number of repair schemes. The abbey received some money from the 1818 "Million Act", and in 1820 £450 was raised to buy an organ—a second-hand example made in 1670.
The major efforts to revive the abbey church came under four men—L. N. Cottingham, Rector H. J. B. Nicholson, and, especially, George Gilbert Scott and Edmund Beckett, first Baron Grimthorpe.
In February 1832 a portion of the clerestory wall fell through the roof of the south aisle, leaving a hole almost thirty feet long. With the need for serious repair work evident the architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham was called in to survey the building. His Survey was presented in 1832 and was worrying reading: everywhere mortar was in a wretched condition and wooden beams were rotting and twisting. Cottingham recommended new beams throughout the roof and a new steeper pitch, removal of the spire and new timbers in the tower, new paving, ironwork to hold the west transept wall up, a new stone south transept window, new buttresses, a new drainage system for the roof, new ironwork on almost all the windows, and on and on. He estimated a cost of £14,000. A public subscription of £4,000 was raised, of which £1,700 vanished in expenses. With the limited funds the clerestory wall was rebuilt, the nave roof re-leaded, the tower spike removed, some forty blocked windows reopened and glazed, and the south window remade in stone.
Henry Nicholson, rector from 1835 to 1866, was also active in repairing the abbey church—as far as he could, and in uncovering lost or neglected Gothic features.
In 1856 repair efforts began again; £4,000 was raised and slow moves started to gain the abbey the status of cathedral. George Gilbert Scottwas appointed the project architect and oversaw a number of works from 1860 until his death in 1878.
Scott began by having the medieval floor restored, necessitating the removal of tons of earth, and fixing the north aisle roof. From 1872–77 the restored floors were re-tiled in matching stone and copies of old tile designs. A further 2,000 tons of earth were shifted in 1863 during work on the foundation and a new drainage system. In 1870 the tower piers were found to be badly weakened with many cracks and cavities. Huge timbers were inserted and the arches filled with brick as an emergency measure. Repair work took until May 1871 and cost over £2,000. The south wall of the nave was now far from straight; Scott reinforced the north wall and put in scaffolding to take the weight of the roof off the wall, then had it jacked straight in under three hours. The wall was then buttressed with five huge new masses and set right. Scott was lauded as "saviour of the Abbey." From 1870–75 around £20,000 was spent on the abbey.
In 1845 St Albans was transferred from the Diocese of Lincoln to the Diocese of Rochester. Then, in 1875, the Bishopric of St Albans Act was passed and on 30 April 1877 the See of St Albans was created, which comprises about 300 churches in the counties of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. The then Bishop of Rochester, the Right Revd Dr Thomas Legh Claughton, elected to take the northern division of his old diocese and on 12 June 1877 was enthroned first Bishop of St Albans, a position he held until 1890. He is buried in the churchyard on the north side of the nave.
George Gilbert Scott was working on the nave roof, vaulting and west bay when he died on 27 March 1878. His plans were partially completed by his son, John Oldrid Scott, but the remaining work fell into the hands of Lord Grimthorpe, whose efforts have attracted much controversy—Nikolaus Pevsner calling him a "pompous, righteous bully." However, he donated much of the immense sum of £130,000 the work cost.
Whereas Scott's work had clearly been in sympathy with the existing building, Grimthorpe's plans reflected the Victorian ideal. Indeed, he spent considerable time dismissing and criticising the work of Scott and the efforts of his son.
Grimthorpe first reinstated the original pitch of the roof, although the battlements added for the lower roof were retained. Completed in 1879, the roof was leaded, following on Scott's desires.
1805 engraving of the west front of the abbey showing the lost Wheathampstead window.
His second major project was the most controversial. The west front, with the great Wheathampstead window, was cracked and leaning, and Grimthorpe, never more than an amateur architect, designed the new front himself—attacked as dense, misproportioned and unsympathetic: "His impoverishment as a designer ... [is] evident"; "this man, so practical and ingenious, was utterly devoid of taste ... his great qualities were marred by arrogance ... and a lack of historic sense". Counter proposals were deliberately substituted by Grimthorpe for poorly drawn versions and Grimthorpe's design was accepted?. During building it was considerably reworked in order to fit the actual frontage and is not improved by the poor quality sculpture. Work began in 1880 and was completed in April 1883, having cost £20,000.
The Lady Chapel at the east end of the cathedral.
Grimthorpe was noted for his aversion to the Perpendicular—to the extent that he would have sections he disliked demolished as "too rotten" rather than remade. In his reconstruction, especially of windows, he commonly mixed architectural styles carelessly (see the south aisle, the south choir screen and vaulting). He spent £50,000 remaking the nave. Elsewhere he completely rebuilt the south wall cloisters, with new heavy buttresses, and removed the arcading of the east cloisters during rebuilding the south transept walls. In the south transept he completely remade the south face, completed in 1885, including the huge lancet window group—his proudest achievement—and the flanking turrets; a weighty new tiled roof was also made. In the north transept Grimthorpe had the Perpendicular window demolished and his design inserted—a rose window of circles, cusped circles and lozenges arrayed in five rings around the central light, sixty-four lights in total, each circle with a different glazing pattern.
Grimthorpe continued through the Presbytery in his own style, adapting the antechapel for Consistory Courts, and into the Lady Chapel. After a pointed lawsuit with Henry Hucks Gibbs, first Baron Aldenham over who should direct the restoration, Grimthorpe had the vault remade and reproportioned in stone, made the floor in black and white marble (1893), and had new Victorian arcading and sculpture put below the canopy work. Externally the buttresses were expanded to support the new roof, and the walls were refaced.
As early as 1897, Grimthorpe was having to return to previously renovated sections to make repairs. His use of over-strong cement led to cracking, while his fondness for ironwork in windows led to corrosion and damage to the surrounding stone.
Grimthorpe died in 1905 and was interred in the churchyard. He left a bequest for continuing work on the buildings.
During this century the name St Albans Abbey was given to one of the town's railway stations.
20th century
John Oldrid Scott (died 1913) (George Gilbert Scott's son), despite frequent clashes with Grimthorpe, had continued working within the cathedral. Scott was a steadfast supporter of the Gothic revival and designed the tomb of the first bishop; he had a new bishop's throne built (1903), together with commemorative stalls for Bishop Festing and two Archdeacons, and new choir stalls. He also repositioned and rebuilt the organ (1907). Further work was interrupted by the war.
A number of memorials to the war were added to the cathedral, notably the painting The Passing of Eleanor by Frank Salisbury (stolen 1973) and the reglazing of the main west window, dedicated in 1925.
Following the Enabling Act of 1919 control of the buildings passed to a Parochial Church Council (replaced by the Cathedral Council in 1968), who appointed the woodwork specialist John Rogers as Architect and Surveyor of the Fabric. He uncovered extensive death watch beetledamage in the presbytery vault and oversaw the repair (1930–31). He had four tons of rubbish removed from the crossing tower and the main timbers reinforced (1931–32), and invested in the extensive use of insecticide throughout the wood structures. In 1934, the eight bells were overhauled and four new bells added to be used in the celebration of George V's jubilee.
Cecil Brown was architect and surveyor from 1939 to 1962. At first he merely oversaw the lowering of the bells for the war and established a fire watch, with the pump in the slype. After the war, in the 1950s, the organ was removed, rebuilt and reinstalled and new pews added. His major work was on the crossing tower. Grimthorpe's cement was found to be damaging the Roman bricks: every brick in the tower was replaced as needed and reset in proper mortar by one man, Walter Barrett. The tower ceiling was renovated as were the nave murals. Brown established the Muniments Room to gather and hold all the church documents.
In 1972, to encourage a closer link between celebrant and congregation, the massive nine-ton pulpit along with the choir stalls and permanent pews was dismantled and removed. The altar space was enlarged and improved. New 'lighter' wood (limed oak) choir stalls were put in, and chairs replaced the pews. A new wooden pulpit was acquired from a Norfolk church and installed in 1974. External floodlighting was added in 1975.
A major survey in 1974 revealed new leaks, decay and other deterioration, and a ten-year restoration plan was agreed. Again the roofing required much work. The nave and clerestory roofs were repaired in four stages with new leading. The nave project was completed in 1984 at a total cost of £1.75 million. The clerestory windows were repaired with the corroded iron replaced with delta bronze and other Grimthorpe work on the clerestory was replaced. Seventy-two new heads for the corbel table were made. Grimthorpe's west front was cracking, again due to the use originally of too strong a mortar, and was repaired.
A new visitors' centre was proposed in 1970. Planning permission was sought in 1973; there was a public inquiry and approval was granted in 1977. Constructed to the south side of the cathedral close to the site of the original chapter house of the abbey, the new 'Chapter House' cost around £1 million and was officially opened on 8 June 1982 by Queen Elizabeth. The main building material was 500,000 replica Roman bricks.
Other late 20th-century works include the restoration of Alban's shrine, with a new embroidered canopy, and the stained glass designed by Alan Younger for Grimthorpe's north transept rose window, unveiled in 1989 by Diana, Princess of Wales.
Modern times
The Bishop is the Right Reverend Alan Smith, installed in September 2009. The Venerable Jonathan Smith is Archdeacon of St Albans, installed in October 2008. On 2 July 2004, the Very Reverend Canon Dr Jeffrey John became the ninth Dean of the Cathedral.
Robert Runcie, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was bishop of St Albans from 1970 to 1980 and returned to live in the city after his retirement; he is commemorated by a gargoyle on the Cathedral as well as being buried in the graveyard. Colin Slee, former Dean of Southwark Cathedral, was sub-dean at St Albans under Runcie and then Dean, Peter Moore. The bishop's house is in Abbey Mill Lane, St Albans, as is the house of the Bishop of Hertford. The Reverend Canon Eric James, Chaplain Extraordinary to HM the Queen, was Canon at St Albans for many years.
Siracusa, ancient Greek: Συράκουσαι (Syrákousai), notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the preeminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes.
This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in ancient times, when Siracusa was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world.
« Ti sovvien della bella Doriese
nomata Siracusa nell'effigie
d'oro cò suoi delfini e i suoi cavalli,
serto del mare? »
(Gabriele D'Annunzio, "L'oleandro")
A tribute to Joseph Louis Lagrange and his Mécanique Analytique.
The cycloid, the lagrangian equation of motion with the lagrangian function, the lagrangian function, position-velocity-acceleration in lagrangian formalism, the lagrangian equation of motion, arc length, Frénet-Serret's formulas, the cardioid, the main trihedron, ...
Studying Lagrangian Mechanics is very inspiring.
Self shot - March 2012.
12/52
The impossible triangle - Il triangolo impossibile
The Penrose triangle, also known as the tribar, is an impossible object. It was first created by the Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd in 1934. The mathematician Roger Penrose independently devised and popularised it in the 1950s, describing it as "impossibility in its purest form". It is featured prominently in the works of artist M. C. Escher, whose earlier depictions of impossible objects partly inspired it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_triangle
Visto a Mantova - Seen in Mantova, Italy - C5935
Non è un fotomontaggio!!
Why a picture of Hydrangeas in our garden in Leicester on World Photography Day?
a) This was taken in the UK but hortensia, as they are also known, are flowering plants actually native to Asia and both North & South America so their spread is truly world-wide.
b) Hortensia, is a Latinised version of the French given name Hortense, honoring French astronomer and mathematician Nicole-Reine Hortense Lepaute.
I like the drama of these large flower heads and eye-catching green leaves but I also see them as a representation of life. How so? In this one bush is the whole life cycle if you like; birth is seen at the bottom right as a new flower begins to bloom, maturity is all around in the bright pink flowers and death beckons bottom left as the petals are already brown in anticipation of the autumn to come.
I also like how the colour of the flower is a direct indication of the pH of the soil. This pink plant is growing in alkaline conditions with a pH of 6.5 or higher while interestingly the next bush (off shot to the right) is blue indicating acidic soil with a pH or 5.5 or lower.
Best seen large IMO.
Strobist: AB800 with HOBD-W, 15 degree grid, overhead, 45 degrees. AB1600 with 60X39 softbox overhead right, AB800 with Softlighter II camera left. Triggered by Cybersync.
Alan Mathison Turing OBE FRS was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Legend.
"The Mathematician" (detail) by Andrey Zakirzyanov
colored pencil on paper
57x 76 cm
1990
My animations & videoart here - www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F07F0FC9A199F76B
"The Mathematician" by Andrey Zakirzyanov
colored pencil on paper
57x 76 cm
1990
My animations & videoart here - www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F07F0FC9A199F76B
Made Explore #115 on July 5th !
Also known as Romanesco Cauliflower, or chou romanesco or various other similar names.
What a meal for a mathematician! Just about the best natural example of a self-similar fractal that you can get your hands on, or even grow in your garden.
I did steam it and eat it and can report that it's vaguely similar to cauliflower but with a slighty 'nuttier' taste.
-Added to theCream of the Crop pool as most favorited.
Ulugh Beg (rarement Oulugh Beg), né Muhammad Tāraghay, est un prince, puis sultan, de la dynastie timouride, né le 22 mars 1394 à Sultaniya (Iran), mort le 27 octobre 1449 à Samarcande (aujourd'hui en Ouzbékistan). Astronome et mathématicien, il est principalement connu pour avoir créé et dirigé l'équipe des "Tables sultaniennes", un catalogue astronomique qui a marqué son époque.
Ulugh Beg (rarely Oulugh Beg), born Muhammad Tāraghay, was a prince, then sultan, of the Timurid dynasty, born on March 22, 1394 in Sultaniya (Iran), died on October 27, 1449 in Samarkand (today in Uzbekistan). Astronomer and mathematician, he is mainly known for having created and directed the team of the "Sultanian Tables", an astronomical catalog which marked his time.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Walter Rudin House is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marshall Erdman prefab building located at 110 Marinette Trail, Madison, Wisconsin. Designed in 1957, it is the first of the only two examples of the second type (known as Prefab #2) of the Marshall Erdman Prefab Houses. This house and the James McBean Residence have the same floor plan and vary only in minor details such as paint color and siting. Construction was completed in June, 1959 and the house was sold to UW-Madison mathematicians Walter and Mary Ellen Rudin.
The house has a large, square 2-story living room which is lit by a wall of windows. Also on the first floor are the dining area, kitchen, entry hall, utility room, and the master bedroom. A large concrete block fireplace separates the kitchen and living room. A stairway leads to a balcony and three second-story bedrooms. Unusual for a Wright-designed house, it has a full basement.
The house is constructed from concrete block with horizontal board and batten siding. A row of windows just below the soffit make the chunky flat cantilevered roof appear to float above the house. A carport attached to one corner of the house completes the design.
Stock picture... NASA mathematician dies at 101. I recently purchased this doll but she has not arrived yet.
Ear of Dionysius (Orecchio di Dionisio)
Because I was at the park right at its opening, I was able to spend a few minutes in this cave by myself. These two in the photo were the last to leave, leaving the cave exclusively to me, if only for a few minutes....
From Wikipedia:
The Ear of Dionysius (Italian: Orecchio di Dionisio) is a limestone cave carved out of the Temenites hill in the city of Syracuse, on the island of Sicily in Italy. Its name, given by the painter Michelangelo da Caravaggio, comes from its similarity in shape to the human ear. The name is also linked to echoes in the cave.[citation needed]
Geology
Exterior view in the context of the Archaeological Park. 2012
The Ear of Dionysius was most likely formed out of an old limestone quarry. It is 23 metres high and extends 65 metres back into the cliff. Horizontally, it bends in an approximate "S" shape, vertically it is tapered at the top like a teardrop. Because of its shape, the Ear has extremely good acoustics, making even a small sound resonate throughout the cave.
Purpose
This cave was dug in Greek/Roman times to provide water storage for Syracuse. A narrow tunnel was dug first. This tunnel was widened by digging down and sideways afterwards, giving the cave its unusual shape. The small narrow tunnel is still visible on the top of this artificial cave. An earthquake struck this area causing damage, and the cave became unusable for water storage afterwards.
The cave was named after Dionysius I of Syracuse who used the cave as a prison, and would listen to hear what his prisoners were saying about him through the echoes in the cave.
History
The name of the cave was coined in 1608 by the painter Caravaggio,[1] who was shown the grotto by the mathematician, antiquarian and archaeologist Vincenzo Mirabella. It refers to the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse. According to legend, Dionysius used the cave as a prison for political dissidents, and by means of the perfect acoustics eavesdropped on the plans and secrets of his captives. Another legend claims that Dionysius carved the cave in its shape so that it would amplify the screams of prisoners being tortured in it.[citation needed] The sound-focusing effect can no longer be heard because access to the focal point is no longer possible. The visitors of the cave can however still hear the echo while they are in the Ear of Dionysius.[citation needed]
Because of its reputation for acoustic flawlessness, the Ear of Dionysius has also come to refer to a type of ear trumpet that has a flexible tube. The term 'Ear of Dionysius' can also refer to surveillance, specifically for political gain.[citation needed]
In popular culture
The cave is featured as the location of the tomb of Archimedes in the 2023 film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
St Albans Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, is a Church of England cathedral church within St Albans, England. At 84 metres (276 ft), its nave is the longest of any cathedral in England. With much of its present architecture dating from Norman times, it was formerly known as St Albans Abbey before it became a cathedral in 1877. It is the second longest cathedral in the United Kingdom (after Winchester). Local residents often call it "the abbey", although the present cathedral represents only the church of the old Benedictine abbey.
The abbey church, although legally a cathedral church, differs in certain particulars from most of the other cathedrals in England: it is also used as a parish church, of which the dean is rector. He has the same powers, responsibilities and duties as the rector of any other parish.
Alban was a pagan living in the Roman city of Verulamium, now Verulamium Park, in St Albans, in Hertfordshire, England, about 22 miles (35 km) north of London along Watling Street. Before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, local Christians were being persecuted by the Romans. Alban sheltered their priest, Saint Amphibalus, in his home and was converted to the Christian faith by him. When the soldiers came to Alban's house looking for the priest, Alban exchanged cloaks with the priest and let himself be arrested in his place. Alban was taken before the magistrate, where he avowed his new Christian faith and was condemned for it. He was beheaded, according to legend, on the spot where the cathedral named after him now stands. The site is on a steep hill and legend has it that his head rolled down the hill after being cut off and that a well sprang up at the point where it stopped.
A well certainly exists today and the road up to the cathedral is named Holywell Hill. However the current well structure is no older than the late 19th century and it is thought that the name of the street derives from the "Halywell" river and "Halywell Bridge", not from the well.
The date of Alban's execution is a matter of some debate and is generally given as "circa 250"—scholars generally suggest dates of 209, 254 or 304.
History of the abbey and cathedral
A memoria over the execution point and holding the remains of Alban existed at the site from the mid-4th century (possibly earlier); Bedementions a church and Gildas a shrine. Bishop Germanus of Auxerre visited in 429 and took a portion of the apparently still bloody earth away. The style of this structure is unknown; the 13th century chronicler Matthew Paris (see below) claimed that the Saxons destroyed the building in 586.
Saxon buildings
Offa II of Mercia, who ruled in the 8th century, is said to have founded the Benedictine abbey and monastery at St Albans. All later religious structures are dated from the foundation of Offa's abbey in 793. The abbey was built on Holmhurst Hill—now Holywell Hill—across the River Ver from the ruins of Verulamium. Again there is no information to the form of the first abbey. The abbey was probably sacked by the Danes around 890 and, despite Paris's claims, the office of abbot remained empty from around 920 until the 970s when the efforts of Dunstanreached the town.
There was an intention to rebuild the abbey in 1005 when Abbot Ealdred was licensed to remove building material from Verulamium. With the town resting on clay and chalk the only tough stone is flint. This was used with a lime mortar and then either plastered over or left bare. With the great quantities of brick, tile and other stone in Verulamium the Roman site became a prime source of building material for the abbeys, and other projects in the area, up to the 18th century. Sections demanding worked stone used Lincolnshire limestone (Barnack stone) from Verulamium, later worked stones include Totternhoe freestone from Bedfordshire, Purbeck marble, and different limestones (Ancaster, Chilmark, Clipsham, etc.).
Renewed Viking raids from 1016 stalled the Saxon efforts and very little from the Saxon abbey was incorporated in the later forms.
The nave. The north wall (left) features a mix of Norman arches dating back to 1077 and arches in the Early English style of 1200.
Norman abbey
Much of the current layout and proportions of the structure date from the first Norman abbot, Paul of Caen (1077–1093). The 14th abbot, he was appointed by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc.
Building work started in the year of Abbot Paul's arrival. The design and construction was overseen by the Norman Robert the Mason. The plan has very limited Anglo-Saxon elements and is clearly influenced by the French work at Cluny, Bernay, and Caen and shares a similar floor plan to Saint-Étienne and Lanfranc's Canterbury—although the poorer quality building material was a new challenge for Robert and he clearly borrowed some Roman techniques, learned while gathering material in Verulamium. To take maximum use of the hilltop the abbey was oriented to the south-east. The cruciform abbey was the largest built in England at that time, it had a chancel of four bays, a transept containing seven apses, and a nave of ten bays—fifteen bays long overall. Robert gave particular attention to solid foundations, running a continuous wall of layered bricks, flints and mortar below and pushing the foundations down to twelve feet to hit bedrock. Below the crossing tower special large stones were used.
The tower was a particular triumph—it is the only 11th century great crossing tower still standing in England. Robert began with special thick supporting walls and four massive brick piers. The four-level tower tapers at each stage with clasping buttresses on the three lower levels and circular buttresses on the fourth stage. The entire structure masses 5,000 tons and is 144 feet high. The tower was probably topped with a Norman pyramidal roof; the current roof is flat. The original ringing chamber had five bells—two paid for by the Abbot, two by a wealthy townsman, and one donated by the rector of Hoddesdon. None of these bells has survived.
There was a widespread belief that the abbey had two additional, smaller towers at the west end. No remains have been found.
The monastic abbey was completed in 1089 but not consecrated until Holy Innocents' Day, 1115, (28 Dec) by the Archbishop of Rouen. King Henry I attended as did many bishops and nobles.
A nunnery (Sopwell Priory) was founded nearby in 1140.
Internally the abbey was bare of sculpture, almost stark. The plaster walls were coloured and patterned in parts, with extensive tapestries adding colour. Sculptural decoration was added, mainly ornaments, as it became more fashionable in the 12th century—especially after the Gothic style arrived in England around 1170.
In the current structure the original Norman arches survive principally under the central tower and on the north side of the nave. The arches in the rest of the building are Gothic, following medieval rebuilding and extensions, and Victorian era restoration.
The abbey was extended in the 1190s by Abbot John de Cella (also known as John of Wallingford) (1195–1214); as the number of monks grew from fifty to over a hundred, the abbey was extended westwards with three bays added to the nave. The severe Norman west front was also rebuilt by Hugh de Goldclif—although how is uncertain, it was very costly but its 'rapid' weathering and later alterations have erased all but fragments. A more prominent shrine and altar to Saint Amphibalus were also added. The work was very slow under de Cella and was not completed until the time of Abbot William de Trumpington (1214–35). The low Norman tower roof was demolished and a new, much higher, broached spire was raised, sheathed in lead.
The St Albans Psalter (ca. 1130–45) is the best known of a number of important Romanesque illuminated manuscripts produced in the Abbey scriptorium. Later, Matthew Paris, a monk at St Albans from 1217 until his death in 1259, was important both as a chronicler and an artist. Eighteen of his manuscripts survive and are a rich source of contemporary information for historians.
Nicholas Breakspear was born near St Albans and applied to be admitted to the abbey as a novice, but he was turned down. He eventually managed to be accepted into an abbey in France. In 1154 he was elected Pope Adrian IV, the only English Pope there has ever been. The head of the abbey was confirmed as the premier abbot in England also in 1154.
13th to 15th centuries
An earthquake shook the abbey in 1250 and damaged the eastern end of the church. In 1257 the dangerously cracked sections were knocked down—three apses and two bays. The thick Presbytery wall supporting the tower was left. The rebuilding and updating was completed during the rule of Abbot Roger de Norton (1263–90).
On 10 October 1323 two piers on the south side of the nave collapsed dragging down much of the roof and wrecking five bays. Mason Henry Wy undertook the rebuilding, matching the Early English style of the rest of the bays but adding distinctly 14th century detailing and ornaments. The shrine to St Amphibalus had also been damaged and was remade.
Abbey Gateway, now part of St. Albans School.
Richard of Wallingford, abbot from 1297 to 1336 and a mathematician and astronomer, designed a celebrated clock, which was completed by William of Walsham after his death, but apparently destroyed during the reformation.
A new gateway, now called the Abbey Gateway, was built to the abbey grounds in 1365, which was the only part of the monastery buildings (besides the church) to survive the dissolution, later being used as a prison and now part of St Albans School. The other monastic buildings were located to the south of the gateway and church.
In the 15th century a large west window of nine main lights and a deep traced head was commissioned by John of Wheathampstead. The spire was reduced to a 'Hertfordshire spike', the roof pitch greatly reduced and battlements liberally added. Further new windows, at £50 each, were put in the transept by Abbot Wallingford (also known as William of Wallingford), who also had a new high altar screen made.
Dissolution and after
After the death of Abbot Ramryge in 1521 the abbey fell into debt and slow decay under three weak abbots. At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and its surrender on 5 December 1539 the income was £2,100 annually. The abbot and remaining forty monks were pensioned off and then the buildings were looted. All gold, silver and gilt objects were carted away with all other valuables; stonework was broken and defaced and graves opened to burn the contents.
The abbey became part of the diocese of Lincoln in 1542 and was moved to the diocese of London in 1550. The buildings suffered—neglect, second-rate repairs, even active damage. Richard Lee purchased all the buildings, except the church and chapel and some other Crown premises, in 1550. Lee then began the systematic demolition for building material to improve Lee Hall at Sopwell. In 1551, with the stone removed, Lee returned the land to the abbot. The area was named Abbey Ruins for the next 200 years or so.
In 1553 the Lady chapel became a school, the Great Gatehouse a town jail, some other buildings passed to the Crown, and the Abbey Church was sold to the town for £400 in 1553 by King Edward VI to be the church of the parish.
The cost of upkeep fell upon the town, although in 1596 and at irregular intervals later the Archdeacon was allowed to collect money for repairs by Brief in the diocese. After James I visited in 1612 he authorised another Brief, which collected around £2,000—most of which went on roof repairs. The English Civil War slashed the monies spent on repairs, while the abbey was used to hold prisoners of war and suffered from their vandalism, as well as that of their guards. Most of the metal objects that had survived the Dissolution were also removed and other ornamental parts were damaged in Puritan sternness. Another round of fund-raising in 1681–84 was again spent on the roof, repairing the Presbytery vault. A royal grant from William and Mary in 1689 went on general maintenance, 'repairs' to conceal some of the unfashionable Gothic features, and on new internal fittings. There was a second royal grant from William in 1698.
By the end of the 17th century the dilapidation was sufficient for a number of writers to comment upon it.
In 1703, from 26 November to 1 December, the Great Storm raged across southern England; the abbey lost the south transept window which was replaced in wood at a cost of £40. The window was clear glass with five lights and three transoms in an early Gothic Revival style by John Hawgood. Other windows, although not damaged in the storm, were a constant drain on the abbey budget in the 18th century.
A brief in 1723–24, seeking £5,775, notes a great crack in the south wall, that the north wall was eighteen inches from vertical, and that the roof timbers were decayed to the point of danger. The money raised was spent on the nave roof over ten bays.
Another brief was not issued until 1764. Again the roof was rotting, as was the south transept window, walls were cracked or shattered in part and the south wall had subsided and now leant outwards. Despite a target of £2,500 a mere £600 was raised.
In the 1770s the abbey came close to demolition; the expense of repairs meant a scheme to destroy the abbey and erect a smaller church almost succeeded.
A storm in 1797 caused some subsidence, cracking open graves, scattering pavement tiles, flooding the church interior and leaving a few more arches off-vertical.
19th century
The Wallingford Screen of c. 1480—the statues are Victorian replacements (1884–89) of the originals, destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when the screen itself was also damaged. Statues of St Alban and St Amphibalus stand on either side of the altar.
This century was marked with a number of repair schemes. The abbey received some money from the 1818 "Million Act", and in 1820 £450 was raised to buy an organ—a second-hand example made in 1670.
The major efforts to revive the abbey church came under four men—L. N. Cottingham, Rector H. J. B. Nicholson, and, especially, George Gilbert Scott and Edmund Beckett, first Baron Grimthorpe.
In February 1832 a portion of the clerestory wall fell through the roof of the south aisle, leaving a hole almost thirty feet long. With the need for serious repair work evident the architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham was called in to survey the building. His Survey was presented in 1832 and was worrying reading: everywhere mortar was in a wretched condition and wooden beams were rotting and twisting. Cottingham recommended new beams throughout the roof and a new steeper pitch, removal of the spire and new timbers in the tower, new paving, ironwork to hold the west transept wall up, a new stone south transept window, new buttresses, a new drainage system for the roof, new ironwork on almost all the windows, and on and on. He estimated a cost of £14,000. A public subscription of £4,000 was raised, of which £1,700 vanished in expenses. With the limited funds the clerestory wall was rebuilt, the nave roof re-leaded, the tower spike removed, some forty blocked windows reopened and glazed, and the south window remade in stone.
Henry Nicholson, rector from 1835 to 1866, was also active in repairing the abbey church—as far as he could, and in uncovering lost or neglected Gothic features.
In 1856 repair efforts began again; £4,000 was raised and slow moves started to gain the abbey the status of cathedral. George Gilbert Scottwas appointed the project architect and oversaw a number of works from 1860 until his death in 1878.
Scott began by having the medieval floor restored, necessitating the removal of tons of earth, and fixing the north aisle roof. From 1872–77 the restored floors were re-tiled in matching stone and copies of old tile designs. A further 2,000 tons of earth were shifted in 1863 during work on the foundation and a new drainage system. In 1870 the tower piers were found to be badly weakened with many cracks and cavities. Huge timbers were inserted and the arches filled with brick as an emergency measure. Repair work took until May 1871 and cost over £2,000. The south wall of the nave was now far from straight; Scott reinforced the north wall and put in scaffolding to take the weight of the roof off the wall, then had it jacked straight in under three hours. The wall was then buttressed with five huge new masses and set right. Scott was lauded as "saviour of the Abbey." From 1870–75 around £20,000 was spent on the abbey.
In 1845 St Albans was transferred from the Diocese of Lincoln to the Diocese of Rochester. Then, in 1875, the Bishopric of St Albans Act was passed and on 30 April 1877 the See of St Albans was created, which comprises about 300 churches in the counties of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. The then Bishop of Rochester, the Right Revd Dr Thomas Legh Claughton, elected to take the northern division of his old diocese and on 12 June 1877 was enthroned first Bishop of St Albans, a position he held until 1890. He is buried in the churchyard on the north side of the nave.
George Gilbert Scott was working on the nave roof, vaulting and west bay when he died on 27 March 1878. His plans were partially completed by his son, John Oldrid Scott, but the remaining work fell into the hands of Lord Grimthorpe, whose efforts have attracted much controversy—Nikolaus Pevsner calling him a "pompous, righteous bully." However, he donated much of the immense sum of £130,000 the work cost.
Whereas Scott's work had clearly been in sympathy with the existing building, Grimthorpe's plans reflected the Victorian ideal. Indeed, he spent considerable time dismissing and criticising the work of Scott and the efforts of his son.
Grimthorpe first reinstated the original pitch of the roof, although the battlements added for the lower roof were retained. Completed in 1879, the roof was leaded, following on Scott's desires.
1805 engraving of the west front of the abbey showing the lost Wheathampstead window.
His second major project was the most controversial. The west front, with the great Wheathampstead window, was cracked and leaning, and Grimthorpe, never more than an amateur architect, designed the new front himself—attacked as dense, misproportioned and unsympathetic: "His impoverishment as a designer ... [is] evident"; "this man, so practical and ingenious, was utterly devoid of taste ... his great qualities were marred by arrogance ... and a lack of historic sense". Counter proposals were deliberately substituted by Grimthorpe for poorly drawn versions and Grimthorpe's design was accepted?. During building it was considerably reworked in order to fit the actual frontage and is not improved by the poor quality sculpture. Work began in 1880 and was completed in April 1883, having cost £20,000.
The Lady Chapel at the east end of the cathedral.
Grimthorpe was noted for his aversion to the Perpendicular—to the extent that he would have sections he disliked demolished as "too rotten" rather than remade. In his reconstruction, especially of windows, he commonly mixed architectural styles carelessly (see the south aisle, the south choir screen and vaulting). He spent £50,000 remaking the nave. Elsewhere he completely rebuilt the south wall cloisters, with new heavy buttresses, and removed the arcading of the east cloisters during rebuilding the south transept walls. In the south transept he completely remade the south face, completed in 1885, including the huge lancet window group—his proudest achievement—and the flanking turrets; a weighty new tiled roof was also made. In the north transept Grimthorpe had the Perpendicular window demolished and his design inserted—a rose window of circles, cusped circles and lozenges arrayed in five rings around the central light, sixty-four lights in total, each circle with a different glazing pattern.
Grimthorpe continued through the Presbytery in his own style, adapting the antechapel for Consistory Courts, and into the Lady Chapel. After a pointed lawsuit with Henry Hucks Gibbs, first Baron Aldenham over who should direct the restoration, Grimthorpe had the vault remade and reproportioned in stone, made the floor in black and white marble (1893), and had new Victorian arcading and sculpture put below the canopy work. Externally the buttresses were expanded to support the new roof, and the walls were refaced.
As early as 1897, Grimthorpe was having to return to previously renovated sections to make repairs. His use of over-strong cement led to cracking, while his fondness for ironwork in windows led to corrosion and damage to the surrounding stone.
Grimthorpe died in 1905 and was interred in the churchyard. He left a bequest for continuing work on the buildings.
During this century the name St Albans Abbey was given to one of the town's railway stations.
20th century
John Oldrid Scott (died 1913) (George Gilbert Scott's son), despite frequent clashes with Grimthorpe, had continued working within the cathedral. Scott was a steadfast supporter of the Gothic revival and designed the tomb of the first bishop; he had a new bishop's throne built (1903), together with commemorative stalls for Bishop Festing and two Archdeacons, and new choir stalls. He also repositioned and rebuilt the organ (1907). Further work was interrupted by the war.
A number of memorials to the war were added to the cathedral, notably the painting The Passing of Eleanor by Frank Salisbury (stolen 1973) and the reglazing of the main west window, dedicated in 1925.
Following the Enabling Act of 1919 control of the buildings passed to a Parochial Church Council (replaced by the Cathedral Council in 1968), who appointed the woodwork specialist John Rogers as Architect and Surveyor of the Fabric. He uncovered extensive death watch beetledamage in the presbytery vault and oversaw the repair (1930–31). He had four tons of rubbish removed from the crossing tower and the main timbers reinforced (1931–32), and invested in the extensive use of insecticide throughout the wood structures. In 1934, the eight bells were overhauled and four new bells added to be used in the celebration of George V's jubilee.
Cecil Brown was architect and surveyor from 1939 to 1962. At first he merely oversaw the lowering of the bells for the war and established a fire watch, with the pump in the slype. After the war, in the 1950s, the organ was removed, rebuilt and reinstalled and new pews added. His major work was on the crossing tower. Grimthorpe's cement was found to be damaging the Roman bricks: every brick in the tower was replaced as needed and reset in proper mortar by one man, Walter Barrett. The tower ceiling was renovated as were the nave murals. Brown established the Muniments Room to gather and hold all the church documents.
In 1972, to encourage a closer link between celebrant and congregation, the massive nine-ton pulpit along with the choir stalls and permanent pews was dismantled and removed. The altar space was enlarged and improved. New 'lighter' wood (limed oak) choir stalls were put in, and chairs replaced the pews. A new wooden pulpit was acquired from a Norfolk church and installed in 1974. External floodlighting was added in 1975.
A major survey in 1974 revealed new leaks, decay and other deterioration, and a ten-year restoration plan was agreed. Again the roofing required much work. The nave and clerestory roofs were repaired in four stages with new leading. The nave project was completed in 1984 at a total cost of £1.75 million. The clerestory windows were repaired with the corroded iron replaced with delta bronze and other Grimthorpe work on the clerestory was replaced. Seventy-two new heads for the corbel table were made. Grimthorpe's west front was cracking, again due to the use originally of too strong a mortar, and was repaired.
A new visitors' centre was proposed in 1970. Planning permission was sought in 1973; there was a public inquiry and approval was granted in 1977. Constructed to the south side of the cathedral close to the site of the original chapter house of the abbey, the new 'Chapter House' cost around £1 million and was officially opened on 8 June 1982 by Queen Elizabeth. The main building material was 500,000 replica Roman bricks.
Other late 20th-century works include the restoration of Alban's shrine, with a new embroidered canopy, and the stained glass designed by Alan Younger for Grimthorpe's north transept rose window, unveiled in 1989 by Diana, Princess of Wales.
Modern times
The Bishop is the Right Reverend Alan Smith, installed in September 2009. The Venerable Jonathan Smith is Archdeacon of St Albans, installed in October 2008. On 2 July 2004, the Very Reverend Canon Dr Jeffrey John became the ninth Dean of the Cathedral.
Robert Runcie, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was bishop of St Albans from 1970 to 1980 and returned to live in the city after his retirement; he is commemorated by a gargoyle on the Cathedral as well as being buried in the graveyard. Colin Slee, former Dean of Southwark Cathedral, was sub-dean at St Albans under Runcie and then Dean, Peter Moore. The bishop's house is in Abbey Mill Lane, St Albans, as is the house of the Bishop of Hertford. The Reverend Canon Eric James, Chaplain Extraordinary to HM the Queen, was Canon at St Albans for many years.
Charles Paul Renouard , born in Cour-Cheverny ( Loir-et-Cher ) on November 5 , 1845and died in Paris onJanuary 2 , 1924, is a French painter , engraver and illustrator .
Born in Cour-Cheverny onNovember 5, 1845, the sixth child of a modest clog-maker, Paul Renouard left his native region in 1859 to earn a living in Paris . He became a building painter and had the opportunity to come and work on the premises of the École des beaux-arts . He occasionally shows a talent for drawing that he has had since childhood. He was noticed and in 1868 he was admitted to the Beaux-Arts where he entered the studio of Isidore Pils . A beloved pupil of the latter, he helped him in the execution of the interior decorations of the Opéra Garnier and, in 1875, Pils having fallen ill, Paul Renouard painted the ceilings of the grand staircase from the cartoons of his master.
He painted dancers, portraits of many of the personalities of his century: Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau , Sarah Bernhardt and Victorien Sardou , Ambroise Thomas , Alexandre Dumas fils , Émile Bergerat , Ravachol , Michel-Eugène Chevreul , Louis Ménard , Joseph Meissonnier , Camille Saint-Saëns , General Boulanger , and all the members of the Institute and the Chamber of Deputies , then Lawrence Alma-Tadema , John Everett Millais, Marshal Katie Booth , Frederic Leighton , Luke Fildes , the nine sketches of Henry Irving as Mephistopheles .
Paul Renouard is above all a prolific illustrator working in black and white for the major illustrated newspapers. Regular contributor to L'Illustration , Paris illustré , Revue illustrée , The Graphic , he was famous for his series on English life, the Opéra Garnier and events such as the Universal Exhibition of 1900 , the ' Dreyfus affair , the trial of Émile Zola , the Thérèse Humbert and Steinheil affairs , the coronation celebrations of Edward VII , the funeral of Queen Victoria , the celebrations and tournament of 75th anniversary of the Independence of Belgium and the Universal Exhibition of 1905 in Liège , the Franco-Russian celebrations in Compiègne in 1901, the First World War .
In London , where he lived almost as much as in Paris and elsewhere, he illustrated Parliament , Drury Lane , the Salvation Army , the prisons, the docklands , the opium dens of the East End , the Lyceum Theatre , the Courts of Justice , the barracks of horse-guards, the world of sports, the music-halls, the Royal Academy for The Graphic . In his Pocket Sketches in London , he humorously depicts the types of English daily life, clubmen buried in large leather armchairs, visitors to museums, policeman and copyists of theNational Gallery , the railway station staff, the walkers in Hyde Park , the sleepers in Kensington Gardens , the coachmen, the omnibus conductors, the small world of the schools of the East, the class of babies… He attends the Jubilee of the Queen , prize distributions by the Dean of Westminster Abbey , the reassembly of Big Ben , the Royal Tournaments , dance classes by Katie Lanner , sessions of the Berners Street Anarchist Circle. Then it's Ireland, a series of pages with dark accents: children carrying peat to pay for school, a meeting, an eviction, police approaches...
In Rome during Holy Week , in Washington during Congress , he captured overseas political life vividly in a collection of portraits and scenes as expressive as they were witty: the Appropriations Committee, the Ways and Means Committee , the left, the right, the representatives of the press in Parliament, the stenographer, the portraits of Mark Carlisle , President of the Chamber of Deputies, of John James Ingalls (in) , President of the Senate…
"More than a painter of modern life, he was the superiorly informed journalist, the intelligent and clairvoyant reporter, who with a lively and rapid gaze from which nothing seems to have to escape, immediately perceives what must be seen and retained from picturesque and tragic; for Paul Renouard knew how to rise up to the story on occasion and faithfully noted with a firm, prompt and bold pencil, with a power of truth which surely localizes the scene and the environment, energetically outlined the characters, accusing with decision and precision characters and types in individuals 1 . »
He left his mark on his era and touched his contemporaries such as Vincent van Gogh who, through his correspondence with his brother Theo , showed great admiration for his work and his talent.
Member of the National Society of Fine Arts and the Society of French Artists , Paul Renouard obtained a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889 and 1900 . He was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1893.
He was a professor at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1903.
He died in Paris onJanuary 2, 1924and rests in the small cemetery of Chambon-sur-Cisse .
His works are kept in Paris at the Louvre Museum and the Paris Museum of Modern Art (series on English life), at the Opera Library-Museum (series on dance and the Opera), at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo , at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels , at the Museum of Fine Arts in Tours , Limoges and Blois .
Hayashi Tadamasa was one of Paul Renouard's patrons, and his collection of nearly 200 engravings and drawings was, on the collector's death, donated by his heirs to the Imperial Household Museum in Tokyo (now the National Museum of Tokyo ).
Blois is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours.
With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the department, and the 4th of the region.
Historically, the city was the capital of the county of Blois, created on 832 until its integration into the Royal domain in 1498, when Count Louis II of Orléans became King Louis XII of France. During the Renaissance, Blois was the official residence of the King of France.
Since 2013, excavations have been conducted by French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP in French) in Vienne where they found evidence of "one or several camps of late Prehistory hunter-gatherers, who were also fishermen since fishing traps were found there.. They were ancestors of the famous Neolithic farmer-herders, who were present in current France around 6,000 BCE [i.e.: 8,000 years ago]."
Ancient times
A major urban development begun in 1959 uncovered the remains of a late Gallic settlement and an urban centre from the Gallo-Roman period. At that time, the town was located on the road linking Chartres to Bourges. In the network of cities of the Carnutes people, Blois was a secondary settlement. Excavations carried out on the right bank between 2001 and 2016 and on the left bank in 2013-2014 revealed the presence of a largely developed town on the right bank and an occupation on the left bank during the Gallic and Gallo-Roman periods. The Loire river has undoubtedly always been a major axis route, although no traces of a port have been uncovered. However, there are remains of former bridges linking the two banks.
Middle Ages
Though of ancient origin, Blois is first distinctly mentioned by Gregory of Tours in the 6th century, and the city gained some notability in the 9th century, when it became the seat of a powerful countship known as Blesum castrum.
Main article: County of Blois
Blois was first organised around a county, which was recreated in 956 by Count Theobald I of Blois, also known as The Trickster. His descendants, known as "Thibaldians", remained as Counts up until the county was incorporated into the royal domain in 1397. The House of Blois also succeeded in raising some of its members or descendants to the highest levels of the European nobility, notably by acceding to the thrones of France, England, Navarre, Spain and Portugal.
Main article: Counts of Blois
In 1171, Blois was the site of a blood libel against its Jewish community that led to 31 Jews (by some accounts 40) being burned to death. Their martyrdom also contributed to a prominent and durable school of poetry inspired by Christian persecution. In the Middle Ages, Blois was the seat of the County of Champagne it passed to the French crown in 1314, forming the province of Champagne. In 1196, Count Louis I of Blois granted privileges to the townsmen; a commune, which survived throughout the Middle Ages, probably dated from this time. The counts of the Châtillon dynastic line resided at Blois more often than their predecessors, and the oldest parts of the château (from the 13th century) were built by them. By 1397, Count Guy II of Blois-Châtillon offered the county to his cousin, Duke Louis I of Orléans, son of King Charles VI. In 1429, Joan of Arc made Blois her base of operations for the relief of Orléans. She rode the 35 miles on 29 April from Blois to relieve Orléans. In 1440, after his captivity in England, Duke Charles of Orléans (son of Duke Louis I) took up residence in the Château of Blois, where in 1462 his son was born, Duke Louis II of Orléans who would afterwards be known as Louis XII.
Renaissance era
By 1498, King Charles VIII died with no heirs in the Château of Amboise. As a result, Duke Louis II ran 22 miles between the Château and Blois, and was crowned as King Louis XII of France. He then married Charles VIII's widow, Queen Anne of Brittany, in 1499. The birth of their daughter, Claude of France, started the union of Brittany with France. Louis XII, as the last hereditary Count of Blois, naturally established his royal Court in the city. The Treaty of Blois, which temporarily halted the Italian Wars, was signed there in 1504–1505. During his reign, the city experienced a massive redevelopment, with some architectural elements inspired from the Italian Renaissance, as seen in the medieval castle immediately turned into a château, and the construction of many hôtels particuliers for the nobility throughout the entire kingdom. One of which, Hôtel d'Alluye, was built as a copy of an Italian palace for Florimond Robertet, who was an important French minister under King Charles VIII, King Louis XII and King Francis I.
On 1 January 1515, Louis XII died. His throne would be passed to Francis I, the husband to his daughter, Claude of France. In 1519, King Francis I ordered the construction of the Château of Chambord (10 miles away from Blois), but its construction lasted for one year before he died in 1547. In the meantime, he gradually expressed his will to move to Fontainebleau, near Paris, and started to abandon Bloisian. Much of the royal furniture was moved from Blois to Fontainebleau by 1539.
The French Wars of Religion was a significantly destructive conflict among the French people. The city's inhabitants included many Calvinists, and in 1562 and 1567 it was the scene of struggles between them and the supporters of the Catholic Church. On 4 July 1562, Blois and Beaugency, conquered by Protestants just before, were looted by Catholics led by Maréchal de St. André. On 7 February 1568, Protestants under Captain Boucard's command, looted and invaded the town, eventually killing many Catholics. Grey friars were also killed and thrown in the well of their own convent. In addition, all the churches were ransacked. In 1576 and 1588, King Henry III convoked the Estates General to Blois where he attained refuge after an uprising called the Day of the Barricades. In response, Duke Henry I of Guise was assassinated on 23 December 1588 for his involvement in the uprising. The following day, his brother, Cardinal Louis II of Guise, who was also archbishop of Reims, suffered the same fate. Their deaths were shortly followed by that of the Queen-Mother, Catherine de' Medici.
In the 16th century, the French Royal court often made Blois their leisure resort.
Modern era
After the departure of the Royal Court towards Paris, Blois lost the status of Royal residence, along with the luxury and economic activity that came with it. King Henry IV displaced the Royal library to Fontainebleau, which would later be the National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France).
In 1606, Philippe de Béthune gave his ownership of Vienne-lez-Blois village, on the left bank of the Loire river, to Blois, making it a part of the city afterwards known as Blois-Vienne. From 1617 to 1619 Marie de' Medici, wife of King Henri IV, exiled from the court by his son, King Louis XIII, lived in the château. By 1622, the Counter-Reformation got establishment in Blois, founded a Society of Jesus and financed the construction of the St. Louis Chapel, which is today St. Vincent Church.
Then in 1634, Louis XIII exiled his brother, Gaston, Duke of Orléans and Count of Blois, who became attached to the city. The Duke in 1657, found a hospital in Blois-Vienne, now named Résidence Gaston d'Orléans, and financed the reconstruction of the Hôtel-Dieu. He remained in Blois until his death, in 1660.
Under Louis XIV's reign, Blois became un independent bishopric. David Nicolas de Bertier, first bishop of Blois from 1697, chose as seated cathedral St. Solenne Church, that had been destroyed by a storm and was under reconstruction, before being completed 3 years later in 1700, thanks to the intervention of Colbert's wife, who herself came from Blois. The new edifice became Blois Cathedral and got dedicated to St. Louis.
A wide episcopal palace is built by King Louis XIV's official architect, Jacques Gabriel, right next to the newly built cathedral, on a site overlooking the Loire Valley. Landscaping of terraced gardens began in 1703 and lasted nearly 50 years. The so-called Bishopric Gardens were first open to the public in 1791 by Henri Grégoire (known as the Abbot Grégoire), the first constitutional bishop after the French Revolution.
During the night between 6 and 7 February 1716, the medieval bridge collapsed. Construction of a new one is ordered during the following year. Jacques-Gabriel Bridge was inaugurated in 1724. All the levies were consolidated, and the river channel of La Bouillie in the prolongation of La Creusille Harbor was closed and dried out.
When Duke Gaston of Orléans died, the château ended up stripped by King Louis XIV, completely abandoned, to the point that King Louis XVI once considered to demolish it by 1788. The edifice was saved when the Royal-Comtois Regiment established their base within it.
In 1790, Orléanais province was dismantled, and the First Republic created the Loir-et-Cher department, with Blois as the local capital.
By 1814, Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma and wife of Napoleon I, found refuge in Blois.
Contemporary era
Another wind blew in Blois in the 19th century. First, the railroad came in 1846 with the inauguration of the Paris–Tours railway, whose Blois Station is a stop. The competition against river transportation gradually forced La Creusille Harbor to reinvent its activity. In parallel, the city got more industrialised from 1848 thanks to a successful chocolate brand created by Bloisian, Victor-Auguste Poulain.
Like Paris, Blois urban organisation was redesigned during 1850 and 1870 by Mayor Eugène Riffault, who was friends with Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. Thus, he had bound through a boulevard holding his name the modern upper town (where the cathedral, Hôtel of Préfecture, and Halle aux Grains are located), and the medieval lower town. He also paved the way to the construction of the boulevard Daniel Depuis, in the West of Blois. Between 1862 and 1865, the Denis-Papin staircase are built under La Morandière's supervision, in the axis of Jacques-Gabriel Bridge and Blois-Vienne's Wilson Avenue.
In the meantime, the lower town faced three of the most significant flooding of the Loire river: in 1846, 1856 (the worst), and 1866. The downtown districts of St. Jean and Blois-Vienne were under water, as well as La Bouillie spillway.
On 13 December 1871, the Prussian army took control of Blois during the Franco-Prussian War. The city was taken back by Lieutenant Georges de Villebois-Mareuil, General Joseph Pourcet, and General Bertrand de Chabron. Since then, a memorial stands on Wilson Avenue in Vienne.
In 1939, Blois Basilica construction was completed. That same year, between 29 January and 8 February, more than 3,100 Spanish refugees came to the Loir-et-Cher department, fleeing the Spanish Civil War and Dictator Francisco Franco. In June 1940, the German bombings destroyed a large part of the downtown, and the French destroyed the 10th arch of Jacques-Gabriel Bridge to prevent further advance for their enemies. The German army bombed the former Town Hall on 16 June, thus killing Mayor Émile Laurens in the process, and took over the city 2 days later, on 18 June, the exact same day of Charles de Gaulle's Appeal for Internal Resistance.
Between June and August 1944, US-English-allied bombings destroyed other infrastructures, like the railroad bridge between Blois and Romorantin. In total during WWII, 230 people were killed, and 1,522 buildings were entirely or partially destroyed. On 16 August 1944, the German troops ran to Blois-Vienne to get refuge there and destroyed the three central arches of the bridge. On 1 September, they surrendered. The bridge was rebuilt and reopened in December 1948.
In 1959, Mayor Marcel Bühler received President Charles de Gaulle and launched the construction of the ZUP, at the North of the city, on the same scheme of so-called banlieues of Paris or any other French city.
Landmarks and tourism
Since 1986, Blois is part of the French Towns of Art and History program, which promotes the cultural and historical estate.
Château of Blois
The Château of Blois, a Renaissance multi-style château once occupied by King Louis XII, is located in the centre of the city, and an 18th-century stone bridge spans the Loire. It was also the residence of many Counts of Blois, who were amongst the most closest vassals to the King of France between the 9th and the 14th century. Many gardens are located around the château, like:
House of Magic
Right in front of the château, La Maison de la Magie Robert-Houdin (i.e.: Robert-Houdin House of Magic) is a museum dedicated to illusionism. This is the only public museum in Europe which incorporates in one place collections of magic and a site for permanent performing arts, and directly reflects the personality of Robert-Houdin.
Louis-XII Place and Fountains
Opened after bombings in 1944, the place stands right below the château, closest to the Loire river, and is actually located at the center of Blois downtown. There are local shops and restaurants, and a 16th-century fountain stands below the Sycamores planted in the place. Known as Louis XII Fountain (Fontaine Louis XII), this is one of the greatest and oldest water inlets throughout the city, but far from being the only one. Among the other founts, there are:
St. Martin Fountain (Fontaine Saint-Martin), below the staircase between the château and Louis XII Place;
St. Nicholas Fountain (Fontaine Saint-Nicolas), within the St. Nicholas Church;
Elected Representatives' Fountain (Fontaine des Élus), in rue Foulerie;
Ave Maria Fountain (Fontaine Ave Maria), in place Ave Maria;
Town hall Fountain (Fontaine de l'Hôtel de Ville), below the
Denis Papin staircase (where was the former Town Hall before WWII);
St. Jack Fountain (Fontaine Saint-Jacques), in rue Denis Papin;
Corbigny Fountain (Fontaine de Corbigny), in Victor Hugo Square ;
Simple Fountain (Fontaine des Simples), in the Lily Garden, in remembrance of a monumental Versailles-style fountain lost after WWII bombings.
Comics Museum
Blois is also the location of so-called Maison de la BD, a museum devoted to the art of comic books. Since the 1980s, this museum hosts an annual comic festival in late November called BD Boum, described as "the leading free comic book festival in France".
Former Hôtel-Dieu
Already by 924, monks from the St. Lomer community were given some acres below the medieval castle, but outside the city walls, on the bank of the Loire river. In the 13th century, a proper church was built, then fortified because of the Hundred Years' War. St. Lomer Abbey was completely destroyed during the French Wars of Religion. The edifice was rebuilt until the early 18th century. When the French Revolution broke out by 1789, the church was turnt into a Hôtel-Dieu, namely a charity hospital for the have-nots, because Revolutionners destroyed many clergy- and royal-related monuments. After that, new buildings were added to the original St. Lomer Abbey, which became St. Nicholas Church, and the additional edifices remained dedicated to the Hôtel-Dieu of the city. Nonetheless, this part was gradually abandoned and taken back by some public services. A reconversion project is currently under study.
Former Poulain Chocolate Factory
In the late 19th century, Bloisian industrialist and chocolatier Victor-Auguste Poulain established his brand's factory next to Blois station. The premises moved in the 1980s. Nowadays, those are housings and host the National Institute and School of Applied Sciences (INSA).
Denis-Papin Staircase
As Blois is built on a pair of steep hills, winding and steep pathways run through the city, culminating in long staircases at various points. The most iconic of them is the monumental Denis-Papin staircase which overlooks the town, provides a panoramic view by overlooking the downtown and the Loire Valley, and regularly enlivens urban space with original decorations. The fountain next to the staircase is a reminder of the location of the first Town Hall, destroyed after bombings on 16 June 1940.
Town Hall and Bishopric Gardens
Blois achieved independence from the Diocese of Chartres in 1697, and the cathedral was completed by 1700. As a result, the first bishops engineered wide gardens on several levels, next to the premises. Since the destruction of the former Blois town hall during World War II, local authorities requisitioned the bishop's apartments to establish there the new town hall. Now organised as an urban park, the gardens offer a panoramic view on the downtown, the Loire river, and Blois-Vienne. A statue of Joan of Arc, given to the city by American patron J. Sanford Saltus, stands in the middle of the park. Bishopric gardens are open to public all the year, and a remarkable rose garden can be visited from 15 May and 30 September, each year.
Hôtels Particuliers and Timber Framing Houses
Since Count Louis II of Orléans became King Louis XII of France in 1498, the city started to host many noblepersons from all the Kingdom. All would build their own mansion as close from the château as they could. King Louis XII also imported Renaissance style from Italy due to his successful military campaigns there. Among these so-called hôtels particuliers, there are:
the Hôtel d'Alluye;
the Hôtel d'Amboise;
the Hôtel de Belot;
the Hôtel de la Capitainerie (a.k.a. Hôtel de Bretagne);
the Hôtel de la Chancellerie (i.e.: Chancellery Hotel);
the Hôtel Denis-Dupont;
the Hôtel d'Épernon;
the Hôtel de Guise;
the Hôtel de Jassaud;
the Hôtel de Lavallière, built for Louise de Lavallière;
the Hôtel de Rochefort;
the Hôtel Sardini;
the Hôtel Viart;
the Hôtel de Villebresme, in which Denis Papin lived;
the Château de la Vicomté (i.e.: Château of Viscounty), in the hamlet of Les Grouëts.
Blois-Vienne and the Loire river
Please note all the above edifices have been listed as Blois-Vienne (or merely Vienne) is the name given to the southern part of the city, on the left bank of the Loire river. Independent from the city until 1606, there are many traces of the river's past. The main link between both banks is the Jacques-Gabriel Bridge, built in the early 18th century. From the levees circling the surroundings to other abandoned bridges, Vienne has also conserved a harbour, named La Creusille, which is now an urban park right on La Loire à Vélo bike route. Beyond the levees, La Bouillie Park is getting rehabilitated, and actually is a spillway in the event of floodings. Further to the south of the city, the Forêt de Russy is a reminder of the thick woods that once covered the area.
Religious Buildings
The city also is provided with many religious edifices, including:
Blois Cathedral, dedicated to both Kings Louis IX and Louis XII, built between 1564 and 1700.
St. Vincent Blois Church, dedicated to Saint Vincent de Paul, built between 1625 and 1660.
St. Nicholas Blois Church, dedicated to bishop Saint Nicholas of Myra, built in the 12th century.
Blois-Vienne Church, dedicated to Saint Saturnin of Toulouse, built between c. 1500 and 1528.
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Trinité, dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, built between 1932 and 1939.
Historical and political figures
Ivomadus (5th century), Breton chieftain who would have conquered Blois and established there an independent Kingdom until Clovis I's conquest.
Count William of Orléans (died 834), first count of Blois.
Count Theobald I (913–975), viscount who declared himself Count when Duke Hugh the Great died in 956.
Thubois (c. 1044–1090)[citation needed]
Lady Adela of Normandy (c. 1067 – 1137), daughter of William the Conqueror, married to Stephen II, Count of Blois.
King Stephen of England (c. 1096 – 1154), second son of Count Stephen II and Lady Adela, he became King of England from 1135 to 1154.
Lady Adela of Champagne (c. 1140 – 1206), daughter of Count Theobald IV of Blois, she married King Louis VII and gave to him future King Philip II.
Duke Charles of Blois (1319–1364), notable stakeholder during the Hundred Years' War.
King Louis XII (1462–1515), Count of Blois from 1465 to 1498, then King of France up to 1515.
Queen Anne of Brittany (1477–1514), last Queen of Brittany, she remarried King Louis XII in 1499, then moved to Blois until her death.
King Francis I (1494–1547), King of France born in Cognac, but he lived in Blois since his marriage in 1506 with Louis XII and Anne's daughter.
Queen Catherine de' Medici (1519–1589), Queen consort of France, who died in the Château of Blois.
Queen Marie de' Medici (1575–1642) was exiled to the Château of Blois by her son, King Louis XIII.
Duke Henry I of Guise (1550–1588), assassinated on 23 December 1588 in the château.
Duke Gaston of Orléans (1494 in Fontainebleau – 1547), uncle of King Louis XVI, he got establishment in the château, and died there.
Jean Morin (1591–1659), theologian and biblical scholar of Protestant parents
Michel V Bégon (1638–1710), officier de plume of the French Navy.
Marie Anne de Bourbon (1666–1739), also known as Mademoiselle de Blois, daughter of King Louis XIV.
Michel VI Bégon de la Picardière, (1669–1747). Commissioner in the French Navy; intendant of New France and Le Havre.
Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras (1744–1790), royalist
Jean-Marie Pardessus (1772–1853).
Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo (1773–1828).
Eugène Riffault (1803–1888).
Joséphine Marchais (1842–1874).
Émile Laurens (1884–1940).
Georges Litalien (1896–1952), deputee of the Loir-et-Cher department.
Henri de La Vaissière (1901–1944).
Pierre Sudreau (1919–2012).
Jack Lang (1939–).
Bernard Boucault. Préfet de Police in Paris (from 2012 to 2015).
Artists
Pierre de Ronsard (1524–1585), poet from Vendôme but he met his muse Cassandre in the Château of Blois in 1549.
Jacob Bunel (1568–1614), Bloisian painter who studied in the Royal School of Fontainebleau.
Antoine Boësset (1587–1643), composer of secular music, and superintendent of music at the Ancien Régime French court.
Jean Monier (1600–1656), painter close to Queen Marie de' Medici.
Étienne Baudet (1638–1711), engraver born in Vineuil.
Pierre Monier (1641–1703), painter and son of Jean Monier.
Jacques Gabriel (1667–1742), Parisian architect who designed the Jacques-Gabriel Bridge in Blois.
Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871), watchmaker, magician and illusionist, widely recognized as the father of the modern style of conjuring.
Ulysse Besnard (1826–1899), painter, then ceramist.
Daniel Dupuis (1849–1899), painter, sculptor and medal artist.
Jules Contant (1852–1920), painter born in Blois-Vienne, son of a politician.
Émile Gaucher (1858–1909), sculptor.
Alfred Jean Halou (1875–1939), sculptor from Blois, who designed the Franco-Prussian War memorial in Blois.
Étienne Gaudet (1891–1963), engraver and painter from Nevers but who lived and died in Blois.
Bernard Lorjou (1908–1986), painter.
Claudine Doury (born 1959), photographer.
Jean-Louis Agobet (born 1968), composer.
Christian Jui (born 1973), poet.
Niro (born 1987), rapper born in Orléans but he grew up and currently lives in Blois.
Hildegarde Fesneau (born 1995), violinist.
Artisans
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Blois was the hometown of many artisans in the watchmaking and goldsmithing industries. Among them:
Julien Coudray, who was one of the first watchmakers in Blois according to Tardy, worked for Kings Louis XII and Francis I. There is a street in Blois that holds his name.
the Cuper family : the Louvre museum, Paris, possesses two watches made by Michel Cuper, and two other ones by P. Cuper. A street also holds their name in the city.
the Bellanger family : Martin with a first wife got 2 sons born between 1594 and 1597 (among them, one was called Isaac), then at least 3 other ones with a Suzanne, named Pierre (born in 1603), Jean (married in 1641 and dead in 1678), and Théophile.
Guillaume Couldroit, from whom the British Museum, London, has a table clock.
Jacques de la Garde, from whom the British Museum has a striking clock, and from whom a table clock can be found in the National Museum of the Renaissance in Écouen, France.
Charles Perras, from whom 2 watches can be found in the British Museum, as well as in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
the Duduict brothers.
Blaise Foucher, Duiduict's disciple, from whom the British Museum possesses one watchcase.
the Vautier family, among whom the British Museum has several Louis' watchcases.
the Gribelin family, among whom Simon was watchmaker and engraver for the King, and his son Abraham (1589–1671) succeeded to him. Nowadays, the Louvre Museum has a watch made by Abraham.
the Girard family, among whom Marc came from the Netherlands and established in Blois, his son Théodore and grandson Marc II were both watchmakers.
Christophe Morlière (born in Orléans in 1604 – 1643), who moved to Blois. By 1632, he was ordered a watch for Lady Marguerite of Lorraine when she married Gaston, Duke of Orléans and Count of Blois.
Pierre Brisson.
Paul Viet, from whom the British Museum got a painted watchcase.
Jean Bonbruict, from whom the British Museum has a silver coach watch.
Nicolas Lemaindre, who was watchmaker and valet for Queen Catherine de' Medici. The British Museum also possesses one of his works, as well as the Louvre and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Pierre Landré, from whom a watch is visible in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City.
the Chartier family, among whom Pierre had a son registered as T. Chartier in the Louvre where a cylindrical table clock is exposed.
François Laurier.
Londonian watchmaker Henry Massy was son of Nicolas Massy, born in Blois.
Robert Vauquer, who has now 2 watches in the Louvre and 1 in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.
Intellectuals
Peter of Blois (c. 1130 – c. 1211), theologian, poet and diplomat born in Blois.
Paul Reneaulme (c. 1560 – c. 1624), doctor and botanist born in the city.
Florimond de Beaune (1601–1652), jurist and mathematician born in Blois.
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643–1687), first explorer of Louisiana, born in Rouen, then teacher at the Royal College of Blois.
Denis Papin (1647–1713), physicist, mathematician and inventor from Blois.
Angel Baffard (1655–1726), genealogist specialist of Bloisian.
Jean Marie Pardessus (1772–1853), lawyer.
Augustin Thierry (1795–1856), historian born in the city.
Amédée Thierry (1797–1873), historian like his elder brother, and journalist.
Félix Duban (1798–1870), Parisian architect who restored the Château of Blois.
Louis de La Saussaye (1801–1878), numismatist and historian from Blois.
Jules de La Morandière (1813–1905), architect, and Duban's disciple.
Victor-Auguste Poulain (1825–1918), chocolatier who created the Chocolat Poulain brand in 1848.
Albert Poulain (1851–1937), chocolatier and industrialist, son of the precedent.
Tiburce Colonna-Ceccaldi (1832–1892), diplomat and archaeologist born in Blois.
Édouard Blau (1836–1906), dramatist and opera librettist from Blois.
Arthur Trouëssart (1839–1929), architect, historian, and genealogist specialized in Bloisian history.
Adrien Thibault (1844–1918), ceramist born in La Chaussée-Saint-Victor, then historian of Bloisian.
René Guénon (also Sheikh 'Abd al-Wahid Yahya; 1886 – 1951), author, philosopher, social critic, the founder of the Traditionalist School.
Philippe Ariès (1914–1984), medievalist and historian.
Albert Ronsin (1928–2007), 20th-century French scholar, historian, librarian, and curator.
Françoise Xenakis (1930–2018), novelist and journalist.
Maxime Schwartz (born 1940), molecular biologist who has been a research director at the CNRS, and Director General of the Pasteur Institute.
Henri Tézenas du Montcel (1943–1994), economist
Pierre Rosanvallon (born 1948), historian and sociologist.
Christophe Lebreton (1950-1996), Trappist monk and one of the Tibhirine monks.
Luc Foisneau (born in 1963), philosopher and director of research at CNRS.
Sportspersons
Marcel Lehoux (1888–1936), racing driver
Philippe Gondet (1942–2018), footballer.
Nicolas Vogondy (born 1977), cyclist.
Sonia Bompastor (born 1980), female footballer.
Aly Cissokho (born 1987), footballer of Senegalese descent.
Bernard Onanga Itoua (born 1988), footballer.
Alexis Khazzaka (born 1994), Lebanese footballer.
Corentin Jean (born 1995), footballer.
Alpha Kaba (born 1996), basketball player
Bulgarian mathematician
Meyer-Optik Görlitz Oreston f/1.8 50mm
1/3200, f/1.8
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These Wonders of the World originate from history, before the birth of Christ, during the Greek era. (second century B.C.). These were built during a period of time that extended more than two thousand years: from the ancient kingdoms of Egypt and Babylon to the Golden Age of Classical Greece.
A Greek poet named Antipater (also known as Antipatros) created a list of seven marvelous structures, later to be known as the Seven Wonders of the World. This list was created by him as a tribute to the ancient world's achievements, a summary of mankind's outstanding accomplishments in creation. Antipater, however, was not alone in compiling lists of these great works. Only one other nearly complete list of Wonders of the World has existed through the years. This was found in a book said to have been written by a famous Greek engineer and mathematician named Philon of Byzantium, yet many scholars and historians believe that Philon had not written the book - they believe that a man had written it after Philon's death and had signed it under Philon's name to gain recognition. In these two lists consistency was dominant in several of these Wonders of the World, yet an only six were originally on these lists. The final Wonder of the World - The Lighthouse of Alexandria - was added to the list in the sixth century B.C.
What about the other Wonders of the World?
Temple of Artemis
The Greeks, unfortunately, were limited, like the rest of this early European Civilization, to their general region. Many Wonders of the World lay around the globe, out of site from these Mediterranean based civilizations. Actually, you may have already noticed that all of these Wonders of the World are situated around the Mediterranean exclusively.
The Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt (near Cairo)
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (in present-day Iraq)
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia (on the Pelopponese)
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (near Izmir - Turkey)
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (in Bodrum - Turkey)
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Lighthouse (Pharos) of Alexandria in Egypt
"And yet it moves" or "Albeit It does move" (Italian: Eppur si muove; [epˈpur si ˈmwɔːve]) is a phrase said to have been uttered before the Inquisition by the Italian mathematician, physicist and philosopher Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) in 1633 after being forced to recant his claims that the Earth moves around the Sun rather than the converse. In this context, the implication of the phrase is: despite this recantation, the Church's proclamations to the contrary, or any other conviction or doctrine of men, the Earth does, in fact, move around the sun, and not vice versa. As such, the phrase is used today as a sort of pithy retort implying that "it doesn't matter what you believe or what I say; these are the facts".
Restent les mots,puisque, aussi bien, de nos jours c'est cette même querelle qui se poursuit. Les mots sont sujets à se grouper selon les affinités particulières, lesquelles ont généralement pour effet de leurs faire recréer à chaque instant le monde sur son vieux modèle. Tout se passe en-dehors de l'individuel; que dis-je, comme si cette réalité était immuable. Dans l'ordre de la constatation pure et simple, si tant est que nous l'envisagions, il nous faut une certitude absolue pour avancer quelque chose de neuf, quelque chose qui soit de nature à heurter le sens commun. Le fameux E pur, si muove ! dont Galilée aurait fait survivre à voix basse l'abjuration de sa doctrine, demeure toujours de circonstance. Tout homme d'aujourd'hui, soucieux de se conformer aux directions de son époque, se sent-il, par exemple, en mesure de faire la part dans son langage des dernières découvertes biologiques ou de la théorie de la relativité ? " Introduction au discours sur le peu de réalité " dans "Le point du jour" décembre 1933 par André Breton
Seoul – officially the Seoul Special City – is the capital and largest metropolis of the Republic of Korea (commonly known as South Korea), forming the heart of the Seoul Capital Area, which includes the surrounding Incheon metropolis and Gyeonggi province, the world's 16th largest city. It is home to over half of all South Koreans along with 678,102 international residents.
Situated on the Han River, Seoul's history stretches back more than two thousand years when it was founded in 18 BCE by Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. It continued as the capital of Korea under the Joseon Dynasty. The Seoul Capital Area contains five UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Changdeok Palace, Hwaseong Fortress, Jongmyo Shrine, Namhansanseong and the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty. Seoul is surrounded by mountains, the tallest being Mt. Bukhan, the world's most visited national park per square foot. Modern landmarks include the iconic N Seoul Tower, the gold-clad 63 Building, the neofuturistic Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Lotte World, the world's second largest indoor theme park, Moonlight Rainbow Fountain, the world's longest bridge fountain and the Sevit Floating Islands. The birthplace of K-pop and the Korean Wave, Seoul received over 10 million international visitors in 2014, making it the world's 9th most visited city and 4th largest earner in tourism.
Today, Seoul is considered a leading and rising global city, resulting from an economic boom called the Miracle on the Han River which transformed it to the world's 4th largest metropolitan economy with a GDP of US$845.9 billion in 2014 after Tokyo, New York City and Los Angeles. In 2015, it was rated Asia's most livable city with the second highest quality of life globally by Arcadis. A world leading technology hub centered on Gangnam and Digital Media City, the Seoul Capital Area boasts 15 Fortune Global 500 companies such as Samsung, the world's largest technology company, as well as LG and Hyundai-Kia. In 2014, the city's GDP per capita (PPP) of $39,786 was comparable to that of France and Finland. Ranked sixth in the Global Power City Index and Global Financial Centres Index, the metropolis exerts a major influence in global affairs as one of the five leading hosts of global conferences.
Seoul is the world's most wired city and ranked first in technology readiness by PwC's Cities of Opportunity report. It is served by the KTX high-speed rail and the Seoul Subway, providing 4G LTE, WiFi and DMB inside subway cars. Seoul is connected via AREX to Incheon International Airport, rated the world's best airport nine years in a row (2005–2013) by Airports Council International. Lotte World Tower, a 556-metre supertall skyscraper with 123 floors, has been built in Seoul and become the OECD's tallest in 2016, with the world's tallest art gallery. Its Lotte Cinema houses the world's largest cinema screen. Seoul's COEX Mall is the world's largest underground shopping mall.
Seoul hosted the 1986 Asian Games, 1988 Summer Olympics, 2002 FIFA World Cup, the Miss Universe 1980 pageant, and the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit. A UNESCO City of Design, Seoul was named the 2010 World Design Capital.
ETYMOLOGY
The city has been known in the past by the names Wirye-seong (Hangul: 위례성; Hanja: 慰禮城, during the Baekje era), Hanju (Hangul: 한주; Hanja: 漢州, during the Silla era), Namgyeong (Hangul: 남경; Hanja: 南京, during the Goryeo era), Hanseong (Hangul: 한성; Hanja: 漢城, during both the Baekje and Joseon eras), Hanyang (Hangul: 한양; Hanja: 漢陽, during the Joseon era), Gyeongseong (京城, during the colonial era).
During Japan's annexation in Korea, "Hanseong" (Hangul: 한성; Hanja: 漢城) was renamed to "Keijō" (京城, or Template:Korean 한국, Gyeongseong) by the Imperial authorities to prevent confusion with the hanja '漢', as it also refers to the Han Chinese. In reality, the ancient name of Seoul, Hanseong (Hangul: 한성; Hanja: 漢城), originally had the meaning of "big" or "vast".
Its current name originated from the Korean word meaning "capital city," which is believed to be derived from the word Seorabeol (Hangul: 서라벌; Hanja: 徐羅伐), which originally referred to Gyeongju, the capital of Silla.
Unlike most place names in Korea, "Seoul" has no corresponding hanja (Chinese characters used in the Korean language). On January 18, 2005, Seoul government officially changed its official Chinese language name to Shou'er (simplified Chinese: 首尔; traditional Chinese: 首爾; pinyin: Shǒu'ěr) from the historic Hancheng (simplified Chinese: 汉城; traditional Chinese: 漢城; pinyin: Hànchéng), of which use is becoming less common.
HISTOY
Settlement of the Han River area, where present-day Seoul is located, began around 4000 BC.
Seoul is first recorded as Wiryeseong, the capital of Baekje (founded in 18 BC) in the northeastern Seoul area. There are several city walls remaining in the area that date from this time. Pungnaptoseong, an earthen wall just outside Seoul, is widely believed to have been at the main Wiryeseong site. As the Three Kingdoms competed for this strategic region, control passed from Baekje to Goguryeo in the 5th century, and from Goguryeo to Silla in the 6th century.
In the 11th century Goryeo, which succeeded Unified Silla, built a summer palace in Seoul, which was referred to as the "Southern Capital". It was only from this period that Seoul became a larger settlement. When Joseon replaced Goryeo, the capital was moved to Seoul (also known as Hanyang and later as Hanseong), where it remained until the fall of the dynasty. The Gyeongbok Palace, built in the 14th century, served as the royal residence until 1592. The other large palace, Changdeokgung, constructed in 1405, served as the main royal palace from 1611 to 1872.
Originally, the city was entirely surrounded by a massive circular stone wall to provide its citizens security from wild animals, thieves and attacks. The city has grown beyond those walls and although the wall no longer stands (except along Bugaksan Mountain (Hangul: 북악산; Hanja: 北岳山), north of the downtown area), the gates remain near the downtown district of Seoul, including most notably Sungnyemun (commonly known as Namdaemun) and Heunginjimun (commonly known as Dongdaemun). During the Joseon dynasty, the gates were opened and closed each day, accompanied by the ringing of large bells at the Bosingak belfry. In the late 19th century, after hundreds of years of isolation, Seoul opened its gates to foreigners and began to modernize. Seoul became the first city in East Asia to introduce electricity in the royal palace, built by the Edison Illuminating Company and a decade later Seoul also implemented electrical street lights.
Much of the development was due to trade with foreign countries like France and United States. For example, the Seoul Electric Company, Seoul Electric Trolley Company, and Seoul Fresh Spring Water Company were all joint Korean–American owned enterprises. In 1904, an American by the name of Angus Hamilton visited the city and said, "The streets of Seoul are magnificent, spacious, clean, admirably made and well-drained. The narrow, dirty lanes have been widened, gutters have been covered, roadways broadened. Seoul is within measurable distance of becoming the highest, most interesting and cleanest city in the East.
"After the annexation treaty in 1910, the Empire of Japan annexed Korea and renamed the city Gyeongseong ("Kyongsong" in Korean and "Keijo" in Japanese). Japanese technology was imported, the city walls were removed, some of the gates demolished. Roads became paved and Western-style buildings were constructed. The city was liberated at the end of World War II.
In 1945, the city was officially named Seoul, and was designated as a special city in 1949.
During the Korean War, Seoul changed hands between the Russian/Chinese-backed North Korean forces and the American-backed South Korean forces several times, leaving the city heavily damaged after the war. The capital was temporarily relocated to Busan. One estimate of the extensive damage states that after the war, at least 191,000 buildings, 55,000 houses, and 1,000 factories lay in ruins. In addition, a flood of refugees had entered Seoul during the war, swelling the population of the city and its metropolitan area to an estimated 1.5 million by 1955.
Following the war, Seoul began to focus on reconstruction and modernization. As Korea's economy started to grow rapidly from the 1960s, urbanization also accelerated and workers began to move to Seoul and other larger cities. From the 1970s, the size of Seoul administrative area greatly expanded as it annexed a number of towns and villages from several surrounding counties.
According to 2012 census data, the population of the Seoul area makes up around 20% of the total population of South Korea, Seoul has become the economic, political and cultural hub of the country, with several Fortune Global 500 companies, including Samsung, SK Holdings, Hyundai, POSCO and LG Group headquartered there.
Seoul was the host city of the 1986 Asian Games and 1988 Summer Olympics as well as one of the venues of the Football World Cup 2002.
GEOGRAPHY
Seoul is in the northwest of South Korea. Seoul proper comprises 605.25 km2, with a radius of approximately 15 km, roughly bisected into northern and southern halves by the Han River. The Han River and its surrounding area played an important role in Korean history. The Three Kingdoms of Korea strove to take control of this land, where the river was used as a trade route to China (via the Yellow Sea). The river is no longer actively used for navigation, because its estuary is located at the borders of the two Koreas, with civilian entry barred. Historically, the city was during the Joseon Dynasty bounded by the Seoul Fortress Wall, which stretched between the four main mountains in central Seoul: Namsan, Naksan, Bukaksan and Inwangsan. The city is bordered by eight mountains, as well as the more level lands of the Han River plain and western areas. Due to its geography and to economic development policies, Seoul is a very polycentric city. The area that was the old capital in the Joseon Dynasty, and mostly comprises Jongno District and Jung District, constitutes the historical and political center of the city. However, for example, the city's financial capital is widely considered to be in Yeouido, while its economic capital is Gangnam District.
CLIMATE
Seoul is either classified as a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa), using the −3 °C isotherm of the original Köppen scheme, or a humid continental climate (Köppen Dwa), using the 0 °C isotherm preferred by some climatologists. Summers are generally hot and humid, with the East Asian monsoon taking place from June until September. August, the warmest month, has average high and low temperatures of 29.6 and 22.4 °C with higher temperatures possible. Winters are often cold to freezing with average January high and low temperatures of 1.5 and −5.9 °C and are generally much drier than summers, with an average of 28 days of snow annually. Sometimes, temperatures do drop dramatically to below −10.0 °C, in odd occasions rarely as low as −15.0 °C in the mid winter period between January and February.
ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICTS
Seoul is divided into 25 gu (Hangul: 구; Hanja: 區) (district). The gu vary greatly in area (from 10 to 47 km2) and population (from fewer than 140,000 to 630,000). Songpa has the most people, while Seocho has the largest area. The government of each gu handles many of the functions that are handled by city governments in other jurisdictions. Each gu is divided into "dong" (Hangul: 동; Hanja: 洞) or neighbourhoods. Some gu have only a few dong while others like Jongno District have a very large number of distinct neighbourhoods. Gu of Seoul consist of 423 administrative dongs (Hangul: 행정동) in total. Dong are also sub-divided into 13,787 tong (Hangul: 통; Hanja: 統), which are further divided into 102,796 ban in total.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Seoul proper is noted for its population density, which is almost twice that of New York and eight times greater than Rome. Its metropolitan area was the most densely populated in the OECD in Asia in 2012, and second worldwide after that of Paris. As of December 2013, the population was 10.14 million, in 2012, it was 10,442,426. As of the end of June 2011, 10.29 million Republic of Korea citizens lived in the city. This was a 24% decrease from the end of 2010. The population of Seoul has been dropping since the early 1990s, the reasons being the high costs of living and an aging population.
The number of foreigners living in Seoul is 255,501 in 2010 according to Seoul officials.[58] As of June 2011, 281,780 foreigners were located in Seoul. Of them, 186,631 foreigners (66%) were Chinese citizens of Korean ancestry. This was an 8.84% increase from the end of 2010 and a 12.85% increase from June 2010. The next largest group was Chinese citizens who are not of Korean ethnicity; 29,901 of them resided in Seoul. The next highest group consisted of the 9,999 United States citizens who were not of Korean ancestry. The next highest group were the Republic of China (Taiwan) citizens, at 8,717.
The two major religions in Seoul are Christianity and Buddhism. Other religions include Muism (indigenous religion) and Confucianism. Seoul is home to one of the world's largest Christians congregations, Yoido Full Gospel Church , which has around 830,000 members. Seoul is home to the world's largest modern university founded by a Buddhist Order, Dongguk University. Other Christian faiths like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) maintains a presence in the city.
ECONOMY
Seoul is the business and financial hub of South Korea. Although it accounts for only 0.6 percent of the nation's land area, 48.3 percent of South Korea's bank deposits were held in Seoul in 2003, and the city generated 23 percent of the country's GDP overall in 2012. In 2008 the Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index ranked Seoul No.9. The Global Financial Centres Index in 2015 listed Seoul as the 6th financially most competitive city in the world. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Seoul 15th in the list of "Overall 2025 City Competitiveness" regarding future competitiveness of cities.
MANUFACTURING
The traditional, labour-intensive manufacturing industries have been continuously replaced by information technology, electronics and assembly-type of industries; however, food and beverage production, as well as printing and publishing remained among the core industries. Major manufacturers are headquartered in the city, including Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Kia and SK. Notable food and beverage companies include Jinro, whose soju is the most sold alcoholic drink in the world, beating out Smirnoff vodka; top selling beer producers Hite (merged with Jinro) and Oriental Brewery. It also hosts food giants like Seoul Dairy Cooperative, Nongshim Group, Ottogi, CJ, Orion, Maeil Dairy, Namyang dairy and Lotte.
FINANCE
Seoul hosts large concentration of headquarters of International companies and banks, including 15 companies on fortune 500 list such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai. Most bank headquarters and the Korea Exchange are located in Yeouido (Yeoui island), which is often called "Korea's Wall Street" and has been serving as the financial center of the city since the 1980s. The Seoul international finance center & SIFC MALL, Hanhwa 63 building, the Hanhwa insurance company head office. Hanhwa is one of the three largest Korean insurance companies, along with Samsung Life and Gangnam & Kyob life insurance group.
COMMERCE
The largest wholesale and retail market in South Korea, the Dongdaemun Market, is located in Seoul. Myeongdong is a shopping and entertainment area in downtown Seoul with mid- to high-end stores, fashion boutiques and international brand outlets. The nearby Namdaemun Market, named after the Namdaemun Gate, is the oldest continually running market in Seoul.
Insadong is the cultural art market of Seoul, where traditional and modern Korean artworks, such as paintings, sculptures and calligraphy are sold. Hwanghak-dong Flea Market and Janganpyeong Antique Market also offer antique products. Some shops for local designers have opened in Samcheong-dong, where numerous small art galleries are located. Itaewon caters mainly to foreign tourists and American soldiers based in the city. The Gangnam district is one of the most affluent areas in Seoul and is noted for the fashionable and upscale Apgujeong-dong and Cheongdam-dong areas and the COEX Mall. Wholesale markets include Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market and Garak Market.
The Yongsan Electronics Market is the largest electronics market in Asia. Electronics markets are Gangbyeon station metro line 2 Techno mart, ENTER6 MALL & Shindorim station Technomart mall complex.
Times Square is one of Seoul's largest shopping malls featuring the CGV Starium, the world's largest permanent 35 mm cinema screen.
KOREA WORLD TRADE CENTER COMPLEX which comprises COEX mall, congress center, 3 Inter-continental hotels, Business tower (Asem tower), Residence hotel,Casino and City airport terminal was established in 1988 Seoul Olympic . 2nd World trade trade center is planning at Seoul Olympic stadium complex as MICE HUB by Seoul city. Ex-Kepco head office building was purchased by Hyundai motor group with 9billion USD to build 115-storey Hyundai GBC & hotel complex until 2021. Now ex-kepco 25-storey building is under demolition.
ARCHITECTURE
The traditional heart of Seoul is the old Joseon Dynasty city, now the downtown area, where most palaces, government offices, corporate headquarters, hotels, and traditional markets are located. Cheonggyecheon, a stream that runs from west to east through the valley before emptying into the Han River, was for many years covered with concrete, but was recently restored by an urban revival project in 2005. Jongno street, meaning "Bell Street," has been a principal street and one of the earliest commercial steets of the city, on which one can find Bosingak, a pavilion containing a large bell. The bell signaled the different times of the day and controlled the four major gates to the city. North of downtown is Bukhan Mountain, and to the south is the smaller Namsan. Further south are the old suburbs, Yongsan District and Mapo District. Across the Han River are the newer and wealthier areas of Gangnam District, Seocho District and surrounding neighborhoods.
HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURE
Seoul has many historical and cultural landmarks. In Amsa-dong Prehistoric Settlement Site, Gangdong District, neolithic remains were excavated and accidentally discovered by a flood in 1925.
Urban and civil planning was a key concept when Seoul was first designed to serve as a capital in the late 14th century. The Joseon Dynasty built the "Five Grand Palaces" in Seoul – Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung, Gyeongbokgung and Gyeonghuigung – all of which are located in the district of Jongno District and Jung District. Among them, Changdeokgung was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997 as an "outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design". The main palace, Gyeongbokgung, underwent a large-scale restoration project. The palaces are considered exemplary architecture of the Joseon period. Beside the palaces, Unhyeongung is known for being the royal residence of Regent Daewongun, the father of Emperor Gojong at the end of the Joseon Dynasty.
Seoul has been surrounded by walls that were built to regulate visitors from other regions and protect the city in case of an invasion. Pungnap Toseong is a flat earthen wall built at the edge of the Han River which is widely believed to be the site of Wiryeseong. Mongchon Toseong (Hangul: 몽촌토성; Hanja: 蒙村土城) is another earthen wall built during the Baekje period which is now located inside the Olympic Park. The Fortress Wall of Seoul was built early in the Joseon Dynasty for protection of the city. After many centuries of destruction and rebuilding, approximately ⅔ of the wall remains, as well as six of the original eight gates. These gates include Sungnyemun and Heunginjimun, commonly known as Namdaemun (South Great Gate) and Dongdaemun (East Great Gate). Namdaemun was the oldest wooden gate until a 2008 arson attack, and was re-opened after complete restoration in 2013. Situated near the gates are the traditional markets and largest shopping center, Namdaemun Market and Dongdaemun Market.
There are also many buildings constructed with international styles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Independence Gate was built in 1897 to inspire an independent spirit. Seoul Station was opened in 1900 as Gyeongseong Station.
MODERN ARCHITECTURE
Various high-rise office buildings and residential buildings, like the Gangnam Finance Center, the Tower Palace, N Seoul Tower and Jongno Tower, dominate the city's skyline. A series of new high rises are under construction, including the Lotte World Tower, scheduled to be completed by 2016. As of July 2016, and excluding the still unopened Lotte World Tower, the tallest building in the city is the 279-metre-high Three International Finance Center.
The World Trade Center Seoul, located in Gangnam District, hosts various expositions and conferences. Also in Gangnam District is the COEX Mall, a large indoor shopping and entertainment complex. Downstream from Gangnam District is Yeouido, an island that is home to the National Assembly, major broadcasting studios, and a number of large office buildings, as well as the Korea Finance Building and the Yoido Full Gospel Church. The Olympic Stadium, Olympic Park, and Lotte World are located in Songpa District, on the south side of the Han River, upstream from Gangnam District. Two new modern landmarks of Seoul are Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park, designed by Zaha Hadid, and the new wave-shaped Seoul City Hall, by Yoo Kerl of iArc.
In 2010 Seoul was designated the World Design Capital for the year.
CULTURE
TECHNOLOGY
Seoul has a very technologically advanced infrastructure. It has the world's highest fibre-optic broadband penetration, resulting in the world's fastest internet connections with speeds up to 1 Gbps. Seoul provides free Wi-Fi access in outdoor spaces. This 47.7 billion won ($44 million) project will give residents and visitors Internet access at 10,430 parks, streets and other public places by 2015.
MUSEUMS
Seoul is home to 115 museums, including four national and nine official municipal museums. Amongst the city's national museum, The National Museum of Korea is the most representative of museums in not only Seoul but all of South Korea. Since its establishment in 1945, the museum has built a collection of 220,000 artifacts. In October 2005, the museum moved to a new building in Yongsan Family Park. The National Folk Museum is situated on the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace in the district of Jongno District and uses replicas of historical objects to illustrate the folk history of the Korean people. The National Palace Museum of Korea is also located on the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Finally, the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, whose main museum is located in Gwacheon, opened in 2013, in Sogyeok-dong.
Bukchon Hanok Village and Namsangol Hanok Village are old residential districts consisting of hanok Korean traditional houses, parks, and museums that allows visitors to experience traditional Korean culture.
The War Memorial, one of nine municipal museums in Seoul, offers visitors an educational and emotional experience of various wars in which Korea was involved, including Korean War themes. The Seodaemun Prison is a former prison built during the Japanese occupation, and is currently used as a historic museum.The Seoul Museum of Art and Ilmin Museum of Art have preserved the appearance of the old building that is visually unique from the neighboring tall, modern buildings. The former is operated by Seoul City Council and sits adjacent to Gyeonghuigung Palace, a Joseon dynasty royal palace. Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, is widely regarded as one of Seoul's largest private museum. For many Korean film lovers from all over the world, the Korean Film Archive is running the Korean Film Museum and Cinematheque KOFA in its main center located in Digital Media City (DMC), Sangam-dong. The Tteok & Kitchen Utensil Museum and Kimchi Field Museum provide information regarding Korean culinary history.
RELIGIOUS MONUMENTS
There are also religious buildings that take important roles in Korean society and politics. The Wongudan altar was a sacrificial place where Korean rulers held heavenly rituals since the Three Kingdoms period. Since the Joseon Dynasty adopted Confucianism as its national ideology in the 14th century, the state built many Confucian shrines. The descendants of the Joseon royal family still continue to hold ceremonies to commemorate ancestors at Jongmyo. It is the oldest royal Confucian shrine preserved and the ritual ceremonies continue a tradition established in the 14th century. Munmyo and Dongmyo were built during the same period. Although Buddhism was suppressed by the Joseon state, it has continued its existence. Jogyesa is the headquarters of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. Hwagyesa and Bongeunsa are also major Buddhist temples in Seoul.
The Myeongdong Cathedral is a landmark of the Myeongdong, Jung District and the biggest Catholic church established in 1883. It is a symbol of Catholicism in Korea. It was also a focus for political dissent in the 1980s. In this way the Roman Catholic Church has a very strong influence in Korean society.
There are many Protestant churches in Seoul. The most numerous are Presbyterian, but there are also many Methodist, Baptist, and Lutheran churches. Yoido Full Gospel Church is a Pentecostal church affiliated with the Assemblies of God on Yeouido in Seoul. With approximately 830,000 members (2007), it is the largest Pentecostal Christian congregation in the world, which has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.
FESTIVALS
In October 2012 KBS Hall in Seoul hosted major international music festivals – First ABU TV and Radio Song Festivals within frameworks of Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union 49th General Assembly. Hi! Seoul Festival is a seasonal cultural festival held four times a year every spring, summer, autumn, and winter in Seoul, South Korea since 2003. It is based on the "Seoul Citizens' Day" held on every October since 1994 to commemorate the 600 years history of Seoul as the capital of the country. The festival is arranged under the Seoul Metropolitan Government. As of 2012, Seoul has hosted Ultra Music Festival Korea, an annual dance music festival that takes place on the 2nd weekend of June.
TRANSPORTATION
Seoul features one of the world's most advanced transportation infrastructures that is constantly under expansion. Its system dates back to the era of the Korean Empire, when the first streetcar lines were laid and a railroad linking Seoul and Incheon was completed. Seoul's most important streetcar line ran along Jongno until it was replaced by Line 1 of the subway system in the early 1970s. Other notable streets in downtown Seoul include Euljiro, Teheranno, Sejongno, Chungmuro, Yulgongno, and Toegyero. There are nine major subway lines stretching for more than 250 km, with one additional line planned. As of 2010, 25% of the population has a commute time of an hour or more.
BUS
Seoul's bus system is operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government (S.M.G.), with four primary bus configurations available servicing most of the city. Seoul has many large intercity/express bus terminals. These buses connect Seoul with cities throughout South Korea. The Seoul Express Bus Terminal, Central City Terminal and Seoul Nambu Terminal are located in the district of Seocho District. In addition, East Seoul Bus Terminal in Gwangjin District and Sangbong Terminal in Jungnang District operate in the east of the city.
SUBWAY
Seoul has a comprehensive urban railway network that interconnects every district of the city and the surrounding areas. With more than 8 million passengers per day, Seoul has one of the busiest subway systems in the world. The Seoul Metropolitan Subway has 19 total lines which serve Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi province, western Gangwon province, and northern Chungnam province. In addition, in order to cope with the various modes of transport, Seoul's metropolitan government employs several mathematicians to coordinate the subway, bus, and traffic schedules into one timetable. The various lines are run by Korail, Seoul Metro, Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation, NeoTrans Co. Ltd., AREX, and Seoul Metro Line 9 Corporation.
TRAIN
Seoul is connected to every major city in South Korea by rail. Seoul is also linked to most major South Korean cities by the KTX high-speed train, which has a normal operation speed of more than 300 km/h. Major railroad stations include:
Seoul Station, Yongsan District: Gyeongbu line (KTX/Saemaul/Mugunghwa-ho), Gyeongui line (Saemaul/Commuter)
Yongsan Station, Yongsan District: Honam line (KTX/Saemaul/Mugunghwa), Jeolla/Janghang lines (Saemaul/Mugunghwa)
Yeongdeungpo Station, Yeongdeungpo District: Gyeongbu/Honam/Janghang lines (Saemaul/Mugunghwa)
Cheongnyangni Station, Dongdaemun District: Gyeongchun/Jungang/Yeongdong/Taebaek lines (Mugunghwa)
In addition, Suseo Station,in Gangnam District, is scheduled to open in late 2016, and offer KTX service on the newly built Suseo High Speed Railway.
AIRPORTS
Two international airports serve Seoul. Gimpo International Airport, formerly in Gimpo but annexed to Seoul in 1963, was for many years (since its original construction during the Korean War) the only international airport serving Seoul. Other domestic airports were also built around the time of the war, including Yeouido.
When it opened in March 2001, Incheon International Airport on Yeongjong island in Incheon changed the role of Gimpo Airport significantly. Incheon is now responsible for almost all international flights and some domestic flights, while Gimpo serves only domestic flights with the exception of flights to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Osaka Kansai International Airport, Taipei Songshan Airport in Taipei, Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai, and Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing. This has led to a significant drop in flights from Gimpo Airport, though it remains one of South Korea's busiest airports.
Meanwhile, Incheon International Airport has become, along with Hong Kong, a major transportation center for East Asia.
Incheon and Gimpo are linked to Seoul by highways, and to each other by the Incheon International Airport Railroad, which is also linked to Incheon line #1. Gimpo is also linked by subway (line No. 5 and #9). The Incheon International Airport Railroad, connecting the airport directly to Seoul Station in central Seoul, was recently opened. Shuttle buses also transfer passengers between Incheon and Gimpo airports.
CYCLING
Cycling is becoming increasingly popular in Seoul and in the entire country. Both banks of the Han River have cycling paths that run all the way across the city along the river. In addition, Seoul introduced in 2015 a bicycle-sharing system named Ddareungi.
EDUCATION
UNICERSITIES
Seoul is home to the majority of South Korea's most prestigious universities, including Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Korea University, Sungkyunkwan University, Sogang University, Hanyang University, Chung-Ang University, Ewha Womans University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Hongik University, Kyung Hee University, Soongsil University, Sookmyung Women's University, Korea Military Academy, and the University of Seoul.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
Education from grades 1–12 is compulsory. Students spend six years in elementary school, three years in middle school, and three years in high school. Secondary schools generally require that the students wear uniforms. There is an exit exam for graduating from high school and many students proceeding to the university level are required to take the College Scholastic Ability Test that is held every November. Although there is a test for non-high school graduates, called school qualification exam, most of Koreans take the test
Seoul is home to various specialized schools, including three science high schools (Hansung Science High School, Sejong Science High School and Seoul Science High School), and six foreign language High Schools (Daewon Foreign Language High School, Daeil Foreign Language High School, Ewha Girls' Foreign Language High School, Hanyoung Foreign Language High School, Myungduk Foreign Language High School and Seoul Foreign Language High School). Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education comprises 235 College-Preparatory High Schools, 80 Vocational Schools, 377 Middle Schools, and 33 Special Education Schools as of 2009.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Seoul is a member of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.
WIKIPEDIA
St Albans Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, is a Church of England cathedral church within St Albans, England. At 84 metres (276 ft), its nave is the longest of any cathedral in England. With much of its present architecture dating from Norman times, it was formerly known as St Albans Abbey before it became a cathedral in 1877. It is the second longest cathedral in the United Kingdom (after Winchester). Local residents often call it "the abbey", although the present cathedral represents only the church of the old Benedictine abbey.
The abbey church, although legally a cathedral church, differs in certain particulars from most of the other cathedrals in England: it is also used as a parish church, of which the dean is rector. He has the same powers, responsibilities and duties as the rector of any other parish.
Alban was a pagan living in the Roman city of Verulamium, now Verulamium Park, in St Albans, in Hertfordshire, England, about 22 miles (35 km) north of London along Watling Street. Before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, local Christians were being persecuted by the Romans. Alban sheltered their priest, Saint Amphibalus, in his home and was converted to the Christian faith by him. When the soldiers came to Alban's house looking for the priest, Alban exchanged cloaks with the priest and let himself be arrested in his place. Alban was taken before the magistrate, where he avowed his new Christian faith and was condemned for it. He was beheaded, according to legend, on the spot where the cathedral named after him now stands. The site is on a steep hill and legend has it that his head rolled down the hill after being cut off and that a well sprang up at the point where it stopped.
A well certainly exists today and the road up to the cathedral is named Holywell Hill. However the current well structure is no older than the late 19th century and it is thought that the name of the street derives from the "Halywell" river and "Halywell Bridge", not from the well.
The date of Alban's execution is a matter of some debate and is generally given as "circa 250"—scholars generally suggest dates of 209, 254 or 304.
History of the abbey and cathedral
A memoria over the execution point and holding the remains of Alban existed at the site from the mid-4th century (possibly earlier); Bedementions a church and Gildas a shrine. Bishop Germanus of Auxerre visited in 429 and took a portion of the apparently still bloody earth away. The style of this structure is unknown; the 13th century chronicler Matthew Paris (see below) claimed that the Saxons destroyed the building in 586.
Saxon buildings
Offa II of Mercia, who ruled in the 8th century, is said to have founded the Benedictine abbey and monastery at St Albans. All later religious structures are dated from the foundation of Offa's abbey in 793. The abbey was built on Holmhurst Hill—now Holywell Hill—across the River Ver from the ruins of Verulamium. Again there is no information to the form of the first abbey. The abbey was probably sacked by the Danes around 890 and, despite Paris's claims, the office of abbot remained empty from around 920 until the 970s when the efforts of Dunstanreached the town.
There was an intention to rebuild the abbey in 1005 when Abbot Ealdred was licensed to remove building material from Verulamium. With the town resting on clay and chalk the only tough stone is flint. This was used with a lime mortar and then either plastered over or left bare. With the great quantities of brick, tile and other stone in Verulamium the Roman site became a prime source of building material for the abbeys, and other projects in the area, up to the 18th century. Sections demanding worked stone used Lincolnshire limestone (Barnack stone) from Verulamium, later worked stones include Totternhoe freestone from Bedfordshire, Purbeck marble, and different limestones (Ancaster, Chilmark, Clipsham, etc.).
Renewed Viking raids from 1016 stalled the Saxon efforts and very little from the Saxon abbey was incorporated in the later forms.
The nave. The north wall (left) features a mix of Norman arches dating back to 1077 and arches in the Early English style of 1200.
Norman abbey
Much of the current layout and proportions of the structure date from the first Norman abbot, Paul of Caen (1077–1093). The 14th abbot, he was appointed by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc.
Building work started in the year of Abbot Paul's arrival. The design and construction was overseen by the Norman Robert the Mason. The plan has very limited Anglo-Saxon elements and is clearly influenced by the French work at Cluny, Bernay, and Caen and shares a similar floor plan to Saint-Étienne and Lanfranc's Canterbury—although the poorer quality building material was a new challenge for Robert and he clearly borrowed some Roman techniques, learned while gathering material in Verulamium. To take maximum use of the hilltop the abbey was oriented to the south-east. The cruciform abbey was the largest built in England at that time, it had a chancel of four bays, a transept containing seven apses, and a nave of ten bays—fifteen bays long overall. Robert gave particular attention to solid foundations, running a continuous wall of layered bricks, flints and mortar below and pushing the foundations down to twelve feet to hit bedrock. Below the crossing tower special large stones were used.
The tower was a particular triumph—it is the only 11th century great crossing tower still standing in England. Robert began with special thick supporting walls and four massive brick piers. The four-level tower tapers at each stage with clasping buttresses on the three lower levels and circular buttresses on the fourth stage. The entire structure masses 5,000 tons and is 144 feet high. The tower was probably topped with a Norman pyramidal roof; the current roof is flat. The original ringing chamber had five bells—two paid for by the Abbot, two by a wealthy townsman, and one donated by the rector of Hoddesdon. None of these bells has survived.
There was a widespread belief that the abbey had two additional, smaller towers at the west end. No remains have been found.
The monastic abbey was completed in 1089 but not consecrated until Holy Innocents' Day, 1115, (28 Dec) by the Archbishop of Rouen. King Henry I attended as did many bishops and nobles.
A nunnery (Sopwell Priory) was founded nearby in 1140.
Internally the abbey was bare of sculpture, almost stark. The plaster walls were coloured and patterned in parts, with extensive tapestries adding colour. Sculptural decoration was added, mainly ornaments, as it became more fashionable in the 12th century—especially after the Gothic style arrived in England around 1170.
In the current structure the original Norman arches survive principally under the central tower and on the north side of the nave. The arches in the rest of the building are Gothic, following medieval rebuilding and extensions, and Victorian era restoration.
The abbey was extended in the 1190s by Abbot John de Cella (also known as John of Wallingford) (1195–1214); as the number of monks grew from fifty to over a hundred, the abbey was extended westwards with three bays added to the nave. The severe Norman west front was also rebuilt by Hugh de Goldclif—although how is uncertain, it was very costly but its 'rapid' weathering and later alterations have erased all but fragments. A more prominent shrine and altar to Saint Amphibalus were also added. The work was very slow under de Cella and was not completed until the time of Abbot William de Trumpington (1214–35). The low Norman tower roof was demolished and a new, much higher, broached spire was raised, sheathed in lead.
The St Albans Psalter (ca. 1130–45) is the best known of a number of important Romanesque illuminated manuscripts produced in the Abbey scriptorium. Later, Matthew Paris, a monk at St Albans from 1217 until his death in 1259, was important both as a chronicler and an artist. Eighteen of his manuscripts survive and are a rich source of contemporary information for historians.
Nicholas Breakspear was born near St Albans and applied to be admitted to the abbey as a novice, but he was turned down. He eventually managed to be accepted into an abbey in France. In 1154 he was elected Pope Adrian IV, the only English Pope there has ever been. The head of the abbey was confirmed as the premier abbot in England also in 1154.
13th to 15th centuries
An earthquake shook the abbey in 1250 and damaged the eastern end of the church. In 1257 the dangerously cracked sections were knocked down—three apses and two bays. The thick Presbytery wall supporting the tower was left. The rebuilding and updating was completed during the rule of Abbot Roger de Norton (1263–90).
On 10 October 1323 two piers on the south side of the nave collapsed dragging down much of the roof and wrecking five bays. Mason Henry Wy undertook the rebuilding, matching the Early English style of the rest of the bays but adding distinctly 14th century detailing and ornaments. The shrine to St Amphibalus had also been damaged and was remade.
Abbey Gateway, now part of St. Albans School.
Richard of Wallingford, abbot from 1297 to 1336 and a mathematician and astronomer, designed a celebrated clock, which was completed by William of Walsham after his death, but apparently destroyed during the reformation.
A new gateway, now called the Abbey Gateway, was built to the abbey grounds in 1365, which was the only part of the monastery buildings (besides the church) to survive the dissolution, later being used as a prison and now part of St Albans School. The other monastic buildings were located to the south of the gateway and church.
In the 15th century a large west window of nine main lights and a deep traced head was commissioned by John of Wheathampstead. The spire was reduced to a 'Hertfordshire spike', the roof pitch greatly reduced and battlements liberally added. Further new windows, at £50 each, were put in the transept by Abbot Wallingford (also known as William of Wallingford), who also had a new high altar screen made.
Dissolution and after
After the death of Abbot Ramryge in 1521 the abbey fell into debt and slow decay under three weak abbots. At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and its surrender on 5 December 1539 the income was £2,100 annually. The abbot and remaining forty monks were pensioned off and then the buildings were looted. All gold, silver and gilt objects were carted away with all other valuables; stonework was broken and defaced and graves opened to burn the contents.
The abbey became part of the diocese of Lincoln in 1542 and was moved to the diocese of London in 1550. The buildings suffered—neglect, second-rate repairs, even active damage. Richard Lee purchased all the buildings, except the church and chapel and some other Crown premises, in 1550. Lee then began the systematic demolition for building material to improve Lee Hall at Sopwell. In 1551, with the stone removed, Lee returned the land to the abbot. The area was named Abbey Ruins for the next 200 years or so.
In 1553 the Lady chapel became a school, the Great Gatehouse a town jail, some other buildings passed to the Crown, and the Abbey Church was sold to the town for £400 in 1553 by King Edward VI to be the church of the parish.
The cost of upkeep fell upon the town, although in 1596 and at irregular intervals later the Archdeacon was allowed to collect money for repairs by Brief in the diocese. After James I visited in 1612 he authorised another Brief, which collected around £2,000—most of which went on roof repairs. The English Civil War slashed the monies spent on repairs, while the abbey was used to hold prisoners of war and suffered from their vandalism, as well as that of their guards. Most of the metal objects that had survived the Dissolution were also removed and other ornamental parts were damaged in Puritan sternness. Another round of fund-raising in 1681–84 was again spent on the roof, repairing the Presbytery vault. A royal grant from William and Mary in 1689 went on general maintenance, 'repairs' to conceal some of the unfashionable Gothic features, and on new internal fittings. There was a second royal grant from William in 1698.
By the end of the 17th century the dilapidation was sufficient for a number of writers to comment upon it.
In 1703, from 26 November to 1 December, the Great Storm raged across southern England; the abbey lost the south transept window which was replaced in wood at a cost of £40. The window was clear glass with five lights and three transoms in an early Gothic Revival style by John Hawgood. Other windows, although not damaged in the storm, were a constant drain on the abbey budget in the 18th century.
A brief in 1723–24, seeking £5,775, notes a great crack in the south wall, that the north wall was eighteen inches from vertical, and that the roof timbers were decayed to the point of danger. The money raised was spent on the nave roof over ten bays.
Another brief was not issued until 1764. Again the roof was rotting, as was the south transept window, walls were cracked or shattered in part and the south wall had subsided and now leant outwards. Despite a target of £2,500 a mere £600 was raised.
In the 1770s the abbey came close to demolition; the expense of repairs meant a scheme to destroy the abbey and erect a smaller church almost succeeded.
A storm in 1797 caused some subsidence, cracking open graves, scattering pavement tiles, flooding the church interior and leaving a few more arches off-vertical.
19th century
The Wallingford Screen of c. 1480—the statues are Victorian replacements (1884–89) of the originals, destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when the screen itself was also damaged. Statues of St Alban and St Amphibalus stand on either side of the altar.
This century was marked with a number of repair schemes. The abbey received some money from the 1818 "Million Act", and in 1820 £450 was raised to buy an organ—a second-hand example made in 1670.
The major efforts to revive the abbey church came under four men—L. N. Cottingham, Rector H. J. B. Nicholson, and, especially, George Gilbert Scott and Edmund Beckett, first Baron Grimthorpe.
In February 1832 a portion of the clerestory wall fell through the roof of the south aisle, leaving a hole almost thirty feet long. With the need for serious repair work evident the architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham was called in to survey the building. His Survey was presented in 1832 and was worrying reading: everywhere mortar was in a wretched condition and wooden beams were rotting and twisting. Cottingham recommended new beams throughout the roof and a new steeper pitch, removal of the spire and new timbers in the tower, new paving, ironwork to hold the west transept wall up, a new stone south transept window, new buttresses, a new drainage system for the roof, new ironwork on almost all the windows, and on and on. He estimated a cost of £14,000. A public subscription of £4,000 was raised, of which £1,700 vanished in expenses. With the limited funds the clerestory wall was rebuilt, the nave roof re-leaded, the tower spike removed, some forty blocked windows reopened and glazed, and the south window remade in stone.
Henry Nicholson, rector from 1835 to 1866, was also active in repairing the abbey church—as far as he could, and in uncovering lost or neglected Gothic features.
In 1856 repair efforts began again; £4,000 was raised and slow moves started to gain the abbey the status of cathedral. George Gilbert Scottwas appointed the project architect and oversaw a number of works from 1860 until his death in 1878.
Scott began by having the medieval floor restored, necessitating the removal of tons of earth, and fixing the north aisle roof. From 1872–77 the restored floors were re-tiled in matching stone and copies of old tile designs. A further 2,000 tons of earth were shifted in 1863 during work on the foundation and a new drainage system. In 1870 the tower piers were found to be badly weakened with many cracks and cavities. Huge timbers were inserted and the arches filled with brick as an emergency measure. Repair work took until May 1871 and cost over £2,000. The south wall of the nave was now far from straight; Scott reinforced the north wall and put in scaffolding to take the weight of the roof off the wall, then had it jacked straight in under three hours. The wall was then buttressed with five huge new masses and set right. Scott was lauded as "saviour of the Abbey." From 1870–75 around £20,000 was spent on the abbey.
In 1845 St Albans was transferred from the Diocese of Lincoln to the Diocese of Rochester. Then, in 1875, the Bishopric of St Albans Act was passed and on 30 April 1877 the See of St Albans was created, which comprises about 300 churches in the counties of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. The then Bishop of Rochester, the Right Revd Dr Thomas Legh Claughton, elected to take the northern division of his old diocese and on 12 June 1877 was enthroned first Bishop of St Albans, a position he held until 1890. He is buried in the churchyard on the north side of the nave.
George Gilbert Scott was working on the nave roof, vaulting and west bay when he died on 27 March 1878. His plans were partially completed by his son, John Oldrid Scott, but the remaining work fell into the hands of Lord Grimthorpe, whose efforts have attracted much controversy—Nikolaus Pevsner calling him a "pompous, righteous bully." However, he donated much of the immense sum of £130,000 the work cost.
Whereas Scott's work had clearly been in sympathy with the existing building, Grimthorpe's plans reflected the Victorian ideal. Indeed, he spent considerable time dismissing and criticising the work of Scott and the efforts of his son.
Grimthorpe first reinstated the original pitch of the roof, although the battlements added for the lower roof were retained. Completed in 1879, the roof was leaded, following on Scott's desires.
1805 engraving of the west front of the abbey showing the lost Wheathampstead window.
His second major project was the most controversial. The west front, with the great Wheathampstead window, was cracked and leaning, and Grimthorpe, never more than an amateur architect, designed the new front himself—attacked as dense, misproportioned and unsympathetic: "His impoverishment as a designer ... [is] evident"; "this man, so practical and ingenious, was utterly devoid of taste ... his great qualities were marred by arrogance ... and a lack of historic sense". Counter proposals were deliberately substituted by Grimthorpe for poorly drawn versions and Grimthorpe's design was accepted?. During building it was considerably reworked in order to fit the actual frontage and is not improved by the poor quality sculpture. Work began in 1880 and was completed in April 1883, having cost £20,000.
The Lady Chapel at the east end of the cathedral.
Grimthorpe was noted for his aversion to the Perpendicular—to the extent that he would have sections he disliked demolished as "too rotten" rather than remade. In his reconstruction, especially of windows, he commonly mixed architectural styles carelessly (see the south aisle, the south choir screen and vaulting). He spent £50,000 remaking the nave. Elsewhere he completely rebuilt the south wall cloisters, with new heavy buttresses, and removed the arcading of the east cloisters during rebuilding the south transept walls. In the south transept he completely remade the south face, completed in 1885, including the huge lancet window group—his proudest achievement—and the flanking turrets; a weighty new tiled roof was also made. In the north transept Grimthorpe had the Perpendicular window demolished and his design inserted—a rose window of circles, cusped circles and lozenges arrayed in five rings around the central light, sixty-four lights in total, each circle with a different glazing pattern.
Grimthorpe continued through the Presbytery in his own style, adapting the antechapel for Consistory Courts, and into the Lady Chapel. After a pointed lawsuit with Henry Hucks Gibbs, first Baron Aldenham over who should direct the restoration, Grimthorpe had the vault remade and reproportioned in stone, made the floor in black and white marble (1893), and had new Victorian arcading and sculpture put below the canopy work. Externally the buttresses were expanded to support the new roof, and the walls were refaced.
As early as 1897, Grimthorpe was having to return to previously renovated sections to make repairs. His use of over-strong cement led to cracking, while his fondness for ironwork in windows led to corrosion and damage to the surrounding stone.
Grimthorpe died in 1905 and was interred in the churchyard. He left a bequest for continuing work on the buildings.
During this century the name St Albans Abbey was given to one of the town's railway stations.
20th century
John Oldrid Scott (died 1913) (George Gilbert Scott's son), despite frequent clashes with Grimthorpe, had continued working within the cathedral. Scott was a steadfast supporter of the Gothic revival and designed the tomb of the first bishop; he had a new bishop's throne built (1903), together with commemorative stalls for Bishop Festing and two Archdeacons, and new choir stalls. He also repositioned and rebuilt the organ (1907). Further work was interrupted by the war.
A number of memorials to the war were added to the cathedral, notably the painting The Passing of Eleanor by Frank Salisbury (stolen 1973) and the reglazing of the main west window, dedicated in 1925.
Following the Enabling Act of 1919 control of the buildings passed to a Parochial Church Council (replaced by the Cathedral Council in 1968), who appointed the woodwork specialist John Rogers as Architect and Surveyor of the Fabric. He uncovered extensive death watch beetledamage in the presbytery vault and oversaw the repair (1930–31). He had four tons of rubbish removed from the crossing tower and the main timbers reinforced (1931–32), and invested in the extensive use of insecticide throughout the wood structures. In 1934, the eight bells were overhauled and four new bells added to be used in the celebration of George V's jubilee.
Cecil Brown was architect and surveyor from 1939 to 1962. At first he merely oversaw the lowering of the bells for the war and established a fire watch, with the pump in the slype. After the war, in the 1950s, the organ was removed, rebuilt and reinstalled and new pews added. His major work was on the crossing tower. Grimthorpe's cement was found to be damaging the Roman bricks: every brick in the tower was replaced as needed and reset in proper mortar by one man, Walter Barrett. The tower ceiling was renovated as were the nave murals. Brown established the Muniments Room to gather and hold all the church documents.
In 1972, to encourage a closer link between celebrant and congregation, the massive nine-ton pulpit along with the choir stalls and permanent pews was dismantled and removed. The altar space was enlarged and improved. New 'lighter' wood (limed oak) choir stalls were put in, and chairs replaced the pews. A new wooden pulpit was acquired from a Norfolk church and installed in 1974. External floodlighting was added in 1975.
A major survey in 1974 revealed new leaks, decay and other deterioration, and a ten-year restoration plan was agreed. Again the roofing required much work. The nave and clerestory roofs were repaired in four stages with new leading. The nave project was completed in 1984 at a total cost of £1.75 million. The clerestory windows were repaired with the corroded iron replaced with delta bronze and other Grimthorpe work on the clerestory was replaced. Seventy-two new heads for the corbel table were made. Grimthorpe's west front was cracking, again due to the use originally of too strong a mortar, and was repaired.
A new visitors' centre was proposed in 1970. Planning permission was sought in 1973; there was a public inquiry and approval was granted in 1977. Constructed to the south side of the cathedral close to the site of the original chapter house of the abbey, the new 'Chapter House' cost around £1 million and was officially opened on 8 June 1982 by Queen Elizabeth. The main building material was 500,000 replica Roman bricks.
Other late 20th-century works include the restoration of Alban's shrine, with a new embroidered canopy, and the stained glass designed by Alan Younger for Grimthorpe's north transept rose window, unveiled in 1989 by Diana, Princess of Wales.
Modern times
The Bishop is the Right Reverend Alan Smith, installed in September 2009. The Venerable Jonathan Smith is Archdeacon of St Albans, installed in October 2008. On 2 July 2004, the Very Reverend Canon Dr Jeffrey John became the ninth Dean of the Cathedral.
Robert Runcie, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was bishop of St Albans from 1970 to 1980 and returned to live in the city after his retirement; he is commemorated by a gargoyle on the Cathedral as well as being buried in the graveyard. Colin Slee, former Dean of Southwark Cathedral, was sub-dean at St Albans under Runcie and then Dean, Peter Moore. The bishop's house is in Abbey Mill Lane, St Albans, as is the house of the Bishop of Hertford. The Reverend Canon Eric James, Chaplain Extraordinary to HM the Queen, was Canon at St Albans for many years.
Non Euclidian: This is another homage to Escher. It is a construction comprised of Penrose Triangles. These were conceived by the famous mathematician, Roger Penrose and used in some works of Escher. They work because they are two-dimensional objects. However the shading gives our brains three dimensional clues about their structure. In this case, the clues deceive us
I call this work N-dimensional prison. I really like the work of Escher and others with impossible shapes. So I wanted to see if I could incorporate those shape into various works of art. The “prison” is made up of a series of Penrose Triangles”, named for the famous British mathematician who invented the figure. Putting this “ghoul” in the prison adds a bit of whimsy to the construction.
The Great Patriotic War (Russian: Вели́кая Оте́чественная война́, romanized: Velikaja Otečestvennaja vojna) is a term used in Russia and some other former republics of the Soviet Union to describe the conflict fought during the period from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945 along the many fronts of the Eastern Front of World War II, primarily between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. For some legal purposes, this period may be extended to 11 May 1945 to include the end of the Prague offensive.
History
The term Patriotic War refers to the Russian resistance to the French invasion of Russia under Napoleon I, which became known as the Patriotic War of 1812. In Russian, the term отечественная война originally referred to a war on one's own territory (otechestvo means "the fatherland"), as opposed to a campaign abroad (заграничная война), and later was reinterpreted as a war for the fatherland, i.e. a defensive war for one's homeland. Sometimes the Patriotic War of 1812 was also referred to as the Great Patriotic War (Великая отечественная война); the phrase first appeared in 1844 and became popular on the eve of the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812.
After 1914, the phrase was applied to World War I. It was the name of a special war-time appendix to the magazine Theater and Life (Театр и жизнь) in Saint Petersburg, and referred to the Eastern Front of World War I, where Russia fought against the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The phrases Second Patriotic War (Вторая отечественная война) and Great World Patriotic War (Великая всемирная отечественная война) were also used during World War I in Russia.
The term Great Patriotic War re-appeared in the official newspaper of the CPSU, Pravda, on 23 June 1941, just a day after Germany invaded the Soviet Union. It was found in the title of "The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People" (Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna Sovetskogo Naroda), a long article by Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, a member of Pravda editors' collegium. The phrase was intended to motivate the population to defend the Soviet fatherland and to expel the invader, and a reference to the Patriotic War of 1812 was seen as a great morale booster. During the Soviet period, historians engaged in huge distortions to make history fit with Communist ideology, with Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov and Prince Pyotr Bagration transformed into peasant generals, Alexander I alternatively ignored or vilified, and the war becoming a massive "People's War" fought by the ordinary people of Russia with almost no involvement on the part of the government. The invasion by Germany was called the Great Patriotic War by the Soviet government to evoke comparisons with the victory by Tsar Alexander I over Napoleon's invading army.
The term Отечественная война (Patriotic War or Fatherland War) was officially recognized by establishment of the Order of the Patriotic War on 20 May 1942, awarded for heroic deeds.
The term is not generally used outside the former Soviet Union, and the closest term is the Eastern Front of World War II (1941–1945). Neither term covers the initial phase of World War II in Eastern Europe, during which the USSR, then still in a non-aggression pact with Germany, invaded eastern Poland (1939), the Baltic states (1940), Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina (1940) and Finland (1939–1940). The term also does not cover the Soviet–Japanese War (1945) nor the Battles of Khalkhin Gol (1939).
In Russia and some other post-Soviet countries, the term is given great significance; it is accepted as a representation of the most important part of World War II. Until 2014, Uzbekistan was the only nation in the Commonwealth of Independent States that had not recognized the term, referring to it as World War II on the state holiday - the Day of Remembrance and Honour.
On 9 April 2015, the Ukrainian parliament replaced the term Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) (Velyka vitchyzniana viina) in the country's law with the "Second World War (1939–1945)" (Druha svitova viina), as part of a set of decommunization laws. Also in 2015, Ukraine's "Victory Day over Nazism in World War II" was established as a national holiday in accordance with the law of "On Perpetuation of Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939–1945". The new holiday was celebrated on May 9 and replaced the Soviet-Russian Victory Day, which is celebrated on May 9. These laws were adopted by the Ukrainian parliament within the package of laws on decommunization. In 2023 Ukraine abolished the 2015 9 May "Victory Day over Nazism" holiday and replaced it with the new public holiday "Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939 – 1945" which is celebrated on 8 May annually.
Voronezh is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects western Russia with the Urals and Siberia, the Caucasus and Ukraine, and the M4 highway (Moscow–Voronezh–Rostov-on-Don–Novorossiysk). In recent years the city has experienced rapid population growth, rising in 2021 to 1,057,681, up from 889,680 recorded in the 2010 Census, making it the 14th-most populous city in the country.
History
The first chronicle references to the word "Voronezh" are dated 1177, when the Ryazan prince Yaropolk, having lost the battle, fled "to Voronozh" and there was moving "from town to town". Modern data of archeology and history interpret Voronezh as a geographical region, which included the Voronezh river (tributary of the Don) and a number of settlements. In the lower reaches of the river, a unique Slavic town-planning complex of the 8th – early 11th century was discovered, which covered the territory of the present city of Voronezh and its environs (about 42 km long, about 13 forts and many unfortified villages). By the 12th – 13th centuries, most of the old towns were desolate, but new settlements appeared upstream, closer to Ryazan.
For many years, the hypothesis of the Soviet historian Vladimir Zagorovsky dominated: he produced the toponym "Voronezh" from the hypothetical Slavic personal name Voroneg. This man allegedly gave the name of a small town in the Chernigov Principality (now the village of Voronezh in Ukraine). Later, in the 11th or 12th century, the settlers were able to "transfer" this name to the Don region, where they named the second city Voronezh, and the river got its name from the city. However, now many researchers criticize the hypothesis, since in reality neither the name of Voroneg nor the second city was revealed, and usually the names of Russian cities repeated the names of the rivers, but not vice versa.
The linguistic comparative analysis of the name "Voronezh" was carried out by the Khovansky Foundation in 2009. There is an indication of the place names of many countries in Eurasia, which may partly be not only similar in sound, but also united by common Indo-European languages: Varanasi, Varna, Verona, Brno, etc.
A comprehensive scientific analysis was conducted in 2015–2016 by the historian Pavel Popov. His conclusion: "Voronezh" is a probable Slavic macrotoponym associated with outstanding signs of nature, has a root voron- (from the proto-Slavic vorn) in the meaning of "black, dark" and the suffix -ezh (-azh, -ozh). It was not “transferred” and in the 8th - 9th centuries it marked a vast territory covered with black forests (oak forests) - from the mouth of the Voronezh river to the Voronozhsky annalistic forests in the middle and upper reaches of the river, and in the west to the Don (many forests were cut down). The historian believes that the main "city" of the early town-planning complex could repeat the name of the region – Voronezh. Now the hillfort is located in the administrative part of the modern city, in the Voronezh upland oak forest. This is one of Europe's largest ancient Slavic hillforts, the area of which – more than 9 hectares – 13 times the area of the main settlement in Kyiv before the baptism of Rus.
In it is assumed that the word "Voronezh" means bluing - a technique to increase the corrosion resistance of iron products. This explanation fits well with the proximity to the ancient city of Voronezh of a large iron deposit and the city of Stary Oskol.
Folk etymology claims the name comes from combining the Russian words for raven (ворон) and hedgehog (еж) into Воронеж. According to this explanation two Slavic tribes named after the animals used this combination to name the river which later in turn provided the name for a settlement. There is not believed to be any scientific support for this explanation.
In the 16th century, the Middle Don basin, including the Voronezh river, was gradually conquered by Muscovy from the Nogai Horde (a successor state of the Golden Horde), and the current city of Voronezh was established in 1585 by Feodor I as a fort protecting the Muravsky Trail trade route against the slave raids of the Nogai and Crimean Tatars. The city was named after the river.
17th to 19th centuries
In the 17th century, Voronezh gradually evolved into a sizable town. Weronecz is shown on the Worona river in Resania in Joan Blaeu's map of 1645. Peter the Great built a dockyard in Voronezh where the Azov Flotilla was constructed for the Azov campaigns in 1695 and 1696. This fleet, the first ever built in Russia, included the first Russian ship of the line, Goto Predestinatsia. The Orthodox diocese of Voronezh was instituted in 1682 and its first bishop, Mitrofan of Voronezh, was later proclaimed the town's patron saint.
Owing to the Voronezh Admiralty Wharf, for a short time, Voronezh became the largest city of South Russia and the economic center of a large and fertile region. In 1711, it was made the seat of the Azov Governorate, which eventually morphed into the Voronezh Governorate.
In the 19th century, Voronezh was a center of the Central Black Earth Region. Manufacturing industry (mills, tallow-melting, butter-making, soap, leather, and other works) as well as bread, cattle, suet, and the hair trade developed in the town. A railway connected Voronezh with Moscow in 1868 and Rostov-on-Don in 1871.
20th century
World War II
During World War II, Voronezh was the scene of fierce fighting between Soviet and combined Axis troops. The Germans used it as a staging area for their attack on Stalingrad, and made it a key crossing point on the Don River. In June 1941, two BM-13 (Fighting machine #13 Katyusha) artillery installations were built at the Voronezh excavator factory. In July, the construction of Katyushas was rationalized so that their manufacture became easier and the time of volley repetition was shortened from five minutes to fifteen seconds. More than 300 BM-13 units manufactured in Voronezh were used in a counterattack near Moscow in December 1941. In October 22, 1941, the advance of the German troops prompted the establishment of a defense committee in the city. On November 7, 1941, there was a troop parade, devoted to the anniversary of the October Revolution. Only three such parades were organized that year: in Moscow, Kuybyshev, and Voronezh. In late June 1942, the city was attacked by German and Hungarian forces. In response, Soviet forces formed the Voronezh Front. By July 6, the German army occupied the western river-bank suburbs before being subjected to a fierce Soviet counter-attack. By July 24 the frontline had stabilised along the Voronezh River as the German forces continued southeast into the Great Bend of the Don. The attack on Voronezh represented the first phase of the German Army's 1942 campaign in the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue.
Until January 25, 1943, parts of the Second German Army and the Second Hungarian Army occupied the western part of Voronezh. During Operation Little Saturn, the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive, and the Voronezhsko-Kastornenskoy Offensive, the Voronezh Front exacted heavy casualties on Axis forces. On January 25, 1943, Voronezh was liberated after ten days of combat. During the war the city was almost completely ruined, with 92% of all buildings destroyed.
Post-war
By 1950, Voronezh had been rebuilt. Most buildings and historical monuments were repaired. It was also the location of a prestigious Suvorov Military School, a boarding school for young boys who were considered to be prospective military officers, many of whom had been orphaned by war.
In 1950–1960, new factories were established: a tire factory, a machine-tool factory, a factory of heavy mechanical pressing, and others. In 1968, Serial production of the Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic plane was established at the Voronezh Aviation factory. In October 1977, the first Soviet domestic wide-body plane, Ilyushin Il-86, was built there.
In 1989, TASS published details of an alleged UFO landing in the city's park and purported encounters with extraterrestrial beings reported by a number of children. A Russian scientist that was cited in initial TASS reports later told the Associated Press that he was misquoted, cautioning, "Don't believe all you hear from TASS," and "We never gave them part of what they published", and a TASS correspondent admitted the possibility that some "make-believe" had been added to the TASS story, saying, "I think there is a certain portion of truth, but it is not excluded that there is also fantasizing".
21st century
From 10 to 17 September 2011, Voronezh celebrated its 425th anniversary. The anniversary of the city was given the status of a federal scale celebration that helped attract large investments from the federal and regional budgets for development.
On December 17, 2012, Voronezh became the fifteenth city in Russia with a population of over one million people.
Today Voronezh is the economic, industrial, cultural, and scientific center of the Central Black Earth Region. As part of the annual tradition in the Russian city of Voronezh, every winter the main city square is thematically drawn around a classic literature. In 2020, the city was decorated using the motifs from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. In the year of 2021, the architects drew inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen as well as the animation classic The Snow Queen from the Soviet Union. The fairy tale replica city will feature the houses of Kai and Gerda, the palace of the snow queen, an ice rink, and illumination.
In June 2023, during the Wagner Group rebellion, forces of the Wagner Group claimed to have taken control of military facilities in the city. Later they were confirmed to have taken the city itself.
Administrative and municipal status
Voronezh is the administrative center of the oblast.[1] Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as Voronezh Urban Okrug—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.[1] As a municipal division, this administrative unit also has urban okrug status.
City divisions
The city is divided into six administrative districts:
Zheleznodorozhny (183,17 km²)
Tsentralny (63,96 km²)
Kominternovsky (47,41 km²)
Leninsky (18,53 km²)
Sovetsky (156,6 km²)
Levoberezhny (123,89 km²)
Economy
The leading sectors of the urban economy in the 20th century were mechanical engineering, metalworking, the electronics industry and the food industry.
In the city are such companies as:
Tupolev Tu-144
Voronezhselmash (agricultural engineering)
Sozvezdie[36] (headquarter, JSC Concern “Sozvezdie”, in 1958 the world's first created mobile telephony and wireless telephone Altai
Verofarm (pharmaceutics, owner Abbott Laboratories),
Voronezh Mechanical Plant[37] (production of missile and aircraft engines, oil and gas equipment)
Mining Machinery Holding - RUDGORMASH[38] (production of drilling, mineral processing and mining equipment)
VNiiPM Research Institute of Semiconductor Engineering (equipment for plasma-chemical processes, technical-chemical equipment for liquid operations, water treatment equipment)
KBKhA Chemical Automatics Design Bureau with notable products:.
Pirelli Voronezh.
On the territory of the city district government Maslovka Voronezh region with the support of the Investment Fund of Russia, is implementing a project to create an industrial park, "Maslowski", to accommodate more than 100 new businesses, including the transformer factory of Siemens. On September 7, 2011 in Voronezh there opened a Global network operation center of Nokia Siemens Networks, which was the fifth in the world and the first in Russia.
Construction
In 2014, 926,000 square meters of housing was delivered.
Clusters of Voronezh
In clusters of tax incentives and different preferences, the full support of the authorities. A cluster of Oil and Gas Equipment, Radio-electronic cluster, Furniture cluster, IT cluster, Cluster aircraft, Cluster Electromechanics, Transport and logistics cluster, Cluster building materials and technologies.
Geography
Urban layout
Information about the original urban layout of Voronezh is contained in the "Patrol Book" of 1615. At that time, the city fortress was logged and located on the banks of the Voronezh River. In plan, it was an irregular quadrangle with a perimeter of about 238 meter. inside it, due to lack of space, there was no housing or siege yards, and even the cathedral church was supposed to be taken out. However, at this small fortress there was a large garrison - 666 households of service people. These courtyards were reliably protected by the second line of fortifications by a standing prison on taras with 25 towers covered with earth; behind the prison was a moat, and beyond the moat there were stakes. Voronezh was a typical military settlement (ostrog). In the city prison there were only settlements of military men: Streletskaya, Kazachya, Belomestnaya atamanskaya, Zatinnaya and Pushkarskaya. The posad population received the territory between the ostrog and the river, where the Monastyrskaya settlements (at the Assumption Monastery) was formed. Subsequently, the Yamnaya Sloboda was added to them, and on the other side of the fort, on the Chizhovka Mountain, the Chizhovskaya Sloboda of archers and Cossacks appeared. As a result, the Voronezh settlements surrounded the fortress in a ring. The location of the parish churches emphasized this ring-like and even distribution of settlements: the Ilyinsky Church of the Streletskaya Sloboda, the Pyatnitskaya Cossack and Pokrovskaya Belomestnaya were brought out to the passage towers of the prison. The Nikolskaya Church of the Streletskaya Sloboda was located near the marketplace (and, accordingly, the front facade of the fortress), and the paired ensemble of the Rozhdestvenskaya and Georgievskaya churches of the Cossack Sloboda marked the main street of the city, going from the Cossack Gate to the fortress tower.
Climate
Voronezh experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb) with long, cold winters and short, warm summers.
Transportation
Air
The city is served by the Voronezh International Airport, which is located north of the city and is home to Polet Airlines. Voronezh is also home to the Pridacha Airport, a part of a major aircraft manufacturing facility VASO (Voronezhskoye Aktsionernoye Samoletostroitelnoye Obshchestvo, Voronezh aircraft production association) where the Tupolev Tu-144 (known in the West as the "Concordski"), was built and the only operational unit is still stored. Voronezh also hosts the Voronezh Malshevo air force base in the southwest of the city, which, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council report, houses nuclear bombers.[citation needed]
Rail
Since 1868, there is a railway connection between Voronezh and Moscow. Rail services form a part of the South Eastern Railway of the Russian Railways. Destinations served direct from Voronezh include Moscow, Kyiv, Kursk, Novorossiysk, Sochi, and Tambov. The main train station is called Voronezh-1 railway station and is located in the center of the city.
Bus
There are three bus stations in Voronezh that connect the city with destinations including Moscow, Belgorod, Lipetsk, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, and Astrakhan.
Education and culture
Aviastroiteley Park
The city has seven theaters, twelve museums, a number of movie theaters, a philharmonic hall, and a circus. It is also a major center of higher education in central Russia. The main educational facilities include:
Voronezh State University
Voronezh State Technical University
Voronezh State University of Architecture and Construction
Voronezh State Pedagogical University
Voronezh State Agricultural University
Voronezh State University of Engineering Technologies
Voronezh State Medical University named after N. N. Burdenko
Voronezh State Academy of Arts
Voronezh State University of Forestry and Technologies named after G.F. Morozov
Voronezh State Institute of Physical Training
Voronezh Institute of Russia's Home Affairs Ministry
Voronezh Institute of High Technologies
Military Educational and Scientific Center of the Air Force «N.E. Zhukovsky and Y.A. Gagarin Air Force Academy» (Voronezh)
Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (Voronezh branch)
Russian State University of Justice
Admiral Makarov State University of Sea and River Fleet (Voronezh branch)
International Institute of Computer Technologies
Voronezh Institute of Economics and Law
and a number of other affiliate and private-funded institutes and universities. There are 2000 schools within the city.
Theaters
Voronezh Chamber Theatre
Koltsov Academic Drama Theater
Voronezh State Opera and Ballet Theatre
Shut Puppet Theater
Festivals
Platonov International Arts Festival
Sports
ClubSportFoundedCurrent LeagueLeague
RankStadium
Fakel VoronezhFootball1947Russian Premier League1stTsentralnyi Profsoyuz Stadion
Energy VoronezhFootball1989Women's Premier League1stRudgormash Stadium
Buran VoronezhIce Hockey1977Higher Hockey League2ndYubileyny Sports Palace
VC VoronezhVolleyball2006Women's Higher Volleyball League A2ndKristall Sports Complex
Religion
Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral in Voronezh
Orthodox Christianity is the predominant religion in Voronezh.[citation needed] There is an Orthodox Jewish community in Voronezh, with a synagogue located on Stankevicha Street.
In 1682, the Voronezh diocese was formed to fight the schismatics. Its first head was Bishop Mitrofan (1623-1703) at the age of 58. Under him, the construction began on the new Annunciation Cathedral to replace the old one. In 1832, Mitrofan was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.
In the 1990s, many Orthodox churches were returned to the diocese. Their restoration was continued. In 2009, instead of the lost one, a new Annunciation Cathedral was built with a monument to St. Mitrofan erected next to it.
Cemeteries
There are ten cemeteries in Voronezh:
Levoberezhnoye Cemetery
Lesnoye Cemetery
Jewish Cemetery
Nikolskoye Cemetery
Pravoberezhnoye Cemetery
Budyonnovskoe Cemetery
Yugo-Zapadnoye Cemetery
Podgorenskоye Cemetery
Kominternovskoe Cemetery
Ternovoye Cemetery is а historical site closed to the public.
Born in Voronezh
18th century
Yevgeny Bolkhovitinov (1767–1837), Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia
Mikhail Pavlov (1792–1840), Russian academic and professor at Moscow University
19th century
1801–1850
Aleksey Koltsov (1809–1842), Russian poet
Ivan Nikitin (1824–1861), Russian poet
Nikolai Ge (1831–1894), Russian realist painter famous for his works on historical and religious motifs
Vasily Sleptsov (1836–1878), Russian writer and social reformer
Nikolay Kashkin (1839–1920), Russian music critic
1851–1900
Valentin Zhukovski (1858–1918), Russian orientalist
Vasily Goncharov (1861–1915), Russian film director and screenwriter, one of the pioneers of the film industry in the Russian Empire
Anastasiya Verbitskaya (1861–1928), Russian novelist, playwright, screenplay writer, publisher and feminist
Mikhail Olminsky (1863–1933), Russian Communist
Serge Voronoff (1866–1951), French surgeon of Russian extraction
Andrei Shingarev (1869–1918), Russian doctor, publicist and politician
Ivan Bunin (1870–1953), the first Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature
Alexander Ostuzhev (1874–1953), Russian and Soviet drama actor
Valerian Albanov (1881–1919), Russian navigator and polar explorer
Jan Hambourg (1882–1947), Russian violinist, a member of a famous musical family
Volin (1882–1945), anarchist
Boris Hambourg (1885–1954), Russian cellist who made his career in the USA, Canada, England and Europe
Boris Eikhenbaum (1886–1959), Russian and Soviet literary scholar, and historian of Russian literature
Anatoly Durov (1887–1928), Russian animal trainer
Samuil Marshak (1887–1964), Russian and Soviet writer, translator and children's poet
Eduard Shpolsky (1892–1975), Russian and Soviet physicist and educator
George of Syracuse (1893–1981), Eastern Orthodox archbishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
Yevgeny Gabrilovich (1899–1993), Soviet screenwriter
Semyon Krivoshein (1899–1978), Soviet tank commander; Lieutenant General
Andrei Platonov (1899–1951), Soviet Russian writer, playwright and poet
Ivan Pravov (1899–1971), Russian and Soviet film director and screenwriter
William Dameshek (1900–1969), American hematologist
20th century
1901–1930
Ivan Nikolaev (1901–1979), Soviet architect and educator
Galina Shubina (1902–1980), Russian poster and graphics artist
Pavel Cherenkov (1904–1990), Soviet physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1958 with Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm for the discovery of Cherenkov radiation, made in 1934
Yakov Kreizer (1905–1969), Soviet field commander, General of the army and Hero of the Soviet Union
Iosif Rudakovsky (1914–1947), Soviet chess master
Pawel Kassatkin (1915–1987), Russian writer
Alexander Shelepin (1918–1994), Soviet state security officer and party statesman
Grigory Baklanov (1923–2009), Russian writer
Gleb Strizhenov (1923–1985), Soviet actor
Vladimir Zagorovsky (1925–1994), Russian chess grandmaster of correspondence chess and the fourth ICCF World Champion between 1962 and 1965
Konstantin Feoktistov (1926–2009), cosmonaut and engineer
Vitaly Vorotnikov (1926–2012), Soviet statesman
Arkady Davidowitz (1930), writer and aphorist
1931–1950
Grigory Sanakoev (1935), Russian International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster, most famous for being the twelfth ICCF World Champion (1984–1991)
Yuri Zhuravlyov (1935), Russian mathematician
Mykola Koltsov (1936–2011), Soviet footballer and Ukrainian football children and youth trainer
Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov (1936), Russian composer
Iya Savvina (1936–2011), Soviet film actress
Tamara Zamotaylova (1939), Soviet gymnast, who won four Olympic medals at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics
Yury Smolyakov (1941), Soviet Olympic fencer
Yevgeny Lapinsky (1942–1999), Soviet Olympic volleyball player
Galina Bukharina (1945), Soviet athlete
Vladimir Patkin (1945), Soviet Olympic volleyball player
Vladimir Proskurin (1945), Soviet Russian football player and coach
Aleksandr Maleyev (1947), Soviet artistic gymnast
Valeri Nenenko (1950), Russian professional football coach and player
1951–1970
Vladimir Rokhlin, Jr. (1952), Russian-American mathematician and professor of computer science and mathematics at the Yale University
Lyubov Burda (1953), Russian artistic gymnast
Mikhail Khryukin (1955), Russian swimmer
Aleksandr Tkachyov (1957), Russian gymnast and two times Olympic Champion
Nikolai Vasilyev (1957), Russian professional football coach and player
Aleksandr Babanov (1958), Russian professional football coach and player
Sergey Koliukh (1960), Russian political figure; 4th Mayor of Voronezh
Yelena Davydova (1961), Soviet gymnast
Aleksandr Borodyuk (1962), Russian football manager and former international player for USSR and Russia
Aleksandr Chayev (1962), Russian swimmer
Elena Fanailova (1962), Russian poet
Alexander Litvinenko (1962–2006), officer of the Russian FSB and political dissident
Yuri Shishkin (1963), Russian professional football coach and player
Yuri Klinskikh (1964–2000), Russian musician, singer, songwriter, arranger, founder rock band Sektor Gaza
Yelena Ruzina (1964), athlete
Igor Bragin (1965), footballer
Gennadi Remezov (1965), Russian professional footballer
Valeri Shmarov (1965), Russian football player and coach
Konstantin Chernyshov (1967), Russian chess grandmaster
Igor Pyvin (1967), Russian professional football coach and player
Vladimir Bobrezhov (1968), Soviet sprint canoer
1971–1980
Oleg Gorobiy (1971), Russian sprint canoer
Anatoli Kanishchev (1971), Russian professional association footballer
Ruslan Mashchenko (1971), Russian hurdler
Aleksandr Ovsyannikov (1974), Russian professional footballer
Dmitri Sautin (1974), Russian diver who has won more medals than any other Olympic diver
Sergey Verlin (1974), Russian sprint canoer
Maxim Narozhnyy (1975–2011), Paralympian athlete
Aleksandr Cherkes (1976), Russian football coach and player
Andrei Durov (1977), Russian professional footballer
Nikolai Kryukov (1978), Russian artistic gymnast
Kirill Gerstein (1979), Jewish American and Russian pianist
Evgeny Ignatov (1979), Russian sprint canoeist
Aleksey Nikolaev (1979), Russian-Uzbekistan footballer
Aleksandr Palchikov (1979), former Russian professional football player
Konstantin Skrylnikov (1979), Russian professional footballer
Aleksandr Varlamov (1979), Russian diver
Angelina Yushkova (1979), Russian gymnast
Maksim Potapov (1980), professional ice hockey player
1981–1990
Alexander Krysanov (1981), Russian professional ice hockey forward
Yulia Nachalova (1981–2019), Soviet and Russian singer, actress and television presenter
Andrei Ryabykh (1982), Russian football player
Maxim Shchyogolev (1982), Russian theatre and film actor
Eduard Vorganov (1982), Russian professional road bicycle racer
Anton Buslov (1983–2014), Russian astrophysicist, blogger, columnist at The New Times magazine and expert on transportation systems
Dmitri Grachyov (1983), Russian footballer
Aleksandr Kokorev (1984), Russian professional football player
Dmitry Kozonchuk (1984), Russian professional road bicycle racer for Team Katusha
Alexander Khatuntsev (1985), Russian professional road bicycle racer
Egor Vyaltsev (1985), Russian professional basketball player
Samvel Aslanyan (1986), Russian handball player
Maksim Chistyakov (1986), Russian football player
Yevgeniy Dorokhin (1986), Russian sprint canoer
Daniil Gridnev (1986), Russian professional footballer
Vladimir Moskalyov (1986), Russian football referee
Elena Danilova (1987), Russian football forward
Sektor Gaza (1987–2000), punk band
Regina Moroz (1987), Russian female volleyball player
Roman Shishkin (1987), Russian footballer
Viktor Stroyev (1987), Russian footballer
Elena Terekhova (1987), Russian international footballer
Natalia Goncharova (1988), Russian diver
Yelena Yudina (1988), Russian skeleton racer
Dmitry Abakumov (1989), Russian professional association football player
Igor Boev (1989), Russian professional racing cyclist
Ivan Dobronravov (1989), Russian actor
Anna Bogomazova (1990), Russian kickboxer, martial artist, professional wrestler and valet
Yuriy Kunakov (1990), Russian diver
Vitaly Melnikov (1990), Russian backstroke swimmer
Kristina Pravdina (1990), Russian female artistic gymnast
Vladislav Ryzhkov (1990), Russian footballer
1991–2000
Danila Poperechny (1994), Russian stand-up comedian, actor, youtuber, podcaster
Darya Stukalova (1994), Russian Paralympic swimmer
Viktoria Komova (1995), Russian Olympic gymnast
Vitali Lystsov (1995), Russian professional footballer
Marina Nekrasova (1995), Russian-born Azerbaijani artistic gymnast
Vladislav Parshikov (1996), Russian football player
Dmitri Skopintsev (1997), Russian footballer
Alexander Eickholtz (1998) American sportsman
Angelina Melnikova (2000), Russian Olympic gymnast
Lived in Voronezh
Aleksey Khovansky (1814–1899), editor
Ivan Kramskoi (1837–1887), Russian painter and art critic
Mitrofan Pyatnitsky (1864–1927), Russian musician
Mikhail Tsvet (1872–1919), Russian botanist
Alexander Kuprin (1880–1960), Russian painter, a member of the Jack of Diamonds group
Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937), Russian writer, went to school in Voronezh
Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938), Russian poet
Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899-1980), Russian writer
Gavriil Troyepolsky (1905–1995), Soviet writer
Nikolay Basov (1922–2001), Soviet physicist and educator
Vasily Peskov (1930–2013), Russian writer, journalist, photographer, traveller and ecologist
Valentina Popova (1972), Russian weightlifter
Igor Samsonov, painter
Tatyana Zrazhevskaya, Russian boxer
New York City
This is dedicated to Clayton Wells and Jeff Engelhard, my lemma headed math geek buddies. Great versatile photographers who like me have a fondness for "Real Numbers" and find the properties of "Primes" ridiculously fascinating.
Clayton and Jeff have supported my street photography from the very beginning when none of us including myself knew what the heck I was doing! They will never know how much that meant to me. Well, I guess now they'll know. :) Thanks guys!
A five-dimensional space is a space with five dimensions. If interpreted physically, that is one more than the usual three spatial dimensions and the fourth dimension of time used in relativistic physics. It is an abstraction which occurs frequently in mathematics, where it is a legitimate construct. In physics and mathematics, a sequence of N numbers can be understood to represent a location in an N-dimensional space. Whether or not the universe is five-dimensional is a topic of debate.Three Logical Proofs: The Five-Dimensional Reality of Space-Time
West Virginia University at Parkersburg Physics, 300 Campus Drive Parkersburg, West Virginia 26104 e-mail: jebcolst@aol.com
Abstract- A century and a half ago, a revolution in human thought began that has gone largely unrecognized by modern scholars: A system of non-Euclidean geometries was developed that literally changed the way that we view our world. At first, some thought that space itself was non-Euclidean and four-dimensional, but Einstein ended that 'speculation' when he declared that time was the fourth dimension. Yet our commonly perceived space is four-dimensional. Einstein unwittingly circumvented that particular revolution in thought and delayed its completion for a later day, although his work was also necessary for the completion of that revolution. That later day is now approaching. The natural progress of science has brought us back to the point where science again needs to consider the physical reality of a higher-dimensional space. Science must acknowledge the truth that space is four-dimensional and space-time is five- dimensional, as required by accepted physical theories and observations, before it can move forward with a new unified fundamental theory of physical reality.
Keywords: four-dimensional-five-dimensional-space-time-Einstein- Clifford- Kaluza- Kaluza-Klein- magnetic vector potential- electromagnetism- Yukawa potential- xpanding universe- general relativity-unification-superstrings-branes-Randall-Sundmm
Introduction
Individual scientists have been searching for evidence of a fourth dimension of space for more than a century and a half. That search subsided somewhat after Albert Einstein identified time as the fourth dimension and developed the theories of relativity. However, Theodor Kaluza added a fifth dimension to space-time in 1921. Others have contributed to this line of scientific devel- opment, but not to as high an extent. Given the fact the physicists have now developed 10- and 11-dimensional theories of reality, it would seem that the search for a fourth dimension of space would have taken on a new and sig- nificant meaning, but it has not. Yet several generally accepted scientific theories and concepts do imply the existence of a fourth spatial dimension.
On the other hand, a growing number of scientists have acknowledged and embraced the simple fact that physics needs a single fundamental theory to
524 J. E. Beichler
continue its astonishing rate of progress. A complete unification of the funda- mental forces of nature has itself been a long process predating the 1970s, but that unification was made basically from the relativistic point-of-view by Einstein and a few other scientists before the 1960s. Einstein searched for a successful unification of gravity and electromagnetism for the last three decades of his life, hoping that the quantum and quantum effects would emerge from the mathematical formalisms of his unified field theory, but most other scientists shared neither his optimism nor his goal. During the 1970s, quantum physicists finally adopted Einstein's goal, but not his emphasis on a unification based upon general relativity and a continuous view of the ultimate nature of reality. Quantum theorists began their own long search for unification with the discovery of the standard model, then the electroweak force and finally the hope that gravity would eventually submit to quantum analysis. They have utterly failed to achieve this last step toward unification.
All that science can say for certain is that there are presently two theories that can claim to represent the most fundamental nature of reality: Quantum theory and relativity. Unfortunately, these two are mutually incompatible. The near complete dominance of the quantum paradigm over the last century has led most physicists to conclude that any future theory that unifies physics must be based upon a discrete quantum model rather than a continuous relativistic model. The attitude that discreteness can replace continuity at all levels of reality is prob- lematic: It reflects a general disregard for the depth and extreme nature of the major differences between the two theories. This disregard has led scientists to speculate on the structure of reality at as small a level as the Planck length, resulting in the development of quantum loop theories and other attempts to find a quantum gravity theory. Whether the existence of a major conflict between the discrete and continuous is acknowledged or not, the fact that these two models of reality are mutually incompatible is generally minimized or belittled by many theoretical scientists who overwhelmingly assume that discreteness offers the only possible solution to the problem of unification.
Recent attempts to overcome this incompatibility, such as the supergravity, superstring and brane theories, have relied heavily upon the concept of hyper- dimensional spaces. These models have been unsuccessful, yet the overall notion of hyper-dimensionality still offers a way out of the dilemma. Einstein first rendered the notion of a higher-dimensional reality plausible in 1905, but the revolution that Einstein began when he unified three-dimensional space with time to form a four-dimensional space-time continuum has never been fully realized. In the meantime, the opposing quantum concept may have fully run its course and reached its inherent theoretical limits. The modem unification theories based upon the quantum model do not seek to rectify the fundamental differences between the quantum theory and special relativity. Quantum field theories only calculate quantum effects in the relativistic limit; they do not unify the theories at the necessary fundamental level that is often claimed. Many scientists ignore the extent and importance of the differences between continuity
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 525
and the discrete and instead worry about the insignificant problems of inde- terminism and counting bits of information. So the latest attempts at unification have failed utterly even though the quantum theory has been attempting to quantize gravity for several decades.
There are many levels to the hyper-dimensionality problem, many of which have not yet been explored even though the central problem of dimensionality for present day science dates back a century and a half. Science has been misled and has failed to recognize the significance of a far more fundamental revolution that began in the 1850s when Bernhard Riemann developed a generalized system of non-Euclidean geometries (Riemann, 1854). Riemann's work directly implied that space is four-dimensional as well as continuous. His new system of geometry remained relatively unknown for more than a decade and was only popularized within the scientific community in the late 1860s. Simultaneously, James Clerk Maxwell developed Michael Faraday's field concept of electro- magnetism into a complete theory of electromagnetism. Whether the timing of these developments was coincidental or not, and only a careful review of historical documents can determine if the simultaneous development of these theories was truly a coincidence, the two fundamental concepts of the continuity of the electromagnetic field and the four-dimensionality of space are physically related. There are three logical proofs that this fact is true.
The first logical proof derives directly from Maxwell's electromagnetic theory and deals directly with the inability of science to sufficiently explain the nature of the vector or magnetic potential used to explain magnetic induction. The second logical proof deals with the nature of matter itself as represented by the Yukawa potential and the atomic nucleus. The Yukawa potential is normally used to explain how electrical repulsion is overcome to bind particles within the nucleus. However, the mathematical expression for the potential also matches the general shape of space-time curvature within the individual particles that combine to form the nucleus. And finally, the last proof is a more general argu- ment dealing with the simple three-dimensional orientations of spiral galaxies relative to the Riemannian curvature of the universe as a whole. Although these proofs are independent of any particular modern hyper-dimensional theory, they are supported by Kaluza's theory of five-dimensional space-time.
Electromagnetism Speaks Up
The popular concept of a 'force field' is completely erroneous. Even in a classical sense, no force is associated with a field until a material particle or body interacts with it. Force is not a characteristic of the field alone. The interaction of the field and matter results in the force, but the interaction can also be characterized by a potential energy. The energy results from the force acting on the particle in one sense, or from the relative position of the particle in the field in another sense. What exists at any particular position in the field before the interaction takes place is called the potential. So a physical field is char- acterized by the potential of the field, not a force.
526 J. E. Beichler
Gravity presents a good example for the concept of potential. Gravitational field strength decreases radially outward from the center of gravity of a material body like the earth according to the inverse square law. All points that are equidistant from the center of gravity form a surface in three-dimensional space along which the gravitational potential is constant, an equipotential surface. At each point on this surface, the surface is perpendicular to a radial line drawn from the center of gravity. A material body orbiting the earth would have a constant speed along any equipotential surface. Electricity presents another simple example. In this case, the units of potential are 'volts', a common electrical unit with which everyone is familiar. Equipotential surfaces representing specific volt measurements are a commonly accepted fact of electrical fields. The fact that an equipotential surface can be formed and that the surface is perpendicular to the radius of curvature at each and every point where they intersect is a general property of fields. From a theoretical point-of-view, equipotential surfaces must exist for all physical fields. For any field, successive equipotential surfaces form onionskin-like concentric surfaces around point charges or charged bodies.
There is a direct equivalence between electricity and magnetism and that equivalence forms the basis of the electromagnetic theory. Any physical quan- tities or properties of electricity correspond to similar quantities and properties for magnetism. But that equivalence has not yet been fully realized since there is no such thing as magnetic 'volts' or measurable magnetic potential. Magnetic potential has been, is now and will be in the future a mathematical entity alone, given the three-dimensionality of space. Consider a simple magnetic field, per- haps that of a bar magnetic. An equipotential surface cannot be drawn or represented visually as it can for an electric field, although magnetic field lines can still represent the field. A line perpendicular to any field line through a given point on that field line, representing the magnetic vector potential at that point, cannot be connected to neighboring points of equal potential on other field lines to form a continuous surface. In other words, an equipotential surface cannot be formed in the three-dimensional space of the magnetic field represented by the field lines. All equipotential surfaces would go through the same point on a field line in three-dimensional space, which is impossible, but no other conclusion can be reached from the given physical geometry of the magnetic field.
According to Roger Penrose, the magnetic potential is "not uniquely determined by the field F, but is fixed to within the addition of a quantity dO where O is some real scalar field." The scalar field is taken to be a purely mathematical entity, such that the magnetic potential A "is not a locally mea- surable quantity" (Penrose, 2005).The magnetic potential A exists, but no phys- ical experiment can measure or otherwise determine the value of A plus the additional quantity dO, so the value of A alone cannot be uniquely determined. In a sense then, the magnetic potential exists only at the point of intersection, not beyond that point in three-dimensional space. Magnetic potential is purely a point phenomenon in three-dimensional space no matter what its value. It is a mathematical paradox, but the paradox can be solved if a higher dimension to
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 527
space is used. Any connection between a given potential on one field line and neighboring field lines must be in another dimension (orthogonal direction) other than the three normal directions of common space, in order for there to exist an equipotential surface. The 'gauge factor' dO mentioned by Penrose actually represents a minuscule measurement or perturbation in the fourth direction that does not otherwise affect normal three-dimensional field variations in the local environment. This fact can also be seen in the equations that are commonly used to express and model magnetic potential.
Although it cannot be described or measured in a normal three-dimensional space, the magnetic potential can be expressed mathematically, by its rela- tionship to the field, as
and
where B is the magnetic field strength. In this form, the quantity A is known as the magnetic vector potential or just the vector potential. Since the operator
V= (dldxi,dldyj,d/dzk),
taking the curl of A would be the mathematical equivalent of constructing the magnetic field B point-by-point by simultaneously looking at the perpendicular components to A in each of the three dimensions of space. These equations may seem trivial to physicists, but they have far more physical meaning than they have been given in the normally accepted electromagnetic interpretation.
The potential A must be simultaneously perpendicular to all three coordinates used to represent a point in space according to these formulations. However, the only 'thing' that can be perpendicular to all three dimensions of space simulta- neously would be a fourth orthogonal dimension. Therefore, changes in the magnetic potential as well as magnetic potential itself are perpendicular to all three directions at any spatial position in our normally perceived physical space. Different equipotential surfaces would still be expressed by three-dimensional equations even though they are displaced in the fourth direction because they would act like three-dimensional spaces that are parallel to or stacked on top of our common three-dimensional space in the fourth direction. Given the con- tinuity of space, our three-dimensional material world is actually embedded in a four-dimensional space (or manifold). Bernhard Riemann's original develop- ment of the generalized formulations of non-Euclidean geometry posited that an n-dimensional space would be embedded in an n+l-dimensional manifold, which implies that the physical reality of our three-dimensional space (where n= 3) requires the existence of a higher-dimensional manifold. In present theories of higher-dimensional spaces, such as the various superstring theories, several higher embedding dimensions are used, but the Riemannian mathematics used in general relativity only 'requires' one higher embedding dimension.
528 J. E. Beichler
The fact that magnetism implies a fourth dimension is not new. William Kingdom Clifford, a British geometer, tried to express Maxwell's electromag- netic theory using a four-dimensional space model in the 1870s. Clifford is better known for offering the first translation of Riemann's Habilitationsschrift lecture, " On the hypotheses which lie at the bases of geometry" , into English in 1873, among other things. Based on his understanding and interpretation of Riemann's geometry, Clifford claimed that what we sense as matter is nothing more than three-dimensional space curved in a fourth dimension and what we conceive as matter in motion is no more than variations in that curvature (Clifford, 1870). For having stated this, Clifford's geometrical model of space is normally regarded as a precursor to Einstein's model of space-time curvature in the general theory of relativity. Most twentieth century scholars have also concluded that Clifford never developed a theory and had no followers (Eddington, 1921; d'Abro, 1927; Bell, 1940; Jammer, 1954; Hoffman, 1972; Kilmister, 1973; Swenson, 1979)' so his theoretical work is viewed in this regard as a historical footnote and no more. The mathematician and historian E.T. Bell has gone so far as to characterized Clifford's anticipation of Einstein as little more than a case of some lucky person hitting "the side of a barn at forty yards with a charge of buckshot" (Bell, 1937), but this view of history is completely false. While Clifford's physical theories have gone unnoticed, Clifford numbers and his system of bi-quaternions have found new uses in some modern interpretations of quantum theory and relativity (Power, 1970; Gurney, 1983; Chisholm and Common, 1985) even though they were originally developed to describe his four-dimensional space, a fact that should imply new ways of interpreting the quantum.
Many modern scholars have mistakenly interpreted Clifford's theoretical model of a four-dimensional space in physics against a historical mindset biased by an early twentieth century view of general relativity (Beichler, 1996). Clifford's main purpose was not to develop a new theory of gravity, as did Einstein several decades later. Clifford's original theoretical work only dealt with Maxwell's electromagnetic theory even though he planned to add gravity to his theory at a later date (Clifford, 1887), if he had not died. Actually, Clifford was developing what we would today consider a unified field theory or better yet a theory of everything. He was fond of saying that he was " solving the universe" (Pollock in Clifford, 1879),which was his way of describing a single theory that covered all of the natural forces. Clifford attempted first to explain magnetic induction, not gravity, with his four-dimensional geometry (Pearson in Clifford, 1885). Magnetic induction is governed by the equation B = V@A, providing a direct link between the current logical argument for a four-dimensional space and Clifford's interpretation of Maxwell's electromagnetic induction.
Clifford published numerous mathematical papers on the motion of three- dimensional matter in four-dimensional elliptical (single polar Riemannian) spaces. He also published a book that actually presented his first step in building a proper theory, that is, for any of his peers who understood what he was trying to do. Historians and scholars today do not understand what Clifford was
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 529
attempting to accomplish, so they only see the book as a simple introductory trea- tise on kinematics. Anyone looking for a completed gravity theory in Clifford's work simply will not find it. Nearly all modern historians have mistakenly claimed that he never published his theory because they are looking for a nonexistent gravity theory with time as a fourth dimension.
Clifford expressed the opinion that all energies are either potential or kinetic (Clifford, 1880), but he also believed that kinetic energies in three-dimensional space would become potential energies in his four-dimensional spatial frame- work. In other words, forces in three-dimensional space would reduce to constant variations in position along paths in a four-dimensional curved space, an idea that was made current in general relativity. However, the modern concept only deals with gravity as modeled by modem relativity theory while Clifford meant to apply the concept to all forces in his model. Upon this hypothesis, he published the first volume of a series of books titled Elements of Dynamic (Clifford, 1878). His first volume was subtitled Kinematics. Everyone that knew Clifford or his work knew that dynamics in three-dimensional space is just kinematics in Clifford's four-dimensional space, that is why he referred to his explanation of Dynamics as Kinematics in the book title. He was writing about four-dimensional kinematics, which was equivalent to three-dimensional dynamics in his mind and theoretical model. Coincidentally, this same book is recognized by historians as the first published statement by a mathematician that distinguished between the cross and dot products in vector algebra (Crowe, 1967), the same dot and cross products that are used in the vector and scalar representations of magnetic potential given above. It should be clear then that Clifford understood the four- dimensionality of magnetic potential a full century before the modem scientific community took the unification of gravity and electromagnetism seriously.
In developing his theory, Clifford faced the problem that no mathematical formalism existed to express his four-dimensional ideas. So he used a form of quaternions of his own invention (bi-quaternions) to express his four- dimensional model of space (Clifford, 1882). Unfortunately, quaternions lost favor in the late nineteenth century to vectors and their use was largely aban- doned during the first few decades of the twentieth century. So no one today would even recognize that Clifford's mathematics represented his four- dimensional theory of physical reality. Einstein's theoretical work on a theory of gravity used the Levi-Civita tensor formalisms that had developed along a different line of reasoning than Clifford used for his quaternion algebra. The tensor calculus used by Einstein was only developed after Clifford's death.
As stated above, Clifford did not ignore the effect of his four-dimensional model of matter on the Newtonian theory of gravity. Clifford died of consumption in 1879 at the age of 34 and never completed his research, but it is still possible to discover what he planned to eventually accomplish with his four-dimensional model. His colleagues were so impressed with his theoretical ideas that both his published and unpublished works were collected, edited and published within a decade after his death. His followers and colleagues
530 J. E. Beichler
published everything that they could find, including lecture notes of classes that he taught, because they thought that his theoretical work was important enough to save for posterity and the future. Clifford's outline for the second volume of his Elements of Dynamic was among the unfinished works that were published. His student Robert Tucker edited this book. In it, Clifford stated his views on the theory of gravity and outlined how he would change gravity given his new four- dimensional geometry, thus indicating the fact that he was searching for, and may have found but never published, a unified field theory. But we will never know that fact for sure.
Of course, philosophical and mathematical arguments are not as valuable in science as observation and experimental verification. Yet there is some experi- mental evidence supporting the existence of magnetic potential in the Aharonov- Bohm effect (Aharonov & Bohm, 1959). In the Aharonov-Bohm experiment, an electron beam is split in such a manner that the two resulting beams pass on either side of an upright solenoid before coming back together on a screen. The solenoid is oriented in such a way that the twin beams cut across the field lines (perpendicular to B) and thus the net force acting on them is zero. Yet when the beams come together at the screen they interfere with each other. The interference clearly shows that the wave functions associated with the electron beams are out of phase, yet they should not be out of phase by the normal standards of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. Although the effect is somewhat paradoxical, it is normally interpreted as evidence that the magnetic potential associated with the magnetic field is real even though it cannot be measured or experimentally determined. While the net force is zero, an integration of the potential A in a closed loop around the coil is not zero. The common interpretation of this experiment introduces a quantum solution (Bohm & Hiley, 1993). However, this effect can be simply explained and understood within the four-dimensional framework of electromagnetic induction. In other words, a classical electromagnetic interpretation can be used to explain the results if a physically real four-dimensional space that is associated with the magnetic vector potential is assumed.
While the net force is zero on either of the electron beams, the electrons are moving at a constant speed through different portions of the coil's mag- netic field. So they each follow paths of varying potential (surfaces) in four- dimensional space corresponding to the portions of the magnetic field through which they travel. Since they are following four-dimensional paths of different lengths, they are out of phase when they reach the screen and interfere with each other. The principle is similar to a satellite orbiting the earth at a constant speed. The constant speed holds the satellite to a path along a gravitational equi- potential surface. When the speed changes, the satellite follows a path through different equipotential surfaces. The orbital speed determines the altitude of the orbit and the potential path (surface) along which the satellite travels. The electrons in the beam also follow curved potential paths in the fourth dimension, which are different according to the portions of the magnetic field through which
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 531
they pass in three-dimensional space. The difference in curved paths in four- dimensional space puts them out of phase at the end of the trip even though their paths in three-dimensional space, the projections of their paths in four- dimensional space, are not curved.
And finally, given a real fourth dimension of space that is characterized by magnetic potential, anything that emits a normal transverse electromagnetic wave in three-dimensional space would also cause a corresponding compressive wave of magnetic potential variation in the fourth direction of space. Numerous scientists have claimed to show the mathematical possibility of such longitudinal electromagnetic waves. Edmund T. Whittaker's model of 1903 is perhaps the best known of these attempts (Whittaker 1903, 1904). According to Whittaker,
... thus we have the result, that the general solution of Laplace's equation
wheref is an arbitrary function of the two arguments z+ix cos u+iy sin u and u.
Moreover, it is clear from the proof that no generality is lost by supposing thatf is a periodic function of u (Whittaker, 1903).
The variable u actually represents the fourth dimension of space while V is the magnetic potential. This interpretation renders Whittaker's formulation com- patible with modem advances in the laws of electromagnetism without surren- dering the possibility of a longitudinal electromagnetic wave. The function f is periodical with respect to u, which means that the fourth dimension is closed with respect to the other three dimensions of space. This closure corresponds completely to Kaluza's closure condition for the fifth dimension of space-time, while the factor of du over which the function f is integrated corresponds to Penrose's gauge invariance dO.
In this respect, the fourth dimension of space is independent of the length of the extension in the fourth direction, such that the fifth direction of space-time can be either microscopic or macroscopic in extent. There is no difference between the two in the functionf as long as the fourth dimension of space is closed. Whittaker then analyzed the general form of the differential equations for wave motion
to demonstrate that the mathematical model can account for a longitudinal
532 J. E. Beichler
electromagnetic wave. However, if V is taken to mean the magnetic potential in the fourth direction of space, then the magnetic potential V can be related directly to the concept of proper time in special relativity. Whittaker's concept
I of a longitudinal component of electromagnetic waves can thus be rendered
~
in relativistic terms, which implies that the concept is actually a wave of changing magnetic potential propagating in the fifth direction of a five- dimensional space-time continuum.
Whether or not Maxwell's electromagnetic theory requires a longitudinal wave in its classical three-dimensional interpretation is open to debate, but the existence of a fourth dimension to space would require a corresponding longi- tudinal wave that propagates throughout the fourth dimension relative to the normal three dimensions of space. No one has ever detected a three-dimensional longitudinal wave, but that does not mean the wave cannot be four-dimensional. After all, no one has ever detected or measured a 'magnetic-volt' of potential in three-dimensional space either, even though the potential exists in four- dimensional space.
The Yukawa Field
Modern physics also requires the existence of a fourth spatial dimension, but this time the culprit is the Yukawa potential. The Yukawa potential normally takes the form
The quantity g is real. It represents the coupling constant between the meson field and the fermion with which it interacts, at least in the normal quantum interpretation. The Yukawa potential itself arises from the exchange of a massive scalar field or particle such as the pi meson or pion (Yukawa, 1935). The nega- tive sign guarantees that the force between particles in the nucleus is always attractive.
This potential is associated with the extremely short-range strong nuclear force and it is usually only interpreted as a quantum phenomenon. The potential associated with the Yukawa field decreases exponentially, guaranteeing the short range of the Yukawa field to little more than the outer boundaries of the nucleus. It is simply assumed that the Yukawa field cannot be interpreted within a non-quantum context, yet there is no hard and fast rule that states that the Yukawa potential cannot be interpreted geometrically. Classical fields are nor- mally interpreted geometrically, so it would seem that the Yukawa field should also have a geometrical interpretation. Even the modern view of gravity as resulting from the curvature of space-time is geometrical in nature.
According to a simple interpretation of physical laws, the field strengths of both electric and gravitational fields vary as llr2. Traditionally, this inverse square law has been interpreted as resulting from the three-dimensionality of
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 533
this may seem, the inverse square law has been used in the past to explain the necessity of a three-dimensional space to the laws of physics (Whitrow, 1955; Abramenko, 1958; Biichel, 1963; Freeman, 1969). In other words, the inverse square law is normally thought to imply (if not prove) that space 'must be' three-dimensional. It has also been a common practice in the past to criticize higher-dimensional theories by pointing out that gravity would not work in a higher-dimensioned space because the inverse square law would not apply. However, we commonly accept the notion of a four-dimensional space-time without any alteration to the inverse square law without realizing that we do so. The fourth dimension of time is both qualitatively and quantitatively different from the normal three dimensions of space, so it does not affect the inverse square law. By the same token, there is no hard and fast rule that unequivocally requires that a fourth dimension of space would be both quantitatively and qualitatively the same as our normal three dimensions of space. In fact, given the reality of a fourth dimension of space, nature seems to have ordained that the fourth dimension is different from our normal three dimensions of space and nature rules physics instead of the other way around. So there is no valid or compelling reason to assume that a fourth spatial dimension would have any effect on the inverse square law and gravity. In fact there are reasons to believe that the opposite is true.
Many scientists have long believed that matter is electrically constituted and electricity acts according to the inverse square law. Our perception of space is dependent on the relative positions of matter in that space. So if matter is three- dimensional we sense space as three-dimensional. The three-dimensional surface curvature of a material particle or material body may be sufficient to determine the three-dimensionality of space, but the complete three- dimensionality of the particle is not necessary according to how it outwardly appears. Nor is it complete. The interior portion of a material particle could still be higher dimensional. For instance, the interior of a proton could be a physical singularity stretching into a higher fourth dimension even though the exterior surface of the proton is still curved spherically in three-dimensional space. Space
1 could have any number of dimensions while three-dimensional matter only determines that part of the space or manifold in which the electrical field acts and reacts. Our normal senses evolved in the three-dimensional material world of nature, so they would be limited to detect only the three-dimensionality of matter even given a real fourth dimension. Since gravity acts between material particles, which are three-dimensional due to their electrical nature, it would also act three-dimensionally even if space had four or more dimensions. While it is commonly argued that space is three-dimensional because of the inverse square law, it could also be argued that we only sense three out of a greater number of dimensions because of the inverse square law by which gravity and electricity act as they do in three dimensions.
It seems that the inverse square law only guarantees the three-dimensional actions and interactions of matter, not the other way around. The forces
534 J. E. Beichler
associated with common fields act three-dimensionally and no more. The inverse square law does not guarantee that either space itself or fields in general are three-dimensional or otherwise limited to three dimensions. Fields could be higher-dimensional entities just as space could be higher dimensional even though we only sense three dimensions of space. Matter reacts with fields in three- dimensional space because matter is outwardly three-dimensional, not because fields are three-dimensional. If fields are higher dimensional, there may be field- field interactions that occur only in the higher dimensions of space and thus remain undetected in the three-dimensional material space except by their sec- ondary effects. An effect such as quantum entanglement could be explained in this manner. When all is taken into account, neither physical fields nor space need be limited to three dimensions by either the laws of nature or logic and reason.
On the other hand, the potentials associated with fields vary as llr. So
a physical field associated with a particular potential has one more factor of the
2
variable 'r' than the potential itself because fields vary as l/r . The dimen-
sionality of the space that the field occupies is generally two greater than the exponent of the variable 'r' in the denominator of the formula representing the potential. This logic also follows for the Yukawa potential: The variable 'r' in the denominator reflects the three-dimensionality of the field, but there is another term with an 'r-' factor in the exponent in the numerator of the formula. The variable 'r' in the numerator of the formula could easily represent another dimension, so the Yukawa potential would require that the space occupied by the Yukawa field is four-dimensional, not three-dimensional. The exponential term eKkrrepresents both the geometrical structure of the particle and its associated field as extended into the fourth dimension of space. The extension of a particle in the fourth direction would occur internally relative to three-dimensional space so that the part of the material particle that we sense or detect remains the three- dimensional exterior surface of the particle.
In this model of the Yukawa potential and field, the variable 'r' in the denominator would account for the spherical shape of elementary particles and the nucleus itself. By analogy, this would indicate that the exponential term in the numerator would refer to the geometrical shape of the Yukawa field in the higher fourth dimension. If the Yukawa field conforms to the shape of an exponential curve in the higher dimension, as opposed to the spherical shape in three-dimensional space, then the fourth dimension of space is most certainly different from the other three dimensions of normal space, as noted above.
In fact, elementary particles such as protons and neutrons would be small singularities according to the general theory of relativity; or rather they would be singular at their centers. They would therefore follow curved space-time in a shape similar to a rotated exponential curve, as shown in a normal drawing of the curved metric of a singularity (see Figure 1).
So the Yukawa field would correspond to the shape of a nucleus or elementary particles predicted by relativity theory, if general relativity is taken to depict a real curvature of three-dimensional space in a higher embedding fourth
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 535
Exponential curves define the outer shape of the singularity in
Fig. 1. The internal curvature of an elementary particle.
dimension of space. At this point, there is no need to assume a dimensionality greater than four as used in some recent theories, although there are no re- strictions on space having more than four dimensions. Moreover, the curvature of space-time in general relativity is a function of the mass of a particle or body. The constant k in the Yukawa potential is also related to the mass of the exchange particle between nucleons. In both cases, the mass is related to the curvature explicit in the mathematical model, which indicates that the Yukawa potential could be modeled by the curvature of space-time as expressed by the theory of relativity rather than the particle exchange concept of quantum field theory. In either case, the Yukawa potential logically requires that space is four- dimensional and thus the space-time continuum of relativity is five-dimensional. The relationship between the Yukawa potential and general relativity leads to the third logical proof that space is four-dimensional, only this time the proof deals with the macroscopic world of the greater universe rather than the microscopic world of the quantum.
The Cosmological Connection
In the late 1920s, Edwin Hubble observed that other galaxies were receding from our Milky Way galaxy with increasing speed as the distance to the other galaxies increased. These observations indicated that our universe is expanding. Georges-Henri Lemaitre and others who developed the expansion hypothesis by a theoretical application of general relativity had already predicted the expansion. The marriage of observation and theory in this case produced one of the most spectacular successes for science in the twentieth century. The simple notion of an expanding universe is usually explained by analogy to a two- dimensional surface expanding in a third dimension.
A good example would be a balloon with spirals drawn on its surface to represent galaxies. When the balloon is blown up and expands, the spirals spread
536 J. E. Beichler
apart and move away from each other in the same pattern of motion that the receding galaxies show during astronomical observation. The expanding surface of the balloon is analogous to our expanding universe, the difference being that the balloon is a two-dimensional surface expanding outward in a third direction while the universe is a three-dimensional surface expanding into 'who knows what'. Although the phrase 'who knows what' is not an appropriate phrase for scientific use, it does represent how science views the question of what the universe is expanding into.
Some versions of modern brane theory postulate variously dimensioned branes curved in higher-dimensional bulks, so brane theorists could claim that the universe is expanding into the embedding bulks. However, brane theories have other problems to overcome: There is a discontinuity between the branes and the bulks in which they are embedded, such that the branes and bulks are separate things. As such, they break the continuity of the space-time continuum. The brane theories are based upon Klein's interpretation of Kaluza's five-dimensional theory of space-time, but they violate the basic assumptions upon which Kaluza unified electromagnetism and gravity as expressed by general relativity: Kaluza assumed the continuity of four-dimensional space-time with the fifth and higher dimension. So it would seem that the brane theories as well as the superstring theories upon which they were conslrucled are at odds with their own basic premise.
However, the balloon analogy gives more information about the expansion than ordinarily suspected, which implies an answer to this unanswered question about what the universe is expanding into. The spirals drawn on the balloon's surface are all rotating and expanding relative to a single point, the geometric center of the balloon, rather than any center on the surface of the balloon. This part of the analogy is often used to argue that our universe has no center within its three-dimensional expanse, which is true. The curvature of space-time in general relativity has always been considered an intrinsic property of space-time such that a higher embedding dimension has been unnecessary to explain observed and suspected phenomena. However, a higher embedding dimension, demonstrating that the curvature of space-time is an extrinsic property, is still perfectly compatible with general relativity (Misner et al., 1973). Extrinsic curvature is sufficient to explain the effects of general relativity, but has never been considered necessary as long as the idea of intrinsic curvature was con- sidered more likely. But if the concept of extrinsic curvature and a higher embedding spatial dimension does not represent our true reality, simple rela- tivity will be violated in the case of the expanding universe and other astronomical observations.
In the balloon analogy, as stated above, the plane of rotation of the spirals and the recession of the spirals as the balloon expands are all oriented relative to a single point, the center of curvature of the balloon's surface. In the real three-dimensional spatially extended universe, all of the galaxies rotate and recede from each other at all possible angles or orientations in three-dimensional space. Yet you cannot have a mathematical property true for one configuration
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 537
of spatial dimensions (two dimensions embedded in three-dimensional space) that is not true for another configuration (three dimensions embedded in a four- dimensional space). Such an inconsistency would destroy the validity of the mathematical model. The general geometric properties are the same for all spaces and embedding manifolds for an n-dimensional geometry embedded in an n+l-dimensional manifold. Riemannian geometry is based upon this simple idea. So, there is a logical necessity that the orientation of all of the galaxies in the expanding universe be relative to a single point or center of curvature of the universe. The natural rotations of galaxies in the universe are all relative to the same point, and the planes of galactic rotation are all tangential to the three- dimensional surface that is our space, which is perpendicular to the real extrinsic radii drawn between them and the center of a physically real curvature of our universe in a fourth spatial dimension.
In this case, it is illogical to speak of the overall curvature of the universe and then deny the reality of the higher embedding dimension because of a human sensory and perceptual bias against the possibility of a fourth spatial dimension. Perhaps local spatial curvature can be explained away as an intrinsic charac- teristic of the space-time continuum, but the concept of intrinsic curvature on a global level is untenable. The notion of an intrinsic radius of curvature for the whole of the universe is illogical. The three-dimensional surface of our universe is closed such that it forms a Riemannian sphere, which would require a higher embedding dimension to account for the closure. Once again, the only way to derive a direction perpendicular to all three dimensions of space simultaneously would be to adopt the geometry of a real four-dimensional embedding space. That fourth dimension or direction is orthogonal to the normal three dimensions of space. So the observed three-dimensional orientation of astronomical bodies directly requires the reality of a fourth spatial dimension. In effect, our three- dimensional universe is expanding into a fourth dimension of space. The simple fundamental notions of relative motion and actual observation, rather than any specific theory, logically require that our space is four-dimensional and thus space-time is five-dimensional.
The Kaluza Confirmation
While these logical proofs may not be completely persuasive or even persuasive enough to sway the attitudes of many within the general scientific community, there are other extenuating factors and circumstances that should be persuasive given the validity of the logical proofs. Also, these three logical proofs should be considered independent of any particular hyper-dimensional theory of space-time. They only indicate that some higher-dimensional theory would give a more correct picture of our physical reality without specifying the exact theory to be used. Yet there is already a specific scientific theory that successfully utilizes a five-dimensional space-time geometry to unify general relativity and electromagnetism: Kaluza's 1921 theory. Kaluza's theory has been largely ignored in spite of its successful derivation of Maxwell's electromagnetic
538 J. E. Beichler
theory from the general relativity of a five-dimensional space-time continuum. Most modern scientists are only familiar with Kaluza's theory through its association with the work of Oskar Klein, altering the theory to the Kaluza-Klein model of space-time. Little is known of Kaluza's original theory under these circumstances. Klein's subsequent adaptation of the theory (Klein 1926a, 1926b, 1927) was an attempt to incorporate quantum theory into the geometry of space-
time. But Kaluza's theory can stand alone on its own merits, without considering 7
Klein s extended version of the theory into the realm of the quantum. Kaluza's original theory had nothing to do with the quantum.
According to Kaluza's original theory, two mathematical conditions are necessary to unify general relativity and electromagnetic theory. All points in the four-dimensional space-time continuum are extended orthogonally into the fifth dimension along what Kaluza called A-lines. The A-lines follow circular paths in the fifth direction back to our space-time continuum, so they are closed with respect to the fifth direction. Kaluza's first condition was to close the system in the fifth direction, but the A-lines were also required to be of equal length, giving the second condition. Kaluza also suggested that the A-lines are infinitesimally short to guarantee that we could not detect the fifth dimension, although this suggestion was not a required mathematical condition. The two conditions were necessary to guarantee the mathematical consequences of add- ing the fifth dimension: Deriving the equations of general relativity by applying a four-transformation while obtaining the equations of electromagnetism by applying a cut-transformation.
If either of the initial conditions were to be changed or relaxed in any manner, it is possible and even likely that the results of the change would render electromagnetism and gravity incompatible if not break Kaluza's link between them altogether. But Kaluza also assumed, without so stating, a third condition of continuity in the fifth direction. Continuity was built into the calculus that Kaluza used to develop his geometrical model. So if continuity is forfeited, then Kaluza's theory could still fall apart. Before any of these conditions is changed in new extensions of Kaluza's theory, it must be shown that any of these changes, or any combination of them, does not alter Kaluza's results, the unifi- cation of gravity and electromagnetism. There are no middle roads to take here; it is all either black or white. If Kaluza's initial conditions were altered in any manner that breaks or weakens the link between gravity and electromagnetism, then the extension would be invalid for having destroyed the very foundations upon which the new theory is based. Yet changes in these conditions have been made to expedite the development of modern theories and thus could have a direct bearing on the validity of the supergravity, superstring and brane theories, all of which depend on extended versions of the Kaluza-Klein model.
When Klein adopted Kaluza's theory in an attempt to quantize the unified field, he did not relax or alter Kaluza's conditions. He merely followed Kaluza's suggestion that the extension in the fifth direction must be extremely small since we cannot detect the extra dimension. Klein equated the periodicity in the
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 539
'closed loop' condition to the quantum of action. At the time, Klein's version of the theory was largely ignored by the scientific community, which was mesmer- ized by other developments in quantum theory such as quantum mechanics and wave mechanics. Unfortunately, Klein could not make his theory work. He rejected his first theory and made two later attempts to rectify the errors in his theory, in 1939 and 1947 (Klein 1939, 1947), but eventually rejected his basic hypothesis and gave his theory up as a lost cause.
Klein's adaptation of Kaluza's theory, the Kaluza-Klein theory, was re- discovered in the 1970s and adopted by supergravity theorists as a method to unify gravity with the latest versions of the quantum field theories and the standard model of elementary particles. The superstring theorists adopted the Kaluza-Klein theory a few years later, but both groups of theorists have expanded the number of dimensions to 10,11or more. However, these scientists have never demonstrated that adding the extra dimensions above Kaluza's original five would remain consistent with the original purpose of Kaluza's theory to unify general relativity and electromagnetism. These theories are untenable and speculative and they will remain so until superstring theorists can demonstrate that adding the extra dimensions does not alter the connection between Einstein and Maxwell's theories that Kaluza's five-dimensional structure established.
On the other hand, any extension of the Kaluza-Klein theory that is super- imposed on a quantum field theory should also suffer from fundamental problems because quantum field theories are by their very nature based upon a discrete model that is at odds with the assumed condition of continuity in Kaluza's original theory. Nor have the superstring theorists explained how the curvature of space-time fits into their theories, even though they take general relativity for granted as the basis of their theories. Any Kaluza or Kaluza-Klein theory that retains the infinitesimal (or Planck) extension of length in the fifth direction must deal with the same fundamental problem. The adoption of a real physical five-dimensional space-time structure, instead of a limited purely mathematical model, implies that curvature is an extrinsic characteristic of our common four-dimensional space-time continuum. However, an infinitesimally extended fifth direction seems to retain the intrinsic nature of the four- dimensional space-time by not explaining how the concept of curvature fits into the model, creating a paradox.
The superstring theories have evolved into the more general 'brane' theories. Several 'brane' theorists have speculated on all types of structures including dual three-dimensional branes, five-dimensional branes, colliding branes and curved branes within a bulk, to mention only a few examples. But it seems that they have yet to demonstrate whether these geometrical structures conform to the basic hypotheses upon which their theories depend, Kaluza's initial derivation of the general relativity and electromagnetic formulas from an extremely limited and conditional five-dimensional mathematical model of a continuous space- time. The Randall-Sundrum theory offers a case in point (Randall & Sundrum,
1999a, 1999b). In the Randall-Sundrum model, two branes are separated
1
540 J. E. Beichler
by a higher-dimensional bulk. One of the branes represents our common three-dimensional curved space, while gravitons traveling from our brane to the other brane are the only direct links between the branes. In one model, the second brane is an infinite distance away, effectively limiting our world to the single brane embedded in the bulk and guaranteeing a weak gravitational force. However, this model is in direct violation of Kaluza's condition that our four- dimensional world is closed with respect to the higher fifth dimension. Brane theories of this type must be required to demonstrate that their models do not disrupt the unification of electromagnetism and gravity in the Kaluza model upon which they are based. Yet no one has ever argued or even explored how such changes would affect the basic underlying principles of the original mathematical unification model developed by Kaluza.
The only theoretical research ever conducted to determine the mathematical consequences of changing Kaluza's theory only considered the relaxation of his initial suggestion of an infinitesimal extension, rather than changing any of his initial conditions. Einstein and Peter G. Bergmann completed this change in 1938 (Einstein & Bergmann, 1938). Einstein, Bergmann and Valentine Bargmann again considered it in 1941 (Einstein et al., 1941). They retained the 'closed loop' and 'equal length' conditions and remained within a continuous mathematical model of five-dimensional space-time, but allowed for the possibility of macroscopically extended lengths of the A-lines. Under these conditions, they were still able to derive Maxwell's formulas and thus maintain Kaluza's unification. But Einstein eventually gave up this avenue of research toward his goal of a unified field theory because he could not justify the notion of a normal sized fifth dimension that could not be sensed or detected in any manner. Even so, Einstein listed the five-dimensional approach as one of three possibilities to develop a unified field theory in his last published book before he died (Einstein, 1956). He stipulated that the five-dimensional hypothesis would only be tenable if it could be explained why the fifth dimension cannot be detected.
Conclusion
These three logical proofs, in themselves, will not immediately change the course of science. Science has ignored the implied existence of a real fourth spatial dimension for more than a century, so it will not be so easily compelled to accept it now. However, it is not just the three logical proofs that indicate the existence of a fourth spatial dimension to our universe. It is a preponderance of the evidence that will soon force science to accept the four-dimensional reality of space. The value of these three logical proofs will only become evident over [he lvnger term of scientific advances.
While logically proving the existence of a fourth dimension to space, these proofs also imply the geometric structure of that dimension relative to the other three. First of all, the fourth dimension of space would be different, like time, from the other three common dimensions of space. Otherwise, four- dimensionality would adversely affect the inverse square law and thus conflict
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 541
with normally accepted physical laws. Instead, the fourth dimension should be characterized by changing magnetic potential except inside elementary particles where the space curvature corresponding to matter would assume the shape of an exponential curve. Both of these characteristics imply that the total extension of space in the fourth direction cannot be infinitesimally small or even microscopic as in Klein's version of Kaluza's theory. The exponentially shaped singularity at the center of elementary particles such as protons would require a non- infinitesimal extension of space in the higher dimension.
In other words, if the magnetic potential and Yukawa potential exist in nature as described, then the fourth dimension of space, or the fifth dimension of space- time, cannot be infinitesimally extended. Both logical arguments imply that the extra higher dimension is macroscopically extended as Einstein, Bergmann and Bargmann demonstrated. It is provident that Kaluza's theory has already been developed as the basis for a new unification, but the macroscopic extension in the fourth direction of space means that the present unification theories that are based upon Kaluza's suggestion and Kaluza-Klein models are not valid. The path of unification that science must follow is the path that physics and nature leads us down, not the path that some scientists decide that nature must logically follow, no matter how 'beautiful' or aesthetically pleasing those theories might be. The path that nature has decided for science is the one that leads to the four- dimensionality of space (the Clifford model) and the five-dimensionality of the space-time continuum (the Einstein-Kaluza model).
Much of the early work on five-dimensional space was in an attempt to develop a theory that unifies the four fundamental interactions in nature: strong and weak nuclear forces, gravity and electromagnetism. German mathematician Theodor Kaluza and Swedish physicist Oskar Klein independently developed the Kaluza–Klein theory in 1921, which used the fifth dimension to unify gravity with electromagnetic force. Although their approaches were later found to be at least partially inaccurate, the concept provided a basis for further research over the past century.
Space-time--time couples Kaluza's five-dimensional geometry with Weyl's conformal space-time geometry to produce an extension that goes beyond what either of those theories can achieve by itself. Kaluza's ``cylinder condition'' is replaced by an ``exponential expansion constraint'' that causes translations along the secondary time dimension to induce both the electromagnetic gauge transformations found in the Kaluza and the Weyl theories and the metrical gauge transformations unique to the Weyl theory, related as Weyl had postulated. A space-time--time geodesic describes a test particle whose rest mass, space-time momentum, and electric charge q, all defined kinematically, evolve in accord with definite dynamical laws. Its motion is governed by four apparent forces: the Einstein gravitational force, the Lorentz electromagnetic force, a force proportional to the electromagnetic potential, and a force proportional to a scalar field's gradient d(ln phi). The test particles exhibit quantum behavior: (1) they appear and disappear in full-blown motion at definite events; (2) all that share an event E of appearance or disappearance do so with the same charge magnitude |q| = phi(E); (3) conservation of space-time--time momentum at such an event entails conservation of electric charge in addition to conservation of space-time momentum, among the participating particles; (4) at such events the d(ln phi) force infinitely dominates the other three --- this strongly biases the appearance and disappearance events to be concentrated deep in the discretely spaced potential wells of ln phi, and sparse elsewhere.
To explain why this dimension would not be directly observable, Klein suggested that the fifth dimension would be rolled up into a tiny, compact loop on the order of 10-33 centimeters. Under his reasoning, he envisioned light as a disturbance caused by rippling in the higher dimension just beyond human perception, similar to how fish in a pond can only see shadows of ripples across the surface of the water caused by raindrops.[2] While not detectable, it would indirectly imply a connection between seemingly unrelated forces. The Kaluza–Klein theory experienced a revival in the 1970s due to the emergence of superstring theory and supergravity: the concept that reality is composed of vibrating strands of energy, a postulate only mathematically viable in ten dimensions or more. Superstring theory then evolved into a more generalized approach known as M-theory. M-theory suggested a potentially observable extra dimension in addition to the ten essential dimensions which would allow for the existence of superstrings. The other 10 dimensions are compacted, or "rolled up", to a size below the subatomic level. The Kaluza–Klein theory today is seen as essentially a gauge theory, with the gauge being the circle group.
The fifth dimension is difficult to directly observe, though the Large Hadron Collider provides an opportunity to record indirect evidence of its existence. Physicists theorize that collisions of subatomic particles in turn produce new particles as a result of the collision, including a graviton that escapes from the fourth dimension, or brane, leaking off into a five-dimensional bulk. M-theory would explain the weakness of gravity relative to the other fundamental forces of nature, as can be seen, for example, when using a magnet to lift a pin off a table — the magnet is able to overcome the gravitational pull of the entire earth with ease.
Mathematical approaches were developed in the early 20th century that viewed the fifth dimension as a theoretical construct. These theories make reference to Hilbert space, a concept that postulates an infinite number of mathematical dimensions to allow for a limitless number of quantum states. Einstein, Bergmann and Bargmann later tried to extend the four-dimensional spacetime of general relativity into an extra physical dimension to incorporate electromagnetism, though they were unsuccessful.[1] In their 1938 paper, Einstein and Bergmann were among the first to introduce the modern viewpoint that a four-dimensional theory, which coincides with Einstein-Maxwell theory at long distances, is derived from a five-dimensional theory with complete symmetry in all five dimensions. They suggested that electromagnetism resulted from a gravitational field that is “polarized” in the fifth dimension.
www.scientificexploration.org/docs/21/jse_21_3_beichler.pdf
The main novelty of Einstein and Bergmann was to seriously consider the fifth dimension as a physical entity, rather than an excuse to combine the metric tensor and electromagnetic potential. But they then reneged, modifying the theory to break its five-dimensional symmetry. Their reasoning, as suggested by Edward Witten, was that the more symmetric version of the theory predicted the existence of a new long range field, one that was both massless and scalar, which would have required a fundamental modification to Einstein's theory of general relativity. Minkowski space and Maxwell's equations in vacuum can be embedded in a five-dimensional Riemann curvature tensor.
In 1993, the physicist Gerard 't Hooft put forward the holographic principle, which explains that the information about an extra dimension is visible as a curvature in a spacetime with one fewer dimension. For example, holograms are three-dimensional pictures placed on a two-dimensional surface, which gives the image a curvature when the observer moves. Similarly, in general relativity, the fourth dimension is manifested in observable three dimensions as the curvature path of a moving infinitesimal (test) particle. 'T Hooft has speculated that the fifth dimension is really the spacetime fabric.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-dimens
CHILE enters into the CONTRACT of the ARCH
(The ARK of the COVENANT - the CONTRACT of the ARCH…)
Double Agent W BRO SIMON BOLIVAR (1783-1830) – 33rd Degree Freemason
Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) The "George Washington" of South America, who in 20 years of warfare ‘liberated’ from Spanish tyranny the area which is now Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. b. in Caracas, Venezuela. He joined Freemasonry in Cadiz, Spain and received the Scottish Rite degrees in Paris and was knighted in a Commandery of Knights Templar in France in 1807. While on a diplomatic mission to London in 1810 he was active in Freemasonry in that country. He founded and served as master of Protectora de las Vertudes Lodge No. 1 in Venezuela and in 1824 founded the Lodge Order and Liberty No. 2 in Peru. In 1828, when the anti-Masonic wave was sweeping over the world, Bolivar forbade meetings of Masons in Venezuela. His Scottish Rite collar and apron are on exhibit in the New York Grand Lodge museum.
His lodge, the Masonic Lodge “Lautaro” out of Cadiz, Spain, was also home to many other South American founding fathers. In April 1824, Simón Bolívar was given the 33rd degree of Inspector General Honorary.
Initiated: 1803
HISTORY
CHILE thought that it had gained ‘INDEPENDENCE’ from its European Task Masters over the period 1810-1826.
The Chilean War of Independence was a military and political event that allowed the ‘emancipation’ of Chile from the Spanish monARCHy, ending the colonial period and initiating the formation of an ‘independent’ republic.
Ferdinand VII – King of Spain 1808, 1813 - 1833, KNIGHT of the GARTER #647 pretended to relinquish power over CHILE, but merely handed control over to the MASONIC networks that had become well established prior to the Chilean ‘WAR of INDEPENDENCE’.
CHILE becomes a ‘SOVEREIGN’ STATE…
SOVEREIGN literally means to REIGN from ABOVE (like an ARCH).
CHILE enters into the CONTRACT of the ARCH
ARCo BRITANNICA, Avenida Brasil, Valparaíso, CHILE.
The ARCo Británico (Spanish for British Arch) is a monument on Avenida Brasil, in Valparaíso, Chile. It was donated to the town in 1910 by the British community there to mark the centenary of the Independence of Chile. Designed by the Chilean architect Alfredo Azancot, the arch was unveiled in 1911.
The monument, covered in marble brought from Italy, is surmounted by a British Victorian lion and is decorated with the images of four Britons who participated in the Chilean War of Independence: Thomas Cochrane, Bernardo O'Higgins, Robert Simpson and Jorge O'Brien. It also bears the Chilean and United Kingdom coats of arms.
The arch was visited by British monARCH Queen Elizabeth II (Head of the ORDER of the KNIGHTS of the GARTER) during her official visit to Chile in 1968, and by Prince Charles (KNIGHT of the GARTER #920) in 2009.
(The Head of the ‘KNIGHTS of the GARTER’ is always the British monARCH).
Our controllers are not averse to deception, deceit and misdirection.
From the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
Definition of 'walk into'
1 : to become involved in or fooled by (something) because one is not aware of what is really happening.
He walked right into our trap.
"I can't believe you fell for that old joke!" "Yeah, I guess I walked right into that one."
Is this what our controllers are doing with the ARCHways?
ARCHons, ARCHes and Freemasonry
The ARCH is a word and a structure that features prominently over the millennia……
ARCHES are used in building powerful word constructs and social control structures as well as being used extensively in ARCHitecture and civil engineering.
These power structures are always hierARCHical, often with a single entity at the top known as a monARCH.
The MASONIC control structure has certainly adopted this ARCHitecture and even pretends to be borne out of the stone mason fraternities.
ARCHon is a Greek word that means "RULER".
In Athens a system of three concurrent ARCHons evolved - the three office holders being known as the ‘Eponymous ARCHon’, the ‘PolemARCH’, and the ‘ARCHon Basileus’.
Ref Mitchell, John Malcolm (1911). "Archon" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 444–445.
Throughout history, this ARCHon TRIumvirate have celebrated their governance, conquests and victories with ARCHes of TRIumph…
i) ARCHon Eponymous - Chief Magistrate
ii) PolemARCH - Head of the Armed Forces.
iii) ARCHon Basileus - King or Sovereign Ruler
The PolemARCH title is derived from the words POLEMOS (war) and ARCHon (ruler, leader) and translates as "WARLEADER" or "WARLORD".
The name indicates that the PolemARCH's original function was to command the military.
This is why armies mARCH.
In Gnosticism, ARCHons are the builders of the physical universe. Among the ARCHontics, Ophites, Sethians and in the writings of Nag Hammadi library, the ARCHons are rulers, each related to one of seven planets; they prevent souls from leaving the material realm.
The ARCHers – a long running program through history – not just the BBC….
'SOVEREIGN' - literally means to reign from above.
This is why the MonARCH of a country is referred to as 'Your HIGHNESS'
Then we have
MatriARCHs - a system of society or government ruled by a woman or women
PatriARCHs - a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is reckoned through the male line.
OligARCHs - government by the few, especially despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes.
In these long-running and ARCHaic societal control structures we also have:
ARCH dukes and ARCH duchesses
ARCH bishops
ARCH deacons
ARCH druids
ARCHangels
ARCHitects
SquireARCHies - landowners collectively, especially when considered as a class having political or social influence
mARCHioness - a noblewoman with the rank of marquess, or the wife of a marquess.
mARCHer lords - A Marcher Lord was a noble appointed by the King of England to guard the border between England and Wales. A Marcher Lord was the English equivalent of a margrave or a marquis before the introduction of the title of "marquess" in Britain
ARCHimandrite - the superior of a large monastery or group of monasteries in the Orthodox Church
ARCHaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. Archaeology is often considered a branch of socio-cultural anthropology, but archaeologists also draw from biological, geological, and environmental systems through their study of the past
TrierARCH - the title of officers who commanded a trireme in the classical Greek world. In Classical Athens, the title was associated with the trierarchy, one of the public offices or liturgies, which were filled by wealthy citizens for a year
HagiARCHy - government by saints, holy men, or men in holy orders
AutARCHic - having and exercising complete political power and control: absolute, absolutistic, arbitrary, autarchical, autocratic, autocratical, despotic, dictatorial, monocratic, totalitarian, tyrannic, tyrannical, tyrannous
HeptARCHy - a collective name applied to the seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until the 8th century consolidation into the four kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, Wessex and East Anglia.
TetrARCHy - term adopted to describe the system of government of the ancient Roman Empire instituted by Roman Emperor Diocletian in 293, marking the end of the Crisis of the Third Century and the recovery of the Roman Empire
TheARCHy - rule by a god or gods
GynARCHy - rule by women or a woman.
ExARCHate - a Byzantine province governed by an exARCH
AnARCHy - a state of disorder due to lack of social structure
All this history was documented by ARCHivists – with old records being kept on pARCHment
At school we are not taught the true meaning of the ARCHway….
By passing through the ARCHway we may be unaware that we are entering into an agreement or contract where we are to be ruled over.
The ‘CONTRACT of the ARCH’ perhaps……
ARCANUM and ARCANA - mysterious or specialized knowledge, language, or information accessible or possessed only by the initiate.
ARCHES in Modern Culture….
The ARCHERS - a British BBC radio soap opera broadcast since 1951. Having aired over 19,300 episodes, it is the world's longest-running drama.
The ARCHERS is set in the fictional village of AmBRIDGE
The POPE – PONTIFEX MAXIMUS – The GREATEST BRIDGE BUILDER
A pontiff (bridge builder from Latin pontifex) was, in Roman antiquity, a member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs.
Pope Francis (@Pontifex) • Twitter
More famous ARCHes…
ARCHimedes (c. 287 – c. 212 BC)
Considered to be the greatest mathematician of ancient history, and one of the greatest of all time.
The Fields Medal for outstanding achievement in mathematics carries a portrait of ARCHimedes, along with a carving illustrating his proof on the sphere and the cylinder.
The inscription around the head of ARCHimedes is a quote attributed to him which reads in Latin: Transire suum pectus mundoque potiri.
'RISE ABOVE ONESELF AND GRASP THE WORLD’.
ARCHimedes, Freemasonry and the Moderns Grand Lodge Constitutions
Frontispiece to the 1723 Edition:
The 1723 edition is well-known for its elaborate frontispiece engraved by John Pine in 1723. It features a classical arcade of John Montagu, the Second Duke of Montagu (Knight of the Garter #532), and the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England (1721-1723), passing the scroll of the "Constitutions" to his 1723 successor, Philip Warton, First Duke of Wharton. Both are attended by their officers. Apollo, god of the sun, charges above in his chariot, symbolizing the meridian height. Behind the gathering is a passageway framed by walls of water - evocative of the parting of the Red Sea.
The 47th proposition of Euclid, the traditional symbol of a past masters of a Masonic lodge, appears in the foreground. Below it, in Greek, is ARCHhimedes' famous exclamation: “Eureka!” (“I have found it!”)
eureka (English) - εύρηκα (Greek)
The ARK of the COVENANT - the CONTRACT of the ARCH…
Is the 'ARCH' the 'LOST WORD' that the Freemasons are seARCHing for?
'EUREKA' - I have found it - ARCHimedes (c. 287 – c. 212 BC)
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The Cathedral of Pisa , officially the Primate Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta , in the center of the Piazza del Duomo, also known as Piazza dei Miracoli , is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Pisa as well as the Primate church .
A masterpiece of the Romanesque , in particular of the Pisan Romanesque , it represents the tangible testimony of the prestige and wealth achieved by the maritime republic of Pisa at the moment of its apogee.
Its construction began in 1063 ( 1064 according to the Pisan calendar in force at the time) by the architect Buscheto , with the tenth part of the spoils of the Palermo campaign in Sicily against the Muslims ( 1063 ) led by Giovanni Orlandi belonging to the Orlandi family [ 1] . Different stylistic elements blend together: classical, Lombard-Emilian , Byzantine and in particular Islamic, proving the international presence of Pisan merchants in those times. In that same year the reconstruction of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice also began , so it may also be that there was a rivalry between the two maritime republics at the time to create the most beautiful and sumptuous place of worship.
The church was built in an area outside the early medieval city walls , to symbolize the power of Pisa which did not require protection. The chosen area was already used in the Lombard era as a necropolis and, already in the early 11th century , an unfinished church was built which was to be dedicated to Santa Maria. The new large church of Buscheto, in fact, was initially called Santa Maria Maggiore until it was finally named after Santa Maria Assunta.
In 1092 the church changed from a simple cathedral to being primatial, the title of primate having been conferred on Archbishop Daiberto by Pope Urban II , an honor which today is only formal. The cathedral was consecrated in 1118 by Pope Gelasius II , as recorded by the inscription placed internally on the counter-façade at the top left.
In the first half of the 12th century the cathedral was enlarged under the direction of the architect Rainaldo , who lengthened the naves by adding three bays in front of the old facade [2] according to the Buscheto style, widened the transept and designed a new facade, completed by the workers led by the sculptors Guglielmo and Biduino . The date of the start of the works is uncertain: immediately after Buscheto's death around the year 1120 , according to some, around the year 1140 according to others. The end of the works dates back to 1180 , as documented by the date affixed to the bronze doors by Bonanno Pisano on the main door.
The current appearance of the complex building is the result of repeated restoration campaigns that took place in different eras. The first radical interventions followed the disastrous fire on the night between 24 and 25 October 1595 [3] , which destroyed many decorative interventions and following which the roof was rebuilt and the three bronze doors of the facade were made, the work of sculptors from the workshop of Giambologna , including Gasparo Mola and Pietro Tacca . Starting from the eighteenth century, the progressive covering of the internal walls began with large paintings on canvas, the "quadroni" with Stories of Pisan blesseds and saints , executed by the main artists of the time thanks to the initiative of some citizens who financed themselves by creating a special business.
The Napoleonic spoliations of the Cathedral of Pisa and the Opera del Duomo were significant, many works converged on the Louvre where they are exhibited today, including The Triumph of Saint Thomas Aquinas among the Doctors of the Church by Benozzo Gozzoli , now in the Louvre, Death of San Bernardo dell'Orcagna and San Benedetto , the work of Andrea del Castagno .
Among the various noteworthy interventions, it is worth mentioning the dismantling of Giovanni Pisano's pulpit which was reassembled only in 1926 in a different position and with several parts missing, including the staircase, and the dismantling of the monument to Henry VII created by Lupo di Francesco which was located in front of the door of San Ranieri and subsequently replaced by a simplified and symbolic version.
The subsequent interventions took place during the nineteenth century and affected both the internal and external decorations, which in many cases, especially the sculptures on the facade, were replaced by copies (the originals are in the Museo dell'Opera del duomo ).
The building has a Latin cross shape with a large dome at the intersection of the arms. The longitudinal body, divided into five naves , extends over ten bays . This plan continues in the choir with two more bays and a final apse crowning the central nave alone. The transept has 4 bays on each side (or six if we include the two in common with the longitudinal body) and has three naves with apses ending on both sides. In the center four large pillars delimit the rectangular cross ending at the top with a large elliptical dome.
The building, like the bell tower, has sunk perceptibly into the ground, and some defects in the construction are clearly visible, such as the differences in level between Buscheto's nave and the extension by Rainaldo (the bays towards the west and the facade) .
The exterior of the cathedral is mainly in white and gray marble although the older stones placed at the lower levels of the longitudinal body are of other poorer material. There is no shortage of valuable materials, especially on the facade, where there are multicolored marble inlays, mosaics and also bronze objects from war booty, including the Griffin used on the top of the roof at the back (east side), perhaps taken from Palermo in 1061 ( today there is a copy on the roof, the original is in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo ).
The longitudinal body, transept and choir have a rich facing punctuated by three orders or floors. On the lower floor, long rows of pilasters supporting blind arches , in turn enclosing lozenges or windows, punctuate the space on all sides of the building with very few interruptions (only the apse of the right transept). The second floor still has pilasters but this time these do not support blind arches and are rather architraved , a motif interrupted only in the apse of the right transept (where blind arches appear again) and in the main apse where two orders of loggias are visible . In addition to the windows and lozenges, inlaid oculi also appear between the pilasters . The third floor has columns or semi-columns which again support blind arches (longitudinal body and choir) or an architrave (transept) with the usual alternation of windows, lozenges and inlaid oculi.
The raised round arches on the facade and in the main apse recall elements of Muslim art from Sicily . The blind arches with lozenges recall the similar structures of the churches of Armenia . Even the ellipsoidal dome rebuilt after the fire of 1595, surmounted by a lantern, recalls Islamic architecture.
The gray and white marble façade , decorated with colored marble inserts, was built by master Rainaldo in the 12th century and finished by 1180. On the lower floor, the seven blind arches which enclose lozenges, one every two, echo the same motif which spreads over the remaining three sides of the Cathedral. On the façade, however, the ornamentation becomes richer: semi-columns placed against semi-rectangular pillars replace the slender pilaster strips on the sides and are surmounted by Corinthian or figurative capitals. The arches are embellished with a rich texture of vegetal motifs and the lozenges are also larger and inlaid with multicolored marble. The empty spaces between the three portals have marble slabs forming square or rectangular motifs and are embellished with horizontal ornamental bands with plant motifs. The empty spaces between the arches are also filled with marble tablets inlaid with geometric or animal motifs. Noteworthy is the one at the top right of the main portal which depicts a Christian brandishing the cross between two beasts and the writing of Psalm 21 : Salva me ex ore leonis et a cornibus unicornium humilitatem meam (Save me from the mouth of the lion Lord and my humility from the unicorn's horns), the original of which is preserved in the nearby Museo dell'Opera del Duomo .
Of the three portals , the central one has larger dimensions and is enclosed by two columns decorated with vegetal motifs which support, above the capitals, two lions to symbolize the two "faces" of Christ the Judge , the one who condemns on the left and the one who rewards and is merciful on the right (note the saved and protected lamb between the legs). All three portals have eighteenth-century mosaics by Giuseppe Modena da Lucca in their lunettes depicting the Assumption of the Virgin (centre), Santa Reparata (left) and Saint John the Baptist (right). The bronze doors were made by various artists of the caliber of Giambologna , after the fire of 1595, replacing the two wooden side doors and the bronze-covered wooden royal door by Bonanno Pisano which bore the date of 1180 (seen and described before the fire) to testify to the completion of the façade in that year. To the left of the north left portal, there is Buscheto's tomb.
The four upper floors are characterized by four orders of superimposed loggias, divided by finely sculpted frames, behind which there are single , double and triple lancet windows . Many of the friezes on the arches and frames were redone in the 17th century after the fire of 1595, while the polychrome marble inlays between the arches are original. Even higher up, to crown it, the Madonna and Child by Andrea Pisano and, in the corners, the four evangelists by Giovanni Pisano (early 14th century).
Contrary to what one might think, since ancient times the faithful have entered the Cathedral through the door of San Ranieri , located at the back in the transept of the same name, in front of the bell tower. This is because the nobles of the city went to the cathedral coming from via Santa Maria which leads to that transept. This door was cast around 1180 by Bonanno Pisano , and is the only door to escape the fire of 1595 which heavily damaged the church. The door is decorated with twenty-four panels depicting stories from the New Testament. This door is one of the first produced in Italy in the Middle Ages, after the importation of numerous examples from Constantinople , (in Amalfi , in Salerno , in Rome , in Montecassino , in Venice ...) and one admires an entirely Western sensitivity, which breaks away from the Byzantine tradition.
The original gràdule of the Duomo, designed by Giovanni Pisano and dating back to the end of the 13th century, were removed in 1865 and replaced by the current churchyard . These gràdule consisted of small walls, decorated with squares carved with figures of animals and heads, close to the external perimeter of the cathedral and served as a base for the numerous sarcophagi of the Roman era which, during the medieval era, were reused for the burials of nobles (among whom Beatrice of Canossa stands out ) and heroes. Currently some fragments are visible in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, while the sarcophagi were all moved within the enclosure of the monumental cemetery .
The lower register of the facade is not very rich in figurative sculptural decorations unlike other contemporary Romanesque cathedrals, but it still gives a rich meaning both to its unitary components and a complex allegory in its overall vision. To read the latter you need to start from the left where the outermost capital of the left side portal shows two ferocious lions devouring weak prey and two human figures further behind. The former represent the struggle between good and evil where evil dominates [6] , but behind them the figure of the old man stacking wood and the young man towering over a ram perhaps represent Abraham and Isaac and the sacrificial ram (or two peasants virtuous at work) which show preparation for God's plan of salvation. The arch that starts from the same capital shows a row of dragons that two virtuous human figures in the center are forced to face in the continuous struggle between good and evil. [6]
At the level of the central portal we enter the New Testament which concretizes the plan of salvation brought about by God starting from Abraham . It is the portal dedicated to the Virgin of the Assumption and her Son , whose divine judgment is represented by the two lions of justice, the one that condemns on the left and the one that protects and saves on the right with the little lamb protected between its legs, for Divine Mercy or Justice whatever it is. [6] The 42 stylized human figurines present on the decorated arch show the 42 generations that separate, according to the Gospel of Matthew , Abraham from Jesus Christ (the figurines are actually 43 but perhaps due to renovation needs or other reasons for filling the frieze ). This transition from the old to the new is strengthened by the two marble inlays in the intrados of the main arch where a ferocious dragon and a lion facing each other depicting the perennial struggle between the evil forces (left inlay) [6] become two equally ferocious unicorns but in the middle to whom a Christian appears brandishing a cross to defend himself from them (inlay on the right) and where we read in Latin:
de ore leonis libera me domine et a cornibus unicorni humilitatem mea ("Save me from the lion's mouth, Lord, and my humility from the unicorn's horns", psalm 21 ).
The last element of this complex narrative is the outermost capital of the right portal, which acts as a pendant to that of the left portal from which we started. We are well beyond the coming of Jesus where the evil lions, previously in the foreground, are relegated to a backward and out of the way position, always ready to strike as shown by the heads turned back and the tongue out, but in a contorted position due to the continuous escapes to which the Savior and the Church forces them to do. [6] In a prominent position there are now two naked human figurines, the souls of those saved by the Savior through the intercession of the Church , which are composed and serene figures with large eyes, well anchored with their arms to the garland of the capital and the feet resting well on the acanthus leaves, symbol of men of faith, victorious over sin and blessed by faith rather than merit.
The five- nave interior is covered in black and white marble, with monolithic columns of gray marble and capitals of the Corinthian order . The arches of the ten bays are round arches (those of the central nave) or raised arches in the Moorish style of the time (those of the side naves).
The central nave has a seventeenth-century gilded coffered ceiling, in gilded and painted wood, by the Florentines Domenico and Bartolomeo Atticciati ; it bears the Medici coat of arms in gold . Presumably the ancient ceiling had a structure with exposed wooden trusses. The four side naves have a cross-shaped plastered roof. The coffered roof is also present in the choir and in the central nave of the transept, while a plastered barrel roof is present in the side naves of the transept. The coverage of the lateral naves of the transept at the level of the two bays shared with the lateral naves of the longitudinal body is curious: these are cross-shaped (as in the lateral naves of the longitudinal body), but are higher (as in the lateral naves of the transept) . There is also a women's gallery of Byzantine origin that runs along the entire church, including the choir and transept and which has a coffered roof (central body) or wooden beams (transept). Even higher up, thin and deep windows allow the church to be lit.
The interior suggests a spatial effect that has some analogy with that of mosques , for the use of raised arches, for the alternation of white and green marble bands, for the unusual elliptical dome , of oriental inspiration, and for the presence of women's galleries with solid monolithic granite columns in the mullioned windows , a clear sign of Byzantine influence. The architect Buscheto had welcomed stimuli from the Islamic Levant and Armenia . [7]
Only part of the medieval decorative interventions survived the fire of 1595. Among these is the fresco with the Madonna and Child by the Pisan Master of San Torpè in the triumphal arch (late 13th-early 14th century), and below it the Cosmatesque flooring , of a certain rarity outside the borders of Lazio . It was made of marble inlays with geometric "opus alexandrinum" motifs (mid- 12th century ). Other late medieval fresco fragments have survived, among them Saint Jerome on one of the four central pillars and Saint John the Baptist , a Crucifix and Saint Cosimo and Damian on the pillar near the entrance door, partially hidden by the compass .
At the meeting point between the transept and the central body the dome rises, the decoration of which represented one of the last interventions carried out after the fire mentioned. Painted with the rare encaustic painting technique [8] (or wax on wall) [9] , the dome represents the Virgin in glory and saints ( 1627 - 1631 ), a masterpiece by the Pisan Orazio Riminaldi , completed after his death. which occurred in 1630 due to the plague, by his brother Girolamo . The decoration underwent a careful restoration which returned it to its original splendor in 2018.
The presbytery, ending in a curved apse, presents a great variety of ornaments. Above, in the basin, the large mosaic of Christ enthroned between the Virgin and Saint John is made famous by the face of Saint John, a work by Cimabue from 1302 which miraculously survived the fire of 1595. Precisely that Saint John the Evangelist was the The last work created by Cimabue before his death and the only one for which certified documentation exists. It evokes the mosaics of Byzantine churches and also Norman ones, such as Cefalù and Monreale , in Sicily . The mosaic, largely created by Francesco da Pisa, was finished by Vincino da Pistoia with the depiction of the Madonna on the left side ( 1320 ).
The main altar, from the beginning of the twentieth century, features six Angels contemporary with Ludovico Poliaghi , and in the center the bronze Crucifix by Giambologna , of which there are also the two candle-holder Angels at the end of the rich marble transenna, while the third Angel on the column to the left of the altar is by Stoldo Lorenzi .
Below, behind the main altar, there is the large decorative complex of the Tribune, composed of 27 paintings depicting episodes from the Old Testament and Christological stories. Begun before the fire with the works of Andrea del Sarto (three canvases, Saint Agnes , Saints Catherine and Margaret and Saints Peter and John the Baptist ) del Sodoma and Domenico Beccafumi ( Stories of Moses and the Evangelists ), it was completed after this calamity with the works of several Tuscan painters, including Orazio Riminaldi .
The pulpit , a masterpiece by Giovanni Pisano (1302-1310), survived the fire, but was dismantled during the restoration work and was not reassembled until 1926 . With its articulated architectural structure and complex sculptural decoration, the work is one of the largest narratives in fourteenth-century images that reflects the renewal and religious fervor of the era. The episodes from the Life of Christ are carved in an expressive language on the slightly curved panels . The structure is polygonal, as in the similar previous examples, in the baptistery of Pisa , in the cathedral of Siena and in the church of Sant'Andrea in Pistoia , but for the first time the panels are slightly curved, giving a new idea of circularity in its type. Equally original are: the presence of caryatids , sculpted figures in place of simple columns, which symbolize the Virtues ; the adoption of spiral brackets instead of arches to support the mezzanine floor; the sense of movement, given by the numerous figures that fill every empty space.
For these qualities combined with the skilful narrative art of the nine scenes it is generally considered Giovanni's masterpiece and more generally of Italian Gothic sculpture. The pulpit commissioned from Giovanni replaced a previous one , created by Guglielmo ( 1157 - 1162 ), which was sent to the cathedral of Cagliari . Since there is no documentation of what the pulpit looked like before its dismantling, it was rebuilt in a different position from the original one and, certainly, with the parts not in the same order and orientation as had been thought. It is not known whether or not he had a marble staircase.
The right transept is occupied by the Chapel of San Ranieri , patron saint of the city, whose relics are preserved in the magnificent shrine on the altar. Also in the chapel, on the left, is preserved part of the fragmentary tomb of Henry VII of Luxembourg , Holy Roman Emperor , who died in 1313 in Buonconvento while besieging Florence in vain . The tomb, also dismantled and reassembled, (it was sculpted by Tino di Camaino in 1313 - 1315 ) and was originally placed in the center of the apse, as a sign of the Ghibelline faith of the city. It was also a much more complex sculptural monument, featuring various statues. Moved several times for political reasons, it was also separated into several parts (some inside the church, some on the facade, some in the Campo Santo). Today we find the sarcophagus in the church with the deceased depicted lying on it, according to the fashion in vogue at that time, and the twelve apostles sculpted in bas-relief. The lunette painted with curtain-holding angels is instead a later addition from the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio (end of the 15th century ). The other remains of the monument have been reassembled in the nearby Museo dell'Opera del Duomo . The left transept is occupied by the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, in the center of which is the large silver tabernacle designed by Giovan Battista Foggini (1678-86).
On the numerous side altars there are sixteenth-seventeenth century paintings. Among the paintings housed on the minor altars, we remember the Madonna delle Grazie with saints, by the Florentine mannerist Andrea del Sarto, and the Madonna enthroned with saints in the right transept, by Perin del Vaga , a pupil of Raphael , both finished by Giovanni Antonio Sogliani . The canvas with the Dispute of the Sacrament is in Baroque style, by the Sienese Francesco Vanni , and the Cross with saints by the Genoese Giovanni Battista Paggi . Particularly venerated is the image of the thirteenth-century Madonna and Child , known as the Madonna di sotto gli organi , attributed to the Volterra native Berlinghiero Berlinghieri .
Pisa is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the city contains more than twenty other historic churches, several medieval palaces, and bridges across the Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics.
The city is also home to the University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the 12th century, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, founded by Napoleon in 1810, and its offshoot, the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.
History
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Pisa.
Ancient times
The most believed hypothesis is that the origin of the name Pisa comes from Etruscan and means 'mouth', as Pisa is at the mouth of the Arno river.
Although throughout history there have been several uncertainties about the origin of the city of Pisa, excavations made in the 1980s and 1990s found numerous archaeological remains, including the fifth century BC tomb of an Etruscan prince, proving the Etruscan origin of the city, and its role as a maritime city, showing that it also maintained trade relations with other Mediterranean civilizations.
Ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city. Virgil, in his Aeneid, states that Pisa was already a great center by the times described; and gives the epithet of Alphēae to the city because it was said to have been founded by colonists from Pisa in Elis, near which the Alpheius river flowed. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti founded the town 13 centuries before the start of the common era.
The maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the naval ram. Pisa took advantage of being the only port along the western coast between Genoa (then a small village) and Ostia. Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians and Gauls. In 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus Pisanus. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium. Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name to Colonia Iulia obsequens.
Pisa supposedly was founded on the shore, but due to the alluvial sediments from the Arno and the Serchio, whose mouth lies about 11 km (7 mi) north of the Arno's, the shore moved west. Strabo states that the city was 4.0 km (2.5 mi) away from the coast. Currently, it is located 9.7 km (6 mi) from the coast. However, it was a maritime city, with ships sailing up the Arno. In the 90s AD, a baths complex was built in the city.
Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages
During the last years of the Western Roman Empire, Pisa did not decline as much as the other cities of Italy, probably due to the complexity of its river system and its consequent ease of defence. In the seventh century, Pisa helped Pope Gregory I by supplying numerous ships in his military expedition against the Byzantines of Ravenna: Pisa was the sole Byzantine centre of Tuscia to fall peacefully in Lombard hands, through assimilation with the neighbouring region where their trading interests were prevalent. Pisa began in this way its rise to the role of main port of the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea and became the main trading centre between Tuscany and Corsica, Sardinia, and the southern coasts of France and Spain.
After Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards under the command of Desiderius in 774, Pisa went through a crisis, but soon recovered. Politically, it became part of the duchy of Lucca. In 860, Pisa was captured by vikings led by Björn Ironside. In 930, Pisa became the county centre (status it maintained until the arrival of Otto I) within the mark of Tuscia. Lucca was the capital but Pisa was the most important city, as in the middle of tenth century Liutprand of Cremona, bishop of Cremona, called Pisa Tusciae provinciae caput ("capital of the province of Tuscia"), and a century later, the marquis of Tuscia was commonly referred to as "marquis of Pisa". In 1003, Pisa was the protagonist of the first communal war in Italy, against Lucca. From the naval point of view, since the ninth century, the emergence of the Saracen pirates urged the city to expand its fleet; in the following years, this fleet gave the town an opportunity for more expansion. In 828, Pisan ships assaulted the coast of North Africa. In 871, they took part in the defence of Salerno from the Saracens. In 970, they gave also strong support to Otto I's expedition, defeating a Byzantine fleet in front of Calabrese coasts.
11th century
The power of Pisa as a maritime nation began to grow and reached its apex in the 11th century, when it acquired traditional fame as one of the four main historical maritime republics of Italy (Repubbliche Marinare).
At that time, the city was a very important commercial centre and controlled a significant Mediterranean merchant fleet and navy. It expanded its powers in 1005 through the sack of Reggio Calabria in the south of Italy. Pisa was in continuous conflict with some 'Saracens' - a medieval term to refer to Arab Muslims - who had their bases in Corsica, for control of the Mediterranean. In 1017, Sardinian Giudicati were militarily supported by Pisa, in alliance with Genoa, to defeat the Saracen King Mugahid, who had settled a logistic base in the north of Sardinia the year before. This victory gave Pisa supremacy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. When the Pisans subsequently ousted the Genoese from Sardinia, a new conflict and rivalry was born between these major marine republics. Between 1030 and 1035, Pisa went on to defeat several rival towns in Sicily and conquer Carthage in North Africa. In 1051–1052, the admiral Jacopo Ciurini conquered Corsica, provoking more resentment from the Genoese. In 1063, Admiral Giovanni Orlandi, coming to the aid of the Norman Roger I, took Palermo from the Saracen pirates. The gold treasure taken from the Saracens in Palermo allowed the Pisans to start the building of their cathedral and the other monuments which constitute the famous Piazza del Duomo.
In 1060, Pisa had to engage in their first battle with Genoa. The Pisan victory helped to consolidate its position in the Mediterranean. Pope Gregory VII recognised in 1077 the new "Laws and customs of the sea" instituted by the Pisans, and emperor Henry IV granted them the right to name their own consuls, advised by a council of elders. This was simply a confirmation of the present situation, because in those years, the marquis had already been excluded from power. In 1092, Pope Urban II awarded Pisa the supremacy over Corsica and Sardinia, and at the same time raising the town to the rank of archbishopric.
Pisa sacked the Tunisian city of Mahdia in 1088. Four years later, Pisan and Genoese ships helped Alfonso VI of Castilla to push El Cid out of Valencia. A Pisan fleet of 120 ships also took part in the First Crusade, and the Pisans were instrumental in the taking of Jerusalem in 1099. On their way to the Holy Land, the ships did not miss the occasion to sack some Byzantine islands; the Pisan crusaders were led by their archbishop Daibert, the future patriarch of Jerusalem. Pisa and the other Repubbliche Marinare took advantage of the crusade to establish trading posts and colonies in the Eastern coastal cities of the Levant. In particular, the Pisans founded colonies in Antiochia, Acre, Jaffa, Tripoli, Tyre, Latakia, and Accone. They also had other possessions in Jerusalem and Caesarea, plus smaller colonies (with lesser autonomy) in Cairo, Alexandria, and of course Constantinople, where the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus granted them special mooring and trading rights. In all these cities, the Pisans were granted privileges and immunity from taxation, but had to contribute to the defence in case of attack. In the 12th century, the Pisan quarter in the eastern part of Constantinople had grown to 1,000 people. For some years of that century, Pisa was the most prominent commercial and military ally of the Byzantine Empire, overcoming Venice itself.
12th century
In 1113, Pisa and Pope Paschal II set up, together with the count of Barcelona and other contingents from Provence and Italy (Genoese excluded), a war to free the Balearic Islands from the Moors; the queen and the king of Majorca were brought in chains to Tuscany. Though the Almoravides soon reconquered the island, the booty taken helped the Pisans in their magnificent programme of buildings, especially the cathedral, and Pisa gained a role of pre-eminence in the Western Mediterranean.
In the following years, the powerful Pisan fleet, led by archbishop Pietro Moriconi, drove away the Saracens after ferocious battles. Though short-lived, this Pisan success in Spain increased the rivalry with Genoa. Pisa's trade with Languedoc, Provence (Noli, Savona, Fréjus, and Montpellier) were an obstacle to Genoese interests in cities such as Hyères, Fos, Antibes, and Marseille.
The war began in 1119 when the Genoese attacked several galleys on their way home to the motherland, and lasted until 1133. The two cities fought each other on land and at sea, but hostilities were limited to raids and pirate-like assaults.
In June 1135, Bernard of Clairvaux took a leading part in the Council of Pisa, asserting the claims of Pope Innocent II against those of Pope Anacletus II, who had been elected pope in 1130 with Norman support, but was not recognised outside Rome. Innocent II resolved the conflict with Genoa, establishing Pisan and Genoese spheres of influence. Pisa could then, unhindered by Genoa, participate in the conflict of Innocent II against king Roger II of Sicily. Amalfi, one of the maritime republics (though already declining under Norman rule), was conquered on August 6, 1136; the Pisans destroyed the ships in the port, assaulted the castles in the surrounding areas, and drove back an army sent by Roger from Aversa. This victory brought Pisa to the peak of its power and to a standing equal to Venice. Two years later, its soldiers sacked Salerno.
New city walls, erected in 1156 by Consul Cocco Griffi
In the following years, Pisa was one of the staunchest supporters of the Ghibelline party. This was much appreciated by Frederick I. He issued in 1162 and 1165 two important documents, with these grants: Apart from the jurisdiction over the Pisan countryside, the Pisans were granted freedom of trade in the whole empire, the coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere, a half of Palermo, Messina, Salerno and Naples, the whole of Gaeta, Mazara, and Trapani, and a street with houses for its merchants in every city of the Kingdom of Sicily. Some of these grants were later confirmed by Henry VI, Otto IV, and Frederick II. They marked the apex of Pisa's power, but also spurred the resentment of other cities such as Lucca, Massa, Volterra, and Florence, thwarting their aim to expand towards the sea. The clash with Lucca also concerned the possession of the castle of Montignoso and mainly the control of the Via Francigena, the main trade route between Rome and France. Last, but not least, such a sudden and large increase of power by Pisa could only lead to another war with Genoa.
Genoa had acquired a dominant position in the markets of southern France. The war began in 1165 on the Rhône, when an attack on a convoy, directed to some Pisan trade centres on the river, by the Genoese and their ally, the count of Toulouse, failed. Pisa, though, was allied to Provence. The war continued until 1175 without significant victories. Another point of attrition was Sicily, where both the cities had privileges granted by Henry VI. In 1192, Pisa managed to conquer Messina. This episode was followed by a series of battles culminating in the Genoese conquest of Syracuse in 1204. Later, the trading posts in Sicily were lost when the new Pope Innocent III, though removing the excommunication cast over Pisa by his predecessor Celestine III, allied himself with the Guelph League of Tuscany, led by Florence. Soon, he stipulated[clarification needed] a pact with Genoa, too, further weakening the Pisan presence in southern Italy.
To counter the Genoese predominance in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Pisa strengthened its relationship with its traditional Spanish and French bases (Marseille, Narbonne, Barcelona, etc.) and tried to defy the Venetian rule of the Adriatic Sea. In 1180, the two cities agreed to a nonaggression treaty in the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic, but the death of Emperor Manuel Comnenus in Constantinople changed the situation. Soon, attacks on Venetian convoys were made. Pisa signed trade and political pacts with Ancona, Pula, Zara, Split, and Brindisi; in 1195, a Pisan fleet reached Pola to defend its independence from Venice, but the Serenissima soon reconquered the rebel sea town.
One year later, the two cities signed a peace treaty, which resulted in favourable conditions for Pisa, but in 1199, the Pisans violated it by blockading the port of Brindisi in Apulia. In the following naval battle, they were defeated by the Venetians. The war that followed ended in 1206 with a treaty in which Pisa gave up all its hopes to expand in the Adriatic, though it maintained the trading posts it had established in the area. From that point on, the two cities were united against the rising power of Genoa and sometimes collaborated to increase the trading benefits in Constantinople.
13th century
In 1209 in Lerici, two councils for a final resolution of the rivalry with Genoa were held. A 20-year peace treaty was signed, but when in 1220, the emperor Frederick II confirmed his supremacy over the Tyrrhenian coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere, the Genoese and Tuscan resentment against Pisa grew again. In the following years, Pisa clashed with Lucca in Garfagnana and was defeated by the Florentines at Castel del Bosco. The strong Ghibelline position of Pisa brought this town diametrically against the Pope, who was in a dispute with the Holy Roman Empire, and indeed the pope tried to deprive Pisa of its dominions in northern Sardinia.
In 1238, Pope Gregory IX formed an alliance between Genoa and Venice against the empire, and consequently against Pisa, too. One year later, he excommunicated Frederick II and called for an anti-Empire council to be held in Rome in 1241. On May 3, 1241, a combined fleet of Pisan and Sicilian ships, led by the emperor's son Enzo, attacked a Genoese convoy carrying prelates from northern Italy and France, next to the isle of Giglio (Battle of Giglio), in front of Tuscany; the Genoese lost 25 ships, while about a thousand sailors, two cardinals, and one bishop were taken prisoner. After this major victory, the council in Rome failed, but Pisa was excommunicated. This extreme measure was only removed in 1257. Anyway, the Tuscan city tried to take advantage of the favourable situation to conquer the Corsican city of Aleria and even lay siege to Genoa itself in 1243.
The Ligurian republic of Genoa, however, recovered fast from this blow and won back Lerici, conquered by the Pisans some years earlier, in 1256.
The great expansion in the Mediterranean and the prominence of the merchant class urged a modification in the city's institutes. The system with consuls was abandoned, and in 1230, the new city rulers named a capitano del popolo ("people's chieftain") as civil and military leader. Despite these reforms, the conquered lands and the city itself were harassed by the rivalry between the two families of Della Gherardesca and Visconti. In 1237 the archbishop and the Emperor Frederick II intervened to reconcile the two rivals, but the strains continued. In 1254, the people rebelled and imposed 12 Anziani del Popolo ("People's Elders") as their political representatives in the commune. They also supplemented the legislative councils, formed of noblemen, with new People's Councils, composed by the main guilds and by the chiefs of the People's Companies. These had the power to ratify the laws of the Major General Council and the Senate.
Decline
The decline is said to have begun on August 6, 1284, when the numerically superior fleet of Pisa, under the command of Albertino Morosini, was defeated by the brilliant tactics of the Genoese fleet, under the command of Benedetto Zaccaria and Oberto Doria, in the dramatic naval Battle of Meloria. This defeat ended the maritime power of Pisa and the town never fully recovered; in 1290, the Genoese destroyed forever the Porto Pisano (Pisa's port), and covered the land with salt. The region around Pisa did not permit the city to recover from the loss of thousands of sailors from the Meloria, while Liguria guaranteed enough sailors to Genoa. Goods, however, continued to be traded, albeit in reduced quantity, but the end came when the Arno started to change course, preventing the galleys from reaching the city's port up the river. The nearby area also likely became infested with malaria. The true end came in 1324, when Sardinia was entirely lost to the Aragonese.
Always Ghibelline, Pisa tried to build up its power in the course of the 14th century, and even managed to defeat Florence in the Battle of Montecatini (1315), under the command of Uguccione della Faggiuola. Eventually, however, after a long siege, Pisa was occupied by Florentines in 1405.[9] Florentines corrupted the capitano del popolo ("people's chieftain"), Giovanni Gambacorta, who at night opened the city gate of San Marco. Pisa was never conquered by an army. In 1409, Pisa was the seat of a council trying to set the question of the Great Schism. In the 15th century, access to the sea became more difficult, as the port was silting up and was cut off from the sea. When in 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded the Italian states to claim the Kingdom of Naples, Pisa reclaimed its independence as the Second Pisan Republic.
The new freedom did not last long; 15 years of battles and sieges by the Florentine troops led by Antonio da Filicaja, Averardo Salviati and Niccolò Capponi were made, but they failed to conquer the city. Vitellozzo Vitelli with his brother Paolo were the only ones who actually managed to break the strong defences of Pisa and make a breach in the Stampace bastion in the southern west part of the walls, but he did not enter the city. For that, they were suspected of treachery and Paolo was put to death. However, the resources of Pisa were getting low, and at the end, the city was sold to the Visconti family from Milan and eventually to Florence again. Livorno took over the role of the main port of Tuscany. Pisa acquired a mainly cultural role spurred by the presence of the University of Pisa, created in 1343, and later reinforced by the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (1810) and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (1987).
Pisa was the birthplace of the important early physicist Galileo Galilei. It is still the seat of an archbishopric. Besides its educational institutions, it has become a light industrial centre and a railway hub. It suffered repeated destruction during World War II.
Since the early 1950s, the US Army has maintained Camp Darby just outside Pisa, which is used by many US military personnel as a base for vacations in the area.
Geography
Climate
Pisa has a borderline humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa) and Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa). The city is characterized by cool to mild winters and hot summers. This transitional climate allows Pisa to have summers with moderate rainfall. Rainfall peaks in autumn. Snow is rare. The highest officially recorded temperature was 39.5 °C (103.1 °F) on 22 August 2011 and the lowest was −13.8 °C (7.2 °F) on 12 January 1985.
Culture
Gioco del Ponte
In Pisa there was a festival and game fr:Gioco del Ponte (Game of the Bridge) which was celebrated (in some form) in Pisa from perhaps the 1200s down to 1807. From the end of the 1400s the game took the form of a mock battle fought upon Pisa's central bridge (Ponte di Mezzo). The participants wore quilted armor and the only offensive weapon allowed was the targone, a shield-shaped, stout board with precisely specified dimensions. Hitting below the belt was not allowed. Two opposing teams started at opposite ends of the bridge. The object of the two opposing teams was to penetrate, drive back, and disperse the opponents' ranks and to thereby drive them backwards off the bridge. The struggle was limited to forty-five minutes. Victory or defeat was immensely important to the team players and their partisans, but sometimes the game was fought to a draw and both sides celebrated.
In 1677 the battle was witnessed by Dutch travelling artist Cornelis de Bruijn. He wrote:
"While I stayed in Livorno, I went to Pisa to witness the bridge fight there. The fighters arrived fully armored, wearing helmets, each carrying their banner, which was planted at both ends of the bridge, which is quite wide and long. The battle is fought with certain wooden implements made for this purpose, which they wear over their arms and are attached to them, with which they pummel each other so intensely that I saw several of them carried away with bloody and crushed heads. Victory consists of capturing the bridge, in the same way as the fistfights in Venice between the it:Castellani and the Nicolotti."
In 1927 the tradition was revived by college students as an elaborate costume parade. In 1935 Vittorio Emanuele III with the royal family witnessed the first revival of a modern version of the game, which has been pursued in the 20th and 21st centuries with some interruptions and varying degrees of enthusiasm by Pisans and their civic institutions.
Festivals and cultural events
Capodanno pisano (folklore, March 25)
Gioco del Ponte (folklore)
Luminara di San Ranieri (folklore, June 16)
Maritime republics regata (folklore)
Premio Nazionale Letterario Pisa
Pisa Book Festival
Metarock (rock music festival)
Internet Festival San Ranieri regata (folklore)
Turn Off Festival (house music festival)
Nessiáh (Jewish cultural Festival, November)
Main sights
The Leaning Tower of Pisa.
While the bell tower of the cathedral, known as "the leaning Tower of Pisa", is the most famous image of the city, it is one of many works of art and architecture in the city's Piazza del Duomo, also known, since the 20th century, as Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), to the north of the old town center. The Piazza del Duomo also houses the Duomo (the Cathedral), the Baptistry and the Campo Santo (the monumental cemetery). The medieval complex includes the above-mentioned four sacred buildings, the hospital and few palaces. All the complex is kept by the Opera (fabrica ecclesiae) della Primaziale Pisana, an old non profit foundation that has operated since the building of the Cathedral in 1063 to maintain the sacred buildings. The area is framed by medieval walls kept by the municipal administration.
Other sights include:
Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri, church sited on Piazza dei Cavalieri, and also designed by Vasari. It had originally a single nave; two more were added in the 17th century. It houses a bust by Donatello, and paintings by Vasari, Jacopo Ligozzi, Alessandro Fei, and Pontormo. It also contains spoils from the many naval battles between the Cavalieri (Knights of St. Stephan) and the Turks between the 16th and 18th centuries, including the Turkish battle pennant hoisted from Ali Pacha's flagship at the 1571 Battle of Lepanto.
St. Sixtus. This small church, consecrated in 1133, is also close to the Piazza dei Cavalieri. It was used as a seat of the most important notarial deeds of the town, also hosting the Council of Elders. It is today one of the best preserved early Romanesque buildings in town.
St. Francis. The church of San Francesco may have been designed by Giovanni di Simone, built after 1276. In 1343 new chapels were added and the church was elevated. It has a single nave and a notable belfry, as well as a 15th-century cloister. It houses works by Jacopo da Empoli, Taddeo Gaddi and Santi di Tito. In the Gherardesca Chapel are buried Ugolino della Gherardesca and his sons.
San Frediano. This church, built by 1061, has a basilica interior with three aisles, with a crucifix from the 12th century. Paintings from the 16th century were added during a restoration, including works by Ventura Salimbeni, Domenico Passignano, Aurelio Lomi, and Rutilio Manetti.
San Nicola. This medieval church built by 1097, was enlarged between 1297 and 1313 by the Augustinians, perhaps by the design of Giovanni Pisano. The octagonal belfry is from the second half of the 13th century. The paintings include the Madonna with Child by Francesco Traini (14th century) and St. Nicholas Saving Pisa from the Plague (15th century). Noteworthy are also the wood sculptures by Giovanni and Nino Pisano, and the Annunciation by Francesco di Valdambrino.
Santa Maria della Spina. A small white marble church alongside the Arno, is attributed to Lupo di Francesco (1230), is another excellent Gothic building.
San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno. The church was founded around 952 and enlarged in the mid-12th century along lines similar to those of the cathedral. It is annexed to the Romanesque Chapel of St. Agatha, with an unusual pyramidal cusp or peak.
San Pietro in Vinculis. Known as San Pierino, it is an 11th-century church with a crypt and a cosmatesque mosaic on the floor of the main nave.
Borgo Stretto. This medieval borgo or neighborhood contains strolling arcades and the Lungarno, the avenues along the river Arno. It includes the Gothic-Romanesque church of San Michele in Borgo (990). There are at least two other leaning towers in the city, one at the southern end of central Via Santa Maria, the other halfway through the Piagge riverside promenade.
Medici Palace. The palace was once a possession of the Appiano family, who ruled Pisa in 1392–1398. In 1400 the Medici acquired it, and Lorenzo de' Medici sojourned here.
Orto botanico di Pisa. The botanical garden of the University of Pisa is Europe's oldest university botanical garden.
Palazzo Reale. The ("Royal Palace"), once belonged to the Caetani patrician family. Here Galileo Galilei showed to Grand Duke of Tuscany the planets he had discovered with his telescope. The edifice was erected in 1559 by Baccio Bandinelli for Cosimo I de Medici, and was later enlarged including other palaces. The palace is now a museum.
Palazzo Gambacorti. This palace is a 14th-century Gothic building, and now houses the offices of the municipality. The interior shows frescoes boasting Pisa's sea victories.
Palazzo Agostini. The palace is a Gothic building also known as Palazzo dell'Ussero, with its 15th-century façade and remains of the ancient city walls dating back to before 1155. The name of the building comes from the coffee rooms of Caffè dell'Ussero, historic meeting place founded on September 1, 1775.
Mural Tuttomondo. A modern mural, the last public work by Keith Haring, on the rear wall of the convent of the Church of Sant'Antonio, painted in June 1989.
Museums
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: exhibiting among others the original sculptures of Nicola Pisano and Giovanni Pisano, the Islamic Pisa Griffin, and the treasures of the cathedral.
Museo delle Sinopie: showing the sinopias from the camposanto, the monumental cemetery. These are red ocher underdrawings for frescoes, made with reddish, greenish or brownish earth colour with water.
Museo Nazionale di San Matteo: exhibiting sculptures and paintings from the 12th to 15th centuries, among them the masterworks of Giovanni and Andrea Pisano, the Master of San Martino, Simone Martini, Nino Pisano and Masaccio.
Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale: exhibiting the belongings of the families that lived in the palace: paintings, statues, armors, etc.
Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti per il Calcolo: exhibiting a collection of instruments used in science, between a pneumatic machine of Van Musschenbroek and a compass which probably belonged to Galileo Galilei.
Museo di storia naturale dell'Università di Pisa (Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa), located in the Certosa di Calci, outside the city. It houses one of the largest cetacean skeletons collection in Europe.
Palazzo Blu: temporary exhibitions and cultural activities center, located in the Lungarno, in the heart of the old town, the palace is easy recognizable because it is the only blue building.
Cantiere delle Navi di Pisa - The Pisa's Ancient Ships Archaeological Area: A museum of 10,650 square meters – 3,500 archaeological excavation, 1,700 laboratories and one restoration center – that visitors can visit with a guided tour.[19] The Museum opened in June 2019 and has been located inside to the 16th-century Medicean Arsenals in Lungarno Ranieri Simonelli, restored under the supervision of the Tuscany Soprintendenza. It hosts a remarkable collection of ceramics and amphoras dated back from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century BC, and also 32 ships dated back from the second century BCE and the seventh century BC. Four of them are integrally preserved and the best one is the so-called Barca C, also named Alkedo (written in the ancient Greek characters). The first boat was accidentally discovered in 1998 near the Pisa San Rossore railway station and the archeological excavations were completed 20 years later.
Churches
St. Francis' Church
San Francesco
San Frediano
San Giorgio ai Tedeschi
San Michele in Borgo
San Nicola
San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno
San Paolo all'Orto
San Piero a Grado
San Pietro in Vinculis
San Sisto
San Tommaso delle Convertite
San Zeno
Santa Caterina
Santa Cristina
Santa Maria della Spina
Santo Sepolcro
Palaces, towers and villas
Palazzo della Carovana or dei Cavalieri.
Pisa by Oldypak lp photo
Pisa
Palazzo del Collegio Puteano
Palazzo della Carovana
Palazzo delle Vedove
Torre dei Gualandi
Villa di Corliano
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Sports
Football is the main sport in Pisa; the local team, A.C. Pisa, currently plays in the Serie B (the second highest football division in Italy), and has had a top flight history throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, featuring several world-class players such as Diego Simeone, Christian Vieri and Dunga during this time. The club play at the Arena Garibaldi – Stadio Romeo Anconetani, opened in 1919 and with a capacity of 25,000.
Notable people
For people born in Pisa, see People from the Province of Pisa; among notable non-natives long resident in the city:
Giuliano Amato (born 1938), politician, former Premier and Minister of Interior Affairs
Alessandro d'Ancona (1835–1914), critic and writer.
Silvano Arieti (1914–1981), psychiatrist
Gaetano Bardini (1926–2017), tenor
Andrea Bocelli (born 1958), tenor and multi-instrumentalist.
Giosuè Carducci (1835–1907), poet and 1906 Nobel Prize in Literature winner.
Massimo Carmassi (born 1943), architect
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (1920–2016), politician, former President of the Republic of Italy
Maria Luisa Cicci (1760–1794), poet
Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari (1677–1754), a musical composer and maestro di cappella at Pistoia.
Alessio Corti (born 1965), mathematician
Rustichello da Pisa (born 13th century), writer
Giovanni Battista Donati (1826–1873), an Italian astronomer.
Leonardo Fibonacci (1170–1250), mathematician.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), physicist.
Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944), philosopher and politician
Orazio Gentileschi (1563–1639), painter.
Count Ugolino della Gherardesca (1214–1289), noble (see also Dante Alighieri).
Giovanni Gronchi (1887–1978), politician, former President of the Republic of Italy
Giacomo Leopardi [1798–1837), poet and philosopher.
Enrico Letta (born 1966), politician, former Prime Minister of Italy
Marco Malvaldi (born 1974), mystery novelist
Leonardo Ortolani (born 1967), comic writer
Antonio Pacinotti (1841–1912), physicist, inventor of the dynamo
Andrea Pisano (1290–1348), a sculptor and architect.
Afro Poli (1902–1988), an operatic baritone
Bruno Pontecorvo (1913–1993), nuclear physicist
Gillo Pontecorvo (1919–2006), filmmaker
Ippolito Rosellini (1800–1843), an Egyptologist.
Paolo Savi (1798–1871), geologist and ornithologist.
Antonio Tabucchi (1943–2012), writer and academic
Sport
Jason Acuña (born 1973), Stunt performer
Sergio Bertoni (1915–1995), footballer
Giorgio Chiellini (born 1984), footballer
Camila Giorgi (born 1991), tennis player
Description: During the Second World War Ian Fleming served as a Commander in the Royal Navy as assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Rear Admiral John Godfrey. This document outlines Fleming's plan to capture German Engima codebooks which he dubbed 'Operation Ruthless'.
Fleming's name for the operation and his description of the man needed as a "tough batchelor" can't help but recall his later creation of James Bond. The document, prepared after the war as a summary of the activities of Naval Intelligence, suggests Fleming volunteered himself for the mission.
Date: c.1946
Our Catalogue Reference: ADM 223/463 p38
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