Professional Packers Movers In Faridabad 9311166155

 

www.professionalpackersindia.com/packers-movers-faridabad...

 

Professional Relocation offers reliable and economical services to each sort of client for packers and movers Faridabad services. Its storage facilities ar distinctive and also the team is actuated towards taking care of products of shoppers with utmost care. The transportation facilities ar accessible around the clock and 100% client satisfaction is that the mission of the Team at the tip of the day.

 

Photo by Lee Bennett

Johnson City, NY. May 2024.

 

If you would like to use THIS picture in any sort of media (such as newspaper or article) please send me a Flickr mail or an e-mail at natehenderson6@gmail.com.

Covering two floors of this office building in Fleet Place, London, Mansfield Monk designed a fresh working environment that consolidated the two businesses who were relocating to the new offices. The design reflects the individuality, creativity and passion of both parts of the business.

 

www.mansfieldmonk.co.uk

As you can see, we visited Liberty Square (arriving late), made our way to Brooklyn Bridge (Church st, Vesey, Park Row) Marchers at Centre & Chambers were then blocked from south by cops who came tearing in from Vesey (4:05-11). We couldn't reach them (and looking at the nervy cops, didn't want to), so we went down Frankfort as march entered the bridge. Cops had by that time (c.4:15) blocked FDR & Pearl Street entrances to bridge on both sides. Cops were telling motorists on Pearl that Protesters were blocking the bridge (c. 4:17). Literally at the moment marchers entered the bridge. Exit/ entrance stairs were blocked by cops (so no exit allowed from ped walkway). From below we could see only cars, no peds, on south roadway (c. 4:15-20).

 

From that point we moved to South Street Mall (third level) to get view of whole bridge. At that point data service on AT&T -- which had been nothing, not even E while voice had five bars -- returned. Saw arrests, police helio (only: at one point c. 6pm a press helio arrived. Stayed ~ 1 min before police helio returned and press fled or were ordered by traffic control, up the East R out of sight at rapid clip), At that point busses appeared on bridge to take arrestees: we could identify six in all. Also post helio incident, s police patrol boat positioned south of bridge, and tourist boats and other small craft made 180 degree turns both north and south out of area. Assuming there were radio orders at that time to clear river of civilian craft.

 

Took pictures and monitored updates till 7pm, arrived Liberty Sq 7:20, via Wall Street. On Wall pairs of cops stationed at every building entrance, four plus a whiteshirt at the Trump building, all looking v worried.

 

On return to Liberty Sq, cordoned by uniforms, as huge crowd sang and fraternized w cops. White shirts then pulled back cops c 8pm, riot squad groups appeared around corner south on Bway. After reportbacks at sq, we returned to Ferry via Greenwich & State. EVERY tiny side street had police vans up them, EVERY corner down to ferry had a uniform stationed at corner. The Police presence in whole of downtown smothering, including cameras mounted on main avenues, "terror" barriers around Wall, french barricades along every street in area, including tourists blocked from approaching Wall Street Bull (well south of Wall) with four cops stationed to "protect" it from when we arrived (3pm) to when we left (8:30pm)

   

Below is my twitter accounts from c4pm to c8pm (start time for “hours ago” id noon 10-02)

    

tommymiles

Woman in NY Giants rain poncho just walked by: can't we get a gross of @NYJets ponchos down here? #OccupyWallStreet

15 hours ago

 

tommymiles

#OccupyWallStreet desperate need of sleeping bags rain ponchos & winter coats: bring them to Liberty Sq NYC

15 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Now reporting complaints of street vendors in area displaced by police : finding galleries , shops to relocate them #OccupyWallStreet

15 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Woman JB just spoke to saying on Brklyn side of ped bridge were directed to stairs by cops, saying they could exit: and were then arrested

15 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Video of report back right now #OccupyWallStreet yfrog.us/15ta9xz yfrog.us/15ta9xz

15 hours ago

 

tommymiles

@

@ArnaudContreras haven't see them: now mass reportbacks, concensus "voting" on policy

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Wall of fraternizing uniformed cops on Bway just pulled out, riot cops coming to corner #OccupyWallStreet

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

The consequences of 70s thinktanks, 90s Fox News, is those screwed by crisis don't think perps to blame

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Julie says 1 young cop women talking to: cop says he thought mortgage crisis caused by Barney Franck (Gay US legislator hated by Fox )

16 hours ago

OccupyKC

OccupyKC OccupyKC

by tommymiles

Our GA is happening right now. Unfortunately, our livestream is down. We could use some help in the power/connectivity department. #OccupyKC

16 hours ago

Arnaud Contreras

ArnaudContreras Arnaud Contreras

by tommymiles

#occupywallstreet on @ajenglish ! #huhuhu

16 hours ago

NYCLU

nyclu NYCLU

by tommymiles

UPDATE: Cops Accused Of Trapping #occupyWallStreet Protesters On Brooklyn Bridge For Mass Arrests: Gothamist bit.ly/o9USMf bit.ly/o9USMf

16 hours ago

Antiwar.com

Antiwarcom Antiwar.com

by tommymiles

Arrest the messenger. RT @MsRaeJones: @Antiwarcom They just arrested the folks who were shooting the live feed.

18 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Discussions at Liberty Sq #OccupyWallStreet Have names of 100 arrested today, number at least double yfrog.com/nyhdtbsj yfrog.com/nyhdtbsj

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Halal kabob cart @ liberty sq doing hella business yfrog.com/kljdywsj yfrog.com/kljdywsj

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Now a white shirt cop (boss) is coming over to break it up. Bosses are rich kids here and cops will actually speak #occupywallstreet

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Women talking to cops in small groups, offering them food, smiling: telling them you're on same side we are #occupywallstreet

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

The media wants to paint these people as hateful, privileged: come here and see #occupywallstreet

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Woman reading letter sent to #occupywallstreet from woman saying she can't be here cause she works 2 jobs, takes care of her family

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

The cops are herding, swearing, beating, & arresting them And they are joyful, smiling, welcoming everyone #occupywallstreet

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

One of the most life affirming things I have ever seen #occupywallstreet I walked down wall street, cops nervously guarding Trump tower...

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

... Singing "we are unstoppable" over and over, smiling. It literally sends chills down my spine

16 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Liberty sq is amazing: these kids who've just beaten by cops are gathered, focused inward, not at the cops scowling at them in a cordon ...

16 hours ago

Anjali Mullany

anjalimullany Anjali Mullany

by tommymiles

About 200-300 protesters under arch at 1 Centre Street South near Police Plaza, trying to figure out what to do next. twitpic.com/6tnqy7 twitpic.com/6tnqy7

17 hours ago

 

tommymiles

That @tomfinn2 given the horror he sees daily in revolutionary #Yemen, is tweeting about #OccupyWallStreet then they've done something...

17 hours ago

tom finn

tomfinn2 tom finn

by tommymiles

RT @jonswaine: NYT reporter @natashalennard, who has been arrested on Brooklyn Bridge during #occupywallstreet, is British

17 hours ago

Democracy Now!

democracynow Democracy Now!

by tommymiles

Audio account by woman who was on BK bridge during #OccupyWallStreet protest via @RDevro bit.ly/qQyDRU bit.ly/qQyDRU

17 hours ago

Gary Hayes

GaryPHayes Gary Hayes

by tommymiles

And the revolution will be Twittervised, only. #OccupyWallStreet

17 hours ago

Brandworkers Int'l

brandworkers Brandworkers Int'l

by tommymiles

"You are in there for us, we are out here for you." - IWW principle of jail solidarity. #occupywallstreet #classwar #brooklynbridge

17 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Phone dying, heading back to Liberty Sq & home : We lucky/wusses who were blocked from joining march south of bridge think of our heroes

17 hours ago

Anita Hunt

lissnup Anita Hunt

by tommymiles

Lamine Mangane set to become a Facebook hero after police shot him dead at #Mauritania protest snup.us/e78 snup.us/e78

17 hours ago

Sarah Marian Seltzer

fellowette Sarah Marian Seltzer

by tommymiles

NYPD Mass Arrests of Occupy Wall Street Protesters: Firsthand Account from AlterNet Staffer Trappe.. bit.ly/nvtOVR bit.ly/nvtOVR

17 hours ago

 

tommymiles

As if on cue, fog rolls on around Brooklyn Bridge #occupywallstreet

17 hours ago

The Indypendent

TheIndypendent The Indypendent

by tommymiles

truly a surreal and historic sight on the #brooklynbridge right now. Public employees arresting the public to protect the banks [-MJopinion]

17 hours ago

Ryan Devereaux

RDevro Ryan Devereaux

by tommymiles

Elderly woman makes her way off bridge, fist in the air. Prostesters chant at police, "We pay you!" #occupywallstreet

17 hours ago

Arnaud Contreras

ArnaudContreras Arnaud Contreras

by tommymiles

@

Hey @tommymiles stop taking pictures of cops, turn your lens on protesters ;)

17 hours ago

Anita Hunt

lissnup Anita Hunt

by tommymiles

Recent #Mauritania tweets: snup.us/MRT snup.us/MRT

18 hours ago

 

tommymiles

arresting people for gathering in public park @RDevro: from pedestrian area of BK bridge says police kettling up there too #onelawforthem

17 hours ago

Ryan Devereaux

RDevro Ryan Devereaux

by tommymiles

Woman who was just released from pedestrian area of BK bridge says police are kettling up there too. #occupywallstreet

18 hours ago

Jillian C. York

jilliancyork Jillian C. York

by tommymiles

  

Barricades at the foot of the bridge lots of cops all ready to shut down go back to Liberty Sq #occupywallstreet twitpic.com/6tmz3c twitpic.com/6tmz3c

18 hours ago

Ryan Devereaux

RDevro Ryan Devereaux

by tommymiles

One woman just said, "they've turned the BK bridge into a jail." #occupywallstreet

18 hours ago

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET

OccupyWallStNYC #OCCUPYWALLSTREET

by tommymiles

Sending a backup army of smartphone users 2 #BrooklynBridge. Our media team is legion. #occupywallstreet #sep17

18 hours ago

AnonOps

  

tommymiles

NYPD Boat keeping tourist boats away from Brooklyn Bridge #occupywallstreet twitpic.com/6tn4d3 twitpic.com/6tn4d3

18 hours ago

 

tommymiles

5th & 6th police busses lining up on bridge to be filled w protester arrestees #occupywallstreet

18 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Funny how the NYPD always say we don't need to worry about being filmed unless we're breaking law: but they don't allow press to film them

18 hours ago

 

tommymiles

Funny 1st press helio showed up: 2 min later police helio returned and press fled/ were directed up the East River out of photo distance

18 hours ago

 

tommymiles

I count four #NYPD busses to fill w those arrested for peaceful protest (photo) did they do this at #TeaParty demos? twitpic.com/6tmupr twitpic.com/6tmupr

18 hours ago

 

tommymiles

US cops have one way of dealing w peaceful demos they agree w and another for those they don't And they call this democracy

18 hours ago

The Stream

AJStream The Stream

by tommymiles

Do you have videos of arrests at the Brooklyn bridge? Send it to #ajstream #OccupyWallStreet #nyc

18 hours ago

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin

ASE Ahmed Shihab-Eldin

by tommymiles

U.S. anti-corporate movement expands | The Stream - Al Jazeera English #occupywallstreet #ows stream.aljazeera.com/story/us-anti-corporate-movement-exp... stream.aljazeera.com/story/us-anti-corporate-movement-exp... via @AJStream

18 hours ago

 

tommymiles

NYPD brass bought and paid for by Wall Street: explain again why libertarians hate #occupywallstreet ? www.ericallenbell.org/group/occupy-wall-street/forum/topi... www.ericallenbell.org/group/occupy-wall-street/forum/topi...

18 hours ago

US Day of Rage ☮

USDayofRage US Day of Rage ☮

by tommymiles

"J.P. Morgan Chase "donates" $4.6 Million to NYPD" ning.it/r5CFBD ning.it/r5CFBD #occupywallstreet #usdor via @vashondogboy

23 hours ago

allisonkilkenny

allisonkilkenny allisonkilkenny

by tommymiles

Arresting thousands of protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge? NYPD should get paid for doing #OccupyWallStreet's PR.

19 hours ago

M. Gould-Wartofsky

mgouldwartofsky M. Gould-Wartofsky

by tommymiles

#NYPD has surrounded and kettled march of thousands on the Brooklyn Bridge. Mass arrests ongoing. Solidarity needed. #OccupyWallStreet #OWS

19 hours ago

Rachel Wohander

RachelWohlander Rachel Wohander

by tommymiles

the view from brooklyn bridge is peaceful revolution. occupy wallstreet.

19 hours ago

Maxwell Strachan

maxwellstrachan Maxwell Strachan

by tommymiles

Situation tense on Brooklyn Bridge as large, dense group of protesters not being let through by NYPD huff.to/p2hdHn huff.to/p2hdHn

19 hours ago

Regan Lee

reganlee Regan Lee

by tommymiles

To all in Occupy Wall St and on Brooklyn bridge.: from the west coast, thank you and our thoughts are with you stay strong

19 hours ago

Kelly Campbell

kellyblue Kelly Campbell

by tommymiles

How wrong is this? Nypd kettleing protesters on both ends of Brooklyn bridge to arrest. Shame Nypd. #99percent #occupy

19 hours ago

carmar descamento

   

tommymiles

Funny, for 1/2 hour by Brooklyn Bridge we had 5 bars phone coverage but zero data service: never seen that anywhere else #OccupyWallStreet

18 hours ago

 

tommymiles

cordons of nervy cops prevented me from meeting Brooklyn Bridge march: hearing & seeing them from below #OccupyWallStreet

19 hours ago

The Park Central Hotel (formerly the Omni Park Central, The Park Sheraton)

870 7th Avenue

New York, NY

 

Construction started in 1926 on the Park Central Hotel. The 25-story renaissance revival style building at 870 Seventh Avenue was designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag. The 1,600 room hotel was named Park Central due to its close proximity to Central Park, its rooms though, did not have actual views of the park. Previously at this location was the Van Corlear apartment house, designed by Henry Hardenbergh for builder Edward Clark and put up in 1878.

 

Gronenberg & Leuchtag were noted for many of Manhattan's apartment buildings and for one previous hotel - the Times Square Hotel (now the Common Ground Times Square Building - housing for 652 low income individuals) built in 1922 located at 255 West 43rd Street.

 

The hotel was built for approximately $15 million in the pre-Depression building frenzy of the late-twenties; its grand opening took place on June 12, 1927. The NY Times described the hotel as 31-stories and had a swimming pool and an elaborate roof garden. The hotel's mural paintings were done by William Clark Rice and J Scott Williams. The hotel's lobby had wood carvings and marble designed by Leo Lentelli. In 1929 the hotel opened a sales office in Paris, France.

 

The owner was Harry A. Lanzer who operated the 1,600 room hotel through the Great Depression and managed to make ends meet and hold on to it until he sold it in 1948 to the Sheraton Corporation of America. Ernest Henderson, president of the Sheraton Corp., led the negotiations, and the Park Central Hotel became the 28th hotel within the Sheraton chain - renamed Park Sheraton Hotel.

 

*Arnold Rothstein Murder*

 

Arnold Rothstein was known coast to coast as the nation's most notorious gambler. He was heading to a meeting in room 349 of the Park Central Hotel on Sunday, November 4, 1928, but never made it. He was found shot and mortally wounded in a first floor service corridor at the Park Central Hotel.

 

Rothstein had lost $300,000 at a 3-day poker game in September of 1928 and refused to pay the debt. More famously he was known as the man behind the Black Sox scandal in which the 1919 World Series was fixed. No one is ever convicted of his murder. Rothstein's show biz girlfriend, Inez Norton, opens in the Broadway play "Room 349" at the National Theater (now the Nederlander Theatre) on April 21, 1930 - it closes after 15 performances.

 

*WPCH*

 

Prior to the Park Central opening the radio station WFBH (the Voice of Central Park) was given notice in 1927 its antenna located atop the Hotel Majestic would have to move since the Majestic was to be demolished. WFBH moved its broadcasting facilities and transmitting towers to the Park Central Hotel. The move to the Park Central Hotel ended the WFBH call letters and the station became known as WPCH, incorporating the new hotel's initials into their call sign. It seems that once the Park Central installed its electrical roof signage there were transmission problems and WPCH had to again relocate - this time to the Hotel McAlpin. WPCH went silent in 1933 and was absorbed by WMCA - named after its transmission tower location - the Hotel McAlpin.

 

*Wine Cellar*

 

Prohibition was lifted in 1933. The Park Central Hotel was opened without any consideration to the possibility of storing or serving alcoholic beverages. To prepare for the expected demand of wine and spirits the NY Times reported Park Central Hotel's Chief Steward, J.J. Mullins, authorized the excavation through the hotel's bed rock of a wine cellar some 30 feet below the hotel. The wine cellar would hold up to 150,000 bottles. In those days it was thought that vibrations from subways would rattle the wine and spoil it, hence the need to go in to the bedrock.

 

*Albert Anastasia Murder*

 

Albert Anastasia was a founder of the American Mafia. A Brooklyn gangster, he was an accomplished underworld enforcer, earning the nickname of "Lord High Executioner." Anastasia was gunned down in what was probably the most sensational public and daytime assassination in mob history.

 

On the morning on October 25, 1957, Anastasia went to his usual barber at Arthur Grasso's Barber Shop at the Park Sheraton Hotel for a shave and haircut. He sat in the fourth of twelve barber chairs manned by Joseph Bocchino. Starbucks is now located at approximately this location on the hotel's first floor at 55th Street and Seventh Avenue. According to www.mafiahistory.us two masked gunmen burst into the shop and unloaded handguns into the 55-year-old Anastasia's body. The former Murder Inc. chief was hit in his head, back, right hip and left hand. Witnesses said he lunged from the chair and attacked the reflection of his attackers in the mirror in front of him before collapsing dead in a pool of blood on the floor.

 

The murder has never been solved. The killing allowed Carlo Gambino to take control of the crime family that would now bear his name.

 

Two weeks after the killing the Park Sheraton Hotel attempted to evict the operator of the barber shop claiming the shop served objectionable patrons. Thomas C. de Veau, the Park Sheraton Manager said the Anastasia killing was a ghastly incident that resulted from Arthur Grasso's failure to heed the term of the lease for maintaining an orderly shop. The complaint alleged that Grasso solicited and encouraged the patronage in the barbershop of notorious underworld characters.

 

*Jackie Gleason*

 

In 1953 Jackie Gleason negotiated a two year deal with CBS TV to produce 39 episodes of the Honeymooners to be filmed live at the Adelphi Theater. Upon signing the contract Gleason leased a penthouse atop the Park Sheraton Hotel to be the headquarters of his entertainment company. The 7-room 23rd floor suite had a terrace and sweeping views of Manhattan. According to www.drunkard.com Gleason outfitted the penthouse with a pool table, dance studio and four bars, staffed by a live-in bartender. It resembled a sultan’s palace more than a place of business. Gleason used the penthouse from 1953 to 1957, the heady years of ''The Honeymooners.''

 

In 1987 the Omni Park Central Hotel named "the Great One's” penthouse suite ''The Jackie Gleason Suite''.

 

Hilton New York owned the Adelphi Theater (demolished in 1970) which was adjacent to the hotel and held the site for expansion. In 1989 an office tower 1325 Avenue of the Americas was built on the site.

 

*Eleanor Roosevelt*

 

Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt and married her father's fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt who was president from 1933 to 1945. After FDR's death, the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt rented suites at the Park Sheraton Hotel from 1950 to 1953. She returned to the Park Sheraton Hotel in 1958 as she waited for renovations on a new house to be completed. During the 1950's long term guests were using the 202 West 56th Street address (today 200 West 56th Street is the address for the Manhattan Club).

 

According to a 1956 Walter Winchell column it was Eleanor Roosevelt who forced the hand of hotel management to cover the bare breasted mermaids hanging from the Mermaid Room's ceiling. The room was celebrated for its Mermaids... but Eleanor Roosevelt complained the undraped sea sirens were indecent. Bras made of fish net were made to cover their frontages.

 

*The Mermaid Room*

 

The Mermaid Room was established on the main floor of the Park Central Hotel in the late 40's. Its fare was cocktails, steak, lobster lamb chops with dinner music 6.30 to 9.30pm and star entertainment from 10pm to 4am. The Mermaid Room had a large curvaceous bar and dance floor. It was known for its four very large terra cotta mermaids on the walls.

 

The Mermaid Room was designed by night club designer Franklin Hughes - live orchids in his night clubs was his signature. He also designed the decor for El Morocco and the Copacabana.

 

Irving Fields and his Trio found a home at the Mermaid Room and played for 16 years, 1950 to 1966. His hits included Miami Beach Rhumba and "Managua Nicaragua." Other Mermaid Room entertainers included pianist Belle Gale, Rosa Linda, The Milt Herth Trio, the Pepe Morreale Trio and the renowned organist, Ashley Miller.

 

*Cocktail Hostess Sues Widow of Park Sheraton Hotel Manager for Husband's Estate*

 

In 1952 Ralph H. Freeman was appointed General Manager of the Park Sheraton. He brought with him from the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago his mistress Delores Dunn, a cocktail lounge hostess. Freeman died unexpectedly in 1957 at the age of 54. A lawsuit was filed by Dunn against Freeman's widow for $100,000 claiming she had a relationship with Freeman for 8 years, that he induced her to move to New York and performed all the nursing, housework and cooking for him. Freeman had been a prominent hotelier serving as a director for the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau and a director for New York City Hotel Association. At his death he was the Sheraton Hotel's Regional Manager for the Atlantic Division.

 

*70's and 80's*

 

The Park Sheraton Hotel changed its name to the New York Sheraton in 1972. A press release issued by Jim Sheeran, the public relations spokesperson for the Sheraton chain said there was a corporate decision made to boost New York and the West Side of New York with the name change.

 

In May, 1983 V.M.S. Realty, a Chicago-based national real estate investment firm, acquired the New York Sheraton Hotel, on Seventh Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets, from the Sheraton Corporation. V.M.S. paid $60 million for the 1,450- room hotel, at the time the city's fifth largest. V.M.S contracted with Dunfey Hotels Corporation (owned by Aer Lingus) to manage the hotel. Peter R. Morris, the chairman of V.M.S., called the acquisition a ''once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.'' He added that the company's decision to take over the Sheraton reflected its strong belief in the renaissance taking place on the West Side between Times Square and Lincoln Center. In January 1984 Dunfey changed the name to Omni Park Central. V.M.S. and Dunfey provided the 1,450 room hotel with $15 million in improvements. Philip Grosse was the Omni Park Central's general manager in 1984.

 

Since its beginning in 1977, V.M.S. has acquired 3,500 hotel and motel units. VMS was one of the largest real estate syndicators, raising more than $1.5 billion through more than 100 real-estate limited partnerships. The firm's hotel properties included the Boca Raton Hotel in Florida, Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, California and Caneel Bay in the Virgin Islands. By 1989 VMS Realty Partners disclosed that it is suffering cash-flow problems and would replace its top management and lay off some of its 500 employees. The dismantling of VMS Realty Partners was one of the largest liquidations in real estate history.

 

*Ian Bruce Eichner and The Manhattan Club*

 

In 1995 New York developer Ian Bruce Eichner acquired the Omni Park Central Hotel in a bankruptcy sale from VMS Partners for $60.225 million. The hotel has more than 1,430 rooms and is the fifth largest in the city with more than 800,000 square feet. That translates into a purchase price of $42,115 per room. Upscale hotels were selling at that time for per room prices ranging from $75,000 to $200,000. Eichner said the Sheraton hotel chain still held the first mortgage for V.M.S that had failed in the early 90's. Sheraton agreed to maintain the mortgage for Eichner who had bid $60 million -- or $20 million more than the next highest bidder.

 

Construction began in 1996 on a $40 million conversion of half the 26-story Park Central Hotel into New York City's first time-share condominium. Eichner would keep the eastern half of the building as a "lower-end hotel" with its entrance on Seventh Avenue. They would have separate lobbies, separate entrances, separate heating systems. The western half transformed to a 360-unit time-share operation called the Manhattan Club, with a new entrance on 56th Street. The "intervals" or weekly shares initial price for seven days' use a year of a 650-square-foot one-bedroom would be $15,000; a two-bedroom will be $23,000. Annual maintenance fees would average $575, including real estate taxes. Manhattan Club buyers would be able to trade their weeks for any one of Resorts Condominium International's (RCI) 3,500 locations in 85 countries. Eichner thought that if The Manhattan Club ever sells out, there is a whole other side-full of rooms to tap! A sell-out of the timeshares would produce more than $300 million.

 

Eichner was developing a product that had never before been offered in New York City. Eichner even negotiated with the hotel unions to come up with a set of job rules and qualifications for a time share project.

 

The 1996 cleaning of the hotel's 1925 Tuscan Renaissance facade -- found a beautiful mixture of arches, bas relief squirrels, deer and pelicans and Corinthian half columns that had been hidden for years by gold-colored aluminum panels.

 

In July 2011 Ian Bruce Eichner, the developer and the operator of The Manhattan Club, was sued for fraud by five buyers of time-shares in The Manhattan Club. According to the documents they are alleging fraud and “breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” The timeshare owners allege that Eichner is not granting them access to their timeshares, despite their attempts to book up to nine months in advance, and is instead renting them out to the general public.

 

*Mony Mony*

 

The 1740 Broadway Building shares the block with the Park Central Hotel and was once the headquarters of the MONY (Mutual of New York). In 1968 the insignia "MONY" was located where *1740* is today. Tommy James was struggling with the lyrics for a new song when he looked out of his apartment building in New York and saw the sign "MONY".

 

Sung by Tommy James And The Shondells: "Here she comes now sayin' Mony Mony Shoot 'em down turn around come on Mony" …

 

*Recent Events*

 

In December 2004 the 935-room Park Central was sold by H. Park Central, LLC to Goldman's Whitehall Real Estate Funds and Highgate Hotels for $215,000,000 or $230,000 per room. Following this sell Bruce Eichner went on to develop the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas however, in 2008 he defaulted on a $768 million construction loan from Deutchse Bank. Deutchse foreclosed on Eichner and took control of the property.

 

In October 2010 owners Rockpoint and Highgate Hotels put the 1,000-room Park Central Hotel on the market. The hotel had recently received a $65 million renovation.

 

In a January 2012 press release Lasalle Hotel Properties (LHO) announced it acquired the 934-room Park Central Hotel in New York City for $396.2 million. Michael D. Barnello, President and Chief Executive Officer of LaSalle Hotel Properties said “We remain excited about this well located New York City asset and our ability to acquire the hotel at an attractive purchase price.” Lasalle plans to implement a renovation of the hotel, currently estimated at between $30.0 and $35.0 million, including guestrooms and guest bathrooms, corridors and the hotel’s lobby. The renovation is expected to commence late 2012 and conclude during 2013. Highgate Holdings will continue to manage the Park Central.

 

All photos and text by Dick Johnson, February 2012

richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com

212-832-0098

 

Relocated to a smaller more efficiently designed store elsewhere in Geneva.

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

If you would like to use this picture in any sort of form, please send me a Flickrmail or send me an email at natehenderson6@gmail.com.

A 12-meter antenna being relocated at the Chajnantor Plateau

Museu Blau, Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, Spain

Architects: Herzog & de Meuron, project 2009-2010, realization 2010-2012

Relocating the Museum of Natural Sciences into the Forum Barcelona building signals the beginning of a new life cycle for both institutions: one where each mutually benefits from the space, program and potential of the other. With its large exterior and interior spaces and its reference to natural processes and shapes, the architecture of the Forum is a particularly appropriate new home for the relocated Museum. And the Museum of Natural Science promises to energetically revitalise the existing building, replacing vacant space with intense new public activities.

The open public space that marks the approach from the Diagonal and extends under the triangular body of the building is now diversified and activated, engaging with the life of the city. The corner addressing the city centre retains its function as the main public approach. This is enhanced by the three existing pavilions which are reconfigured to provide meeting places for groups and general information along the approach to the museum entrance. The second corner, further along the Diagonal is enlivened with lush external planting and the basin under the water patio. And finally, the corner addressing the sea is activated by a new exterior dining area for students and groups, adjacent to a bar which opens onto the plaza. The interior of the elevated triangular building, which is like a vast interior landscape, structured by patios, creates a specific space well suited to an exhibition of Natural science and to the Museum’s demand for growth and need to display more of its outstanding collection.

 

Architecture and Museography

The core of the Museum is its permanent exhibition. This consists of an outstanding collection of rocks and minerals, taxidermy, microbes, plants and herbariums, meteorites, scientific drawings, diagrams, fossils and skeletons, sounds and dioramas, gathered together over centuries in Barcelona. The exhibition consists of elements from the permanent collection structured around the concept of Gaia – the idea of a living planet which forms and is, in turn, transformed by life.

This exhibition arrangement follows the logic of the existing space and at the same time radically transforms it. It frees the visitor to explore any number of individual routes while still ensuring an overall logical sequence. It also extends into the museum lobby, where the main stair and the dramatically hung whale skeleton forms the central arrival and departure point for all public programs, including shop, restaurant, media library, classrooms, event spaces and temporary exhibition, as well as administration and support areas. The lobby extends down to the plaza connecting to the large covered public space of the Museu Blau, allowing for the visitor to invigorate the rapidly developing area where the Diagonal reaches the sea.

336 N Market St, Wooster, OH. This store opened in 1952 as a relocation from a smaller space downtown--their second store, which opened in 1932.

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

Here we take a peek from the end of aisle 3, looking at register 3. Note the photo in the background, which is an earlier photo of the store.

Since it relocated to the new building in Hillcrest back in May 2021, it had been trashed due to the lack of security measures i.e. fencing and plywood sheets to cover every window and door.

This one was considered to be the second one to open in South Australia 50 years ago after the one in Everard Park.

Nature never ceases to amaze me - how did the couple communicate this move. First he had a mouthful of grasses that he took to the old home - I assume to keep the babies busy eating while he moved them one by one. When he returned - his wife was following (not carrying a baby) and he had the first baby. She stayed on the new nest in the marsh while he retrieved the rest of their family. It was a lot of fun to watch and we were lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

 

2 1/2 hours later he had moved 5 babies and must have been exhausted - he went back to the old home, but hadn't returned within 45 minutes so we left. He was aware of me, even though I was at a respectable distance and he would swim by quickly - changed my camera body to the 7D for a faster shutter speed with the available evening light. Some babies were moved upside down, others with their bum toward me so it was nice that this one's head was facing my way. The marsh is surrounded by trees as you can see reflected in the water. He was moving them from one pond to another and had to dive under a culvert with the baby in his mouth - this is just as they are breaking the surface of the water.

 

Dropping in to say hello - I was hoping to be back on flickr more regularly but it hasn't worked out - hopefully I'll be back soon. Miss you all and want you to know that I check your images every chance I get. Will catch up on your latest tonight.

 

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright © 2012 Barb D'Arpino/naturethroughmyeyes.com

This image is protected under the Canadian and International Copyright laws. These images are presented here for viewing purposes only. They are NOT stock images or royalty free. They may not be used for commercial or private use. They are copyrighted by me. Any such use whatsoever of these images is strictly prohibited. They may not be copied, downloaded, manipulated, blogged, deep-linked, tweeted, pinned, Stumbled, tumbled or reproduced by any other means or sold without my prior written consent. Linking back to me does not substitute for written permission.

 

Looking out from the roof of the Library of Birmingham, the Library was designed by Buro Happold and built at a cost of £188 million. In Centenary Square, Birmingham, West Midlands.

 

Birmingham City Council looked into relocating the library for many years. The original plan was to build a new library in the emerging Eastside district, which had been opened up to the city centre following the demolition of Masshouse Circus. A library was designed by Richard Rogers on a site in the area. However, for financial reasons and reservations about the location this plan was shelved. The Council suggested that the Library be split between a new building built between the Rep Theatre and Baskerville House at Centenary Square, which until 2009 was a public car park (to house the main lending library) and a building at Millennium Point in "Eastside" (to house the archives and special collections).

 

In August 2006, the Council confirmed the area between the Rep Theatre and Baskerville House as the future site for the library. Capita Symonds had been appointed as Project Managers for the Library of Birmingham. The council's intention was to create a "world class" landmark civic building in Centenary Square. Not long after this, the two-sites idea was scrapped and the archives and special collections will move to the site at Centenary Square.

 

Preparation of the ground for building, and archaeological work between Baskerville House and The Rep had begun before planning permission had been granted. Planning permission was finally granted and approved by Birmingham City Council in December 2009. Building work, which was undertaken by Carillion, commenced in January 2010, with a completion schedule for 3 September 2013. A topping out ceremony to mark the completion of the highest part of the building took place on 14 September 2011.

 

At the 2014 RIBA West Midlands Awards, the Library of Birmingham was named overall West Midlands building of the year Mecanoo architect Patrick Arends won emerging architect of the year and Birmingham City Council won client of the year. In the June 2014 birthday honours, the library's director, Brian Gambles, was made MBE "for services to libraries". On 17 July 2014 the Library of Birmingham was nominated as one of the six short-listed buildings for the 2014 Stirling Prize, awarded for excellence in architecture.

 

The library has a number of nationally and internationally significant collections, including the Boulton and Watt archives, the Bournville Village Trust Archive, the Charles Parker Archive, the Parker collection of children's books, the Sir Benjamin Stone photographic collection, the Wingate Bett transport ticket collection, the Warwickshire photographic survey, the British Institute of Organ Studies archive and the Railway and Canal Historical Society Library.

 

The specialist Shakespeare Memorial Room was designed in 1882 by John Henry Chamberlain for the first Central Library. When the old building was demolished in 1974 Chamberlain's room was dismantled and later fitted into the new concrete shell of the new library complex. When the Library of Birmingham was built, it was again moved, to the top floor. It houses Britain’s most important Shakespeare collection, and one of the two most important Shakespeare collections in the world; the other being held by the Folger Shakespeare Library. The collection contains 43,000 books including rare items such as a copy of the First Folio 1623; copies of the four earliest Folio editions; over 70 editions of separate plays printed before 1709 including three "Pavier" quartos published in 1619 but falsely dated. There are significant collections from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, a near complete collection of Collected Works, significant numbers of adaptations, anthologies and individual editions.

 

The Boulton and Watt Collection is the archive of the steam engine partnership of Matthew Boulton and James Watt, dating from its formation in 1774 until the firm's closure in the 1890s. The archive comprises about 550 volumes of letters, books, order books and account books, approximately 29,000 engine drawings and upwards of 20,000 letters received from customers. Boulton and Watt manufactured the screw engines for Brunel's SS Great Eastern and the archive includes a portfolio of 13 albumen prints by Robert Howlett documenting the construction of the Great Eastern, including a rare variant of the Brunel portrait of 1857.

 

Kitchen II

Vikas packers and movers noida is a reliable and trusted company for packing, transportation, relocation services at best price. Our team is in professional expert in mover’s service and we provide our services to many clients like BHEL, GAIL, HCL and more. We are best award winner in moving and packing services.

Despite all of the recent 'SHUT THE HELL UP' modding I've done to it the quicksilver is still a bit too loud to keep in my bedroom so have swapped it around with the iMac G3 which is completely silent. got a perky little G3 in my room looking pretty and this ridiculous powerhouse sat in the living room. It's a great party piece with full screen cover flow turned on. Almost finished maxxing the system out too.

 

PowerPC 7448 Dual G4 Processors @ 1.81GHz

1.5GB PC133 MHz SD-RAM

ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB

802.11g Wifi + Bluetooth 2.0 EDR

6 USB 2.0 Ports (2 USB 1.0 ports)

DL DVD/RW Superdrive

 

Harman Kardon Soundstick II - 2.1 Stereo Speakers

Mirai 22" Widescreen TFT Monitor 1680x1050

There are a few more upgrades to do including a better graphics card (hard to get decent mac AGP graphics cards though) and possibly faster wifi... adding more storage (probably external) ... maybe a SATA pci card...

barnes Foundation

 

"The Temptation of St. Anthony," formerly ascribed by the Barnes to Bosch, is now said to be a 16th-century copy by an unknown artist.

 

August 27, 2005

The Barnes Revises Attributions of Old Masters

By JULIA M. KLEIN

 

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 26 - A review of the vast collection and archives of the Barnes Foundation is upending attributions of some of its old master paintings and revealing new details of its founder's relationships with painters, collectors and other artistic luminaries of the 20th century, administrators say.

 

Among the 22 paintings whose attributions are changing in a continuing assessment project, now four years old, are works formerly credited to El Greco, Rubens, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Giorgione and Bosch.

 

"I don't think any of it was shocking or surprising," said Emily Croll, the Barnes Foundation's senior administrative officer, who has headed the project at the foundation, in suburban Merion, Pa. "For decades people have been saying some of our old masters weren't what we said they were."

 

Lending momentum to such stock-taking is an eight-month-old court ruling clearing the way for the financially troubled Barnes to relocate to Philadelphia, where it is expected to draw far bigger crowds. Students affiliated with the Barnes had challenged the move, saying it would violate the terms under which the patent-medicine magnate Albert C. Barnes founded the institution in 1922.

 

Although a study of the foundation's large holdings of Matisse and Renoir is under way, said Joseph J. Rishel, a senior curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art who is chairman of the assessment committee, none of the 19th- or 20th-century works for which the Barnes is renowned are likely to be reattributed.

 

"These are very published, very exposed paintings," Mr. Rishel said of the collection's Renoirs, Cézannes, Matisses and Picassos. "When purchased, they were some of the most famous things of their kind."

 

The de-attributions of old master works were reported on Sunday by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

 

In an interview with The New York Times, Larry Silver, professor of art history at the University of Pennsylvania, said he had known for years that "The Temptation of St. Anthony" ascribed to Bosch (circa 1450-1516) in the Barnes collection was a copy, in part because he has seen the original twice in Lisbon and again at an exhibition in Washington.

 

Mr. Silver, one of 39 consultants involved in reassessing works owned by the Barnes, said the mid-16th- century copy represents only an excerpt of the original canvas and lacks Bosch's "handling - the way he uses paint in thin, rather loosely brushed layers, and his color harmonies, which are much more delicate in undoubted originals."

 

On the other hand, Mr. Silver said, his review confirmed the authenticity of other Northern European paintings in the collection, including "a spectacular example" of a late portrait by the 17th-century artist Frans Hals ("Portrait of a Man Holding a Watch") and "The Square Watch-Tower," a landscape by Jan van Goyen that the professor said would be the envy of many museums. The assessment project, which also includes the organization and preservation of the archives, digitizing files and images from the collection, and conservation assessment, is intended to remedy what Ms. Croll described as "80 years" of benign neglect since the foundation was established.

 

Conservation assessment at the Barnes over the last several years has turned up an array of problems, including Pueblo ceramics in the gallery with "inactive mold," moth-eaten Navajo rugs at the Barnes's Ker-Feal estate in Chester Springs, Pa., and a need for stabilization of paintings and especially works on paper. "We're stopping the damage," said Barbara Buckley, the foundation's chief conservator.

 

As for authorship, Ms. Croll said, "reattributions are something that every museum does constantly, and we haven't had the opportunity to do it officially till very recently," she said.

 

Among the other reattributed works are "The Disrobing of Christ" (now considered "School of El Greco") and an "Annunciation" (described as a "possibly 17th-century" copy of an El Greco); "The Holy Family With St. John and an Angel" (ascribed to the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens); "Christ and the Woman of Samaria" (ascribed to a follower of Tintoretto), and "Portrait of a Gentleman and Son" (credited now to an "unidentified artist, Brescian School" rather than Titian).

 

Ms. Croll said the project has also helped the foundation identify previously unidentified works, confirm the authenticity of others and establish the quality of some of its less-well-known collections of objects. For example, Edwin L. Wade, senior vice president of the Museum of Northern Arizona, described the Barnes's Navajo jewelry as "one of the finest holdings of its kind in the United States."

 

The Barnes Foundation is celebrated internationally for its multibillion-dollar collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early modern masterpieces. Most hang in ensembles assembled by Barnes himself in his galleries, with sculpture, textiles, ironwork and decorative arts objects.

 

The move to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in downtown Philadelphia will allow the Barnes to expand its visiting hours and facilities. Rebecca W. Rimel, president and chief executive of the Pew Charitable Trusts, said yesterday that more than $110 million had been pledged toward a $150 million fund-raising goal to pay for the move and an endowment. The Pew is spearheading the drive with the Annenberg and Lenfest Foundations.

 

Ms. Rimel said that she was hopeful that a new Barnes could open on the parkway by late 2008. "If we beat that, that would be great," she said. The search for an architect has not yet begun, she added.

 

Ms. Rimel also said that the Barnes board of trustees had named the search firm of Russell Reynolds Associates to find a replacement for Kimberly Camp, the former Barnes president and chief executive who resigned in June. That search should be completed in about four months, Ms. Rimel said.

 

Mr. Rishel said the assessment project, which has been supported by more than $2.1 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $1 million from Pew and other grants, had yielded significant new information about Barnes's collecting habits. The archives are "a treasure trove," he said. "It's a whole level of documentation that was not known before."

 

"What's most fascinating is Barnes's own take on what he did and didn't buy," Mr. Rishel said. "Even then, it was clear how shrewd he was in his choices, and how he did have a very broad number of choices. He was a very famous collector and a very rich man. The world's greatest collectors spread a great bounty of temptations before him."

 

Katy Rawdon-Faucett, the foundation's archivist, said that among "the things that really make me say wow" was correspondence in the 1930's and 40's between Barnes and the American landscape artist Georgia O'Keeffe. "It's really a back and forth between two people who knew each other and had some kind of connection and understanding," Ms. Rawdon-Faucett said.

 

In a letter dated March 21, 1930, Barnes, who had purchased two paintings from O'Keeffe that he called "Still Life" and "Indian Girl," praises them as "authentic expressions of yourself and therefore, genuine art." But he adds, "Like every other new arrival in our gallery, they will survive or die on what they have in themselves." Ms. Rawdon-Faucett said Barnes later returned the two paintings with apologies, and although O'Keeffe expressed disappointment, their friendship continued.

 

In a July 17, 1914, letter to Leo Stein, the art collector and brother of the writer Gertrude Stein, Barnes tries to explain his fascination with Renoir, which has mystified some contemporary critics.

 

"Renoir has been to me the most all-satisfying of any man's work I know," Barnes writes. "Perhaps the thing that most interests me in Renoir, that most strikes a personal response is, what seems to me, his joy in painting the real life of red-blooded people, and his skill in conveying his sensations to my consciousness."

 

Ms. Rawdon-Faucett said that as far as she knew, that material had not previously been published.

 

She said that when she first entered the storage room in the Barnes administration building that housed much of the archives, "it was basically like the attic of an old house," with filing cabinets, boxes and other material in disarray.

 

Along with Barnes's letters and writings, she said, the archives contain blueprints and drawings of foundation buildings and the arboretum, photographs and institutional records, including deeds for the land dating back to the 18th century.

 

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections XML Help Contact Us Work for Us Back to Top

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

 

Some background:

The US Marine Corps' lessons learned from the Korean war included the need for a ground attack aircraft with a better performance than the AU-1 Corsair, as well as a higher effectiveness than the jet fighters of the 50ies era.

 

The AU-1 (re-designated from F4U-6) had been a dedicated U.S. Marines attack variant of the Vought F4U fighter with extra armor to protect the pilot and fuel tank, and the oil coolers relocated inboard to reduce vulnerability to ground fire. The fighter's supercharger had been simplified as the design was intended for low-altitude operation. Extra weapon racks were also fitted.

 

Ready for combat the AU-1 weighed 20% more than a fully loaded F4U-4 and was capable of carrying 8,200 lb of bombs, missiles or drop tanks. The AU-1 had a maximum speed of 238 miles per hour at 9,500 ft, when loaded with 4,600 lb of bombs and a 150-gallon drop-tank. When loaded with eight rockets and two 150-gallon drop-tanks, maximum speed was 298 mph at 19,700 ft. When not carrying external loads, maximum speed was 389 mph at 14,000 ft.

 

First produced in 1952, the AU-1 had been a useful addition. But it had become clear, by the end of the Korean War, that the age of the piston engine fighter plane was more or less over. Based on this insight and several studies based on the experience since WWII, Vought offered the USMC an improved ground attack aircraft on a private venture basis under the internal project handle V-381.

The machine was the result of initial attack aircraft studies and roughly based on the F4U's outlines, and a more conservative alternative to the A2U, a proposed attack derivative of the F7U Cutlass, which never came to fruition.

 

The V-381 study incorporated proven elements like the characteristic inverted gull wing, which allowed a short and sturdy landing gear, but it differed considerably in many other details and its internal structure, due to a different engine. The aircraft was to be powered by a T-56 turboprop engine and would fit into a heavier class than the F4U, rather comparable to the US Navy's AD Skyraider but almost as fast as a jet fighter of its time – yet more reliable and rugged for low level operations in direct range of small caliber weapons.

 

The USMC was immediately interested, while the USN declined the proposal (even though much of the V-381’s insights were re-used in the V-406). Compared with the AU-1, the XA3U featured many detail improvements. One of these distinctive modifications was a new cockpit with a bubble canopy. Thanks to the different internal layout of the aircraft the cockpit could be moved forward by about 3', eliminating the abysmal field of view from the F4U's cockpit on the ground and during deck landings. Another significant change was a cruciform tail. This new arrangement had become necessary in order to avoid damage and turbulences from the hot turboprop efflux - the latter's exhaust was bifurcated and placed in the fuselage flanks, slightly deflected downwards and right at the wings' trailing edge, where the residual thrust from the engine helped during liftoff. The characteristic tail arrangement also became the source of the aircraft's official name, the 'Sea Scorpion'.

 

Armament consisted of four 0.79 in (20 mm) M2 cannon with 250 RPG in the wings, plus a total of fifteen hardpoints under fuselage and wings for a wide range of ordnance and a total weight of 8,000 lb (3,600 kg). The landing gear retracted backwards into the wings, rotating 90°, and the tail wheel with an attached arrester hook was fully retractable, too. The T-56 turboprop with 4.050 hp (2.977 kW) replaced the R-2800 radial and its complex compressor installment, driving a four-blade Hamilton propeller on the XA2U.

 

In June 1954 the first XA3U prototype made its maiden flight. Initial flights tests showed a very good performance at low and medium altitude, but directional stability was rather poor and the fin area had to be enlarged, resulting in the X3AU-1. Another new feature became a reversible six blade propeller of smaller diameter, which would improve reaction time to throttle input. In this guise, the A3U-1 entered series production and USMC service in early 1956, just in time to take the place of the AU-1 which was phased out in 1957.

But, by that time, the technical development had already rendered the A3U at least questionable, if not obsolete, so only a single batch of 45 aircraft was ordered and eventually built. Types like the North American FJ-4 Fury or the Douglas A4D Skyhawk offered a better performance as well as a nuclear strike capability that the A3U lacked, even though the turboprop aircraft was popular because of its ruggedness and good low altitude handling.

With its sophisticated design the A3U served well in its intended shipborne CAS role. In 1958 the machines were upgraded to carry AGM-12 Bullpup missiles, becoming subsequently designated A3U-2. Up to four missiles could be carried under the wings, plus a guidance pod that was carried on one of the outermost wing hardpoints.

 

The A3Us were deployed during several occasions, including Cuba from 1959 to 1960 to protect Americans during the Cuban Revolution, Thailand in May-July 1962 to support the government's struggles against Communists as well as Operation Power Pack in 1965 in Haiti to prevent a second Communist nation on America's doorstep.

 

Anyway, no A3U actually fired in anger, their main task had rather been sabre-rattling and representing the USMC with dramatic weapon loads at low altitude. Since ever more potent aircraft entered the USMC, like the F-4 Phantom II, the Sea Scorpion's career ended already in 1968 – and despite its usefulness in the theatre of operations, the A2U was not deployed to Vietnam.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1 pilot

Length: 33 ft 8 in (10.2 m)

Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.5 m)

Wingspan, folded: 17 ft 0.5 in (5.2 m)

Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)

Empty weight: 11,968 lb (5,429 kg)

Loaded weight: 18,106 lb (8,213 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 25,000 lb (11,340 kg)

 

Powerplant:

1× Allison T-56-A-6 turboprop engine, rated at 4.050 hp (2.977 kW)

plus approximately 750 lbs of thrust from the exhaust

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 446 mph (717 km/h) at 26.200 ft (using emergency power)

Stall speed: 89 mph (143 km/h) clean

Range: 1,316 mi (1,144 nmi, 2,115 km) on internal fuel

Service ceiling: 41,500ft (12,649 m)

Rate of climb: 3,870ft/min (19.7 m/s) at sea-level

 

Armament:

4 × 0.79 in (20 mm) M2 cannon with 250 RPG in the wings

15 hardpoints for a total of up to 8,000 lb (3,600 kg) of ordnance, including bombs,

torpedoes, mine dispensers, unguided rockets, and gun pods

  

The kit and its assembly:

Well, this Frankenstein creation was actually spawned by the rather simple idea of a turboprop-powered F4U, following a discussion at whatifmodelers.com concerning my “Turbo Fury” conversion and the potential of T-56 engine nacelles from a C-130 on other aircraft. After three Turbo Furies I still had a final T-56 resin nacelle left in the stash (from OzMods), and eventually tackled this project with the idea of an AU-1 replacement for the USMC in the mid Fifties.

 

Anyway, with such a modernized version in mind, new ideas popped up – e.g. square wing tips. When I found a pair of leftover outer wings from a Matchbox A3D Skyknight (and they matched up well in shape and size, even the wing profile!) things unfolded into something … different.

 

The basis for this project was an Italeri F4U-5 from 1994 (a very nice kit!), even though in the later Revell re-boxing. The Skyknight wings replaced the F4U’s outer wings and added about 1” total wingspan to the kit. In order to compensate for this, I thought about moving the tail fin further back, but eventually implanted a completely new and slightly longer tail section from an A.W. Meteor night fighter (also Matchbox), because it perfectly extends the F4U’s fuselage lines! Consequently, the original tail wheel well had to be closed and moved backwards.

 

Another idea was to move the cockpit forward and lower the rear fuselage, for a more up-to-date bubble canopy. The OOB cockpit from the F4U was kept but placed under a new opening – more or less located where the F4U’s main fuselage tank would have been. The ejection seat is new, too, and the canopy comes from a vintage NOVO Supermarine Attacker. The whole spine was cut away and re-sculpted with putty, as well as the fuselage section around the canopy.

 

For the new resin T-56, the front end of the fuselage was cut away and lots of putty and sculpting created a new transition between the narrower Herc engine with its oval diameter and the round F4U fuselage.

The spinner comes from the OzMod engine set, but the propeller blades were scratched: these once belonged to a vintage Airfix D.H. Mosquito kit. The rather massive, single blades were cut off, their originally round tips squared and then glued onto the resin spinner. A metal axis and a styrene adapter inside of the resin engine were added as adapters, allowing a free spin.

 

Once the fuselage and the wings were mated, the horizontal stabilizers had to be added. The F4U parts could not be used because of their round tips, and they had become just too small for the bigger airframe. Implants had to be used once more, and in this case the stabilizers are the outer wing sections from a heavily rivet-infected 1:100 Breguet Alize from Heller. Odd, but they had just the right shape and chord length for the new position.

 

After these had been fitted, the fin turned out to be too small for the new and overall bigger aircraft. Finding a solution was not easy, and I eventually added a new fin tip, a part from a Revell (FROG) P-39 stabilizer, maybe 30 years old!

 

In order to make the intended CAS role believable a LOT of hardpoints were added, all taken from an old Airfix/Heller A-1E Skyraider. The ordnance is an iron bomb mix, IIRC these come from a Monogram A-10 and a Matchbox A-7D.

 

Anyway, building this monstrosity was massive kitbashing work, and the whole thing evolved rather gradually: What started as a simple engine swap and maybe some cosmetic surgery ended up in multiple body transplants and a bigger aircraft than originally envisaged, kind of a ‘Skyraider 2.0’.

  

Painting and markings:

Nothing truly fancy, rather the standard USN high-viz livery with Light Gull Grey (FS 36440, Modelmaster enamel) upper surfaces and white undersides and rudders. Compared to the USN, the USMC machines would be rather timid and less flamboyant concerning marking colors, so I only added a little red trim to the fin and around the cockpit. The landing gear and the respective wells were kept in white, like the undersides, with bright red trim around the edges, and the cockpit is Zinc Chromate Green.

 

The decals were puzzled together from the scrap box. Since almost and surface details was lost due to the massive bodywork on fuselage and wings, I painted some panel lines with a pencil and emphasized them with lighter, dry-brushed panel shadings. The effect, at least from some distance, turned out much better than expected! Additionally, some wear and dirt was simulated through a light black in wash. Soot stains, esp. around the jet exhausts, were created with grinded graphite, and some dry painting with silver was done on the leading edges. Finally, everything was sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish.

  

Well, what was to simply become a turboprop-powered F4U turned into something …different. The A3U looks exotic, but not bad or implausible – the thing reminds me of the offspring between a Ju 87 dive bomber and a Westland Whirlwind fighter, and there’s some Fairey Firefly an Il-2 single-seater lineage to it, too? As a positive aspect, this kitbash model reminds IMHO at first glance only remotely of the F4U that it once was, so I think the whiffing work is quite effective. :D

Title: Washington Park: Rehabilitation and Relocation

Creator: Boston Redevelopment Authority

Date: 1965 October 14

Source: Boston Redevelopment Authority photographs, Collection #4010.001

File name: 4010_001_A274_006

Rights: In Copyright - Non commercial use permitted

Citation: Boston Redevelopment Authority photographs, Collection #4010.001, City of Boston Archives, Boston

Copyright ECB / Robert Metsch

Crews from Puget Sound Energy have started work to relocate utility lines before our contractor begins building a roundabout.

Part of any culvert project includes relocating fish and other aquatic species downstream of the project area. During this work through Gribble Creek on SR 9 in Skagit County more than 3,000 Coho salmon, Cutthroad trout, newts, salamandars, crawdads and more were removed and relocated downstream.

A Wildlife Services’ biologist prepares an American kestrel (falco sparverius), for relocation away from the airport where it was trapped. As a significant birdstrike risk, most kestrel are dispersed (chased away) from airports; some are lethally removed and others are relocated.

 

Relocated

Patron: Messuy, viceroy of Kush.

 

Relocated in the 1960s along with the Temple of Kalabsha, to an island in Lake Nasser, near Aswan, as a result of the Aswan High Dam project.

Image Courtesy: FaceMePLS (www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/1517562228), Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic | Flickr

Cardboard, also referred to as corrugated cardboard, is a recyclable material that i recycled by small and large scale businesses to save money on waste disposal costs. Cardboard recycling is the reprocessing and reuse of thick sheets or stiff multilayered papers that have been used, discarded or regarded as waste. Cardboard boxes are usually heavy-duty or thick-sheets of paper known for their durability and hardness. Examples of cardboard include packaging boxes, egg cartoons, shoe boxes, and cereal boxes.

 

Recycling is good for us as it not only saves our environment from deterioration by reducing pollution but also conserves valuable resources and creates jobs. Cardboard recycling is done as a way of keeping the environment clean and green. The steps below provide an explanation of the cardboard recycling system.

 

Step-by-Step Process of Cardboard Recycling

 

1. Collection

Collection is the first step of recycling cardboard. Recyclers and businesses collect the waste cardboard at designated cardboard collection points. Majority of the collection points include trash bins, stores, scrap yards, and commercial outlets that generate cardboard waste. After collection, they are then measured and hauled to recycling facilities, mostly paper mills.

 

At this point, there are certain types of cardboard that are accepted while some are not depending on how they were used or manufactured. For instance, cardboard that are waxed and coated or used for food packaging are not accepted in most cases as they undergo different specialized recycling process.

 

2. Sorting

Once the corrugated boxes arrive at the recycling facility, they are sorted according to the materials they are made of. In most cases, they are classified into corrugated cardboard and boxboard. Boxboards are the ones that are thin such as those used for cardboard drink containers or cereals boxes while corrugated cardboard boxes are bigger and stiffer commonly used for packaging transport goods. Sorting is important since paper mills manufacture different grades of materials based on the materials being recovered.

 

3. Shredding and Pulping

After sorting is done, the next step is shredding then pulping follows. Shredding is done to break down the cardboard paper fibers into minute pieces. Once the material is finely shredded into pieces, it is mixed with water and chemicals to breakdown the paper fibers that turn it into a slurry substance.

 

This process is what is termed as pulping. The pulped material is then blended with new pulp, generally from wood chips that ultimately help the resulting substance to solidify and become firmer.

 

4. Filtering, conterminal removal and De-Inking

The pulpy material is then taken through a comprehensive filtering process to get rid of all the foreign materials present as well as impurities such as strings, tape or glue. The pulp further goes into a chamber where contaminants like plastics and metals staples are removed through a centrifuge-like process. Plastics float on top while the heavy metal staples fall to the bottom after which they are eliminated.

 

The next process, de-inking, involves putting the pulp in a floatation device made up of chemicals that takes away any form of dyes or ink via a series of filtering and screening. This step is also called the cleaning process as it cleans the pulp thoroughly to ensure it is ready for the final processing stage.

 

5. Finishing for reuse

At this stage, the cleaned pulp is blended with new production materials after which, it is put to dry on a flat conveyor belt and heated cylindrical surfaces. As the pulp dries, it is passed through an automated machine that press out excess water and facilitates the formation of a long rolls of solid sheet from the fibers called linerboards and mediums. The linerboards are glued together, layer by layer to make a new piece of cardboard.

 

In other cases, the medium is used as the corrugated sheet which is taken through two huge metal rolls with teeth to give it the ridges. Linerboards are then glued to the medium as the thin outer covering. Alternatively, the linerboards and mediums are ferried to boxboard manufacturers where the manufacturing process is completed by use of machines that shape and create crease along pattern folds to make the boxes used for packaging or transporting products.

 

Wat Phra Kaew (Thai: วัดพระแก้ว, rtgs: Wat Phra Kaeo, IPA: [wát pʰráʔ kɛ̂ːw], Pronunciation, English: Temple of the Emerald Buddha; full official name Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram, Thai: วัดพระศรีรัตนศาสดาราม, IPA: [wát pʰráʔ sǐː rát.ta.náʔ sàːt.sa.daː.raːm]) is regarded as the most sacred Buddhist temple (wat) in Thailand. The Emerald Buddha housed in the temple is a potent religio-political symbol and the palladium (protective image) of Thai society. It is located in Phra Nakhon District, the historic centre of Bangkok, within the precincts of the Grand Palace.

 

The main building is the central phra ubosot, which houses the statue of the Emerald Buddha. According to legend, this Buddha image originated in India where the sage Nagasena prophesized that the Emerald Buddha would bring "prosperity and pre-eminence to each country in which it resides", the Emerald Buddha deified in the Wat Phra Kaew is therefore deeply revered and venerated in Thailand as the protector of the country. Historical records however dates its finding to Chiang Rai in the 15th century where, after it was relocated a number of times, it was finally taken to Thailand in the 18th century. It was enshrined in Bangkok at the Wat Phra Kaew temple in 1782 during the reign of Phutthayotfa Chulalok, King Rama I (1782–1809). This marked the beginning of the Chakri Dynasty of Thailand, whose present sovereign is Bhumibol Adulyadej, King Rama IX.

 

The Emerald Buddha, a dark green statue, is in a standing form, about 66 centimetres tall, carved from a single jade stone ("emerald" in Thai means deep green colour and not the specific stone). It is carved in the meditating posture in the style of the Lanna school of the northern Thailand. Except for the Thai King and, in his stead, the Crown Prince, no other persons are allowed to touch the statue. The King changes the cloak around the statue three times a year, corresponding to the summer, winter, and rainy seasons, an important ritual performed to usher good fortune to the country during each season.

 

HISTORY

In 1767, the Kingdom of Ayutthaya fell to the Burmese, and King Taksin then moved the capital to Thonburi where he built the old palace beside Wat Arun on the west bank of Chao Phraya River. In 1778, Taksin's army under the command of Chao Phraya Chakri (who later became Rama I) captured Vientiane and took the Emerald Buddha back to Thonburi.

 

In 1782, King Rama I succeeded to the throne and founded the Chakri Dynasty, and he decided to move the capital across the river to Bangkok as it would be better protected from attack. The site chosen for the palace is situated between two old wats, Wat Pho and Wat Mahathat, an area inhabited by Chinese residents who were then moved to the present Chinatown. He started the construction of the Grand Palace so that the palace may be ready for his coronation in 1785. Wat Phra Kaew, which has its own compound within the precinct of the palace, was built to house the Emerald Buddha, which is considered a sacred object that provides protection for the kingdom. Wat Phra Kaew was completed in 1784. The formal name of Wat Phra Kaeo is Phra Sri Rattana Satsadaram, which means "the residence of the Holy Jewel Buddha."

 

Wat Phra Kaew has undergone a number of renovations, restoration and additions in its history, particularly during the reign of King Rama III and Rama IV. Rama III started the renovations and rebuilding in 1831 for the 50th Anniversary of BangkoK of 1832, while Rama IV's restoration was completed by Rama V in time for the Bangkok Centennial celebrations in 1882. Further restoration was undertaken by Rama VII on Bangkok's 150th Anniversary in 1932, and by Rama IX for the 200th Anniversary in 1982.

 

EMERALD BUDDHA

It is not known when the statue of the Emerald Buddha was made, but it is generally believed that it was crafted in 14th-century Thailand. However, there are also claims that the statue originated in India or Sri Lanka. None of these theories can be firmly established as none of the historians could get a close look at the statue.

 

According to one account, the Emerald Buddha was found in Chiang Rai, Lanna in 1434, after a lightning storm struck a temple. The Buddha statue fell down and later became chipped, and the monks, after removing the stucco around the statue, discovered that the image was a perfectly made Buddha image from a solid piece of green jade. The image was moved a few time to various temples, first to Lampang, then to Chiang Mai, from where it was removed by prince Chao Chaiyasetthathirat to Luang Prabang, when his father died and he ascended the throne of both Lanna and Lan Xang, in 1551. The statue remained the it to his new capital of Lan Xang in Vientiane in the 1560s. The statue remained there for twelve years. King Chaiyasetthathirat then shifted it to his new capital of Lan Xang in Vientiane in the 1560s. He took the Emerald Buddha with him and the image remained in Vientiane for 214 years until 1778.

 

In the reign of King Taksin, Chao Phya Chakri (who later became Rama I) defeated Vientiane and moved the Emerald Buddha from Vientiane to Thonburi where it was installed in a shrine close to Wat Arun. When Chao Phra Chakri took over the throne and founded the Chakri Dynasty of the Rattanakosin Kingdom, he shifted his capital across the river to its present location in Bangkok. The Emerald Buddha was also moved across the river with pomp and pageantry and installed in the temple of Wat Phra Keaw.

 

LEGENDS

There a number of legends associated with the Emerald Buddha. It was said the iconic image of the Emerald Buddha was made by Nagasena, a saint in Pataliputra (present day Patna), India, who, with the help of Hindu god Vishnu and demigod Indra, had the Emerald Buddha image made. Nagasena predicted that:

 

The image of the Buddha is assuredly going to give to religion the most brilliant importance in five lands, that is in Lankadvipa (Sri Lanka), Ramalakka, Dvaravati, Chieng Mai and Lan Chang (Laos).

 

The Emerald Buddha image was taken to Sri Lanka after three hundred years in Pataliputra to save it during a civil war. In 457, King Anuruth of Burma sent a mission to Ceylon with a request for Buddhist scriptures and the Emerald Buddha, in order to promote Buddhism in his country. These requests were granted, but the ship lost its way in a storm during the return voyage and landed in Cambodia. When the Thais captured Angkor Wat in 1432 (following the ravage of the bubonic plague), the Emerald Buddha was taken to Ayutthaya, Kamphaeng Phet, Laos and finally Chiang Rai, where the ruler of the city hid it, and was later found.

 

ARCHITECTURE

Wat Phra Kaeo has a plethora of buildings within the precincts of the Grand Palace, which covers a total area of over 94.5 hectares. It has over 100 buildings with “200 years royal history and architectural experimentation” linked to it. The architectural style is named as Rattanakosin style (old Bangkok style). The main temple of the Emerald Buddha is very elegantly decorated and similar to the temple in ancient capital of Ayudhya. The roof is embellished with polished orange and green tiles, the pillars are inlaid in mosaic and the pediments are made of rich marble, installed around 18th century. The Emerald Buddha is deified over an elevated altar surrounded by large gilded decorations. While the upper part of this altar was part of the original construction, the base was added by King Rama III. Two images of the Buddha, which represent the first two kings of the Chakri dynasty, flank the main image. Over the years, the temple has retained its original design. However, minor improvements have been effected after its first erection during Rama I's reign; wood-work of the temple was replaced by King Rama III and King Chulalongkorn; during King Mongkut's reign, the elegant doors and windows and the copper plates on the floor were additions, Rama III refurbished the wall painting (indicative of the universe according to Buddhist cosmology) and several frescoes that display the various stages of the Buddha's life; three chambers were added on the western side by King Mongkut; in the chamber known as 'Phra Kromanusorn' at the northern end, images of Buddha have been installed in honour of the kings of Ayutthaya; and in the 19th century, In Khong, a famous painter executed the wall murals. The entry to the temple is from the third gate from the river pier.The entrance is guarded by a pair of yakshis (mythical giants – 5 metres high statues). The eponymous image Buddha in brilliant green colour is 66 centimetres (26 in) in height with a lap width of 48.3 centimetres. It is carved in a yogic position, known as Virasana (a meditation pose commonly seen in images in Thailand and also in South India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia). The pedestal on which the Emerald Buddha deified is decorated with Garuda (the mythical half-man half-bird form, a steed of Rama, who holds his mortal enemy Naga the serpent in his legs) motifs It is central to Thai Buddhism. The image made with a circular base has a smooth top-knot that is finished with a "dulled point marking at the top of the image". A third eye made in gold is inset over the elevated eyebrows of the image. The image appears divine and composed, with the eyes cast downward. The image has a small nose and mouth (mouth closed) and elongated ears. The hands are seen on the lap with palms facing upwards.

 

The entire complex, including the temples, is bounded by a compound wall which is one of the most prominent part of the wat is about 2 kilometres length. The compound walls are decorated with typically Thai murals, based on the Indian epic Ramayana. In Thai language these murals are known to form the Ramakian, the Thai national epic, which was written during the reign of Rama I. The epic stories formed the basic information to draw the paintings during the reign of King Rama I (1782–1809). These paintings are refurbished regularly. The murals, in 178 scenes, starting with the north gate of the temple illustrates the complete epic story of Ramayana sequentially, in a clockwise direction covering the entire compound wall. The murals serve to emphasise human values of honesty, faith, and devotion.

 

There are twelve salas that were built by Rama I, around the temple. They house interesting artefacts of regions such as Cambodia and Java. One of these salas had an inscription of Ramkamhaeng, which was shifted, in 1924, to the National Library. During the reign of King Mongkut, the Phra Gandharara – small chapel on the southwest corner – and a tall belfry were new additions.

 

WORSHIP AND CEREMONIES

Early in the Bangkok period, the Emerald Buddha used to be taken out of its temple and paraded in the streets to relieve the city and countryside of various calamities (such as plague and cholera). However, this practice was discontinued during Rama IV's reign as it was feared that the image could get damaged during the procession and also a practical line of thinking that Rama IV held "that diseases are caused by germs, not by evil spirits or the displeasure of the Buddha". The image also marks the changing of the seasons in Thailand, with the king presiding over the seasonal ceremonies.

 

Like many other Buddha statues in Thailand, the Emerald Buddha is dressed in a seasonal costume. It is a significant ritual held at this temple. In this ritual, dress of the deity is changed three times a year to correspond to the seasons. In summer it is a pointed crown of gold and jewels, and a set of jewelled ornaments that adorns the image from the shoulders to the ankles. In winter, a meshed dressing gown or drapery made of gold beads, which covered from the neck down like a poncho is used. During the rainy months, a top-knot headdress studded with gold, enamel and sapphires; the gold attire in the rainy season is draped over the left shoulder of the deity, only with the right shoulder left bare while gold ornaments embellish the image up to the ankles. The astrological dates for the ritual ceremonies, at the changing of the seasons, followed are in the 1st Waning Moon of Lunar Months 4, 8 and 12 (around March, July and November). The costume change ritual is performed by the Thai king who is the highest master of ceremonies for all Buddhist rites. On each occasion, the king himself "cleans the image by wiping away any dust that has collected and changing the headdress of the image". Then a king's royal attendant climbs up and performs the elaborate ritual of changing garments of the image as the king is chanting prayers to the deity. On this occasion, the king sprinkles water over the monks and the faithful who have assembled to witness the unique ritual and seeks blessings of the deity for good fortune during the upcoming season. The two sets of clothing not in use at any given time are kept on display in the nearby Pavilion of Regalia, Royal Decorations and Coins in the precincts of the Grand Palace. While Rama I initiated this ritual for the hot season and the rainy season, Rama III introduced the ritual for the winter season. The robes, which the image adorns, represents that of monks and King's depending on the season, a clear indication of highlighting its symbolic role "as Buddha and the King", which role is also enjoined on the Thai King who formally dresses the Emerald Buddha image.

 

A ceremony that is observed in the wat is the Chakri Day (begun on April 6, 1782), a national holiday to honour founding of the Chakri dynasty. On this day, the king attends the ceremony. The present king Rama IX, with his Queen, and entourage of the royal family, the Prime Minister, officials in the Ministry of Defence, and other government departments, first offer prayers at the Emerald Buddha temple. This is followed by visit to the pantheon to pay homage to the images of past Chakri rulers that are installed there.

 

The coronation ceremony, which marks the crowning of the king, is an important event of the Chakri dynasty. One such recent event took place when the present Rama IX was crowned the King. On this occasion, the King came to the Chapel Royal- the Wat Phra Keo – in a procession wearing a 'Great Crown'. After entering the chapel, the king made offerings of gold and silver flowers to the deity and also lighted candles. He also paid homage to the images of Buddha that represented the past kings of the dynasty. In the presence of assembled elite clergy of the kingdom, he took a formal vow of his religion and his steadfastness to 'Defend the Faith'.

 

RULES OF ENTRY AND CONDUCT

The sacred temples in Thailand follow a dress code, which is strictly followed. Men must wear long pants and sleeved shirts and shoes; women must wear long skirts. Visitors who arrive dressed otherwise may rent appropriate clothing items at the entry area of the temple. It is compulsory to remove the shoes before entering the temple, as a sign of respect of the Buddha, as is the practice in all other temples in Thailand. While offering prayers before the Buddha image, the sitting posture should avoid any offensive stretching of feet towards the deity; the feet should be tucked in towards the back.

 

OTHER MONUMENTS

While the surrounding portico of the shrine is an example of Thai craftsmanship, the perimeter of the temple complex has 12 open pavilions. These were built during the reign of Rama I. There is plethora of monuments in the temple complex. These are:Grand PalaceThe former residence of the King, the Grand Palace, adjoins the temple. The King makes use of this Grand Palace for ceremonial functions such as the Coronation Day. The King’s present residence is to the north of this Grand Palace and is known as the Chitlada Palace. The four structures surrounding the temple have history of their own. At the eastern end is the Borombhiman Hall (built in French architectural design), which was the residence of King Rama VI, now used as guest house for visiting foreign dignitaries. It has the dubious distinction of having been used as the operational headquarters and residence of General Chitpatima who attempted a coup, in 1981. The building to the west is the Amarindra hall, earlier a hall of Justice, now used for formal ceremonies. The Chakri Mahaprasat is the largest hall in the Grand Palace, built in 1882 by British architects, the architecture of which is fusion of Italian renaissance and Traditional Thai architecture. This style is called farang sai chada, (meaning: "Westerner wearing a Thai crown") as each wing has a shrine (mandap) crowned by a spire. Ashes of the Chakri kings (five ancestors) are enshrined in the largest of these shrines, also known as the pantheons, that were rebuilt after a fire in 1903 during Rama IV's reign. Ashes of the Chakri princess who could not become kings are enshrined in an adjoining hall. The throne room and the reception hall are on the first floor, while the ground floor houses a collection of weapons. The inner palace had the King’s harem (the practice was discontinued during King Rama VI's time who decreed the one wife rule), which was guarded by well trained female guards. Another hall in the palace is the 'Dusit hall' in Ratanokosin-style, which runs from east to west, which was initially an audience hall but now converted into a funerary hall for the Royal family. Royal family corpses are kept here for one year before they are cremated in a nearby field. There is also a garden which was laid during rama IV's reign. The garden depicts a "Thai mountain-and-woods-fable" mountain scenes where the coming of age ritual of shaving the topknot of the Prince is performed.PagodasThe temple grounds also depict three pagodas to its immediate north, which represent the changing centres of Buddhist influence. One such shrine to the west of the temple is the Phra Si Ratana Chedi, a 19th-century stupa built in Sri Lankan style enshrining ashes of the Buddha.Library

 

Rama I also built a library in Thai style, in the middle of the complex, known as the "Phra Mondop". The library houses an elegantly carved Ayutthaya-style mother-of-pearl doors, bookcases with the Tripitaka (sacred Buddhist manuscripts), human-and dragon-headed nagas (snakes), and images of Chakri kings.

 

During the 19th century, the Royal Pantheon was built in Khmer style to the east of the temple, which is kept open for only one day in year, in the month of October to commemorate the founding of the Chakri dynasty.

Model of Angkor WatThe temple complex also contains a model of Angkor Wat (the most sacred of all Cambodian shrines). In 1860, King Mongkut ordered his generals to lead 2,000 men to dismantle Angkor Wat and take it to Bangkok. Modern scholars suggested that the king wanted to show that Siam was still in control of Cambodia, as France was seeking to colonise Cambodia at that time. However, the king's order could not be fulfilled. A royal chronicle written by Lord Thiphakorawong (Kham Bunnag), then foreign minister, recorded that many Thai men fell ill after entering Cambodian wilderness. The chronicle also stated that forest-dwelling Khmer people ambushed the Thai army, killing many leading generals. King Mongkut then ordered the construction of the model within Wat Phra Kaew, instead of the real Angkor Wat that could not be brought to Bangkok. Mongkut died before he could see the model. Its construction was completed in the reign of his son, Chulalongkorn.Hermit statue

 

A hermit's bronze image, which is believed to have healing powers, is installed in a sala on the western side of the temple. It is near the entry gate. It is a black stone statue, considered a patron of medicine, before which relatives of the sick and infirm pay respects and make offerings of joss sticks, fruit, flowers, and candles.

 

EIGHT TOWERS

On the eastern side of the temple premises there are eight towers or prangs, each of a different colour. They were erected during the reign of Rama I and represent eight elements of Buddhism.

 

ELEPHANT STATUES

Statues of elephants, which symbolize independence and power, are seen all around the complex. As Thai kings fought wars mounted on elephants, it has become customary for parents to make their children circumambulate the elephant three times with the belief that that it would bring them strength. The head of an elephant statue is also rubbed for good luck; this act of the people is reflected in the smoothness of the surface of elephant statues here.

 

WIKIPEDIA

John LItel / City of Fort Collins

Feel free to use this image but give credits to 8th.in

 

A young saguaro cactus relocated at the Organ Pipe National Monument. Over 100 cacti, including 76 saguaros, have been relocated as of October 7, 2019 as part of the new border wall project and infrastructure improvements at the border near Lukeville, Arizona. U.S. Customs and Border photo by Jerry Glaser.

The bronze statue that once stood atop the Pitt County Confederate Soldiers Monument is secured for transport as the sun begins to rise on Monday, June 22. Crews worked throughout the night to disassemble the monument while hampered by equipment issues; the remainder of the monument was removed on Tuesday evening. Work was performed at night to prevent interfering with traffic, court proceedings, and businesses in the Uptown area.

 

On Monday, June 15, the Pitt County Board of Commissioners voted to relocate the memorial due to threat of vandalism and concern for public safety after property damage occurred during rioting in the Uptown area two weeks earlier. Following the vote to relocate the monument, County Commissioners created a committee to select a new location for the statue, which has not been determined at this time.

 

The monument was formally dedicated in November 1914; various groups have called for its removal from the courthouse grounds since at least the 1990’s.

 

“NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Greenville is committed to a community where all are welcome and should be treated equally with the same compassion in every interaction with a commitment to fairness, equality, kindness, justice, peace, and understanding.” — excerpt from Resolution For Equality, adopted by Greenville City Council on June 15, 2020.

Housing in Broken Hill is as interesting and varied as the public buildings and ranges from simple cottages to more substantial residences built in stone, brick, or iron. The need for lightweight, easily transported building materials resulted in an almost universal use of galvinised iron for roofing, and galvanised iron or rarely weatherboard for cladding of more modest houses. Entire buildings were also relocated - Silverton buildings were moved to Broken Hill after the decline of the mining there in 1885. Galvanised iron was also used for fencing. The earliest cottages were often built without verandahs, but the need for protection from the heat meant they were soon added. Roofs are generally at a 30 - 35° pitch with either straight, concave, or bull-nose verandahs at the front of the houses.

 

There is a variety of configurations in house plans and elevations. The typical modest cottage - a transformation of a simple tent - had one or two rooms with rear skillions added as required. The more substantial double fronted houses were two or three rooms deep and sometimes had projecting front rooms or bays. In some cases, iron cladding on front elevations was pressed to appear like stone in order to provide a greater air of solidarity to an otherwise lightweight construction. Interiors were lined with timber panelling, pressed metal ceilings, lath and plaster wall, and ceiling linings, sometimes Hessian, newspaper, and wallpaper. Usually only the front and backs of iron houses were painted, leaving the sides and roofs in unpainted galvanised iron finish.

 

As these iron houses were extended, the roof from the top ridge to the rear wall continued; often a single skillion slope resulted in a low ceiling at the back of the house. This long slope of the rear roof is a unique and sometimes startling element of the extension of houses in Broken Hill. Some modest homes had been clad over with "fake brick" or "plastic timber" to conceal their humble corrugated iron origins, but in more recent times, these later changes have been reversed and original details have been reinstated.

 

Much of Broken Hill's housing was constructed prior to World War I (WWI). The most common style was the corrugated iron "tinny" but there were also more substantial houses constructed in stone with brick dressings based on the South Australian residential vernacular style. Some of these were houses built as church rectories or for senior mining officials. The mines provided a range of company housing including the BHP flats at Proprietary Square which were added in 1938 to the offices built in 1919. The mining companies provided low interest loans for employee housing, established housing co-operatives, and constructed housing for senior staff. Community amenities and recreational facilities were also provided.

 

The Rainbow Avenue dwellings in South Broken Hill date from the 1920s and other company housing, often with extensive landscaping and communal facilities, was erected during the boom period at Broken Hill in the 1940s and 1950s. Examples include the residences at Junction Circle, North Mine, Zinc Mine, and NBHC Mine.

 

Housing built in the city between the two world wars adopted the styles used elsewhere in Australia such as the Californian Bungalow, Neo-Tudor, and Spanish Mission. However, each style was often expressed in galvanised iron with pressed metal facades that created a unique Broken Hill character.

 

In the 1940s and 1950s, removal of original timber verandah posts from early cottages and replacement with elaborate concrete columns was common. In the 1960s, wrought metal posts replaced the timber posts. Many of these modest houses have now been upgraded and lovingly restored by re-exposing original corrugated iron cladding and in some cases reinstating timber verandah detailing, thereby contributing to the revival of the housing areas of Broken Hill.

 

Source: Broken Hill: A Guide to the Silver City by Elizabeth Vines with Photography By Bruce Tindale.

A National Historic Landmark

Prowers County, CO

Listed: 05/18/1994

Designated an NHL: 02/10/06

 

The site of the Granada Relocation Center is nationally significant as one of ten camps which housed Japanese Americans from 1942 to 1945 following their forced removal by military authorities from the West Coast. The site is significant under Criterion A for its association with U.S. Military History (World War II on the Home Front), for its association with U.S. constitutional law (the protection of civil liberties during wartime), and for its association with Japanese American social history. The camp, with a period of significance of 1942-45, is eligible for listing on the National Register under Criteria Consideration G for its exceptional historical significance in the above areas.

 

More than ten thousand persons passed through the Granada Relocation Center, which operated from August 1942 to October 1945. At its peak, Amache contained 7,318 Japanese Americans, nearly all of whom were former California residents and two-thirds of whom were United States citizens. As one of only ten such camps in seven mostly western states, the center housed Japanese Americans removed from the West Coast under the authority of Presidential Executive Order 9066. Although not charged with any crimes and without benefit of judicial hearings, Japanese Americans as a group were uprooted from their homes and businesses and taken under armed guard for detention in a system of assembly and relocation centers. At the time the "evacuation" of Japanese Americans was justified on the basis of "military necessity" in the months following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and due to the professed inability of the military to gauge the loyalty of individual Japanese Americans. From the relocation centers, evacuees were released over time to pursue jobs or higher education in parts of the nation away from the West Coast. The exclusion from the Pacific Coast states was lifted in early 1945 and a portion of the Japanese American community returned. The relocation had a profound impact on the social life of Japanese Americans in terms of family structure, assimilation into American life, and the geographic distribution of the group as a whole. A number of United States Supreme Court cases dealt with the relocation, which has received extensive legal and academic study.

On October 25 two historic street cars switched places at the workshop owned by Stichting De Nieuwe Blauwe Tram.

Amsterdam trailer 754, that was restored the past few years, returned to Amsterdam. Its place was taken by Amsterdam open trailer 606, that will be restored the next few years. Both historic cars are owned by the Amsterdam Museum Tram (EMA in Dutch).

Work on the NZH A619/A620 is progressing rapidly.

Frankreich / Île-de-France - Schloss Versailles

 

The Palace of Versailles (/vɛərˈsaɪ, vɜːrˈsaɪ/ vair-SY, vur-SY; French: château de Versailles [ʃɑto d(ə) vɛʁsɑj]) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of the city centre of Paris, in the Yvelines department of Île-de-France region in France.

 

The palace is owned by the government of France and since 1995 has been managed, under the direction of the French Ministry of Culture, by the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles. About 15,000,000 people visit the palace, park, or gardens of Versailles every year, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world.

 

Louis XIII built a hunting lodge at Versailles in 1623. His successor, Louis XIV, expanded the château into a palace that went through several expansions in phases from 1661 to 1715. It was a favourite residence for both kings, and in 1682, Louis XIV moved the seat of his court and government to Versailles, making the palace the de facto capital of France. This state of affairs was continued by Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, who primarily made interior alterations to the palace, but in 1789 the royal family and French court returned to Paris. For the rest of the French Revolution, the Palace of Versailles was largely abandoned and emptied of its contents, and the population of the surrounding city plummeted.

 

Napoleon, following his coronation as Emperor, used the subsidiary palace, Grand Trianon, as a summer residence from 1810 to 1814, but did not use the main palace. Following the Bourbon Restoration, when the king was returned to the throne, he resided in Paris and it was not until the 1830s that meaningful repairs were made to the palace. A museum of French history was installed within it, replacing the courtiers' apartments of the southern wing.

 

The palace and park were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979 for its importance as the centre of power, art, and science in France during the 17th and 18th centuries. The French Ministry of Culture has placed the palace, its gardens, and some of its subsidiary structures on its list of culturally significant monuments.

 

History

 

In 1623, Louis XIII, king of France, built a hunting lodge on a hill in a favourite hunting ground, 19 kilometres (12 mi) west of Paris, and 16 kilometres (10 mi) from his primary residence, the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The site, near a village named Versailles, was a wooded wetland that Louis XIII's court scorned as being generally unworthy of a king; one of his courtiers, François de Bassompierre, wrote that the lodge "would not inspire vanity in even the simplest gentleman". From 1631 to 1634, architect Philibert Le Roy replaced the lodge with a château for Louis XIII, who forbade his queen, Anne of Austria, from staying there overnight, even when an outbreak of smallpox at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1641 forced Louis XIII to relocate to Versailles with his three-year-old heir, the future Louis XIV.

 

When Louis XIII died in 1643, Anne became Louis XIV's regent, and Louis XIII's château was abandoned for the next decade. She moved the court back to Paris, where Anne and her chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin, continued Louis XIII's unpopular monetary practices. This led to the Fronde, a series of revolts against royal authority from 1648 to 1653 that masked a struggle between Mazarin and the princes of the blood, Louis XIV's extended family, for influence over him. In the aftermath of the Fronde, Louis XIV became determined to rule alone. Following Mazarin's death in 1661, Louis XIV reformed his government to exclude his mother and the princes of the blood, moved the court back to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and ordered the expansion of his father's château at Versailles into a palace.

 

Louis XIV had hunted at Versailles in the 1650s, but did not take any special interest in Versailles until 1661. On 17 August 1661, Louis XIV was a guest at a sumptuous festival hosted by Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances, at his palatial residence, the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. Louis XIV was impressed by the château and its gardens, which were the work of Louis Le Vau, the court architect since 1654, André Le Nôtre, the royal gardener since 1657, and Charles Le Brun, a painter in royal service since 1647. Vaux-le-Vicomte's scale and opulence led him to imprison Fouquet that September, as he had also built an island fortress and a private army. But Louis XIV was also inspired by Vaux-le-Vicomte, and he recruited its authors for his own projects. Louis XIV replaced Fouquet with Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a protégé of Mazarin and enemy of Fouquet, and charged him with managing the corps of artisans in royal employment. Colbert acted as the intermediary between them and Louis XIV, who personally directed and inspected the planning and construction of Versailles.

 

Construction

 

Work at Versailles was at first concentrated on gardens, and through the 1660s, Le Vau only added two detached service wings and a forecourt to the château. But in 1668–69, as a response to the growth of the gardens, and the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), Louis XIV decided to turn Versailles into a full-scale royal residence. He vacillated between replacing or incorporating his father's château, but settled on the latter by the end of the decade, and from 1668 to 1671, Louis XIII's château was encased on three sides in a feature dubbed the enveloppe. This gave the château a new, Italianate façade overlooking the gardens, but preserved the courtyard façade, resulting in a mix of styles and materials that dismayed Louis XIV and that Colbert described as a "patchwork". Attempts to homogenize the two façades failed, and in 1670 Le Vau died, leaving the post of First Architect to the King vacant for the next seven years.

 

Le Vau was succeeded at Versailles by his assistant, architect François d'Orbay. Work at the palace during the 1670s focused on its interiors, as the palace was then nearing completion, though d'Orbay expanded Le Vau's service wings and connected them to the château, and built a pair of pavilions for government employees in the forecourt. In 1670, d'Orbay was tasked by Louis XIV with designing a city, also called Versailles, to house and service Louis XIV's growing government and court. The granting of land to courtiers for the construction of townhouses that resembled the palace began in 1671. The next year, the Franco-Dutch War began and funding for Versailles was cut until 1674, when Louis XIV had work begun on the Ambassadors' Staircase, a grand staircase for the reception of guests, and demolished the last of the village of Versailles.

 

Following the end of the Franco-Dutch War with French victory in 1678, Louis XIV appointed as First Architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, an experienced architect in Louis XIV's confidence, who would benefit from a restored budget and large workforce of former soldiers. Mansart began his tenure with the addition from 1678 to 1681 of the Hall of Mirrors, a renovation of the courtyard façade of Louis XIII's château, and the expansion of d'Orbay's pavilions to create the Ministers' Wings in 1678–79. Adjacent to the palace, Hardouin-Mansart built a pair of stables called the Grande and Petite Écuries from 1679 to 1682 and the Grand Commun, which housed the palace's servants and general kitchens, from 1682 to 1684. Hardouin-Mansart also added two entirely new wings in Le Vau's Italianate style to house the court,[75] first at the south end of the palace from 1679 to 1681 and then at its north end from 1685 to 1689.

 

War and the resulting diminished funding slowed construction at Versailles for the rest of the 17th century. The Nine Years' War, which began in 1688, stopped work altogether until 1698. Three years later, however, the even more expensive War of the Spanish Succession began and, combined with poor harvests in 1693–94 and 1709–10, plunged France into crisis. Louis XIV thus slashed funding and cancelled some of the work Hardouin-Mansart had planned in the 1680s, such as the remodelling of the courtyard façade in the Italianate style. Louis XIV and Hardouin-Mansart focused on a permanent palace chapel, the construction of which lasted from 1699 to 1710.

 

Louis XIV's successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI, largely left Versailles as they inherited it and focused on the palace's interiors. Louis XV's modifications began in the 1730s, with the completion of the Salon d'Hercule, a ballroom in the north wing, and the expansion of the king's private apartment, which required the demolition of the Ambassadors' Staircase. In 1748, Louis XV began construction of a palace theatre, the Royal Opera of Versailles at the northernmost end of the palace, but completion was delayed until 1770; construction was interrupted in the 1740s by the War of the Austrian Succession and then again in 1756 with the start of the Seven Years' War. These wars emptied the royal treasury and thereafter construction was mostly funded by Madame du Barry, Louis XV's favourite mistress. In 1771, Louis XV had the northern Ministers' Wing rebuilt in Neoclassical style by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, his court architect, as it was in the process of falling down. That work was also stopped by financial constraints, and it remained incomplete when Louis XV died in 1774. In 1784, Louis XVI briefly moved the royal family to the Château de Saint-Cloud ahead of more renovations to the Palace of Versailles, but construction could not begin because of financial difficulty and political crisis. In 1789, the French Revolution swept the royal family and government out of Versailles forever.

 

Role in politics and culture

 

The Palace of Versailles was key to Louis XIV's politics, as an expression and concentration of French art and culture, and for the centralization of royal power. Louis XIV first used Versailles to promote himself with a series of nighttime festivals in its gardens in 1664, 1668, and 1674, the events of which were disseminated throughout Europe by print and engravings. As early as 1669, but especially from 1678, Louis XIV sought to make Versailles his seat of government, and he expanded the palace so as to fit the court within it. The moving of the court to Versailles did not come until 1682, however, and not officially, as opinion on Versailles was mixed among the nobility of France.

 

By 1687, however, it was evident to all that Versailles was the de facto capital of France, and Louis XIV succeeded in attracting the nobility to Versailles to pursue prestige and royal patronage within a strict court etiquette, thus eroding their traditional provincial power bases. It was at the Palace of Versailles that Louis XIV received the Doge of Genoa, Francesco Maria Imperiale Lercari in 1685, an embassy from the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1686, and an embassy from Safavid Iran in 1715.

 

Louis XIV died at Versailles on 1 September 1715 and was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV,[78][106] then the duke of Anjou, who was moved to the Château de Vincennes and then to Paris by Louis XV's regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. Versailles was neglected until 1722, when Philippe II removed the court to Versailles to escape the unpopularity of his regency, and when Louis XV began his majority. The 1715 move, however, broke the cultural power of Versailles, and during the reign of Louis XVI, courtiers spent their leisure in Paris, not Versailles.

 

During Christmas 1763, Mozart and his family visited Versailles and dined with the King. The 7-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played several works during his stay and later dedicated his first two harpsichord sonatas, published in 1764 in Paris, to Madame Victoria, daughter of Louis XV.

 

In 1783, the palace was the site of the signing of the last two of the three treaties of the Peace of Paris (1783), which ended the American Revolutionary War. On 3 September, British and American delegates, led by Benjamin Franklin, signed the Treaty of Paris at the Hôtel d'York (now 56 Rue Jacob) in Paris, granting the United States independence. On 4 September, Spain and France signed separate treaties with Britain at the Palace of Versailles, formally ending the war.

 

The King and Queen learned of the Storming of the Bastille in Paris on 14 July 1789, while they were at the palace, and remained isolated there as the Revolution in Paris spread. The growing anger in Paris led to the Women's March on Versailles on 5 October 1789. A crowd of several thousand men and women, protesting the high price and scarcity of bread, marched from the markets of Paris to Versailles. They took weapons from the city armoury, besieged the palace, and compelled the King and royal family and the members of the National Constituent Assembly to return with them to Paris the following day.

 

As soon as the royal family departed, the palace was closed. In 1792, the National Convention, the new revolutionary government, ordered the transfer of all the paintings and sculptures from the palace to the Louvre. In 1793, the Convention declared the abolition of the monarchy and ordered all of the royal property in the palace to be sold at auction. The auction took place between 25 August 1793 and 11 August 1794. The furnishings and art of the palace, including the furniture, mirrors, baths, and kitchen equipment, were sold in seventeen thousand lots. All fleurs-de-lys and royal emblems on the buildings were chambered or chiselled off. The empty buildings were turned into a storehouse for furnishings, art and libraries confiscated from the nobility. The empty grand apartments were opened for tours beginning in 1793, and a small museum of French paintings and art school was opened in some of the empty rooms.

 

By virtue of an order issued by the Versailles district directorate in August 1794, the Royal Gate was destroyed, the Cour Royale was cleared and the Cour de Marbre lost its precious floor.

 

19th century – history museum and government venue

 

When Napoleon became Emperor of the French in 1804, he considered making Versailles his residence but abandoned the idea because of the cost of the renovation. Prior to his marriage with Marie-Louise in 1810, he had the Grand Trianon restored and refurnished as a springtime residence for himself and his family, in the style of furnishing that it is seen today.

 

In 1815, with the final downfall of Napoleon, Louis XVIII, the younger brother of Louis XVI, became king, and considered returning the royal residence to Versailles, where he had been born. He ordered the restoration of the royal apartments, but the task and cost was too great. Louis XVIII had the far end of the south wing of the Cour Royale demolished and rebuilt (1814–1824) to match the Gabriel wing of 1780 opposite, which gave greater uniformity of appearance to the front entrance. Neither he nor his successor Charles X lived at Versailles.

 

The French Revolution of 1830 brought a new monarch, Louis-Philippe to power, and a new ambition for Versailles. He did not reside at Versailles but began the creation of the Museum of the History of France, dedicated to "all the glories of France", which had been used to house some members of the royal family. The museum was begun in 1833 and inaugurated on 30 June 1837. Its most famous room is the Galerie des Batailles (Hall of Battles), which lies on most of the length of the second floor of the south wing. The museum project largely came to a halt when Louis Philippe was overthrown in 1848, though the paintings of French heroes and great battles still remain in the south wing.

 

Emperor Napoleon III used the palace on occasion as a stage for grand ceremonies. One of the most lavish was the banquet that he hosted for Queen Victoria in the Royal Opera of Versailles on 25 August 1855.

 

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the palace was occupied by the general staff of the victorious German Army. Parts of the château, including the Hall of Mirrors, were turned into a military hospital. The creation of the German Empire, combining Prussia and the surrounding German states under William I, was formally proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors on 18 January 1871. The Germans remained in the palace until the signing of the armistice in March 1871. In that month, the government of the new Third French Republic, which had departed Paris during the war for Tours and then Bordeaux, moved into the palace. The National Assembly held its meetings in the Opera House.

 

The uprising of the Paris Commune in March 1871, prevented the French government, under Adolphe Thiers, from returning immediately to Paris. The military operation which suppressed the Commune at the end of May was directed from Versailles, and the prisoners of the Commune were marched there and put on trial in military courts. In 1875 a second parliamentary body, the French Senate, was created and held its meetings for the election of a President of the Republic in a new hall created in 1876 in the south wing of the palace. The French Senate and National Assembly continue to meet in the palace in joint session on special occasions, such as the amendment of the Constitution of France.

 

20th century

 

The end of the 19th and the early 20th century saw the beginning of restoration efforts at the palace, first led by Pierre de Nolhac, poet and scholar and the first conservator, who began his work in 1892. The conservation and restoration were interrupted by two world wars but have continued until the present day.

 

The palace returned to the world stage in June 1919, when, after six months of negotiations, the Treaty of Versailles, formally ending the First World War, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors. Between 1925 and 1928, the American philanthropist and multi-millionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave $2,166,000, the equivalent of about 38 million dollars in 2024, to restore and refurbish the palace.

 

More work took place after World War II, with the restoration of the Royal Opera of Versailles. The theatre was reopened in 1957, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

 

In 1978, parts of the palace were heavily damaged in a bombing committed by Breton terrorists.

 

Starting in the 1950s, when the museum of Versailles was under the directorship of Gérald van der Kemp, the objective was to restore the palace to its state – or as close to it as possible – in 1789 when the royal family left the palace. Among the early projects was the repair of the roof over the Hall of Mirrors; the publicity campaign brought international attention to the plight of post-war Versailles and garnered much foreign money including a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

 

One of the more costly endeavours for the museum and the French Fifth Republic has been to repurchase as much of the original furnishings as possible. Consequently, because furniture with a royal provenance – and especially furniture that was made for Versailles – is a highly sought-after commodity on the international market, the museum has spent considerable funds on retrieving much of the palace's original furnishings.

 

21st century

 

In 2003, a new restoration initiative – the "Grand Versailles" project – was started, which began with the replanting of the gardens, which had lost over 10,000 trees during Cyclone Lothar on 26 December 1999. One part of the initiative, the restoration of the Hall of Mirrors, was completed in 2006. Another major project was the further restoration of the backstage areas of the Royal Opera of Versailles in 2007 to 2009.

 

The Palace of Versailles is currently owned by the French state. Its formal title is the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles. Since 1995, it has been run as a Public Establishment, with an independent administration and management supervised by the French Ministry of Culture.

 

The grounds of the palace hosted the equestrian competition during the 2024 Summer Olympics.

 

Modern political and ceremonial functions

 

The palace still serves political functions. Heads of state are regaled in the Hall of Mirrors; the bicameral French Parliament—consisting of the Senate (Sénat) and the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale)—meet in joint session (a congress of the French Parliament) in Versailles to revise or otherwise amend the French Constitution, a tradition that came into effect with the promulgation of the 1875 Constitution. For example, the Parliament met in joint session at Versailles to pass constitutional amendments in June 1999 (for domestic applicability of International Criminal Court decisions and for gender equality in candidate lists), in January 2000 (ratifying the Treaty of Amsterdam), in March 2003 (specifying the "decentralized organization" of the French Republic), and in March 2024 (to enshrine the freedom of women to have recourse to abortion).

 

In 2009, President Nicolas Sarkozy addressed the Great Recession before a congress in Versailles, the first time that this had been done since 1848, when Louis Napoleon Bonaparte gave an address before the French Second Republic. Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, President François Hollande gave a speech before a rare joint session of parliament at the Palace of Versailles. This was the third time since 1848 that a French president addressed a joint session of the French Parliament at Versailles. The president of the National Assembly has an official apartment at the Palace of Versailles. In 2023 a state visit by Charles III to France included a state banquet at the Palace.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Das Schloss Versailles (französisch château de Versailles) in der gleichnamigen Nachbarstadt von Paris ist eine der größten Palastanlagen Europas und war von der Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts bis zum Ausbruch der Französischen Revolution die Hauptresidenz der Könige von Frankreich. Der Barockbau, dessen größte Ausdehnung mehr als einen halben Kilometer beträgt, gilt als ein Höhepunkt europäischer Palastarchitektur und diente vom 17. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert als Vorbild für zahlreiche weitere Schlossbauten.

 

Ursprünglich von Philibert Le Roy als Jagdschloss für König Ludwig XIII. errichtet, wurde die Anlage ab 1661 unter Ludwig XIV. durch Louis Le Vau, François II d’Orbay, Jules Hardouin-Mansart und Robert de Cotte in mehreren Phasen um- und ausgebaut. Die Innenausstattung schuf Charles Lebrun, die berühmten Gartenanlagen, die aus einem Jagdpark hervorgingen, stammen von André Le Nôtre. Erst 1682 war der Riesenbau so weit vorangeschritten, dass der „Sonnenkönig“ mit seinem Hofstaat von Schloss Saint-Germain-en-Laye nach Versailles umziehen konnte. In seiner Zeit als Residenz war der Palast fast durchgehend von einem mehrere tausend Personen umfassenden Hofstaat bewohnt und bildete das kulturelle und große politische Zentrum Frankreichs.

 

Seit dem 19. Jahrhundert wird das Schloss als Museum genutzt. Es steht heute für Besucher offen, ebenso wie die weitläufigen Gartenanlagen und wie die drei weiteren im Park befindlichen Lustschlösser Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon und Hameau de la Reine. Während der Mittelbau mit den Staatssälen des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts in der ursprünglichen Form zu sehen ist, beherbergen die großen Seitenflügel das im 19. Jahrhundert eingerichtete Museum der Geschichte Frankreichs. 1979 wurde Schloss Versailles in die Liste des UNESCO-Weltkulturerbes aufgenommen.

 

Das Schlossgebäude

 

Das Bauwerk

 

Der Ursprung: Ein kleines Jagdschloss

 

Der Ort Versailles vor den Toren der Hauptstadt Paris wurde 1038 erstmals urkundlich erwähnt. Der Wortstamm – versare, d. h. umgraben, umwenden – lässt seine ursprüngliche Bedeutung noch erkennen und verweist auf das kleine Bauerndorf und seine Äcker, die einst hier lagen.[3] Im Dorf Versailles befanden sich im 17. Jahrhundert ein verfallenes kleines Schloss und eine Mühle. Die Ländereien und das Anwesen gehörten zum größten Teil der ansässigen Familie Gondi, ein kleinerer Teil befand sich in königlichem Besitz. Ludwig XIII., der das wildreiche Gebiet der Galie häufig bei Jagdausflügen aufsuchte, nächtigte gelegentlich in dem mittelalterlichen Versailler Schloss und sogar in der Mühle.

 

1623 ließ sich der König anstelle der Mühle ein kleines Jagdhaus errichten, in dem er 1624 das erste Mal übernachtete. Dieser gelegentlich als Kartenschloss verspottete Ansitz war so klein, dass er nicht einmal Räumlichkeiten für die Königin enthielt. François de Bassompierre bezeichnete das Jagdhaus als „ein armseliges Schloss, bei dem nicht mal ein einfacher Edelmann Neid empfindet“. Nachdem der König Ländereien der Gondi in Versailles hinzu erworben hatte, ließ er das Gebäude von 1631 bis 1634 durch Philibert Le Roy zu einem dreiflügeligen Jagdschloss erweitern. Das verfallene alte Schloss wurde später abgetragen. Das von einem Graben umgebene, aus Backstein erbaute und mit Sandsteinelementen gegliederte neue Versailler Schloss wurde im Stil des frühen französischen Barock errichtet. Dieses Jagdschloss bildet bis heute den Kern der Anlage, es umschließt den Marmorhof, den letzten und kleinsten der drei Ehrenhöfe, die der Stadtseite des Palastes vorgelagert sind. Nach dem Tode Ludwig XIII. ging das Gebäude als Teil des Erbes an seinen Sohn und Nachfolger Ludwig XIV. über. Der junge König residierte nach seiner Regierungsübernahme 1661 regelmäßig in Versailles, das ihm zunächst vor allem als Lustschloss und Sommersitz diente und in dem er große Hoffeste ausrichten ließ.

 

Den entscheidenden Impuls zum Ausbau des Palastes lieferte wohl der Finanzminister Nicolas Fouquet. Dieser ließ sich mit Vaux-le-Vicomte ein aufsehenerregendes Schloss erbauen, das nicht nur die Kunst des höfischen Barock in Frankreich nachhaltig prägen sollte, sondern auch den Zorn des Königs erregte. Ludwig XIV. vermutete, dass Fouquet die Pracht zu einem Großteil mit dem Griff in die Staatskasse finanzierte. Er warf seinem Minister Untreue vor und ließ ihn verhaften. Das in Vaux geschaffene Gesamtkunstwerk aus Bauarchitektur und Gartenkunst bestätigte den König in seinem Vorhaben, sich eine zeitgemäße Residenz errichten zu lassen. Er zog Fouquets Architekten und Künstler zu Rate und beauftragte sie schließlich mit dem Ausbau des kleinen Schlosses seines Vaters.

 

Ausbau zum Residenzschloss

 

Entgegen dem Ratschlag des Finanzministers Colbert, der aus Kosten- und Prestigegründen einen Neubau empfahl, weigerte sich Ludwig XIV. für die Versailler Residenz das alte Jagdschloss aufzugeben und so wurde das den späteren Marmorhof umschließende Gebäude im Laufe der Zeit umgebaut und in mehreren Abschnitten in den Neubau integriert. Der König schrieb in seinen Memoiren sogar, selbst wenn das alte Schloss hätte abgerissen werden müssen, so hätte er es ganz genauso wieder errichten lassen, wie es war. Nach anfänglichen kleineren Umbauten ab 1661 bildete der Aachener Frieden von 1668 den Auftakt zu einer ersten Erweiterung des Schlosses. Der U-förmige Mittelbau Ludwigs XIII., Kern des heutigen Corps de Logis, erhielt von 1668 bis 1671 durch Le Vau die enveloppé. Dabei handelte es sich um eine bauliche, sogenannte Ummantelung des alten Schlosses durch zwei neue, äußere Trakte. Die südlichen Flügel der Ummantelung nahmen die Paradezimmer der Königin auf, die nördlichen jene des Königs. Dieser Bau besaß anstelle der späteren Spiegelgalerie noch eine große Terrasse über den gartenseitigen Arkaden des Erdgeschosses.

 

1677 verkündete der König, Versailles zum künftigen Regierungssitz zu bestimmen. Der damit verbundene Ausbau des Palastes begann im Zuge des Friedens von Nimwegen, der Umzug des Hofstaats erfolgte ab dem 5. Mai 1682. Von 1678 bis 1684 wurde die Terrasse des Corps de Logis samt den ihr benachbarten Salons durch Jules Hardouin-Mansart über- und umgebaut und die Spiegelgalerie, sowie die Salons des Krieges und des Friedens installiert. Die ursprünglich waagerechten Fensterabschlüsse des ersten Stockwerkes wurden durch Rundbogenfenster ersetzt, die mit den Spiegeln der großen Galerie korrespondierten. Mit diesen Baumaßnahmen erhielt die Gartenfassade des Hauptgebäudes ihre heutige Gestalt.

 

Um Platz für den Hofstaat zu schaffen, wurden gleichzeitig mit den Erweiterungen am Corps de Logis 1678 die Arbeiten am Südflügel und ab 1685 die am Nordflügel begonnen. Mansart plädierte zudem dafür, das Schloss um ein weiteres Stockwerk zu erhöhen, um so mehr Wohnraum zu erhalten, was der König jedoch aus unbekannten Gründen ablehnte. Beide Flügelbauten bestehen aus jeweils zwei parallel zueinander errichteten langen Gebäuderiegeln, je einer auf der Garten- und einer auf der Stadtseite. Diese sind durch Querbauten mehrfach miteinander verbunden und beinhalten so eine Anzahl kleinerer Lichthöfe. Der Südflügel war 1684 weitgehend fertig gestellt, der später begonnene Nordflügel fünf Jahre darauf. Die Arbeiten an dessen stadtseitig gelegenem Trakt wurden wegen der Kosten des Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieges jedoch eingestellt und der Bau erst im 19. Jahrhundert vollendet. Für den Bau des Nordflügels musste die Thetis-Grotte, ein mit Statuen geschmücktes Brunnenhaus von 1664, abgerissen werden. Die darin ausgestellten Skulpturen befinden sich heute zum Teil im sogenannten Boskett des Apollo-Bades im Park des Schlosses. Auf dem Standort der Thetis-Grotte erhebt sich der Bau der 1710 durch Robert de Cotte fertiggestellten Schlosskapelle, deren Zugang durch den Nordflügel erfolgt.

 

Die Flügel des Versailler Schlosses und seiner Nebengebäude gruppieren sich um drei in einer Achse gelegene Hofplätze, die zusammen eine weitgehend zusammenhängende Fläche bilden und vom Zentrum des Schlosses in Richtung der Stadt führen. Den Ausgangspunkt bildet der kleine Marmorhof (Cour de Marbre) des umbauten Jagdschlosses, auf diesen folgt der von den Verlängerungstrakten des Corps de Logis umgebene Königshof (Cour Royale) und schließlich der große Platz des Ministerhofs (Cour des Ministres) mit den freistehenden Ministerflügeln. Da Versailles nicht nur königliche Residenz, sondern auch Regierungssitz war, wurde mit diesen Gebäuden Platz für die Hofbeamten geschaffen. Den Höfen stadtseitig gegenüber stehen der kleine und der große Marstall, umfangreiche Gebäude für die Pferde und den Fuhrpark der königlichen Familie. Östlich, vom Südflügel des Schlosses und dem südlichen Ministertrakt begrenzt, befindet sich außerdem das vierflügelige Grand Commun, ein solitär stehender Wirtschaftsbau von 1682, der die Schlossküchen und Bedienstetenwohnungen für über 1.000 Hofangestellte enthielt.

 

Nach dem Umzug des Hofes 1682 arbeiteten zeitweise über 22.000 Menschen an und in Versailles, nach den Angaben eines Zeitgenossen erreichte die Zahl der Arbeiter im Jahr 1685 sogar 36.000. Zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts war Versailles in seinen heutigen Dimensionen weitgehend fertiggestellt; die Gartenfassade ist 570 Meter breit.

 

Stilistische Einordnung

 

Das Äußere des Schlosses ist in zwei verschiedenen Stilformen gehalten, die zudem durch die unterschiedliche Addition der einzelnen Baukörper einen konträren Eindruck vermitteln. Die Stadtfassaden bestehen aus zahlreichen Einzelgebäuden, so dass sich dem Betrachter erst beim näheren Hinsehen erschließt, dass sie alle gemeinsam ein großes, zusammenhängendes Gebäude bilden. Die Fassaden des Schlosses folgen hier dem älteren Stil des ursprünglichen Jagdschlosses rund um den Marmorhof und entsprechen noch dem frühen französischen Barock. Sie sind aus rotem Ziegelstein errichtet, der mit Sandsteinelementen gegliedert ist, die Baukörper tragen sichtbare Mansarddächer.

 

Die Gartenfassaden des Schlosses sind im Stil des für Frankreich typischen klassizistischen Barocks gestaltet und gehen damit auf die Vorgabe von Le Vaus Ummantelung zurück. Horizontale Linien dominieren das Bauwerk und nur risalitartig hervorspringende Portale lockern die strengen Sandsteinfassaden auf. Die abschließende Balustrade des Obergeschosses ist mit steinernen Vasen und Trophäendarstellungen dekoriert und verbirgt hinter sich flache Dächer. Die Gartenfassade fasst die Gebäudeteile zu einem großen Block zusammen, dessen Breitenwirkung durch die horizontale Gliederung noch gesteigert wird.

 

Die verschiedenen Baustile des Schlosses, die majestätisch-monotone Garten- und die kleinteiligeren Stadtfassaden riefen nicht nur Bewunderung, sondern auch Kritik hervor. Versailles steht im völligen Kontrast zu den anderen Barockschlössern Frankreichs, die zumeist nicht nur kleiner, sondern wie Vaux-le-Vicomte oder Maisons-Laffitte auch im Pavillonsystem errichtet wurden. In der Kunstgeschichte werden insbesondere die Gartenfassaden zwar häufig als überwältigend in ihrer Wirkung, aber auch als eintönig beschrieben, Colbert nannte das Schloss einen „Mann mit großen Armen und einem dicken Kopf.“ Der Herzog Saint-Simon bezeichnete den Kontrast der Baustile als „schönes und häßliches, das zusammengenäht wurde“ und über das hinter der Attika verborgene Flachdach schrieb er „man glaubt einen abgebrannten Palast zu sehen, dem das obere Stockwerk und das Dach fehlen.“ Die Kapelle wurde als Riesenkatafalk verspottet und Voltaire bezeichnete sie als einen „erstaunlichen Firlefanz“.

 

Zur Zeit Ludwigs XV. wurde eine als grand dessin bezeichnete Neugestaltung der Stadtseite im Stil des Klassizismus erwogen. Die alten Fassaden dort sollten, den Gartenfassaden ähnlich, mit Haustein überbaut werden. Auch war über dem Hauptgebäude eine Kuppel geplant. Die Leitung dieses Projekts übernahm Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Letztlich erfolgte aus finanziellen Gründen jedoch ab 1771 nur der Umbau eines zu dieser Zeit baufälligen, stadtwärts gerichteten Trakts, der seit jener Zeit Gabrielflügel genannt wird. Der Pavillon des gegenüberliegenden Gebäudes, des Dufourflügels, wurde erst um 1820 angepasst und die Symmetrie der Hoffassade knapp ein halbes Jahrhundert nach Beginn der Umbauarbeiten halbwegs wiederhergestellt. Die parallel gegenüberstehenden Gebäudeteile tragen noch heute verschiedene Fassadenstile. 1780 durch Étienne-Louis Boullée vorgelegte Pläne zu einer vollständigen Neugestaltung des Schlosses im Sinne der Revolutionsarchitektur wurden nicht realisiert.

 

Symbolik und Kosten

 

Symbolik des Schlosses

 

Neben der offensichtlichen Zurschaustellung von Luxus und Reichtum diente das Schloss auch einer subtileren Darstellung des Ruhms und der Macht des Königtums. Die unter Ludwig XIV. angelegten Staatsräume und Säle verherrlichen den Sonnenkönig. Die Dekoration des Stucks und die Themen der Gemälde sind auf seine wirtschaftlichen und politischen Erfolge abgestimmt und künden von seinen Feldzügen und Siegen.[ Eine große Rolle nahmen außerdem die römische und die griechische Mythologie ein, mit deren Motiven die oberen Gesellschaftsschichten des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts wohlvertraut waren. Die Mythologie wurde als Gleichnis eingesetzt und Ludwig XIV. wiederholt als Gott Apollon dargestellt, was der Hofgesellschaft zahlreiche Interpretationen ermöglichte. Die Darstellung als antiker Gott der Sonne und des Lichts verlieh Ludwig XIV. zudem die Aura eines mystischen, höchsten Wesens, ohne zugleich mit der Kirche in Widerspruch zu geraten – denn den Rang des Königs mit dem christlichen Gott gleichzusetzen, war auch im absolutistischen, aber immer noch katholisch geprägten Frankreich unmöglich und wäre einem Sakrileg gleichgekommen. Der Vergleich mit Apollon dagegen bekräftigte seinen Ruf als Sonnenkönig.

 

Kosten und Finanzierung

 

Obwohl der französische Haushaltsplan immense Ausgaben für das Schloss vorsah, war das Geld in Versailles immer knapp und die Bauphasen konnten nur in den Friedenszeiten zwischen den Reunionskriegen vorangetrieben werden. Nachdem Ludwig XIV. den Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg begonnen hatte, musste er 1689 sogar das berühmte Silbermobiliar der Spiegelgalerie verkaufen und einschmelzen, um die Kriegsausgaben zu bestreiten. Viele geplante Bauvorhaben, wie der oben beschriebene Umbau der Stadtfassaden, konnten aus Kostengründen nicht in Angriff genommen werden. Fast alle Aufträge wurden ausgeschrieben, Voranschläge unbedingt eingehalten und die Armee in Friedenszeiten zu Bauarbeiten herangezogen. Der Sonnenkönig selbst sagte: „… am liebsten wird mir immer alles sein, was möglichst schön ist und wenig kostet“. Was den meisten Betrachtern als unglaublicher Luxus erschien, war in Wirklichkeit so kostengünstig wie nur möglich gebaut, was zur Folge hatte, dass die Kamine oft nicht zogen, die Fenster nicht richtig schlossen und das Leben dort im Winter sehr unkomfortabel war.

 

Bereits zwischen 1661 und 1663 waren mehr als 1.500.000 Livres für das Schloss ausgegeben worden. Der erste Bau Ludwigs XIII. hatte insgesamt gerade einmal 300.000 Livres verbraucht, wovon 213.000 auf das Schloss verwendet und weitere 82.000 für die Gärten benötigt wurden. Im Zeitraum von 1664 bis 1688 wurde jährlich durchschnittlich eine Million Livres in Versailles verbaut. Der französische Staatshaushalt verfügte in den 1680er Jahren über ein Budget von etwa 110 Millionen Livres, wovon Ludwig nach dem Frieden von Nimwegen 15 Millionen für seine Bautätigkeiten genehmigt bekam. Bis zum Tode des Sonnenkönigs sollen 300 Millionen Livres in die Versailler Schlösser, den Park, die Ausstattung und den Unterhalt geflossen sein. Fünfzig bis sechzig Millionen allein für das Mobiliar und zwei Millionen für den Bau des Eure-Kanals. Bescheiden nimmt sich dagegen die Leibpension für die bei Unfällen verstorbenen Arbeiter aus, deren Familien im Schnitt 40 bis 100 Livres als Hinterbliebenenrente erhielten.

 

Geschichtlicher Überblick

 

17. und 18. Jahrhundert: Das Ancien Régime

 

Die Residenz des Sonnenkönigs und seiner Nachfolger

 

Frankreich war im 17. Jahrhundert der mächtigste Staat Europas und unter dem Wirken des Sonnenkönigs zum kulturellen, wirtschaftlichen und politischen Zentrum des Kontinents geworden. Das Schloss des Königs war ein Ausdruck der Leistungsfähigkeit Frankreichs und ein Symbol seiner Größe und Stärke. Die geordnete Natur der Parkanlagen war ein Spiegelbild der Ordnung, die Ludwig XIV. dem Land brachte.

 

Nachdem er als Kind die Gefahr der Fronde in Paris am eigenen Leib erleben musste, konnte sich der König nie für die französische Hauptstadt begeistern, er liebte dagegen das kleine Jagdschloss seines Vaters. Dort konnte er einen angemessen repräsentativen und weitläufigen neuen Palast erbauen, der zudem so im engen Paris undenkbar gewesen wäre. Der Entschluss, den Hof 1682 aus dem Palais du Louvre und dem Tuilerienpalast sowie dem bis 1682 zumeist bewohnten Schloss Saint-Germain-en-Laye hierher zu verlegen, sollte Frankreichs Geschichte für viele Jahre prägen. Hier vollendete Ludwig XIV. den Regierungsstil, den man später als Absolutismus bezeichnete. Der König wollte weitere Aufstände wie die Fronde verhindern, er schnitt die Aristokratie von ihrer alten Aufgabe der Provinzverwaltung ab und setzte Beamte dafür ein, die Mitglieder des Adels wurden dagegen an den Hof geholt. Eine mögliche Opposition aus der Ferne gegen ihn, wie sie zum Beispiel seinem Vater widerfuhr, wurde somit erschwert. Die Angehörigen des Adels wurden politisch entmachtet und im Gegenzug mit kostbaren Geschenken und prunkvollen Festen entschädigt. Der einst mächtige hohe Adel Frankreichs verließ bereitwillig seine Schlösser in den Provinzen, nur wenige konnten es sich leisten, dauerhaft eigene Hofgesellschaften zu unterhalten. Um auf der Höhe der Zeit zu sein und den neuesten Moden des Hofes folgen zu können, verschuldeten sich die Aristokraten oder erhielten willkürliche Renten vom König.

 

Eine Wohnung in Versailles zugewiesen zu bekommen, war ein bedeutendes Privileg, das zudem die Illusion vermittelte, im Zentrum der Macht an der Regierung beteiligt zu sein. Wer zu den Logeants, den im Schloss Wohnenden gehörte, stand im Rang über den Galopins, den Kutschierenden, die Abends zurück in ihre Stadtwohnungen nach Paris mussten. Innerhalb des Hoflebens übernahm das Hofzeremoniell eine bedeutende Rolle; im Prinzip unbedeutende Hofämter standen symbolisch für politischen Einfluss. Lediglich bei Hofe konnten Posten, Titel und Ämter errungen werden, und wer sich vom Sonnenkönig distanzierte, lief Gefahr, Vorrechte und Rang zu verlieren. Aus diesem Grund hielt sich die Aristokratie so gut wie ständig um ihren König auf und versuchte, ihm gefällig zu sein. Das sorgte dafür, dass zeitweise mehrere Tausend Menschen zugleich das Schloss bewohnten.

 

Für die französische Gesellschaft bedeutete der Wandel des Zweiten Standes vom Land- zum Hofadel auf Dauer eine schwere Belastung. Von ihren alten Pflichten und Aufgaben weitgehend entbunden, fristete der französische Adel bald ein dekadentes Dasein. Während der Dritte Stand die Steuerlast und die Arbeit zu tragen hatte, konnte – beziehungsweise musste – sich der Adel dem Müßiggang hingeben. Dieser Umstand sollte über hundert Jahre später einer der Auslöser der Französischen Revolution werden.

 

Leben im Schloss

 

Ludwig XIV. führte einen streng geregelten Tagesablauf, beginnend mit dem Lever (ca. 8 Uhr), einem feierlichen Staatsakt, dem Dutzende Familienangehörige und Mitglieder des Hofstaats beiwohnen mussten, ferner auswärtige Besucher und Gesandte sowie besonders auszuzeichnende Persönlichkeiten, die der König selbst täglich aussuchte. Es folgte die Arbeit im Kabinett (ca. 2 Stunden). Der ganze Tag war vom Hofzeremoniell durchgetaktet, dazu gehörten Jagden und Ausfahrten sowie Besuche und Theateraufführungen. Zu diesen Anlässen war er zu jeder Zeit von Würdenträgern umgeben. Zur späten Stunde wurde ein Hofball abgehalten. Gunstbeweise verteilte er durch Gewährung kleiner zeremonieller Aufgaben oder Vorrechte, er gestattete oder entzog Einzelnen die Teilnahme an bestimmten Zeremonien oder Festlichkeiten und wusste auf diese Weise den gesamten französischen Adel meisterhaft zu beherrschen und in Schach zu halten.

 

Nach dem Tode Ludwigs XIV. 1715 und der Regentschaft Philipp II. im Namen von Ludwig XV., der zu dieser Zeit noch ein Kind war, verließ der Hof den riesigen Palast und begab sich bis 1723 nach Paris, wo die Adligen sich aber vom Hof des Regenten im Palais Royal (oder auf seinem Schloss Saint-Cloud) teilweise fernhielten und stattdessen ihre eigenen Salons in ihren Hôtels particuliers im Marais oder im Faubourg Saint-Germain führten. Unter den Nachfolgern des Sonnenkönigs verlor Versailles seine umfassende zentralistische Bedeutung und die Gesellschaft traf sich nun zunehmend auch wieder in den Landschlössern des Adels oder den Pariser Hôtels. Dennoch residierten auch Ludwig XV. und Ludwig XVI. in Versailles, so dass das Schloss ab 1682 nur mit kurzen Unterbrechungen fast ständig von der Königsfamilie bewohnt war. Obwohl öfter Ausflüge in die vielen weiteren Schlösser rund um Paris unternommen wurden, blieb Versailles immer Regierungssitz und Mittelpunkt des höfischen Frankreichs.

 

Am Ende des Ancien Régime umfasste der Hofstaat rund 10.000 Personen, von denen bis zu 5.000 direkt im Schloss lebten. Die eigentlichen Höflinge machten davon rund 1.000 Personen aus, hinzu kamen Kammerfrauen, Köche, Leibwachen und andere Bedienstete. Der Palast war eine Stadt unter einem großen Dach, mit Wohnungen, Arbeitsräumen und Vergnügungsstätten. Auf den Gängen und Höfen ließen sich Händler nieder. Das Schloss war fast ständig überbelegt, und die Aristokratie, so sie nicht zur königlichen Familie gehörte, war zum Teil verarmt und hauste sogar in den engen Dachkammern der oberen Geschosse oder im benachbarten Grand Commun, da Ludwig XIV. seiner Ehre wegen jedem einen Schlafplatz bieten wollte. Victor Hugo bezeichnete das Schloss später als eine einzige Höflingskaserne. Der Palast war nicht allein dem Adel vorbehalten: Zugang hatte auch das gewöhnliche Volk, die Neugierigen wurden von den Bewohnern als Voyeux bezeichnet. Je höher der Rang des Besuchers war, desto weiter durfte er in das Innere des Schlosses gelangen. Der englische Reisende Arthur Young berichtete in seiner Schrift Reise durch Frankreich in den Jahren 1787, 1788, 1789 und 1792 über Versailles: „Es war höchst belustigend, wenn Strolche in den ärmlichsten Lumpen unbeobachtet durch den Palast […] spazierten.“ Der freie Zugang zum Schloss bedeutete jedoch nicht zugleich Kontakt mit den hier lebenden Personen. Wer als Bittsteller kam oder auf ein Amt hoffte, musste offiziell bei Hofe vorgestellt werden, wozu man neben einem verbrieften Titel üblicherweise die Fürsprache eines bereits etablierten Höflings benötigte. Als etabliert galt, wer über eines der zahlreichen käuflichen Hofämter verfügte, die, je nach Bedeutung des Amts, vom König oder dem Haushofmeister vergeben wurden.

 

Trotz der prunkvollen Ausstattung war Versailles ein unkomfortables Schloss. Die en filade gereihten, zugigen und hohen Räume ließen sich schlecht heizen, und Madame de Maintenon beklagte, „man erträgt lieber die Zugluft durch die Türen […], man muss in Symmetrie zugrunde gehen“. Im strengen Winter 1709 platzten sogar Likörflaschen durch die Kälte. Die große Spiegelgalerie besaß keine Kamine, und auch das zentrale Schlafzimmer Ludwigs XIV. war so kalt, dass Ludwig XV. ein privates Schlafzimmer im Nordtrakt des Corps de Logis einrichten ließ, das er nach der Zeremonie des Coucher zum Schlafen aufsuchte und morgens rechtzeitig zum Lever wieder verließ.

 

Es gab, wie damals in ganz Europa üblich, im Schloss weder fließendes Wasser noch fest installierte Toiletten. Man verrichtete die Notdurft in Leibstühle und Nachttöpfe, deren Inhalte von der Dienerschaft in bis zu 29 Sickergruben in der Umgebung des Schlosses ausgeleert wurden. Ludwig XVI. ließ sich Frankreichs erstes Wasserklosett mit Toilettenspülung einbauen. Das Schloss hatte wiederholt mit Ratten- und Mäuseplagen zu kämpfen und einmal jährlich begab sich der Hof nach Fontainebleau, damit der Versailler Palast in dieser Zeit von Grund auf gereinigt werden konnte. Der Körperpflege wurde im 17. Jahrhundert zwar noch kein übermäßiger Stellenwert zugeschrieben, doch bereits Ludwig XIV. ließ sich im Untergeschoss des Corps de Logis mehrere Zimmer umfassende Badegemächer einrichten. Im Laufe des 18. Jahrhunderts fanden sich auch zunehmend Baderäume in den Appartements der königlichen Familienmitglieder, während sich die übrigen Schlossbewohner weiterhin mit feuchten Tüchern und Waschschüsseln behelfen mussten.

 

Die Versorgung des Hofstaats mit Nahrungsmitteln und Getränken beschäftigte eine Anzahl von mehreren hundert Angestellten. Die Mitglieder der königlichen Familie und Höflinge von hohem Rang wurden als commensaux, als Tischgenossen des Königs betrachtet und aus seiner Küche versorgt.[80] Verschiedene Höflinge hatten die Verpflichtung, offene Tafeln zur Verkostung weiterer Schlossbewohner zu halten, andere Hofangestellte erhielten für ihre bouche eine finanzielle Entschädigung, mussten sich um die Versorgung allerdings selbst kümmern. Die Mahlzeiten stammten zum Teil aus den Wirtshäusern in der Umgebung des Schlosses, zum Teil aus selbst organisierten Küchen, von denen sich im Laufe der Zeit immer mehr in den Höfen und unter den Dächern des Schlosses einfanden.

 

Das Leben bei Hof bedeutete Verzicht auf Privatsphäre. Die Königsfamilie nahm selbst gewöhnliche Mahlzeiten vor Publikum ein und auch die Niederkünfte der Königinnen waren innerhalb der Hofgesellschaft traditionell öffentliche Ereignisse – so sehr, dass Marie-Antoinette während der Geburt ihres ersten Kindes in Lebensgefahr geriet, als sich zu viele Menschen in ihrem Schlafzimmer aufhielten. Schon unter den Vorgängern des Sonnenkönigs gab es strenge Riten zur Verherrlichung der französischen Herrscher, doch um das Schloss Versailles und Ludwig XIV. wurde eine beispiellose Abfolge von Zeremonien entwickelt. Die Etikette regelte und beschrieb jeden Vorgang, von großen Festlichkeiten und Empfängen bis hin zu so alltäglichen Dingen wie dem Mittagsmahl. Auch für den Fall von Krankheit und Tod gab es vorgeschriebene Regeln, und als Ludwig XV. 1774 im Trianon an den Pocken erkrankte, wurde er eilig ins Versailler Schloss gebracht, um dort unter den Augen des Hofs zu sterben. Die Bedeutung dieses Systems kann heute nicht mehr annähernd nachvollzogen werden. Dem König widerfuhr eine nahezu göttliche Verehrung und entrückte diesen, durchaus beabsichtigt, vom Volk und unterstrich seine übergeordnete Stellung. Dem König zu dienen bedeutete, Frankreich zu dienen. Ihm beim Aufstehen, beim Lever behilflich zu sein, ihm einfach nur das Wasser oder das Hemd zu reichen, galt als allergrößte Ehre, die über Aufstieg und Fall bei Hofe entscheiden konnte. Ob man in der Gegenwart des Königs stehen, sitzen oder sprechen durfte und selbst durch welche Tür man sein Schlafzimmer betrat, war ein für alle Anwesenden sichtbares Zeichen des eigenen Rangs. Ludwig XIV. schrieb in seinen Memoiren „Im übrigen ist es eine der hervorragendsten Wirkungen unserer Macht, einer Sache, die an sich keinen Wert hat, einen unbezahlbaren Preis zuzuordnen.“

 

Die Etikette galt nicht nur im Umgang mit dem König, sondern auch für jeden Herzog, jeden Prinzen, jeden Höfling. Das Protokoll regelte den Umgang miteinander und wies jedem Mitglied des Hofs einen für alle sichtbaren Platz innerhalb dieser Gesellschaft zu. Das uralte System der höfischen Etikette wurde auch unter den Nachfolgern des Sonnenkönigs kaum verändert. Ein Beispiel für das streng geregelte Hofzeremoniell ist folgende Anekdote, die durch Madame Campan, die Kammerfrau der Königin überliefert wurde und die Marie-Antoinettes Alltag im Schloss beschrieb:

 

„Das Lever der Königin vollzog sich analog dem Lever des Königs. Die Hofdame vom Dienst hatte das Recht, der Königin beim Ankleiden das Hemd zu reichen. Die Palastdame zog ihr den Unterrock und das Kleid an. Kam aber zufällig eine Prinzessin der königlichen Familie dazu, so stand dieser das Recht zu, der Königin das Hemd überzuwerfen. Einmal also war die Königin gerade von ihren Damen ganz ausgekleidet worden. Ihre Kammerfrau hielt das Hemd und hatte es soeben der Hofdame präsentiert, als die Herzogin von Orléans eintrat. Die Hofdame gab das Hemd der Kammerfrau zurück, die es gerade der Herzogin übergeben wollte, als die ranghöhere Gräfin von Provence dazukam. Nun wanderte das Hemd wieder zu der Kammerfrau zurück, und erst aus den Händen der Gräfin von Provence empfing es endlich die Königin. Sie hatte die ganze Zeit nackt, wie Gott sie geschaffen hat, dabeistehen und zusehen müssen, wie die Damen sich mit ihrem Hemd überkomplimentierten.“

 

– Madame Campan

 

Die französische Revolution

 

Am 5. Mai 1789 traten im Grande Salle des Menus Plaisirs die Generalstände zusammen. Damit begann die konstitutionelle Phase der Französischen Revolution. Der König, dem nach der Verfassung die Einberufung und Entlassung der Generalstände zustand, ließ den Sitzungssaal aus politischen Gründen schließen. Die Abgeordneten des Dritten Standes, die sich mittlerweile zur Nationalversammlung erklärt hatten, zogen sich darauf in das außerhalb des Schlossgeländes liegende Ballhaus zurück. Dort leisteten sie am 20. Juni den Ballhausschwur „… sich niemals zu trennen, bis der Staat eine Verfassung hat …“.

 

Ludwig XVI. und Marie-Antoinette bewohnten das Schloss samt ihrer Familie und dem Hofstaat bis zum 5. Oktober 1789. An diesem Tag stürmten die Poissarden das Schloss und zwangen den König und seine Familie tags darauf, Versailles für immer zu verlassen und nach Paris in den Tuilerien-Palast zu ziehen. Das Schloss wurde von den Revolutionären in den folgenden Jahren zum Teil geplündert und stand weitgehend leer.

 

Das 19. Jahrhundert

 

Nach der Revolution

 

Nach der Revolution konnte das Schloss nur notdürftig erhalten werden. Napoléon erwog, den Palast wieder als Residenz herzurichten, doch wurden die Pläne nie umgesetzt und der Kaiser der Franzosen begnügte sich damit, das Grand Trianon für Wohnzwecke umzugestalten. Seit der Regierung Louis-Philippes I. dagegen wurden die Räume des Schlosses wiederhergestellt, sowie ein historisches Nationalmuseum eingerichtet und mit Büsten, Porträts, Schlachtenbildern und anderen Kunstwerken von vorwiegend historischem Wert ausgeschmückt (darunter Meisterwerke von Horace Vernet, Eugène Delacroix, Ary Scheffer, Adolphe Yvon, James Pradier). In dieser Epoche wurden große Veränderungen im Nord- und Südflügel vorgenommen, Museumsräume in den ehemaligen Appartements eingerichtet und der große Schlachtensaal und die sogenannten Kreuzfahrer- und die Afrikasäle installiert. In diesen historistischen Museumsräumen wurden die französische und die europäische Geschichte thematisiert.

 

Der Gartenarchitekt Gabriel Thouin präsentierte 1820 in seinem Werk Plans raisonnés de toutes les espèces de jardins einen Vorschlag zur teilweisen Umgestaltung und Einbettung des (im Kernbereich geometrisch belassenen) Schlossparks in einen noch größeren Landschaftsgarten, der jedoch nicht umgesetzt wurde. Der deutsche Gartenarchitekt Peter Joseph Lenné wurde bei seinen Entwürfen durch den Plan Thouins beeinflusst.

 

Zweite Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts

 

Eine besondere Bedeutung gewann das Schloss für die deutsch-französische Geschichte. Vom 5. Oktober 1870 bis 13. März 1871 war es im Deutsch-Französischen Krieg Sitz des großen Hauptquartiers der deutschen Armeen. Im Spiegelsaal des Schlosses fand am 18. Januar 1871 mit der Ausrufung König Wilhelms I. von Preußen zum deutschen Kaiser Wilhelm I. die Gründung des Deutschen Reiches statt. Dieser Ort war im Sinn einer historischen Gerechtigkeit ausgewählt worden, da viele Deckengemälde die Feldzüge und Eroberungen Ludwigs XIV. in Deutschland verherrlichten. Die besiegten Franzosen hingegen sahen in dem Akt jedoch nur eine Demütigung ihres Königtums.

 

Die Friedenspräliminarien wurden am 26. Februar 1871 in Versailles unterzeichnet. Am 10. März 1871 verlegte die Nationalversammlung den Regierungssitz von Bordeaux nach Versailles; erst 1879 wurde er wieder nach Paris verlegt. Seit der Dritten Republik trat der Kongress des Parlaments in Versailles zusammen. Für diesen Zweck wurde ein Kongresssaal in den mittleren Lichthof des Südflügels eingebaut. Von 1879 bis 1953 wurden hier die Präsidenten der Republik gemeinsam von Abgeordneten und Senatoren gewählt. Auch heute tritt der Kongress bei Verfassungsänderungen zur Unterstreichung deren Bedeutsamkeit hier zusammen, das Schloss selbst dient oft als Ort von Staatsempfängen.

 

Das 20. Jahrhundert und die Gegenwart

 

Vom Versailler Vertrag zur Nachkriegszeit

 

Nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg wurde der Friedensvertrag, den das unterlegene deutsche Reich 1919 unterschreiben musste, im Versailler Schloss verhandelt. Die Franzosen wählten den Ort als Revanche für die Kaiserproklamation von 1871. Im Grand Trianon wurde der Vertrag von Trianon ausgehandelt. Die Bedingungen des Versailler Vertrages, die Deutschland eine Alleinschuld am Krieg anlasteten, werden als eine der Ursachen für den politischen Aufstieg der Nationalsozialisten betrachtet. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wurden Versailles und sein Schloss eine Stätte der deutsch-französischen Aussöhnung. Davon zeugten auch die Feierlichkeiten anlässlich der 40. Wiederkehr der Unterzeichnung des Élysée-Vertrages vom 22. Januar 1963 (2003) in der Schlachtengalerie.

 

Am 26. Juni 1978 verübten bretonische Separatisten einen Sprengstoffanschlag auf das Schloss, das ihrer Meinung nach als Symbol für den französischen Zentralismus stand. Nach 2:00 Uhr nachts explodierte ein Sprengsatz, der die Einrichtung in drei Sälen vollständig zerstörte und in sieben anderen schwere Verwüstungen anrichtete. Der entstandene Sachschaden wurde auf fünf Millionen Francs geschätzt. 1979 erfolgte die Aufnahme in die Liste des UNESCO-Weltkulturerbes. 1982 diente das Schloss als Kulisse für den Weltwirtschaftsgipfel der G7.

 

Das Schloss heute

 

Das Schloss mit seinen Gartenanlagen, Museen und Parkschlössern ist für Besucher geöffnet und zugleich das meistbesuchte Schloss Frankreichs, es zählt damit zu den größten Touristenmagneten des Landes. Rund um den Palast, seine Pflege und Verwaltung sind um die 900 Personen beschäftigt. Versailles samt seiner Museen wird von einer staatlichen Betreibergesellschaft geführt. Von 2002 bis 2007 war die spätere französische Kulturministerin Christine Albanel Geschäftsführerin des Établissement public de Versailles, ihre Amtszeit stand in der Kritik, da Albanel keine kunstwissenschaftliche Erfahrung besaß und ihr zeitweise ein Ausverkauf des französischen Nationaldenkmals vorgeworfen wurde. Gegenwärtiger Geschäftsführer ist Jean-Jacques Aillagon.

 

Für die Besichtigung der verschiedenen Museen, der Sonderausstellungen und der Gartenanlagen wird ein Eintrittsgeld verlangt, EU-Bürger unter 26 Jahren und Behinderte sind davon ausgenommen. Aufgrund der weltweiten Bekanntheit von Versailles gehören Schloss und Gärten für viele Frankreich- und Paris-Touristen zum Pflichtprogramm, im Jahr 2022 wurden fast 7 Millionen Besucher gezählt. Gäste müssen unter Umständen mit langen Warteschlangen an den Kassen, besonders im Sommer und an den Wochenenden, rechnen.

 

In der Schlossanlage und den Gärten fanden und finden zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts umfangreiche Restaurierungsarbeiten statt, die bis heute (2022) andauern. Für das Projekt stellte die Regierung unter Jacques Chirac 2003 rund 390 Millionen Euro zur Verfügung. In einem ersten Abschnitt wurden u. a. die Deckengemälde im Spiegelsaal restauriert, die im Juni 2007 fertiggestellt und der Öffentlichkeit übergeben wurden. Andere fundamentale Etappen der Restaurierungskampagne waren das Bassin de Latone und einige Boskette im Park sowie Dachstuhl, Fenster und das Äußere der Schlosskapelle (Chapelle Royale). Letztere wurde im April 2021 fertiggestellt.

 

Während der Olympischen Sommerspiele 2024 in Paris wurden auf den Außenanlagen des Schlosses die Reitsportwettbewerbe sowie die Entscheidungen im Modernen Fünfkampf ausgetragen.

 

(Wikipedia)

Whether you're on an extended business trip or relocating to Charlotte NC, our fully furnished corporate apartments are a turn-key and an affordable solution for you. Visit us at centercitysuites.com/news/corporate-apartments-charlotte-nc for the most comfortable stay.

The Prahran Town Hall complex on the corner of Chapel and Greville Streets may be found in the busy inner suburb of Prahran.

The complex of buildings that make up the Prahran Town Hall, includes the original courthouse relocated in 1869 as the first Council chamber, and the later 1886 Prahran Courthouse and Police Station which front onto Greville and Macquarie Streets.

 

The Prahran Town Hall complex was erected in stages commencing between 1860 and 1861 when Melbourne architects Crouch and Wilson were awarded a £25.00 prize by the Public Works Committee after entering with twelve other competitors for the commission. Their original bluestone hall complex has been designed in Victorian Italianate style, an architectural movement that was very popular between the mid and late Nineteenth Century. The prominent central tower with classical balustrading is very typical of the movement, as are its rounded windows, giant order pilasters, asymmetrical facade and general use of classical motifs. The Victorian Italianate movement gained popularity in Britain and her dominions after architect Thomas Cubitt assisted Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, to design Osborne, the Royal Family's residence on the Isle of White. The bluestone facades on Chapel and Greville Streets were stuccoed in 1862. In 1863, alterations to the original town hall tower were planned, so that it might accommodate a clock, supplied by J. Murray and Company or London. In 1868, the original courthouse was removed and placed snugly behind the town hall’s ballroom and reception room, where it became, in 1869, the first Council chamber. The later boom style Classicism additions of 1888 were executed to the designs of notable Melbourne architect, Charles D'Ebro. These included a lending library and an art gallery which were located above a portion of the town hall that was leased to the postal authority for 99 years in return for £5,000.00 towards the cost of alterations and additions to the building.

 

The Prahran Courthouse and Police Station, located adjacent to the Town Hall and on a corner site in Greville Street, was erected around 1886 to the design of prominent Public Works Department architect Charles R. Gilchrist. The contractors awarded the construction were Furneau, Besley and Angel. The Gothic Revival structure of brick fabric clad with Barrabool stone from Geelong and Moonie Ponds limestone and further enhanced with ornamental ironwork, is a traditionally planned and unusually integrated public utilities complex. It features beautiful stained glass windows, which allow the courthouse to be a light and airy space. The finely detailed and well proportioned building is a rare combination of public utilities and, being situated on a dominant corner position, is of streetscape importance in the Prahran Town Hall precinct.

 

In January 1914, the Colosseum drapery emporium, on Prahran’s fashionable Chapel Street, caught fire and quickly became a burning inferno. It was not long before embers started falling on the Prahran Town Hall, destroying its main city hall, adjacent to the Council chambers. In August of 1914, Messrs Sydney, Smith and Ogg architects were appointed with the task of restoring the hall and alerting the smoking room and dressing rooms into a more open atrium space with cloakrooms. This latter task was awarded to Mr. W. E. Cooper’s submission which also included converting the caretaker’s quarters into a suite for the Mayoress.

 

In 1955, the final alteration occurred to the Prahran Town Hall’s exterior, when the cupola atop the tower was deemed to be a fire risk, and not wishing for a fate similar to that of the main hall in1914, the Council agreed to have it removed.

 

Between the mid 1980s and 2009 the Prahran Town Hall complex has been steadily restored and refurbished, presenting the wonderful amalgamation of buildings that we see today, converting some spaces, whilst revealing hidden architectural gems in other places, such as stained glass windows and other original internal detailing.

 

Prahran Town Hall was open as part of the 2014 Open House Melbourne Weekend.

This wall was originally where the CD towers were; I swapped them for the bookshelf and fiber arts cubes to make room in that corner. This bit of wall is *just barely* wide enough to accomodate both the cubes and the bookshelf. Though it did give me a handy place to hang up my Who poster, which made me pretty happy.

 

Also, as part of this and "the great lessening of 2007," I decided to clean out at least "one box's worth" of books while rearranging the living room. (Box size non-specific!) I wound up clearing quite a few books out, and actually cleared nearly that whole top shelf, which gave me space to put my audiobooks up there instead of leaving them stuffed in the closet. Though, even they may fall victim to a future "lessening" if they continue not being pulled out of their boxes...

 

Philosophically, I have gotten over my book hoarding tendencies. I no longer see it as necessary to keep every book I buy or enjoy. I try to keep only the ones I know I will re-read or want to refer to, or which have some sort of specific value to me. And I'm working really hard on getting over my "display the books that show what really good taste in books I have" tendencies. It's harder than you'd think! Still, it's hard giving my books away sometimes, even if I know I am sending them on to make someone else happy.

Forest Park Station was our first local post office when we moved to PDX. It’s a sturdy 1960s era building worthy of the working class neighborhood of pre-gentrification NW Portland. It’s situated in one of the city’s most densely walkable and pleasant urban environments, so of course USPS sold the land and is relocating services to an auto-centric industrial area.

black tailed prairie dog being transferred from a trap to a transport carrier to be released. These dogs were trapped from urban areas in Pueblo and released on military lands to increase biodiversity

Photo: Dana Shellhorn/USFWS

 

Moving Thursday afternoon and/or Friday morning... groan.

 

Here are some boxes in our hallway this morning. Jen said we have about 38 - three of which I've packed.

Enjoy a complimentary hot breakfast with your stay at Staybridge Suites Wilmington, NC. Breakfast includes fresh made bagels, muffins, fresh fruit, a selection of breakfast cereals. Also included with our complimentary breakfast are eggs, breakfast sausage, hashbrowns and Wolfgang Puck's specialty estate grown coffee.

 

For more information visit: www.staywilmington.com

 

Click here to Book a Room at Staybridge Suites Wilmington NOW