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7-27-18 MS Rotterdam passing the settlement Aappilattea while traveling through Prince Christian Sound in southern Greenland while traveling east towards Iceland
Commentary.
Farnham is a classic and dignified Market town in western Surrey.
There is evidence of settlement in this area, continuously,
through Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages,
Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Medieval to modern times.
It sits in a shallow valley, south of the Chalk Downs
linking the Hogs Back to the Hampshire Downs.
Springs emerged where Chalk meets Gravels or Gault Clay.
The southern part of the town rises on the Lower Greensand of The Weald.
The town has seen many economic ups and downs.
It thrived with the Wool Industry in early Medieval times,
but suffered a downturn when worsted became popular.
The wool of local sheep wasn’t suitable.
Nearby Waverley Abbey was built in 1128,
but faded to neglect by the time of Henry V111’s Dissolution of the Monasteries.
The town suffered badly in the mid-14th. Century
with a third of the population dying from the Black Death.
Following the eventual victory of Parliamentarians over Royalists,
Bishops were allowed, again, to reside in their Palace, adjacent to the Castle.
It became a successful Market Town by the 17th. Century,
particularly in relation to huge local wheat production.
The underlying Gault and Wealden Clay gave rise to a thriving, local Pottery industry.
The railway arrived in 1848 and eventually was connected to a line to London.
Wealthy merchants could then buy and sell through London markets.
During the 19th. and 20th. Centuries Farnham became a viable “Commuter” town.
Along, East, West and Castle Streets and The Borough many fine
Tudor, Georgian, Regency and Victorian buildings, still exist.
The Creative Arts are still very popular and Architects, Painters and Potters have benefitted from Art Schools and Colleges and Galleries.
Markets for food and the Arts still take place, regularly.
Yet, the town still has a good range of Supermarkets and Chain Stores, as well as a fine range of “Bespoke” shops for home goods, clothes and refreshments.
Farnham still is a fine Market Town, with history and architecture, to boot.
About 20 miles north of Bodega Bay we stopped at Fort Ross, part of California's Fort Ross State Historic Park and is a National Historic Landmark. The visitor center was a quick walk through then we headed out to the walled settlement some distance away, beyond the Eucalyptus trees. The sun was high and bright so lighting was quite harsh and specular.
This photo shows the western side of the wall surrrounding the Russian settlement. There were two blockhouses built to protect the fort. This is the southern blockhouse, located on the south western corner of the fort, and was equipped with four cannons during the settlement period. There were cannons inside when I explored this bastion. This photo was processed to simulate a Daguerreotype-photo which would have been the appropriate process for the time period.
Fort Ross is a former Russian settlement located on the west coast of North America in what is now Sonoma County, California USA. It was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlements in North America between 1812 to 1841. This establishment is a landmark in the history of European imperialism. The Spanish expansion went west across the Atlantic Ocean and the Russian expansion went east across Siberia and the Pacific Ocean. In the early 19th century, the two waves of expansion met on the opposite side of the world along the Pacific Coast of California, with Russia arriving from the north, Spain from the south, and the United States of America from the east.
For more information, visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Ross,_California
This photo is part of a series of images captured during a road trip up the northern coast of California during late spring of 2011. This single-day trip began in the central valley of California and camera shooting started in Windsor just north of Santa Rosa and on to Bodega Bay all the way up to Fort Bragg.
View large in lightbox.
Copyright ©2011 - C. Roy Yokingco, aka Nextier Photography
All Rights Reserved. Please do not use my images without prior consent.
The trail to North Bay and Kims Lookout begins at Old Settlement Beach on Lord Howe Island, NSW, Australia.
- from 1908 "Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada" - ROGER'S PASS, a post settlement amid some beautiful mountain scenery, in Yale and Cariboo District, British Columbia, and a station on the main line of the C.P.R., 3 miles east of Glacier, near Mount Sir Donald, and west of the Columbia River. It has 1 public hall, 1 general store, 1 hotel, besides express and telegraph offices. It is a region to delight the tourist and lover of the picturesque. The population in 1908 was 200.
The ROGER'S PASS Post Office was established - 1 November 1887 - and closed - 30 November 1916.
LINK to a list of the Postmasters who served at the ROGER'S PASS Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record...
When this leather postcard was posted at the ROGER'S PASS Post Office the Postmistress was Mrs. Ada E. Morris - she served from - 1 April 1904 to - 8 May 1908.
Ada Elizabeth (nee Symons) Morris
(b. 27 August 1876 in Toronto, York, Ontario, Canada – d. 19 October 1955 at age 79 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) - LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/e6... LINK to her newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/113649252/obituary-for-ada-elizab...
Her husband - Curtis Dexter Morris
(b. 6 September 1868 in Advocate Harbour, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada – d. 12 October 1950 at age 82 in Vancouver, British Columbia) - they were married - 13 April 1903 in Vancouver, British Columbia - LINK to their marriage certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/1b... - he served as Postmaster at Roger's Pass, B.C. from - 1 June 1900 to - 1 October 1901. His occupation was listed as merchant - he was an owner of a General Store. LINK to his death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/6d...
Clipped from - The Vancouver Sun newspaper - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - 26 October 1950 - Curtis Dexter Morris, 82, pioneer, storekeeper and country Postmaster in British Columbia for 60 years, died recently. He was also well known as an energetic worker for the Liberal Party for many years. Mr. Morris was born in Nova Scotia, and came to British Columbia in 1889. He worked for a time as bookkeeper for Hastings Mill and other pioneer business concerns. Later he started a General Store at Rogers Pass, and later still, moved to New Pass, B.C., where his business was wiped out by a snow-slide. Undaunted, he established himself again at Albert Canyon. Mr. Morris moved from there to Glacier, B.C., and thence to Quesnel. He retired five years ago. He leaves his wife, Ada, at 5040 Somerville; five sons and three daughters, Clarence, Cranbrook; Cecil, Portland; Norman, Stanley and Curtis, all of Vancouver; Mrs. Louise Leslie, Mrs. Doris Mould, and Mrs. J. Kruger, all of Vancouver. Funeral services were conducted in Simmons and McBride Chapel with Rev. H. C. Phillips officiating. LINK to his Find a Grave site - www.findagrave.com/memorial/202998959/curtis-dexter-morris
His brother - William B. Morris was the Postmaster at Roger's Pass and served from - 29 May 1908 to - 30 November 1916 when the Post Office closed.
William Besnard Morris
(b. 18 December 1879 in Advocate Harbour, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada - d. 2 December 1968 (aged 88) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) - LINK to his death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/47... LINK to his newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/113650035/obituary-for-william-be...
- sent from - / ROGER'S PASS / MY 13 / 06 / B.C. / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer (A1-2 / second hammer) was not listed in the Proof Book - it was most likely proofed c. 1900 - (RF D). The first split ring hammer was proofed - 9 December 1887 and the third split ring hammer was proofed - 10 April 1916 - (RF E - the third hammer was only in use for seven months).
Message on postcard reads - Roger Pass, British Columbia - I'll BEE Home Soon. About 15 hours - Jean (sent by her sister)
Jean Goodman Roberts
(b. 10 February 1886 in Madoc, Hastings, Ontario – d. 10 December 1977 at age 91 in Vancouver, British Columbia) - she never married - occupation - school teacher at Victoria West and George Jay Schools for many vears - LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/f3... LINK to her newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/113624668/obituary-for-jean-goodm...
Addressed to her sister: Miss. K. Roberts / 22 Young Street / Victoria, B.C.
Mary Kathleen Roberts
(b. 30 October 1888 in Madoc, Hastings, Ontario – d. 23 December 1972 at age 84 in Victoria, British Columbia) - she was never married - arrived in B.C. in January 1890 with her parents. LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/7a... LINK to her newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/113601073/obituary-for-mary-kathl...
Her father - Thomas Roberts
(b. 11 December 1850 in Ballycastle, Antrim, Ireland – d. 21 August 1939 at age 88 in Victoria, BC, Canada) - his occupation was a customs clerk.
Clipped from - Times Colonist newspaper - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada - 22 August 1939 - THOMAS ROBERTS IS CALLED TO REST - Here Since 1889; Was Former Member Of Customs Staff - Thomas Roberts a resident of Victoria since 1889 and for many years a member of the staff of the Customs Department until his retirement in 1921, died yesterday at the family residence, 403 Young Street, in his 89th year. Mr. Roberts was born at Kenbane, County Antrim, Ireland, on December 11, 1850, the fourth son of William Llamble Roberts and Jane Goodman Roberts of Devonshire, England. He came to Canada on the Austrian, sailing from Londonderry and arriving in Canada on August 1, 1869. He went to Madoc, Ontario, in October of that year. Later he lived for some time at Fort Frances, where he was agent for a transportation company. In 1872 he joined a survey party organized for the purpose of surveying townships in Manitoba; In the fall of 1872 he took up land near St. Boniface, but soon gave up his ranching project and returned to Ontario, where, in 1878, he married Katherine, daughter of Alexander Cross and Margaret Mackenzie Cross of Madoc, who predeceased him in 1924. In 1889 he came to Victoria, where, a year later, he was joined by his wife and family. Since then he has resided in Victoria and from that time until his retirement in 1921 he was a member of the customs staff. He was a member of the Masonic Order and until recently he belonged to the Victoria Lawn Bowling Club. He is survived by four sons, William Llamble, Alexander Cross and Thomas Douglas, all of Victoria, and Alan K. M., in Oakland, California; two daughters, Jean Goodman and Mary Kathleen, both at home, and three grandchildren. The remains are reposing at Hayward's B.C. Funeral Chapel, pending funeral arrangements, which will be announced later.
Her mother: Katharine (nee Cross) Roberts
(b. 11 May 1853 in Madoc Township, Hastings, Canada West – d. 2 October 1921 at age 68 in Victoria, British Columbia) - they were married - 9 April 1878 in Madoc, Hastings, Ontario, Canada - they had seven children.
Mrs. Katherine Cross Roberts, wife of Thomas Roberts, of the Dominion Customs, died yesterday at the residence, 403 Young Street, at the age of 68 years. She was a daughter of the late Alexander Cross, of Dingwall, Scotland, and Margaret Mackenzie, of Gairloch, and was born at Madoc, Ontario. The late Mrs. Roberts had been a resident of this city since 1889, and had made a wide circle of friends who sincerely mourn her passing. She is survived by her husband, two daughters, the Misses Jean G. and Mary Kathleen Roberts, and four sons, Wm. L., Alex., G., Thomas D. and Allan K. M. Roberts, also one sister, Miss Annie Cross, of Madoc. The funeral will be held from the residence on Thursday at 2.30, Rev, Dr. Clay officiating. Interment will be made at Ross Bay Cemetery. The arrangements are in the hands of the B. C. Funeral Company.
Commentary.
St. Albans is an ancient settlement dating back at least
3,000 years to the Iron Age.
When the Romans invaded this realm in A.D. 43
they established several key military strongholds
in the south-east, including Colchester, London and St. Albans,
or as they named it, Verulamium.
It stands on a river-terrace above the River Ver.
Even after Roman occupation St. Albans became
an important religious centre with the founding of the Benedictine
Abbey of St. Albans.
Alban is said to have lived in the town in the 3rd. or 4th. Century.
Christianity was being persecuted at that time.
Alban took the place of a Priest in refusing to
abandon his Christian faith.
As a result, he was executed but was ultimately
given his Sainthood for his sacrifice and example.
The medieval abbey was given Cathedral status in 1877.
Before the 20th. Century, St. Albans was looked upon
as a small rural backwater.
During the Inter-War years, it developed a successful
local Electronics industry.
In recent times, being near to London
and with its considerable historical relics,
it has become very popular with tourists,
looking for an interesting, provincial Market Town to visit.
Lyndon Johnson's grandfather and great-uncle established a cattle droving headquarters in the 1860s on land that is now part of Johnson City, Texas. Their log cabin and subsequent barns, cooler house, and windmill still stand.
Lyndon B Johnson National Historical Park
"Wine cellars settlement in the village of Rogljevo represents the complex of 150 wine cellars. Most of them were built in the 19th and 18th century."
Emily Inez Denny, ca. 1890
Museum of History and Industry (MOHI), Seattle.
There are some features of our surroundings that time can't change. Visitors to Seattle, if they're observant and the clouds lift, will see the same brilliant mountain range to the west as the one in this work painted 132 years ago. They're the Olympic Mountains in what is now Olympic National Park on the - wait for it - Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.
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Short Version
The Battle of Seattle is the name given to the day when the Native peoples in the area attacked the newly arrived settlers who took refuge in the blockhouse or on the USS Decatur anchored in Elliott Bay.
The warship proceeded to fire shells toward the land. There were only two casualties for the settlers and the exact number of casualties the Native peoples suffered is unknown.
The artist, Emily Inez Denny (1853-1919), was a child during the Battle of Seattle and painted this scene many years later, fusing her memories with family tradition.
Denny's interpretation emphasized the settlers' vulnerability and fear, and eliminated the Decatur's sailors and Marines, on the one hand, and Native people, on the other.
digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/...
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Extended Version
The Battle of Seattle was a January 26, 1856 attack by Native American tribesmen upon Seattle, Washington.
At the time, Seattle was a settlement in the Washington Territory that had recently named itself after Chief Seattle (Sealth), a leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples of central Puget Sound.
European-American settlers were backed by artillery fire and supported by Marines from the United States Navy sloop-of-war Decatur, anchored in Elliott Bay (Seattle's harbor, then called Duwam-sh Bay).
They suffered two fatalities. It is not known if any of the Native American raiders died. The contemporary historian T. S. Phelps wrote that they later "would admit" to 28 dead and 80 wounded. T
he battle, part of the multi-year Puget Sound War or Yakima Wars (1855-1858), lasted a single day.
The Seattle settlement of the time was located roughly in the area of Seattle's Pioneer Square and its neighborhood. T. S. Phelps's memoir of the time described the settlement as:
…on a point, or rather a small peninsula, projecting from the eastern shore, and about two miles (3 km) from the mouth of Duwamish River, debouching at the head of the bay. The northern part of this peninsula is connected with the mainland by a low neck of marshy ground, and about one-sixteenth of a mile from its southeastern extremity a firm, hard sand-pit nearly joined it to the adjacent shore, severed only by a narrow channel through which the surplus waters of an inclosed swamp escaped into the bay. The south and west sides rose abruptly from the beach, forming an embankment from three to fifteen feet high; and proceeding thence northerly, the ground undulated for an eighth of a mile, when it gradually sloped towards the swamp and neck.
At the intersection of the latter with the main, and overlooking the water, rose a mound about thirty feet above the level of the bay; and to the eastward through a depression in the hills, and passing the head of the swamp, was a broad Indian trail leading to Lake Duwamish [now Lake Washington], distant two and a half miles.
Phelps remarks that the tailings from Henry Yesler's recently erected mill were steadily filling in the marshy land at the north of the head or peninsula where the settlement was located. He described the arrangement of the troops arrayed in defense on the nights before the battle:
The divisions… nightly occupied the shore, vigilantly guarding the people as they slept, and resting only when the morning light released them from the apprehended attack.
… [They] were distributed along the line of defense in the following order: The fourth, under Lieutenant Dallas, commencing at Southeast Point, extended along the bay shore to the sand-bar, where, meeting with the right of the first division, Lieutenant Drake, the latter continued the line facing the swamp to a point half-way from the bar to a hotel situated midway between the bar and Yesler's place, and there joined the second, under Lieutenant Hughes, whose left, resting on the hotel (see Mother Damnable), completed an unbroken line between the latter and Southeast Point, while the howitzer's crew, Lieutenant Morris, was stationed near Plummer's house, to sweep the bar and to operate wherever circumstances demanded. The third division, Lieutenant Phelps, occupied that portion of the neck lying between the swamp and mound east of Yesler's place, to secure the approaches leading from the lake, and the marines, under Sergeant Carbine, garrisoned the block-house.
The divisions, thus stationed, left a gap between the second and third, which the width and impassable nature of the swamp at this place rendered unnecessary to close, thereby enabling a portion of the town to be encompassed which otherwise would have been exposed.
The distance between the block-house and Southeast Point, following the sinuosities of the bay and swamp shores, was three-quarters of a mile, to be defended by ninety-six men, eighteen marines, and five officers, leaving Gunner Stocking, Carpenter Miller, Clerks Francis and Ferguson, and fifteen men with Lieutenant Middleton, to guard the ship.[3]
Prelude
Washington Territory Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens' ambitious treaty-making during 1854 and 1855 has been held to be the cause of the Puget Sound War.
The battle was part of a Native American uprising in resistance to the pressure to cede land for reservations determined by territorial officials.
There had been a series of skirmishes in the region over the previous several months, beginning October 28, 1855. There had been fighting between federal troops and natives in southern King, Thurston and Pierce counties. Five days before the attack on Seattle, Governor Stevens had declared a "war of extermination" upon the Indians.
The sloop Decatur had been called to Puget Sound both because of the trouble with local natives and to deter frequent raids by an alliance of the northern Haida from the Queen Charlotte Islands and the Tongass group of the Tlingit, from what was then Russian America.
Captained by Isaac L. Sterret, the vessel struck an uncharted reef near Bainbridge Island on December 7, 1855, and was heavily damaged. (According to naval custom, the reef was named Decatur Reef.) They limped into Seattle for repairs, which lasted until January 19. Sterret was temporarily taken off active duty December 10, although later returned to active duty. However, on the day of the battle, Decatur was commanded by Guert Gansevoort.
Decatur lay at anchor in deep water, in a position from which it had total command of the settlement with 16 shipborne 32-pounders firing fuzed shells. To the defense on land, the ship contributed two nine-pounder cannon and 18 stands of arms.
About this time, the raiders were attacking the White River settlers to the southeast. Survivors fled to Seattle. There they joined the fifty or so Seattle settlers. Assisted by marines from the Decatur, they had constructed a blockhouse from lumber originally intended for shipment to San Francisco.
Days before the battle (January 21), Territorial Governor Stevens arrived in Seattle aboard U.S.S. Active, and discounted rumors of war.
Almost immediately upon his departure, reports from friendly natives warned that the governor had been completely mistaken and that an attack was imminent. These reports have been variously credited to Chief Seattle, his daughter Princess Angeline, or another chief, Sucquardle (known also as "Curley" or "Curly Jim").
David Swinson "Doc" Maynard, reputed to have had far more than the usual concern for the natives' rights and well-being, evacuated 434 friendly natives to the west side of Puget Sound (at his own expense and with the assistance of his wife).
To some extent, the settlers had organized for their defense as volunteers under a Captain Hewett. However, this company of volunteers had disbanded and re-formed several times over the months leading up to the battle.
On the evening of January 22, with Decatur having taken a commanding position, the militia leaders declared that "they would not serve longer while there was a ship in port to protect them". Phelps writes that "a more reckless, undisciplined set of men has seldom been let loose to prey upon any community than these eighty embryo soldiers upon Seattle… after much rough argument about thirty of their number became partially convinced that their individual safety depended upon unity of action under a competent leader, and they finally consented to form a company, provided Mr. Peixotto would consent to serve as captain. That gentleman accepted the honor…"
Emily Denny mentions the company as being captained by Hewitt and including William Gilliam as 1st Lieutenant, D.T. Denny as Corporal, and Robert Olliver as Sergeant. Phelps names both Hewitt and Peixotto as captains.
Phelps lists the hostile natives as including the "Kliktat" (Klickitat and Spokane), "Palouse" (Palus), Walla-Walla, "Yakami" (Yakama), Kamialk, Nisqually, Puyallup, "Lake" (Duwamish-related, living near Lake Washington), "and other tribes, estimated at six thousand warriors, marshaled under the three generals-in-chief Coquilton, Owhi, and Lushi, assisted by many subordinate chiefs."
They had failed to recruit warriors from any of the several tribes or nations from the Olympic Peninsula, nor did they succeed in winning the Snoqualmie over to their cause. Although the Snoqualmie chief Patkanim was strongly opposed to the European-American settlers, he allied with them in this war.
Two hostile chiefs—Phelps says Owhi and Lushi (presumably, Leschi), other sources say Owhi and Coquilton—disguised themselves as friendly Indians and reconnoitered the situation the night before the battle.
Phelps describes this in some detail: he was the sentry whom they tricked with a plausible story.
According to Phelps' account, at least two native chiefs were playing a double game. Curley Jim had been considered friendly enough by the settlers to be allowed to remain within their encampment; conversely, his nephew Yark-eke-e-man had been considered one of the hostile force.
According to Phelps, the nephew intended to betray the native attack. Curley Jim left the settlement in the company of his visitors, and they parleyed around midnight at the lodge of a chief named Tecumseh; Yark-eke-e-man and several "chiefs of lesser note" were also present.
They set out a plan to kill all of the settlers and U.S. military; Curley requested that his friend Henry Yesler be allowed to live, but accepted being overruled in the matter.
They resolved to attack in a few hours, around 2 a.m.; Phelps wrote that that plan would have succeeded, since no defender was planning for a pre-dawn assault. But Yark-eke-e-man convinced the raiders to try a mid-morning attack, using a small decoy force to draw the Decatur's men out of the well-defended areas to do battle on First Hill.
There are no reliable estimates of the size of the attacking force. Isaac Stevens (who was not present), wrote to Washington that settlers estimated that 200 to 500 Indians had taken the field against them. Phelps put the number of enemy at 2,000, but (write Crowley and Wilma) "frontier military officers often inflated the number of opposing forces to reinforce their accomplishments (or to minimize their failures)."
Community college historian Murray Morgan writes that early "reports seem to have multiplied by ten the actual numbers. There could not have been more than one hundred and fifty."
Many settlers resided on scattered claims divided by thick forest, because to establish a land claim, settlers had to live on it. Some settlers doubted that the Indians would attack, and had to run for the blockhouse on the morning of the battle.
The first fatality of the engagement was Jack Drew, a deserter from Decatur killed in friendly fire. When he attempted to enter a cabin through a window, he was shot dead by fifteen-year-old Milton Holgate.
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Because the natives' only common language was Chinook jargon, a trade language that many of the white settlers also spoke, the settlers were able to hear and understand the attackers' shouted orders "and revealed many incidents of the battle they were anxious to conceal."
An Indian known as "Jim", a relative of Curley's who died a few months later in a hunting accident, evaded Curley's vigilance and warned Dr. Williamson of the impending attack.
Williamson sent a messenger to Yesler, who informed Gansevoort, and Decatur's troops abandoned their breakfast and returned to the positions they had held by night. 52 women and children found refuge on board Decatur, and others on board the barque Brontes. The non-combatants of the friendly tribes took to their canoes to get out of the way.
Curley's sister (and Yark-eke-e-man's mother) Li-cu-mu-low ("Nancy"), whom Phelps describes as "short, stout, and incapable of running," warned as she headed for her canoe that the Kliktat were gathered around Tom Pepper's house, which was in the forest, near the crest of First Hill.
Decatur fired off a howitzer shell in that direction, the first shot of the battle. Phelps and a few others had been trying unsuccessfully to rouse the volunteers from their torpor. At the sound of the howitzer shell, they rushed as one for the blockhouse. There "Sergeant Carbine several times charged them out of one door, to return as often by the other, till, wearying of the trouble, he left them to cower behind the wooden bulwarks, protected from the bullets of the foe."
The third division, contrary to orders, charged up the trail that led towards the lake. This charge met with success, as they pushed the attackers back without taking any casualties themselves. Klakum held a position behind a tree, and shot at Peixotto standing on the block-house steps, but missed and killed a boy, Milton G. Holgate, who was standing a few steps higher. It was the second death of a European American caused by another white.
On the south end, settlers on the peninsula faced off against natives on the mainland with a slough dividing them. Phelps describes "the incessant rattle of small-arms, and an uninterrupted whistling of bullets, mingled with the furious yells of the Indians," but there were few casualties.
A settler was killed when he ducked from behind a stump to get some drinking water;Clarence Bagley, quoting William Bell two days after the event, says the casualty was Christian White; Phelps, writing 17 years later, says it was Robert Wilson.
Hans Carl, an invalided sailor on Decatur, died shortly thereafter, but for reasons unrelated to the battle.
Aftermath
News of the attack spread rapidly. By 4 p.m. it was known in Bellingham. At noon the day after the battle, Active steamed into Elliott Bay, Governor Stevens aboard. Stevens was, in Phelps's words, "at last compelled to acknowledge the presence of hostile Indians in the Territory." Active headed south in the direction of Steilacoom, which seemed the most likely next target of an attack, dropping the governor at Olympia, the capital, on the way.
Yark-eke-e-man reported that the hostile chiefs were ill-provisioned. Confident of victory, they expected to provision themselves from the settlers' supplies. They spent the next several weeks scouring the land for food.
Two days after the battle, Coquilton threatened, through a messenger, "that within one moon he would return with twenty thousand warriors, and, attacking by land and water, destroy the place in spite of all the war-ship could do to prevent."
The threat was taken seriously, and leaders decided to improve Seattle's defenses. Henry Yesler volunteered ship's cargo of house lumber, and on February 1 Decatur's divisions began a two-week project to erect a defensive palisade: two fences five feet high, placed eighteen inches apart, and filled in with well-tamped earth, 1,200 yards (1,100 m) long, and enclosing a large portion of the town.
A second block-house was also erected, and an old ship's cannon, plus a 6-pounder field-piece borrowed from Active, were to serve as its artillery.
Trees and undergrowth were removed (variously attacked with levers, axes, and shovels, or burned in place) to provide an esplanade and enable Decatur's howitzer to sweep the shores.
Much brush was also cleared from the town's inland edges, to reduce the cover for future attacks. On February 24, USS Massachusetts arrived and on March 28 USS John Hancock.
The fortified town did not have to face a second battle. Defeat in the Battle of Seattle had discouraged the hostile natives, and they did not again amass a comparable force.
Furthermore, Governor Stevens had convinced Patkanim and his men to take on the role of bounty hunters, paying them handsomely for collecting the scalps of leaders of the hostile tribes.
Morgan does not describe the battle as a victory for the Americans.
Rather, he writes that "both sides were dismayed, the whites by the realization that the enemy really would attack a town, the Indians by their first experience with exploding shells rather than cannonballs."
Also by Stevens's order, a court-martial was convened at Seattle on May 15 for the trial of Klakum and twenty other Indians. The military officers acquitted them, deeming their actions as having been legitimate warfare against recognized combatants, not criminal acts. They were released after a declaration of peace. It was certainly not the end of violence between settlers and natives in the region, but it was the end of outright war.
Nine days after the battle, Chief Leschi and Chief Kitsap, along with a group of 17 Indians, appeared at the home of John McLeod near the Nisqually River.
McLeod was a former employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, had a Nisqually wife, and was trusted by the hostile Indians.
Leschi said that neither he nor his band had taken part in the attack on Seattle, and he thought the attack had been foolish. Leschi asked for John Swan, another trusted white man, to visit Leschi's camp on the Green River for a peace conference.[9] When Swan did visit Leschi's camp a few days later, he counted about 150 warriors, or men of fighting age. Nearly all were from west of the Cascades, with only 10–20 from the east.
Casualties
Jack Drew, a deserter from the Decatur, was shot and killed by young Milton Holgate, a settler's son, when he tried to enter the latter's cabin.
Holgate was killed by friendly fire, and another settler died in the battle: Christian White or Robert Wilson (see above). One sailor, Hans Carl, died later of causes unrelated to the battle.
Phelps characterizes the low casualties as "incredible" and "miraculous", given that "one hundred and sixty men were for seven hours exposed to an almost uninterrupted storm of bullets".
The casualties on the native side are unknown. Phelps claimed personally to have seen ten men die from one shell. He said that the natives later admitted to 28 dead and 80 wounded, but said that the native women "secret[ed] the dead beyond all chance of discovery." No Indian bodies were found on the battlefield.
According to Seattle lore, decades after the battle, Seattle's future fire chief Gardner Kellogg was excavating his house and found a shell from Decatur that had buried itself without exploding.
He stuck it under a stump that he was trying to burn out and went off to lunch. Dexter Horton stopped by to warm the seat of his pants at the fire, and as it exploded, nearly became the last casualty of the battle of Seattle.
This ancient settlement stands near the peak of Mount Saint Trega, scant kilometers from the Portugal border. The first century Castro people likely chose this site to keep tabs on intruders on the river Miño.
A write-up of my Galicia travels:
transitophile.com/chango/galicia-tourist-weekend/
Just want to look at more photos?:
FROM WIKIPEDIA:
Dating to around the year 1000, L'Anse aux Meadows is the only site widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact.
It is notable for its possible connection with the attempted colony of Vinland established by Leif Erikson around the same period or, more broadly, with Norse exploration of the Americas. It was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1978.
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This remote and desolate site on the northern tip of Newfoundland, which juts out well into the North Atlantic, has been thoroughly excavated, and the sod-covered structure is a re-creation of the buildings in which the Vikings lived. So that means Vikings were living in North America 500 years before Columbus took the easier route and in much bigger ships.
Although the Vikings got along for a while with the Native Beothuk Indians, the peace didn't last and eventually the settlers were run off.
A bronze sculpture at L'Anse Aux Meadows commemorates the first meeting of those early ancestors who left Africa and migrated east, and met up with our ancestors who migrated west.
For more information, check out this excellent Wikipedia page:
The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece, and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. The word Acropolis is from the Greek words ἄκρον (akron, "highest point, extremity") and πόλις (polis, "city"). The term acropolis is generic and there are many other acropoleis in Greece. During ancient times the Acropolis of Athens was also more properly known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man Cecrops, the supposed first Athenian king.
While there is evidence that the hill was inhabited as early as the fourth millennium BC, it was Pericles (c. 495–429 BC) in the fifth century BC who coordinated the construction of the buildings whose present remains are the site's most important ones, including the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike. The Parthenon and the other buildings were seriously damaged during the 1687 siege by the Venetians during the Morean War when gunpowder being stored by the then Turkish rulers in the Parthenon was hit by a Venetian bombardment and exploded.
History
Early settlement
The Acropolis is located on a flattish-topped rock that rises 150 m (490 ft) above sea level in the city of Athens, with a surface area of about 3 ha (7.4 acres). While the earliest artifacts date to the Middle Neolithic era, there have been documented habitations in Attica from the Early Neolithic period (6th millennium BC).
There is little doubt that a Mycenaean megaron palace stood upon the hill during the late Bronze Age. Nothing of this megaron survives except, probably, a single limestone column base and pieces of several sandstone steps. Soon after the palace was constructed, a Cyclopean massive circuit wall was built, 760 meters long, up to 10 meters high, and ranging from 3.5 to 6 meters thick. From the end of the Helladic IIIB (1300–1200 BC) on, this wall would serve as the main defense for the acropolis until the 5th century. The wall consisted of two parapets built with large stone blocks and cemented with an earth mortar called emplekton (Greek: ἔμπλεκτον). The wall uses typical Mycenaean conventions in that it followed the natural contour of the terrain and its gate, which was towards the south, was arranged obliquely, with a parapet and tower overhanging the incomers' right-hand side, thus facilitating defense. There were two lesser approaches up the hill on its north side, consisting of steep, narrow flights of steps cut in the rock. Homer is assumed to refer to this fortification when he mentions the "strong-built house of Erechtheus" (Odyssey 7.81). At some time before the 13th century BC, an earthquake caused a fissure near the northeastern edge of the Acropolis. This fissure extended some 35 meters to a bed of soft marl in which a well was dug. An elaborate set of stairs was built and the well served as an invaluable, protected source of drinking water during times of siege for some portion of the Mycenaean period.
Archaic Acropolis
Not much is known about the architectural appearance of the Acropolis until the Archaic era. During the 7th and the 6th centuries BC, the site was controlled by Kylon during the failed Kylonian revolt, and twice by Peisistratos; each of these was attempts directed at seizing political power by coups d'état. Apart from the Hekatompedon mentioned later, Peisistratos also built an entry gate or propylaea. Nevertheless, it seems that a nine-gate wall, the Enneapylon, had been built around the acropolis hill and incorporated the biggest water spring, the Clepsydra, at the northwestern foot.
A temple to Athena Polias, the tutelary deity of the city, was erected between 570 and 550 BC. This Doric limestone building, from which many relics survive, is referred to as the Hekatompedon (Greek for "hundred–footed"), Ur-Parthenon (German for "original Parthenon" or "primitive Parthenon"), H–Architecture or Bluebeard temple, after the pedimental three-bodied man-serpent sculpture, whose beards were painted dark blue. Whether this temple replaced an older one or just a sacred precinct or altar is not known. Probably, the Hekatompedon was built where the Parthenon now stands.
Between 529 and 520 BC yet another temple was built by the Pisistratids, the Old Temple of Athena, usually referred to as the Arkhaios Neōs (ἀρχαῖος νεώς, "ancient temple"). This temple of Athena Polias was built upon the Dörpfeld foundations, between the Erechtheion and the still-standing Parthenon. The Arkhaios Neōs was destroyed as part of the Achaemenid destruction of Athens during the Second Persian invasion of Greece during 480–479 BC; however, the temple was probably reconstructed during 454 BC, since the treasury of the Delian League was transferred in its opisthodomos. The temple may have been burnt down during 406/405 BC as Xenophon mentions that the old temple of Athena was set afire. Pausanias does not mention it in his 2nd century AD Description of Greece.
Around 500 BC the Hekatompedon was dismantled to make place for a new grander building, the Older Parthenon (often referred to as the Pre-Parthenon or Early Parthenon). For this reason, Athenians decided to stop the construction of the Olympieion temple which was connoted with the tyrant Peisistratos and his sons, and, instead, used the Piraeus limestone destined for the Olympieion to build the Older Parthenon. To accommodate the new temple, the south part of the summit was cleared, made level by adding some 8,000 two-ton blocks of limestone, a foundation 11 m (36 ft) deep at some points, and the rest was filled with soil kept in place by the retaining wall. However, after the victorious Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, the plan was revised and marble was used instead. The limestone phase of the building is referred to as Pre-Parthenon I and the marble phase as Pre-Parthenon II. In 485 BC, construction stalled to save resources as Xerxes became king of Persia, and war seemed imminent. The Older Parthenon was still under construction when the Persians invaded and sacked the city in 480 BC. The building was burned and looted, along with the Ancient Temple and practically everything else on the rock. After the Persian crisis had subsided, the Athenians incorporated many architectural parts of the unfinished temple (unfluted column drums, triglyphs, metopes, etc.) into the newly built northern curtain wall of the Acropolis, where they served as a prominent "war memorial" and can still be seen today. The devastated site was cleared of debris. Statuary, cult objects, religious offerings, and unsalvageable architectural members were buried ceremoniously in several deeply dug pits on the hill, serving conveniently as a fill for the artificial plateau created around the Classical Parthenon. This "Persian debris" was the richest archaeological deposit excavated on the Acropolis by 1890.
The Periclean building program
After winning at Eurymedon during 468 BC, Cimon and Themistocles ordered the reconstruction of the southern and northern walls of the Acropolis. Most of the major temples, including the Parthenon, were rebuilt by order of Pericles during the so-called Golden Age of Athens (460–430 BC). Phidias, an Athenian sculptor, and Ictinus and Callicrates, two famous architects, were responsible for the reconstruction.
During 437 BC, Mnesicles started building the Propylaea, a monumental gate at the western end of the Acropolis with Doric columns of Pentelic marble, built partly upon the old Propylaea of Peisistratos. These colonnades were almost finished during 432 BC and had two wings, the northern one decorated with paintings by Polygnotus. About the same time, south of the Propylaea, building started on the small Ionic Temple of Athena Nike in Pentelic marble with tetrastyle porches, preserving the essentials of Greek temple design. After an interruption caused by the Peloponnesian War, the temple was finished during the time of Nicias' peace, between 421 BC and 409 BC.
Construction of the elegant temple of Erechtheion in Pentelic marble (421–406 BC) was by a complex plan which took account of the extremely uneven ground and the need to circumvent several shrines in the area. The entrance, facing east, is lined with six Ionic columns. Unusually, the temple has two porches, one on the northwest corner borne by Ionic columns, the other, to the southwest, supported by huge female figures or caryatids. The eastern part of the temple was dedicated to Athena Polias, while the western part, serving the cult of the archaic king Poseidon-Erechtheus, housed the altars of Hephaestus and Voutos, brother of Erechtheus. Little is known about the original plan of the interior, which was destroyed by fire during the first century BC and has been rebuilt several times.
During the same period, a combination of sacred precincts including the temples of Athena Polias, Poseidon, Erechtheus, Cecrops, Herse, Pandrosos and Aglauros, with its Kore Porch (Porch of the Maidens) or Caryatids' Balcony was begun. Between the temple of Athena Nike and the Parthenon, there was the Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia (or the Brauroneion), the goddess represented as a bear and worshipped in the deme of Brauron. According to Pausanias, a wooden statue or xoanon of the goddess and a statue of Artemis made by Praxiteles during the 4th century BC were both in the sanctuary.
Behind the Propylaea, Phidias' gigantic bronze statue of Athena Promachos ("Athena who fights in the front line"), built between 450 BC and 448 BC, dominated. The base was 1.50 m (4 ft 11 in) high, while the total height of the statue was 9 m (30 ft). The goddess held a lance, the gilt tip of which could be seen as a reflection by crews on ships rounding Cape Sounion, and a giant shield on the left side, decorated by Mys with images of the fight between the Centaurs and the Lapiths. Other monuments that have left almost nothing visible to the present day are the Chalkotheke, the Pandroseion, Pandion's sanctuary, Athena's altar, Zeus Polieus's sanctuary and, from Roman times, the circular Temple of Roma and Augustus.
Hellenistic and Roman Period
During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, many of the existing buildings in the area of the Acropolis were repaired to remedy damage from age and occasionally war. Monuments to foreign kings were erected, notably those of the Attalid kings of Pergamon Attalos II (in front of the NW corner of the Parthenon), and Eumenes II, in front of the Propylaea. These were rededicated during the early Roman Empire to Augustus or Claudius (uncertain) and Agrippa, respectively. Eumenes was also responsible for constructing a stoa on the south slope, similar to that of Attalos in the agora below.
During the Julio-Claudian period, the Temple of Roma and Augustus, a small, round edifice about 23 meters from the Parthenon, was to be the last significant ancient construction on the summit of the rock. Around the same time, on the north slope, in a cave next to the one dedicated to Pan since the Classical period, a sanctuary was founded where the archons dedicated to Apollo on assuming office. During 161 AD, on the south slope, the Roman Herodes Atticus built his grand amphitheater or odeon. It was destroyed by the invading Herulians a century later but was reconstructed during the 1950s.
During the 3rd century, under threat from a Herulian invasion, repairs were made to the Acropolis walls, and the Beulé Gate was constructed to restrict entrance in front of the Propylaea, thus returning the Acropolis to use as a fortress.
Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Period
During the Byzantine period, the Parthenon was used as a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. During the Latin Duchy of Athens, the Acropolis functioned as the city's administrative center, with the Parthenon as its cathedral, and the Propylaea as part of the ducal palace. A large tower was added, the Frankopyrgos, demolished during the 19th century.
After the Ottoman conquest of Greece, the Propylaea were used as the garrison headquarters of the Turkish army,[40] the Parthenon was converted into a mosque and the Erechtheum was turned into the governor's private harem. The buildings of the Acropolis suffered significant damage during the 1687 siege by the Venetians in the Morean War. The Parthenon, which was being used as a gunpowder magazine, was hit by artillery shot and damaged severely.
During subsequent years, the Acropolis was a site of bustling human activity with many Byzantine, Frankish, and Ottoman structures. The dominant feature during the Ottoman period was a mosque inside the Parthenon, complete with a minaret.
The Acropolis was besieged thrice during the Greek War of Independence—two sieges from the Greeks in 1821–1822 and one from the Ottomans in 1826–1827. A new bulwark named after Odysseas Androutsos was built by the Greeks between 1822 and 1825 to protect the recently rediscovered Klepsydra spring, which became the sole fresh water supply of the fortress.
Independent Greece
After independence, most features that dated from the Byzantine, Frankish, and Ottoman periods were cleared from the site in an attempt to restore the monument to its original form, "cleansed" of all later additions. The Parthenon mosque was demolished in 1843, and the Frankish Tower in 1875. German Neoclassicist architect Leo von Klenze was responsible for the restoration of the Acropolis in the 19th century, according to German historian Wolf Seidl, as described in his book Bavarians in Greece.
At the beginning of the Axis occupation of Greece in 1941, German soldiers raised the Nazi German War Flag over the Acropolis. It would be taken down by Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas in one of the first acts of resistance. In 1944 Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou arrived on the Acropolis to celebrate liberation from the Nazis.
Archaeological remains
The entrance to the Acropolis was a monumental gateway termed the Propylaea. To the south of the entrance is the tiny Temple of Athena Nike. At the centre of the Acropolis is the Parthenon or Temple of Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin). East of the entrance and north of the Parthenon is the temple known as the Erechtheum. South of the platform that forms the top of the Acropolis there are also the remains of the ancient, though often remodelled, Theatre of Dionysus. A few hundred metres away, there is the now partially reconstructed Odeon of Herodes Atticus.
All the valuable ancient artifacts are situated in the Acropolis Museum, which resides on the southern slope of the same rock, 280 metres from the Parthenon.
Site plan
Parthenon
Old Temple of Athena
Erechtheum
Statue of Athena Promachos
Propylaea
Temple of Athena Nike
Eleusinion
Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia or Brauroneion
Chalkotheke
Pandroseion
Arrephorion
Altar of Athena
Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus
Sanctuary of Pandion
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Stoa of Eumenes
Sanctuary of Asclepius or Asclepieion
Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus
Odeon of Pericles
Temenos of Dionysus Eleuthereus
Mycenaean fountain
The Acropolis Restoration Project
The Acropolis Restoration Project began in 1975 to reverse the decay of centuries of attrition, pollution, destruction from military actions, and misguided past restorations. The project included the collection and identification of all stone fragments, even small ones, from the Acropolis and its slopes, and the attempt was made to restore as much as possible using reassembled original material (anastylosis), with new marble from Mount Pentelicus used sparingly. All restoration was made using titanium dowels and is designed to be completely reversible, in case future experts decide to change things. A combination of cutting-edge modern technology and extensive research and reinvention of ancient techniques were used.
The Parthenon colonnades, largely destroyed by Venetian bombardment during the 17th century, were restored, with many wrongly assembled columns now properly placed. The roof and floor of the Propylaea were partly restored, with sections of the roof made of new marble and decorated with blue and gold inserts, as in the original. Restoration of the Temple of Athena Nike was completed in 2010.
A total of 2,675 tons of architectural members were restored, with 686 stones reassembled from fragments of the originals, 905 patched with new marble, and 186 parts made entirely of new marble. A total of 530 cubic meters of new Pentelic marble were used.
In 2021, the addition of new reinforced concrete paths to the site to improve accessibility caused controversy among archaeologists.
Cultural significance
Every four years, the Athenians had a festival called the Great Panathenaea that rivaled the Olympic Games in popularity. During the festival, a procession (believed to be depicted on the Parthenon frieze) traveled through the city via the Panathenaic Way and culminated on the Acropolis. There, a new robe of woven wool (peplos) was placed on either the statue of Athena Polias in the Erechtheum (during the annual Lesser Panathenaea) or the statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon (during the Great Panathenaea, held every four years).
Within the later tradition of Western civilization and Classical revival, the Acropolis, from at least the mid-18th century on, has often been invoked as a critical symbol of the Greek legacy and of the glories of Classical Greece.
Most of the artifacts from the temple are housed today in the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the ancient rock.
Geology
The Acropolis is a klippe consisting of two lithostratigraphic units: the Athens schist and the overlying Acropolis limestone. The Athens schist is a soft reddish rock dating from the late Cretaceous period. The original sediments were deposited in a river delta approximately 72 million years ago. The Acropolis limestone dates from the late Jurassic period, predating the underlying Athens schist by about 30 million years. The Acropolis limestone was thrust over the Athens schist by compressional tectonic forces, forming a nappe or overthrust sheet. Erosion of the limestone nappe led to the eventual detachment of the Acropolis, forming the present-day feature. Where the Athens schist and the limestone meet there are springs and karstic caves.
Many of the hills in the Athens region were formed by the erosion of the same nappe as the Acropolis. These include the hills of Lykabettos, Areopagus, and Mouseion.
The marble used for the buildings of the Acropolis was sourced from the quarries of Mount Pentelicus, a mountain to the northeast of the city.
Geological instability
The limestone that the Acropolis is built upon is unstable because of the erosion and tectonic shifts that the region is prone to. This instability can cause rock slides that cause damage to the historic site. Various measures have been implemented to protect the site including retaining walls, drainage systems, and rock bolts. These measures work to counter the natural processes that threaten the historic site.
Athens is a major coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, and it is both the capital and the largest city of Greece. With its urban area's population numbering over three million, it is also the eighth largest urban area in the European Union. Athens dominates and is the capital of the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years, and its earliest human presence beginning somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. The city was named after Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom.
Classical Athens was one of the most powerful city-states in ancient Greece. It was a centre for democracy, the arts, education and philosophy, and was highly influential throughout the European continent, particularly in Ancient Rome. For this reason, it is often regarded as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy in its own right independently from the rest of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a huge cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime, political and cultural life in Greece. In 2023, Athens metropolitan area and its surrounding municipalities (consisting the regional area of Attica) has a population of approximately 3.8 million.
Athens is a Beta-status global city according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and is one of the biggest economic centers in Southeastern Europe. It also has a large financial sector, and its port Piraeus is both the 2nd busiest passenger port in Europe, and the 13th largest container port in the world. The Municipality of Athens (also City of Athens), which constitutes a small administrative unit of the entire urban area, had a population of 643,452 (2021) within its official limits, and a land area of 38.96 km2 (15.04 sq mi). The Athens metropolitan area or Greater Athens extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits as well as its urban agglomeration, with a population of 3,638,281 (2021) over an area of 2,928.717 km2 (1,131 sq mi). Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland.
The heritage of the Classical Era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient monuments, and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, considered a key landmark of early Western culture. The city also retains Roman, Byzantine and a smaller number of Ottoman monuments, while its historical urban core features elements of continuity through its millennia of history. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery. Landmarks of the modern era, dating back to the establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1834, include the Hellenic Parliament and the Architectural Trilogy of Athens, consisting of the National Library of Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and the Academy of Athens. Athens is also home to several museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world's largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum, and the Byzantine and Christian Museum. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics, making it one of five cities to have hosted the Summer Olympics on multiple occasions. Athens joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2016.
Etymology and names
In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι (Athênai, pronounced [atʰɛ̂ːnai̯] in Classical Attic), which is a plural word. In earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη (Athḗnē). It was possibly rendered in the plural later on, like those of Θῆβαι (Thêbai) and Μυκῆναι (Μukênai). The root of the word is probably not of Greek or Indo-European origin, and is possibly a remnant of the Pre-Greek substrate of Attica. In antiquity, it was debated whether Athens took its name from its patron goddess Athena (Attic Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnâ, Ionic Ἀθήνη, Athḗnē, and Doric Ἀθάνα, Athā́nā) or Athena took her name from the city. Modern scholars now generally agree that the goddess takes her name from the city,[24] because the ending -ene is common in names of locations, but rare for personal names.
According to the ancient Athenian founding myth, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, competed against Poseidon, the God of the Seas, for patronage of the yet-unnamed city; they agreed that whoever gave the Athenians the better gift would become their patron and appointed Cecrops, the king of Athens, as the judge. According to the account given by Pseudo-Apollodorus, Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring welled up. In an alternative version of the myth from Vergil's poem Georgics, Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the first horse. In both versions, Athena offered the Athenians the first domesticated olive tree. Cecrops accepted this gift and declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens. Eight different etymologies, now commonly rejected, have been proposed since the 17th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος (áthos) or ἄνθος (ánthos) meaning "flower", to denote Athens as the "flowering city". Ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- (tháō, thē-, "to suck") to denote Athens as having fertile soil. Athenians were called cicada-wearers (Ancient Greek: Τεττιγοφόροι) because they used to wear pins of golden cicadas. A symbol of being autochthonous (earth-born), because the legendary founder of Athens, Erechtheus was an autochthon or of being musicians, because the cicada is a "musician" insect. In classical literature, the city was sometimes referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindar's ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι (iostéphanoi Athânai), or as τὸ κλεινὸν ἄστυ (tò kleinòn ásty, "the glorious city").
During the medieval period, the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα. Variant names included Setines, Satine, and Astines, all derivations involving false splitting of prepositional phrases. King Alphonse X of Castile gives the pseudo-etymology 'the one without death/ignorance'. In Ottoman Turkish, it was called آتينا Ātīnā, and in modern Turkish, it is Atina.
History
Main article: History of Athens
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Athens.
Historical affiliations
Kingdom of Athens 1556 BC–1068 BC
City-state of Athens 1068 BC–322 BC
Hellenic League 338 BC–322 BC
Kingdom of Macedonia 322 BC–148 BC
Roman Republic 146 BC–27 BC
Roman Empire 27 BC–395 AD
Eastern Roman Empire 395–1205
Duchy of Athens 1205–1458
Ottoman Empire 1458–1822, 1827–1832
Greece 1822–1827, 1832–present
Antiquity
The oldest known human presence in Athens is the Cave of Schist, which has been dated to between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. Athens has been continuously inhabited for at least 5,000 years (3000 BC). By 1400 BC, the settlement had become an important centre of the Mycenaean civilization, and the Acropolis was the site of a major Mycenaean fortress, whose remains can be recognised from sections of the characteristic Cyclopean walls. Unlike other Mycenaean centers, such as Mycenae and Pylos, it is not known whether Athens suffered destruction in about 1200 BC, an event often attributed to a Dorian invasion, and the Athenians always maintained that they were pure Ionians with no Dorian element. However, Athens, like many other Bronze Age settlements, went into economic decline for around 150 years afterwards. Iron Age burials, in the Kerameikos and other locations, are often richly provided for and demonstrate that from 900 BC onwards Athens was one of the leading centres of trade and prosperity in the region.
By the sixth century BC, widespread social unrest led to the reforms of Solon. These would pave the way for the eventual introduction of democracy by Cleisthenes in 508 BC. Athens had by this time become a significant naval power with a large fleet, and helped the rebellion of the Ionian cities against Persian rule. In the ensuing Greco-Persian Wars Athens, together with Sparta, led the coalition of Greek states that would eventually repel the Persians, defeating them decisively at Marathon in 490 BC, and crucially at Salamis in 480 BC. However, this did not prevent Athens from being captured and sacked twice by the Persians within one year, after a heroic but ultimately failed resistance at Thermopylae by Spartans and other Greeks led by King Leonidas, after both Boeotia and Attica fell to the Persians.
The decades that followed became known as the Golden Age of Athenian democracy, during which time Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece, with its cultural achievements laying the foundations for Western civilization. The playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides flourished in Athens during this time, as did the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, the physician Hippocrates, and the philosopher Socrates. Guided by Pericles, who promoted the arts and fostered democracy, Athens embarked on an ambitious building program that saw the construction of the Acropolis of Athens (including the Parthenon), as well as empire-building via the Delian League. Originally intended as an association of Greek city-states to continue the fight against the Persians, the league soon turned into a vehicle for Athens's own imperial ambitions. The resulting tensions brought about the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), in which Athens was defeated by its rival Sparta.
By the mid-4th century BC, the northern Greek kingdom of Macedon was becoming dominant in Athenian affairs. In 338 BC the armies of Philip II defeated an alliance of some of the Greek city-states including Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea. Later, under Rome, Athens was given the status of a free city because of its widely admired schools. In the second century AD, The Roman emperor Hadrian, himself an Athenian citizen, ordered the construction of a library, a gymnasium, an aqueduct which is still in use, several temples and sanctuaries, a bridge and financed the completion of the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
In the early 4th century AD, the Eastern Roman Empire began to be governed from Constantinople, and with the construction and expansion of the imperial city, many of Athens's works of art were taken by the emperors to adorn it. The Empire became Christianized, and the use of Latin declined in favour of exclusive use of Greek; in the Roman imperial period, both languages had been used. In the later Roman period, Athens was ruled by the emperors continuing until the 13th century, its citizens identifying themselves as citizens of the Roman Empire ("Rhomaioi"). The conversion of the empire from paganism to Christianity greatly affected Athens, resulting in reduced reverence for the city.[33] Ancient monuments such as the Parthenon, Erechtheion and the Hephaisteion (Theseion) were converted into churches. As the empire became increasingly anti-pagan, Athens became a provincial town and experienced fluctuating fortunes.
The city remained an important center of learning, especially of Neoplatonism—with notable pupils including Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil of Caesarea and emperor Julian (r. 355–363)—and consequently a center of paganism. Christian items do not appear in the archaeological record until the early 5th century. The sack of the city by the Herules in 267 and by the Visigoths under their king Alaric I (r. 395–410) in 396, however, dealt a heavy blow to the city's fabric and fortunes, and Athens was henceforth confined to a small fortified area that embraced a fraction of the ancient city. The emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) banned the teaching of philosophy by pagans in 529, an event whose impact on the city is much debated, but is generally taken to mark the end of the ancient history of Athens. Athens was sacked by the Slavs in 582, but remained in imperial hands thereafter, as highlighted by the visit of the emperor Constans II (r. 641–668) in 662/3 and its inclusion in the Theme of Hellas.
Middle Ages
The city was threatened by Saracen raids in the 8th–9th centuries—in 896, Athens was raided and possibly occupied for a short period, an event which left some archaeological remains and elements of Arabic ornamentation in contemporary buildings—but there is also evidence of a mosque existing in the city at the time. In the great dispute over Byzantine Iconoclasm, Athens is commonly held to have supported the iconophile position, chiefly due to the role played by Empress Irene of Athens in the ending of the first period of Iconoclasm at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. A few years later, another Athenian, Theophano, became empress as the wife of Staurakios (r. 811–812).
Invasion of the empire by the Turks after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, and the ensuing civil wars, largely passed the region by and Athens continued its provincial existence unharmed. When the Byzantine Empire was rescued by the resolute leadership of the three Komnenos emperors Alexios, John and Manuel, Attica and the rest of Greece prospered. Archaeological evidence tells us that the medieval town experienced a period of rapid and sustained growth, starting in the 11th century and continuing until the end of the 12th century.
The Agora (marketplace) had been deserted since late antiquity, began to be built over, and soon the town became an important centre for the production of soaps and dyes. The growth of the town attracted the Venetians, and various other traders who frequented the ports of the Aegean, to Athens. This interest in trade appears to have further increased the economic prosperity of the town.
The 11th and 12th centuries were the Golden Age of Byzantine art in Athens. Almost all of the most important Middle Byzantine churches in and around Athens were built during these two centuries, and this reflects the growth of the town in general. However, this medieval prosperity was not to last. In 1204, the Fourth Crusade conquered Athens and the city was not recovered from the Latins before it was taken by the Ottoman Turks. It did not become Greek in government again until the 19th century.
From 1204 until 1458, Athens was ruled by Latins in three separate periods, following the Crusades. The "Latins", or "Franks", were western Europeans and followers of the Latin Church brought to the Eastern Mediterranean during the Crusades. Along with rest of Byzantine Greece, Athens was part of the series of feudal fiefs, similar to the Crusader states established in Syria and on Cyprus after the First Crusade. This period is known as the Frankokratia.
Ottoman Athens
The first Ottoman attack on Athens, which involved a short-lived occupation of the town, came in 1397, under the Ottoman generals Yaqub Pasha and Timurtash. Finally, in 1458, Athens was captured by the Ottomans under the personal leadership of Sultan Mehmed II. As the Ottoman Sultan rode into the city, he was greatly struck by the beauty of its ancient monuments and issued a firman (imperial edict) forbidding their looting or destruction, on pain of death. The Parthenon was converted into the main mosque of the city.
Under Ottoman rule, Athens was denuded of any importance and its population severely declined, leaving it as a "small country town" (Franz Babinger). From the early 17th century, Athens came under the jurisdiction of the Kizlar Agha, the chief black eunuch of the Sultan's harem. The city had originally been granted by Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603–1617) to Basilica, one of his favourite concubines, who hailed from the city, in response of complaints of maladministration by the local governors. After her death, Athens came under the purview of the Kizlar Agha.
The Turks began a practice of storing gunpowder and explosives in the Parthenon and Propylaea. In 1640, a lightning bolt struck the Propylaea, causing its destruction. In 1687, during the Morean War, the Acropolis was besieged by the Venetians under Francesco Morosini, and the temple of Athena Nike was dismantled by the Ottomans to fortify the Parthenon. A shot fired during the bombardment of the Acropolis caused a powder magazine in the Parthenon to explode (26 September), and the building was severely damaged, giving it largely the appearance it has today. The Venetian occupation of Athens lasted for six months, and both the Venetians and the Ottomans participated in the looting of the Parthenon. One of its western pediments was removed, causing even more damage to the structure. During the Venetian occupation, the two mosques of the city were converted into Catholic and Protestant churches, but on 9 April 1688 the Venetians abandoned Athens again to the Ottomans.
Modern history
In 1822, a Greek insurgency captured the city, but it fell to the Ottomans again in 1826 (though Acropolis held till June 1827). Again the ancient monuments suffered badly. The Ottoman forces remained in possession until March 1833, when they withdrew. At that time, the city (as throughout the Ottoman period) had a small population of an estimated 400 houses, mostly located around the Acropolis in the Plaka.
Following the Greek War of Independence and the establishment of the Greek Kingdom, Athens was chosen to replace Nafplio as the second capital of the newly independent Greek state in 1834, largely because of historical and sentimental reasons. At the time, after the extensive destruction it had suffered during the war of independence, it was reduced to a town of about 4,000 people (less than half its earlier population) in a loose swarm of houses along the foot of the Acropolis. The first King of Greece, Otto of Bavaria, commissioned the architects Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert to design a modern city plan fit for the capital of a state.
The first modern city plan consisted of a triangle defined by the Acropolis, the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos and the new palace of the Bavarian king (now housing the Greek Parliament), so as to highlight the continuity between modern and ancient Athens. Neoclassicism, the international style of this epoch, was the architectural style through which Bavarian, French and Greek architects such as Hansen, Klenze, Boulanger or Kaftantzoglou designed the first important public buildings of the new capital. In 1896, Athens hosted the first modern Olympic Games. During the 1920s a number of Greek refugees, expelled from Asia Minor after the Greco-Turkish War and Greek genocide, swelled Athens's population; nevertheless it was most particularly following World War II, and from the 1950s and 1960s, that the population of the city exploded, and Athens experienced a gradual expansion.
In the 1980s, it became evident that smog from factories and an ever-increasing fleet of automobiles, as well as a lack of adequate free space due to congestion, had evolved into the city's most important challenge.[citation needed] A series of anti-pollution measures taken by the city's authorities in the 1990s, combined with a substantial improvement of the city's infrastructure (including the Attiki Odos motorway, the expansion of the Athens Metro, and the new Athens International Airport), considerably alleviated pollution and transformed Athens into a much more functional city. In 2004, Athens hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Geography
Athens sprawls across the central plain of Attica that is often referred to as the Athens Basin or the Attica Basin (Greek: Λεκανοπέδιο Αθηνών/Αττικής). The basin is bounded by four large mountains: Mount Aigaleo to the west, Mount Parnitha to the north, Mount Pentelicus to the northeast and Mount Hymettus to the east. Beyond Mount Aegaleo lies the Thriasian plain, which forms an extension of the central plain to the west. The Saronic Gulf lies to the southwest. Mount Parnitha is the tallest of the four mountains (1,413 m (4,636 ft)), and has been declared a national park. The Athens urban area spreads over 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Agios Stefanos in the north to Varkiza in the south. The city is located in the north temperate zone, 38 degrees north of the equator.
Athens is built around a number of hills. Lycabettus is one of the tallest hills of the city proper and provides a view of the entire Attica Basin. The meteorology of Athens is deemed to be one of the most complex in the world because its mountains cause a temperature inversion phenomenon which, along with the Greek government's difficulties controlling industrial pollution, was responsible for the air pollution problems the city has faced. This issue is not unique to Athens; for instance, Los Angeles and Mexico City also suffer from similar atmospheric inversion problems.
The Cephissus river, the Ilisos and the Eridanos stream are the historical rivers of Athens.
Environment
By the late 1970s, the pollution of Athens had become so destructive that according to the then Greek Minister of Culture, Constantine Trypanis, "...the carved details on the five the caryatids of the Erechtheum had seriously degenerated, while the face of the horseman on the Parthenon's west side was all but obliterated." A series of measures taken by the authorities of the city throughout the 1990s resulted in the improvement of air quality; the appearance of smog (or nefos as the Athenians used to call it) has become less common.
Measures taken by the Greek authorities throughout the 1990s have improved the quality of air over the Attica Basin. Nevertheless, air pollution still remains an issue for Athens, particularly during the hottest summer days. In late June 2007, the Attica region experienced a number of brush fires, including a blaze that burned a significant portion of a large forested national park in Mount Parnitha, considered critical to maintaining a better air quality in Athens all year round. Damage to the park has led to worries over a stalling in the improvement of air quality in the city.
The major waste management efforts undertaken in the last decade (particularly the plant built on the small island of Psytalia) have greatly improved water quality in the Saronic Gulf, and the coastal waters of Athens are now accessible again to swimmers.
Parks and zoos
Parnitha National Park is punctuated by well-marked paths, gorges, springs, torrents and caves dotting the protected area. Hiking and mountain-biking in all four mountains are popular outdoor activities for residents of the city. The National Garden of Athens was completed in 1840 and is a green refuge of 15.5 hectares in the centre of the Greek capital. It is to be found between the Parliament and Zappeion buildings, the latter of which maintains its own garden of seven hectares. Parts of the City Centre have been redeveloped under a masterplan called the Unification of Archeological Sites of Athens, which has also gathered funding from the EU to help enhance the project. The landmark Dionysiou Areopagitou Street has been pedestrianised, forming a scenic route. The route starts from the Temple of Olympian Zeus at Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, continues under the southern slopes of the Acropolis near Plaka, and finishes just beyond the Temple of Hephaestus in Thiseio. The route in its entirety provides visitors with views of the Parthenon and the Agora (the meeting point of ancient Athenians), away from the busy City Centre.
The hills of Athens also provide green space. Lycabettus, Philopappos hill and the area around it, including Pnyx and Ardettos hill, are planted with pines and other trees, with the character of a small forest rather than typical metropolitan parkland. Also to be found is the Pedion tou Areos (Field of Mars) of 27.7 hectares, near the National Archaeological Museum. Athens' largest zoo is the Attica Zoological Park, a 20-hectare (49-acre) private zoo located in the suburb of Spata. The zoo is home to around 2000 animals representing 400 species, and is open 365 days a year. Smaller zoos exist within public gardens or parks, such as the zoo within the National Garden of Athens.
Climate
Athens has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa). According to the meteorological station near the city center which is operated by the National Observatory of Athens, the downtown area has an annual average temperature of 19.2 °C (66.6 °F) while parts of the urban agglomeration may reach up to 19.8 °C (67.6 °F), being affected by the urban heat island effect. Athens receives about 433.1 millimetres (17.05 in) of precipitation per year, largely concentrated during the colder half of the year with the remaining rainfall falling sparsely, mainly during thunderstorms. Fog is rare in the city center, but somewhat more frequent in areas to the east, close to mount Hymettus.
The southern section of the Athens metropolitan area (i.e., Elliniko, Athens Riviera) lies in the transitional zone between Mediterranean (Csa) and hot semi-arid climate (BSh), with its port-city of Piraeus being the most extreme example, receiving just 331.9 millimetres (13.07 in) per year. The areas to the south generally see less extreme temperature variations as their climate is moderated by the Saronic gulf. The northern part of the city (i.e., Kifissia), owing to its higher elevation, features moderately lower temperatures and slightly increased precipitation year-round. The generally dry climate of the Athens basin compared to the precipitation amounts seen in a typical Mediterranean climate is due to the rain shadow effect caused by the Pindus mountain range and the Dirfys and Parnitha mountains, substantially drying the westerly and northerly winds respectively.
Snowfall is not very common, though it occurs almost annually, but it usually does not cause heavy disruption to daily life, in contrast to the northern parts of the city, where blizzards occur on a somewhat more regular basis. The most recent examples include the snowstorms of 16 February 2021 and 24 January 2022, when the entire urban area was blanketed in snow.
Athens may get particularly hot in the summer, owing partly to the strong urban heat island effect characterizing the city. In fact, Athens is considered to be the hottest city in mainland Europe, and is the first city in Europe to appoint a chief heat officer to deal with severe heat waves. Temperatures of 47.5°C have been reported in several locations of the metropolitan area, including within the urban agglomeration. Metropolitan Athens was until 2021 the holder of the World Meteorological Organization record for the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe with 48.0 °C (118.4 °F) which was recorded in the areas of Elefsina and Tatoi on 10 July 1977.
Administration
Athens became the capital of Greece in 1834, following Nafplion, which was the provisional capital from 1829. The municipality (City) of Athens is also the capital of the Attica region. The term Athens can refer either to the Municipality of Athens, to Greater Athens or urban area, or to the entire Athens Metropolitan Area.
The large City Centre (Greek: Κέντρο της Αθήνας) of the Greek capital falls directly within the Municipality of Athens or Athens Municipality (Greek: Δήμος Αθηναίων)—also City of Athens. Athens Municipality is the largest in population size in Greece. Piraeus also forms a significant city centre on its own within the Athens Urban Area and it is the second largest in population size within it.
Athens Urban Area
The Athens Urban Area (Greek: Πολεοδομικό Συγκρότημα Αθηνών), also known as Urban Area of the Capital (Greek: Πολεοδομικό Συγκρότημα Πρωτεύουσας) or Greater Athens (Greek: Ευρύτερη Αθήνα), today consists of 40 municipalities, 35 of which make up what was referred to as the former Athens Prefecture municipalities, located within 4 regional units (North Athens, West Athens, Central Athens, South Athens); and a further 5 municipalities, which make up the former Piraeus Prefecture municipalities, located within the regional unit of Piraeus as mentioned above.
The Athens Municipality forms the core and center of Greater Athens, which in its turn consists of the Athens Municipality and 40 more municipalities, divided in four regional units (Central, North, South and West Athens), accounting for 2,611,713 people (in 2021) within an area of 361 km2 (139 sq mi). Until 2010, which made up the abolished Athens Prefecture and the municipality of Piraeus, the historic Athenian port, with 4 other municipalities make up the regional unit of Piraeus. The regional units of Central Athens, North Athens, South Athens, West Athens and Piraeus with part of East and West Attica regional units combined make up the continuous Athens Urban Area, also called the "Urban Area of the Capital" or simply "Athens" (the most common use of the term), spanning over 412 km2 (159 sq mi), with a population of 3,059,764 people as of 2021. The Athens Urban Area is considered to form the city of Athens as a whole, despite its administrative divisions, which is the largest in Greece and the 9th most populated urban area in Europe.
Demographics
The Municipality of Athens has an official population of 643,452 people (in 2021). According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, The four regional units that make up what is referred to as Greater Athens have a combined population of 2,611,713 . They together with the regional unit of Piraeus (Greater Piraeus) make up the dense Athens Urban Area which reaches a total population of 3,059,764 inhabitants (in 2021).
The municipality (Center) of Athens is the most populous in Greece, with a population of 643,452 people (in 2021) and an area of 38.96 km2 (15.04 sq mi), forming the core of the Athens Urban Area within the Attica Basin. The incumbent Mayor of Athens is Kostas Bakoyannis of New Democracy. The municipality is divided into seven municipal districts which are mainly used for administrative purposes.
For the Athenians the most popular way of dividing the downtown is through its neighbourhoods such as Pagkrati, Ampelokipoi, Goudi, Exarcheia, Patisia, Ilisia, Petralona, Plaka, Anafiotika, Koukaki, Kolonaki and Kypseli, each with its own distinct history and characteristics.
Safety
Athens ranks in the lowest percentage for the risk on frequency and severity of terrorist attacks according to the EU Global Terrorism Database (EIU 2007–2016 calculations). The city also ranked 35th in Digital Security, 21st on Health Security, 29th on Infrastructure Security and 41st on Personal Security globally in a 2017 The Economist Intelligence Unit report. It also ranks as a very safe city (39th globally out of 162 cities overall) on the ranking of the safest and most dangerous countries. As May 2022 the crime index from Numbeo places Athens at 56.33 (moderate), while its safety index is at 43.68.Crime in Athens According to a Mercer 2019 Quality of Living Survey, Athens ranks 89th on the Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranking.
Economy
Athens is the financial capital of Greece. According to data from 2014, Athens as a metropolitan economic area produced US$130 billion as GDP in PPP, which consists of nearly half of the production for the whole country. Athens was ranked 102nd in that year's list of global economic metropolises, while GDP per capita for the same year was 32,000 US-dollars.
Athens is one of the major economic centres in south-eastern Europe and is considered a regional economic power. The port of Piraeus, where big investments by COSCO have already been delivered during the recent decade, the completion of the new Cargo Centre in Thriasion, the expansion of the Athens Metro and the Athens Tram, as well as the Hellenikon metropolitan park redevelopment in Elliniko and other urban projects, are the economic landmarks of the upcoming years.
Prominent Greek companies such as Hellas Sat, Hellenic Aerospace Industry, Mytilineos Holdings, Titan Cement, Hellenic Petroleum, Papadopoulos E.J., Folli Follie, Jumbo S.A., OPAP, and Cosmote have their headquarters in the metropolitan area of Athens. Multinational companies such as Ericsson, Sony, Siemens, Motorola, Samsung, Microsoft, Teleperformance, Novartis, Mondelez and Coca-Cola also have their regional research and development headquarters in the city.
The banking sector is represented by National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank, Eurobank, and Piraeus Bank, while the Bank of Greece is also situated in the City Centre. The Athens Stock Exchange was severely hit by the Greek government-debt crisis and the decision of the government to proceed into capital controls during summer 2015. As a whole the economy of Athens and Greece was strongly affected, while data showed a change from long recession to growth of 1.4% from 2017 onwards.
Tourism is also a leading contributor to the economy of the city, as one of Europe's top destinations for city-break tourism, and also the gateway for excursions to both the islands and other parts of the mainland. Greece attracted 26.5 million visitors in 2015, 30.1 million visitors in 2017, and over 33 million in 2018, making Greece one of the most visited countries in Europe and the world, and contributing 18% to the country's GDP. Athens welcomed more than 5 million tourists in 2018, and 1.4 million were "city-breakers"; this was an increase by over a million city-breakers since 2013.
Tourism
Athens has been a destination for travellers since antiquity. Over the past decade, the city's infrastructure and social amenities have improved, in part because of its successful bid to stage the 2004 Olympic Games. The Greek Government, aided by the EU, has funded major infrastructure projects such as the state-of-the-art Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, the expansion of the Athens Metro system, and the new Attiki Odos Motorway
Education
Located on Panepistimiou Street, the old campus of the University of Athens, the National Library, and the Athens Academy form the "Athens Trilogy" built in the mid-19th century. The largest and oldest university in Athens is the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Most of the functions of NKUA have been transferred to a campus in the eastern suburb of Zografou. The National Technical University of Athens is located on Patision Street.
The University of West Attica is the second largest university in Athens. The seat of the university is located in the western area of Athens, where the philosophers of Ancient Athens delivered lectures. All the activities of UNIWA are carried out in the modern infrastructure of the three University Campuses within the metropolitan region of Athens (Egaleo Park, Ancient Olive Groove and Athens), which offer modern teaching and research spaces, entertainment and support facilities for all students. Other universities that lie within Athens are the Athens University of Economics and Business, the Panteion University, the Agricultural University of Athens and the University of Piraeus.
There are overall ten state-supported Institutions of Higher (or Tertiary) education located in the Athens Urban Area, these are by chronological order: Athens School of Fine Arts (1837), National Technical University of Athens (1837), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (1837), Agricultural University of Athens (1920), Athens University of Economics and Business (1920), Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (1927), University of Piraeus (1938), Harokopio University of Athens (1990), School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (2002), University of West Attica (2018). There are also several other private colleges, as they called formally in Greece, as the establishment of private universities is prohibited by the constitution. Many of them are accredited by a foreign state or university such as the American College of Greece and the Athens Campus of the University of Indianapolis.
Culture
The city is a world centre of archaeological research. Alongside national academic institutions, such as the Athens University and the Archaeological Society, it is home to multiple archaeological museums, taking in the National Archaeological Museum, the Cycladic Museum, the Epigraphic Museum, the Byzantine & Christian Museum, as well as museums at the ancient Agora, Acropolis, Kerameikos, and the Kerameikos Archaeological Museum. The city is also the setting for the Demokritos laboratory for Archaeometry, alongside regional and national archaeological authorities forming part of the Greek Department of Culture.
Athens hosts 17 Foreign Archaeological Institutes which promote and facilitate research by scholars from their home countries. As a result, Athens has more than a dozen archaeological libraries and three specialized archaeological laboratories, and is the venue of several hundred specialized lectures, conferences and seminars, as well as dozens of archaeological exhibitions each year. At any given time, hundreds of international scholars and researchers in all disciplines of archaeology are to be found in the city.
Athens' most important museums include:
the National Archaeological Museum, the largest archaeological museum in the country, and one of the most important internationally, as it contains a vast collection of antiquities. Its artefacts cover a period of more than 5,000 years, from late Neolithic Age to Roman Greece;
the Benaki Museum with its several branches for each of its collections including ancient, Byzantine, Ottoman-era, Chinese art and beyond;
the Byzantine and Christian Museum, one of the most important museums of Byzantine art;
the National Art Gallery, the nation's eponymous leading gallery, which reopened in 2021 after renovation;
the National Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in 2000 in a former brewery building;
the Numismatic Museum, housing a major collection of ancient and modern coins;
the Museum of Cycladic Art, home to an extensive collection of Cycladic art, including its famous figurines of white marble;
the New Acropolis Museum, opened in 2009, and replacing the old museum on the Acropolis. The new museum has proved considerably popular; almost one million people visited during the summer period June–October 2009 alone. A number of smaller and privately owned museums focused on Greek culture and arts are also to be found.
the Kerameikos Archaeological Museum, a museum which displays artifacts from the burial site of Kerameikos. Much of the pottery and other artifacts relate to Athenian attitudes towards death and the afterlife, throughout many ages.
the Jewish Museum of Greece, a museum which describes the history and culture of the Greek Jewish community.
Architecture
Athens incorporates architectural styles ranging from Greco-Roman and Neoclassical to Modern. They are often to be found in the same areas, as Athens is not marked by a uniformity of architectural style. A visitor will quickly notice the absence of tall buildings: Athens has very strict height restriction laws in order to ensure the Acropolis Hill is visible throughout the city. Despite the variety in styles, there is evidence of continuity in elements of the architectural environment throughout the city's history.
For the greatest part of the 19th century Neoclassicism dominated Athens, as well as some deviations from it such as Eclecticism, especially in the early 20th century. Thus, the Old Royal Palace was the first important public building to be built, between 1836 and 1843. Later in the mid and late 19th century, Theophil Freiherr von Hansen and Ernst Ziller took part in the construction of many neoclassical buildings such as the Athens Academy and the Zappeion Hall. Ziller also designed many private mansions in the centre of Athens which gradually became public, usually through donations, such as Schliemann's Iliou Melathron.
Beginning in the 1920s, modern architecture including Bauhaus and Art Deco began to exert an influence on almost all Greek architects, and buildings both public and private were constructed in accordance with these styles. Localities with a great number of such buildings include Kolonaki, and some areas of the centre of the city; neighbourhoods developed in this period include Kypseli.
In the 1950s and 1960s during the extension and development of Athens, other modern movements such as the International style played an important role. The centre of Athens was largely rebuilt, leading to the demolition of a number of neoclassical buildings. The architects of this era employed materials such as glass, marble and aluminium, and many blended modern and classical elements. After World War II, internationally known architects to have designed and built in the city included Walter Gropius, with his design for the US Embassy, and, among others, Eero Saarinen, in his postwar design for the east terminal of the Ellinikon Airport.
Urban sculpture
Across the city numerous statues or busts are to be found. Apart from the neoclassicals by Leonidas Drosis at the Academy of Athens (Plato, Socrates, Apollo and Athena), others in notable categories include the statue of Theseus by Georgios Fytalis at Thiseion; depictions of philhellenes such as Lord Byron, George Canning, and William Gladstone; the equestrian statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis by Lazaros Sochos in front of the Old Parliament; statues of Ioannis Kapodistrias, Rigas Feraios and Adamantios Korais at the University; of Evangelos Zappas and Konstantinos Zappas at the Zappeion; Ioannis Varvakis at the National Garden; the" Woodbreaker" by Dimitrios Filippotis; the equestrian statue of Alexandros Papagos in the Papagou district; and various busts of fighters of Greek independence at the Pedion tou Areos. A significant landmark is also the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma.
Entertainment and performing arts
Athens is home to 148 theatrical stages, more than any other city in the world, including the ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus, home to the Athens Festival, which runs from May to October each year. In addition to a large number of multiplexes, Athens plays host to open air garden cinemas. The city also supports music venues, including the Athens Concert Hall (Megaro Moussikis), which attracts world class artists. The Athens Planetarium, located in Andrea Syngrou Avenue, in Palaio Faliro is one of the largest and best equipped digital planetaria in the world. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, inaugurated in 2016, will house the National Library of Greece and the Greek National Opera. In 2018 Athens was designated as the World Book Capital by UNESCO.
Restaurants, tavernas and bars can be found in the entertainment hubs in Plaka and the Trigono areas of the historic centre, the inner suburbs of Gazi and Psyrri are especially busy with nightclubs and bars, while Kolonaki, Exarchia, Metaxourgeio, Koukaki and Pangrati offer more of a cafe and restaurant scene. The coastal suburbs of Microlimano, Alimos and Glyfada include many tavernas, beach bars and busy summer clubs.
The most successful songs during the period 1870–1930 were the Athenian serenades (Αθηναϊκές καντάδες), based on the Heptanesean kantádhes (καντάδες 'serenades'; sing.: καντάδα) and the songs performed on stage (επιθεωρησιακά τραγούδια 'theatrical revue songs') in revues, musical comedies, operettas and nocturnes that were dominating Athens' theatre scene.
In 1922, following the war, genocide and later population exchange suffered by the Greek population of Asia Minor, many ethnic Greeks fled to Athens. They settled in poor neighbourhoods and brought with them Rebetiko music, making it also popular in Greece, and which later became the base for the Laïko music. Other forms of song popular today in Greece are elafrolaika, entechno, dimotika, and skyladika. Greece's most notable, and internationally famous, composers of Greek song, mainly of the entechno form, are Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis. Both composers have achieved fame abroad for their composition of film scores.
The renowned American-born Greek soprano Maria Callas spent her teenage years in Athens, where she settled in 1937. Her professional opera career started in 1940 in Athens, with the Greek National Opera. In 2018, the city's municipal Olympia Theatre was renamed to "Olympia City Music Theatre 'Maria Callas'" and in 2023, the Municipality inaugurated the Maria Callas Museum, housing it in a neoclassical building on 44 Mitropoleos street.
Sports
The Panathenaic Stadium of Athens (Kallimarmaron) dates back to the fourth century BC and has hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.
Agia Sophia Stadium
Athens has a long tradition in sports and sporting events, serving as home to the most important clubs in Greek sport and housing a large number of sports facilities. The city has also been host to sports events of international importance.
Athens has hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice, in 1896 and 2004. The 2004 Summer Olympics required the development of the Athens Olympic Stadium, which has since gained a reputation as one of the most beautiful stadiums in the world, and one of its most interesting modern monuments. The biggest stadium in the country, it hosted two finals of the UEFA Champions League, in 1994 and 2007. Athens' other major stadiums are the Karaiskakis Stadium located in Piraeus, a sports and entertainment complex, host of the 1971 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final, and Agia Sophia Stadium located in Nea Filadelfeia.
Athens has hosted the EuroLeague final three times, the
Visciano is a rural settlement about 8kms south of Narni, so small, that this church often is named "Santa Pudenziana of Narni". Maybe the hamlet, located near an ancient Roman road, had some (meanwhile forgotten) importance thousand years ago.
Not much is known about this church. Most scholars date the building to the 10th or 11th century. It was built, using recycled materials coming from other roman and paleochristian edifices in area.
It is characterised by a high belfry tower, raised on the remains of a smaller original tower dated around 7th/8th century.
In winter sunset is pretty early in Umbria - and then it often got really foggy.
Eduardo Vianna (1881-1967) - Pousada de ciganos [Gypsies' settlement] (ca. 1923). In the collection of the Museu Nacional de Arte Contempoarânea, (MNAC) Lisbon.
Ancient Aizanoi......Settlement in the area is known from the Bronze Age. The city may have derived its name from Azan, one of three sons of Arcas and the nymph Erato, legendary ancestors of the Phrygians.[2][3] During the Hellenistic period the city changed hands between the Kingdom of Pergamum and the Kingdom of Bithynia, before being bequeathed to Rome by the former in 133 BC. It continued to mint its own coins.[1] Its monumental buildings date from the early Empire to the 3rd century. Aezani was part of the Roman province of Phrygia Pacatiana. It became a Christian bishopric at an early stage, and its bishop Pisticus (or Pistus) was a participant at the First Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council, in 325. Pelagius was at a synod that Patriarch John II of Constantinople hastily organized in 518 and that condemned Severus of Antioch; he was also at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. Gregory was at the Trullan Council of 692, John at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, and Theophanes at both the Council of Constantinople (869) and the Council of Constantinople (879).[4][5] The bishopric was at first a suffragan of Laodicea but, when Phrygia Pacatiana was divided into two provinces, it found itself a suffragan of Hierapolis, the capital of the new province of Phrygia Pacatiana II.[6][7] No longer a residential bishopric, Aezani is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see. After the 7th century, Aezani fell into decline. Later, in Seljuk times, the temple hill was converted into a citadel (Turkish: hisar) by Çavdar Tatars, after which the recent settlement of Çavdarhisar is named.[1][2][3] The ruins of Aezani/Aizanoi were discovered by European travellers in 1824. Survey work in the 1830s and 1840s was followed by systematic excavation conducted by the German Archaeological Institute from 1926, resumed in 1970, and still ongoing
Aizanoi's theatre-stadium are built adjacent to each other and this combined complex is said to be unique in the ancient world. Separating the two is the stage building. Construction began after 160 A.D. and was complete by the mid-third century. Inscriptions again attest to the benefaction of M. Apuleius Eurycles.
Grumant is a former Russian company settlement in Svalbard, Norway, established in 1912 and abandoned in 1965. The population was (including Coles Bay, which served the settlement's port) at about 1,000 in 1951. The name Grumant is of Pomory origin, and is also used to refer to the whole of the Svalbard archipelago.
Grumant is located on Spitsbergen, the largest of the Svalbard archipelago's islands, about 10 kilometres from Longyearbyen, the administrative centre.
"The Old Town of Prague (Czech: Staré Město pražské, German: Prager Altstadt) is a medieval settlement of Prague, Czech Republic. It was separated from the outside by a semi-circular moat and wall, connected to the Vltava river at both of its ends. The moat is now covered up by the streets (from north to south-west) Revoluční, Na Příkopě, and Národní—which remain the official boundary of the cadastral community of Old Town. It is now part of Prague 1.
Notable places in the Old Town include Old Town Square and Astronomical Clock. The Old Town is surrounded by the New Town of Prague. Across the river Vltava connected by the Charles Bridge is the Lesser Town of Prague (Czech: Malá Strana). The former Jewish Town (Josefov) is located in the northwest corner of Old Town heading towards the Vltava.
Prague (/ˈprɑːɡ/ PRAHG; Czech: Praha [ˈpraɦa]; German: Prag [pʁaːk]; Latin: Praga) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate oceanic climate, with relatively warm summers and chilly winters.
Prague is a political, cultural, and economic hub of central Europe, with a rich history and Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architectures. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia and residence of several Holy Roman Emperors, most notably Charles IV (r. 1346–1378) and Rudolf II (r. 1575–1611).
It was an important city to the Habsburg monarchy and Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city played major roles in the Bohemian and the Protestant Reformations, the Thirty Years' War and in 20th-century history as the capital of Czechoslovakia between the World Wars and the post-war Communist era.
Prague is home to a number of well-known cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence and destruction of 20th-century Europe. Main attractions include Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square with the Prague astronomical clock, the Jewish Quarter, Petřín hill and Vyšehrad. Since 1992, the historic center of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
The city has more than ten major museums, along with numerous theatres, galleries, cinemas, and other historical exhibits. An extensive modern public transportation system connects the city. It is home to a wide range of public and private schools, including Charles University in Prague, the oldest university in Central Europe.
Prague is classified as a "Alpha-" global city according to GaWC studies. In 2019, the city was ranked as 69th most livable city in the world by Mercer. In the same year, the PICSA Index ranked the city as 13th most livable city in the world. Its rich history makes it a popular tourist destination and as of 2017, the city receives more than 8.5 million international visitors annually. In 2017, Prague was listed as the fifth most visited European city after London, Paris, Rome, and Istanbul.
Bohemia (Latin Bohemia, German Böhmen, Polish Czechy) is a region in the west of the Czech Republic. Previously, as a kingdom, they were the center of the Czech Crown. The root of the word Czech probably corresponds to the meaning of man. The Latin equivalent of Bohemia, originally Boiohaemum (literally "land of Battles"), which over time also influenced the names in other languages, is derived from the Celtic tribe of the Boios, who lived in this area from the 4th to the 1st century BC Bohemia on it borders Germany in the west, Austria in the south, Moravia in the east and Poland in the north. Geographically, they are bounded from the north, west and south by a chain of mountains, the highest of which are the Krkonoše Mountains, in which the highest mountain of Bohemia, Sněžka, is also located. The most important rivers are the Elbe and the Vltava, with the fertile Polabean Plain extending around the Elbe. The capital and largest city of Bohemia is Prague, other important cities include, for example, Pilsen, Karlovy Vary, Kladno, Ústí nad Labem, Liberec, Hradec Králové, Pardubice and České Budějovice, Jihlava also lies partly on the historical territory of Bohemia." - info from Wikipedia.
Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.
Now on Instagram.
The Moravian–Silesian Beskids (Czech: Moravskoslezské Beskydy, Slovak: Moravsko-sliezske Beskydy) is a mountain range in the Czech Republic with a small part reaching to Slovakia. It lies on the historical division between Moravia and Silesia, hence the name. It is part of the Western Beskids, which is in turn part of the Outer Western Carpathians.
The mountains were created during the Alpine Orogeny in the Tertiary. Geologically, they consist mainly of flysch deposits. In the north, they steeply rise nearly 1,000 m (3,300 ft) over a rather flat landscape; in the south, they slowly merge with the Javorníky. In the south-west, they are separated from the Vsetínské vrchy by the Rožnovská Bečva valley; in the north-east, the Jablunkov Pass separates them from the Silesian Beskids.
The highest point is Lysá hora mountain at 1,323 m (4,341 ft), which is one of the rainiest places in the Czech Republic with around 1,500 mm (60 in) of precipitation a year. Many legends are bound to Radhošť Mountain, 1,129 m (3,704 ft), which is one of the most visited places in the mountains together with the nearby Pustevny resort.
The Moravian-Silesian Beskids create the largest part of the Beskydy Landscape Protected Area (Czech: Chráněná krajinná oblast Beskydy or Czech: CHKO Beskydy for short). The mountains are 80% forested, though mainly by plantations of spruce which were in some parts severely damaged by emissions from the Ostrava industrial region. Originally, the mountains were covered by mixed forest with dominant beech which are preserved in many places. Recently, permanent occurrence of all three large Central European carnivours – lynx, bear and wolf – have been confirmed in the area.
(Wikipedia)
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During last October, we did another autumn pro-longed weekend hike across the eastern part of the Moravian–Silesian Beskids, which is far much less visited that its western part - nice weather, fine views, solitude, and lots of freedom - it's an area definitely worth visiting and exploration.
This time, the itinerary was as follows: Mosty u Jablunkova -> Skalka -> Úplaz -> Mionší -> Kamenitý -> Kozubová -> Návsí -> Filipka -> Velký Stožek -> Velký Sošek -> Velká Čantoryje -> Nýdek.
Taken at Filipka hill and settlement comprised of a few scattered houses.
(from - Wrigley's 1918 British Columbia Directory) - WILLIAMS SIDING - a post office and settlement on the C. P. Railway, 4 1/2 miles west of Nelson, on the Nelson-Rossland branch, Ymir Riding, and Trail Provincial Electoral District. Nelson is nearest telegraph office. Local resources: Cooper mining, fruit growing, ranching and lumbering.
LINKS to articles about Williams Siding - www.trailtimes.ca/opinion/place-names-taghum/ and www.nelsonstar.com/news/rare-taghum-area-postmark-nets-116/
The Williams Siding Post Office opened on Feb. 1, 1906, named after founding postmaster James Nicholas Williams (1861-1931). Bell and Lambert each subsequently took turns at postmaster, as did Joshua Marsden, who has a road named after him. The post office remained Williams Siding until 1924, when it was renamed Taghum - 1 May 1924. The Taghum Post Office closed in 1970.
LINK to a list of the Postmasters who served at the Williams Siding Post Office - www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/postal-heritage-philately/...;
sent from - / WILLIAMS SIDING / MR 14 / 11 / B.C. / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer (A-1) was not listed in the Proof Book - it was most likely proofed c. 1906 - (RF E / now RF E2).
(from - Wrigley's 1918 British Columbia Directory) - FRASER MILLS - a post office, town and municipality on Fraser River, 3 1/2 miles from New Westminster, in Provincial Electoral District of Dewdney, reached by C. P. R. and B. C. Electric Railways. The population in 1918 was 900. Local resources: Lumber manufacturing, veneer, sash and doors and shingles and towing. Was MILLSIDE; became NEW WESTMINSTER Sub Office FRASER MILLS.
arrived at - / FRASER MILLS / MR 16 / 11 / (inverted date indicia) / B.C. / - cds backstamp
Message on postcard is written in French - Cher Papa - A vous nos ..... Angela "Girardi" Dherin sent her father "Joseph Girardi" an Easter postcard - she also mentions her husband August Dherin in the message. They were living in Williams Siding, B.C. at this time...August was working in the saw mills. They immigrated to Canada in June 1905 and then relocated to the USA c. 1912 settling in Sumner, Pierce County, Washington.
Angela (Angelius) "Geraldi" Dherin
Birth - December 1888 in France
Death - 21 Dec 1915 (aged 24–25) in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington, USA - LINK to her death certificate - images.findagrave.com/photos/2014/75/99960339_1395089197.jpg
Her husband - August Dherin
Birth - December 1876 in Italy
Death -
Addressed to to her father: Mr. Joseph Girardi / Fraser Mills / B.C. / (near New Westminster)
Joseph Girardi
(b. 9 March 1850 in Italy - d. 18 January 1917 at age 66 in Sumas, Whatcom County, Washington / USA)
He immigrated to Canada in 1905 settling in the Fraser Mills, B.C. area - his occupation was working in the saw mills and farming. Around 1912 the Girardi family immigrated to the USA settling in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington.
His wife: Theresa "Rodio" Girardi (b. 31 October 1858 in Italy - d. 14 April 1936 at age 77 in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington, USA)
Day seven of my hike from Wamena in the Dani territory of the Baliem Valley to the Yalimo, home of the Yali. The evening before I had completed the climb down the cliff / slopes, a vertical descent of some 1500m that took me 9-10 hours, to reach the settlement where we raised our tents. On day seven, there was to be no hiking - a day to live with the Yali and learn about them. I watched as they cut wood and prepared rocks for a fire pit, as they cooked our meal and also as they demonstrated various dances and singing / chanting, My feet were in poor shape and I was advised to spend much of the day resting them.
The window panes with the newspapers are from the Upside Down House from Stranger Things.
The mudguard of the bus looks simple but uses some SNOT techniques for the right positioning.
Instruction available at Rebrickable
I’ve wanted to build a sci-fi city again since I tore down Undiri, but it took me five days to disassemble and sort my Brickworld ships as well as the other pieces that I brought with me. That’s FIVE days, my fellow FOLs. I’m sure some have taken more time, but it’s the most I’ve ever had to devote to sorting, and as soon as I was done, I swore off LEGO forever…or about ten minutes, whichever came first.
I went after the city in the same night that I finished my sorting and decided quickly that I was going to build something that wouldn’t take the better part of a week to disassemble, while sacrificing as little in the way of form and detail as possible. This is my first attempt at mountains, as well as any kind of landscaping. The scale is much smaller than anything I’ve done to date. So there were many firsts for me here. All things considered, I’m actually pretty pleased with the results.
A settlement has existed here already before Romans and Gauls settled here, the town Belleville was actually founded by the House of Beaujeu. Humbert III de Beaujeu (+ 1194), the 8th Sir de Beaujeu, had a city wall built and founded a commanderie that in 1158 was converted into a Augustinian priory and 6 years later became an abbey.
The church, that now serves the parish is the only remaining structure of this abbey. The construction of the large church (63m long) started in 1168. It was completed only 11 years later and was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin in 1179.
The nave (and the choir) seem already early Gothic in some parts. The church was the burial site for the House of Beaujeu. Though much of the interior got destroyed durig the Wars of the Religions, there are still nice (and well restored) Romanesque carvings and capitals here.
I have already uploaded many photos of the unusual capitals, I took during previous visits. So I will just add a few "new" ones.
Tappen is a settlement in British Columbia. It is colloquially known as "Rust Valley", and is the location of the TV show Rust Valley Restorers. Tappen is located 6 miles north of Salmon Arm. It was named after Herbert Tappen, CPR constuction contractor in the 1880's, from Massachusetts; was a cousin of Andrew Onderdonk, chief CPR contractor in British Columbia, and a partner or sub-contractor of Temple Frederick Sinclair. A misspelling of Tappan, the name of one of the sub-contractors who laid the CPR track along here in 1884.
(from - Wrigley's 1918 British Columbia directory) - TAPPEN - a post office and fruit-growing settlement 9 miles west of Salmon Arm, in Kamloops Provincial Electoral District, on main line C. P. R. Has Presbyterian church. The population in 1918 was 200. Local resources: Fruit-growing and dairying.
Sawmill located here c. 1883; Tappen Siding Post Office opened here - 1 July 1892, F. McCulla, postmaster; closed - 1 February 1897. Brightwater Post Office was opened in this location - 1 August 1908, H.C. Banks, postmaster; name changed to Tappen Post Office - 1 August 1911.
LINK to all of the Postmasters who served at the TAPPEN Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record...
sent from - / TAPPEN / JUL 27 / 36 / B.C / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer (A1-1) was proofed - 19 August 1911 - (RF B).
GLENEDEN - While it is now a rural suburb of Salmon Arm, Gleneden was once a thriving Finnish farming community where residents shared a passion for sports, theatre, potlucks, music and other social activities. According to Hans Kusisto, the son of one of the area’s early Finnish pioneers, it was the first settler, Emerson Bowman, who chose the name Gleneden, as the valley reminded him of a glen back in his native country England and he deemed that its paradise nature was like the biblical Eden.
Addressed to: Mrs. G. Stirling / Gleneden / R.R. 2 - Salmon Arm, British Columbia
Daisy Gertrude "Burcher" Stirling
Born - 19 December 1881 in Derby, England
Death - 21 February 1972 in Victoria, British Columbia
Her husband was: George Faulds Stirling (February 26, 1877 – November 7, 1966) was an English-born educator, rancher and political figure in British Columbia. He represented Salmon Arm in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1942 to 1945 as a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) member. He was born in Middlesbrough and moved to Canada in the early 1900s. Stirling first worked in lumber camps in British Columbia as a logger and carpenter. He next worked as a clerk and immigration agent, then as a teacher in the Okanagan region. Stirling ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the provincial assembly in 1912 as a Socialist candidate, in 1924 as a Labour candidate and in 1933 and 1937 as a CCF candidate before being elected in a 1942 by-election held after the death of Rolf Wallgren Bruhn. He was defeated when he ran for re-election in 1945. He also ran unsuccessfully for the Kamloops federal seat in 1935. Stirling later owned a ranch on Shuswap Lake. He died in Victoria at the age of 88.
Port Arthur is a small town and former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia. Port Arthur is one of Australia's most significant heritage areas and an open-air museum.
The site forms part of the Australian Convict Sites, a World Heritage property consisting of eleven remnant penal sites originally built within the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries on fertile Australian coastal strips. Collectively, these sites, including Port Arthur, now represent, "...the best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and the colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of convicts."[3]
Port Arthur is officially Tasmania's top tourist attraction. It is located approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) south east of the state capital, Hobart. In 1996 it was the scene of the worst mass murder event in post-colonial Australian history
Swan Hill.
It has been estimated that the largest group of Aborigines (about 600) in what was to become Victoria lived in the Swan Hill district prior to white settlement. The first white men to see this area were the crew of Captain Charles Sturt’s exploration of the Murray River system in 1830. Sturt’s published report in 1832 excited others to see this district. The next to do so was Major Thomas Mitchell on his 1836 Australia Felix explorations of the Murray and the Western Districts of Victoria. In fact it was Mitchell who named the location Swan Hill. Three years later in 1839 illegal squatters moved into the Swan Hill area. They had been encouraged by the success of Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney (January-April 1838) and Edward John Eyre (October-November 1838) who had all overlanded the first cattle and sheep from the Albury district of NSW along the River Murray into South Australia and down to the sale yards of Adelaide. One of the first official leaseholds was granted in 1847 for the Murray Downs property across the river from Swan Hill. NSW was reluctant to allow squatters along the River Murray but they could not resist once illegal squatters moved along the Murray. Murray Downs and its grand homestead (built in 1870) still stand and the property had a major influence on the later development of the town of Swan Hill. It covered 150,000 acres and most development occurred under the ownership of Suetonius and Charles Officer from 1862 to 1883 and then Charles Campbell took over from 1884. The other early property near Swan Hill was Tyntyndyer station of about 30,000 acres. It was occupied from 1846 with a formal leasehold later in 1848. The Beveridge brothers especially Black Beveridge ran the property. Black Beveridge was known for his good relations with the local Aboriginal people when others did not have a good relationship. Despite this Aboriginal and white deaths still occurred on Tyntyndyer station in the early years. The early timber homestead is now heritage listed. Tyntyndyer station ran up to Piangil and inland. It was owned by the Beveridge brothers until 1876. It is now owned by the local Aboriginal community and sometimes opened as a museum of Aboriginal experience on a white pastoral estate. Another important property was the Swan Hill run itself taken out by Curlewis and Campbell in 1848. Their leasehold covered 60,000 acres in the Swan Hill district.
Swan Hill was a town that emerged rather than a town that was surveyed and created. The crossing of the River Murray at Swan Hill was the best and easiest for a 100 mile stretch of the river so naturally travellers and stockmen gravitated to that spot. A kind of ferry/punt service began at the spot in 1847 and around the same time Gideon Rutherford and John McCrae opened the Lower Murray Inn. They were still the licensees in 1853. Others settled near the river crossing and the hotel. The punt service was taken over by John Gray in 1860 and he and his family operated it for 30 years until the first pontoon bridge was built across the River Murray in 1891. Back in 1849 the NSW government began a mail service to Swan Hill from Mount Macedon and opened the first Swan Hill Post Office with John McCrae of the Lower Murray Inn (then the Swan Hill Inn) as the first Post Master. There were settlers in the district but no town as such existed at that time. The NSW government also employed Native Troopers at Swan Hill from 1850 to quell any violence. In 1851 the Swan Hill district became part of the new colony of Victoria and the first elections were held and a Police Constable was stationed there from 1851 and court sessions were held there from 1852. Then the discovery of gold late in 1851 at Bendigo was to transform the district as failed gold diggers moved north to the River Murray to start a new life. This was followed by the arrival of the first two River Murray steamers from South Australia in 1853 – The Lady Augusta captained by Cadell of Goolwa and the Mary Ann captained by William Randell of Mannum. From 1853 onwards Swan Hill was a different place with goods coming and going to South Australia and up the Darling River on the paddle steamers and overland traffic of goods to and from the major centre of gold mining at Bendigo and Mt Alexander. To commemorate the importance of the river trade both Captains Cadell and Randell are listed as men of influence in the town on the Explorers Obelisk in McCallum Street. Before the railway reached Swan Hill in 1890 there were 222 registered paddle steamers on the River Murray in Victoria.
The first survey of Swan Hill was undertaken in 1851 by Surveyor Pritchard and the streets were marked out. But the town was tiny and had few stone or brick buildings before 1858. The government appointed a doctor for Swan Hill in 1857. The first brick general store was built in 1858. The first butcher shop opened in 1858. There were few buildings in the early town except for two hotels, the general store, the pine log courthouse and a few houses. In 1860 the population of Swan Hill was 142. The first bakery opened in 1860. The first church was a weatherboard Anglican erected in 1865. As late as 1876 Swan Hill only less than 200 residents. Burke and Wills on their famous and ill-fated expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria camped on the river banks at Swan Hill for several weeks. It was not a great town at that time. The first school in Swan Hill opened in 1862 with 21 students but closed for lack of funds several months later. A small private school opened and the state school did not open until 1871! The government used other premises until 1874 when they erected a wooden classroom. The first brick building was built in 1876 and is now part of the Catholic School. The first Methodist church services were held in Swan Hill in 1881 and the first weatherboard church was erected in 1886. A new brick Methodist church was built in 1918. Presbyterian Church services began in Swan Hill in 1871 at Murray Downs homestead. Mrs Suetonius Officer laid the foundation stone of the Presbyterian Church in 1872 with it opening in in that same year. This church was moved to a new site in 1910 and some materials were used in building a new church which opened in 1913. This Presbyterian Church was again moved and rebuilt in 1944 in Curlewis Street.
The 1880s saw great growth and change in Swan Hill. The population jumped from 250 people in 1880 to 820 people by 1887. Two new banks opened in this period, with the National Bank opening in 1888. The first brick water tower was erected in 1885 to provide reticulated town water. At the end of the decade the railway reached Swan Hill and the railway station was built followed by many residences in the 1890s. The flour mill was built in this decade too and the first steel bridge across the Murray opened in 1896. The 1890s was also the decade in which irrigation pumps were installed along the River Murray for irrigated crops and land use. This increased the rural population surrounding the town and then after World War One soldier settler blocks were established near Swan Hill at Woorinen with vines and fruit trees and near Tyntynder with dairying. Vines and dairying became major rural industries. So in many respects Swan Hill is a 20th century town. A second water tower, the butter factory and many other industrial structures all were built in the 20th century. Today Swan Hill has around 10,000 residents and it is known for the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement which is a recreation of the town and district in the 19th and early 20th century. In the evening they hold a spectacular Heartbeat of the Murray Laser Show.