CZECH REPUBLIC: Historic Centre of Prague

   Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe in terms of its setting on both banks of the Vltava River, its townscape of burger houses and palaces punctuated by towers, and its individual buildings.

   The Historic Centre represents a supreme manifestation of Medieval urbanism (the New Town of Emperor Charles IV built as the New Jerusalem). The Prague architectural works of the Gothic Period (14th and 15th centuries), of the High Baroque of the 1st half of the 18th century and of the rising modernism after the year 1900, influenced the development of Central Europe, perhaps even all European architecture. Prague represents one of the most prominent world centres of creative life in the field of urbanism and architecture across generations, human mentality and beliefs.

    Prague belongs to the group of historic cities which have preserved the structure of their development until the present times. Within the core of Prague, successive stages of growth and changes have respected the original grand-scale urban structure of the Early Middle Ages. This structure was essentially and greatly enlarged with urban activities in the High Gothic period with more additions during the High Baroque period and in the 19th century. It has been saved from any large-scale urban renewal or massive demolitions and thus preserves its overall configuration, pattern and spatial composition.

   In the course of the 1100 years of its existence, Prague’s development can be documented in the architectural expression of many historical periods and their styles. The city is rich in outstanding monuments from all periods of its history. Of particular importance are Prague Castle, the Cathedral of St Vitus, Hradćany Square in front of the Castle, the Valdgtejn Palace on the left bank of the river, the Gothic Charles Bridge, the Romanesque Rotunda of the Holy Rood, the Gothic arcaded houses round the Old Town Square, the High Gothic Minorite Church of St James in the Stark Mĕsto, the late 19th century buildings and town plan of the Nave Mĕsto.

As early as the Middle Ages, Prague became one of the leading cultural centres of Christian Europe. The Prague University, founded in 1348, is one of the earliest in Europe. The milieu of the University in the last quarter of the 14th century and the first years of the 15th century contributed among other things to the formation of ideas of the Hussite Movement which represented in fact the first steps of the European Reformation. 

Prague is an urban architectural ensemble of outstanding quality, in terms of both its individual monuments and its townscape, and one that is deservedly world-famous.

SPAIN: Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada

   Received thanx to Fabienne.

    
Alhambra: Court of the Arrayanes. Engraved in the 19th century.
  

     Unique artistic creations, the Alhambra and the Generalife of Granada bear exceptional testimony to Muslim Spain of the 16th century. They form an exceptional example of royal Arab residences of the medieval period: neither destroyed nor changed by the alterations of radical restorations, the Alhambra and the Generalife appear to have escaped the vicissitudes of time. Despite the development that followed the Christian conquest, the Albayzín still bears witness to the medieval Moorish settlement, as its urban fabric, architecture and main characteristics (form, materials, colours), were not changed when it was adapted to the Christian way of life, to survive as a remarkable example of a Spanish-Moorish town.
 
Received thanx to Ana

   Archaeological excavations have shown that the hill where the Albayzín is now situated has been occupied continuously from as early as the Roman period. In the mid-8th century the region's governor built a fortress where the Plaza de San Nicolás is now located. After the disappearance of the Caliphate of Cordoba (1031), the ephemeral Zirid Emirate of Granada replaced it until 1090: the emirs devoted themselves to the embellishment of their capital, constructed on a site of exceptional beauty. A new defensive enclosure was added and around this a settlement grew up. The town prospered under the Nasrid dynasty and this was reflected by considerable development of the city, but Granada did not become of the important centres of Muslim Spain until much later - in 1238, when Muhammad ibn al Ahmar founded the present Alhambra.

     The palace was essentially completed in the 14th century by Yusuf I and his son Mohammed V. It is organized around two rectangular courts, the patio de Los Arrayanes and the Patio de Los Lames, and includes a large number of rooms of a highly refined taste, with marble columns, stalactite cupolas, ornamental works in stucco, gaily coloured azulejos , precious wood inlayed and sculpted, and paintings on leather compete with the richness and the delicacy of the natural decor: the water, still and sparkling in immense basins, flows out into the basins of the fountains (the circular fountain of the Court of Lions), glides through narrow canals, and explodes into jets of water or falls in refreshing cascades.

SPAIN: University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá de Henares

  Received thanx to Fabienne.

    

  Alcalá de Henares was the first city to be designed and built solely as the seat of a university, and was to serve as the model for other centres of learning in Europe and the Americas. The concept of the ideal city, the City of God (Civitas Dei ), was first given material expression there, from where it was widely diffused throughout the world.

   Unlike other university cities in Europe, Alcalá de Henares did not develop slowly, adapting itself to its urban surroundings. From the start it was conceived by Cisneros as an entity, which took over a partly abandoned medieval town and converted it into a city whose function was solely that of a university. This involved the creation of houses to lodge professors and students and the provision of services such as a sewer system and paved streets. The little Chapel of St Justus was rebuilt as a church and given the title 'Magistral'. More centres of learning were added progressively: there were eventually to be 25 Colegios Menores, while eight large monasteries were also colleges of the university.

     The primary objective of the university was to train administrators for the Church and for the Spanish Empire. The Complutense Polyglot Bible (1514-17) illustrates the type of work that began in Alcalá: a masterpiece of typography, it took ten years to complete and established the bases of modern linguistic analysis as well as the accepted structure for dictionaries. This work was supported by that of Antonio de Nebrija, author of the first European grammar of a Romance language, published in 1492, which was to be the model for similar grammars in many European and Native American languages. From the mid-17th century, however, the number of students, estimated to have been over 12,000 in the 16th century, begin to decline in favour of Madrid, where the Church had begun to establish university colleges and convents on the Alcalá model. In 1836 the university was transferred to Madrid, where it survives today under the title of the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1974 the university established a School of Economics in Alcalá, and the present University of Alcalá de Henares was inaugurated.

    The University Precinct begins at the Plaza Cervantes and extends to the east of the medieval city. It was enclosed by demolishing part of the earlier medieval walls and prolonging them round the new urban development. The walled medieval precinct has the Iglesia Magistral (cathedral), a Gothic structure, at its core, from which the street network radiates, merging into the former Jewish and Arab quarters. To the north-west is the ecclesiastical precinct, surrounded by its own walls; at its heart is the Archbishop's Palace.

SPAIN: Archaeological Site of Atapuerca

Received thanx to Fabienne.

   The Sierra de Atapuerca sites provide unique testimony of the origin and evolution both of the existing human civilization and of other cultures that have disappeared. The evolutionary line or lines from the African ancestors of modern humankind are documented in these sites. The earliest and most abundant evidence of humankind in Europe is to be found in the Sierra de Atapuerca. The sites constitute an exceptional example of continuous human occupation, due to their special ecosystems and their geographical location. The fossil remains in the Sierra de Atapuerca are an invaluable reserve of information about the physical nature and the way of life of the earliest human communities in Europe.
   The Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary period is dated to 2.4 million to c 10,000 BP (Note Early dates resulting from scientific dating techniques are expressed as "years BP" - ie years before the conventional date of 1950 on which all radiocarbon dating is based.) The earliest fossil hominid remains in Europe, from c 800,000 BP as established by palaeomagnetic analysis, were found in the Gran Dolina site in the Sierra de Atapuerca, one of the Trinchera del Ferrocarril group. They are associated with simple stone tools of the Pre-Acheulean (Mode I) type, which is consistent with the dating of the earliest levels of this site. Also in the Trinchera del Ferrocarril group of sites are those known as Tres Simas. The oldest human remains from the Galería site have been dated to between 200,000 and 400,000 BP, associated with Acheulean (Mode II) stone tools.

Similar dates have been established for human skeletal remains from the Sima de los Huesos in the Cueva Mayor. The absence of herbivores consumed by humans in this site, where the remains of no fewer than 32 humans have been discovered, suggests that this may have been a mortuary site. If so, it is the earliest yet recorded. The relatively large sample, largely of adolescents and young adults, has permitted a number of important studies to be carried out on the palaeopathology of this population, the growth and development of individuals, and their average size.

SPAIN: Monastery and Site of the Escurial, Madrid

Received thanx to Fabienne.

    An exemplary votive monument, the retreat of a mystic king, the Escurial was, during the closing years of the reign of Philip II, the paradoxical centre of the greatest political power of that period. This royal monastery dedicated to St Lawrence is a unique artistic achievement. There is nothing in the project, in the form or in the design of this monument, which is not exceptional. Although out of keeping with the national temperament, the Escurial exerted a considerable influence in Spain during almost half a century: the gigantic unfinished cathedral of the Asunción of Valladolid was begun around 1580 by Herrera in the same severe style.

    The construction of the monastery and site of the Escurial in Madrid was the realization of an unusual vow by Philip II of Spain in repentance for having shelled the church San Lorenzo in 1577. This explains the gigantic expiatory monastery, the general plan of which reproduces the form of an inverted griddle, the instrument of the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence. The handle is represented by the Royal Palace, which projects on the eastern side, and four angle towers, 55 m high, represent the feet. The college, the convent and the cloister, all quadrangular in plan, are placed on either side of the central court (Patio de los Reyes) which precedes the church; it is constructed of a bluish granite from Guadarrama.

ITALY: Residences of the Royal House of Savoy

  Received thanx to LITHTYS

    When Emmanuel-Philibert, Duke of Savoy, moved his capital to Turin in 1562, he began a vast series of building projects (continued by his successors) to demonstrate the power of the ruling house. This outstanding complex of buildings, designed and embellished by the leading architects and artists of the time, radiates out into the surrounding countryside from the Royal Palace in the 'Command Area' of Turin to include many country residences and hunting lodges.
    The relationships and dynastic links that the House of Savoy established with the royal courts in Paris, Lisbon, Madrid, Munich, and Vienna as well as the towns of Italy created a cosmopolitan artistic and cultural milieu at the court of Turin. Emmanuel-Philibert laid the foundations of a court tradition that had not previously existed in Turin. As the two superb volumes of the Theatrum Sabaudiae, published in 1682, demonstrate, the Dukes of Savoy were tireless builders. With ceaseless perseverance, they enriched their family heritage and commissioned internationally famous architects, artists, and gardeners such Ascanio Vitoti, Carlo and Amedeo di Castellamonte, Guarino Guarini, Filippo Juvarra, Michelangelo Garove, Benedetto Altieri, Daniel Seiter, Francesco Solimena, Sebastiano Ricci, Charles Andre Vanloo, Claudio Francesco Beaumont, Francesco Ladatte, Michel Benard, and many others.
    The palace of Venaria was built by Amedeo di Castellamonte in 1675 for Charles Emmanuell II.

AUSTRALIA: Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens

Received thanx to princessjuju(Julie)

   
     The Royal Exhibition Building and its surrounding Carlton Gardens were designed for the great international exhibitions of 1880 and 1888 in Melbourne. The building and grounds were designed by Joseph Reed. The building is constructed of brick and timber, steel and slate. It combines elements from the Byzantine, Romanesque, Lombardic and Italian Renaissance styles. The property is typical of the international exhibition movement which saw over 50 exhibitions staged between 1851 and 1915 in venues including Paris, New York, Vienna, Calcutta, Kingston (Jamaica) and Santiago (Chile). All shared a common theme and aims: to chart material and moral progress through displays of industry from all nations.

PORTUGAL: Historic Centre of Oporto

Ribeira Quay

   Oporto is of outstanding universal value as the urban fabric and its many historic buildings bear remarkable testimony to the development over the past 1,000 years of a European city that looks outward to the West for its cultural and commercial links.

   The historic centre of is a townscape of high aesthetic value, with evidence of urban development from the Roman, medieval, and Almadas periods. The rich and varied civil architecture of the historic centre expresses the cultural values of succeeding periods - Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, neoclassical and modern. The active social and institutional tissue of the town ensures its survival as a living historic centre. Military, commercial, agricultural, and demographic interests converged here to shelter a population capable of building the city. It is a collective work, not accomplished at a particular moment but the result of successive contributions. One of the most relevant aspects of Oporto is its scenic character, resulting from the complexity of the landform, the harmonious articulation of its roads, and the dialogue with the river. It also represents a successful interaction between the social and geographical environment.

   Oporto lent support to the expeditions organized by Henry the Navigator (who was born in the town) in the early 15th century. English entrepreneurs invested in the vineyards of the Douro valley, to supply the huge English market, and Oporto, as the port for the export of these wines, benefited greatly, as the wealth of Baroque buildings in the town attests. The citizens reacted against Pombal's creation of the Companhia do Alto Douro, designed to end the English monopoly. Oporto was the birthplace of the Liberal Revolution in 1820, which led to the adoption by the monarchy of the Seminal Constitution of 1822. During the 19th century, the town centre moved from the banks of the river to the new developments around the Praça da Liberdade: Gustav Eiffel designed the railway bridge across the river (1875), and many new buildings were constructed.
  Received thanx to Lidia.

PORTUGAL: Monastery of Batalha

  Constructed in fulfilment of a vow by King João to commemorate the victory over the Castilians at Aljubarrota (15 August 1385), the Dominican monastery of Batalha is one of the great masterpieces of Gothic art. The majority of the monumental complex dates from the reign of João I, when the church (finished in 1416), the royal cloister, the chapter-house, and the funeral chapel of the founder were constructed.

    Following a brief interruption, work was begun again under King Duarte on the prolongation of the choir, the construction of his funerary chapel and that of his descendants, a spacious edifice based an octagonal plan that the death of the king in 1438 left unfinished. The design has been attributed to the English architect Master Huguet. The chapel's floor plan consists of an octagonal space inserted inside a square, creating two separate volumes that combine most harmoniously. The ceiling consists of an eight-point star-shaped lantern. The most dramatic feature is to be found in the centre of the chapel: the enormous medieval tomb of Dom João I and his wife, Queen Philippa of Lancaster, the first tomb for husband and wife made in Portugal, on which are carved the coats of arms of the Houses of Avis and Lancaster. Bays in the chapel walls contain the tombs of their sons, among them Prince Henry the Navigator.

   The church's interior refers back to the period of sober Gothic majesty that has remained undisturbed by later additions. The nave and aisles are separated by thick pillars crowned by capitals with plant motifs. The chancel windows, decorated with beautiful 16th century stained-glass windows representing the Visitation, the Adoration of the Magi, the Flight into Egypt and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, project a diffused light that gives the church a feeling of great spirituality.

     The last great period of Batalha coincided with the reign of Manuel I, who built the monumental vestibule and the principal portal, and restored the royal cloister, built in the reign of Dom João I. The arches overlooking the garden were built later and are embellished with finely carved tracery displaying the emblems of Dom Manuel I, the Cross of the Order of Christ and the armillary sphere. In the galleries are doors leading to the various rooms of the former monastery, beginning with the large Chapter House, a marvellous example of the pointed arches of Gothic architecture, in which the enormous vaulted ceiling has no central supports.

  Received thanx to Lidia.

THAILAND: Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns

Card received thanx to Oodda. Private swap via postcrossing.

    
    Three old towns were the principal centres of the kingdom of Ramkhamhaeng: Sukhothai (the capital), Si Satchanlai (second royal residence), and Kampheng Pet. In their architecture, built from brick with decorations in stucco and wood, they offer a great variety and skilful mixture of elements inspired by the Singhalese or Khmers. The great meeting rooms with the massive chevet decorated with a monumental portrait of Buddha are specific to Sukhothai architecture and subsequently influenced all Thai art. Among the statuary, the first Thai style is distinguished by the particular physical features of the Buddhas: a long, fine nose, a flame-like protuberance on the head (Sinhalese influences) and a double line around the mouth (Khmer tradition). Buddha is often represented upright (walking), his clothing clinging to his body, with an almost haughty attitude.

    The historic town of Sukhothai lies a dozen or so kilometres from the modern town and still has a large part of its fortifications. The principal monuments include the monastery (wat) Mahathat, with its royal temple and its cemetery; Sra Si Wat, with its two stupas, their graceful lines reflected in the water of the town's biggest reservoir; and an impressive prang (reliquary tower typical of Ayutthaya art) from a somewhat later period. The site has been excavated and studied since the mid-20th century. In 1988 a 70 km² area was declared a historic park. Unfortunately, a modern road was built and cuts the site in two.

      The historic town of Si Satchanm, famous for its ceramics, is separated from the modern town by the river Yom. Among the 140 buildings on the site the most notable is the monastery of Chedi Chet Thao (temple with seven points), impressive with its seven rows of elongated stupas, erected to hold the ashes of the governors of the town. Since 1983, the site has been classed as a historic park (45 km²).

      The historic town of Kamohena Pet (wall of diamonds) played mostly a military role and, even after the fall of the kingdom of Sukhothai, retained strategic importance. For this reason, its monuments are as much in the Sukhothai as in the Ayutthaya style. In 1980 the site was declared a historic park.

ITALY: Venice and its Lagoon

   Venice is a unique artistic achievement. The city is built on 118 small islands and seems to float on the waters of the lagoon. The influence of Venice on the development of architecture and monumental arts has been considerable. Venice possesses an incomparable series of architectural ensembles illustrating the age of its splendour. It presents a complete typology whose exemplary value goes hand-in-hand with the outstanding character of an urban setting which had to adapt to the special requirements of the site.

  In AD 1000, Venice controlled the Dalmatian coast and in 1112 a trading market was founded in the Levantine port of Sidon. The year 1204 saw Venice allied with the Crusaders to capture Constantinople. The abundant booty brought back on that occasion, including the bronzes horses of St Mark's, is only the more spectacular part of the loot from Byzantium that the Doge Enrico Dàndolo shared with his allies.

    Under the Doge, a maritime empire of unequalled power extended over the entire length of the shores around the eastern Mediterranean, to the islands of the Ionian Sea and to Crete. During the entire period of the expansion of Venice, over the centuries when it was obliged to defend its trading markets against the commercial undertakings of the Arabs, the Genoese and the Ottoman Turks,as well as those of the European monarchs who were envious of its power, Venice never ceased, in the literal sense of the term, to consolidate its position in the lagoon. The marriage with the sea, that sposalizio that since 1172 was symbolized by the ring of the Doge, who had replaced the Dux (elected for the first time in 697 by an assembly of the people), was never called into question.

  

SPAIN: Works of Antoni Gaudí

    Gaudí was born in 1852 in Reus, a small town south of Barcelona, and he died in a street accident in 1926. The intellectual context towards the end of the 19th century in Catalonia was marked by Modernisme, a movement that extended from around 1880 to the First World War, parallel to currents such as Naturalism, Arts and Crafts, and Art Nouveau. It was motivated by return to traditions as an expression of national identity, as well as by the introduction of modern techniques and materials. 

    His main undertaking is the church of Sagrada Familia. The church plan is that of a Latin cross with five aisles. The central nave vaults reach forty-five metres while the side nave vaults reach thirty metres. The transept has three aisles. The columns are on a 7.5 metre grid. However, the columns of the apse, resting on del Villar's foundation, do not adhere to the grid, requiring a section of columns of the ambulatory to transition to the grid thus creating a horseshoe pattern to the layout of those columns. The crossing rests on the four central columns of porphyry supporting a great hyperboloid surrounded by two rings of twelve hyperboloids (currently under construction). The central vault reaches sixty metres. The apse is capped by a hyperboloid vault reaching seventy-five metres. Gaudí intended that a visitor standing at the main entrance be able to see the vaults of the nave, crossing, and apse, thus the graduated increase in vault loftiness.here are gaps in the floor of the apse, providing a view down into the crypt below.

   The work had been started by architect Francesc de P. del Villar in 1882 in Gothic revival style. In 1883 Gaudì made fundamental changes to the first project and continued the work until his death. The crypt was built in 1884-89 and the Nativity facade finished in 1905. The four fantastic bell towers were finished in 1925-30. 

      Casa Vicens, a suburban residence, was the first independent design by Gaudí, built in 1883-88 and enlarged in 1925 by Serra Martinez in consultation with Gaudí. The design combines mastery in brick and a variety of Valencia tile. Its wrought ironwork is remarkable. In the interior, there is a fine series of painted wall decorations. The luxury villa of El Capricho (1883), near Comillas, Santander Province, was commissioned by a rich industrialist. The architecture has similarities with the Casa Vicens, reflecting Catalan influences.

     In 1884, Gaudí designed the pavilions of the Güell estate, with porter's lodge and stables, in the suburban areas of Barcelona. Most spectacular is the imaginative dragon gate. The Parc Güell (1900-14), a garden-city of 60 lots, is an incontestable masterpiece, the final blossoming of 19th-century eclecticism. He was invited in 1887 to plan a new episcopal palace at Astorga. This granite building with its vaulted interiors reflects the medieval character of the nearby Gothic cathedral. Work on the college of the Teresianas had already started when Gaudí was invited to take on the project. The building is severe and consisting of a single elongated rectangular block.

   The other buildings making up the World Heritage site are: Casa de Botines (1892), Casa Calvet (1898), the residential villa of Figueras, or Casa Bellesguard (1900) and Casa Batlló (1904-7), an urban residence in Barcelona.

POLAND: Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)

    Auschwitz Concentration Camp is the symbol of humanity's cruelty to its fellows in the 20th century. This monument to the martyrdom and resistance of millions of men, women and children is not a historical museum in the usual sense of the word: it bears irrefutable witness to one of the greatest crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.

    Preserved in the condition in which they existed in 1947 at the time of the founding of the museum, the walls, barbed wire, platforms, barracks, gallows, gas chambers and cremation ovens all recreate the conditions under which the Nazi genocide took place in the former concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest in the Third Reich.

   This is the largest cemetery in the world: 4 million people of many nationalities from 24 different countries, among them many Jews, were systematically starved, tortured and murdered. Archives, photographs and exhibits illustrate the methods used by the SS, as well as their efficiency.

It was established by the Nazis in 1940, in the suburbs of the town of Oświęcim which, like other parts of Poland, was occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. The name of the town was changed to Auschwitz, which became the name of the camp as well. Over the following years, the camp was expanded and eventually consisted of three main parts: the first and oldest was the so-called 'main camp', later also known as Auschwitz I (the number of prisoners fluctuated around 15,000, sometimes rising above 20,000), which was established on the grounds and in the buildings of pre-war Polish barracks.

    The second part was the Birkenau camp (which held over 90,000 prisoners in 1944 - Jews, Poles, Roma (Gypsies), and others), also known as Auschwitz II; this was the largest part of the Auschwitz complex, with crude barracks, most of them wooden. The Nazis began building it in 1941 on the site of the village of Brzezinka, 3 km from Oświęcim. The Polish civilian population was evicted and their houses confiscated and demolished. The greater part of the apparatus of mass extermination was built in Birkenau and the majority of the victims were murdered here.
    Those who remained behind in the camp were liberated by Red Army soldiers on 27 January 1945. The 2 July 1947 Act of the Polish Parliament established the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the grounds of the two extant parts of the camp, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

ROMANIA: Historic Centre of Sighişoara

    Sighişoara, an example of a small fortified city in the border region between the Latin-oriented culture of central Europe and the Byzantine-Orthodox culture of south-eastern Europe, is outstanding testimony to the fast-disappearing culture of the Transylvanian Saxons.

    In the 13th century, German craftsmen and merchants, known as Saxons, were ordered by the Hungarian sovereigns to colonize Transylvania and protect the border of the Carpathians against the steppe peoples. They settled on a hill, called the City Hill, which has revealed traces of occupation going back to the Palaeolithic period. Following incursions by the Tatars in 1241, the fortified settlement was reinforced with walls, guarded by towers, later extended to surround the entire plateau. The town, known in 1280 as Castrum Sex, developed commercial activities thanks to the powerful guilds of craftsmen. Each guild was responsible for the construction of a tower and its defence. The importance of the town was recognized in 1367 when it obtained the title 'Civitas' and became the second national political entity of Transylvania. Under pressure from the Turks between 1421 and 1526, the city heightened its walls. Each year, a Medieval Festival takes place in the old citadel in July. The houses inside Sighişoara Citadel show the main features of a craftsmen's town. However, there are some houses which belonged to the former patriciate, like the Venetian House and the House with Antlers. Sighişoara is considered to be the most beautiful and well preserved inhabited citadel in Europe, with an authentic medieval architecture. In Eastern Europe, Sighişoara is one of the few fortified towns which are still inhabited. The town is made up of two parts. The medieval stronghold was built on top of a hill and is known as the "Citadel" (Cetate).The lower town lies in the valley of Târnava Mare river.
  The town is also famous for being the supposed birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, the Wallachian prince who inspired Bram Stocker's Dracula.

ITALY: Piazza del Duomo, Pisa

Standing in a large green expanse, Piazza del Duomo houses a group of monuments known the world over. These four masterpieces of medieval architecture – the cathedral, the baptistry, the campanile (the 'Leaning Tower') and the cemetery – had a great influence on monumental art in Italy from the 11th to the 14th century.

USA: Statue of Liberty

    The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, a hollow colossus composed of thinly pounded copper sheets over a steel framework, was designed in Paris by the French sculptor Frederic Bartholdi, in collaboration with the French engineer Gustave Eiffel, who was responsible for its frame, intended as a gift from France for the centenary of American independence in 1876. Its design and construction were recognized at the time as one of the greatest technical achievements of the 19th century, and, when finally dedicated a decade later, it was hailed as a bridge between art and engineering. Atop its pedestal, designed by noted American architect Richard Morris Hunt, on an island at the entrance to New York Harbour, the Statue has since welcomed millions of immigrants who arrived in the United States by sea.

     This colossal statue is a masterpiece of the human spirit. The collaboration between the sculptor Bartholdi and the engineer Eiffel resulted in the production of a technological wonder that brings together art and engineering in a new and powerful way.

    The symbolic value of the Statue of Liberty lies in two basic factors. It was presented by France with the intention of affirming the historical alliance between the two nations. It was financed by international subscription in recognition of the establishment of the principles of freedom and democracy by the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which the Statue holds in her left hand. The Statue also soon became and has endured as a symbol of the migration of people from many countries into the United States in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She endures as a highly potent symbol – inspiring contemplation, debate and protest – of ideals such as liberty, peace, human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and opportunity.

GERMANY: Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin

Development of the part of the Spreeinsel now known as the Museumsinsel began when the pleasure garden (Lustgarten) for the Stadtschloß (palace) in the 16th century. However, its present importance began when the Altes Museum was built to the designs of Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1824-28.

A plan to develop the part of the island behind this museum, hitherto used for commercial purposes as a "sanctuary for the arts and sciences," was drawn up in 1841 by the court architect, Friedrich August Stüler, on the orders of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The first element of this plan to be built was the Neues Museum (1843-47). The next step did not take place until 1866, when the Nationalgalerie, the work of Johann Heinrich Strack, was built.

Another two decades passed before the Kaiser-Friedrich- Museum (now the Bodemuseum) was built in 1897-1904 to the designs of Ernst von Ihne, and Stüler's plan was completed in 1909-30 with the construction of Alfred Messel's Pergamonmuseum..

FRANCE: Paris, Banks of the Seine

The banks of the Seine are studded with a succession of masterpieces, including, in particular, Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle, Louvre, Palais de l'lnstitut, Les Invalides, Place de la Concorde, École Militaire, La Monnaie (Mint), Grand Palais des Champs Elysées, Eiffel Tower and Palais de Chaillot. A number of them, such as Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle, were definitive references in the spread of Gothic construction, while the Place de la Concorde or the vista at the Invalides exerted influence on the urban development of European capitals. The Marais and Île Saint-Louis have coherent architectural ensembles, with highly significant examples of Parisian construction of the 17th and 18th centuries (Hôtel Lauzun and Hôtel Lambert on the Île St Louis), Quai Malaquais, and Quai Voltaire.

From the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, from the Place de la Concorde to the Grand and Petit Palais, the evolution of Paris and its history can be seen from the River Seine. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Sainte Chapelle are architectural masterpieces while Haussmann's wide squares and boulevards influenced late 19th- and 20th-century town planning the world over.

Paris is a river town. Ever since the first human settlements, from the prehistoric days and the village of the Parisii tribes, the Seine has played both a defensive and an economic role. The present historic city, which developed between the 16th (and particularly the 17th) centuries and the 20th century, translates the evolution of the relationship between the river and the people: defence, trade, promenades, etc.

The choice of the zone between Pont de Sully and Pont d'léna is based on the age-old distinction between Paris upstream and Paris downstream. Upstream, beyond the Arsénal, begins Paris the port and river transport town; downstream is the royal and subsequently aristocratic Paris, which had only limited commercial activity. It is this latter section of the city which was selected for the World Heritage List. The powerful hand of the state is extremely visible here through its constructions and the legislation in effect.

It can be seen how the site and the river were gradually brought under control with the articulation of the two islets, Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis with the bank, the creation of north-south thoroughfares, installations along the river course, construction of quays, and the channelling of the river. Similarly, although the successive walls of the city have disappeared (the enceintes of Philippe-Auguste, Charles V, and the Fermiers Généraux), their traces may be read in the difference in size and spacing of the buildings (closer together in the Marais and the Île Saint-Louis, more open after the Louvre, beyond which are a greater number of major classic constructions laid along three perpendicular axes: Palais Bourbon-Concorde-Madeleine, Invalides-Grand and Petit Palais, Champ-de-Mars-École Militaire-Palais de Chaillot. The ensemble must be regarded as a geographical and historic entity. Today it constitutes a remarkable example of urban riverside architecture, where the strata of history are harmoniously superposed.

Haussmann's urbanism, which marks the western part of the city, inspired the construction of the great cities of the New World, in particular in Latin America. The Eiffel Tower and the Palais de Chaillot are living testimony of the great universal exhibitions, which were of such great importance in the 19th and 20th centuries.

ROMANIA: Monastery of Horezu

The Monastery of Horezu was founded in 1690 and richly endowed by the Cantacuzene Prince Constantin Brancovan. He and his family were responsible for the creation of many monastic ensembles and churches in Wallachia, paintings, richly adorned with wall sumptuous iconostases, and other decorations. This artistic effort was followed by many other noblemen and church dignitaries, giving rise to the remarkable artistic flowering known as Brancovan art.

The catholicon of the monastery, situated in a picturesque landscape of wooded hills and dedicated to Saints Constantine and Helena, was built in 1690-92 and the interior decoration was completed two years later, the work of the Greek artist Constantinos, who founded the celebrated school of mural and icon painters of Horezu. It is laid out according to the precepts of the Athonite Order around the catholicon, which is enclosed by a wall and surrounded by a series of skites. The overall layout is symmetrical on an east-west axis, the skites forming a cruciform plan. The catholicon is three-aisled with a very large narthex, following the pattern laid down by the church of the Monastery of Arges (1512-17). Inside the narthex, the lower tier of the walls is entirely filled with votive pictures of Constantin Brancovan, his wife, and their 11 children. The east wall of the exonarthex is entirely occupied by a large Last Judgement. The carved wooden iconostasis is of exceptionally high quality. The paraklesion over the refectory is rectangular in plan and surmounted by a turret over the naos, with an open exonarthex. Its mural paintings and iconostasis are original. The Monastery suffered badly in the Turko-Austrian and Turko-Russian wars of 1716-18 and 1787-89 respectively, all the buildings lying outside the enclosure being destroyed.

Other buildings constructed at the same period included the prince's residence, on the south side of the enceinte, ranges of two-storey monks' cells, kitchens, and other monastic offices. It is a two-storey rectangular building with important architectural features. The entrance was originally in the centre of the western wall of the enclosure, where the paraklesion was located, but this was shortly afterwards converted to a refectory, access being provided beneath the bell tower on the south wall.

The church of Bolnica, which is a subgroup of the main monastery, was founded by Princess Maria, wife of Constantin Brancovan. It has an unusual mural in its exonarthex, on the subject of the life of the good monk.

The Church of the Holy Angels at the former skite of Tigania was founded by the Horezu community in the first decade of the 18th century.

Other contemporary foundations by members of the princely family include the skites of the Holy Apostles and St Stephen and the foisor of Dionysus Balaceşcu. These contain contemporary votive paintings and other liturgical elements of high quality.

ROMANIA: Churches of Moldavia

     A general Christian tradition of decorating the exteriors of churches was adopted and extended in Moldavia. This had its own specific iconography, dominated by certain obligatory themes: the Church Hierarchy, the Last Judgement, and the Tree of Jesse. These monuments form a compact and coherent group in chronological terms, all being built in the 1530s and 1540s, during the reign of Peter Rares. They are all within a 60 km radius of Suceava, the residence of the Moldavian princes.
In the European art of the period, the exterior mural painting of the northern Moldavian churches is a unique phenomenon in Byzantine art and a masterpiece of mural art. In terms of the art of Romania, this group of churches constitutes a specific phenomenon, from the point of view of architecture as well as painting. Their exterior painted walls constitute an exceptional aesthetic value, forming a perfect symbiosis between colour, architecture, and surrounding landscape.

1.

The Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist was built as the residence of the Governor of Suceava, Luca Arbore. It was decorated at the order of his granddaughter in 1541 and became the village church when the family died out. The Arbore family is represented in a votive tablet on the wall of the naos and by funerary portraits in the narthex. The high quality of the interior paintings continues on the exterior.

2.

Sucevita Monastery, the last one to be built, is the largest and finest of the painted monasteries of Bucovina. "A Poem in Green and Light", it has its thousands of painted images on a background of emerald green. The fortress legacy of these mountain monasteries is nowhere clearer than inside and outside the massive walls at Sucevita. Set in a beautiful green valley- it is fortified like a citadel with watchtowers at its four corners. It is a square-shaped compound, surrounded by a wall of 100 meters on each side, six-meter high and three-meter thick.

The monastery was erected in 1581 by Gheorghe Movila, Bishop of Radauti and consecrated to the Assumption in 1584. Under the rule of Petru Schiopul (1582-1591), the Movila brothers, having become the prince’s councilors and growing more affluent, started the construction of the vast monastery. Ieremia Movila added to the church two open porches (to the North and to the South); he also built massive houses, thick surrounding walls and defense towers. The legend has it that an old woman had been working there for thirty years, carrying in her ox wagon stone for the construction of the monastery. This is the reason why a female head is carved on a black stone in the monastery's yard.


The Church of the Holy Rood, Patrauti, built in 1487 by Stephen the Great, was pillaged in 1653 and 1684 and restored by Prince Nicolas Mavrocordat in the early 18th century. It is a small three-apsed building consisting of a sanctuary, a naos crowned with a high drum, and a narthex. The monumental interior mural painting represents the Passion Cycle.

At the Church of St George of the former Voronet Monastery, also founded by Stephen the Great, the naos and sanctuary were painted between 1488 and 1496 and the narthex in 1552. It is a three-apse structure, with an exonarthex added in 1546. The interior murals represent the Passion Cycle. The walls and the vault of the exonarthex are covered by the 365 scenes of the Calendar of Saints. The exterior murals depict traditional scenes, and the famous Last Judgement, on the western wall.

The three-apsed Church of St George, formerly the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia until the late 17th century, is now the catholicon of the Monastery of St John of Suceava. The interior paintings, although somewhat darkened, have exceptional plastic qualities. The exterior paintings of 1534 only survive on the west and south facades, and depict the four traditional themes. They are exceptional by virtue of their monumental composition, elegant silhouettes, harmonious colours and perfect Cyrillic inscriptions.

The Church of St Nicholas and the Catholicon of the Monastery of Probota was built by Prince Peter Rares in 1531 as a family mausoleum. All the paintings are contemporary with the church with the exception of those in the sanctuary, repainted in the 19th century. The exterior mural paintings, in poor condition, show evidence of the hand of a master in their outstanding composition and remarkable use of colours.

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin of the former Monastery of Humor dates back to before 1415, but the present structure was built in 1530 by the great Logothete Theodore Bulberg and the wife, Anastasia,  of Peter Rares. It exhibits certain architectural variations from the traditional three-apsed monastery church, such as the lack of a drum over the narthex.

The Church of the Annunciation of the Monastery of Moldovita was rebuilt by Alexander the Good, but the present structure is earlier. It is very similar in form and decoration to the Humor church, and is believed that the same master may have been responsible for both churches.