Kilmacduagh Monastery, Galway, Ireland
Kilmacduagh (traslation “Church of Duagh’s son”) Monastery, near Gort in County Galway, Ireland. Founded in the early 7th century by Saint Colmán, son of Duagh. The above aerial views enable you to see the grave sites in St Colmán’s Cathedral as well as the adjacent Round Tower (32.5 m, 112 ft), the tallest pre-modern building in Ireland. Please click on an image to open larger version.
Gaudí’s Moderistá Architecture, Barcelona
Please click on any image to enlarge
Sagrada Família Basilica, built 1882-present
The Crossing
Baldachin and Crucifix over the high altar
Details of the Passion Facade, which was designed to convey Jesus’ suffering
Casa Batlló, built 1877 and redesigned by Gaudi in 1904
Casa Milà (La Pedrera) built 1906-1912
Passion Facade of Sagrada Família, Barcelona
Details of the bronze “Gospel Door” at the Passion Facade of the Sagrada Família Basilica, Antoni Gaudí’s masterpice in Barcelona.
Street Art, Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn, NY
Bushwick is a working class neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The Bushwick Collective is an outdoor gallery on the streets of Bushwick that was founded in 2012 by Joseph Ficalora, a local resident who gets owners to donate space on buildings for street art. The Collective now attracts artists from around the world as well as legendary NYC artists and local Bushwick artists. The collection is temporary, with the average mural lasting up to 12 months before being replaced. Here are a few photos of the art taken during my visit in the fall of 2016. Each image can be clicked to enlarge.
Grossmünster Church, Zürich.
The Grossmünster church is a Romanesque-style Protestant church dating back to the 12th century. The twin towers of the Grossmünster are considered two of Zürich’s most recognized landmarks. Construction began around 1100 and the church was inaugurated around 1220. According to legend, the Grossmünster was founded by Charlemagne, whose horse fell to its knees over the tombs of Felix and Regula, Zürich’s two patron saints. Charlemagne thus had a church built as a monastery on the spot.
This long exposure shot (~2 min) of the church looks across the Münsterbrücke, a pedestrian and road bridge dating back to 1836 which spans the Limmat river.
Water Breathing Dragons in Zürich
Details of the Swiss sculptor Richard Kissling statue created in 1889 in honor of Alfred Escher, a renowned Zurich politician and entrepreneur.
Dante’s Gate
Dante’s Gate: Leper Entrance to Spinalonga Fortress.
Spinalonga was one of the last active leper colonies in Europe. There were two entrances through the massive stone walls of the Venetian fortress: one main gate, and one tiny dark tunnel of an entrance on the side of the island that was not much higher than head height. This was the lepers’ entrance, known as “Dante’s Gate”. Due to the slow curve in the entrance path, peering into the tunnel caused daylight to close into darkness, giving no clue as to what horrors lie ahead. What the arriving lepers soon found on the other side was food, water, shelter, and medical attention.
The fortunes of the lepers on the island took a turn for the better in the 1930’s when law student Epameinondas Remoundakis arrived and pressed the Cretes for improvements to the inhuman living conditions. Soon, the “houses of Spinalonga were whitewashed after many years of decay, the road around the island was opened, an outdoor cleaning service was set up, a theatre and cinema were built, and classical music was heard from the loudspeakers in the street. People fell in love and were married on Spinalonga. They had children, some of whom grew up with them without ever catching the disease. They looked after one another, did any work they could to improve their lives, ran their own kafeneion and barber shop, and had their own church of St Panteleimon, with a brave priest who, though not a leper himself, volunteered to spend his life among the exiles. Life on the Leper Island began to be more like that they had left behind when they had been forced to leave their homes and move to Spinalonga”.
The Leper Colony of Spinalonga
Spialonga (Kalydon) is a Greek island in the Gulf of Elounda in north-eastern Crete. The island has a long and turbulent history given its strategic location protecting the waters around the ancient city of Olous (Elounda), one of the most important towns on Crete between 3000-900 BC. In the 16th century the Venetians built the first bastion-type fortress on Spinalonga to protect the entranceway of the port of Olous. The fortress was key in helping the Venetians defend against the attacks of the Turks led by Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha, also know as the pirate Barbarossa. The island later fell to the Ottoman Turks, who held the island until 1903, after Crete won its independence
In 1903 a leper colony was established on the island. Cretans with leprosy were then rounded up from the caves where they had been forced to take refuge and sent to Spinalonga, where they received medical care, food, and shelter. The leper colony was maintained for approximately 50 years, until soon after a cure for leprosy was discovered in 1948 . The last of the lepers left the island in 1957. Approximately 400 people inhabited the colony during its era as a leper colony.
City Architecture 2 – New York
New York City – 2015
If you look closely, I believe that you can see Batman descending the fire escape.
Empire State Through Manhattan Bridge
New York – 2015
View of the Empire State Building through the Manhattan bridge as seen from the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Bridge – New York
Brooklyn – 2015
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge which connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn over the East River. Completed in 1883, it is one of the oldest of either type bridge in the United States.When the Brooklyn Bridge first opened, it cost a penny to cross by foot, 5 cents for a horse and rider and 10 cents for a horse and wagon. Farm animals were allowed at a price of 5 cents per cow and 2 cents per sheep or hog. It is now free for all beasts and vehicles to cross.
The Grand Central Terminal Clock – New York
Grand Central Terminal, NY
The Grand Central Terminal Clock, the most iconic feature of Grand Central Terminal, is a four-faced brass clock on top of the central information booth. The clock was designed by Henry Bedford for the Connecticut clock crafting company Seth Thomas. The clock was completed in 1913 to honor the opening of the Grand Central Terminal. The clock also happened to be completed the same year as the 100th birthday of the Seth Thomas Company.
Each of the four clock faces is made from opalescent glass (now often called opal glass or milk glass) though urban legend misconstrues this fact and claims that the faces are mistakingly made of “opal”. The clock is valued in the tens of millions of dollars.
The clock is set every second by the atomic clock in Naval Observatory in Bethesda, Maryland. This means that the clock is accurate to within one second every 1,400,000 years.
The large American flag behind the clock was hung a few days after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center.
New York, New York
Top of the Rock
Next pic series is from a 2015 visit to NY, NY. We start with the view from the top of Rockefeller Plaza looking south over Manhattan.
Palace of Westminster
London – 2015
Finishing up London 2015 pic series with one more shot of the Palace of Westminster, Elizabeth Tower/Big Ben at night.
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