Pass by German Aachen Cathedral continue… September 16, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Europe, France, Germany, Greece, Hotels, Ireland, Istanbul, Italy, Jerusalem, London, Museum, Paris, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour , 3commentsAmong the classical texts translated at Aachen was the highly influential treatise by the first- century Bc Roman architect Vitruvius Pollio, in which the principles and traditions of earlier architecture, secular and sacred, were incorporated. The palace chapel can be seen to be essentially Vitruvian in nature. It followed Vitruvius’ octagonal scheme (which involved geomantic consideration of the ‘eight winds’). (more…)
Secret and Scared Ancient Greece Places: World Heritage Epidaurus continue… August 5, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Greece, Hotels, Istanbul , 3commentsSouthwest of the temple are the remains of a curious rotunda-like building known as the Tholos, also described on the stele. This was built very shortly after the temple, perhaps in 360. It stood on a platform three steps high, had 26 Doric columns around its outer side and 14 beautiful marble columns forming an interior colonnade. The foundations of three inner walls seem to have formed a labyrinth, above which was a chequered pavement arranged in a spiral. The purpose of the building is unknown, but reasonable suggestions have been made that it housed a sacred well or snake pit. (more…)
Historic Areas of Istanbul August 5, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Cairo, Cars, Istanbul, Museum, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trip, Turkey , 3commentsLittle modern research seems to have been done (or, at least, published) with regard to the ancient geomancy of the Islamic world. We note the occurrence of mosques on a much older alignment in ancient Thebes, and a dramatic alignment of mosques and tombs in medieval Cairo has been recorded,’ but greater contemporary appraisal of Middle Eastern geomantic patterns needs to be carried out. The alignment in Istanbul described here was initiated as a result of preliminary observations made by architect Patrick Horsbrugh,2 and it is presented merely in the spirit of experimental research, to bring previously unconsidered material to the reader’s attention. (more…)
My Perugia Travel Diary continue… June 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Aquarium, Art Gallery, Asia, China, Coliseum, Denmark, Destination, Dolphinarium, Egypt, England, Europe, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Gymnasium, Iceland, Istanbul, Italy, Library, Memorial, Morocco, Museum, Norway, Oceanarium, Paris, Planetarium, Poland, Restaurant, Round The World, The Nile , add a commentMass cremation pits containing ashes and charred bones indicate that he feared a plague, but Carthaginian skeletons with all their teeth have been disinterred as well as the tombs, yielding cataphracts as well as bones, of thirty Carthaginian nobles.
Spello, the most appealing of the Umbrian hill towns, is still enclosed by Roman walls with five gates, the main one bearing the legend “Splendidissima Colonic Julia Hispellum” over the arch. According to Spellan tradition, a phallus carved in the inner wall of the Porta Urbica does not celebrate Orlando’s (Roland’s) amatory prowess but the range and perfect arc of his actus mingendi. Spello is noted for its restaurants and truffled cooking, its steep, winding, and narrow streets—all one-way only—its Roman towers and amphitheater. A Vocabolaro del Dialetto Spellano, compiled by NicolettaUgoccioni and published here last year, contains, at a thumb-through guess, 20,000 words in current usage—by a population of only 6,800. (more…)
Sintra: The palace of the Portuguese sovereigns in the Moorish style May 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, Cars, Destination, Embassy, Flight Schedule, Hostels, Hotels, Istanbul, Lisbon, Lodges, Motel, Portugal, Round The World, Travellers Cheque, USA , add a commentThe Alhambra itself cannot well be more morisco in point of architecture than this confused pile which crowns the summit of a rocky eminence and is broken into a variety of picturesque recesses and projections.’ This description of Sintra Palace, which William Beckford entered in his journal on Sunday, September, 2,1787, has been echoed again and again by subsequent visitors, who have thereby, consciously or unconsciously, subscribed to the tradition that the building dates from the period of the Saracenic occupation of Portugal.
Many of its features are indeed strikingly Moorish in design, especially the pair of conical chimneys resembling giant Kentish oast-houses — oriental relations to that of Glastonbury, and distant cousins to those that adorn the seraglio of Abdul the Damned at Istanbul. (more…)
The Influence of Christianity March 29, 2008
Posted by flyman in : Asia, Europe, Istanbul, Uncategorized , add a commentThe importance of architecture as the mirror of society was eclipsed in 313 when the converted Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which gave Christianity equal rights with other religions and moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to the old Grecian colony of Byzantium, then renamed Constantinople and today called Istanbul. The early Christian period lasted from Constantine until the coronation of
Charlemagne in 800, but not before many warring factions across Europe and Asia Minor brought chaos to the march of Christian progress.
Nevertheless, the collective enthusiasm and energy dedicated to the new religion, which caused more than 40 small churches to be built in Rome even before the Edict of Milan was promulgated, triumphed over the ravages of the Dark Ages and gave rise to the earliest post-pagan church architecture, which evolved, appropriately, from the Roman basilica (from the Greek word basileos meaning kingly) or hall of justice to become the hall of God, the King of Kings. (more…)
