One day in Germany Speyer Cathedral, World Famous Heritage continue… September 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Cars, Destination, Europe, Hotels, Museum, Rail Pass, Tour , 5commentsThese geomantic stones had associations with certain alignments and the axial centres of towns. The Domnapf location not only had typical Blue Stone connotations with ancient judicial rules, as indicated above, but also expresses this geomantic role as its presence on this alignment attests. Furthermore, it was from this spot that the layout of the streets of Speyer was arranged. The omphalos point.
Maximilianstrasse was created at the time of die cathedral in the eleventh century as a Via Triumphalis, linking the west gate — the Old Gate or Altportel — and the west porch of the cathedral. The German Emperors and the newly appointed Bishops of Speyer used it for their ceremonial entrances into the city. (This is a medieval continuation of the link between kingship and straight alignments.) (more…)
One day in Germany Speyer Cathedral, World Famous Heritage September 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Belgium, Europe, Germany, Hotels, Netherlands, Rail Pass, Scotland, Sightseeing, Switzerland, Tickets, Tour , 3commentsSituated in Rhineland-Palatinate, this extensively rebuilt Romanesque structure is the largest cathedral in Germany. Although it dates from the eleventh century, the origins of the site are much older.
To the Celts it was known as Noviomagus, and the Romans called it Civitas Nemetum. The cathedral has evolved on a former pagan holy place, for the site was occupied by a Roman temple dedicated to the Celtic goddess Nantosvelta. It is even thought `probable that buildings from the Roman period were converted to construct the church’.’ It is likely that the site was considered sacred ‘even before the Roman temple was built’ . (more…)
The Renaissance April 4, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Dominican Republic, England, France, Italy , add a commentThe 14th century saw a new spirit of intellectual inquiry, which was democratized by the invention of printing and radicalized by the Reformation in religion and a Renaissance, first in literature and, afterwards, in architecture. In England the new wealth of the laity led to the development of domestic architecture, which was encouraged by Henry dissolution of the monasteries. In Italy, the seat of Roman antiquity, the scholarship of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Petrarch (1304-74) and Boccaccio (1313-75) was celebrated by a national interest in classic literature, which paved the way for a revolt against medieval art.
The fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 led to an influx of Greek scholars to Italy, especially to Florence, a city of great military and political power. Florence had conquered Pisa in 1406 to gain a valuable seaport, and had gone on to take Milan and Lucca, becoming a powerful republic, the centre of European Renaissance art and a place of religious intrigue, from where the pious and indefatigable Dominican friar Savonarola (1452-98) simultaneously challenged the papal authority of Alexander VI and the tyranny of the powerful Medicis. Rome meanwhile awoke from the poverty of medieval feudalism to welcome the return of the popes from Avignon. Nicholas V (144755), Julius II (1503 - 13) and LeoX (151322) became great patrons of the arts. (more…)
