History.

The affliction is named after 19th-century French author Stendhal (pseudonym of Marie-Henri Beyle), who described his experience with the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence in his book "Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio". When he visited the Basilica of Santa Croce, where Niccolò Machiavelli, Michelangelo and Galileo Galilei are buried, he was overcome with profound emotion. Stendhal wrote:  Although psychologists have long debated whether Stendhal syndrome exists, the apparent effects on some individuals are severe enough to warrant medical attention. The staff at Florence's Santa Maria Nuova hospital are accustomed to tourists suffering from dizzy spells or disorientation after viewing the statue of David, the artworks of the Uffizi Gallery, and other historic relics of the Tuscan city.  Though there are numerous accounts of people fainting while taking in Florentine art, dating from the early 19th century on, the syndrome was only named in 1979, when it was described by Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini, who observed over a hundred similar cases among tourists in Florence. There exists no scientific evidence to define Stendhal syndrome as a specific psychiatric disorder; however, there is evidence that the same cerebral areas involved in emotional responses are activated during exposure to art. The syndrome is not listed as a recognised condition in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders".  A more recent account of the Stendhal syndrome was in 2018, where a visitor to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence suffered a heart attack while admiring Sandro Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus".

Stendhal syndrome, Stendhal's syndrome or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects or phenomena of great beauty.


Description.

The swords are at the transitional point between the Viking sword and the high medieval knightly sword. Most have blades of Oakeshott type X. They are also the starting point of the much more varied high medieval tradition of blade inscriptions. The reverse sides of the blades are inlaid with a geometric pattern, usually a braid pattern between vertical strokes. There are also numerous blades which have this type of geometric pattern but no "Vlfberht" inscription.  Ulfberht swords were made during a period when European swords were still predominantly pattern welded ("false Damascus"), but with larger blooms of steel gradually becoming available, so that higher quality swords made after AD 1000 are increasingly likely to have crucible steel blades. The group of Ulfberht swords includes a wide spectrum of steel and production methods. One example from a 10th-century grave in Nemilany, Moravia, has a pattern welded core with welded-on hardened cutting edges. Another example appears to have been made from high-quality hypoeutectoid steel possibly imported from Central Asia.

Number and distribution.

Total of 170 Ulfberht swords are known from Europe, most numerously in Northern Europe. Most of them, 44 swords, are known from Norway and second most, 31 swords, from Finland. However, the exact number of swords found is debatable because of the fragmentary condition of some examples, and because some inscriptions appear to be loose references to the Ulfberht type instead of actual specimens.  The prevalence of Ulfberht swords in the archaeological record of Northern Europe does not imply that such swords were more widely used there than in Francia; the pagan practice of placing weapons in warrior graves greatly favours the archaeological record in such regions of Europe that were still pagan (and indeed most of the Ulfberht swords found in Norway are from warrior graves), while sword finds in from continental Europe and England after the 7th century are mostly limited to stray finds, e.g. in riverbeds.

Dating.

The original Ulfberht sword type dates to the 9th or 10th century, but swords with the Ulfberht inscription continued to be made at least until the end of the Viking Age in the 11th century. A notable late example found in Eastern Germany, dated to the 11th or possibly early 12th century, represents the only specimen that combines the "Vlfberht" signature with a Christian "in nomine domini" inscription ("+IINIOMINEDMN"). As a given name, "Wulfbert" (Old High German "Wolfbert, Wolfbrecht, Wolfpert, Wolfperht, Vulpert") is recorded from the 8th to 10th centuries.

Origin.

The most likely place of origination of Ulberht swords is in the Rhineland region (i.e. in Austrasia, the core region of the Frankish realm, later part of the Franconian stem duchy). A Frankish origin of the original swords has long been assumed because of the form of the personal name "Ulfberht"; a sword found in Lower Saxony in 2012 used lead in its hilt which has reportedly been analysed as originating in the Taunus region, reinforcing the hypothesis of Frankish manufacture of the Ulfberht swords. but were clearly sought-after, prestigious artefacts in Viking Age Scandinavia. Three specimens were found as far afield as Volga Bulgaria (at the time part of the Volga trade route).

The Ulfberht swords are about 170 medieval swords found in Europe, dated to the 9th to 11th centuries, with blades inlaid with the inscription "+VLFBERH+T or +VLFBERHT+". That word is a Frankish personal name that became the basis of a trademark of sorts, used by multiple bladesmiths for several centuries.


The "grands boulevards".

The "Grands Boulevards" are essentially 'the best' of the Parisian boulevards. They correspond to the "Nouveau Cours" built between 1668 and 1705 in place of the dismantled Louis XIII wall. The boulevards of Louis XIV were conceived by Pierre Bullet to link the Porte Saint-Antoine (situated where the Place de la Bastille now stands) to the Porte Saint-Honoré (situated where the Place de la Madeleine now stands).  Which exactly are classed amongst the Grands Boulevards is somewhat unclear. Many Parisians would automatically include Boulevard Haussmann amongst them, as the large department stores (Printemps and Galeries Lafayette) draw promenaders in the "boulevardier spirit". However, strictly speaking, "les Grands Boulevards" would only include the Boulevard Beaumarchais, Filles-du-Calvaire, Temple, Saint-Martin, Saint-Denis, Bonne-Nouvelle, Poissonnière, Montmartre, Italiens, Capucines and the Madeleine boulevards.  Parisians made the boulevards into promenades which have remained popular through the ages and changes in the city. They were the setting for Maupassant's "Bel Ami"; Fred Astaire took to the boulevards in "Funny Face" (1957). The later opening of other trunk roads, namely Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, Boulevard Haussmann, and Avenue de la République, has somewhat reduced the visibility of the Grand Boulevards and the Louis XIII wall in the Paris topography.

""Boulevard du Crime"".

The idea of the boulevard as a centre for leisure asserted itself during the 18th century, when numerous théâtres de la foire set up near the Porte Saint-Martin. The boulevard du Temple became affectionately known as ""boulevard du Crime"" during Bourbon Restoration, an allusion to the criminal acts portrayed there by stage actors. According to the "Almanach des Spectacles", "Tautin was stabbed 16,302 times, Marti poisoned 11,000 times, Fresnoy set on fire 27,000 times in countless ways..., Mademoiselle Adèle Dupuis was seduced, kidnapped or drowned 75,000 times".  Although the "boulevard du Crime" fell victim to Haussmann's transformation, the "boulevardier" spirit lives on in "théâtre de boulevard".

Haussmannian boulevards.

From 1784 to 1791, Ledoux built the Wall of the Farmers-General, with boulevards running along its exterior. This wall built to collect the octroi, a tax on goods entering the city which was hated by Parisians. It was demolished approximately between 1789 and 1860. Although it was almost completely razed by Haussman in 1860 as part of his transformation of Paris, some parts remain. The surviving boulevards were subject to urban planners' failed attempts in the 1950s to transform them into urban freeways. Haussmann's renovation of Paris brought the boulevard to the heart of Paris, whereas they had hitherto been limited to uninhabited or sparsely inhabited zones. Le boulevard, whose initial function was to go around the capital, became structural urban thoroughfares.  The boulevards from Haussmann and before now define Paris, with uniform façades and overhanging balconies stretching along them. These are immediately recognisable, and are under the strict control of Paris' urban planners.

The "boulevards des Maréchaux".

The demolition of the "Thiers wall" during the 1920s allowed for the creation of a third ring of boulevards surrounding the city. These boulevards were named after the Marshals of the Empire, and, in consequence, they are called the "Boulevards des Maréchaux" (Boulevards of the Marshals). They run just inside the city limits.  In addition, the Boulevard périphérique, the beltway surrounding Paris, was built on the site of the ruins of the Thiers wall, a short distance 'outboard' from the boulevards of the marshals. However, it is more like a motorway than a boulevard. Paris Tramway Line 3 has been running along the "Boulevards des Maréchaux" since December 2006.

Boulevards of Paris are boulevards which form an important part of the urban landscape of Paris. The boulevards were constructed in several phases by central government initiative as infrastructure improvements, but are very much associated with strolling and leisurely enjoyment in the minds of Parisians.


History.

Founded in 1793 as the "Corps des gardes-pompes de la ville de Paris" and following the 23-hour Austrian Embassy Fire in 1810 became a military organisation by imperial decree of Emperor Napoléon. On 18 September 1811, it became the "Bataillon de sapeurs-pompiers de Paris" and was expanded to the "Régiment de sapeurs-pompiers de Paris" in 1867. On 1 March 1967 became the "Brigade des sapeurs-pompiers de Paris".

Selection and training.

The operational personnel ("hommes du rang" i.e. privates) are usually engaged for five years. They must have French nationality, be between 18 and 25 years old, have a clean criminal record and have at least a vocational training "CAP" certificate. The selection is three days long, with sports tests, psychomotor tests, medical examination, etc.  Training takes place in the Instruction Grouping ("Groupement d'instruction", GI), at the fort of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. The first period lasts two months, with the first aid and first responder training, and basic military instruction (including shooting). They then undertake practical training of four months in an operational fire company ("compagnie d'incendie"); this includes taking part in personal assistance and utility safety operations. The last stage of training is a further two months at the Instruction Grouping. Upon completing training, the firefighter joins a fire company.

Resources.

The BSPP consists of 8,550 personnel with 81 stations and facilities who conduct 1200 operations daily.

Organisation.

The brigade is commanded by a Brigade General as part of the French Army's engineering arm. The brigade commander directly controls the Information and Public Relations Bureau, and who is assisted a Colonel-Adjutant, a General Council called a Cabinet and a Chief of Staff who controls the following Bureaus: and three Assistant Chiefs of Staff:  Operational staff are divided into three geographic groups, as well as a training group and a services group. The geographic groups are: Each of the geographic groups consists of 8 fire companies and a few special units that are not part of a company (including ambulance units). Each company in turn consists of 2-4 fire stations.

First fire group ("Premier groupement d'incendie").

The First fire group of the Paris Fire Brigade covers northeast Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis and is based in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It consists of the following companies: Additional units include:

Second fire group ("Deuxième groupement d'incendie").

The Second Fire Group of the Paris Fire Brigade covers Southeast Paris and Val-de-Marne and is based in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. It consists of the following companies: Additional units include:

Third fire group ("Troisième groupement d'incendie").

The Third Fire Group of the Paris Fire Brigade covers Western Paris and Hauts-de-Seine and is based in Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine. It consists of the following companies: Additional units include:

Training Group ("Groupement d'instruction").

The Training Group of the Paris Fire Brigade provides education and training to all Paris firefighters. It consists of the following:

Special services.

Controlled by Headquarters

Frequency of operations.

The BSPP performs about 1200 interventions per day. During 2001: There are 6.16 million inhabitants in the BSPP zone (1999). This represents:

Ceremonial duties.

Traditionally, the Paris Fire Brigade parades twice during the Bastille Day military parade: once on foot, and a second time with its vehicles. During the parade members are armed with the FAMAS, the famous French bullpup-style assault rifle, reminding them of their membership in the armed forces.  Evening dance parties are held at fire stations on (or near to) Bastille Day. These are known as a "Bal des pompiers" (firefighters' ball).

The Paris Fire Brigade (French: "Brigade des sapeurs-pompiers de Paris", BSPP) is a French Army unit which serves as the primary fire and rescue service for Paris, the city's inner suburbs and certain sites of national strategic importance.


Early artists.

Before World War I, a group of expatriates in Paris created art in the styles of Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Fauvism. The group included artists like Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani and Piet Mondrian. Associated French artists included Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes. Picasso and Matisse have been described as the twin leaders ("chefs d’école") of the school before the war.

After World War I.

The term "School of Paris" was used in 1925 by to refer to the many foreign-born artists who had migrated to Paris. The term soon gained currency, often as a derogatory label by critics who saw the foreign artists—many of whom were Jewish—as a threat to the purity of French art. Art critic Louis Vauxcelles, noted for coining the terms "Fauvism" and "Cubism" (also meant disparagingly), called immigrant artists unwashed "Slavs disguised as representatives of French art". Waldemar George, himself a French Jew, in 1931 lamented that the School of Paris name "allows any artist to pretend he is French...it refers to French tradition but instead annihilates it."  School of Paris artists were progressively marginalized. Beginning in 1935 art publications no longer wrote about Chagall, just magazines for Jewish audiences, and by June 1940 when the Vichy government took power, School of Paris artists could no longer exhibit in Paris at all.  The artists working in Paris between World War I and World War II experimented with various styles including Cubism, Orphism, Surrealism and Dada. Foreign and French artists working in Paris included Jean Arp, Joan Miró, Constantin Brâncuși, Raoul Dufy, Tsuguharu Foujita, artists from Belarus like Michel Kikoine, Pinchus Kremegne, the Lithuanian Jacques Lipchitz, the Polish artists Marek Szwarc and Morice Lipsi and others such as Russian-born prince Alexis Arapoff.  A significant subset, the Jewish artists, came to be known as the Jewish School of Paris or the School of Montparnasse. The "core members were almost all Jews, and the resentment expressed toward them by French critics in the 1930s was unquestionably fueled by anti-Semitism." One account points to the 1924 Salon des Indépendants, which decided to separate the works of French-born artists from those by immigrants; in response critic referred to them as the School of Paris. Jewish members of the group included Emmanuel Mané-Katz, Chaim Soutine, Adolphe Féder, Chagall, Yitzhak Frenkel Frenel, Moïse Kisling, Maxa Nordau and Shimshon Holzman.  The artists of the Jewish School of Paris were stylistically diverse. Some, like Louis Marcoussis, worked in a cubist style, but most tended toward expression of mood rather than an emphasis on formal structure. Their paintings often feature thickly brushed or troweled impasto. The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme has works from School of Paris artists including Pascin, Kikoine, Soutine, Orloff and Lipschitz.

After World War II.

In the aftermath of the war, "nationalistic and anti-Semitic attitudes were discredited, and the term took on a more general use denoting both foreign and French artists in Paris". But although the "Jewish problem" trope continued to surface in public discourse, art critics ceased making ethnic distinctions in using the term. While in the early 20th century French art critics contrasted The School of Paris and the École de France, after World War II the question was School of Paris vs School of New York.  Post-World War II ("Après-guerre"), the term "School of Paris" often referred to tachisme, and lyrical abstraction, a European parallel to American Abstract Expressionism. These artists are also related to CoBrA. Important proponents were Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, Jean-Michel Coulon, Nicolas de Staël, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, Bram van Velde, Georges Mathieu, Jean Messagier and Zoran Mušič, among others. Many of their exhibitions took place at the Galerie de France in Paris, and then at the Salon de Mai where a group of them exhibited until the 1970s.

Musicians.

In the same period, the School of Paris name was also extended to an informal association of classical composers, émigrés from Central and Eastern Europe to who met at the Café Du Dôme in Montparnasse. They included Alexandre Tansman, Alexander Tcherepnin, Bohuslav Martinů and Tibor Harsányi. Unlike Les Six, another group of Montparnasse musicians at this time, the musical school of Paris was a loosely-knit group that did not adhere to any particular stylistic orientation.

School of Paris () refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century.


Origin.

Alexander Hamilton was born and raised in the West Indies and came to New York in 1772 at age 17 to study at King's College (now Columbia University). During his career, Hamilton was a military officer, lawyer, member of the United States Constitutional Convention, American political philosopher, war hero, initiator and author of the majority of the pivotal and influential "The Federalist Papers", and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury.  Hamilton commissioned architect John McComb Jr. to design a country home on Hamilton's estate in upper Manhattan. The two-story frame Federal style house was completed in 1802, just two years before Hamilton's death resulting from his duel with Aaron Burr on July 11, 1804. The estate was named "The Grange" after Hamilton's grandfather's own holdings in Scotland. The Grange was the only home Hamilton ever owned, and he traveled there by stagecoach from his law office several times a week, and fussed over the landscaping, including a circle of thirteen sweet gum trees symbolizing the thirteen original states. The house remained in his family for 30 years after his death. The Grange might have also been Hamilton's rivalrous answer to Jefferson's Monticello.

First relocation.

By 1889, much of the congregation of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Greenwich Village had moved uptown. The Grange was in foreclosure and (since its northern corner partially extended into what would become the south side of 143rd Street between Amsterdam and Convent Avenues) had been condemned for destruction in order to allow for the implementation of the Manhattan street grid, then just reaching that area of Harlem. The church acquired the house and moved it a half-block east and about two blocks south, conforming to the new street pattern, to what became 287 Convent Avenue. The original porches and other features were removed for the move. The interior staircase was reoriented and retrofitted to accommodate a makeshift entrance on the side of the house that faced the street, and the original grand Federal-style entrance was boarded up.  St. Luke's used the house for services and subsequently between 1892 and 1895 erected a Richardsonian Romanesque building on the site that wrapped around the house slightly; thus when a six-story apartment building was built in about 1910 flush on the opposite side, the house was tightly enclosed and many of its features hidden. The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society bought the Grange in 1924 and turned it into a public museum in 1933. Furniture and decorative objects associated with the Hamilton family were displayed.  The Grange was designated a National Historic Landmark in December 1960. The private National Park Foundation purchased the house and property and transferred it to the National Park Service. Congress authorized the National Memorial on April 27, 1962, requiring that it be relocated and then the house restored to appear as Hamilton knew it in 1802–1804, which is considered its period of historic significance. It was at the time determined that the claustrophobic Convent Avenue setting was inappropriate and that the country house should be viewed as a freestanding building. However, the house was not relocated earlier because of overwhelming local opposition to options offered that required moving it out of the neighborhood. The Grange was administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

Second relocation.

On May 9, 2006, the Hamilton Grange Memorial was closed to the public to allow for extensive architectural and structural investigations as part of a long term plan to move the house to nearby St. Nicholas Park. The park location was judged a more appropriate setting for display that would permit restoration of features lost in the 1889 move. The new location would also keep the house in the neighborhood and within the boundary of Hamilton's original estate.  Work in St. Nicholas Park for tree removal and foundation construction began in February 2008. The actual move of the Grange began with elevation of the building in one piece over the loggia of St. Luke's Church and onto Convent Avenue. Over several weeks it was gradually raised on hydraulic jacks, and more than 7,000 pieces of wood cribbing were inserted under the foundation. It was then moved on rollers along steel beams to wooden stilts of matching height erected in the middle of Convent Avenue, between West 141st and 142nd Streets, which held the entire house approximately ten feet off the ground while traffic was routed around it. These stilts were then slowly disassembled to leave the house resting on dollies, where it received interior bracing and was wrapped in two miles of chains. Finally on June 7, 2008, it completed its journey by being rolled one block south on Convent Avenue and then one block east on 141st Street (down a 6% grade) to the new St. Nicholas Park location. The "New York Times"s David W. Dunlap calculated its speed over the 500 feet at.04 mph. The six-hour event was a popular neighborhood attraction covered extensively in the press. The house was secured to its new foundation, original porches were rebuilt and the original main entrance doorway and main staircase within the entry foyer were restored using original materials recovered from elsewhere in the house. Landscaping around the Grange's new home includes among the tree plantings 13 sweet gum trees as in Hamilton's original garden, a stone wall, a circular rose garden planted in front to Hamilton's own specifications, and paths.  The Grange re-opened to the general public on September 17, 2011. A ceremony was held with Hamilton descendants in attendance and tours of the restored interiors took place through the day. In the renovated house, a visitor's center is located in the entirely newly constructed ground floor, where the kitchen, laundry and servants' rooms would have been. The Grange now has a security detail and possible video monitoring during the evening hours. At its new location, it is next to the City College of the City University of New York campus.

Hamilton Grange National Memorial, also known as The Grange or the Hamilton Grange Mansion, is a National Park Service site in St. Nicholas Park, Manhattan, New York City, that preserves the relocated home of U.S. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The mansion holds a restoration of the interior rooms and an interactive exhibit on the newly constructed ground floor for visitors. The Hamilton Heights subsection of Harlem derived its name from Hamilton's 32-acre estate there.


Kingdom of Prussia.

<onlyinclude>  On 27 January 1701, King Frederick I changed his arms as prince-elector of Brandenburg. The older arms of the electors of Brandenburg depicted a red eagle on a white background. Henceforth, the Prussian eagle, now royally crowned and with 'FR' ("Fridericus Rex", "King Frederick") on its breast, was placed in an escutcheon on the shield with 25 quarters instead of the electoral scepter. All the helmets made way for one royal crown.  The wild men – figures from Germanic and Celtic mythology representing the 'Lord of the Beasts' or 'Green Man' – that held the arms of Prussia are probably taken from the arms of Pomerania or Denmark. They are also to be found as supporters of the arms of Braunschweig, Königsberg, and the Dutch towns of Anloo, Beilen, Bergen op Zoom, Groede, Havelte,'s-Hertogenbosch, Oosterhesselen, Sleen, Sneek, Vries and Zuidwolde. A wild man and a wild woman have held the shield of the principality of Schwarzburg in Thuringia and the city of Antwerp since the beginning of the 16th century. Two wild men and a wild woman have been included in the seal of Bergen op Zoom since 1365.  A decree from 11 February 1701 placed a crown on the Prussian escutcheon. The king ordained that the whole should be placed on a royal pavilion after the French and Danish examples.  When William III, Prince of Orange and King of England, died on 19 March 1702, the king ordered the arms of the principality placed on his shield. This was to support his claim as heir general, although the Frisian branch of the House of Orange-Nassau claimed it as well.  In 1708 Frederick announced that he would place the quarters of the dukes of Mecklenburg in the Prussian arms to stress his rights to Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz if their ducal lines were to die out. Although Mecklenburg-Strelitz protested, Emperor Joseph I gave permission to Frederick in October 1712. This design was twice officially altered but was not fundamentally changed since.  The electoral scepter had its own shield under the electoral cap. Around the shield, with 36 quarters (including Veere-Vlissingen and Breda), appeared the Order of the Black Eagle with a crowned helmet resting on top. The wild men held banners of Prussia and Brandenburg and behind the pavilion rose a Prussian banner after the example of the French "Oriflamme". The motto "Gott mit uns" ("God with us") appeared on the pedestal.  Already during the reign of Frederick I there is a notable difference between the 'Gothic' representation of the Prussian eagle in the arms and the more naturally depicted and often flying eagle on most coins and military standards.  Frederick William I followed his father on the throne on 25 February 1713. According to Ströhl he gave the eagle a scepter and orb. He made an arrangement with the Frisian Nassaus over the title to the Principality of Orange, although it was occupied by France. Besides the arms of Orange, he officially added Veere and Vlissingen on 29 July 1732. The king also added East Frisia to his arms, claiming it in case the prince would die without heir. A fourth escutcheon appeared among the 36 quarters.  Frederick II became king on 31 May 1740. He laid claim to the duchy of Silesia after the death of Emperor Charles VI and declared war on Charles' daughter and heir, Maria Theresa of Austria, thereby starting the Silesian Wars.  Frederick II was followed by his nephew, Frederick William II, on 17 August 1786. Frederick William II inherited the Franconian cadet branches (Ansbach and Bayreuth) of the House of Hohenzollern in 1791. For reasons of economy, however, the official seals were unchanged.  Frederick William III took the throne on 16 November 1797 and changed the arms on 3 July 1804. The reorganisation of Germany by Napoleon I of France made alterations necessary. A new escutcheon was created for Silesia and the shield held 42 quarters. The Order of the Red Eagle of the Franconian line was also added around the shield.  After the fall of Napoleon, Prussia gained extensive territories on the Rhine and in Saxony. New arms were therefore decreed on 9 January 1817. The number of quarters rose to 48, including the horse of Westphalia and Lower Saxony. The number of escutcheons was reduced to four: the black eagle of Prussia, the red eagle of Brandenburg instead of the scepter, the burgravate of Nuremberg (though ceded to Bavaria), and Hohenzollern proper.  The so-called'middle arms' were then issued: a shield with the same four escutcheons and ten quarters for Silesia, Rhineland, Posen, Saxony, Pomerania, Magdeburg, Jülich-Cleves-Berg, and Westphalia. This was encircled by the Order of the Black Eagle and held by two wild men with clubs.  The small arms already in use on coins of the 1790s were legitimized as well.  On 7 December 1849, the Swabian lines of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen were annexed by Frederick William IV, who had followed his father on 7 July 1840.  Frederick William IV was followed by his brother William I on 2 January 1861. He changed the arms on 11 January 1864 by combining the escutcheons of Nuremberg and Hohenzollern. After the Second Schleswig War of 1864 and the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Prussia annexed Schleswig, Holstein, Hanover, Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), and Nassau. King William I of Prussia became William I, German Emperor on 18 January 1871 during the unification of Germany. The Kingdom of Prussia became the predominant state in the newly created German Empire.  William decreed new arms on 16 August 1873. The number of quarters was again 48 with three escutcheons. Added were the collars of the Order of the House of Hohenzollern and the Order of the Prussian Crown. The motto was placed on the dome of the pavilion.  The middle arms of 1873 show more clearly the changes by the additions of Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, and Hesse-Kassel and the removals of Magdeburg and Cleves-Jülich-Berg.  The Hohenzollern family uses the motto "Nihil Sine Deo" (). The family coat of arms, first adopted in 1192, began as a simple shield quarterly sable and argent. A century later, in 1317, Frederick IV, Burgrave of Nuremberg, added the head and shoulders of a hound as a crest. Later quartering reflected heiresses’ marriages into the family.

Free State of Prussia.

With the fall of the House of Hohenzollern in 1918, the Kingdom of Prussia was succeeded by the Free State of Prussia within the Weimar Republic. The new Prussian arms depicted a single black eagle, displayed in a more natural than heraldic style. While part of Nazi Germany, the free state's arms depicted a single black eagle, more stylized than before but not in a heraldic manner, with a swastika and the phrase beginning in 1933. The of 1935 removed all effective power from the Prussian government. </onlyinclude>

Dissolution of Prussia.

In 1947, following World War II, the state of Prussia was dissolved by the Allies, thus rendering its arms defunct.  A black eagle on white is present in the arms of Saxony-Anhalt, which corresponds to what was Prussian Saxony.  A black eagle on red is present in the arms of Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in Poland, which corresponds to what was southern East Prussia.

The state of Prussia developed from the State of the Teutonic Order. The original flag of the Teutonic Knights had been a black cross on a white flag. Emperor Frederick II in 1229 granted them the right to use the black Eagle of the Holy Roman Empire. This "Prussian Eagle" remained the coats of arms of the successive Prussian states until 1947.


Name.

The quaking or trembling of the leaves that is referred to in the common names is due to the flexible flattened petioles. The specific epithet, "tremuloides", evokes this trembling behavior and can be literally translated as "like "(Populus) tremula"", the European trembling aspen.

Description.

Quaking aspen is a tall, fast growing tree, usually at maturity, with a trunk in diameter; records are in height and in diameter.  The bark is relatively smooth, colored greenish-white to gray, and is marked by thick black horizontal scars and prominent black knots. Parallel vertical scars are tell-tale signs of elk, which strip off aspen bark with their front teeth.  The leaves on mature trees are nearly round, in diameter with small rounded teeth, and a long, flattened petiole. Young trees and root sprouts have much larger ( long) nearly triangular leaves.  Some species of "Populus" have petioles flattened partially along their length, while the aspens and some other poplars have them flattened from side to side along the entire length of the petiole.  Aspens are dioecious, with separate male and female clones. The flowers are catkins long, produced in early spring before the leaves. The fruit is a pendulous string of capsules, each capsule containing about ten minute seeds embedded in cottony fluff, which aids wind dispersal of the seeds when they are mature in early summer. Trees as young as 2–3 years old may begin seed production, but significant output begins starting at 10 years of age. Best seed production is obtained between the ages of 50 and 70 years.  Quaking aspen grows more slowly in the dry conditions of western North America than it does in the more humid east and also lives longer—ages of 100–120 years are typical in the west with some individuals living 200 years. In the east, stands decay faster, sometimes in 60 years or less depending on the region.

Distribution.

Quaking aspen occurs across Canada in all provinces and territories, with the possible exception of Nunavut. In the United States, it can be found as far north as the northern foothills of the Brooks Range in Alaska, where road margins and gravel pads provide islands of well-drained habitat in a region where soils are often waterlogged due to underlying permafrost. It occurs at low elevations as far south as northern Nebraska and central Indiana. In the western United States, this tree rarely survives at elevations lower than due to hot summers experienced below that elevation, and is generally found at. It grows at high altitudes as far south as Guanajuato, Mexico.  Quaking aspen grows in a wide variety of climatic conditions. January and July average temperatures range from and in the Alaska Interior to and in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Average annual precipitation ranges from in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador to as little as in the Alaska Interior. The southern limit of the species' range roughly follows the mean July isotherm.  Shrub-like dwarf clones exist in marginal environments too cold and dry to be hospitable to full-size trees, for example at the species' upper elevation limits in the White Mountains.

Ecology.

Quaking aspen propagates itself primarily through root sprouts, and extensive clonal colonies are common. Each colony is its own clone, and all trees in the clone have identical characteristics and share a single root structure. A clone may turn color earlier or later in the fall than its neighbouring aspen clones. Fall colors are usually bright tones of yellow; in some areas, red blushes may be occasionally seen. As all trees in a given clonal colony are considered part of the same organism, one clonal colony, named Pando, is considered the heaviest and oldest living organism at six million kilograms and perhaps 80,000 years old. Aspens do produce seeds, but seldom grow from them. Pollination is inhibited by the fact that aspens are either male or female, and large stands are usually all clones of the same sex. Even if pollinated, the small seeds (three million per pound) are only viable a short time as they lack a stored food source or a protective coating.  The buds and bark supply food for snowshoe hares, moose, black bears, cottontail rabbits, porcupines, deer, grouse, and mountain beavers. The shoots are eaten by sheep, goats, and cattle. Elks are known to browse the trees.

Dieback.

Beginning in the 1990s, North American scientists noticed an increase in dead or dying aspen trees. As this accelerated in 2004, a debate over causes began. No insect, disease, or environmental condition has yet been definitively identified as a cause. Trees adjacent to one another are often stricken or not. In other instances, entire groves have died.  Many areas of the Western US have experienced increased diebacks which are often attributed to ungulate grazing and wildfire suppression. At high altitudes where grasses can be rare, ungulates can browse young aspen sprouts and prevent those young trees from reaching maturity. As a result, some aspen groves close to cattle or other grazing animals, such as deer or elk, have very few young trees and can be invaded by conifers, which are not typically browsed. Another possible deterrent to aspen regeneration is widespread wildfire suppression. Aspens are vigorous resprouters and even though the above-ground portion of the organism may die in a wild-fire, the roots, which are often protected from lethal temperatures during a fire, will sprout new trees soon after a fire. Disturbances such as fires seem to be a necessary ecological event in order for aspens to compete with conifers, which tend to replace aspens over long, disturbance-free intervals. The current dieback in the American West may have roots in the strict fire suppression policy in the United States. On the other hand, the widespread decimation of conifer forests by the mountain pine beetle may provide increased opportunities for aspen groves to proliferate under the right conditions.  Because of vegetative regeneration by aspen, where an entire group of trees are essentially clones, there is a concern that something that hits one will eventually kill all of the trees, presuming they share the same vulnerability. A conference was held in Utah in September 2006 to share notes and consider investigative methodology.

Uses.

Grouse and quail eat the winter buds. Mammals such as beavers and rabbits eat the bark, foliage, and buds. Game animals, sheep, and goats browse the foliage.  Aspen bark contains a substance that was extracted by indigenous North Americans and European settlers of the western U.S. as a quinine substitute.  Like other poplars, aspens make poor fuel wood, as they dry slowly, rot quickly, and do not give off much heat. Yet they are still widely used in campgrounds because they are cheap and plentiful and not widely used in building lumber. Pioneers in the North American west used them to create log cabins and dugouts, though they were not the preferred species.  The leaves of the quaking aspen and other species in the genus "Populus" serve as food for caterpillars of various moths and butterflies.  In Canada, quaking aspen wood is used mainly for pulp products such as books, newsprint, and fine printing paper. It is especially good for panel products such as oriented strand board and waferboard. It is light in weight and is used for furniture, boxes and crates, core stock in plywood, and wall panels.

Populus tremuloides is a deciduous tree native to cooler areas of North America, one of several species referred to by the common name aspen. It is commonly called quaking aspen, trembling aspen, American aspen, mountain or golden aspen, trembling poplar, white poplar, and popple, as well as others. The trees have tall trunks, up to 25 meters (82 feet) tall, with smooth pale bark, scarred with black. The glossy green leaves, dull beneath, become golden to yellow, rarely red, in autumn. The species often propagates through its roots to form large clonal groves originating from a shared root system. These roots are not rhizomes, as new growth develops from adventitious buds on the parent root system (the ortet).


École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts

History.

The École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris is the original of a series of Écoles des beaux-arts in French regional centers. Since its founding in 1648, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture has had a school, France's elite institution of instruction in the arts. Its program was structured around a series of anonymous competitions that culminated in the "grand prix de l'Académie Royale", more familiar as the Grand Prix de Rome, for its winner was awarded a bourse and a place at the French Academy in Rome. During his stay in Rome, a "pensionnaire" was expected to send regular "envois" of his developing work back to Paris. Contestants for the "Prix" were assigned a theme from the literature of Classical Antiquity; their individual identities were kept secret to avoid any scandal of favoritism. With his final admission into the Académie, the new member had to present his fellow academicians a "morceau de réception", a painting or sculpture that demonstrated his learning, intelligence, and proficiency in his art. Jacques-Louis David's "Andromache Mourning Hector" was his reception offering in 1783; today it is in the collections of the Louvre Museum.  In 1793, during the French Revolution, the Académie Royale and the grand prix de l'Académie Royale were abolished, but only a few years later, in 1797, the Prix de Rome was re-established. Each year throughout the nineteenth century, the winner of the Prix de Rome was granted five years of study at the Villa Medici, after which the painter or sculptor could fully expect to embark on a successful official career.  The program resulted in the accumulation of some great collections at the Académie, one of the finest collections of French drawings, many of them sent as "envoies" from Rome, as well as the paintings and sculptures, usually the winners, of the competitions, or "salons". Lesser competitions, known as the "petits concours", took themes like history composition (which resulted in many sketches illustrating instructive moments from antiquity), expressions of the emotions, and full and half-figure painting.  In its role as a teaching institution, the École assembled a large collection of Italian and French etchings and engravings, dating from the 16th through the 18th century. Such prints published the composition of paintings to a wide audience. The print collection was first made available to students outside the Académie in 1864.  Today, studies include: painting, installation, graphic arts, photography, sculpture, digital media and video. ENSBA provides the highest level of training in contemporary art production. Throughout history, many world-renowned artists have either taught or studied at this institution. The faculty is made up of recognized international artists. Theoretical courses permitting diverse approaches to the history of the arts complement studio work, which is supported by technical training and access to technical bases. The ENSBA media center provides students with rich documentation on art, and organizes conferences, seminars, and debates throughout the year. The School buildings have architectural interest and house prestigious historical collections and an extensive fine arts library. The school publishes a dozen texts per year on different collections, and holds exhibitions ranging from the school's excellent collection of old-master drawings to the most up to date contemporary works, in the Quai Malaquais space and the Chapel throughout the year.

Collections.

The school owns circa 450,000 items divided between artworks and historical books, making it one of the largest public art collections in France. The collection encompasses many types of artistic productions, from painting and sculpture to etching, furniture or decorated books and from all the periods of art history. Many pieces of the collection are artworks created by students of the School throughout its history but former students and scholars also contributed to enlarge the holdings with many gifts and donations to the institution. The collection consists in approximatively 2,000 paintings (including pictures by Nicolas Poussin, Anthony van Dyck, Hyacinthe Rigaud, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Hubert Robert and Ingres), 600 pieces of decorative arts, 600 architectural elements, nearly 15,000 medals, 3,700 sculptures, 20,000 drawings including works by Paolo Veronese, Primaticcio, Jacques Bellange, Michelangelo, Charles Le Brun, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Gellée, Dürer, Rembrandt, Ingres, François Boucher or Pierre Alechinsky, 45,000 architectural drawings, 100,000 etchings and engravings, 70,000 photographs (mainly form the period 1850–1914), 65,000 books dating from the 15th to the 20th century (3,500 for the 15th and 16th centuries), and 1,000 handwritten pieces of archive (letters, inventories, notes...) and also 390 important fragments or complete illuminated manuscripts.

Palais des Beaux-Arts.

The physical setting of the school stands on about two hectares in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés section of Paris. The main entrance at 14 Rue Bonaparte is flanked by colossal carved heads of Pierre Paul Puget and Nicolas Poussin (done in 1838 by Michel-Louis Victor Mercier).  Before 1816, Beaux-Arts students were taught elsewhere. This land had been the convent of the Petits Augustins, then the site of Alexandre Lenoir's collection of architectural fragments from across France, the "Musée national des Monuments Français", assembled here as a result of the destruction of churches and noble chateaux during the revolution.  In 1830, architect Félix Duban, a former student and winner of the Grand Prix de Rome, began a transformation of the site by demolishing a few existing houses, moving back the convent's cloister on the right to produce a symmetrical courtyard, and designing the largest central building, the Palais des Études. Duban simply incorporated many of Lenoir's historical fragments, notably the portal of the 1548 Château d'Anet, and in the courtyard a facade from the Château de Gaillon, since removed and returned to its original site in 1977. In other ways Duban meant the entire complex as an open-air encyclopedia for artists and architects. The Palais des Études building features elaborate frescoes, the stairwells demonstrate various wall finishes, and the courtyard (glassed over by Duban in 1863) once held classical statuary and full-size copies of the columns of the Parthenon for study.  The core of the complex is a semi-circular award theater within the Palais, the Hémicycle d'Honneur, where the prizes were awarded. Duban commissioned Paul Delaroche to produce a great mural, 27 metres long, to represent seventy-five great artists of all ages, in conversation, assembled in groups. In the middle are three thrones occupied by the creators of the Parthenon: sculptor Phidias, architect Ictinus, and painter Apelles, symbolizing the unity of these arts. The mural took Delaroche three and a half years to complete, and it still stands as a powerful expression of the Beaux-Arts collaborative ideal. Duban continued to expand and improve the complex for decades. Other major buildings include the 1820 Bâtiment des Loges, the modified cloister now called the Cour des Mûriers, the 1862 Bâtiment des Expositions which extended the campus to the Quai Malaquias, the Hôtel de Chimay built circa 1750 and acquired by the school in 1884, and a block of studios constructed circa 1945 in concrete by Auguste Perret.

The École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (; ENSBA) is a fine arts grand school of PSL Research University in Paris, France.


Geological evidence.

Recent (2001) geological studies view the 365 Crete earthquake in connection with a clustering of major seismic activity in the Eastern Mediterranean between the fourth and sixth centuries which may have reflected a reactivation of all major plate boundaries in the region. The earthquake is thought to be responsible for an uplift of of the island of Crete, which is estimated to correspond to a seismic moment of, or 8.6 on the moment magnitude scale. An earthquake of such a size exceeds all modern ones known to have affected the region.  Carbon dating shows that corals on the coast of Crete were lifted and clear of the water in one massive push. This indicates that the tsunami of 365 was generated by an earthquake in a steep fault in the Hellenic Trench near Crete. Scientists estimate that such a large uplift is only likely to occur once in 5,000 years; however, the other segments of the fault could slip on a similar scale—and this could happen every 800 years or so. It is uncertain whether "one of the contiguous patches might slip in the future."

Literary evidence.

Historians continue to debate the question whether ancient sources refer to a single catastrophic earthquake in 365, or whether they represent a historical amalgamation of a number of earthquakes occurring between 350 and 450. The interpretation of the surviving literary evidence is complicated by the tendency of late antique writers to describe natural disasters as divine responses or warnings to political and religious events. In particular, the virulent antagonism between rising Christianity and paganism at the time led contemporary writers to distort the evidence. Thus, the Sophist Libanius and the church historian Sozomenus appear to conflate the great earthquake of 365 with other lesser ones to present it as either divine sorrow or wrath—depending on their viewpoint—for the death of Emperor Julian, who had tried to restore the pagan religion two years earlier.  On the whole, however, the relatively numerous references to earthquakes in a time which is otherwise characterized by a paucity of historical records strengthens the case for a period of heightened seismic activity. Kourion on Cyprus, for example, is known to have been hit then by five strong earthquakes within a period of eighty years, leading to its permanent destruction.

Archeology.

Archeological evidence for the particularly devastating effect of the 365 earthquake is provided by a survey of excavations which document the destruction of most late antiquity towns and cities in the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean around 365.

Tsunami.

The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus described in detail the tsunami that hit Alexandria and other places in the early hours of 21 July 365. His account is particularly noteworthy for clearly distinguishing the three main phases of a tsunami, namely an initial earthquake, the sudden retreat of the sea and an ensuing gigantic wave rolling inland:  The tsunami in 365 was so devastating that the anniversary of the disaster was still commemorated annually at the end of the sixth century in Alexandria as a "day of horror".

Gallery.

Effects of the earthquake visible in the ancient remains:

Further reading.

Literary discussion on sources and providentialist tendencies  Geological discussion

The 365 Crete earthquake occurred at about sunrise on 21 July 365 in the Eastern Mediterranean, with an assumed epicentre near Crete. Geologists today estimate the undersea earthquake to have been a magnitude 8.0 or higher. It caused widespread destruction in central and southern Greece, northern Libya, Egypt, Cyprus, Sicily, and Spain. On Crete, nearly all towns were destroyed.


Early life and education.

The son of an Iranian diplomat, he travelled widely as a child, living in 17 countries by age 11; then, as a young man, he represented Iran as a basketball player at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. He then started his college education at the University of California, Berkeley, but later transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated in 1952. Afterwards, he served on the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine from 1952 to 1954.

Name change.

In the mid-1970s F.M. Esfandiary legally changed his name to FM-2030 for two main reasons. Firstly, to reflect the hope and belief that he would live to celebrate his 100th birthday in 2030; secondly, and more importantly, to break free of the widespread practice of naming conventions that he saw as rooted in a collectivist mentality, and existing only as a relic of humankind's tribalistic past. He viewed traditional names as almost always stamping a label of collective identity – varying from gender to nationality – on the individual, thereby existing as prima facie elements of thought processes in the human cultural fabric, that tended to degenerate into stereotyping, factionalism, and discrimination. In his own words, "Conventional names define a person's past: ancestry, ethnicity, nationality, religion. I am not who I was ten years ago and certainly not who I will be in twenty years. [...] The name 2030 reflects my conviction that the years around 2030 will be a magical time. In 2030 we will be ageless and everyone will have an excellent chance to live forever. 2030 is a dream and a goal."

Personal life.

He was a lifelong vegetarian and said he would not eat anything that had a mother. FM-2030 once said, "I am a 21st century person who was accidentally launched in the 20th. I have a deep nostalgia for the future." He taught at The New School, University of California, Los Angeles, and Florida International University. He worked as a corporate consultant for Lockheed and J. C. Penney. He was also an atheist. FM-2030 was, in his own words, a follower of "upwing" politics, in which he meant that he endorsed universal progress.

Death.

On July 8, 2000, FM-2030 died from pancreatic cancer and was placed in cryonic suspension at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona, where his body remains today. He did not yet have remote standby arrangements, so no Alcor team member was present at his death, but FM-2030 was the first person to be vitrified, rather than simply frozen as previous cryonics patients had been. FM-2030 was survived by four sisters and one brother.

FM-2030 (originally born as Fereidoun M. Esfandiary (); October 15, 1930 – July 8, 2000) was a Belgian-born Iranian-American author, teacher, transhumanist philosopher, futurist, consultant and athlete.


History.

Corvin Castle was laid out in 1446, when construction began on the orders of Voivode of Transylvania John Hunyadi (, ) who wanted to transform the former keep built by Charles I of Hungary. The castle was originally given to John Hunyadi's father, Voyk (Vajk), by Sigismund of Luxembourg, king of Hungary and Croatia, as severance in 1409. It was also in 1446 that John Hunyadi was elected as the regent-governor by the Diet.  Built in a Renaissance-Gothic style and constructed over the site of an older fortification on a rock above the smaller Zlaști River, the castle is a large and imposing structure with tall towers, bastions, an inner courtyard, diversely coloured roofs, and myriads of windows and balconies adorned with stone carvings. The castle also features a double wall for enhanced fortification and is flanked by both rectangular and circular towers, an architectural innovation for the period's Transylvanian architecture. Some of the towers (the Capistrano Tower, the Deserted Tower and the Drummers' Tower) were used as prisons. The Buzdugan Tower (a type of mace after which it was named) was solely built for defensive purposes and it had its exterior decorated with geometric motifs. The rectangular shaped towers have large openings to accommodate larger weapons.  The castle has three large areas: the Knight's Hall, the Diet Hall and the circular stairway. The halls are rectangular in shape and are decorated with marble. The Diet Hall was used for ceremonies or formal receptions whilst the Knight's Hall was used for feasts. In 1456, John Hunyadi died and work on the castle stagnated. Starting with 1458, new commissions were being undergone to construct the Matia Wing of the castle. In 1480, work was completely stopped on the castle and it was recognised as being one of the biggest and most impressive buildings in Eastern Europe.  The 16th century did not bring any improvements to the castle, but during the 17th century new additions were made, for aesthetic and military purposes. Aesthetically, the new Large Palace was built facing the town. A two level building, it hosted living chamber and a large living area. For military purposes, two new towers were constructed: the White Tower and the Artillery Tower. Also, the external yard was added, used for administration and storage.  The current castle is the result of a fanciful restoration campaign undertaken after a disastrous fire and many decades of total neglect. It has been noted that modern "architects projected to it their own wistful interpretations of how a great Gothic castle should look".

Description.

As one of the most important properties of John Hunyadi, the castle was transformed during his reign. It became a sumptuous home, not only a strategically enforced point. With the passing of the years, the masters of the castle had modified its look, adding towers, halls and guest rooms. The gallery and the keep - the last defense tower (called "Neboisa" which means "Don't be afraid" in Serbo-Croatian language), which remained unchanged from John Hunyadi's time, and the Capistrano Tower (named after the saint, Franciscan friar from the Battle of Belgrade in 1456) are some of the most significant parts of the construction. Other significant parts of the building are the Knights' Hall (a great reception hall), the Club Tower, the White bastion, which served as a food storage room, and the Diet Hall, on whose walls medallions are painted (among them there are the portraits of Matei Basarab, ruler from Wallachia, and Vasile Lupu, ruler of Moldavia). In the wing of the castle called the Mantle, a painting can be seen which portrays the legend of the raven from which the name of the descendants of John Hunyadi, Corvinus came.

Legends.

Tourists are told that it was the place where Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia, was held prisoner by John Hunyadi, Hungary's military leader and regent during the King's minority. Later, Vlad III entered a political alliance with John Hunyadi, although the latter was responsible for the execution of his father, Vlad II Dracul. Because of these links, the Hunedoara Castle is sometimes mentioned as a source of inspiration for Castle Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel "Dracula". In fact, Stoker neither knew about Vlad's alliance with Hunyadi, nor about Hunyadi's castle. Instead, Stoker's own handwritten research notes confirm that the novelist imagined Castle Dracula to be situated on an empty top in the Transylvanian Călimani Mountains near the former border with Moldavia.  In the castle yard, near the 15th-century chapel, there is a well 30 meters deep. According to the legend, this fountain was dug by 3 Turkish prisoners to whom liberty was promised if they reached water. After 15 years they completed the well, but their captors did not keep their promise. It is said that the inscription on a wall of the well means "you have water, but not soul". Specialists, however, have translated the inscription as "he who wrote this inscription is Hasan, who lives as slave of the giaours, in the fortress near the church".  In October 2001, Corvin Castle was featured in an episode of Fox Family Channel's "Scariest Places on Earth", where a family was sent overnight alone with cameras.  In February 2007, Corvin Castle played host to the British paranormal television program "Most Haunted Live!" for a three-night live investigation into the spirits reported to be haunting the castle. Results were inconclusive.  In 2013, the television show "Ghost Adventures" filmed an episode at the castle as part of their Halloween special. The castle has been also featured in the video game Age of Empires II HD The Forgotten as a civilization wonder.  The final action sequence (climax) for the 2015 Bollywood movie "Singh Is Bling " starring Akshay Kumar was shot at the castle.  In 2016, beginning in April, scenes for "" were filmed at the castle for months. In 2018, the castle was used as the "Cârța Monastery" in the horror movie "The Nun".

Corvin Castle, also known as Hunyadi Castle or Hunedoara Castle (Romanian: "Castelul Huniazilor" or "Castelul Corvinilor;" Hungarian: "Vajdahunyadi vár"), is a Gothic-Renaissance castle in Hunedoara, Romania. It is one of the largest castles in Europe and figures in a list of the Seven Wonders of Romania.


Taxonomy, phylogeny, and naming.

The species was first described in the scientific literature by the Czech physician and mycologist Julius Vincenz von Krombholz in 1828, under the name "Morchella bohemica". The German naturalist Joseph Schröter transferred it to the genus "Verpa" in 1893. "Ptychoverpa bohemica" is a synonym that was published by Frenchman Jean Louis Émile Boudier in his 1907 treatise on the Discomycetes of Europe; the name is still occasionally used, especially in European publications. Boudier believed that the large, curved ascospores and the rare and short paraphyses were sufficiently distinct to warrant a new genus to contain the single species. "Ptychoverpa" has also been classified as a section of "Verpa". The section is characterized by the presence of thick longitudinal ridges on the cap that can be simple or forked. The species was first discovered in Canada by Alfred Brooker Klugh shortly before 1910 where it was referred to by another synonym, "Morchella bispora".  The specific epithet "bohemica" refers to Bohemia (now a part of the Czech Republic), where Krombholz originally collected the species. The mushroom is commonly known as the "early morel", "early false morel", or the "wrinkled thimble-cap". "Ptychoverpa" is derived from the Ancient Greek "ptyx" (genitive form "ptychos"), meaning "fold", layer", or "plate".

Description.

The cap of this fungus (known technically as an apothecium) is in diameter by long, with a conical or bell shape. It is folded into longitudinal ridges that often fuse together ("anastomose") in a vein-like network. The cap is attached to the stem at the top only—hanging from the top of the stipe, with the lobed edge free from the stem—and varies in color from yellowish brown to reddish brown; the underside of the cap is pale. The stem is long by thick, cream-white in color, and tapers upward so that the stem is thicker at the base than at the top. Although the stem is initially loosely stuffed with cottony hyphae, it eventually becomes hollow in maturity; overall, the mushroom is rather fragile. The spore deposit is yellow, and the flesh is white.  Relative to other typical mushroom species, the spores of "V. bohemica" are huge, typically measuring 60–80 by 15–18 μm. They are elliptical, smooth, sometimes curved, and appear hyaline (translucent) to yellowish. The spores, which number two (more rarely three) per ascus are characteristic for this species. The smooth, elliptical asci measure 275–350 μm long by 16–23 μm wide. The British-Canadian mycologist Arthur Henry Reginald Buller determined that the asci are heliotropic—they bend toward light. As he noted, "I cut transverse sections though their pilei, examined these sections under the microscope, and at once perceived that in all the hymenial grooves and depressions the asci were curved outwards so that their opercula must have faced the strongest rays of light to which the ends of the asci has been subjected in the places where the fruit-bodies developed." This response to the stimulus of light is significant because it permits a fruit body to point and later discharge its asci towards open spaces, thus increasing the chances that the spores will be dispersed by wind. The paraphyses are thick and club-shaped, with diameters of 7–8 μm at their tips.

Edibility.

In Russia "Verpa bohemica" is a commercial species. It is usually sold frozen. No clinical cases have been registered within the Russian Federation concerning intoxications to this mushroom up to date. Despite that, the edibility of this species has been source of different opinions. Although "Verpa bohemica" is eaten by many, consumption of large amounts in a single sitting, or on successive days, has been reported to cause poisoning in susceptible individuals. Symptoms include gastrointestinal upset and lack of muscular coordination, similar to the effects reported by some individuals after consuming the false morel species "Gyromitra esculenta". The responsible toxin in "G. esculenta" is gyromitrin; it was suspected that "V. bohemica" may be able to synthesize low levels of the toxin, however, no experiments on "V. bohemica" have concluded that it contains any level of gyromitrin. Over-consumption of the mushroom has been reported to have induced a coma. Those who do wish to eat this species are often advised to parboil with copious quantities of water (discarding the water before consumption), to dry the specimens before eating, or, if eating for the first time, to restrict consumption to small portions to test their tolerance. Some advocate only eating the caps and discarding the stems. Opinions on the flavor of the mushrooms vary, ranging from "strong but not on a par with true morels", to "pleasant", to "not distinctive".

Similar species.

The closely related species "Verpa conica" typically has a smooth cap, although specimens with wrinkled caps are known. "V. conica" may be distinguished microscopically by its eight-spored asci. Its North American range extends much further south than "V. bohemica". Another similar group of species are the "half-free" morels, "Morchella semilibera" and others, which have a honeycombed cap that is attached to the stalk for about half of its length, and with ridges that are darker than the pits. Additionally, a cross-sectioned stem of a specimen of "M. semilibera" is hollow, while "V. bohemica" usually has cottony wisps in the stem, and "M. semilibera" usually has vertical perforations near the base, while "V. bohemica" lacks them. "Verpa bohemica" may be reliably distinguished from all similar species by its much larger spores.

Ecology, habitat and distribution.

The fruit bodies of "V. bohemica" grow singly or scattered on the ground in woods in early spring, often before the appearance of the morel, and throughout the morel season. It is often found along riverbanks, near cottonwoods, willows and aspens, often buried in plant litter. The fungus prefers to fruit in moist areas with ample sunlight. Its minimum growth temperature is, with an optimum of, and a maximum of about. A study of carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios indicated that "Verpa bohemica" is saprobic, that is, obtaining nutrients from decomposing organic matter. It has been suggested, however, that the fungus is mycorrhizal for at least part of its life cycle. The fungus has a wide distribution throughout northern North America; its range extends south to the Great Lakes in the Midwestern United States, and south to northern California on the West Coast. In Europe, the fungus is widely distributed, and has been collected from Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the Ukraine. In Asia, it has been recorded from India and Turkey.  A 10-year study of the distribution, time of fruiting and habitats of morel and false morel population in Iowa showed that early false morels are the first morels to fruit in the spring, appearing shortly after leaves begin to form on deciduous trees. Narrow-head morels ("Morchella angusticeps") fruit next, followed by the yellow or white morels ("Morchella esculenta"), then lastly "Morchella crassipes". The fruit bodies serve as a habitat for breeding dipterans (flies), including "Porricondyla media", "Pegomya geniculata", and "Trichocera annulata".

Verpa bohemica is a species of fungus in the family Morchellaceae. Commonly known as the early morel (or early false morel) or the wrinkled thimble-cap, it is one of several species known informally as a "false morel". The mushroom has a pale yellow or brown thimble-shaped cap— in diameter by long—that has a surface wrinkled and ribbed with brain-like convolutions. The cap hangs from the top of a lighter-colored, brittle stem that measures up to long by thick. Microscopically, the mushroom is distinguished by its large spores, typically 60–80 by 15–18 μm, and the presence of only two spores per ascus.


Life.

He was a son of Duke John I of Opava-Ratibor. John I had been the sole heir of the Duchy of Racibórz in 1365 and had founded the Opava-Ratibor branch of the family. When the Duchy of Opava was divided in 1377, John I had received the Duchies of Krnov and Bruntál. John II's mother was Anna, the daughter of Henry V of Głogów-Żagań.  After John I's death, his possession were divided by his sons, John II and Nicholas IV. Nicholas IV, the younger brother, received a share of Bruntál. As Nicholas IV was still a minor, John acted as his regent until 1385. When Nicholas IV died (between 1405 and 1407), John II inherited his share of Bruntál. John II sold the Duchy of Krnov, which had been separated from Opava in 1377, to Władysław II of Opole in 1384. John I had pledged Mikołów and the Duchy of Pless to Władysław II; John II redeemed these possessions.  In 1387, John II founded the city of Bieruń and appointed a certain Cussowitz as bailiff over Bieruń. In 1391, he gave the villages of Imielin, Kosztowy and Chełm Śląski on the eastern border of his duchy to the Bishop of Krakow. This implied that these villages were no longer part of Silesia. The village of Halemba near Ruda Śląska developed from an iron works founded by his brother Nicholas IV in 1394. In 1394, John II founded another iron works, named, on the spot of the deserted village of Bogucice. At the end of the 16th century, this settlement developed into the city of Katowice.  In 1389, the bishops of Wrocław and Olomouc and the Dukes of Legnica, Oleśnica, Głogów, Opava and Teschen formed and alliance for mutual protection and to preserve the public peace. John II did not sign this Treaty of Hotzenplotz, because he was a supporter of Margrave Prokop of Moravia.  John II was high steward of King Wenceslaus IV and this made him one of the most powerful men in the Kingdom of Bohemia. He also held the post of Burgrave of Karlštejn. In 1397, John II and other noble councillors accused Wenceslaus IV of neglecting his duties as King of the Romans and asked him to summon an Imperial Diet. The accusations were dealt with by Wenceslaus's councillors and favourites Stefan Poduška von Martinic, Stefan of Opočno, Burkhard Strnad of Janovice and the Prior of the Order of St. John, Marquard of Strakonice. When these men stood in the way of further demands by John and his companions, he invited them to a banquet at the Karlštejn Castle on 11 June 1397. There, he attacked them with the words "You, gentlemen, have advised our Lord, the King, not to take care of our German land, because all you want is for him to become King of the Germans". He then killed them. In the same year, Jobst of Moravia had to pledge the counties of Kłodzko and Ząbkowice Śląskie to King Wenceslaus, who sold his pledge to John II.  After Wenceslaus's stepbrother Sigismund besieged Ratibor in 1400, John II used the occasion of a meeting between Kings Wenceslaus IV and King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland in Wrocław in 1404 to create an alliance against Hungary. After Wenceslaus's death, John II supported his successor, King Sigismund, and paid him homage in Wrocław in 1420 during the Imperial Diet. Rebellious Bohemians sent envoys to Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania, to offer him the Bohemian crown. When they traveled through Ratibor on 21 September 1421, they were arrested by the citizens and John II handed them over to King Sigismund. The Hussites retaliated by invading Ratibor. Sigismund rewarded Sigismund by transferring the rights to Krnov back to John II, who had to redeem Krnov from Duke Louis II of Brieg.  John II died in 1424 and was buried in the church of the Dominicans in Ratibor. It was not until 1427 that his sons agreed to divide his possessions: his son Wenceslaus received the City and Duchy of Racibórz, Nicholas received Krnov, Bruntál, Pszczyna, Rybnik and Baborów.

Family.

On 16 January 1407, John II married the Lithuanian Princess Helena of Lithuania, daughter of Dymitr Korybut and a niece of King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland. In 1407, she received as her wittum, the amts of Pszczyna, Bieruń and Mikołów. In 1412, he added the Waldhufendorf villages south of Żory. After John's death, she used the title "Baroness of Pszczyna" from 1424 to 1449.  They had three children:

John II, Duke of Opava-Ratibor (also known as "John II of Troppau" or "John the Iron"; or ; after 1365 – 1424) was Duke of Opava-Racibórz (Ratibor), Krnov and Bruntál. From 1388 to 1397, he was also governor of Kłodzko and Ząbkowice Śląskie and from 1397 to 1422 pledge lord of Kłodzko and Ząbkowice Śląskie. He was a member of the Opava branch of the Přemyslid dynasty.


Overview.

Consider the expression:  Since there are only twenty-six letters in the English alphabet, there are finitely many phrases of under sixty letters, and hence finitely many positive integers that are defined by phrases of under sixty letters. Since there are infinitely many positive integers, this means that there are positive integers that cannot be defined by phrases of under sixty letters. If there are positive integers that satisfy a given property, then there is a "smallest" positive integer that satisfies that property; therefore, there is a smallest positive integer satisfying the property "not definable in under sixty letters". This is the integer to which the above expression refers. But the above expression is only fifty-seven letters long, therefore it "is" definable in under sixty letters, and is "not" the smallest positive integer not definable in under sixty letters, and is "not" defined by this expression. This is a paradox: there must be an integer defined by this expression, but since the expression is self-contradictory (any integer it defines is definable in under sixty letters), there cannot be any integer defined by it.  Perhaps another helpful analogy to Berry's Paradox would be the phrase, "indescribable feeling". If the feeling is indeed indescribable, then no description of the feeling would be true. But if the word "indescribable" communicates something about the feeling, then it may be considered a description: this is self-contradictory.  Mathematician and computer scientist Gregory J. Chaitin in "The Unknowable" (1999) adds this comment: "Well, the Mexican mathematical historian Alejandro Garcidiego has taken the trouble to find that letter [of Berry's from which Russell penned his remarks], and it is rather a different paradox. Berry’s letter actually talks about the first ordinal that can’t be named in a finite number of words. According to Cantor’s theory such an ordinal must exist, but we’ve just named it in a finite number of words, which is a contradiction."

Resolution.

The Berry paradox as formulated above arises because of systematic ambiguity in the word "definable". In other formulations of the Berry paradox, such as one that instead reads: "...not nameable in less..." the term "nameable" is also one that has this systematic ambiguity. Terms of this kind give rise to vicious circle fallacies. Other terms with this type of ambiguity are: satisfiable, true, false, function, property, class, relation, cardinal, and ordinal. To resolve one of these paradoxes means to pinpoint exactly where our use of language went wrong and to provide restrictions on the use of language which may avoid them.  This family of paradoxes can be resolved by incorporating stratifications of meaning in language. Terms with systematic ambiguity may be written with subscripts denoting that one level of meaning is considered a higher priority than another in their interpretation. "The number not nameable in less than eleven words" may be nameable in less than eleven words under this scheme.

Formal analogues.

Using programs or proofs of bounded lengths, it is possible to construct an analogue of the Berry expression in a formal mathematical language, as has been done by Gregory Chaitin. Though the formal analogue does not lead to a logical contradiction, it does prove certain impossibility results.  George Boolos (1989) built on a formalized version of Berry's paradox to prove Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem in a new and much simpler way. The basic idea of his proof is that a proposition that holds of "x" if and only if "x" = "n" for some natural number "n" can be called a "definition" for "n", and that the set {("n", "k"): "n" has a definition that is "k" symbols long} can be shown to be representable (using Gödel numbers). Then the proposition ""m" is the first number not definable in less than "k" symbols" can be formalized and shown to be a definition in the sense just stated.

Relationship with Kolmogorov complexity.

It is not possible in general to unambiguously define what is the minimal number of symbols required to describe a given string (given a specific description mechanism). In this context, the terms "string" and "number" may be used interchangeably, since a number is actually a string of symbols, e.g. an English word (like the word "eleven" used in the paradox) while, on the other hand, it is possible to refer to any word with a number, e.g. by the number of its position in a given dictionary or by suitable encoding. Some long strings can be described exactly using fewer symbols than those required by their full representation, as is often achieved using data compression. The complexity of a given string is then defined as the minimal length that a description requires in order to (unambiguously) refer to the full representation of that string.  The Kolmogorov complexity is defined using formal languages, or Turing machines which avoids ambiguities about which string results from a given description. It can be proven that the Kolmogorov complexity is not computable. The proof by contradiction shows that if it were possible to compute the Kolmogorov complexity, then it would also be possible to systematically generate paradoxes similar to this one, i.e. descriptions shorter than what the complexity of the described string implies. That is to say, the definition of the Berry number is paradoxical because it is not actually possible to compute how many words are required to define a number, and we know that such computation is not possible because of the paradox.

The Berry paradox is a self-referential paradox arising from an expression like "The smallest positive integer not definable in under sixty letters" (a phrase with fifty-seven letters). Bertrand Russell, the first to discuss the paradox in print, attributed it to G. G. Berry (1867–1928), a junior librarian at Oxford's Bodleian library.


Association team allocation.

A total of 194 teams from 53 UEFA associations participated in the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. Associations were allocated places according to their 2009 UEFA country coefficient, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2004–05 to 2008–09.  Below is the qualification scheme for the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League:

Distribution.

The winners of the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League, Atlético Madrid, were guaranteed a place in the group stage as the title holder, since they did not qualify for the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League. However, they also qualified for the Europa League third qualifying round through domestic performance, as they were the runners-up of the 2009–10 Copa del Rey to Champions League-qualified Sevilla. As a result, this place in the third qualifying round was vacated, which in turn led to the following changes to the default allocation system in order to compensate for this vacant spot:

Redistribution rules.

A Europa League place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualifies for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules:

Teams.

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:

Round and draw dates.

All draws held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland unless stated otherwise.  Matches in the qualifying, play-off, and knockout rounds may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.

Seeding.

The draws for the qualifying rounds, the play-off round and the group stage are all seeded based on the 2010 UEFA club coefficients. The coefficients are calculated on the basis of a combination of 20% of the value of the respective national association's coefficient for the period from 2005–06 to 2009–10 inclusive and the clubs' individual performances in the UEFA club competitions during the same period. Clubs are ordered by their coefficients and then divided into pots as required.  In the draws for the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, the teams are divided evenly into one seeded and one unseeded pot, based on their club coefficients. A seeded team is drawn against an unseeded team, with the order of legs in each tie also being decided randomly. Due to the limited time between matches, the draws for the second and third qualifying rounds take place before the results of the previous round are known. The seeding in each draw is carried out under the assumption that all of the highest-ranked clubs of the previous round are victorious. If a lower-ranked club is victorious, it simply takes the place of its defeated opponent in the next round. Prior to these draws, UEFA may form "groups" in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee, but they are purely for convenience of the draw and do not resemble any real groupings in the sense of the competition, while ensuring that teams from the same association not drawn against each other.  In the draw for the group stage, the 48 teams are split into four pots of twelve teams, based on their club coefficients, with the title holder (if participating) automatically placed into Pot 1. Each group contains one team from each pot, but teams from the same association cannot be drawn into the same group.  In the draw for the first knockout stage, the twelve group winners and the four better third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage (based on their match record in the group stage) are seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage are unseeded. A seeded team is drawn against an unseeded team, with the seeded team hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association cannot be drawn against each other.  In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association may be drawn with each other.

Qualifying rounds.

In the qualifying and play-off rounds, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis.  The draw for the first two qualifying rounds was made on 21 June 2010, while the draw for the third qualifying round was made on 16 July 2010.

First qualifying round.

The first legs were played on 1 July, and the second legs were played on 8 July 2010.

Second qualifying round.

The first legs were played on 15 July, and the second legs were played on 22 and 23 July 2010.

Third qualifying round.

The first legs were played on 27 and 29 July, and the second legs were played on 3 and 5 August 2010.

Play-off round.

The draw for the play-off round was held on 6 August 2010. The first legs were played on 17 and 19 August, and the second legs were played on 24 and 26 August 2010.

Group stage.

The 48 clubs were drawn into twelve groups of four on 27 August 2010 in Monaco. In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays are 16 September, 30 September, 21 October, 4 November, 1–2 December, and 15–16 December 2010. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32, where they are joined by the eight third-placed teams from the group stage of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League.  If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings (in descending order):  Following a trial at last year's UEFA Europa League, UEFA have announced that in both this year's and the 2011–12 competition, two extra officials would be used – with one on each goal line.

Knockout phase.

In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.  The draw for the round of 32 and round of 16 was held on 17 December 2010. The draws for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final (to determine the "home" team) were held on 18 March 2011.

Bracket.

<section begin=bracket />

Round of 32.

The first legs were played on 15 and 17 February, and the second legs were played on 22, 23 and 24 February 2011.

Round of 16.

The first legs were played on 10 March, and the second legs were played on 17 March 2011.

Quarter-finals.

The first legs were played on 7 April, and the second legs were played on 14 April 2011.

Semi-finals.

The first legs were played on 28 April, and the second legs were played on 5 May 2011.

Final.

The final was played on 18 May 2011 at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. Due to UEFA rules against corporate sponsorship outside the federation, for the final the stadium was referred to as the "Dublin Arena".

Top goalscorers.

The top scorers from the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League (excluding qualifying rounds and play-off round) are as follows:

The 2010–11 UEFA Europa League was the second season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 40th edition overall including its predecessor, the UEFA Cup. It began on 1 July 2010, with the first qualifying round matches, and concluded on 18 May 2011, with the final at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, between Porto and first-time finalists Braga. This was the first all-Portuguese final of a European competition and only the third time that two Portuguese teams faced each other in Europe, following Braga's elimination of Benfica in the semi-finals. Porto defeated Braga 1–0, with a goal from the competition's top goalscorer Radamel Falcao, and won their second title in the competition, after victory in the 2002–03 UEFA Cup. Atletico Madrid were the defending champions but were eliminated in group stage.


History.

The province had been established in 1269 on lands which until then had been part of the Bohemian Margraviate of Moravia, when King Ottokar II of Bohemia vested his natural son Nicholas I with Opava. Together with the adjacent Duchy of Racibórz, it was under the direct rule of a cadet branch of the royal Přemyslid dynasty—unlike most other Silesian duchies ruled by the Silesian Piasts, who nevertheless in large part also had become Bohemian vassals in 1327. Nicholas retained Opava after the last Přemyslid ruler of Bohemia, King Wenceslaus III, was killed in 1306. In the following struggle for the Bohemian throne, he backed the claims of the Luxembourg candidate John the Blind, who in turn enfeoffed his son and successor Nicholas II with the Duchy of Opava in 1318. In 1337, Nicholas II also received the neighbouring Duchy of Racibórz upon the death of the last Piast duke Leszek.  When Duke Nicholas II died in 1365, his eldest son John I inherited the Duchy of Racibórz, while the Duchy of Opava from 1367 was ruled jointly by him and his younger brothers Nicholas III, Wenceslaus I and Přemek I. When in 1377 the brothers finally divided their Opava heritage, the eldest, John I, received the newly established Duchy of Krnov together with the Bruntál estates. Upon his death in 1380/82, Racibórz, Krnov and Bruntál were inherited by his elder son John II "the Iron".  In 1384, Duke John II sold Krnov to the Piast duke Władysław of Opole, who ceded it to the Luxembourg margrave Jobst of Moravia in 1390. After Jobst had died in 1411, his cousin Emperor Sigismund pawned Krnov to the Piast duke Louis II of Brieg, but in 1422 again ceded it to John II, who could redeem the pledge. Two years later, the duchy was inherited by his sons Wenceslaus II and Nicholas V, who ruled jointly until 1437, when Nicholas received Krnov together with Bruntál, Pless, Rybnik, Loslau, and Sohrau. Upon his death in 1452, Krnov and Loslau fell to his elder son John IV, while Rybnik, Sohrau and Pless fell to his younger brother Wenceslaus III.  The Přemyslid dukes finally lost Krnov during the Bohemian–Hungarian War in 1474 to Matthias Corvinus, then anti-king of Bohemia, who had John IV captured and arrested. After John's death in 1483, his sister Barbara, consort of Duke Jan IV of Oświęcim, tried to regain the duchy; however, Vladislav II Jagiellon, having prevailed as Bohemian king, had no intention to return the seized duchy but enfeoffed his chancellor Johann von Schellenberg with Krnov instead. An agreement was reached in 1492, when Barbara's daughter Helena married Schellenberg's son George.  In 1523, George of Schellenberg had to sell Krnov to the Hohenzollern margrave George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who could rely on the Hungarian inheritance of his consort Beatrice de Frangepan, widow of Matthias Corvinus. From 1532 the margrave ruled over all Upper Silesia, when he also inherited the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz from the Piast duke Jan II the Good. He had Krnov Castle rebuilt and introduced the Protestant Reformation in Silesia, having the local Teutonic Knights, Franciscans and Minorites expelled. The increasing power of the Protestant House of Hohenzollern in the Silesian crown lands was suspiciously eyed by Ferdinand I of Habsburg, Bohemian king since 1526. Nevertheless, George as well as his son Margrave George Frederick, who ruled from 1543, were able to keep the duchy. The conflict aggravated when George Frederick died childless in 1603 and bequested Krnov to his cousin Elector Joachim III Frederick of Brandenburg, who gave it to his son Johann Georg in 1607. The Habsburg rulers regarded the duchy a reverted fief and after the Bohemian Revolt and the 1620 Battle of White Mountain Emperor Ferdinand II confiscated the Hohenzollern possessions in his Bohemian lands. Ferdinand's loyal supporter Prince Karl I of Liechtenstein, Duke of Opava since 1613, received Krnov. Both duchies were merged in 1623 and subjected to Counter-Reformation. The House of Hohenzollern never withdrew the claims and more than one hundred years later, the Krnov and Racibórz possessions were a pretext for the Prussian king Frederick the Great to start the First Silesian War, ending with the annexation of most of Silesia according to the Treaty of Breslau in 1742. While a small northern part was merged into the now Prussian Duchy of Opole, the bulk of Krnov remained with the Bohemian Crown as part of Austrian Silesia. Re-organised as the Krnov District ("Krnovský kraj") from 1751, it was finally dissolved after the 1848 Revolution, when Austrian Silesia was raised to the status of a Cisleithanian crown land.

The Duchy of Krnov (,, ) or Duchy of Jägerndorf () was one of the Duchies of Silesia, which in 1377 emerged from the Duchy of Troppau (Opava), itself a fief of the Bohemian Crown. Its capital was at Krnov in the present-day Czech Republic.


Life.

His parents were Przemko I, Duke of Opava (d. 1433) and his second wife, Catherine of Münsterberg (d. 1422).  His father died in 1433, leaving five sons. The oldest brother, Wenceslaus II took up the guardianship for his younger half-brothers William, Ernest and Przemko II, while Wenceslaus's younger brother Nicholas IV styled himself Lord of Zlaté Hory. Although their father had stipulated in his will that they should rule the ducht jointly, the brothers divided their inheritance around 1435. William and Ernest received shares of Opava; the Duchy of Głubczyce was split off for Wenceslas. The youngest brother, Przemko II, was destined for an ecclesiastical career and did not receive a share of the duchy. The duchy was now so fragmented that the revenue did not cover the Duke's cost of living. William saw no option but to become a robber baron.  Hynek Krušina of Lichtenburg acquired the Duchy of Münsterberg in 1440. The Estates, however, rejected him as their sovereign. After length negotiations, they elected William of Opava as their new Duke. William's claim to Münsterberg was based on two relationships: hiw mother had been the sister of John I, the last Duke of Münsterberg from the Piast dynasty, and he was married to Salome, a daughter of Půta III of Častolovice, who had been the lawful pledge lord of Münsterberg until he died in 1434. William accepted his election and changed from a robber baron into a defender of the peace. Together with Dukes NIcholas V (d. 1452) of Krnov, Przemyslaus II of Cieszyn and Henry IX of Żagań-Głogów he fought as captain of Wrocław against highway robbers and robber barons.  In 1443, he formed an alliance with Archbishop Conrad of Wrocław and the Dukes of Wrocław, Jawor and Legnica against Hynek Krušina of Lichtenburg. Although Hynek had never given up his claims on Münsterberg, the dispute was resolved in 1444 and the Duchy of Münsterberg was granted to William, except the district of Ząbkowice Śląskie. The citizens of that district had fought on Hynek's side during the conflict and Hynek was allowed to retain the district.  In 1451, William transferred his ownership of Münsterberg to his brother Ernest, in exchange for a 1/3 share in the ownership of the Duchy of Opava. Since William had received another 1/3 share when his father's inheritance had been divided in 1435, he now owned 2/3 of Opava.  William died in 1452. His brother Ernest took up the guardianship of William's children. As their guardian, he sold William's 2/3 share of Opava to Duke Bolko V of Opole, in or after 1454. On 8 March 1456, Ernest sold the Duchy of Münsterberg to George of Poděbrady, who would be elected King of Bohemia in 1458. George purchased the 1/3 share of Opava after Bolko's death from the latter's brother Nicholas I and in 1464, he purchased the other 2/3 in Opole in 1464 from John II, thereby considerable increasing his political and economic influence in Silesia.  William of Troppau died in 1452. He was buried in the Holy Spirit Church in Opava.

Family.

William was married with Salome, a daughter of the East Bohemian nobleman Půta III of Častolovice and his wife, Anna, the daughter of Albert of Koldice. They had the following children:

Duke William of Opava (; – 15 August 1452) was a member of Opava branch of the Bohemian Přemyslid dynasty. He was Duke of Opava from 1433 to 1452 and Duke of Münsterberg from 1443 to 1452.


Life.

Nicholas II of Opava was a member of the Opava branch of the Bohemian noble Přemyslovci family. His parents were Duke Nicholas I of Opava, who had held Opava since 1269, and Adelheid of Habsburg, a niece of King Rudolf I. He was a supporter of King John of Luxembourg of Bohemia, who gave him Opava as a fief in 1318 and at the same time raised it to an independent duchy. He moved the ducal residence from Hradec nad Moravicí () to Opava (). Also in 1318, he married with Anna, the only sister of Duke Leszek of Ratibór. Since Leszek left no offspring, the Duchy of Ratibór reverted to the Bohemian Crown after Leszek death in 1336. King John gave it to his loyal vassal Nicholas II in 1337. With his dual power base in Opava and Ratibór, Nicholas became one of the most powerful princes in the upper Oder area. With the acquisition by Nicholas, Ratibór came under a foreign ruler and due to the personal union, Opava became more oriented towards Silesia. In 1337, the princes of Opole also claimed Ratibór; King John sold them the Moravian town of Prudnik () instead. In a document dated 1350, Nicholas II is mentioned as Burgrave of Kłodzko. In 1355 he had to give up Koźle and Gliwice, which had been transferred to Duke Leszek.

Marriage and issue.

Nicholas was married three times. Around 1318 he married Anna of Racibórz (died around 1340), a daughter of Duke Przemysław of Racibórz. Several children resulted from this marriage:  After Anna's death, Nicholas married in May 1342 to Hedwig (died 1359), a daughter of Duke Konrad I of Oleśnica (died 1366). From this marriage, he had a son  In 1360, Nicholas married his third wife, Jutta (died after 1378), a daughter of the Duke Boleslaw II of Opole-Falkenberg. This marriage produced three more children:

Nicholas II of Opava (also: "Nicholas II of Troppau", "Nicholas II of Ratibór"; ; 1288 – 8 December 1365) was Duke of Opava () from 1318 to 1365 and Duke of Ratibór from 1337 to 1365 and Burgrave of Kladsko () from 1350 to 1365 and also chamberlain of the Kingdom of Bohemia.