Battle of Raseiniai

The Battle of Raseiniai (23–27 June 1941) was a large tank battle that took place in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The battle was fought between the elements of the German 4th Panzer Group and the Soviet 3rd Mechanized Corps with the 12th Mechanised Corps, in Lithuania, north-west of Kaunas. The Red Army tried to contain and destroy the German troops that had crossed the Neman River but was unable to prevent them from advancing.
The result of the battle was the destruction of most of the Soviet armoured forces of the Northwestern Front, which cleared the way for the Germans to attack towards the crossings of the Daugava River (Western Dvina). The fighting around Raseiniai was one of the main battles of the initial phase of Operation Barbarossa, referred to in Soviet historiography as the Border Defensive Battles (22–27 June 1941) and formed part of the larger Soviet Baltic Strategic Defensive Operation.
Prelude.
Army Group North, commanded by Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, and staging in East Prussia prior to the commencement of the offensive, was the northern of three army groups participating in Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Army Group North controlled the 18th Army and the 16th Army, along with the 4th Panzer Group (General Erich Hoepner). The Germans had 20 infantry divisions, three Panzer and three motorized infantry divisions. Air support was provided by "Luftflotte 1" (1st Air Fleet).
The Soviet military administrative control over the Baltic republics area where the Army Group North would be deployed was exercised by the Special Baltic Military District which after the invasion was renamed into the Northwestern Front (Colonel General Fyodor Kuznetsov). The front had the 8th and 11th Armies with the 27th Armies in its second echelon; the Northwestern Front had 28 rifle, 4 tank and 2 motorized divisions.
On 22 June 1941, the Northwestern Front had two mechanised corps, the 3rd Mechanised Corps (Major General Alexey Kurkin) had 31,975 men and 669 – 672 tanks and the 12th Mechanized Corps (Major General Nikolai Shestapolov) had 28,832 men and 730 – 749 tanks; only BT-7s and T-26 tanks were available.
Battle.
Initial assault.
The 4th Panzer Group advanced in two spearheads, led by the XLI Panzer Corps (General Georg-Hans Reinhardt) and LVI Panzer Corps (General Erich von Manstein). Their objective was to cross the Neman and Daugava, the most difficult natural obstacles in front of the Army Group North and to drive towards Leningrad. German bombers destroyed many of the signals and communications centers, naval bases and the Soviet airfields from Riga to Kronstadt. Šiauliai, Vilnius and Kaunas were also bombed. Soviet aircraft had been on one-hour alert but were held on their airfields after the first wave of German bombers passed.
At 9:30 AM on 22 June, Kuznetsov ordered the 3rd and 12th Mechanized corps to take up their counter-attack positions, intending to use them in flanking attacks on the 4th Panzer Group, which had broken through to the river Dubysa (Dubissa). By noon, the Soviet divisions began to fall back and the German columns then began to swing towards Raseiniai, where Kuznetsov was concentrating his armor for a big counter-attack on the next day. By the evening, Soviet formations had fallen back to the Dubysa. North-west of Kaunas, forward elements of LVI Panzer Corps reached the Dubysa and seized the vital Ariogala road viaduct across it.
By the end of 22 June, the German armoured spearheads over the Niemen had penetrated . The next day, Kuznetsov committed his armoured forces to battle. Near Raseiniai, the XLI Panzer Corps was counter-attacked by the Soviet 3rd and 12th Mechanised Corps. The concentration of Soviet armour was detected by the Luftwaffe, which immediately attacked tank columns of the 12th Mechanised Corps south-west of Šiauliai. No Soviet fighters appeared and the Soviet 23rd Tank Division sustained particularly severe losses, Ju 88s from "Luftflotte 1" attacking at low level, setting 40 vehicles, including tanks and lorries on fire.
German forces encountered a unit equipped with the Soviet KV heavy tanks for the first time. On 23 June, "Kampfgruppe" von Seckendorff of the 6th Panzer Division, consisting of 114th Panzergrenadier Regiment (motorized infantry), "Aufklärungsabteilung" 57 (Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion 57), one company of "Panzerjäger" Battalion 41 and Motorcycle Battalion 6 was overrun by the 2nd Tank Division (General Yegor Solyankin) from the 3rd Mechanised Corps near Skaudvilė. The German Panzer 35(t) tanks and anti-tank weapons were ineffective against the Soviet heavy tanks, some of which were out of ammunition but closed in and destroyed German antitank guns by driving over them.
The Germans fired at the tracks of the KVs, bombarded them with artillery, anti-aircraft guns or sticky bombs. A report of the 1st Panzer Division described the engagement,
The lone Soviet tank.
A single KV-1 or KV-2 tank (accounts vary) advanced far behind the German lines after attacking a column of German supply trucks. The tank stopped on a road across soft ground and was engaged by four anti-tank guns of the 6th Panzer Division's anti-tank battalion. The tank was hit several times but fired back and destroyed all four enemy AT guns. A heavy 88 mm gun of the divisional anti-aircraft battalion was moved about behind the lone Soviet tank but was knocked out by the tank before it could manage to score a hit. During the night, German combat engineers tried to destroy the tank with satchel charges but failed despite possibly damaging the vehicle's tracks. Early on the morning of June 25, German tanks fired on the KV from the nearby woodland while another gun fired at the tank from its rear. Of several shots fired, only two managed to penetrate the tank. German infantry then advanced towards the KV tank and it responded with machine-gun fire against them. Eventually, the tank was knocked out by grenades thrown into the hatches. According to some accounts, the dead crew was recovered and buried by the approaching German soldiers with full military honors, while in other accounts, the crew escaped from their crippled tank during the night.
The 6th Panzer Division "Kampfgruppe" commander, General Erhard Raus, described it as a KV-1, which was damaged by several shots from an anti-tank gun fired from behind the vehicle, while it was distracted by light Panzer 35(t) tanks from Panzer Battalion 65. The KV-1 crew were killed by a pioneer engineer unit who pushed grenades through two holes made by the AT gun while the turret began moving again, with the other five or six shots having not fully penetrated. Apparently, the KV-1 crew had only been stunned by the shots which had entered the turret and were buried nearby with military honors by the German unit.
In 1965, the remains of the crew were exhumed and reburied at the Soviet military cemetery in Raseiniai. According to research by Russian military historian Maksim Kolomiets, the tank may have been from the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Tank Regiment, itself a part of the 2nd Tank Division. It is impossible to identify the crew because their personal documents were lost after being buried in the woods north of Raseiniai during the retreat, possibly by German troops.
Conclusion of the battle.
In the south, by 23 June, Lieutenant-General Vasily Ivanovich Morozov, the 11th Army commander, ordered the units falling back to the old fortress town Kaunas on the Nemunas river (Neman in Russian) to move on to Jonava some to the north-east. By the evening of 25 June, the Soviet 8th Army was falling back towards Riga and the 11th Army towards Vilnius and the Desna, a gap opening in the Soviet front from Ukmergė to Daugavpils. By 26 June, the 1st Panzer Division and 36th Motorised Infantry Division of the XLI Panzer Corps and following infantry divisions had cut through the rear of the Soviet mechanised corps and linked up. The Soviet 3rd Mechanised Corps had run out of fuel and the 2nd Tank Division was encircled and almost destroyed. In the encirclement, Solyankin was killed in action. The 5th Tank Division and 84th Motorised Division were severely depleted due to losses in vehicles and personnel. The 12th Mechanized Corps pulled out of the trap but was very short of fuel and ammunition. The Soviet Baltic Fleet was withdrawn from bases in Liepāja, Ventspils and Rīga by 26 June and LVI Panzer Corps dashed for the River Daugava and in a remarkable coup seized bridges near Daugava intact.
Aftermath.
The battle is known in Soviet historiography as the Border Defensive Battles (22–27 June 1941), forming part of the larger Soviet Baltic Strategic Defensive Operation. After the battle, the leading formations of LVI Panzer Corps began to enlarge the bridgehead after the seizure of the Dvina bridges and the fall of Dvinsk. On 25 June, Marshal Semyon Timoshenko ordered Kuznetsov to organize a defense of the Western Dvina, by deploying the 8th Army on the right bank from Riga to Livani while the 11th Army defended the Livani–Kraslava sector. Kuznetsov also used the 27th Army (Major-General Nikolai Berzarin), moving troops from Hiiumaa and Saaremaa islands and Riga to Daugavpils. At the same time the Soviet (Stavka) released the 21st Mechanised Corps (Major-General Dmitry Lelyushenko) with 98 tanks and 129 guns, from the Moscow Military District to co-operate with the 27th Army.
At on 28 June, Lelyushenko attempted to destroy the German bridgehead near Daugavpils. Manstein halted on the Dvina but attacked the next day, striking along the Daugavpils–Ostrov highway. At Riga on the afternoon of 29 June, the Germans crossed the railway bridge over the Dvina. On 30 June, Soviet troops withdrew from the right bank of the river and by 1 July were retreating towards Estonia. Instead of rushing Leningrad, the panzer divisions were ordered to wait for infantry reinforcements, which took almost a week.
Kuznetsov was sacked by Timoshenko and Major-General Pyotr Sobennikov, the 8th Army commander, took over the front on 4 July. On 29 June, Timoshenko ordered that if the Northwestern Front had to withdraw from the Daugava, the line of the Velikaya, was to be held and every effort made to get Soviet troops dug in there. The line at Velikaya fell rapidly on 8 July, with rail and road bridges remaining intact and Pskov fell on the evening of 9 July. The 11th Army was ordered to move to Dno but the collapse of the Northwestern Front on the Velikaya and the German sweep to Luga were serious defeats, forcing the 8th Army towards the Gulf of Finland. The German pause had given time for more troops to be rushed to the Siege of Leningrad, a long and hard battle.


Selander Company

The Selander Company was a famous and renowned theatre company in Sweden from 1889-1928 run by the head-strong theatre couple Hjalmar and Concordia Selander.
They were famous for discovering and producing young stage talents, for quality productions on tour and for a "respected repertoire" - and, above all, for good finances that actually made sure their actors got paid (something that was important and not all too certain in theatre companies and troupes of those days).
Many of the young talents that started out in the Selander Company later became famous stage actors in Sweden; Lars Hanson, Gösta Ekman (senior), Victor Sjöström, Olof Winnerstrand, Karin Swanström and Karl Gerhard, amongst others.


Ponerosteus

Ponerosteus is a dubious genus of archosauromorph which was first identified as "Iguanodon exogirarum" by Antonín Frič in 1878 for a specimen from the Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous of the Czech Republic, near Holubice by Kralupy nad Vltavou; Korycanar Formation). He later (1905) renamed it "Procerosaurus", unaware that this name was already in use (von Huene, 1902). It was renamed "Ponerosteus exogyrarum" (species name amended) by George Olshevsky in 2000; however, the taxon is considered a "nomen dubium" by most, as the type material is extremely poor, being apparently an internal cast of a tibia from an animal that may or may not be a dinosaur. The name "Ponerosteus" can be translated as "bad", "worthless", or "useless bone", which accurately describes the nature of the material.


Eastern Sporades

Eastern Sporades (Greek: "Ανατολικές Σποράδες") or Eastern Islands (Greek: "Ανατολικοί Νήσοι") was the name of one of the thirteen divisions (administrative districts) created in 1828 with the administrative division of the newly formed Hellenic State by the government of Ioannis Kapodistrias.
Etymology.
"Eastern Sporades" means "those scattered at the east" (compare with "sporadic"). From Classical Antiquity the name "Sporades" has referred to the Aegean island groups outside the central archipelago of the Cyclades.
History.
The Eastern Sporades were created by the 10th resolution of the Kapodistrian Greek government on 13 April 1828, which was repealed two years later, in June 1830, when the Greek government was forced to withdraw from Samos and the other islands in the region, as these islands returned to sovereignty of the High Gate, as they were not included in the London Protocol of 1830 which described the territories that would remain independent of the Ottoman Empire.
This division included the islands of Kalymnos, Leros, Patmos, Icaria and Samos, where Ioannis Kolettis appointed as the extraordinary commissioner of the Eastern Sporades and had his seat on Samos from July 1828. The leader of the military body was a Samian chieftain, Konstantis Lachanas, who had been already appointed as General Captain of the Greek Army in Samos by the General Assembly of the Samians in 1824.
After the departure of the Greek authorities from Samos, in June 1830, Ioannis Kolettis also left the island. Then Lykourgos Logothetis returned to Samos and a Samian State was formed, until 1834. Konstantis Lachanas continued to be the military leader of Military-Political System of Samos, this time appointed by Lykourgos Logothetis.
In 1834, became an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire as Principality of Samos, until 1912, were the islands captured by Italian forces in Turkish-Italian War. In November 1912, after a delay due to the Balkan Wars, Icaria officially became part of the Kingdom of Greece, Samos followed in March 1913.
During World War II, the two islands was reoccupied by the Italians from May 1941 until the Italian surrender in September 1943. Next month, the Nazi forces start a new occupation until 4 October 1944, when the islands was liberated by the Greek Sacred Band. In 1947, after the Peace Treaty with Italy, rejoined with Greece as part of Dodecanese and the other three main islands of the Eastern Sporades, Kalymnos, Leros and Patmos.
Geography.
In modern geographical parlance of Greece, there are different Sporades groups. Eastern Sporades are the islands of the eastern and northeastern Aegean, near the coast of Asia Minor. Today, this island group include:
The traditional Eastern Sporades' islands Kalymnos, Leros and Patmos, today, belong to the administrative division of the Dodecanese.


Little Russian identity

The Little Russian identity was a cultural, political, and ethnic self-identification of the population of Ukraine who aligned themselves as one of the constituent parts of the triune Russian nationality. The Little Russian identity combined the cultures of imperial Russian and Cossack Hetmanate.
The beginning of the development of the Little Russian identity in the Cossack Hetmanate dates back to the late 18th century. A significant factor that promoted this process was the idea of equal national, social and religious rights for the elite of the Tsardom of Russia that had been denied in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The new ethnonym was promoted instead of the widespread name Ruthenian ("Rusyny"; русини). The struggle between the two projects of national identity lasted until the dissolution of the Russian Empire. The revolutionary events of 1917 led to a rapid strengthening of the Ukrainian national idea, which was backed by many Western Ukrainians in Galicia who joined the political life in Kiev. Because of their adjacency to the Russian White Movement, political activists with Little Russian, and Pan-Russian views were among the social groups who suffered the most during the Revolution, and the troubles of the Civil War; many of whom were killed during the war or forced to emigrate.
After the end of the Civil War, the process of Ukrainian nation-building was resumed in the territory of Ukrainian SSR by the Bolshevik party and the Soviet authorities, who introduced the policy of korenizatsiya, the implementation of which in the Ukrainian SSR was called Ukrainization. As a result, the term "Little Russian" was marginalized and remained in usage only among White emigres.
Emergence.
The Little Russian political ideology emerged simultaneous to the revival of the Byzantine term Little Rus' at the end of the 16th century in the literary works of the Christian Orthodox clergy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Numerous prominent Orthodox authors and hierarchs, such as Ivan Vyshenskyi, Zakharia Kopystenskyi, Yelisey Pletenetskyi or Job Boretsky strongly opposed the Union of Brest and polemicized with Roman Catholics and Uniates, developing the ideas of a pan-Russian Orthodox people. The Little Russian idea steadily gained support among Cossack leadership and Orthodox brotherhoods, which were subject to judicial, economic and religious discrimination; and repeatedly organized violent uprisings against Polish rule from the end of the 16th to the first half of the 17th century. Simultaneously, the image of an Orthodox Tsar who would protect the All-Russian people against the injustice of the Poles became a political tool used by Moscovite rulers. Later, the existence of such sentiments facilitated the signing of the Treaty of Pereyaslav during the Khmelnytsky Uprising as well as the political integration of the Hetmanate into the Tsardom of Russia.
After the Pereyaslav Treaty the Hetmanate faced a civil war known as The Ruin between pro-Russian and pro-Polish forces. After the pro-Polish fraction lost Left-Bank Ukraine, the Little Russian identity ultimately consolidated after already being strongly enrooted in ecclesiastic circles. An important milestone was the 1674 publication of the Kievan Synopsis by the archimandrite of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and the rector of the Kievan Theological School Innocent Gizel. In his work he described the dynastic succession between Kiev and Moscow as well as the existence of an All-Russian nation which has its origins in the ancient people of the Kievan Rus. Throughout the 18th century Synopsis was the most widespread and popular historical work in Russia.
Under the influence of the Kiev-born archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Theophan Prokopovich the Russian Empire gradually became the object of primary identification of Little Russians while The Cossack elite under Russian rule looked for ways to legitimize its social status in the hierarchy of the Russian Empire to benefit from the perspective of attractive career possibilities. Supporters of the Little Russian identity considered the Russian Empire as their own state which they built together with (Great) Russians. In the 18th century many Little Russians held important political positions of the Empire: Chancellor Alexander Bezborodko, minister of education Pyotr Zavadovsky, general prosecutor Dmitry Troshchinsky, Field Marshal and President of the Academy of Science Kyrylo Rozumovskyi, Field Marshal Alexey Razumovsky among others.
The Little Russian identity didn't aim at blurring local peculiarities as long as they didn't contradict the most important thing: the idea of a cultural and political All-Russian unity. Little Russians had not the opinion that they are "sacrificing" the interests of their local homeland to the Great Russians or that they have to abandon their identity in favour of the Great Russian.
The Little Russian identity was not the only form of self-identification that existed in Ukraine prior to the emergence of the Ukrainian national identity. The supporters of hetman Ivan Mazepa who rebelled against Russian emperor Peter I favored a Khazarian origin to the Cossack people, which they considered a distinct nation. It told that the "Cossack people" originates from the old Khazars unrelated to Russians. This version is also described in the Orlyk Constitution.
Rivalry with the Ukrainian idea.
Russian Empire.
In the second half of the 19th century an alternative identity project emerged which was called Ukrainianness ("українство"). The naming referred to the territory of Ukraine which in the earlier times designated the border region south of Kiev inhabited by Cossacks. The characteristical traits of the new political ideology was the growing rejection of any cultural and ethnic ties with Russia and the political orientation towards the West. The basis of Ukrainianness was laid by members of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, led by Nikolay Kostomarov.
With the support of local authorities, the Ukrainianness got particularly rapid development on the territory of Galicia which belonged to Austria-Hungary. The rivalry between the Little Russian and the Ukrainian identity which intensified in the period prior to World War I had the character of a local Kulturkampf and terminological war. The rhetorical battle was led for the cultural heritage of Little Russia and the identity of many key figures such as Taras Shevchenko. Hot polemics inflamed about historical issues, personalities and the interpretation of Little Russia's history. One of the most influential supporters of Ukrainianness was Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, the author of the large historical monograph, the "History of Ukraine-Rus". His work emphasized that Ukrainians and Russians had a separate ethnogenesis.
Also in the linguistic question the "Little Russians" and the "Ukrainians" had strong differences. While the first ones considered the literary Russian language as a common creation and spiritual value of all three Russian branches and spoke of a Little Russian dialect, the last ones promoted the views that Ukrainian is an autonomous language and made big efforts to standardize it as soon as possible.
Soviet Union.
The Little Russian identity remained dominant among elites even in the revolutionary years of 1917–1921. However, with the beginning of the Bolshevik policy of Ukrainization, which was the local form of the Korenizatsiya policy, the Little Russian identity was declared 'antiquated and illegitimate'. In the 1920s Bolshevik internationalists used the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR as "exhibition pavillons" of their nationality policy, hoping to gain sympathies of the disadvantaged East Slavic population in interwar Poland. At the same time they hoped to ultimately weaken pan-Russian imperialism in a society that was represented by their adversary in the Russian civil war: the Imperial Russian White Movement. The Bolsheviks had the largest credit in the realization and consolidation of the Ukrainian identity project. In the First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union (1926) the registration of people as Little Russians was restricted, and people in the Ukrainian SSR had to choose between the Ukrainian and Russian nationality or even were automatically registered as Ukrainians. The term 'Little Russian' remained in usage only among some White emigres.
Although the antiquated "Little Russian" identity gave way to the new ethnonym "Ukrainian", and the conception of an All-Russian people was replaced by a new conception of brotherly but separate peoples, certain elements of the Little Russian identity persisted. The Ukrainian nation was regarded as "brotherly" to the Russian, and the striving towards political unification with the Russians was described in Soviet history books as the leitmotif of Ukrainian history. In the described way the Soviet ideology combined elements of Ukrainian and Little Russian identities.
Present times.
In the period of glasnost and perestroika in the late 1980s, as well as after Ukraine declared its independence in 1991, elements of Little Russian identity came under increased pressure. Representatives of the hard-line Ukrainianness which existed in the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, the United States and Western Europe got the opportunity to exert influence on societal processes in Ukraine. Also a shift in the ideological basis was suitable for the elites in their task to build up a new national state.
Reception.
Nowadays, some Ukrainian authors consider the Little Russian identity as a sociological complex of reduced patriotism among some parts of Ukrainian society, because Ukrainian areas being part of Russian Empire for a long time.


2007 in Belarus

Events from the year 2007 in Belarus


Eurovision Song Contest 2002

The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL's win at the 2001 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark with the song "Everybody". It was the first time Estonia had hosted the contest - 8 years after the country made its debut. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Eesti Televisioon (ETV), the contest was held at the Saku Suurhall, with the final on 25 May 2002. The live show was hosted by Annely Peebo and Marko Matvere.
It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in a Baltic state country, in a former Soviet republic and in a Finno-Ugric language-speaking country.
Twenty-four countries participated in the contest. , , , , , and returned after their relegation from the previous edition. , , , and were relegated due to their poor results in 2001. It was the first (and only) time that Ireland and Norway were relegated from the contest. was also set to sit out this year, but when announced their non-participation, due to internal problems at its broadcaster, it left a spot open for Latvia to take, as the country had finished higher the year before than any of the other relegated countries.
The winner was Latvia with the song "I Wanna", performed by Marie N who wrote it with Marats Samauskis. This was Latvia's first victory in the contest, after only 3 years of participation. Malta, United Kingdom, Estonia and France rounded out the top five. Malta achieved their best result in their Eurovision history. Further down the table, Denmark finished twenty-fourth (last place), despite being one of the favourites.
Location.
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki in Finland, east of Stockholm in Sweden, and west of Saint Petersburg in Russia. Founded in 1248 but the earliest human settlements date back to 3000 years BC, making it one of the oldest capital cities of Northern Europe. Due to its important strategic location the city soon became a major trade hub, especially between the 14th to 16th century when it grew to be a key centre of commerce within the Hanseatic League. Tallinn's Old Town is one of the best preserved and intact medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Venue.
Early in the proceedings, media outlets had begun speculating whether Estonian broadcaster ETV would be able to host the contest, citing a lack of a suitable venue and budgetary concerns; however, worries were put to rest when a combination of fundraising activities and the Estonian Government enabled them to host the event.
The Saku Suurhall was chosen as the venue for the contest. It is the largest indoor arena in Estonia, built in 2001 and holds up to 10,000 people. It is named after the Estonian brewery and soft drink company Saku.
Format.
Slogan.
For the first time, a slogan (or theme) was implemented. This year's theme was called 'A Modern Fairytale', which was evident in the postcards shown between the songs, which showed classic fairytales ending in modern Estonian situations.
Postcards.
The postcards continued with the opening theme of "A Modern Fairytale" taking well known fairy tales and translating them into Estonian life through short films, with a moral at the end of each one of them. The various fairy tales were as following, listed in appearance order:
Voting.
Half of the participating countries organized a televote where the top 10 songs received the points, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12, but Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina used juries, while Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Finland, Malta, Slovenia and Lithuania used a 50-50 mix of both televoting and jury votes.
In the EBU's rules for the 2002 contest, it was stated; "In the televoting, households shall not be permitted to vote more than three times". This was used as it had become apparent that the public vote favoured songs in the later part of the running order in comparison to the songs nearer to the start - particularly in the preceding 2001 contest. At this contest (and the following one) the broadcaster decided to reverse the song recaps - starting instead with the last performed song (24) and finishing with the first performed song (1).
Incidents.
Commentator remarks.
Controversy erupted during the competition over remarks by commentators on Swedish and Belgian TV, both of whom told the audience not to vote for the Israeli entry "Light a candle" by Sarit Hadad. The song received zero points from the Swedish audience but earned two from the Belgians, finishing 12th overall.
Allegation of vote swapping.
This year saw allegations that the juries in certain countries were guilty of swapping votes among other. According to the Norwegian newspaper "Dagbladet", The French Head of Delegation allegedly said that members of the Cypriot delegation had approached him to swap votes. In addition to Cyprus, allegations were also made toward Greece, Russia, Macedonia, Malta and Romania.
Participating countries.
A total of 24 countries competed in the 2002 contest, which included the top 17 countries from the previous year's contest, alongside the seven returning countries which had been relegated from competing in the 2001 contest. These countries replaced the bottom 6 countries from the 2001 contest, which were relegated from taking part in this year's contest.
The total participants had originally been 22, but when the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) increased their participation number for the contest to 24 this granted Israel and Portugal the opportunity to enter. Portugal declined to enter the contest due to internal problems in the Portuguese broadcaster RTP. This allowed Latvia (who went on to win the contest) to enter.
Draw for the running order took place on 9 November 2001.
Results.
! scope="col" | Draw
! scope="col" | Country
! scope="col" | Artist
! scope="col" | Song
! scope="col" | Language
! scope="col" | Place
! scope="col" | Points
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 01
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 02
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 03
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 04
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 05


Vice Great Seneschal of Ireland

Vice Great Seneschal of Ireland, is not a formal title of office, but describes a functional role under the aegis of the Hereditary Great Seneschal or Lord High Steward of Ireland, the latter acting under royal authority dating back several centuries. The function was assigned to the Hereditary Seneschal or Lord Steward for Tyrconnell, Patrick Denis O'Donnell (1922–2005).
The precedent for the Lord High Steward/Great Seneschal to appoint a deputy through an appointment as Seneschal or Lord Steward of a County is found in the case of the appointment, of John Penyngton as Steward of the Liberty of Wexford. Appointments by the Lords Shrewsbury of deputies to serve as Stewards of Counties in Ireland were upheld by the House of Lords as proof of the exercise of the prerogatives of the Lord High Steward of Ireland.
The functional role as deputy consists of acting in the place of the Lord High Steward, if required, to bear the Curtana, a Sword of State, and/or a White Wand at State ceremonials, including Royal Coronations, a responsibility confirmed by grant of Queen Victoria on 15 September 1871, and formerly to act as President of the Court by which a Peer may have been tried by his Peers in the Peerage of Ireland.
Notwithstanding that the island of Ireland now comprises a sovereign country, Ireland, and a province of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, the "Vice Great Seneschal of Ireland" role is still fulfilled in the United Kingdom.
Deputised Lords High Stewards or Great Seneschals of Ireland.
The following were appointed to preside in the trials by the Irish House of Lords of Peers indicted for various crimes, and their ceremonial roles were limited to those appertaining to their temporary judicial role.


Russian Prussia

Russian Prussia refers to two periods in the history of Prussia. Since 1991 Russian Prussia has been a synonym for Kaliningrad Oblast.
18th century.
During the Seven Years' War parts of Prussia briefly came under Russian control and were governed by Russian governors. Imperial Russian troops occupied East Prussia at the beginning of 1758. On December 31, 1757, Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issued a "ukase" about the incorporation of Königsberg into Russia. On January 24, 1758, the leading burghers of Königsberg submitted to Elizabeth. Five Imperial Russian general-governors administered the city during the war from 1758–62; the Russian army did not abandon the town until 1763.
After World War II.
The Soviet leader Stalin decided to incorporate the northern part of East Prussia into the Soviet Union. Klaipėda Region became part of the Lithuanian SSR, while Kaliningrad Oblast was associated with the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. With the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the independence of Lithuania and Belarus Kaliningrad Oblast became an exclave of Russia.


Roman Renaissance

The Renaissance in Rome occupied a period from the mid-15th to the mid-16th centuries, a period which spawned such masters as Michelangelo and Raphael, who left an indelible mark on Western figurative art. The city had been a magnet for artists wishing to study its classical ruins since the early 1400s. A revived interest in the Classics brought about the first archaeological study of Roman remains by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi and sculptor Donatello. This inspired a corresponding classicism in painting and sculpture, which manifested itself in the paintings of Masaccio and Uccello. Pisanello and his assistants also frequently took inspiration from ancient remains, but their approach was essentially cataloguing, acquiring a repertoire of models to be exploited later.
In the year 1420, Pope Martin V moved the papal seat back to Rome, ending its long "Babylonian captivity", and after the Papal Schism, when several "popes" simultaneously claimed the office. He at once set to work, establishing order and restoring the dilapidated churches, palaces, bridges, and other public structures. For this reconstruction he engaged some famous masters of the Tuscan school, and thus laid the foundation for the Roman Renaissance.
Historical background.
The 14th century in Rome, with the absence of the popes during the Avignon Papacy, was a century of neglect and misery. Rome dropped to its lowest level of population, and those that remained were starving and wretched. Before the return of the papacy, repeatedly postponed because of the bad conditions of the city and the lack of control and security, it was first necessary to strengthen the political and doctrinal aspects of the pontiff. When, in 1377, Gregory XI did return to Rome, he found his power more formal than real. It was a city in anarchy because of the struggles between the nobility and the popular faction. There followed four decades of instability, characterized locally by power struggles between the commune and the papacy, and internationally by the great Western Schism. It was finally Martin V of the Colonna family who managed to bring order to the city, laying the foundations of its rebirth.
Martin V (1417–1431).
Pope Martin V was born at Genazzano in 1368. He studied at the University of Perugia, became prothonotary Apostolic under Pope Urban VI, and papal auditor and nuncio at various Italian courts under Pope Boniface IX. On 12 June 1402 he was made Cardinal Deacon of San Giorgio in Velabro. At the Council of Constance he was unanimously elected pope on 11 November 1417, and took the name Martin V in honour of Martin of Tours, whose feast fell on the day of his election. King Sigismund of Germany tried to induce Martin V to stay in Germany while France begged him to come to Avignon, but, rejecting all offers, he set out for Rome on 16 May 1418. After many detours, primarily to cement relations with the Queen of Naples, Bracco di Montone, and others, he arrived on 28 September 1420.
The first work began on the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, which has been badly damaged in 1413. In 1421 the church was enriched by a new Cosmatesque floor and the ceiling was repaired, while Gentile da Fabriano received a commission to create a new cycle of frescoes in the right aisle. These were completed by Pisanello after his death in 1427. The basilica also received a new monastery, assigned to the Benedictines. The pavement of the basilica and the columns were designed as signature pieces of the Colonna family.
When Cosimo de' Medici was exiled from Florence, Donatello returned to Rome, remaining until 1433. The two works that testify to his presence in this city, the Tomb of Giovanni Crivelli at Santa Maria in Aracoeli, and the ciborium at St. Peter's Basilica, bear a strong stamp of classical influence. Brunelleschi also returned several times to find inspiration for what was the Renaissance art. While in Florence, Masaccio, first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento, became friends with Brunelleschi and Donatello, and at their prompting in 1423 travelled to Rome, along with his mentor Masolino. From that point he was freed of all Gothic and Byzantine influence, as may be seen in his altarpiece for the Carmelite Church in Pisa. The traces of influences from ancient Roman and Greek art that are present in some of Masaccio's works must also have originated from this trip. Unfortunately, any further innovation was curtailed by Masaccio's premature death at the age of 27.
Eugene IV (1431–1447).
Eugenius IV (Gabriello Condulmaro, or Condulmerio) was born in Venice in 1388, of a wealthy family. He was nephew to Pope Gregory XII. His service to Pope Martin V was such that he was elected to the papacy on the first scrutiny. However, his papacy was destined to be a stormy one. In 1434, a revolution, fomented by the pope's enemies, broke out in Rome. Eugene escaped down the Tiber to Ostia, where the friendly Florentines were only too happy to receive him. He took up his residence in the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella, and sent Vitelleschi, the militant Bishop of Recanati, to restore order in the Papal States. Florence at that time was the centre of literary activity, and clearly influenced the Humanist movement. During his stay in the Tuscan capital, Eugene consecrated the Florence Cathedral, just then finished by Brunelleschi.
Pope Eugene IV continued in this vein in Rome, commissioning the Florentine Antonio di Pietro Averlino, known as Filarete (1400–1469), to make two bronze doors, (imposts), for the Old St. Peter's Basilica, completed in 1445. The six panels show Jesus the Savior and Mary enthroned, St. Paul with the sword, and St. Peter, who is giving the keys to the kneeling Pope Eugene IV. The two lowest panels show St. Paul sentenced by Nero, and the martyrdom of St. Paul. The bas-reliefs between the framed panels show scenes from the pontificate of Eugene IV, and representatives at the Council of Ferrara-Florence, summoned in 1438 to reunite the Churches of the East and of the West.
In 1443–1445, Leon Battista Alberti, whose many talents truly epitomised the "Renaissance Man", wrote the "Descriptio urbis Romae", where he proposed a system for a geometric arrangement of the city centred on the Capitoline Hill. He later became the architectural advisor to Pope Nicholas V and was involved in a number of projects at the Vatican. Shortly after they arrived in town, Beato Angelico and French Jean Fouquet began a series of frescoes in the Old St. Peter's Basilica, which testifies to the presence of the nascent interest in Flemish painting and the Nordic generally. Although the duration of the pontificate of Eugene IV did not allow for the full implementation of his plans, Rome became a fruitful meeting ground for artists of different schools. This would soon spawn a common style, which for the first time be defined as "Roman".
Nicholas V (1447–1455).
The collaboration between Alberti and Pope Nicholas V gave rise to the first grandiose building projects of Renaissance Rome. The plan for the city focused primarily on five main points:
The intent was to gain a citadel of religion that had its focal point on the Capitoline Hill. The project's aim was to exalt the power of the Church, clearly demonstrating the continuity between the Imperial and Christian Rome. It was to Nicholas V that Alberti dedicated in 1452 the monumental theoretical result of his long study of Vitruvius. This was his "De re aedificatoria" (On the Art of Building), not a restored text of Vitruvius but a wholly new work. It became a bible of Renaissance architecture, for it incorporated and made advances upon the engineering knowledge of antiquity, and grounded the stylistic principles of classical art into a fully developed aesthetic theory.
Due to the brevity of the pontificate of Pope Nicholas V, all the ambitious projects could not be completed. However, it made artists who shared an interest in the antiquity and charm of the classic ruins converge (especially the Tuscan and Lombard ones). This led to a certain homogeneity of their work.
A paradigmatic example of the style that developed in that period in architecture is Palazzo Venezia, started in 1455, that incorporating existing buildings. The courtyard of the annexed Palazzetto is taken from Roman elements combined, but without philological rigor. It incorporates the model of the "viridarium" and is inspired by the Colosseum in the overlapped architectural orders, and in the cornice with ornament in brackets. The width of the arches, however, is reduced and simplified so they will not look too impressive compared to the spaces they enclose. In the building itself (built from 1466), there was a more faithful revival of ancient models, which shows a gradually deeper understanding. For example, the hall was once a lacunar in concrete (taken from Pantheon or the Basilica of Maxentius) with overlapping orders and partially leaning on the pillars, as in the Colosseum or in the Theatre of Marcellus.
The renewal of the Constantinian Old St. Peter's Basilica was assigned to Bernardo Rossellino. The body was expanded with five aisles and longitudinal cross vaults on pillars that were to incorporate the old columns. The apse was rebuilt with the expansion of the transept, a choir was added, which was the logical continuation of the nave, and also a domed room at the intersection of the transept and choir. This configuration influenced the next plan by Bramante for a total overhaul of the building, which retained what was already built. Work began around 1450, but with the death of the Pope had no further development, and stagnated until Julius II decided for a complete reconstruction.
The renewal of the Apostolic Palace was a first step in the decoration of the private chapel of the Pope, the Niccoline Chapel, by Fra Angelico and his assistant Benozzo Gozzoli. The decoration includes stories of St. Lawrence and St. Stephen, which were interpreted by Fra Angelico in a style rich in details, erudite, and where his "Christian humanism" is expressed in its vertices. The scenes are set in majestic architecture, born from the suggestions of ancient Rome and early Christian times, but not slavish, perhaps mindful of the projects that then circulated in the papal court for the restoration of St. Peter. The figures are solid, calm and solemn, the tone was generally more stately, exemplifying the meditative artist.
The Jubilee celebration of 1475 injected revenue that inspired a number of projects and allowed the Pope to draw a large number of artists together. There were various collaborations between artists such as, Vivarini, Bartolomeo di Tommaso, Benedetto Bonfigli, Andrea del Castagno, Piero della Francesca, and perhaps Rogier van der Weyden. This wealth of ideas prepared the ground for the synthesis towards the end of the century, and led to the creation of a language properly "Roman".
Sixtus IV (1471–1484).
Pope Sixtus IV created the Vatican Library and entrusted it to the humanist Melozzo da Forlì, the Papal painter. He frescoed one of the emblems of the Roman humanist culture of the time, "Pope Sixtus IV Appoints Platina as Prefect of the Vatican Library" (1477), in which the pope is portrayed among his relatives in opulent classical architecture. A few years later, under Giuliano della Rovere, Melozzo painted the apse of the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli with "Ascension of the Apostles between Playing Angels", considered the first example of the view "from down to top".
The Sistine Chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who had the old Cappella Magna restored between 1477 and 1480. It was originally to be decorated by artists from Umbria and Marche. But through the intercession of Lorenzo de' Medici, the commission of the wall decoration was instead entrusted to the best Florentine artists of the time, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Cosimo Roselli. They created a series of frescos depicting the Life of Moses and the Life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and "trompe-l'œil" drapery below. The work on the frescoes began in 1481 and was concluded in 1482. This is also the date of the works in marble: the screen, the choir stalls, and the pontifical coat of arms over the entrance door. On 15 August 1483 Sixtus IV celebrated the first mass when the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Sistine Chapel, now the seat of the most important ceremonies of the papacy, became a point of reference for Renaissance art, setting a milestone for the character developments of the late 15th century.
Alexander VI (1492–1503).
The last part of this century was dominated by the figure of Pope Alexander VI, from the Spanish family Borgia. He first turned his attention to the defence of the Eternal City. He changed the Mausoleum of Hadrian into a fortress, likewise Torre di Nona, to secure the city from naval attacks. His Via Alessandrina, now called Via della Conciliazione, remains to the present day the grand approach to St. Peter's. Though a scandalous pope, he was a patron of the arts and sciences, and in his days a new architectural era was initiated in Rome with the coming of Bramante. Raphael, Michelangelo and Pinturicchio. He commissioned Pinturicchio to lavishly paint a suite of rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, which are today known as the Borgia Apartments.
In addition to the structures erected by himself, his memory is associated with the many others built by monarchs and cardinals at his instigation. During his reign, Bramante designed for Ferdinand II of Aragon the Tempietto di San Pietro in Montorio, on the traditional site of St. Peter's martyrdom. Bramante built for Cardinal Raffaele Riario the Palazzo della Cancelleria. In 1500, the ambassador of Emperor Maximilian laid the cornerstone of the national church of the Germans, Santa Maria dell'Anima, the French Cardinal Briçonnet erected Trinità dei Monti, and the Spaniards Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli. To Alexander we owe the beautiful ceiling of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the decoration of which he employed the first gold brought from America by Columbus.
Julius II (1503–1513).
In 1503 Julius II was elected pope after the short reign of Pope Pius III. He was chiefly a soldier, and his fame is greatly due to his re-establishment of the Pontifical States and the deliverance of Italy from its subjection to France. But he also gained a reputation as a patron of the arts. Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo contributed some of their greatest masterpieces during his time. He laid the cornerstone of the Basilica of St. Peter on 18 April 1506, and united the Vatican Palace with the Villa Belvedere, engaging Bramante to accomplish the project. The famous frescoes of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms in the Apostolic Palace, the Court of St. Damasus with its loggias, the Via Giulia and Via della Lungara, even the statue of Moses which graces his tomb in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, are lasting witnesses of his great love of art.
Leo X.
Leo X was a lover and patron of the arts and sciences, and probably did more than any pope to establish Rome as
the centre of European culture. He had San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, on the Via Giulia, built, after designs by Jacopo Sansovino and pressed forward on the reconstruction of St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican under Raphael and Agostino Chigi.
He encouraged painting in particular, and Raphael benefitted enormously under his patronage.
"Everything pertaining to art the pope turns over to Raphael", wrote an ambassador in 1518. He finished the decoration of the Stanze begun under Julius II, even referring to Leo X in some of the scenes. He painted the cartoons for the tapestries of the Sistine Chapel, which represent scenes from the lives of Saints Peter and Paul, the most magnificent of them being "St. Peter's miraculous draught of fishes" and "St. Paul preaching in Athens" A third famous enterprise was the decoration of the Vatican Loggia done by Raphael's pupils under his direction, and mostly from his designs. The most exquisite of his paintings are the "Sistine Madonna" and the "Transfiguration".
Sculpture was not as favored under Leo X as painting, and while Michelangelo worked on a marble façade for the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, he did not finish it. The greatest and most difficult task was the continuation of the new St. Peter's. Bramante remained its chief architect until his death in 1514. Raphael succeeded him, but in his six years of office little was done, much to his regret, through lack of means.
Leo X has spent all the money carefully saved by his predecessor Julius II. He sold indulgences to help pay for it, a mistake which led to the Reformation.


Teatro Bibiena

The Teatro Bibiena di Mantova (also known as, among others, the Teatro Scientifico, Teatro Accademico or Teatrino della Accademia Filarmonica) was made by Antonio Galli da Bibbiena in 1767-1769 and decorated in 1773-1775 with a facade of Piermarini designed by Paolo Pozzo (1741–1803).
Constructed for the Royal Virgilian Academy of Science and Arts (now "Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana"), the theatre in Mantua was designed in late Baroque or early Rococo style by Antonio Galli Bibiena and erected between 1767 and 1769. With a bell-shaped floorplan and four rows of boxes, it followed the new style of theatres then in vogue. It was intended to host both theatre productions and concerts, and scientific discourses and conventions. Bibiena also provided the monochrome frescoes in the interior. The theatre is now considered to be his most important work.
It was opened officially on 3 December 1769. A few weeks later, on 16 January 1770, thirteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played a concert here, with resounding success. His father, Leopold Mozart, wrote about the theatre: "In all my life, I have never seen anything more beautiful of its kind".
In 1773, Giuseppe Piermarini, who constructed the neighbouring palazzo for the Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana, designed and built the façade of the theatre.
Still used for its original purposes, it now can also be visited by tourists as one of Mantua's museums. The theatre is relatively small, with a scene 12,3 metres wide and 5,6 metres deep, and a maximum audience of 363 persons.


Ajvide Settlement

The Ajvide Settlement () is located in Ajvide, Eksta, on the western coast of Gotland, Sweden. It covers an area of and was occupied from the Late Mesolithic through to the mid Bronze Age. The majority of the activity on the site took place during the Middle Neolithic period (3100 – 2700 BC). This phase of activity belongs to the Pitted Ware culture. Around 2900 BC, the site suffered from a marine transgression.
Archaeological excavations.
Since 1983, Stockholm University and later the Gotland University, have conducted archaeological investigations at the property. together with , both professors of archeology at Gotland University, conducted much of the recent research on Neolithic Gotland, including the Ajvide Settlement.
The principal feature of the site is a burial ground containing some 80 graves. In some cases the graves are occupied by more than one individual, whilst others may be cenotaphs. Most of these graves date to later than the main phase of "Pitted Ware" activity. Adjacent to the cemetery, to the east, is an area of very dark soil that contains a mixture of artifacts, pottery and bone fragments. In some texts on this site, this area is referred to as the "black area", and is believed to have a possible ceremonial function. However, Österholm has suggested that it may in fact represent the processing of seal train oil.
Find.
A significant faunal assemblage has been recovered from the site. This suggests that in the late Mesolithic, economy was based upon hunting of grey, ringed and harp seals, porpoise and fishing. Cattle, sheep, and pigs were introduced at the start of the Neolithic. However, there was a resurgence in seal hunting and fishing by the Middle Neolithic. Cattle and sheep returned during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age. It has been argued that the pigs which remain on Gotland during the "Pitted Ware" phase are in fact wild or feral animals, implying a general return to hunting and gathering during this period and not just a reversion to marine resources. Examination of the helical fracture pattern and dynamic impact scars of the bones from the Ajvide Settlement suggests that bone marrow extraction took place at this site.


John Henry Colclough

John Henry Colclough (c. 1769 – 28 June 1798) was United Irishman executed in Wexford following the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
Life.
He was born circa 1769 into an old landowning Wexford family, the son of Thomas Francis Colclough and lived at Ballyteigue, Kilmore. He went abroad to study medicine and qualified as a doctor. On his return to Wexford he married Elizabeth Berry.
He became involved in Irish nationalism, joined the United Irishmen and was arrested with Lord Edward Fitzgerald on 27 May 1798 and taken to Wexford gaol. From there he was sent with Fitzgerald to parley with the rebels at Vinegar Hill, returning alone to report negotiations had failed. He was later, somewhat reluctantly, in the company of the rebels at the Battle of New Ross.
After the battle, and the royalists had regained the town, he fled with his wife and Bagenal Harvey to the Greater Saltee Island, from whence they planned to escape to republican France.
They were betrayed under torture by a local farmer, arrested, and brought to Wexford town to be court-martialled.
Found guilty, they were hanged on Wexford bridge on 28 June 1798, their heads afterwards put on spikes and their bodies thrown into the River Slaney. Colclough's body was recovered by his supporters during the night and buried in St. Patrick's burying ground, Wexford.


Treaty of Bonn

On 7 November 921, the Treaty of Bonn, the text of which calls itself a "pact of friendship" ("amicitia"), was signed between Charles III of France and Henry I of Germany in a minimalist ceremony aboard a ship in the middle of the Rhine not far from Bonn. The use of the river, which was the border between their two kingdoms, as a neutral territory had extensive Carolingian precedents and was also used in classical antiquity and in contemporary Anglo-Saxon England.
The treaty, which "more than most such amicitiae, was decidedly bilateral, reciprocal and equal", recognised the border of the two realms and the authority of their respective kings. It confirmed the legitimacy of Henry's election by the German princes and of Charles's rule over Lotharingia through the election by its princes. In the treaty, Henry is titled "rex Francorum orientalium" (King of the East Franks) and Charles "rex Francorum occidentalium" (King of the West Franks) in recognition of the division it made of the former Frankish Empire. Charles and his bishops and counts signed first, both because he had been king longer and because he was of Carolingian stock.
The treaty was ineffective. In January or early February 923, Henry made a pact of "amicitia" with the usurper Robert I against Charles, who subsequently sent a legate to Henry with the relic of the hand of Dionysius the Areopagite, sheathed in gold and studded in gems, "as a sign of faith and truth [and] a pledge of perpetual union and mutual love" in the words of Widukind of Corvey. Charles probably intended to recall Henry to the terms of the treaty of Bonn and draw him away from Robert. In June 923, Charles was captured at the Battle of Soissons and lost his kingdom. By 925, Henry had annexed Lotharingia.
Editions.
The earliest edition of the treaty of Bonn was published by Heribert Rosweyde, followed by another from Jacques Sirmond (1623). Later, for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, it was edited by Georg Pertz, but the definitive edition came out later in that series:


Archanthropus of Petralona


Duchy of Trakai

Duchy of Trakai was a subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the 14th and early 15th centuries. The Duke of Trakai was an important position held either by the Grand Duke of Lithuania himself or his second-in-command.
History.
After the demise of Gediminas in December 1337, the Duchy of Lithuania was divided into two parts: Grand Duke Algirdas ruled Vilnius and the Eastern Aukštaitija while his brother Kęstutis received the Duchy of Trakai.
Lithuanian Civil Wars.
1381-1384.
In 1382, during the Lithuanian Civil War, Kęstutis was imprisoned at the Kreva Castle and died. His nephew Skirgaila was named the new Duke of Trakai by his brother Grand Duke Jogaila.
1389-1392.
Vytautas, son of Kęstutis, then waged a new Lithuanian Civil War to regain his patrimony in Trakai and seize power in Lithuania. The war was ended by the Ostrów Agreement on August 4, 1392. The agreement transferred the Duchy from Skirgaila to Vytautas.
Union of Horodło in 1413.
On October 2, 1413, Vilnius and Trakai Voivodeships were created by the Union of Horodło from the Duchy of Trakai. The voivodeships were ruled by an appointed official and not by the dukes.
Geography.
One could delineate the boundaries of the Duchy of Trakai by referring to the donative writ of Grand Duke Jogaila: from the Livonian border (Upytė) to Kobrynin (Masuria), and eastward from Podlesie to Pinsk. Naugardukas was still part of the Duchy of Trakai.


Zyhdi Ohri

Zyhdi Ohri (1870 – 1931), also known as Zuhdi bey Ohri was a 19th-century Albanian patriot, politician, and lawyer. He was a representative of Ohrid and Struga in the Assembly of Vlora held on November 28, 1912, and one of the 40 signatories of the Albanian Declaration of Independence.
Biography.
Early life.
Zyhdi Ohri was born in Ohrid, Manastir Vilayet of Ottoman Empire, today's North Macedonia. He completed the elementary school in one of the Ottoman schools in his home town. He studied jurisprudence at the University of Istanbul, where he then graduated as a lawyer. In the summer of 1897, Zyhdi Ohri returns to his homeland.
Patriotic and political activity.
After returning from Istanbul, his nationalist ideologies began to emerge when, together with other prominent Albanian nationalists, such as Hamdi Ohri and Murad Sojliu, began organizing the peoples of the Ohrid, Strugë, and Velešta regions by forming cheta also preventing conscription by the Ottoman army.
As an Albanian nationalist, he participated in the League of Peja (1899-1900). He was member of the Secret Committee for the Liberation of Albania based in Monastir, and had his own "cheta" (guerrilla group) active during 1911-1912. In November 1912 he represented Ohrid () in Vlore during the Albanian Declaration of Independence. He was one of the signatories, signing as "Zuhdi Ohri". He was appointed as counselor of the Head of Senate, position held by Vehbi Dibra.
<br> In 1920, he participated in the Congress of Lushnje.


Celegeri

Celegeri were a Celtic tribe, together with the Dindari a branch of the Scordisci that migrated to Illyria after the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. They inhabited Moesia Superior (modern Central Serbia), and are registered by Pliny as living between the Dardanoi and the Triballi. They appear in north-westernmost Thrace in the 1st century BC. They were replaced by the Romanized Thracio-Celtic Tricornenses.
The "Municipium Celegerorum" is present Ivanjica, Serbia.


Lentvaris

Lentvaris (, is a town, (formerly known as 'Landwarów' in Polish), in eastern Lithuania, 9 km east of Trakai. It is a transportation hub, as several road and rail routes cross here.
Lake Lentvaris is nearby.
History.
In the 18th Century, the town of Lentvaris, was within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was populated by Poles, Lithuanians and Jews and belonged to the estate of the Polish-Lithuanian House of Sapieha. Following the partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the town became part of the Russian Empire. In 1850 the town was owned by Izdebski and then sold on to another Polish-Lithuanian magnate clan, the Tyszkiewicz (Tiškevičius) family. In 1885 they had a Tudor-style palace built with a park, designed by Édouard André. In 1869 an industrial nail factory was established in the town.
After the Polish-Bolshevik War, from 1922, Lentvaris was part of Poland in the Wilno–Troki District of the Wilno Voivodeship.
In September 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland simultaneously with the Soviet Union. The town was taken over by the Soviets on September 19, 1939. Local Polish soldiers, who had fought in the September Campaign, were attacked and interned by Lithuanians in the town of Kretinga.
Between 1942 and 1943, a Jewish partisan unit headed by Abba Kovner operated in the area. They blew up a train bound from Warsaw to Vilnius, near Lentvaris station, on the stretch between Vilnius and Grodno. Twenty one carriages carrying German troops and supplies were derailed.


Grand Duke of Finland

Grand Duke of Finland, alternatively the Grand Prince of Finland (, , ), was, from around 1580 to 1809, a title in use by most Swedish monarchs. Between 1809 and 1917, it was the official title of the ruler of the autonomous Grand Principality of Finland, who was also the Emperor of Russia. The anachronistic female form of the title in English would be "Grand Duchess of Finland" (, ). The only women to have used the title were the Swedish queens regnant Kristina and Ulrika Eleonora. A few crown princes of Sweden also were called "Grand Duke of Finland".
Swedish era until 1809.
Around 1580, King Johan III of Sweden, who had previously (1556–63) been the Duke of Finland (a royal duke), assumed the subsidiary title "Grand Duke of Finland" (, to the titles of the King of Sweden, first appearing in sources in 1581 (though first used by Johan III in 1577). In those years, Johan was and had been in a quarrel with his eastern neighbour, "Tsar" Ivan IV of Russia ('Ivan the Terrible'), who had a litany of subsidiary titles as Grand Duke of several ancient Russian principalities and provinces. The use of Grand Duke on Johan's behalf was a countermeasure to signify his mighty position as sovereign of Sweden, also a multinational or multi-country realm, and equal to a Tsardom. Not only was Finland added, but Karelia, Ingria, and Livonia, all of which were along the Swedish-Russian border. It is said that the first use of the new title was in an occasion to contact "Tsar" Ivan.
During the next 140 years, the title was used by Johan's successors on the Swedish throne, with the exception of Carl IX, who listed Finns as one of the many nations over which he was the king during 1607–1611. As the title had only subsidiary nature without any concrete meaning, it was mainly used at very formal occasions along with a long list of additional royal titles. The last Swedish monarch to use the title was Queen Ulrika Eleonora, who abdicated in 1720. However, in 1802, King Gustav IV Adolf gave the title to his new-born son, Prince Carl Gustaf, who died three years later.
Russian era 1809–1917.
During the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia, the four estates of occupied Finland were assembled at the Diet of Porvoo on 29 March 1809 to pledge allegiance to Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who had already earlier during the war adopted the title Grand Duke of Finland to his long litany of titles. Following the Swedish defeat in the war and the signing of the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on 17 September 1809, Finland became in some aspects an autonomous Grand Duchy, as in an informal real union with the Russian Empire.
The Imperial Grand Duke of Finland ruled Finland through his governor and a native Senate appointed by him. Although no Grand Duke ever explicitly recognised Finland as a separate state in its own right, the country nevertheless enjoyed a high degree of , until its independence in 1917.
Independence since 1917.
Finland was declared an independent nation state on 6 December 1917. After the Civil War in 1918, there was a brief attempt to make Finland a kingdom from 9 October to 14 December 1918.
In 1919, Finland was declared a republic. Since then, all titles of monarchs are obsolete in the country.
Status today.
Today, there are no pretenders to the title of the Grand Duke of Finland and it remains fully unused.


Duriavenator

Duriavenator is a genus of theropod dinosaur described in 2008 by Roger Benson; its finds were excavated in England. The only named species in the genus is "Duriavenator hesperis", formerly known as "Megalosaurus hesperis". "Duriavenator" lived during the Bajocian stage, between 169.1 and 168.7 million years ago, making it one of the oldest-known Tetanurae. The genus name combines the Latin name of Dorset, "Duria", with Latin for "hunter", "venator". This genus has also gone under the unofficial name "Walkersaurus", which is a "nomen nudum". It has been estimated to be 7 meters (23 feet) in length.
Discovery.
In the Spring of 1882, a friend of contractor Edward Cleminshaw during construction at Redhole Lane in Sherborne, discovered stone blocks with skull remains. The stones had been removed from a quarry at the back of a row of houses at Cold Harbour Road in Greenhill in West Dorset. In 1883, the fossils were by Richard Owen referred to the type species of "Megalosaurus", "Megalosaurus bucklandii". Owen considered the find especially useful to complete information on the head of "Megalosaurus" as few of its skull bones had been identified until then.
After 1883, the reference was generally accepted. In 1964 however, Alick Donald Walker concluded that the specimen represented a separate species within the genus "Megalosaurus", due to its higher tooth count, but as yet did not name this species.
In 1974, Michael Waldman, in close cooperation with Walker and after further preparation of the fossil, named and described it as a new species of the genus "Megalosaurus": "Megalosaurus hesperis". The specific name is derived from the Greek Ἑσπερίς, "West" or "western".
The holotype of the species, BNMH R. 332, had been found in a layer, the "freestone", of the Upper Inferior Oolite dating from the late Bajocian, about 168 million years old. It consists of skull and lower jaw parts. It contains both premaxillae, a right maxilla, a possible vomer, both dentaries and a right surangular. Most of the material is present in a main block; a second block had been separated, longitudinally splitting the maxilla.
In the seventies, Samuel Paul Welles and Jaime Emilio Powell prepared a study on European theropods, planning to name a separate genus "Walkersaurus". Their manuscript remained unpublished but in 1994 and 1995 Stephan Pickering divulged parts of it, also containing the name "Walkersaurus hesperis". This is generally considered an invalid "nomen nudum" or "nomen non rite publicatum".
By the early twenty-first century, a consensus had developed that the species was in need of a new genus name. In 2004, the textbook "The Dinosauria" indicated it as an "unnamed tetanuran".
In 2008, Roger Benson named a separate genus "Duriavenator". The generic name is a combination of the Latin "Duria", "Dorset", and "venator", "hunter". The type species of the genus is "Megalosaurus hesperis". The "combinatio nova" is "Duriavenator hesperis".
Classification.
The following is a cladogram based on the phylogenetic analysis conducted by Carrano, Benson & Sampson (2012), showing the relationships of "Duriavenator":


2006 in England

Events from 2006 in England


Polish tribes

"Polish tribes" is a term used sometimes to describe the tribes of West Slavic Lechites that lived from around the mid-6th century in the territories that became Polish with the creation of the Polish state by the Piast dynasty. The territory they lived on became a part of the first Polish state created by duke Mieszko I and expanded at the end of the 10th century, enlarged further by conquests of king Bolesław I at the beginning of the 11th century.
In about 850 AD a list of peoples was written down by the Bavarian Geographer. Absent on the list are Lechitic-speaking Polans, Pomeranians and Masovians, who became known later and were written about by Nestor the Chronicler in his "Primary Chronicle" (11th/12th century).
The most important tribes. who were conquered by Polans were the Masovians, Vistulans, Silesians and Pomeranians. These five tribes "shared fundamentally common culture and language and were considerably more closely related to one another than were the Germanic tribes."
Ethnonym.
The name "Poland" is derived from the most powerful of the tribes — the Polans. Their name, in turn, derives from the word "pole" — field. It was also used for the eastern Polans, a perhaps unrelated East Slavic tribe that lived in the region of the Dnieper River in Eastern Europe.
Religion.
The Polish tribes were polytheistic pagans and worshiped a pantheon of numerous deities, each representing a different but equally important aspect of life for the Early Slavs - such as Perun, god of lightning. Little is known about what their religion was really like, but the limited archaeological evidence as well as remnants of pagan beliefs that have survived in the folklore of Slavic countries show many similarities between the faith of Polish tribes and that of other Early Medieval Slavic societies leading historians to believe that a common Slavic mythology exists between all Slavic branches.
Organization.
The tribes were organized on the basis of kinship groups. A tribe's territory was divided into "opoles", which constituted a group of neighboring settlements.
Most members of a particular tribe were yeoman peasants, although a small group of aristocrats ("nobiles" or "potentiores") was usually present.
Tribes.
The following is the list of Polish tribes that inhabited the lands of Poland in the early Middle Ages, at the beginning of the Polish state. They shared fundamentally common culture and language and together they formed what is now Polish ethnicity and the culture of Poland. This process is called ethnic consolidation in which several ethnic communities of kindred origin and cognate languages, merge into a single one.
The following Slavic tribes are considered as Polish:


Timeline of Reggio Calabria

The following is a of the history of the city of Reggio Calabria, Italy.
See also.
Other cities in the macroregion of South Italy:()
References.
"This article incorporates information from the Italian Wikipedia."


Duchy of Swabia

The Duchy of Swabia (German: "Herzogtum Schwaben") was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German Kingdom. It arose in the 10th century in the southwestern area that had been settled by Alemanni tribes in Late Antiquity.
While the historic region of Swabia takes its name from the ancient Suebi, dwelling in the angle formed by the Rhine and the Danube, the stem duchy comprised a much larger territory, stretching from the Alsatian Vosges mountain range in the west to the right bank of the river Lech in the east and up to Chiavenna ("Kleven") and Gotthard Pass in the south. The name of the larger stem duchy was often used interchangeably with "Alamannia" during the High Middle Ages, until about the 11th century, when the form Swabia began to prevail.
The Duchy of Swabia was proclaimed by the Ahalolfing count palatine Erchanger in 915. He had allied himself with his Hunfriding rival Burchard II and defeated King Conrad I of Germany in a battle at Wahlwies. The most notable family to hold Swabia were the Hohenstaufen, who held it, with a brief interruption, from 1079 until 1268. For much of this period, the Hohenstaufen were also Holy Roman Emperors.
After a centuries-long struggle with the House of Zähringen, the Margraviate of Baden detached itself from the Swabian duchy in the 12th century. The remaining duchy persisted until 1268, ending with the execution of the last Hohenstaufen duke Conradin. Count Rudolf of Habsburg, elected King of the Romans in 1273, attempted to revive the Swabian ducal title, bestowing it on his youngest son, the later Duke Rudolf II of Austria, who passed it to his son John Parricida. John died without an heir, in 1312 or 1313, marking the end of the "revived" title.
History.
Alamannia.
In 496 the Alamanni tribes were defeated by King Clovis I, incorporated into Francia, and governed by several "duces" who were dependent on the Frankish kings. In the 7th century the people converted to Christianity, bishoprics were founded at Augsburg and Constance, and in the 8th century notable abbeys at Reichenau Island and Saint Gall.
The Alamanni in the 7th century retained much of their former independence, Frankish rule being mostly nominal, but in 709, Pepin of Herstal conquered the territory and in 730 his son Charles Martel again reduced them to dependence.
The so-called Blood Court at Cannstatt in 746 marked the end of the old stem duchy, and the Alamanni now came fully under Frankish administration. Charles' son Pepin the Short abolished the tribal duke and ruled Alamannia by counts palatine, or "Kammerboten". King Charlemagne married the Alamannian princess Hildegard of the Vinzgau in 771.
Formation of a new duchy.
At this time the duchy, which was divided into numerous "Gaue" (counties), took the shape which it retained throughout the Middle Ages. It stretched south of Frankish Austrasia (the later Duchy of Franconia) along the Upper Rhine, Lake Constance, up the High Rhine, and down the Danube to the Lech tributary. The Lech, separating Alamannia from the Duchy of Bavaria in the east, did not form, either ethnologically or geographically, a very strong boundary, and there was a good deal of intercommunion between the two peoples.
By the 843 Treaty of Verdun, Alamannia fell to East Francia. During the later and weaker years of the Carolingian Empire the counts became almost independent, and a struggle for supremacy took place between them and the Bishops of Constance. From about 900, two chief dynasties emerged: the Hunfriding counts in Raetia Curiensis ("Churrätien") and the Ahalolfings ruling the Baar estates around the upper Neckar and Danube rivers. Their members were sometimes called margraves and sometimes, as in the case of Rudolf of Rhaetia, dukes. Finally, the Hunfriding count Burchard I was called "dux" of Alamannia. However, he was killed in 911, for which two Swabian counts palatine, Bertold and Erchanger, were accused of treason. Erchanger proclaimed himself duke in 915, but was put to death by order of the German king Conrad I two years later.
Upon Erchanger's execution, Burchard II, son of the late Burchard I and count in Raetia Curiensis, took the title of duke. Burchard secured his rule by defending the Thurgau region against the claims of King Rudolph II of Burgundy in the 919 Battle of Winterthur. Rudolph II had attempted to expand his Upper Burgundian territory up to Lake Constance by capitalising on the feud between the Ahalolfing and Hunfriding dynasties. He occupied the palace at Zürich and marched into the Thurgau from there. He was defeated by Burchard near Winterthur and was forced to abandon Zürich, retreating beyond the Reuss. Duke Burchard's rule subsequently was acknowledged as such by the newly elected king Henry the Fowler.
Younger stem duchy.
Burchard's position was virtually independent, and when he died in 926 he was succeeded by Hermann, a Franconian noble, who married his widow.
When Hermann died in 948 Otto the Great gave the duchy to his own son Liudolf, who had married Hermann's daughter Ida; but he reduced the ducal privileges and appointed counts palatine to watch the royal interests. Liudolf revolted, and was deposed, and other dukes followed in quick succession. Burchard III, son of Burchard II, ruled from 954 to 973, when he was succeeded by Liudolf's son, Otto, afterwards duke of Bavaria, to 982, and Conrad I, a relative of Duke Hermann I, until 997. Hermann II, possibly a son of Conrad, succeeded, and, dying in 1003, was followed by his son Hermann III. During these years the Swabians were loyal to the kings of the Saxon house, probably owing to the influence of the bishops. Hermann III had no children, and the succession passed to Ernest II, son of his eldest sister Gisela and Ernest I, Margrave of Austria. Ernest I held the duchy for his son until his own death in 1015, when Gisela undertook the government, and was married a second time, to Conrad, duke of Franconia, who was afterwards the German king Conrad II. When Ernest came of age he quarrelled with his step-father, who deposed him and, in 1030, gave the duchy to Gisela's second son, Hermann IV and then, on the death of Hermann IV in 1038, to Henry, his own son by Gisela. In 1045 Henry, who had become German king as Henry III, granted Alamannia to Otto, grandson of the emperor Otto II and count palatine of the Rhine, and, in 1048, to Otto III, count of Schweinfurt. Rudolph, count of Rheinfelden, was the next duke, and in 1077 he was chosen German king in opposition to the emperor Henry IV, but found little support in Swabia, which was given by Henry to his faithful adherent, Frederick I, count of Hohenstaufen.
Staufer period.
Frederick had to fight for his position with Bertold, son of Duke Rudolph, and the duke's son-in-law, Bertold II, duke of Zahringen, to whom he ceded the Breisgau in 1096. Frederick II succeeded his father in 1105, and was followed by Frederick III, afterwards the emperor Frederick I. The earlier Hohenstaufen increased the imperial domain in Swabia, where they received steady support, although ecclesiastical influences were very strong. In 1152 Frederick I gave the duchy to his kinsman, Frederick, count of Rothenburg and duke of Franconia, after whose death in 1167 it was held successively by three sons of the emperor, the youngest of whom, Philip, was chosen German king in 1198. During his struggle for the throne Philip purchased support by large cessions of Swabian lands, and the duchy remained in the royal hands during the reign of Otto IV, and came to Frederick II in 1214. Frederick granted Swabia to his son Henry, and, after his rebellion in 1235, to his son Conrad, whose son Conradin, setting out in 1266 to take possession of Sicily, pledged his Swabian inheritance to Ulrich II, count of Württemberg. The duchy fell into abeyance after Conradin's death in 1268.
Post-ducal Swabia.
When the emperor Maximilian I divided the Holy Roman Empire into Imperial Circles in 1512, one, which was practically coterminous with the duchy, was called the Swabian Circle. The area, which was formerly Swabia, was covered by the County of Württemberg, the Margraviate of Baden and the western part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Although the name Swabia is occasionally used in a general way to denote the district formerly occupied by the duchy, the exact use of the name is now confined to the Bavarian Swabia Regierungsbezirk, with its capital at Augsburg.


List of Government Delegates for Poland

The following were the Government Delegates for Poland ("Delegat Rządu na Kraj") during World War II:
The above Delegates were officially administering the General Government from an office in Warsaw, but eventually they ended administering the entire occupied Poland, as posts for Delegates for territories annexed to Germany and territories annexed to the Soviet Union were not able to develop properly.


Paralogania

Paralogania is an extinct genus of thelodonti fish that is known from the Upper Silurian geological period (Wenlock / Ludlow); the best fossil deposits are from the Baltic Sea region, but it is widespread in the Northern Hemisphere.


Huta Pieniacka

Huta Pieniacka (, ) – was an ethnic Polish village of about 1,000 inhabitants until 1939, located in Tarnopol Voivodeship, Poland (modern-day Brody Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine). The site of what was once the village is currently located some 50 km from Ternopil, beside the village of Holubytsia () and Peniaky in Brody Raion of Lviv Oblast of Ukraine.
History.
During the German-Soviet War the village was the location of the Soviet partisan detachment under the command of NKVD colonel Dmitry Medvedev.
On February 28, 1944 almost all the villagers of Polish ethnic background were murdered, and the village razed during the Huta Pieniacka massacre in a pre-planned pacification action, by the 4th police regiment, which was later adjoined to the SS Galizien (the conclusion of both Polish and Ukrainian historical commissions).
The village of Huta Pieniacka no longer exists. Most of the houses were burned during the massacre and only the school and a Roman Catholic church remained. Both of these buildings were demolished after the war, and in the area of the village there is a pasture for cattle. There is a post with a Ukrainian inscription Center of the former village, but it does not mention the name of the village.
Recent events.
In 2009, the then presidents of the two countries, Lech Kaczyński and Viktor Yushchenko respectively, visited the site to pay tribute to the victims.
The monument in the now non-existent village of Huta Pieniacka in Lviv region in western Ukraine was erected in memory of the hundreds of people who lived in the then Polish village and were brutally killed in 1944 by a police regiment.
On the 9th of January 2017 the Monument to Polish Victims of World War II Massacre was vandalized. A stone cross was blown up, while two stone tables with the names of the Poles killed during the 1944 massacre were damaged allegedly by vandals from the Russian "People's Liberation Movement" who were one of the first to publish video of the destroyed monument. This act was strongly condemned by both Ukrainian and Polish authorities.
The memorial was restored in a month. Ambassador of Poland in Ukraine Jan Pieklo visited memorial on 28th of February 2017 during remembrance ceremony and called it "a huge surprise". "This was a miracle of sorts. First, there was information that a cross returned to its place. A consulate employee went to Huta Pieniacka and returned with photos confirming the news. It is a replica of the original cross and it is made of granite", said Jan Pieklo.


Pousada de D. Maria I

The Pousada of D. Maria is part of the Pousadas de Portugal network of lodgings, housed in the historical servants quarters/annex of the Queluz National Palace, located in the civil parish of Queluz in the municipality of Sintra in the Portuguese sub-region of Greater Lisbon.
Built in the Baroque-style, its five-stage bell tower provides an ecclesiastical appearance to the structure, due to surmounted floral finials. In age, it is contemporary with the main palace, dating from the mid-18th century. The tower is visible from many parts of the palace and from certain vantage points appears to be part of the palace itself.
History.
In 1654, the estate of Queluz, which pertained to the Marquess of Castelo Rodrigo, passes into the hands of the Royal Household, and incorporated into the Casa do Infantado.
Under the direction of the Infante Peter (later to be Peter III of Portugal after his marriage to Queen Maria, in 1747, construction begins on the National Palace of Queluz (which was intended as a summer retreat). A long project, around 1758 the remodeling of the palace was under the direction of Mateus Vicente de Oliveira, who was regularly required in Lisbon, to help in the reconstruction of the city. In his place Jean Baptiste Robillon, better known for his work on the palaces gardens, acted in his place. In 1782, after Robillon's death, the project at Queluz was placed in the hands of Manuel Caetano de Sousa, with the palace expanded to provide quarters for the Royal Guard, administration, stables and other dependencies, including the "Torre do Relógio" ("Tower Clock"). The first great leap in construction at Queluz ended with the death of Peter III in 1786. The wing was originally intended to house servants and the members of the Royal Guard when the Portuguese Royal Court was in residence at Queluz.
A decade later, the Palace was converted into the official residences of the Portuguese Royal family.
On the eve of the Portuguese revolution, King Manuel II ceded the estate to the National Treasury ().
Around 1924, the spaces contiguous to the clock tower were used as a primary school.
In 1995, the Pousada D. Maria, was installed in the spaces of the tower and ancillary block, after extensive remodeling, under the direction of Carlos Oliveira Ramos. The building was named for Maria I of Portugal, whose consort (Peter III) initiated the transformation of the small estate into summer palace.
On 20 August 1996, a dispatch was opened to classify the building; on 23 October 2009, the process to classify the structure expired, under terms of the article 78, of Decree 309/2009, Diário da República, Série 1 (206).
Architecture.
The building, which is a singular feature of the palace's cour d'honneur, includes one wing which is curved to match the opposite lateral wall of the cour d'honneur. The building is isolated to the northeast, across an accessway from the main body of the National Palace and the buildings of the national Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment 1 complex.
The square tower block, was developed along two unequal axis's, resulting in staggered volumes: one surmounting a rectangular space, and the other, a rectangular extension curving slightly to match the cour d'honneur in the southwest palace complex. The space is addorsed along its southern extent by another rectangular body, with a two-story structure separated by stony frieze, its parapet decorated by stone pilasters (along the northern, eastern and western facades).
Visible on the principal (western) elevation is an axis with two overlapping windows. The superior body, of the clock tower, includes the clock (on the first register) and four arches for the bells (on the second register).


Volviceramus

Volviceramus is an extinct genus of fossil inoceramid bivalve mollusks from the Late Cretaceous of Europe and North America.
Species.
Species within the genus "Volviceramus" include:


Germisara (castra)

It was a fort in the Roman province of Dacia, in modern day Romania, in the village area of Cigmău, in the municipality of Geoagiu, Hunedoara county in the Romanian region of Transylvania.
Location.
In today's settlement, the ground monument is located almost two kilometres east of the village Cigmău and two kilometres south-west of the small town of Geoagiu in the undeveloped, agriculturally used or wasteland "Cetatea uriasilor" (fortress of the giants) or "Progadie". Topographically, it lies on a high terrace on the northern bank of the Mureș, about two and a half kilometres below the confluence of the Geoagiu River. In ancient times, the fort probably had the tactical task of monitoring the valley of Mureș and the strategic function of controlling an area in which numerous Dacian fortresses had been located before the Roman occupation. Administratively it was first located in the province of Dacia superior, later in the Dacia Apulensis.
The Roman health resort Germisara, today Geoagiu-Băi, developed a good five kilometres north of the fort and made use of the thermal springs of the ascending mountains. The thermal baths date back to pre-Roman times to the first century before Christ, so that Geoagiu-Băi can look back on a 2100-year tradition as a spa resort.
Etymology and sources.
The name Germisara is of Dacian origin, means "hot water" (germi = heat, sara = waterfall) and refers to the local thermal springs. It is listed on the Tabula Peutingeriana and both in the Geographike Hyphegesis of Claudius Ptolemy and in the Cosmographia of the Geographer of Ravenna. Overall, the name Germisara seems to refer to an extensive area, possibly a pagus, which included the military camp, the associated auxiliary vicus, the cemeteries, and the thermal springs.
The fort.
The excavations finally led to the discovery of a stone fort with a trapezoidal ground plan and unusual axis lengths of 320 m by 120 m, corresponding to an area of 3.84 hectares. The irregular form is probably due to the fact that the topographical conditions of the high terrace had to be taken into account when the fort was built.
Principia.
Notwithstanding the unusual shape of the camp floor plan, the principia (staff buildings) have a regular, rectangular (approaching a square) and symmetrical floor plan with a north-south axis of 34 m and an east-west axis of 35 m length. This results in a building area of 1,190 sqm. The building complex has an inner courtyard of 13 m by 18 m (= 234 sqm), bordered on three sides by porticos and bounded by functional rooms. The entrance in the form of a six metre wide vestibule is located on the south side. To the north, the inner courtyard is bounded by a basilica, which extends across the entire width of the Principia, but only has a depth of five metres. In the eastern part of the basilica, traces of walls were found that can be interpreted with reservations as the remains of a tribunal. The hall is closed by a 3.50 m deep escape from a total of six rooms. These rooms have different widths, so that despite the even number of rooms the flag sanctuary (aedes or sacellum) is located in the symmetry axis of the building complex (east of the aedes are two rooms, west three rooms). The cellar of the flag sanctuary, in which the troop treasury was traditionally kept, is still well preserved.
Horrea.
Directly west of the Principia, two larger buildings were uncovered, which were referred to as Horrea due to their massive supporting pillars. Their walls do not run parallel to the principia, but deviate by about three meters from the axial alignment to their total length. The first horreum, located directly next to the staff building, is 29 m x 17.50 m (= 507.5 sqm), a rather unusual size for this type of building. Although similarly spacious Horrea have also been proven in other auxiliary sites, it is always double Horrea, which is not indicated by any structural structures or other signs in Cigmău, so that a one-room large building must be assumed. The second Horreum, 28.50 m x 10.50 m (= 299.25 sqm), meets the usual standards.
Garrison.
Vexillatioes of Legio XIII Gemina and Numerus Peditum Singularium Britannicianorum, both of which are documented by numerous brick stamps and inscriptions, are mentioned as the ancestral units of the fort Cigmău. Legio XIII Gemina had already taken part in the first Dacian war of Trajan and then moved into its headquarters in the legionary camp Apulum (modern Alba Iulia), from where it detached to various other locations. The Numerus Peditum Singularium Britannicianorum, which was first stationed in the province Moesia Superior, is documented from the year 110 in Dacia, where it probably remained until the end of the Roman occupation of the country. Possibly in the middle of the first century he replaced the troops of Legio XIII Gemina, which was detached to the province of Dalmatia around this time. The last epigraphic record of the numerus from Cigmău (as well as from Dacia) dates back to the year 245.
Exhibition.
Archaeological finds from Germisara and the castle Cigmău can be found in Muzeul Civilizaţiei Dacice şi Romane (Museum of Dacian and Roman Civilization), the former Muzeul Județean Hunedoara (Hunedoara District Museum) in Deva.
History of research.
Even though the site of the fort was known as such for a long time, Nicolae Gudea did not yet know any further details in his 1997 compendium on the forts of the Dacian Limites Apart from the position of the camp, little was known about the military camp until the end of the 20th century. This only changed with the evaluation of aerial and satellite photographs by William S. Hanson and Ioana A. Oltean and the following archaeological excavations under the direction of Adriana and Eugen Pescaru in the years 2000 to 2002.
Monument protection.
All the archaeological sites and in particular the castle and thermal baths are protected as historical monuments according to Act No. 422/2001, adopted in 2001, and are listed in the national list of historical monuments (Lista Monumentelor Istorice) with the LMI code HD-I-s-A-03172.37] The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Ministerul Culturii și Patrimoniului Național), in particular the General Directorate for National Cultural Heritage, the Department of Fine Arts and the National Commission for Historical Monuments and other institutions subordinate to the Ministry, is responsible for the list. Unauthorised excavations and the export of antique objects are prohibited in Romania.