Via Giulia

The Via Giulia is a street of historical and architectural importance in Rome, Italy, which runs along the left (east) bank of the Tiber from "Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti", near Ponte Sisto, to "Piazza dell'Oro". It is about 1 kilometre long and connects the Regola and Ponte "Rioni".
The road's design was commissioned in 1508 to Donato Bramante by Pope Julius II (), of the powerful della Rovere family, and was one of the first important urban planning projects in papal Rome during the Renaissance.
The road, named after its patron, had been also called (lit. "master road") because of its importance, and (lit. "straight road") because of its layout.
The project had three aims: the creation of a major roadway inserted in a new system of streets superimposed on the maze of alleys of medieval Rome; the construction of a large avenue surrounded by sumptuous buildings to testify to the renewed grandeur of the Catholic Church; and finally, the foundation of a new administrative and banking centre near the Vatican, the seat of the popes, and far from the traditional city centre on the Capitoline Hill, dominated by the Roman baronial families opposed to the pontiffs.
Despite the interruption of the project due to the "pax romana" of 1511 and the death of the pope two years later, the new road immediately became one of the main centres of the Renaissance in Rome. Many palaces and churches were built by the most important architects of the time, such as Raffaello Sanzio and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, who often chose to move into the street. Several noble families joined them, while European nations and Italian city-states chose to build their churches in the street or in the immediate vicinity.
In the Baroque period the building activity, directed by the most important architects of the time such as Francesco Borromini, Carlo Maderno and Giacomo della Porta, continued unabated, while the street, favorite location of the Roman nobles, became the theatre of tournaments, parties and carnival parades. During this period the popes and private patrons continued to take care of the road by founding charitable institutions and providing the area with drinking water.
From the middle of the 18th century, the shift of the city centre towards the Campo Marzio plain caused the cessation of building activity and the abandonment of the road by the nobles. An artisan population with its workshops replaced these, and Via Giulia took on the solitary and solemn aspect that would have characterized it for two centuries. During the Fascist period some construction projects broke the unity of the road in its central section, and the damage has not yet been repaired. Despite this, Via Giulia remains one of Rome's richest roads in art and history, and after a two-century decline, from the 1950s onwards the road's fame was renewed to be one of the city's most prestigious locations.
History.
In Rome, since the early Middle Ages, while the political and representative heart of the city seemed to have remained on the Capitoline Hill, the area of the ancient developed into one of the most densely populated districts ("abitato"). The maze of narrow alleys was criss-crossed by three narrow thoroughfares: the (lit. "papal road"), inhabited by curial employees; the (lit. "pilgrims' road") artisan and business road; and the (lit. "straight road", a name common to many roads in medieval Rome). This was used above all by pilgrims coming from the north and was home to small businesses. The three roads converged to the north towards the Angels' Bridge, which was therefore the bottleneck of the city's traffic. As Dante Alighieri described in the Divine Comedy, in 1300 Pope Boniface VIII () ordered a two-way traffic system to be set up to avoid traffic jams or panic as a response to the dense crowds on Angels' Bridge.
After Pope Martin V () returned to Rome in 1420 at the end of the Western Schism, the influx of pilgrims increased significantly again, especially in the Jubilee years. On 29 December 1450, the last day of the Holy Year, a stampede broke out on the bridge that killed more than 300 people.
As a result of the catastrophe, Pope Nicholas V (), the first Renaissance pope who systematically dealt with Roman town planning, ordered the Angels' Bridge to be cleared of stalls and shops; the first urban planning measures in the area were initiated, defining in his programme the abovementioned three streets as the city's main ones. Starting with Nicholas, the policy of the popes was to leave the control of the Capitoline Hill area to the roman nobility, concentrating urban development on the Tiber bend and the Vatican, made important by the pilgrimage to Saint Peter and the jubilees.
In 1475, Pope Sixtus IV () ordered the Ponte Sisto, named after him, to be built across the Tiber in order to relieve the pilgrimage route across the Angels' Bridge and to connect the "rioni" of Regola and Trastevere. At the same time he ordered the restoration of "Via Pelegrinorum" and the area around the "Campo de' Fiori". According to the chronicler Stefano Infessura, however, strategic reasons aside from reducing traffic were also important for these projects. Until then it had been very difficult for the pope to carry out urban interventions within the Aurelian walls, mainly because of the power of the noble families of folk background, but Sixtus could use the revenues of the jubilee to carry out the works in the city. When the holy year was over, he changed the responsibilities of the "Conservatori" (the chief magistrates of Rome's "commune"), who until then had the power to curb papal initiatives in Rome, and reinforced the possibility of expropriating land and buildings for public utility. Aim of the pope was the reduction of the property income of the local nobility, and the redevelopment of the three main streets of the city.
The successors of Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII (); Alexander VI (); and Pius III (), continued the Sistine urban planning policy, often completing the works begun by Pope della Rovere. Among them,
in 1497 Alexander VI ordered the widening of the "Via Peregrinorum" and the opening of the Porta Settimiana through the Aurelian Walls. The latter work was a precondition for the future construction of "Via della Lungara" on the right bank of the Tiber from Ponte Sisto to St. Peter's Basilica.
The project of Pope Julius II.
In addition to reconstructing St. Peter's Basilica, Julius II implemented multiple projects in the framework of Rome's urban renewal ("Renovatio Romae") in the Ponte, Parione, Sant'Eustachio and Colonna "rioni", a task which was started forty years before by his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV. One of the most important projects was the creation of two new straight streets on the left and right banks of the Tiber: the Via Giulia on the left bank, a new grand avenue through the most densely populated quarter of Rome, from the Ponte Sisto to the Florentine merchant quarter on the Tiber bend, and the "Via della Lungara" along the right bank, a straight road from the Porta Settimiana in Trastevere to the Hospital of Santo Spirito in the Borgo.
Both roads–designed by the pope's favourite architect Donato Bramante– flanked the Tiber and were closely connected to it. The Lungara had the dual aim to relieve the pilgrimage route to Saint Peter and transport goods coming from the "Via Aurelia" and the "Via Portuense" roads towards the centre of the city. Moreover, the street, overlooking the river, was going to represent the place of the cultured and refined leisure time of the Roman upper class, who built there some of the most luxurious suburban residences in the city. The two streets, surrounded by palaces, including that of the pope's banker, Agostino Chigi, would have formed "a kind of city within the city, a garden city along the Tiber".
The main goal behind these plans was to superimpose to medieval Rome's disorderly building mesh a regular road network having the Tiber as focus; together with the new "Via Alessandrina" that Alexander VI opened in the Borgo and the "Via dei Pettinari" that connected the Trastevere on one bank and the Campidoglio on the other, the "Lungara" and Via Giulia created a quadrilateral network of modern roads in the city's chaotic web of narrow streets. In the original project Via Giulia was supposed to reach the Hospital of Santo Spirito in Borgo through the rebuilt "Nero's Bridge".
This project had a secondary, celebrative goal to promote the Pontiff as the unifier of Italy and the renewer of Rome; in 1506, after the end of the plague, Julius overthrew the powerful Baglioni and Bentivoglio families, conquering their strongholds of Perugia and Bologna as testified in an inscription along the "Via dei Banchi Nuovi".
Aside from serving as a means of communication and representation for the Church, the road was supposed to host the city's new layman's administrative centre. A drawing by Donato Bramante discovered by Luitpold Frommel in the Uffizi shows a new huge administrative complex, the "Palazzo dei Tribunali". All the notaries and courts operating in Rome had to be centralised in this building: among them, the tribunal of the "Conservatori", for centuries located on the Capitoline Hill and traditionally controlled by the Roman nobility. This decision would therefore put an end to the chaos caused by various jurisdictions subject to ecclesiastical and secular authority, putting the justice under the pope's control.
Bramante's sketch shows also a representative square (the "Foro Iulio") opened along the new street and facing the "Palazzo dei Tribunali" and the old "Cancelleria" (today's Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini). The square was not far from the Apostolic Camera (the pope's treasury) in Palazzo Riario and the new "Palazzo della Zecca" (lit. "papal mint") erected by Bramante at the edge of "Via dei Banchi Nuovi" (also named "Canale di Ponte"). By this road lay the merchants' and bankers' houses and offices, like the Altoviti, Ghinucci, Acciaiuoli, Chigi and Fugger. Close economic ties with Tuscan bankers like Agostino Chigi were sought and promoted.
As a resulting consequence of the project, the area around the Vatican and Trastevere would have been enhanced at the detriment of the Capitoline Hill, symbol of the Roman nobility's power. The plan was thus intended to separate the papacy from the city's powerful noble families (the "baroni"), particularly the Orsini and Colonna families, who until then had been the Pontiff's most trusted allies, replacing them with a new organisation formed by Papal legates.
Around 1508 the executive phase of the project started: the pope ordered Bramante to start expropriating and demolishing properties in the densely populated "Campo Marzio" to create the new street.
Giorgio Vasari wrote:
In August 1511 the life of Julius II was seriously threatened by an illness. Due to that, the feuding Orsini and Colonna families and the other Barons reached an agreement (known as the "Pax Romana"), in order to ask at the upcoming conclave the restoration of the "commune" authority and the abolition of various taxes.
The pope's prompt recovery made the possibility of conclave fade away; Julius, under pressure from abroad, came to terms with the nobles, propagandizing the anti-papal pact as an agreement in his favour and revoking several decisions taken against the "comune". Among these, he granted the Capitoline court jurisdiction over all cases between Roman citizens, except those pending before the Sacra Rota. This decision caused the interruption of the works for the new road and the "Palazzo dei Tribunali", whose project was definitively abandoned when the pope died, while the planned square in front of it was forgotten.
Apart from a few rusticated blocks between the "Via del Gonfalone" and the "Vicolo del Cefalo", today nothing remains of the "palazzo".
Via Giulia in the 16th century.
After the death of Julius II in 1513, the demographic situation in Rome had changed: because of the wars in Italy, a large number of Lombards had emigrated to the city, settling in the northern area of the Campo Marzio, where their national church already existed. This caused a shift in the centre of gravity of the city's development, which excluded Via Giulia. Despite that, Julius' successor, Pope Leo X () from the House of Medici, continued the work, favoring the northern end of the road, that is the stretch between the unfinished "Palazzo dei Tribunali" and the banking district, where his Florentine countrymen lived and the Florentine merchant community worked.
With the bull of 29 January 1519, the pope granted the Florentine "Compagnia della Pietà" the construction of the church of San Giovanni, located also at the northern edge of the road and destined to be the parish of all Florentines living in Rome. The church was to become the symbol of Florentine economic and financial dominance in Rome, being at the centre of the area occupied by the banks, the "fondachi" and the residences of the Tuscan bourgeoisie and nobility living in the pope's capital.
Here, important artists, such as Raphael and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, acquired plots of land or built palaces.
In spite of these activities, the urban planning project that was at the base of the road was left unfinished. The decision to relinquish the reconstruction of Nero's bridge, the lack of connection with the Angels' Bridge and the Borgo and the abandonment of the plan for the centralisation of the courts meant that the road became an unused fragment of an abandoned project. The central and southern parts of the street suffered most for this situation. The area south of the church of San Biagio–the central part of the Via Giulia around the "Monte dei Planca Incoronati", cut in half by the new road with an act of force of the pope against one of the most powerful families of the city nobility– became a slum filled with inns, brothels, and infamous locations like "Piazza Padella", a venue known for duels and stabbings up to the end of 19th century and demolished in the 1930s. This area, lying between "Via del Gonfalone", "Via delle Carceri", "Via di Monserrato" and the Tiber, was a major district of ill-repute since the Middle Ages; a manuscript from 1556 reports about the quarter around the eventually demolished church of "San Niccolò degli Incoronati" hosted "... 150 houses of very simple people, whores and dubious persons ...". The degradation of this part of the road is to be attributed to a decision of the Planca themselves, who, in contrast to the popes' objective of creating a prestigious road, preferred to rent their properties to prostitutes and malefactors, subjects who paid higher rents than the artisans.
South of the Planca's "monte" lay the "Castrum Senense"; this quarter (its name "castrum"–"fort"–came from the numerous towers that dotted the area at the time), stretching from the church of Santa Aurea, today Santo Spirito dei Napoletani towards south, got this name in the Middle Ages because it was mainly inhabited by people from Siena. At this end of the Via Giulia, the Farnese family drew up a well-defined architectural development plan, started with the erection of the their residence between 1517 and 1520. The Farnese decided to turn their back against the street, orienting the main façade of their gigantic palace towards Campo de' Fiori and the centre of the city, and using the road only as a service route. Under Pope Paul III (), Cardinal Girolamo Capodiferro decided to build his palace near the Farnese palace, but he too chose to turn his "palazzo"'s gardens towards Via Giulia. The decision to avoid the overlooking of the noble residences along the street was probably due to the degraded state of the area, which housed several brothels.
Starting with the middle of the sixteenth century there was an attempt to rehabilitate this area by building welfare facilities. The church and the hospitals of the brotherhood of the Trinity of the Pilgrims () were erected in a place named "Postribolo di Ponte Sisto" ("Ponte Sisto's Brothel"). In 1586, architect Domenico Fontana built on the orders of Pope Sixtus V () the "Ospizio dei Mendicanti" (lit. "Beggar's Hospice") thus marking the southern end of the "Via Giulia". The hospice was established to solve the begging problem in the city and was given a yearly endowment of 150,000 "scudi", enough to employ 2,000 people.
At the beginning of the 16th century it had become fashionable for the various nations and city-states to have their own churches built in Rome: these were known as the "chiese nazionali". The "rioni" of Regola and Ponte, along the processional and pilgrim roads, were the preferred locations, and Via Giulia, because of its proximity to Saint Peter and the commercial area, became a favourite place to erect the shrines with the annexed hospitals and inns for the pilgrims. The Florentines, the Sienese, and the Neapolitans had their churches built along the road (the San Giovanni, the Santa Caterina, and Santo Spirito respectively), while the Bolognese (San Giovanni e Petronio), Spanish (Santa Maria in Monserrato), English (San Tommaso di Canterbury) and Swedish (Santa Brigida) churches were built in the nearby zones of the "Regola" "rione".
Despite all these construction activities, the character of the street did not change: brotherhoods, nobility, thieves, upper middle class and prostitutes lived next to each other in the street, which remained an axis of service. The poet Annibal Caro in his comedy "Gli Straccioni" ("The Rags") describes the street as an ill-famed place.
At the end of the 16th century, Via Giulia's path was defined for good; it ended by the Florentine quarter to the north and the "Ospizio dei Mendicanti" to the south. It became less of a major commercial street and more a busy promenade and a place for celebrations, processions (such as that of the "ammantate", poor girls which were dowried by the goldsmiths of Sant'Eligio degli Orefici) and races.
Via Giulia in the 17th century.
In the baroque period three major works changed the face of the street: to the north, the completion (except for the façade) of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, a work by Carlo Maderno; in the centre, the construction of the "Carceri Nuove" (lit. "New Prisons") based on a project by Antonio Del Grande; to the south, the reconstruction of Palazzo Falconieri, by Francesco Borromini. San Giovanni, thanks to its slender dome, gave the street a vanishing point; the prisons, erected near the never-built palace of the courts of the Bramante, revived Julius II's idea of bringing the "Justitia Papalis" into the street; Palazzo Falconieri, finally, added value to the street in an area characterised until then only by Palazzo Farnese, which turns its back on Via Giulia.
Beside these works are worth of mention the churches of Sant'Anna dei Bresciani and Santa Maria del Suffragio, and various renovations and mergers, such as that of Palazzo Varese, by Maderno, and Palazzo Ricci. In the same period two colleges were established in Via Giulia: the Collegio Ghislieri, another work by Carlo Maderno, and the Collegio Bandinelli, near San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, by Del Grande.
In order to supply the quarter with sufficient drinking water, Pope Paul V () had the Aqua Paola extend over the Tiber, reaching the Regola "rione" and the Ghetto. In 1613, the "Fontanone di Ponte Sisto" (lit. "The Big Fountain of the Sistine Bridge") was built on the façade of the beggars' hospice on Via Giulia.
Despite these interventions the meaning of the street in the city structure did not change. The expansion of the city towards the Campo Marzio plain, begun by Leo X with the construction of "Via di Ripetta", and the urban planning initiatives of Gregory XIII () and Sixtus V had already irreparably relegated Via Giulia to a peripheral position with respect to the new city centre.
At the end of the 17th century the road took on a triple face, which it would maintain for another 150 years: an area of building speculation in the north, a detention centre in the middle, and an elegant location in the south, theater of feasts and games.
Among the latter, a tournament held in 1603 by Tiberio Ceuli at Palazzo Sacchetti, and a Saracen tournament organised in 1617 by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese at the "Oratorio della Compagnia della Morte", for which he invited eight cardinals. During the summer months the street was sometimes flooded for the pleasure of the common people and the nobility. One of the most glamorous celebrations was held by the Farnese in 1638 to celebrate the birth of the French dauphin, the future king Louis XIV. Via Giulia hosted buffalo races, parades of carnival floats, and in 1663 the organisation of a horse race with naked hunchbacks during Carnival is handed down. During the carnival, Via Giulia hosted several feasts promoted by the Florentines.
On 20 August 1662, the road was the scene of an episode that had important consequences: a brawl near the Ponte Sisto bridge between soldiers of the Corsican Guard and French soldiers belonging to the retinue of Louis XIV's ambassador Charles III de Créquy resulted in the withdrawal of the ambassador from Rome and the French invasion of Avignon. In order to avoid worse consequences, the pope was forced to humiliate himself, disbanding the Corsican Guard and erecting a "pyramid of infamy" at the Corsicans' barracks near the street.
Development in the 18th and 19th centuries.
From an architectural point of view in the 18th century there were only minor interventions in the street: the development of the city was now defined in the Tridente and Quirinale areas, both far away from the Tiber bend, and Via Giulia remained cut off. The only works of some importance were the façade of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, by Alessandro Galilei, the church of Santa Maria dell'Orazione e Morte, by Ferdinando Fuga,
and the two small churches of San Filippo Neri and San Biagio della Pagnotta, rebuilt respectively by Filippo Raguzzini and Giovanni Antonio Perfetti.
In this period too the Via Giulia was famous as a venue for parties and entertainment for the common people: in 1720 the Sienese held a festival to celebrate the promotion of Marc'Antonio Zondadari to Grand Master of the Order of Malta; Fireworks were set off near the "Fontanone di Ponte Sisto"; two triumphal arches were raised above the street, one near Santo Spirito and the other near Palazzo Farnese; and the Fountain of the "Mascherone" poured wine for the people instead of water.
Under Pope Clement XI's () rule, the beggars housed in the "Ospizio dei Mendicanti" were transferred to the San Michele a Ripa. The building was afterwards occupied by both poor unmarried girls ("zitelle" in the Romanesco dialect) and a congregation made up of 100 priests and 20 clerics; the latter prayed for the souls of deceased priests. As such, the building was nicknamed the "Ospizio dei cento preti" ("Hospice of the Hundred Priests").
In the nineteenth century, in accordance with the process of degradation of the building heritage that affected the whole city, Via Giulia underwent a myriad of interventions of superfetation, superelevation, and occupation of the free spaces. In this period only a few new buildings or restoration projects were realised: among them were the youth prison ("Palazzo del Gonfalone") (1825–27), the renovation of the Armenian Hospice next to the church of San Biagio (1830), the new façade of the Santo Spirito dei Napoletani (1853), and the Collegio Spagnuolo (1853) by Pietro Camporese and Antonio Sarti, which is the only building of architectonic quality among them. However, this did not stop the general decline of the street that started in the middle of the 18th century. The nobility abandoned the palaces on the street to move to the new centre of urban life in the Campo Marzio plain, and in their place the road hosted artisans, assuming an aspect of abandonment and survival.
Via Giulia since 1870.
After Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, the Tiber (known for flooding, particularly in "Campus Martius" plain) had its banks worked on in 1873 by constructing Lungoteveres, which since 1888 were erected along the road and required the church of Sant'Anna dei Bresciani to be torn down. The Lungoteveres completely cut off Via Giulia from the Tiber and prevented the loggias and gardens of the palaces facing the river, such as the Palazzi Medici-Clarelli, Sacchetti, Varese, and Falconieri from having a view of the river. Moreover, the "Fontanone" of Ponte Sisto was demolished together with the Beggars' Hospice in 1879 and rebuilt in 1898 on the opposite side of the Ponte Sisto in what is now Piazza Trilussa.
During the fascist period, in 1938 Benito Mussolini ordered the construction of a wide avenue between Ponte Mazzini and the Chiesa Nuova. Because of that, significant building demolitions (including that of the "palazzi" Ruggia and Planca Incoronati and of "Piazza Padella") took place in the central section of Via Giulia between "Via della Barchetta" and "Vicolo delle Prigioni". The project was stopped because of the beginning of World War II, and to this day the resulting empty plot has only been partially filled by the new building of the "Liceo Classico Virgilio".
Starting with the post-war years, the street regained gradually its status as one of the most prestigious streets in the city.
Numerous events took place in 2008 during its 500th anniversary; some churches and palaces were restored and opened to visitors.
Landmarks on Via Giulia.
Via Giulia extends northwest for about one kilometre from the "Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti" on the Ponte Sisto to the "Piazza dell'Oro" in front of the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini.
1 Palazzina Pateras Pescara (Via Giulia 251).
This last building in Via Giulia was built in 1924 by Marcello Piacentini on behalf of the Avvocato Pateras. Today it houses the Consulate of the French Republic in Rome.
2 Fontana del Mascherone.
The fountain diagonally opposite Palazzo Farnese was built around 1626 by Carlo Rainaldi and paid for by the Farnese. It was planned in 1570 to be a public fountain fed by the "Aqua Virgo" aqueduct to supply people with clean drinking water. However, installation was only possible after Paul V ordered the water pipe to be extended over the Ponte Sisto in 1612. The fountain consists of an ancient large marble mascaron ("Mascherone") on a background with volutes in marble, crowned by the symbol of the Farnese, a metal Fleur-de-lis. The fountain was moved against the wall in 1903, losing most of its charm. The poet Wilhelm Waiblinger died in 1830 in the house opposite to it.
3 Palazzo Farnese (Via Giulia 186).
The garden façade of this palace building is oriented towards the Via Giulia. In 1549 it was designed according to Vignola's drawings and completed by Giacomo della Porta in 1589. The garden between the façade and the Via Giulia was once adorned by the Farnese bull (now in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples). The palace is now the French Embassy in Italy.
3a Camerini Farnesiani (Via Giulia 253-260).
Behind the row of lower buildings ("Camerini Farnesiani"), which today belong to the French Embassy, lay a small palace with garden, the Palazzetto Farnese, built around 1603 by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese as his hermitage, also known as "Eremo del Cardinale" ("Cardinal's hermitage"). This private retreat of the Cardinal, decorated with frescoes by Giovanni Lanfranco, was accessible from Palazzo Farnese through a terrace and the Arco Farnese. The building still stands along Via Giulia, but its original internal disposition has been changed through several interventions, while its "giardino segreto" ("secret garden") with its loggia with three arches open on the river has been destroyed.
4 Arco Farnese.
The bridge connects Via Giulia to the Palazzo Farnese. It was erected in 1603, and was used to observe festive processions, games, and horse races in Via Giulia, particularly during Carnival. The arch was part of a project conceived by Pope Paul III and never realised, which foresaw the connection of Palazzo Farnese with the Villa Farnesina in Trastevere by means of a private bridge over the river.
5 Santa Maria dell'Orazione e Morte (Via Giulia ad. 262).
The church, built in 1575–76, is located in the immediate vicinity of Palazzo Farnese and belonged to the "Compagnia della Morte" ("Death's Brotherhood") founded in 1538. The fraternity was tasked with burying the dead that – having been recovered from the river or found in the area surrounding Rome – were not claimed by anyone. The building was demolished in 1733 and rebuilt by Ferdinando Fuga in 1737. Its cemetery on the banks of the Tiber was demolished when the river was regulated in 1886.
6 Palazzo Falconieri also Palazzo Odescalchi Falconieri (Via Giulia 1).
The original building was built in the 16th century for the Roman noble family of the Ceci and directly adjoins the church of Santa Maria dell'Orazione e Morte. It was sold by the Ceci in 1574 to the Odescalchi family before being passed to the Farnese in 1606. Eventually the Florentine nobleman Orazio Falconieri bought it in 1638 for 16,000 scudi. From 1646 to 1649 he commissioned the architect Francesco Borromini to extend the palace. The sides of the façade on Via Giulia are decorated with two pilasters in the shape of large hermas with female breasts and falcon heads. The façade on the Tiber side features a three-arched loggia dating back to 1649. From 1814 Cardinal Joseph Fesch, uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte lived there, and from 1815 to 1818 he hosted his stepsister Laetitia Ramolino, the emperor's mother. In 1927 the Kingdom of Italy ceded the palace to the Hungarian State, which established it as the seat of the Hungarian Academy ("Accademia d'Ungheria"). Today, in addition to the Academy, the palace is home to the "Pontificium Institutum Ecclesiasticum Hungaricum in Urbe".
7 Palazzo Baldoca-Muccioli (Via Giulia 167).
The history of the palace is closely linked to the neighbouring Palazzo Cisterna. Both properties were acquired and rebuilt by the sculptor Guglielmo della Porta. Guglielmo began to work around 1546 in the service of Pope Paul III who at the death of Sebastiano del Piombo entrusted him with the lucrative office of Keeper of the Seals (. it is possible that della Porta considered the building only an investment, since he rented it in 1574 to the florentine knight Nicolò de Gaddis. The palazzo was owner later by the Baldoca and Muccioli families. At the beginning of the 20th century the palace served as the residence of the English ambassador in Rome, Sir Rennell Rodd, who bought and had it badly restored in 1928.
8 Palazzo Cisterna (Via Giulia 163).
The Palazzo Cisterna was built by Guglielmo della Porta and served as his residence. Above the architrave of the windows on the first floor the inscription "FRANCISCVS TANCREDA ET GVILELMVS D(ella) P(orta) ME(ediolanensis) – S(culptor) CI(vis) RO(manus)" can be read. From a letter to a friend, it appears that the palace was completed in 1575. In 1600 Spanish missionaries acquired the palace and sold it to the Cisterna family at the beginning of the 20th century. It was partially sold to the Ducci family in the second half of the 20th century.
9 Santa Caterina da Siena in Via Giulia (Via Giulia ad. 151).
The history of this church is closely linked to the Sienese Brotherhood. A community of merchants, bankers and craftsmen from Siena had been living in what was to be Via Giulia, where at that time stood the "castrum Senense" since the 14th century. In 1519 the Brotherhood was canonically erected by Leo X. In 1526 they commissioned Baldassare Peruzzi to build the church in honour of their saints, an oratory, and a house for the clerics. The funds were provided by the Sienese nobility in Rome, particularly by the Dean of the College of Cardinals Giovanni Piccolomini and the banker Agostino Chigi, who alone donated 4,000 "scudi". Since it was in a dilapidated state, it was rebuilt between 1766 and 1768 according to Paolo Posi's designs, while the interior decor was completed in 1775. The Archconfraternity of the Sienese still owns the building today. During Via Giulia's 500th anniversary of the street in 2008 the altarpiece by Girolamo Genga has been restored.
10 Palazzo Varese (Via Giulia 14-21).
The palace opposite Santa Caterina da Siena was built between 1617 and 1618 by Carlo Maderno on behalf of Monsignor Diomede Varese. In 1788 Monsignor Giuseppe degli Atti Varese gave the building to the Congregation "Propaganda Fide" when his family line died out. After exchanging owners several times the palace finally came into the possession of the Mancini family.
The front consists of two upper floors and a mezzanine, and is divided by several axes of irregularly spaced windows, which testify how the building was born by merging several pre-existing edifices. On the ground floor is the main portal and above it is a balcony on consoles, flanked by three windows each. The portal opens into the yard with three "loggie", the first on arches, while the others have their entablature that rests directly on the columns. The yard originally opened to a garden by the river, now lost because of the closing of the Tiber side.
11 Sant'Eligio degli Orefici (Via di Sant'Eligio 9).
The small church is off the Via Giulia and serves as the guild church of the Roman gold- and silversmiths. Its construction is attributed to Raphael, although it is possible that after the death of the artist it was finished by Baldassare Peruzzi.
12 Palazzo del Collegio Spagnolo (Via Giulia 151).
The "Palacio de Monserrat" by Antonio Sarti and Pietro Camporese was built in 1862 by the will of Queen of Spain Isabella II and today is the Spanish High Centre for Ecclesiastical Studies. The Centre is attached to the Spanish National Church of Santa Maria in Monserrato on the Via di Monserrato behind it, and its history is closely connected with that of the church. The erection of the College was the only major intervention in the construction of the road in the 19th century.
13 Liceo Statale Virgilio (Via Giulia No 35 ff.).
One of the most important state school complexes in Rome was built between 1936 and 1939 by Marcello Piacentini. The building complex between Via Giulia and the Lungotevere dei Tebaldi includes the façade of the Collegio Ghislieri, designed by Carlo Maderno (16th century) and the church of the Santo Spirito dei Napoletani.
14 Palazzo Ricci (Via Giulia 146).
The present building was originally a cluster of unconnected buildings, built at different times, opposite the Collegio Ghislieri. The building complex was merged in 1634 and 1684. The main façade facing Piazza de'Ricci shows strongly faded remains of a "graffito" by Polidoro da Caravaggio and Maturino da Firenze (16th century). On the side facing Via Giulia, a continuous façade gave the complex its present uniform appearance.
15 Santo Spirito dei Napoletani (Via Giulia ad. 34).
In the Pius V church catalogue this church is listed under the name of "Santa Aura in strada Iulia". It was dedicated to Saint Aurea, the patron saint of Ostia. A nunnery was attached to the church. In 1439 the church was restored at the expense of Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville. In 1572 Cardinal Innico d'Avalos d'Aragona founded in the dilapidated building the "Confraternita dello Spirito Santo dei Napoletani" ("Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit of the Neapolitans"), who bought it from the nuns in 1574. Between 1619 and 1650 a new building was erected, with a project of Ottavio Mascherino and a façade by Cosimo Fanzago. It was dedicated to the Holy Spirit. In the following centuries it was renovated several times, at the beginning of the 18th century by Carlo Fontana and in 1853 the façade was renovated by Antonio Cipolla. It was the National Church of the Kingdom of Naples. The last King of Naples Francis II and his wife Marie Sophie Amalie, Duchess in Bavaria, were buried in the church in 1942. After extensive restoration work carried out in 1986, the church is open for worship.
16 San Filippo Neri in Via Giulia (Via Giulia 134 bis).
Construction of the small church opposite the Carceri Nuove was sponsored by Rutilio Brandi, a glove-maker from Florence, and given to the "Compagnia delle santissime piaghe" after 1617, the year in which the confraternity got the permission to organize itself. The church was originally dedicated to Saint Trophimus. It was connected to a residence for unmarried girls ("zitelle") and a hospital for sick priests. Since the residence was dedicated to San Filippo Neri, after some years the church too changed its dedication to him. In 1728 Filippo Raguzzini restored the church on behalf of Pope Benedict XIII (). The church barely escaped destruction in the early 1940s due to the construction of a large road that should have joined Ponte Mazzini and the Chiesa Nuova. This road was never built due to the World War II. The edifice was abandoned after the war before being restored in 2000 for non-religious purposes.
17 Carceri Nuove (Via Giulia 52).
Since 1430 the Savelli family owned the title of "Maresciallo di Santa Romana Chiesa" ("Marshall of the Church"), with their own tribunal whose jurisdiction could reach the family of the pontiff. Due to that, the family run the infamous "Corte Savella", a prison which lay along Via di Monserrato near the "Collegio Inglese". The inhumane penal system in the "Corte Savella" gave to Pope Innocent X () the excuse to withdraw the Savelli's monopoly on the penal system in Rome.
As a sign of new "Justitia Papalis", he had the new penal institution, the "Carceri Nuove", built in Via Giulia. This new prison was built between 1652 and 1655 by the architect Antonio del Grande. The Carceri Nuove were considered a model of a humane penitentiary system in their time. The building and its purpose had a rather negative influence on the image of the magnificent street, which led to the suspension of construction in the following years and the Renaissance character of the street being preserved. The building acted as a prison until the opening of Regina Coeli in Trastevere in 1883, further on until 1931 as a youth prison. From 1931 the palace housed the headquarters of the "Centro di Studi Penitenziari" ("Research Institute for Criminal Justice") and a specialized library. Today the building houses the "Direzione Nazionale Antimafia e Antiterrorismo" ("National Directorate for Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism").
17a Palazzo del Gonfalone (Via del Gonfalone 29).
The building between the "Vicolo della Scimia" and "Via del Gonfalone" has no entrance from Via Giulia. It was built between 1825 and 1827 under Pope Leo XII () according to plans by Giuseppe Valadier as a prison for the youth. Today the building houses the "Museo Criminologico" (lit. "Criminological Museum").
18 Santa Maria del Suffragio (Via Giulia ad. 59).
In 1592 the "Confraternita del Suffragio" ("Brotherhood of Intercession") was founded next to the church of San Biagio della Pagnotta to implore the intercession for the souls of the purgatory. The Brotherhood was approved by Pope Clement VIII () in 1594 and was elevated to the status of "Arciconfaternita" ("Archbishopric Brotherhood") by Paul V. Thanks to several donations, in 1662 the erection of the church began as a project of architect Carlo Rainaldi. The building was consecrated in 1669, and the façade was finished in 1680. The church's interior was renovated in 1869; the frescoes inside the church are by Cesare Mariani ("Coronation of the Virgin") and Giuseppe Chiari ("Nativity of Mary" and "Adoration of the Magi").
19 Palazzo dei Tribunali.
Julius II's most important planned project in the new street was a central administration building, in which a large part of the city's important offices and courts ("tribunali") were to be grouped together. The pope's commission to Donato Bramante (at the time main architect of the new St. Peter's Basilica) was issued around 1506, and construction in the area between "Vicolo del Cefalo" and "Via del Gonfalone" began before 1508, but was interrupted as in 1511 by the "Pax Romana". With Julius II's death in 1513, construction completely stopped. Giorgio Vasari wrote:
Some remains of the mighty rusticated walls, called "i sofà di Via Giulia" () by the Roman population, between "Via del Gonfalone" and "Vicolo del Cefalo" along Via Giulia, can be seen today.
20 San Biagio della Pagnotta (San Biagio degli Armeni) (Via Giulia ad. 63).
This church was dedicated to Saint Blaise of Sebaste and is mentioned in the church catalogues of the Middle Ages under the name of "San Biagio de Cantu Secuta". The name "della pagnotta" is derived from the Roman word "pagnotta" ("bread roll"), which was distributed to the faithful on the 3 February (feast of St. Blaise) and thought to protect against throat illnesses. The church was attached to one of the first abbeys in Rome. An inscription on the interior commemorates the construction of the church by an abbot Dominicus in 1072. According to the Bramante's plans, this church was to be included in the yard of the Palazzo dei Tribunali. From 1539 to 1835 it was a parish church. In 1826 Pope Gregory XVI () assigned the church to the Armenian community of Santa Maria Egiziaca. Since then it has been called officially "San Biagio degli Armeni".
21 Palazzo Ricci-Donarelli (Via Giulia no. 99-105).
The palace is opposite to the Palazzo Sacchetti and was originally a group of residential buildings that first belonged to the Ricci and later to the Donarelli family. The complex was restructured in 1663, possibly by Carlo Rainaldi.
22 Palazzo Sacchetti (Via Giulia 66).
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger built the palace on land bought in 1542 by the Vatican Chapter. The façade still bears the chipped coat of arms of Paul III. His son Orazio inherited the building and sold it in 1552 to Cardinal Giovanni Ricci di Montepulciano, who had the palace extended to its current dimensions by the architect Nanni di Baccio Bigio. An inscription in the Vicolo del Cefalo's side wall states that the palace was exempted from paying the census tax in 1555. The building changed hands several times. In 1649 it was bought by the Florentine Sacchetti family, whose name it still bears. The entrance to Via Giulia is made of marble and flanked on both sides by three large windows with grilles, thresholds, and cornices. In the left corner of the "palazzo" there is a small fountain flanked by caryatides with two dolphins embedded in the wall; this refers to the later owners, the Ceuli family, whose coat of arms was chipped. Notable features inside include the "Salone dei Mappamondi" ("Hall of World Maps"), designed by Francesco Salviati, and the dining room with two frescoes painted by Pietro da Cortona. The writer Ingeborg Bachmann lived in this palazzo in 1973 dying at Sant'Eugenio Hospital on 17 October 1973.
23 Palace with the Farnese coats of arms (Via Giulia 93).
The building's first owner could have been Durante Duranti, lover of Costanza Farnese, or Guglielmo della Porta, which in this case would have been also the architect. The palazzo takes its name from the three coats of arms of the Farnese family, which were added to the façade under Paul III. In the centre of the upper floor there is the coat of arms of Paul III with the papal tiara and the keys between two unicorns. On the left is the coat of arms of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and on the right the coat of arms of his brother Ottavio Farnese or of Pierluigi Farnese, both Dukes of Parma and Piacenza.
24 Palazzo Medici Clarelli (Via Giulia 79).
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger built this palace as a private residence around 1535–1536. After Sangallo's death in 1546 the building was owned by the Florentine Migliore Cresci. An inscription above the main portal immortalizes Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. The palace for some time belonged to the Tuscan Consulate in Rome. At the end of the 17th century it was acquired by the Marini Clarelli family. In the 19th century it was used as barracks before being sold to the city of Rome in 1870. The façade (richly historiated at the time of Cresci) and the portal are lined with rusticated ashlars. On the sides of the portal there are badly rebuilt large windows on consoles.
25 Casa di Raffaello (Via Giulia 85).
This palace, erroneously called the House of Raphael, was built after 1525 for the Vatican Chapter according to a design by the architect Bartolomeo de Ramponibus. Raphael originally acquired several plots of land here. However, he died before the building's construction began. The original and the definitive design – known through three plans discovered in the Uffizi – are respectively by Raphael and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. An inscription above the windows of the first floor is dedicated to Raphael: "POSSEDEVA RAF SANZIO NEL MDXX" ().
26 Quarter of the Florentines.
In 1448 Florentine merchants who resided in Rome (many of them settled in the Tiber bend, today's Ponte "rione"), founded the "Compagnia della Pietà", akin to the Florentine "Misericordia". Both popes from the Medici family, Leo X and Clement VII (), promoted the influx of Florentines. Since 1515 the Republic of Florence had its own consulate in a palace on "Via del Consolato" that was erected in 1541 and demolished in 1888 to open the Corso Vittorio Emanuele avenue. It had its own court and its own prison. Some of the buildings erected towards the end of the 15th century that once belonged to Florentines are still preserved across from the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini:
27 San Giovanni dei Fiorentini (Via Acciaioli 2).
In 1519 the "nation" of the Florentines received from Leo X the privilege to build a parish church in honour of John the Baptist. The church stands at the northern end of Via Giulia in the Florentine quarter. The church reflects the grandeur and the political self-image of the Medici family, whose portraits adorned the facade of a "palazzo" right next to the church. It is the largest church on Via Giulia and its construction, started at the beginning of the 16th century, lasted more than 200 years. It combined the efforts of three of Rome's master builders: Giacomo della Porta, Carlo Maderno, and Francesco Borromini. The last two artists were interred in the same tomb at the church. The altarpiece, started by Pietro da Cortona, was continued by Borromini and finished by Ciro Ferri.


Russian Church, Sofia

The Russian Church (), officially known as the Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Maker (), is a Russian Orthodox church in central Sofia, Bulgaria situated on Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard.
History and architecture.
The church was built on the site of the Saray Mosque, which was destroyed in 1882, after the liberation of Bulgaria by Russia from the Ottoman Empire. It was built as the official church of the Russian Embassy, which was located next door, and of the Russian community in Sofia, and was named, as was the tradition for diplomatic churches, for the patron saint of the Emperor who ruled Russia at the time, Nicholas II of Russia. The church was designed by the Russian architect Mikhail Preobrazhenski in the style of Russian Revival architecture, with decoration inspired by the Muscovite Russian churches of the 17th century. The construction was supervised by the architect A. Smirnov, who was building the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral nearby. The exterior decoration of multicolored tiles was done by G. Kislichev, and the interior murals were painted by a team of artists led by Vasily Perminov, who also painted those in Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The five domes are coated with gold. The bells were donated by Emperor Nicholas II.
Construction began in 1907 and the church was consecrated in 1914. The church remained open after the Russian Revolution and during the Communist period in Bulgaria (1944–1989), though priests and church-goers were carefully watched by the State Security police.
The exterior was recently restored by the Russian Government. The interior murals are darkened by smoke from candles and from time, and are in need of restoration.
The crypt housing the remains of Saint Archbishop Seraphim is located beneath the Russian Church's main floor. Dozens of people still visit the grave of the archbishop, who died in 1950, praying and leaving notes asking for wishes to be granted.


Audley End House

Audley End House () is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is a prodigy house, a palace in all but name and renowned as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England.
Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but is still large, with much to enjoy in its architectural features and varied collections. The house shares some similarities with Hatfield House, except that it is stone-clad as opposed to brick. It is currently in the stewardship of English Heritage and long remained the family seat of the Barons Braybrooke. Audley End railway station is named after the house.
History.
Audley End was the site of Walden Abbey, a Benedictine monastery that was dissolved and granted to the Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas Audley in 1538 by Henry VIII. The abbey was converted to a domestic house for him and was known as Audley Inn.
The house was a key stop during Elizabeth I's Summer Progress of 1578. The progress was to be, like her progresses to Cambridge and Oxford in 1564 and 1566, filled with scholarship, learned debates, and theatrical diversions. Writers and scholars from nearby Cambridge University used the occasion to write papers and speeches. One of these was Gabriel Harvey who by 1578 had been appointed professor of rhetoric at Cambridge. For the Audley End presentations, Harvey had prepared a series of lectures to be delivered to prominent members of the court in attendance with the Queen. Among them was the Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, to whom Harvey wrote:
"For a long time past Phoebus Apollo has cultivated thy mind in the arts. English poetical measures have been sung by thee long enough. Let that courtly epistle—more polished than even the writings of Castiglione himself— witness how greatly thou dost excel in letters. I have seen many Latin verses of thine; yea, even more English verses are extant. Thou hast drunk deep drafts not only of the muses of France and Italy but hast learned the manners of many men, and the arts of foreign countries. It was not for nothing that Sturmius himself was visited by thee. Neither in France, Italy, nor Germany are any such cultivated and polished men.<br>
O thou hero worthy of renown, throw away the insignificant pen, throw away bloodless books and writings that serve no useful purpose. Now must the sword be brought into play. Now is the time for thee to sharpen the spear and to handle the great engines of war. What if suddenly a most powerful enemy [Spain] should invade our borders? If the Turk should be arming his savage hosts against us? What though the terrible war trumpet is even now sounding its blast? Thou wilt see it all. Even at this very moment thou art fiercely longing for the fray. I feel it. Our whole country knows it. In thy breast is noble blood. Courage animates thy brow, Mars lives in thy tongue, Minerva strengthens thy right hand, Bellona reigns in thy body, within thee burns the fire of Mars. Thine eyes flash fire, thy will shakes spears. Who would not swear that Achilles had come to life again?"
The reference to the Earl's many Latin verses and even more English verses, and that "thy will shakes spears", has been put forward as a piece of evidence in the theory that the Earl was the author of the Shakespeare poetry and plays.
The House was demolished by Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk (Lord Howard de Walden and Lord Treasurer), and a much grander mansion was built, primarily for entertaining James I. The layout reflects the processional route of the king and queen, each having their own suite of rooms. It is reputed that Thomas Howard told King James he had spent some £200,000 creating this grand house, and it may be that the king had unwittingly contributed. In 1619, Suffolk and his wife were found guilty of embezzlement and sent to the Tower of London but a huge fine secured their release. Suffolk died in disgrace at Audley End in 1626.
Noted English naval office bureaucrat and diarist Samuel Pepys visited Audley End and described it his diary entry for 8 October 1667. At this time, the house was on the scale of a great royal palace, and became one when Charles II bought it in 1668 for £50,000 for use as a home when attending the races at Newmarket. It was returned to the Suffolks in 1701.
Over the next century Sir John Vanbrugh was commissioned to work on the site and parts of the house were gradually demolished until it was reduced to its current size. The main structure has remained little altered since the main front court was demolished in 1708 and the east wing came down in 1753.
Sir John Griffin, fourth Baron Howard de Walden and first Baron Braybrooke, introduced sweeping changes before he died in 1797. In 1762, he commissioned Capability Brown to landscape the parkland, and Robert Adam to design new reception rooms on the house's ground floor in the neoclassical style of the 18th century with a formal grandeur.
Richard Griffin, 3rd Baron Braybrooke, who inherited the house and title in 1825, installed most of the house's huge picture collection, filled the rooms with furnishings, and reinstated something of the original Jacobean feel to the state rooms.
Audley End was offered to the government during the Dunkirk evacuation but the offer was declined due to its lack of facilities. It was requisitioned in March 1941 and used as a camp by a small number of units before being turned over to the Special Operations Executive. The SOE used the house as a general holding camp before using it for its Polish branch. Designated Special Training School 43 (STS 43), it was a base for the Cichociemni. A war memorial to the 108 Poles who died in the service stands in the main drive; the Polish SOE War Memorial, unveiled on 20 June 1983, was Grade II listed in 2018.
After the war, the ninth Lord Braybrooke resumed possession. In 1948 the house was sold to the Ministry of Works, the predecessor of English Heritage.
Gardens and grounds.
The Capability Brown parkland includes many of the neo-classical monuments, although some are not in the care of English Heritage. The grounds are divided by the River Granta, which is crossed by several ornate bridges one of which features on the back cover of the BBC Gardeners' World Through the Years book, and a main road which follows the route of a Roman road.
With help from an 1877 garden plan and William Cresswell's journal from 1874, the walled kitchen garden was restored by Garden Organic in 1999 from an overgrown, semi-derelict state. Completed in 2000, it was opened by Prince Charles and features in a book presented to him on his wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles. It now looks as it would have done in late Victorian times; full of vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers which have been supplied to the Dorchester Hotel. It now boasts 120 apple, 60 pear and 40 tomato varieties.
Paintings.
The house contains a number of paintings, many still the property of the Braybrooke family.
Media appearances.
The house and grounds have been used in popular television and radio shows, including "Flog It!", "Antiques Roadshow" and "Gardeners' Question Time".
The exteriors and gardens were also used for the 1964 feature film "Woman of Straw" starring Gina Lollobrigida, Sean Connery and Ralph Richardson.
During 2017, scenes were filmed at Audley End for "Trust" produced by Danny Boyle and based on the life of John Paul Getty III. On 7 September 2018, scenes were shot for "The Crown". Previously, interior shots of the Library and Great Hall had been used to portray rooms in Balmoral Castle, Windsor Castle and Eton College.
Audley End appears in a popular series of videos on English Heritage's YouTube channel featuring the character of Mrs Crocombe, head cook at the house during the 1880s.


Glencoe station (Ontario)

Glencoe railway station in Glencoe, Ontario, Canada is serviced by Via Rail trains operating between Toronto and Windsor. The station is wheelchair-accessible.
History.
The original station was built in 1854 as a stop on the Great Western Railway. Two years later the log structure was replaced (1856) and then again in 1900 by the Wabash-Grand Trunk Railway due to demands on the busy station.
The 1904, the sixth and present station was built using Queen Anne Revival architecture.
The Glencoe Station has been restored to pristine condition. Inside the building is a metal ceiling with pine trim. The ladies waiting room is on the east end with the men's waiting room on the west end. It was proper in at the time the station was built that single men were required to wait in a separate room from ladies and families. Also in the west end was the baggage facilities with the station master's office located in the centre.
In 2010, the Glencoe Railway Station was inducted into the North America Railway Hall of Fame in the category of "Facilities and Structures: National" for having made significant contributions or achievements relating to the railway industry.


Milner Pass Road Camp Mess Hall and House

The Milner Pass Road Camp Mess Hall and House was built in 1926 was built to support construction crews working on the new Trail Ridge Road in the vicinity of Milner Pass in Rocky Mountain National Park in 1926. The log structure was designed by Daniel Ray Hull of the National Park Service and represents one of the earliest examples of the National Park Service rustic style in the park. The interior is divided into three rooms. Its original use was as a dining facility and residence for Park Service personnel.
The Milner Pass Mess Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 20, 1987.


Higgins Block (Lexington, Kentucky)

The Higgins Block, also known as the Fayette Cigar Store, in Lexington, Kentucky, is a 3-story brick building designed by John McMurtry and constructed in 1872. The cast iron, Italianate facade originally contained five storefronts on West Main Street, each with three window bays. The surviving 2-storefront building is a remnant of the original commercial block, shortened in 1912 when construction of the Fayette National Bank Building required demolition of part of the Higgins Block. The remains of the Higgins Block were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
A public auction of the east 18-foot exposure of the Higgins Block was held in 1900 to divide the estate of the Higgins family, and the sale may have helped to preserve what is left of the building.
John Allen Higgins (1831-1880) was a planter who owned a farm near Lexington and a plantation in Arkansas. He was a son of Joel Higgins (1802-1859) and lived at Lexington's Higgins Mansion (1837-2017) until his death.


Embassy of Germany, Saint Petersburg

The former Embassy of Germany in Saint Petersburg is considered the earliest and most influential example of Stripped Classicism. It was built to house the diplomatic mission of the German Empire in Saint Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire. After the relocation by the Bolsheviks of the Soviet capital from Petrograd (as Saint Petersburg was then known) to Moscow, it served as a consulate of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. Located at 11/41 Saint Isaac's Square () in the Tsentralny District of Saint Petersburg, the building now houses the offices of two Russian government agencies.
History of the site.
In the 1740s a two-storey building was erected by Nikita Shestakov on the site which is today at 11/41 Saint Isaac's Square. In 1743 Shestakov sold the building to merchant Fedot Stepanov and from the 1760s to 1812 it was owned by a jeweller to the court of the Russian Empire. From 1815-1820, renowned Russian architect Vasily Stasov redesigned the house in the Empire style common in Russia during this period.
In 1832, General-Adjutant Pavel Konstantinovich Aleksandrov, the illegitimate son of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, purchased the building and lived there with his wife Anna Alexandrovna. The couple regularly held balls in the residence, with frequent visitors including Alexander Pushkin. The house was passed onto their daughter, Princess Alexandra Pavlovna Lvova, wife of Prince Dmitry Aleksandrovich Lvov, and between 1870–1871 the facade of the building was designed in Eclectic style by Ferdinand Müller.
German Embassy.
In 1873, the German Ambassador declared an intention to acquire the building from Princess Lvova and the building was bought by the German Empire for housing the German Embassy to the Russian Empire that same year. The Germans commissioned architect Rudolf Bernhard to redecorate the buildings interiors, and in 1889 Ivan Schlupp redesigned the building by adding a second floor over a part of the facade on Bolshaya Morskaya Street.
In 1911–1913 the building was again redesigned, this time in Neoclassical style by German architect Peter Behrens, as a grandiose monument the power of a unified Germany. Behrens' design, which Albert Speer reported Adolf Hitler admired, saw the facade of the building being built in red granite, the frontispiece, reminiscent of Ancient Greek architecture, was completed with 14 columns, and decorated with pilasters. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe served as construction manager on the project, and sculptor Eberhard Enke created the Castor and Pollux sculpture, symbolising the reunion of the German nation, which adorned the tympanum. Other prominent German masters created paintings, sculptures and fretwork to adorn the building. The Embassy building was officially opened on 14 January 1913.
The artistic community in Saint Petersburg held negative opinions of the building, with prominent members of the community, Alexandre Benois, Nikolay Wrangel and Georgy Lukomsky, criticising the Teutonic style of the building as being hostile to the architectural style of the city, and due to it differing greatly from the Russian neoclassical revival style.
It was rumoured at the time that the Embassy was linked to the German–owned Hotel Astoria via a tunnel, and on 1–2 August 1914, after Germany declared war on Russia, crowds stormed the building as anti-German sentiment took hold in the city. The building sustained considerable damage, with crowds torching the throne room of Kaiser Wilhelm II, destroying Greek and Italian art work and a collection of Sèvres porcelain. The Dioskouroi sculpture from the roof disappeared during this time, and rumours abounded that it was dumped in the Moika River by the crowd, however, researchers have been unable to find any fragments of the sculpture in the river.
After the war, the Germans returned to the city in 1922, at the time known as Petrograd, and operated a consulate from the building, representing the Weimar Republic and later Nazi Germany, until 1939. During the Siege of Leningrad, the Red Army operated a hospital in the premises, and after the Great Patriotic War it housed the Institute of Semiconductor Physics. Later tenants of the building have included Intourist, Dresdner Bank and the Committee for the Management of City Property of the Saint Petersburg City Administration (). Today the building houses the Administration Board of the Ministry of Justice and the Chief Technical Commission to the President of the Russian Federation for the Northwestern Federal District.
Restoration of the building began in 2001, and with the support of Rossvyazokhrankultura and Governor Valentina Matvienko, in a project estimated at 170 million rubles, a group of restorers led by OOO «StroyTREST» are planning to recreate the Dioskouroi sculpture for placement on the tympanum of the building. Plans have been in the works for several years to replace the sculpture, and the warm relations between Russia and Germany have created the right political atmosphere for the restoration of the building to its former glory.


Colliers Wood tube station

Colliers Wood is a London Underground station in South London. The station is on the Northern line, between and stations. It is located at the corner of Merton High Street (A24) and Christchurch Road. The station is in Travelcard Zone 3.
History.
The station was opened on 13 September 1926 as part of the Morden extension of the City & South London Railway south from Clapham Common.
Along with the other stations on the Morden extension, the building was designed by architect Charles Holden. They were Holden's first major project for the Underground. He was selected by Frank Pick, general manager of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), to design the stations after he was dissatisfied with designs produced by the UERL's own architect, Stanley Heaps. Built with a shop to each side, the modernist design takes the form of a double-height three-sided box clad in white Portland stone with a three-part glazed screen on the front façade divided by columns of which the capitals are three-dimensional versions of the Underground roundel. The central panel of the screen contains a large version of the roundel. The station is a Grade II listed building.
The station is close to Merton Bus garage which opened in 1913. The public house across the road is named "The Charles Holden" in honour of the station's architect.
Connections.
London Bus routes 57, 131, 152, 200, 219, 470 and night route N155 serves the station.


Lyme Park

Lyme Park is a large estate located south of Disley, Cheshire. The estate is managed by the National Trust and consists of a mansion house surrounded by formal gardens, in a deer park in the Peak District National Park. The house is the largest in Cheshire, and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
The estate was granted to Sir Thomas Danyers in 1346 and passed to the Leghs of Lyme by marriage in 1388. It remained in the possession of the Legh family until 1946 when it was given to the National Trust. The house dates from the latter part of the 16th century. Modifications were made to it in the 1720s by Giacomo Leoni, who retained some of the Elizabethan features and added others, particularly the courtyard and the south range. It is difficult to classify Leoni's work at Lyme, as it contains elements of both Palladian and Baroque styles. Further modifications were made by Lewis Wyatt in the 19th century, especially to the interior. Formal gardens were created and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The house, gardens and park have been used as locations for filming and they are open to the public. The Lyme Caxton Missal is on display in the Library.
History.
The land now occupied by Lyme Park was granted to Piers Legh and his wife Margaret D'anyers, by letters patent dated January 4, 1398, by Richard II, son of the Black Prince. Margaret D'anyers' grandfather, Sir Thomas D'anyers, had taken part in retrieving the standard of the Black Prince at the Battle of Crécy in 1346, and was rewarded with annuity of 40 marks a year by the Black Prince, drawn on his Cheshire estate, and which could be exchanged for land of that value belonging to the Black Prince. Sir Thomas died in 1354, and the annuity passed to his nearest surviving kin, his granddaughter Margaret, who in 1388 married the first Piers Legh (Piers Legh I). Richard II favoured Piers and granted his family a coat of arms in 1397, and the estate of Lyme Handley in 1398 redeeming the annuity. However, Piers was executed two years later by Richard's rival for the throne, Henry Bolingbroke.
When in 1415 Sir Piers Legh II was wounded in the Battle of Agincourt, his mastiff stood over and protected him for many hours through the battle. The mastiff was later returned to Legh's home and was the foundation of the Lyme Hall Mastiffs. They were bred at the hall and kept separate from other strains, figuring prominently in founding the modern breed. The strain died out around the beginning of the 20th century.
The first record of a house on the site is in a manuscript folio dated 1465, but that house was demolished when construction of the present building began during the life of Piers Legh VII, in the middle of the 16th century. This house, by an unknown designer, was L-shaped in plan with east and north ranges; piecemeal additions were made to it during the 17th century. In the 1720s Giacomo Leoni, an architect from Venice, added a south range to the house creating a courtyard plan, and made other changes. While he retained some of its Elizabethan features, many of his changes were in a mixture of Palladian and Baroque styles. During the latter part of the 18th century Piers Legh XIII bought most of the furniture which is in the house today. However, the family fortunes declined and the house began to deteriorate. In the early 19th century the estate was owned by Thomas Legh, who commissioned Lewis Wyatt to restore the house between 1816 and 1822. Wyatt's alterations were mainly to the interior, where he remodelled every room. Leoni had intended to add a cupola to the south range but this never materialised. Instead, Wyatt added a tower-like structure (a hamper) to provide bedrooms for the servants. He also added a one-storey block to the east range, containing a dining-room. Later in the century William Legh, 1st Baron Newton, added stables and other buildings to the estate, and created the Dutch Garden. Further alterations were made to the gardens by Thomas Legh, 2nd Baron Newton and his wife during the early 20th century. During the Second World War, the park was used as an RAF lorry depot. In 1946 Richard Legh, 3rd Baron Newton, gave Lyme Park to the National Trust. From 1947 the estate was managed by Stockport Corporation and its successor Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council until 1994 when the National Trust took direct control.
House.
Exterior.
The house is the largest in Cheshire, measuring overall by round a courtyard plan. The older part is built in coursed, squared buff sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings; the later work is in ashlar sandstone. The whole house has a roof of Welsh slates. The symmetrical north face is of 15 bays in three storeys; its central bay consists of a slightly protruding gateway. The arched doorway in this bay has Doric columns with a niche on each side. Above the doorway are three more Doric columns with a pediment, and above this are three further columns. Over all this are four further columns with an open pediment bearing an image of Minerva. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner referred to this gateway as "the craziest Elizabethan frontispiece". The endmost three bays on each side project slightly forwards. The ground floors of the three outer bays on each side are rusticated, and their upper storeys are divided by large Corinthian pilasters. The west front is also in three storeys, with nine bays, the outer two bays on each side projecting forward. The ground floor is rusticated and the upper floors are smooth.
The symmetrical 15-bay three-storey south front overlooking the pond is the work of Leoni. Although Leoni had been influenced by the works and principles of Palladio, both Pevsner and the authors of the citation in the "National Heritage List for England" agree that the design of this front is more Baroque than Palladian. The bottom storey is rusticated with arched windows, and the other storeys are smooth with rectangular windows. The middle three bays consist of a portico of which the lowest storey has three arches. Above this arise four giant fluted Ionic columns supporting a triangular pediment. Standing on the pediment are three lead statues, of Neptune, Venus and Pan. The pediment partly hides Wyatt's blind balustraded ashlar attic block. The other bays are separated by plain Ionic pilasters and the end three bays on each side protrude slightly. The nine-bay three-storey east front is mostly Elizabethan in style and has Wyatt's single-storey extension protruding from its centre. The courtyard was remodelled by Leoni, who gave it a rusticated cloister on all sides. Above the cloister the architecture differs on the four sides although all the windows on the first (piano nobile) floor have pediments. On the west side is a one-bay centrepiece with a window between two Doric pilasters; on the south and north are three windows with four similar pilasters; and on the east front is the grand entrance with a portal in a Tuscan aedicule. This entrance is between the first and second storeys and is approached by symmetrical pairs of stairs with iron balusters, which were made in 1734 by John Gardom of Baslow, Derbyshire. In the centre of the courtyard is an Italian Renaissance well-head, surrounded by chequered pink and white stone, simulating marble.
Interior.
The Entrance Hall, which is in the east range, was remodelled by Leoni. It is asymmetrical and contains giant pilasters and a screen of three fluted Ionic columns. The doorway to the courtyard has an open pediment. A hinged picture can be swung out from the wall to reveal a squint looking into the Entrance Hall. Also in the Entrance Hall are tapestries which were woven at the Mortlake Tapestry Works between 1623 and 1636. They were originally in the Leghs' London home in Belgrave Square and were moved to Lyme in 1903. In order to accommodate them, the interior decorator, Amadée Joubert, had to make alterations, including the removal of a tabernacle and cutting out four of the pilasters. To the south of the Entrance Hall is the Library, and to the east is Wyatt's Dining Room, which has a stucco ceiling and a carved overmantel both in a late 17th-century style, as well as a frieze. The decoration of this room is considered to be a rare early example of the Wrenaissance style.
To the north of the Entrance Hall are the two principal Elizabethan rooms, the Drawing Room and the Stag Parlour. The Drawing Room is panelled with intersecting arches above which is a marquetry frieze. The ceiling has studded bands, strapwork cartouches and a broad frieze. Over the fireplace is a large stone overmantel, which is decorated with pairs of atlantes and caryatids framing the arms of Elizabeth I. The stained glass in this room includes medieval glass that was moved from the original Lyme Hall to Disley Church and returned to Lyme in 1835. The Stag Parlour has a chimneypiece depicting an Elizabethan house and hunting scenes, and it includes the arms of James I. The other Elizabethan rooms in the house are the Stone Parlour on the ground floor, and the Long Gallery, which is on the top floor of the east range. The Long Gallery also has a chimneypiece with the arms of Elizabeth I. The Grand Staircase dates from the remodelling by Leoni and it has a Baroque ceiling. The Saloon is on the first floor of the south range, behind the portico. Its ceiling is decorated in rococo style, and the room contains wooden carvings that have been attributed to Grinling Gibbons. The Chapel, in the northeast corner of the ground floor, also contains detailed carvings.
Lyme Caxton Missal.
This missal had been owned by the Legh family since at least 1508. It is the only known nearly complete copy of the earliest edition of a missal according to the Sarum Rite still in existence. When the family moved from the house in 1946, the missal went with them, and was held for safe-keeping in the John Rylands Library in Manchester. In the late 2000s the National Trust acquired it, and it was decided to return it to Lyme Park. To celebrate this the décor of the library was restored to the way it had been during the 19th century. This included re-graining of its ceiling, reproducing velvet for the upholstery and curtains, and re-papering the room with replica wallpaper, based on its original design.
Grounds.
The house is surrounded by formal gardens of in a deer park of about which are listed at Grade II* in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. In the gardens and deer park are a number of structures.
Gardens.
To the west of the house is the former mill pond. From the south side a lawn slopes down to another pond beyond which is a small ravine with a stone bridge, this area being known as "Killtime". To the west of the lawn is the sunken Dutch Garden, which was created by William Legh. It consists of formal flower beds with a central fountain. To the west, south and east of the orangery are further formal flower gardens, including rose gardens.
Deer park.
The park was enclosed in the 14th century by Piers Legh I. In the 17th century Richard Legh planted avenues of sycamore and lime trees. Richard's son, Peter Legh XII carried out more extensive tree-planting in the park, giving it its current appearance. Red deer descended from the original deer present when the park was enclosed graze in the grounds, as do Highland cattle. Formerly an unusual breed of wild white cattle with red ears grazed in the park but they became extinct in 1884.
Sheep also graze in the park. The Gritstone Trail and the Peak District Boundary Walk long-distance footpaths both cross the park.
Structures.
The most obvious structure in the park, other than the house, is a tower called the Cage which stands on a hill to the east of the approach road to the house (). It was originally a hunting lodge and was later used as a park-keeper's cottage and as a lock-up for prisoners. The first structure on the site was built about 1580; this was taken down and rebuilt in 1737, possibly to a design by Leoni for Peter Legh X. The tower is built in buff sandstone rubble with ashlar sandstone dressings. It is square in plan, in three storeys, with attached small square towers surmounted by cupolas at the corners. The Cage is a Grade II* listed building. Also in the park is the Paddock Cottage which was erected by Peter Legh IX and restored in the early 21st century. To the east of this are the remains of the Stag House (). To the left of the house in Lantern Wood is a belvedere known as the Lantern (). It is built in sandstone and has three storeys and a spire; the lowest storey is square in plan while the other storeys and the spire are octagonal. The top storey and spire date from about 1580 and originally formed a bellcote on the north gatehouse. This was removed during the restoration of the house by Wyatt and rebuilt on the present site. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Immediately to the northeast of the house is the Orangery which was designed in 1862 by Alfred Darbyshire. The Orangery is joined to the house by a covered passage known as the Dark Passage. This was designed by Wyatt for Sir Thomas Legh in 1815 and is a Grade II listed building. Further from the house, to the northeast of the orangery, are the stables (). These are dated 1863 and were also designed by Darbyshire. They are built in sandstone on a courtyard plan and are listed at Grade II. Other structures in the grounds listed at Grade II are the Pheasant House dating from about 1870, an Italian white marble wellhead in the centre of the courtyard of the house dating from the 18th century and probably brought to the house from Venice in about 1900, sandstone kennels in an H-plan dating from around 1870, a pair of gardener's cottages dated 1871, terrace revetment walls to the west of the house containing some 17th-century masonry with later repairs, the lodge, gate piers and gates on Lyme Park Drive, the forward gatepiers to Lyme Park Drive, dating from the late 17th century and moved to their present position about 1860, the gate piers in Red Lane, and the gate piers, gates and railings to the north of the north front of the house.
Preservation.
Lyme Park is owned and administered by the National Trust. The house, garden and park are open to the public at advertised hours. An entrance fee to the house, garden and park is payable by non-members of the National Trust. In the grounds are shops, a refreshment kiosk, a coffee shop and a restaurant. The Lyme Caxton Missal is on display in the library. Associated with it is an interactive audio-visual display with a touch-screen facility to enable pages of the book to be "turned", and chants from the missal to be sung as they would have been 500 years ago. Events are held in the park. The Bowmen of Lyme use the park for archery.
Lyme Park and its hall have been used in several films and television programmes. The exterior of the hall was used as Pemberley, the seat of Mr Darcy, in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice", and as a location for the "Red Dwarf" episode "Timeslides". It was also used as a location in the 2011 film "The Awakening" and in the second series of "The Village" in 2014.
In August 2019, the park was hit by severe flooding and was evacuated. Though staff attempted to rescue antiques and collectables, a large section of the garden was washed away.
References.
Bibliography


Beal-Burrow Dry Goods Building

The Beal-Burrow Dry Goods Building is a historic commercial building at 107 East Markham Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is a seven-story concrete frame structure, finished in brick. Its main entrance is recessed at the center of its main facade, richly decorated in stone. The roof cornice is pressed metal, and paneled medallions punctuate the banding between the first and second floors. The building was probably designed by Arkansas architect Charles L. Thompson, for the Beal-Burrow Company, a wholesaler of dry goods.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.


Patti Pavilion

The Patti Pavilion is a venue for the performing arts in Swansea, Wales, located at Victoria Park to the south west of Swansea City Centre. The theatre stages plays, pantomimes, musical shows and fairs.
The venue is named after Adelina Patti, the great 19th-century opera soprano. The building was originally sited in her winter garden at Craig-y-Nos estate. Patti donated the building to the City of Swansea in 1918 and it was relocated to Victoria Park. It is a Grade II listed building.
In 1994, it was given a superficial makeover by the BBC's "Challenge Anneka". Already falling into disrepair, the building was further damaged by a suspected arson attack in 2006 The pavilion underwent a major £3m overhaul in 2009 after it became clear that it was not being utilised to its full potential. The project was funded by the City & County of Swansea. Work began in late 2007 to extend the Patti Pavilion with a new glass covered wing housing an Indian restaurant; Patti Raj.


Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art

The Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape () is an extensive assembly of historical rock art that were painted on limestone cliff faces in Guangxi, southern China. The paintings are located on the west bank of the Ming River () which is a tributary of the Zuo River. The area of the paintings is part of the Nonggang Nature Reserve and belongs to Ningming County. On July 15, 2016, Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape was listed as the 49th UNESCO World Heritage Site in China.
The main painted area along the cliff has a width of about and a height of about and is one of the largest rock paintings in China. The paintings are located between and above the river's water level. The main area contains about 1900 discrete countable images arranged in about 110 groups. The paintings have a red color and were executed using a mixture of red ochre (hematite), animal glue, and blood. They depict human figures as well as animals along with bronze drums, knives, swords, bells, and ships. Human figures are typically between and tall, but one figure reaches in height.
The painting's were originally thought to date from the period around the 5th century BCE, to the 2nd century CE. However, recent carbon dating suggests that the oldest paintings were executed around 16,000 years ago. Whereas the youngest are around 690 years old. The period of their creations spans the times from the Warring States period to the late Han Dynasty in the history of China. Many of the paintings are thought to "illustrate the life and rituals" of the ancient Luo Yue people, who are believed to be ancestors of the present-day Zhuang people and inhabited the valley of Zuo River during this period.
An exhibition in the Zhuang Nationality Museum in the City of Chongzuo () is dedicated to the history and interpretation of the paintings.


Tancredo Neves Pantheon of the Fatherland and Freedom

The Tancredo Neves Pantheon of the Fatherland and Freedom () is a cenotaph in the Brazilian capital Brasília, dedicated to the honour of national heroes. It was conceived during the national shock following the death in 1985 of Tancredo Neves, the first elected civilian president after twenty years of military rule.
Unlike other national pantheons it is not a mausoleum and does not contain any tombs.
It is located in the Praça dos Três Poderes in Brasilia. It was designed by Oscar Niemeyer as a modernist building symbolizing a dove. It has three floors with a total area of . The foundation stone was laid by French President François Mitterrand on 15 October 1985.
The exhibition area, entirely dedicated to Tancredo Neves, was reopened in 2013. It includes copies of documents, films by Silvio Tendler and interactive technologies.
The names of those honoured can be found in the "Livro de Aço" (Book of Steel), also called the "Livro dos Heróis da Pátria" (Book of National Heroes). This is housed on the third floor between the "Painel da inconfidência", a sculpture in honour of the martyrs of nineteenth-century uprising in Minas Gerais and the stained glass by Marianne Peretti. Each time a new name and biography is entered into its metal pages a ceremony in memory of the honouree is celebrated.
The building.
The Pantheon of Motherland and Freedom, Tancredo Neves in the Praça dos Tres Poderes in Brasilia was designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1985.
Its foundation stone was laid by French President François Mitterrand on 15 October 1985 and the Pantheon was inaugurated on 7 September 1986.
The Pantheon has three floors with a total area of . Inside in the Red Hall is the Mural of Freedom by Athos Bulcão.
On the third floor is stained glass by Marianne Peretti, who also designed the glass for the Cathedral of Our Lady Aparecida in Brasilia.
On the outside, on top of a tower built on the diagonal, burns an eternal flame which represents the freedom of the people and the country's independence.
The Pantheon was listed in 2007 by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage along with 34 other works of the then 100-year-old Oscar Niemeyer.
Honourees.
Unlike other pantheons there are no tombs of any of the honoured. Their names and biographies are contained in the "Livro de Aço" (Book of Steel). The current names are:
The building also houses two sculptures honouring the martyrs of the Inconfidência Mineira. The first, entitled the Liberty Wall, was created by Athos Bulcão and is located on the second floor in the Red Hall. It consists of three modular walls, each measuring long by high, forming the triangular symbol of the movement. The second, entitled the Inconfidência Mineira panel was created by John Hall and Son is located on the third floor. It consists of seven panels, each illustrating a phase of the Inconfidência and culminating in the torture of Tiradentes.


Fire House No. 2 (Billings, Montana)

The Fire House No. 2 in Billings, Montana, at 201 E. 30th St., was built in 1911. It has also been known as the South Side Fire Station. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
It is Prairie School in style with ornamentation in abstracted Greek Revival style. It is a two-story red brick building with a full basement. On its second floor it included an apartment for the fire chief and residence for the firemen.


Wuzhen

Wuzhen (, Wu: Whu-tsen "Wu Town") is a historic scenic town, part of Tongxiang, located in the north of Zhejiang Province, China.
It lies within the triangle formed by Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai. Covering an area of , Wuzhen has a total population of 60,000, of which 12,000 are permanent residents.
Wuzhen has been the permanent host place of the annual World Internet Conference, an international Internet conference held in China, since 2014.
Location.
Located in the centre of the six ancient towns south of the Yangtze River, north of the city of Tongxiang, Wuzhen displays its history through its ancient stone bridges, stone pathways and delicate wood carvings.
Town layout.
Wuzhen is divided into six districts. These are: the traditional workshops district, the traditional local-styled dwelling houses district, the traditional culture district, the traditional food and beverage district, the traditional shops and stores district, and the water township customs and life district. Following an east-west-east circuit created by these six districts, visitors can witness reenactment of traditional practices and cultures.
Former residence of Mao Dun.
Originally built in the mid 19th century and covering a total area of , the former residence of Mao Dun, was the Mao family home for many generations. In 1984, the building was renovated and extended to cover a total area of , opening to the public one year later. In 1988, it was listed as one of the Key State Preserved Relic Units and in 1994 was renamed the Mao Dun Museum of the City of Tongxiang. The house has three exhibition areas: 'Wuzhen, the Hometown of Mao Dun', 'the Way of Mao Dun', and 'the Former Residence of Mao Dun (renovated)'. The present Mao Dun Museum lies to the east of the residence, which was formerly the Lizhi Shuyuan (Aspiration Academy) where Mao Dun spent his early school years.
Former residence of Mu Xin.
This house is located at 186 Caishenwan, Dongzha, where Muxin spent his childhood until the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1950, Muxin's mother was obliged to donate this house to the local government, and it was later used as a standard and metric Fastener factory. In 1999, the local government renovated this house and returned it to Muxin. Muxin lived in it until he passed away in 2011.
Mu Xin Art Museum.
Designed by a pupil of the famous Chinese architecture designer Ieoh Ming Pei in July 2011 and opened for tourist in November 2015, Mu Xin Art Museum is located in Xizha, Wuzhen.
Fanglu Pavilion (Pavilion of Visits to Lu).
The Fanglu Pavilion obtained its name from an accidental meeting between Lu Tong, the owner, and Lu Yu, the Patron Saint of Tea, during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It is said that Lu Yu once mistakenly ate some poisonous leaves and was rescued by Lu Tong, who happened to collect tea leaves at that time. In return, Lu Yu taught Lu Tong knowledge of tea and tea-making skills, which resulted in the prosperity of Lu Tong's teahouse. At the suggestion of one guest, Lu Tong changed the establishment's name to the "Pavilion of Visits to Lu", in memory of this respected scholar. Located to the south of Ying Bridge and backing onto the city river, the teahouse enjoys a broad view of Guanqian Street.
Bridge within a bridge.
The "Bridge within a Bridge" is a scenic attraction created by two ancient bridges, the Tongji Bridge which crosses the river from east to west and the Renji Bridge running from south to north that joins the former at one end. Either of two bridges can be seen through the arch of the other, hence the name. Having been rebuilt five times, Tongji Bridge is a and one-curvature arch bridge, with a span of . Renji Bridge, which has also undergone repairs during its history, has a length of , a width of and a span of .
Demonstration in the traditional workshops district display traditional crafts as the printing and dyeing of blue printed fabrics, the primitive techniques of cloth shoe making and tobacco-planing. Visitors may operate the machines to get an idea of how the original work was carried out over 200 years ago. The local houses here are decorated with carved wooden and stone doors and windows.
Art Wuzhen or Wuzhen Contemporary Art Exhibition.
Art Wuzhen (full title: Wuzhen Contemporary Art Exhibition) is organized by Cultural Wuzhen Co., Ltd. The exhibition was initiated by Chen Xianghong (President of Wuzhen Tourism Co.) and launched in 2016. Both the 2016 and 2019 editions were curated by chief curator Feng Boyi, and curators Wang Xiaosong and Liu Gang. The aim of the exhibition is to link global contemporary art with Wuzhen’s distinctive cultural landscape. The exhibition takes places across multiple indoor and outdoor locations in Wuzhen, including The North Silk Factory, Rice Barn and The West Scenic Zone.
In 2016 artists included: Martin Parr, Kiki Smith, Bill Viola, Marina Abramovic, Ai WeiWei, Araki Nobuyoshi, Ann Hamilton, Antti Laitinen, Maya Ying Lin and Damien Hirst. In 2019 for the exhibition titled 'Now is the Time' there were over 50 exhibiting artists including: James Beckett, Cheng Sung-Chih, Children of the Light, Rineke Dijkstra, Humans since 1982, Lee Bul, Anish Kapoor, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Amalia Ulman, Julian Opie, Yang Fudong, Zimoun.


Seattle Chinese Garden

The Seattle Chinese Garden () is located on at the north end of the South Seattle Community College campus at 6000 16th Avenue SW, in West Seattle. The site has a panoramic view of downtown Seattle, Washington, Elliott Bay and the Cascade Mountains, including Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier. The first portion of the garden opened in the early 1990s.
History and attributes.
When fully built, the garden will be one of the largest Chinese gardens outside of China. Designed and built in conjunction with architects and artisans from Seattle and its sister city, Chongqing, the garden will is the first in the United States to authentically represent the Sichuan style. The Garden features Sichuan horticulture and the rock formations inspired by China's Yangtze River gorges. Where possible, its formal halls and pavilions were fabricated in Chongqing using traditional materials and methods, and artisans from China supervised their installation in Seattle.
The Garden is being constructed in phases. The first phase, the Pine and Plum Pavilion, was opened in the early 1990s. The "Knowing the Spring Courtyard," the second traditional structure in the Garden, was completed in the fall of 2010 and opened to the public in February 2011. In May 2011 a Grand Opening celebration was held with dignitaries from Seattle and Chongqing attending. Components for this courtyard were fabricated in Chongqing, and assembly performed by Chinese artisans from Chongqing and local contractors. The entire project was expected to be completed in 2017.
The Garden will have a range of Chinese plants and horticultural elements. There will be a palette of Chinese plants placed in an authentic Sichuan landscape design, a collection of Sichuan-style penjing (Chinese bonsai), and classes available in horticultural subjects as well as the Chinese cultural arts.
The Garden will also feature 12 buildings, including an education center and a banquet hall with special event seating for up to 200 people. The Garden's "Floating Clouds Pavilion" will soar over the Garden, placed on an axis with the Space Needle.


Public Trust Building

The Public Trust Office Building is an office building in central Wellington, New Zealand, completed in 1908. It is the only (surviving) building "made of a true New Zealand granite – from Tonga Bay in north-west Nelson." It is also believed to be New Zealand's first steel-framed office building.
History.
Design and construction.
In 1894, Government Architect John Campbell was asked to start drafting plans for the building.
It was eventually opened by Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward 36 years later on 9 June 1909. The Minister in charge of the Public Trust, Āpirana Ngata, invited a number of Members of Parliament and Wellingtonians to the opening event. The event included a lunchtime banquet, concert, and dance in the evening.
Occupation by Public Trust and Creative NZ.
The building was occupied by Public Trust from 1909 to 1982. In 1982, the Public Trust moved to a building next door.
Subsequently Creative New Zealand were the main occupiers of the building from 1985 to 2013.
In 1975 a public campaign successfully saved the building from demolition.
Period of vacancy and renovation.
Doubts about the building's future were (again) raised following the 2013 Seddon earthquake. Most of the building's tenants were evacuated following the earthquake. Creative New Zealand's Wellington office had been in the building since 1985. After the building's body corporate (Creative New Zealand; Stout Street Chambers; Julian Parsons and Reedy Holdings) commissioned an assessment by engineering firm Dunning Thornton, they decided to sell the building to a party better placed to strengthen the building.
In 2013, Wellington City councillor Andy Foster said the Public Trust building was one of the heritage buildings he would most like to see strengthened and saved.
After it was largely evacuated, the building was bought by Maurice Clark, who was labelled a "hero" for taking on one of Wellington's largest heritage strengthening projects.
From 2014 to 2015, the building was renovated and earthquake strengthened. The restoration work was undertaken by Maurice Clark's construction firm McKee Fehl with architects Warren & Mahoney. The two companies also collaborated on the restoration of Defence House across the road on Stout Street. In May 2016, the restoration won two awards at the New Zealand Institute of Architecture Awards for 'Heritage' and 'Interior Architecture'.
Post-strengthening life.
Following the strengthening of the building and its opening on 27 October 2015, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage has occupied most of the building.
A Jamie Oliver restaurant was also planned for the large downstairs room, but the venture did not proceed and alternative uses were sought. In October 2019 the large downstairs room was officially opened as an events venue called the Public Trust Hall, with capacity for 300 guests.
Heritage status.
The building is listed by Heritage New Zealand as a Category 1 historic building. When the building was first listed by Heritage New Zealand, the citation said that:
The Wellington Architecture Centre describes the building as: