Gawthorpe Hall

Gawthorpe Hall is an Elizabethan country house on the banks of the River Calder, in the civil parish of Ightenhill in the Borough of Burnley, Lancashire, England. Its estate extends into Padiham, with the Stockbridge Drive entrance situated there. Since 1953 it has been designated a grade I listed building. The hall is financed and run by the National Trust in partnership with Lancashire County Council. In 2015 the Hall was given £500,000 funding from the council for vital restoration work needed on the south and west sides of the house.
History.
Gawthorpe Hall's origins are in a pele tower, a strong fortification built by the Shuttleworths in the 14th century as a defence against invading Scots. The Shuttleworths occupied Shuttleworth Hall near Hapton from the 12th century. The diet of the family in Elizabethan times is known from their household books. The Shuttleworths bought glasses for rose water in 1589 and a "stillatory" for distillation in 1590. Most of their food was bought locally or came from their own farms, but spices were bought from London.
The new Elizabethan house at Gawthorpe was dovetailed around the pele tower from plans drawn up by Richard Shuttleworth but carried out after his death by his brother the Reverend Lawrence Shuttleworth. The foundation stone was laid on 26 August 1600. The architect is not recorded, but the house is generally attributed to Robert Smythson.
In 1604 Richard Stone, from Carr House in Bretherton, imported Irish panel boards and timber and stored 1,000 pieces in the tithe barn at Hoole until they were needed.
The mottoes of the Kay-Shuttleworths are "Prudentia et Justitia" (Prudence and Justice – Shuttleworth) and "Kynd Kynn Knawne Kepe" (Kind Friends Know and Keep – Kay). Mottoes are found in the front porch and around the top of the tower. The initials "KS", Kay-Shuttleworth occur in decoration throughout the house, on the front door and plaster roundels on the ceiling in the main dining room.
An early occupant was Colonel Richard Shuttleworth, who inherited it in about 1607 from his uncle. Colonel Shuttleworth was High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1637, Member of Parliament for Preston (1640 to 1648 and 1654 to 1659) and commander of the Parliamentarian Army of the Blackburn Hundred during the Civil War. After his death Gawthorpe was leased to tenants, the Shuttleworths preferring to live at Forcett Hall near Richmond.
After Forcett was sold the Shuttleworths returned to Gawthorpe. In 1818 barrister, Robert Shuttleworth died and his daughter Janet inherited the estate at an early age. Her mother remarried and remained at Gawthorpe to protect her inheritance. In 1842 Janet married Sir James Kay of Rochdale, who adopted the surname Kay-Shuttleworth and commissioned Sir Charles Barry to carry out restoration and improvements to the house in the 1850s. Sir James was made a baronet in 1849 and served as High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1864. Charlotte Brontë, a family friend, visited the house. In 1953 Charles Kay-Shuttleworth, 4th Baron Shuttleworth, left Gawthorpe to live at Leck Hall near Kirkby Lonsdale and in 1970, after the death of Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth, Gawthorpe was gifted to the National Trust.
The National Trust described the hall as "an Elizabethan gem in the heart of industrial Lancashire". Nicholas Cooper described the hall's plan as an early example in which the main stair is immediately accessible from the main entrance, a feature that became standard. The hall has a collection of 17th and 18th century portraits on permanent loan from the National Portrait Gallery and is notable for its textiles, collected by the last resident family member Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth, about a fifth of which are on display.
House.
Porch.
The porch was rebuilt by Sir Charles Barry in 1851 who replaced the round-headed archway over the door with a four-centred arch on columns set on raised plinths and installed a three-light mullioned window above it to create a tile-floored vestibule. A stone plaque displaying the Shuttleworth, (three weaver's shuttles) Kay and Kay-Shuttleworths arms carved by Thomas Hurdeys in 1605 was retained. The Kay motto was inscribed on the outside of the door lintel and the Shuttleworth's on the inside. The door's decorative ironwork was designed by Pugin and made by Hardman's of Birmingham in 1851 at a cost of £17 1s 6d. The interior is decorated with a carved stone panel bearing Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth's arms and two ceremonial sheriff's javelins and a black oak sword-chest dated to about 1500.
Entrance hall.
The entrance hall was extended at its east end and reordered when the 17th-century mezzanine bedroom, a low-ceilinged pantry and the buttery were removed in the 1850s. The fireplace's stone over-mantel was used in the vestibule. The fireplace was given a marble surround, incorporating family initials in 1856 and an iron grate with lions-head dampers was supplied in 1852. A Renaissance-style panelled and arcaded openwork wooden screen was constructed in 1851 by William Horne. Oak panelling was installed framing two internal windows between which is a Jacobean panel and above it was a gallery for family portraits.
An Edwardian photograph shows the hall with a billiard table, upholstered bobbin-turned chairs, two wicker chairs and a Glastonbury armchair. The entrance hall was converted into a kitchen in 1945. The archway blocked, the screen dismantled, panelling removed and an internal window made into a serving hatch. Only the fireplace and geometrical ceiling were left intact. The room was later made into a study. In 1986 the screen was reconstructed, surviving woodwork re-installed and missing pieces re-carved and some stonework was repaired.
Portraits from the mid 17th century, include four on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, commemorating Roundheads imprisoned in Windsor Castle. There are portraits of Lord and Lady Derby, and of their contemporaries. Furniture includes a hutch cupboard inlaid with holly and bog oak from 1630 on a late 17th-century cupboard, two panel-back carved armchairs and a blanket chest. An ornate eight-day bracket clock from about 1725 is signed by Louis Mynuel.
Great Hall.
The 17th-century Great Hall was used for formal dinners, performing plays, music and dancing and from 1816 became the family dining room. It was refurnished after restoration by Barry in 1852. Its galleried entrance screen was built by Thomas Hurdeys, Hugh Sandes and Cornelius Towndley in 1604-05. Above its doorways is the date 1605 and the initials of Hugh Shuttleworth and his sons Richard, Lawrence and Thomas. By 1850 the gallery was unsafe and shored up with pillars. An 18th-century over-mantel mirror, from the drawing room, was cut up to provide panels. Barry's 1851 carved stone chimney piece is superimposed on a wider 17th-century fireplace with an elliptical arch. Its sides are concealed with oak panelling and wall benches. The over-mantel has the Kay-Shuttleworth coat of arms, flanked by shields of Shuttleworth, Kay, and their wives – Fleetwood Barton, Jane Kirke, Catherine Clark and Mary Holden. The cast-iron fire grate and andirons were made in 1852 and the encaustic tiles in 1880.
Barry intended to retain its 1605 plaster ceiling but replaced it with a design reproducing the old pattern in an enriched form. In May 1852 red flock wallpaper designed to simulate 16th-century Italian velvets was supplied from J. G. Crace & Co. It survived until the 1960s and in 1987 new wallpaper was reprinted from the original "Rutland blocks", using distempered colours. Wool and silk brocade curtains by Crace have a pattern based on 15th-century Italian figured silk velvets devised by Pugin in 1844.
An 1850s Renaissance-style trestle table was supplied by Crace. Two alabaster models by G Andreoni of Pisa representing the Baptistry and church of Santa Maria della Spina were purchased by Blanche Kay-Shuttleworth in about 1880. An oak dining table with turned legs was made in 1881 by Gillows of Lancaster and the twist-turned oak dining chairs may also be by them. A carved oak Charles II armchair is one of a pair made in Yorkshire in 1808 with seat panels in petit point floral work. The trestle fire screen has an embroidered panel. The mid-19th-century Feraghan carpet is of the same date, style and manufacture as one shown in N. F. Green's 1884 watercolour.
The hall contains portraits of Sir Thomas Aylesbury painted in about 1642 by William Dobson, James Harrington and Nathaniel Highmore.
Drawing Room.
Robert Shuttleworth changed the medieval "dyning chamber" into a drawing room retaining its Jacobean panelling and plasterwork. The Italian Renaissance-style inlaid panelling with arabesques in semicircular arcading by the craftsmen who made the entrance screen, was started in 1603 and took a year to complete. The panelling's cornice supports a frieze and ceiling by Francis and Thomas Gunby. The frieze's contains a grotesque in which human, half-human and animal figures are entwined with fruiting stems and foliage. The ceiling is decorated with vines and oak branches in the spaces between strapwork ribbing. The plaster work took five months to complete in 1605. The fireplace arch was renewed by Barry in 1851 retaining the l7th-century hearthstone and stone fender and has a cast-iron gothic fire grate, designed by Pugin. Its andirons have armorial plates and wrought brass finials. The overmantel is dated 1604 above the Shuttleworth arms.
Of the Victorian furnishings and decoration, the bright green curtains were replaced by silk and linen brocatelle, re-woven from a fragment of material found in the house, with a pattern of stylised pomegranates and pineapples. A mid-19th-century blue and red Mahal carpet produced by Ziegler & Co. is a replacement and a Shirvan hearthrug dates from the 19th century. Portraits of Sir Ughtred and Lady Kay-Shuttleworth from 1884 are by John Collier.
Garden and grounds.
The small ornamental garden, created in the early 1850s, was laid out on a terrace overlooking the River Calder at the rear of the house by Charles Barry, the man most notable for his responsibility in the rebuilding of the House of Parliament. The semicircular terrace wall is Grade II listed. The course of the river was diverted away from Gawthorpe Hall in the 19th century because of pollution and again diverted to accommodate an open cast coal scheme north of the river in Padiham in the 1960s. Unfortunately World War II brought many hardships to the Kay-Shuttleworth family. Finding the garden becoming too difficult to keep up, the Kay-Shuttleworth family had it removed in 1946. Despite the gardens removal some many decades ago, the layout of the garden is still quite visible, especially during the summer months when the climate is dry.
Other listed buildings associated with the hall are the Great Barn (built 1602–04), the old farmhouse (1605–06, now used as the estate offices), the game larder, the coach house (1870), and the lodges and gateways on Habergham and Stockbridge drives (both c.1849).
Gawthorpe is one of the trailheads of the Brontë Way, a long-distance footpath that crosses the South Pennines to Haworth, continuing to Oakwell Hall, Birstall, West Yorkshire.
In 1955, the new Burnley F.C. chairman Bob Lord purchased of Gawthorpe land, making Burnley one of the first clubs to set up a purpose-built training centre. By the 21st century, Burnley's three-decade absence from top flight football had left the facilities dated, with the old groundsman’s bungalow used for media meetings and the pitches prone to flooding. In the spring of 2017, the club opened a new £10.6-million training complex as the base for the senior squad and the club's academy.


Coliseu do Porto

The Coliseum of Porto () is a Portuguese theatre and concert venue in the municipality of Porto, in northern Portugal, with a capacity for a standing audience of 4000. A leading venue for music and cultural events in Porto, together with Batalha Cinema, the Coliseu is an example of Portuguese Streamline Moderne and Art Deco styles in the city of Porto.
History.
On 17 March 1908, the Garden-hall Passos Manuel was inaugurated. Architect Mário de Abreu designed the interior and made alterations to the principal hall, staircase and the tower facade, which was covered in windows, and removed the original neon green, red and white that accompanied the original structure at the time of its opening. The Garden-hall Passos Manuel was the first local public hall in the city and "was the point of encounter for Portuense society, an elegant local, with sophisticated decorations, with ample gardens and luminous fountains that proportioned all types of entertainment. It had the capacity for 700 people (Coliseu do Porto, 60 anos)".
In 1911, the hall was renovated, which included a garden and esplanade, party hall, pavilion restaurant, hall and small theatre.
By 1937, though, there were already rumblings that demand exceeded the capacity of the structure; the first plans to construct a grand, modern events hall were developed by architect José Porto. In 1938, the Garden-hall Passos Manuel was deactivated and demolished. The following year, Cassiano Branco assumed the position of principal architect for a new project, with the assistance of Júlio de Brito. The construction of the coliseum was a troubled process, that risked the careers of various architects, such as José Porto (who abandoned the project), Dutch architect, Jan Wils (who made designs for the theatre) and Júlio de Brito (whose projects were rejected by the Porto "Comissão de Estática"). But, since he was connected to the "Companhia de Seguros Garantia", proprietor of the Garden-hall Passos Manuel (later the Coliseu), Brito continued to be connected with the project. Charles Ciclis, who authored various projects in Parisian theatres, was invited by Cassiano Branco to work on the Coliseum project. Of his interior designs, apparently only the candelabras and doors, were included in the designs, although the designer was never remunerated. The new building opened on 19 December 1941.
With changing tastes and advent of popular cinema, the old concert hall was transformed into a cinema/studio in 1971.
By 1981, there was a proposal to classify the building, during the 2nd Congress of the Association of Portuguese Architects. But, the first initiatives were open on 11 December 1987, by the IPPC, supported by the 18 December dispatch by the Vice-President.
In 1995, the Empresa Artística, SA/Grupo Aliança-UAP, sold the coliseum to IURD, the Brazilian Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (on 5 October). This news boosted an unprecedented movement of indignation and revolt on the part of the Portuenses. Various artist and institutions such as the municipal council, civil governor and public, reacted unanimously against the announced end of the coliseum. This move resulted in the establishment of the Associação "Amigos do Coliseu do Porto", who helped stop its sale and protect the building. On 28 September 1996, a public deed for the purchase of the coliseum by the municipal council, which included the cinema Passos Manuel, the Garden-hall, attic hall and a lithography for 680,000 contos. During an event, a fire started in the coliseum that completely destroyed the stage, principal hall and dressing rooms. The recuperated building was reopened on 17 December 1996.
On 10 September 1998, the Vice-President of IPPAR at the time, re-confirmed the IPPAR's 1987 intent to classify the building. This process had advanced little in the intermittent years, so that by 12 September 2005, there was a proposal by the DRPorto to classify the building as an "Imóvel de Interesse Público" ("Property of Public Interest"). This was later included in the far larger special protection zone that included the buildings of the public works department, Chapel of Almas, Café Majestic, Church of Saint Ildefonso and Cinema Batalha, which was later approved by the consultive council of IGESPAR (12 November), and supported on 29 September 2010, by the National Council of Culture. The Secretary of State for Culture ratified its classification as a "Property of Public Interest".
In September 2015, a professional ballet troop became the resident company at the Coliseu, the Balleteatro.
Between 1997 and 2001, there systematic changes to the buildings interiors, that included the substitution of the electrical systems, the construction of new washrooms on all floors, the substitution of water supply, security and fire protection systems, the repair of the roof, recuperation of the dressing rooms on five floors and the elaboration of a new aesthetic with the building. Moving and scenic lighting equipment were upgraded, the heating network was recovered and improved, an electronic subtitling system (with simultaneous translation in two languages) and an electronic ticket office were installed. The auditorium was completely rebuilt to improve the acoustics and the visibility of the spectators, while a warehouse was built under the auditorium. A second orchestra pit and a new circus track were installed on a hydraulic lifting plate.
Architecture.
Located in the city of Porto, it is flanked by other buildings, implanted on land with an accentuated slope from east to west; it is addorsed to the Olímpia Cinema (in the west) and various four-storey residential/commercial buildings in the west. Opposite coliseum is a modernist garage.
The main auditorium has a capacity for a standing audience of 4000 people and 3000 seated, that includes the 1st and 2nd stalls, the dress circle, the boxes, upper circle, reserved and general gallery. There is also the smaller "Ático Room", with capacity for 300 people, suitable for smaller performances, conferences and symposia.


Capuchin Convent Battery

Capuchin Convent Battery (), also known as Kalkara Battery (), was an artillery battery in Kalkara, Malta, built by Maltese insurgents during the French blockade of 1798-1800. It was part of a chain of batteries, redoubts and entrenchments encircling the French positions in Marsamxett and the Grand Harbour.
Capuchin Convent Battery was built overlooking Kalkara Creek. The battery was located adjacent to a Capuchin convent which had been built between 1736 and 1743. The convent sheltered it from bombardment from the nearby Cottonera Lines and the Post of Castile. It was medium-sized, and it blocked a country lane which led towards the creek. Its armament is not known.
The battery was possibly built by Alexander Ball. Construction started in January 1799, and was completed within a month.
Like the other French blockade fortifications, the battery was dismantled, possibly sometime after 1814. No traces of the battery can be seen today, but the convent still exists, although it has been modified.


Aleksandar Palas Hotel

Aleksandar Palas Hotel () is a hotel located in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.
Location.
The Aleksandar Palas hotel is located in the very heart of Belgrade, at the corner of the streets Kralja Petra I and Cara Lazara. Situated near the hotel is the Kalemegdan Fortress with an extensive park and the city symbol, the statue of the Victor. The main street, Knez Mihailova, is about 80 meters from the hotel as well as the "Saborna" church and the Building of the Patriarchate. Many banks, such as the National bank of Serbia are right across the hotel.
The access to the freeway is quick, thus communication with the Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport is very simple. Nearby, approximately 1000 meters, are both the Central bus and train stations.
History.
The building that houses Aleksandar Palas Hotel is known as the Crvenčanin House, after its original owner — а prominent Belgrade merchant, and was built in 1887 according to the design of architect Jovan Ilkić in the academistic architectural style. Representing an architectural complex whose central area has been declared a pedestrian zone, the building has been included on the list of cultural monuments in the city of Belgrade.
Aleksandar Palas Hotel opened its doors in April 2004 with a luxury boutique concept. Named after King Aleksandar Obrenović and located between Kralja Petra I Street (Karađorđević dynasty), and Cara Lazara Street (technically a Lazarević though a direct successor of the Nemanjić dynasty), the five star hotel gave a historical nod to the third Serbian royal house — the Obrenovićs.
One of the individuals behind the venture was Radosav Komadinić, Užice-born former professional basketball player and KK Budućnost head coach, who since 2000 owned restaurant Que Pasa located in the same building where the hotel now opened; Que Pasa thus became part of the hotel's offering. Aleksandar Palas Hotel has been declared to be a five star hotel by the Serbian Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Services. Soon afterwards, Kraljevina restaurant opened in the hotel building's basement, expanding its offering.
Months after its grand opening, in January 2005, Aleksandar Palas became part of the Great Hotels of the World alliance. It has since gone off that list.
Komadinić pulled out of the venture in September 2007.
In October 2010, Komadinić, one of the hotel founders, got beaten up in front of his Novi Beograd home by an unknown group of men. In November 2010 the hotel went into bankruptcy and closed. Throughout 2011 and 2012, Živko Vujisić, another one of the hotel's owners, got into trouble with the law.
Hotel Aleksandar Palas reopened during spring 2013 with a garni concept and a four star rating. In September 2013, the hotel's Que Pasa restaurant reopened as well.


Borley Church

Borley Church is the parish church in Borley, Essex. The church is in the ecclesiastical parish of Borley and Liston, one of the Fifteen Churches of the North Hinckford Benefice in the Diocese of Chelmsford of the Church of England. The church is a Grade I Listed building, notable for its topiary walk and a large monument to Sir Edward Waldegrave (a member of Mary I of England's privy council) and his wife.
Description and history.
The church (dedication unknown) is a small building of stone; the nave may date to the 11th century. Later renovations have resulted in the mainly perpendicular style of the mid-14th to 16th centuries, still visible in the chancel and the western tower. The church as it now stands consists of chancel, nave, south porch and a crenellated western tower containing three bells, two of which were cast by Alfred Bowell of Ipswich in 1926, and one from 1574 cast by S II Tonni. They hang in their original oak frame with evidence a fourth bell may once have been present. There is a topiary walk leading to the porch, with bushes once shaped like Indian chess pieces. The path use to be flag stones, however as of 2017 a new brick, wheelchair friendly path has been installed with side lights. It is designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. Grade I is the highest of the three grades of listing, granted to buildings that "are of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important".
Not long after 1545 the manor was granted to Sir Edward Waldegrave (knighted in 1553 at the coronation of Queen Mary, died in the Tower of London on 1 September 1561) by Henry VIII. After the death of Edward, he was admitted to Queen Mary's privy council and granted the manor of Navestock, where he moved the family seat. In addition Waldegrave was Master of the Wardrobe for Queen Mary and her husband, Philip II of Spain.
The chancel contains a monument to John Durham of Norfolk. Several tombs of the Waldegrave family are found within the structure, including a monument 14 feet high, 9 feet long, and 5 feet wide, with a cornice supported by six pillars of the Corinthian order, beneath which lie full-length marble figures of Sir Edward Waldegrave and his wife Lady Frances Waldegrave née Neville (died 1599). Both tombs bear a marginal inscription in Latin and a record of other alliances of this family. On the chancel's north wall is a devotional statue of Magdala Southcote, Walgrave's daughter, who died 8 September 1598 (Nikolaus Pevsner notes it, but calls it "not good"). The church contains memorials to two 19th-century rectors, John Philip Herringham and his son William Herringham. John Philip was a Pembroke graduate and one of the signees of a declaration protesting the Maynooth Grant in 1845; William entered Peterhouse, Cambridge.
The glebe was in the mid-19th century; in both 1821 and 1831 the parish had 195 inhabitants.


Old Administrative Area Historic District

The Old Administrative Area Historic District, also known as Beaver Creek, is the former headquarters area of Grand Teton National Park. The complex of five houses, three warehouses and an administrative building were designed in the National Park Service rustic style between 1934 and 1939 and were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Public Works Administration. As part of the Mission 66 program, the park headquarters were relocated to Moose, Wyoming in the 1960s.
Beaver Creek Building #10 was the park's first headquarters building. It had been built before 1908 as the Stewart Ranger Station when the area was under U.S. Forest Service management.
The site was planned by Keith Matson of the National Park Service. The houses are oriented so that they enjoy a view of Grand Teton from their front porches. The interiors of the buildings have been substantially remodeled over time to accommodate changing tastes, expectations and functions and are not considered historically significant, while the exteriors remain well preserved and substantially unaltered.
The buildings include the park superintendent's house, five houses with garages, the old park administration building, and three warehouses.
The Beaver Creek district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1990.


Hasanaliler Church

Hasanaliler Church is a church ruin in Mersin Province, Turkey.
Hasanaliler is the name of a village which is now a neighborhood of Narlıkuyu in Silifke ilçe (district). The church ruin is in the village north of the mosque at . Cennet and Cehennem sinkholes are nearby. Its distance to Narlıkuyu (Mediterranean Sea side) is about , to Silifke is and to Mersin is .
The church is a 6th-century Byzantine church. It is a basilica-type church. The nartex of the three nave church is to the west of the building. There is a cistern under the building.


Zilker Park

Zilker Metropolitan Park is a recreational area in south Austin, Texas at the juncture of Barton Creek and the Colorado River that comprises over of publicly owned land. It is named after its benefactor, Andrew Jackson Zilker, who donated the land to the city in 1917. The land was developed into a park during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Today the park serves as a hub for many recreational activities and the hike and bike trail around Lady Bird Lake, both of which run next to the park. The large size of the park makes it a capable venue for large-scale events such as the Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Zilker Park Kite Festival. The park was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
History.
The land surrounding Barton Springs was claimed by its namesake, William Barton, in the 1830s for his cattle ranch. In the 1860s it was acquired by the Rabb family, who operated mills on Barton Creek. In the early twentieth century Andrew Jackson Zilker bought a plot of land between the Colorado River and Barton Creek, including the Springs, and used the spring water in his ice-making business. Zilker sold his land to the City of Austin in a series of sales in 1917, 1923 and 1931; he donated the proceeds of the sale to a trust dedicated to funding Austin's public schools.
In the 1930s the city transformed the ranch into a space for public recreation, building park amenities and buildings with help from the Civil Works Administration. Barton Springs Pool was given a concrete dam and an enlarged swimming area. In 1934 the park was named Zilker Metropolitan Park, after its donor and patron.
Attractions.
In addition to general-purpose lawns, sports fields, cross country courses, historical markers, concession stands and picnic areas, the park includes numerous public attractions. The Zilker Botanical Garden features several independently maintained gardens located near the center of the park and hosts the Zilker Gardens Festival every spring. The Austin Nature & Science Center offers ecological exhibits, nature hike trails, and children's educational programming. The Umlauf Sculpture Garden adjoins the southeast end of the park, displaying sculptural works by artist Charles Umlauf and others. The Zilker Hillside Theater hosts regular performances by local theatre companies, including free "Shakespeare in the Park" every May and an annual summer musical. Barton Springs Pool adjoins the park on the east, offering public swimming; other water activities are available in Barton Creek. The Beverly S. Sheffield Education Center by Barton Springs Pool offers exhibits about the natural history of the Edwards Aquifer that feeds Barton Springs. Every winter the Zilker Holiday Tree is illuminated, along with a Trail of Lights display. The Zilker Zephyr gauge miniature railway carries passengers on a tour around the park.
The park's amenities and wide open spaces allow it to host a variety of large events each year. Most notably, the Austin City Limits Music Festival fills the park for two weekends each fall with numerous live musical performances by prominent artists.


All Saints Church, Church Lawton

All Saints’ Church stands on a mound close to Lawton Hall in the small village of Church Lawton, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is an Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Congleton.
History.
The church was founded around the end of the 11th century, probably by Hugh de Mara, Lord of Lawton. There is a tradition that in the 8th century the body of St Werburgh rested overnight on the site of the church while it was being carried from Lincolnshire to Chester. In 1652 the church was struck by lightning and 11 people in the church were killed. The body of the church was destroyed by fire in 1798 and rebuilt by 1803. Following the fire of 1798 the body of the church was rebuilt in brick in neoclassical style. The cost of this was around £8,000 (equivalent to £ in ). A south porch was added as a War Memorial in 1923.
Architecture.
Exterior.
The tower at the west end, dating from the 16th century, is built of red and buff sandstone in Perpendicular style. On the south face of the tower are carved a chalice and the initials "I. B.". These initials are those of the parish priest of the time, John Bybber, or Byber. The bell openings contain Y-tracery. On each side of the church are two lunette windows, with two round-headed windows between them. At the east end of the church is a Venetian window. A Norman doorway which survived the fire has been reset in the south wall of the nave.
Interior.
Inside the church at the west end is a gallery dated 1717 which also survived the fire. It was planned to refurbish the church in 1873 but the full refurbishment did not occur. At the time the old box pews were replaced with the present pews and a two-manual organ was installed in the gallery. Also inside the church are the royal arms of George III and six hatchments of the Lawton family. At the base of a stairway leading to the gallery is the tomb of John Byber on which are carved his initials. Displayed under the gallery are some 13th-century flooring tiles which were discovered during the 1874 restoration. There is a ring of eight bells. Five of these which are dated 1713 are by Richard Sanders; the other three are by John Taylor and Company, one of which is dated 1882 and the other two are dated 1901. The parish registers start in 1559 and the churchwardens' accounts date from 1691.
External features.
The churchyard contains the war graves of two First World War soldiers. In the rectory garden is a font dating from the middle of the 18th century.


JK Memorial

The JK Memorial is a mausoleum, presidential memorial and museum dedicated to Juscelino Kubitschek (1902–1976), the 21st President of Brazil and the founder of Brasília, capital city of Brazil since 1960. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the memorial is located in the Monumental Axis in Brasília. It is the final resting place of President Kubitschek.
References.
Notes


Eastgate House, Rochester

Eastgate House is a Grade I listed Elizabethan townhouse in Rochester, Kent, England. It is notable for its association with author Charles Dickens, featuring as Westgate in "The Pickwick Papers" and as the Nun's House in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood". Now a Dickens Museum, the grounds of Eastgate House contain the Swiss chalet in which Dickens penned several of his novels.
History.
It was built in the 1590s for Sir Peter Buck, Mayor of Medway and Clerk of the Cheque at Chatham Dockyard.
The house then became home to five generations of his family.
In 1687, the Parker family inhabited the house and then in the 1750s, the Bartholemew family owned the house until the mid-18th century.
In 1761, it was owned by Annabel Darwin. Then in 1791, it was occupied by James Reed. It is unclear who first set up a school on the site (James or his widow). The school is mentioned in as a freeschool in 'The History and Antiquities of Rochester and Its Environs' by Samuel Denne in 1772. In 1841, it became a Victorian boarding school for girls governed by Rebecca Norton. The house is famous for its association with Dickens, featuring as 'Westgate' in "The Pickwick Papers" in 1836, and then as the 'Nun's House' in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" in 1870.
In 1870s, it became a private house once more, owned by Samual Shaw, a wholesale coal merchant. Who was born in Wandsworth, Surrey. This was to be their last home in England, before leaving for Canada.
It became a young men's hostel in 1890 and then a temperance restaurant in 1897. In 1903, Rochester City Council converted the building into a municipal library and museum in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
Eastgate was then used as a Dickens Museum (from 1923) and its grounds contain the Swiss chalet in which Dickens penned several of his novels, relocated from Gad's Hill in the 1960s.
In 2004, the Dickens Centre closed. In December 2012, Medway Council obtained £1.28 million in funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to transform the house into an exhibition centre for art and history events, with improved access and visitor facilities. In July 2017, it reopened and is now open to the public on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Architecture.
The brick exterior is fragile and expensive to repair. The structure has the date 1591 on a beam in one of the upper rooms of the house. Current renovations include removal of pipework and wiring. Additional elements include heating and lighting features, as well as a new lift and a staircase to replace one which was previously removed. Conservators made some discoveries after removing layers of interior paint: the mysterious drawing of a man's face within a 16th-century setting, and a pattern of black lines with similarity to a plaster painting discovered on the second floor.
Grounds.
At the time of completion, the grounds of the house were "extremely large stretching westward a considerable distance along St. Martins Lane to St Chad's Lane and northward". In the 1920s, Sir Guy Dawber designed the gardens, annexe building and cottage of the property.


Convento de la Madre de Dios, Toledo

The Convento de la Madre de Dios (Convent of the Mother of God) is a Dominican convent located in the city of Toledo (Castile-La Mancha, Spain). It was founded at the end of the 15th century as a nunnery by Leonor and María de Silva, daughters of the Count of Cifuentes. It was a cloistered monastery, a Guardia Civil barracks, and finally a university campus after its acquisition by the University of Castilla-La Mancha to expand the facilities of the Faculty of Juridical and Social Sciences.
History.
The convent grew steadily from the end of the 15th century until the middle of the 17th century, creating the typical convent complex articulated around courtyards. From the end of the seventeenth century, there began to be a significant deterioration of the complex, which continued during the eighteenth and especially the nineteenth centuries, when some areas of the convent were lost. After several partial restorations during the twentieth century, the definitive rehabilitation of the convent occurs after its acquisition by the University of Castilla-La Mancha, to complement the university center of San Pedro Mártir .
During the rehabilitation works of the complex, various archaeological activities were carried out, especially in the area previously occupied by the nuns' garden, where archaeological remains from different eras were found (Roman, medieval, modern). It is in this phase of the intervention when the important discovery of a Mudejar doorway of the fourteenth century occurs, oriented to the square of Father Juan de Mariana, which must have been part of a civil building. It developed into three bodies: the lower, formed by the lintel door, on which is a dovelage in which rows of bricks alternate with strips of white, green and black tiles, all framed in a border, also in tilework, in which several noble coats of arms appear; the intermediate body, composed of a series of polylobulated blind arches, which intersect; and the upper body, in which there is a large window composed of three arches, also polilobulated, supported by marble columns.
Inside the convent, in the area occupied by the garden of the nuns, there is now a patio and a new construction for the expansion of the San Pedro Mártir library and its administrative spaces. The cloister, converted after several reforms into a trapezoid, was originally a single height, and now has two floors. They emphasize the epigraphic decoration that crosses the upper part of the wall of the low cloister and the wooden beams on corbels of rolls. In the upper cloister, which opens several classrooms and offices, appear right wooden feet in the middle panels of each panda, among the large glass windows incorporated in the latest reform. Finally, the presence of ochavated pillars at the corners of the upper gallery of the cloister must be highlighted.
In the eastern panda of the cloister is located the church, with its choir that will alter their positions in the nineteenth century because of the deterioration of the church. The difficulties and the abandonment that the building suffered for years meant that the roof of the primitive church was eventually lost, and the choir passed to fulfill the function of a church. Currently, this space functions as a classroom.
The building conserves in its interior the original cloister and the main nave of the church, reconverted in Aula Magna. In the exterior, the rehabilitation discovered the only Mudéjar portal of Toledo located in a noble house.
Today, 4,000 students come daily to the complex formed by the former convents of San Pedro Mártir and Madre de Dios to study Law, Administration and Management of Companies or Management and Public Administration.


Thannuris


Royal Insurance Building, Liverpool

The Aloft Liverpool Hotel, formerly the Royal Insurance Building, is a historic building located at 1-9 North John Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It was built as the head office of the Royal Insurance company.
History.
The building was constructed between 1896 and 1903 as the head office of the Royal Insurance Company (Since 1996 part of the ″RSA Insurance Group″). The design was the result of a competition won by James F. Doyle in 1895. The assessor for the competition was Norman Shaw, who was retained as an advisory architect for the project, but it is uncertain what part he played in it. The building is constructed around a steel frame and is the earliest example of this type of construction in the United Kingdom. It ceased to be used by the late 1980s, and its condition deteriorated so much that it was placed on the Buildings at Risk Register of English Heritage.
In 2013 its freehold was bought by Liverpool City Council, and it was converted it into a hotel. It opened as the Aloft Liverpool Hotel on 29 October 2014. At the 20 years of the register, the renovation of the Royal Insurance Building was named as one of the successful rescues.
Architecture.
Constructed around a steel frame, the building is in Portland stone, with a granite basement and ground floor. Its architecture is described as "sumptious Neo-Baroque on the grandest scale". The building is in four storeys with a basement and an attic. Its long front on North John Street has eleven bays, with three bays on Dale Street. The ground floor and basement are rusticated. The windows are three-light sash windows with round heads. Those on the first floor have Gibbs surrounds and iron balconies. In the second and third floors the windows are recessed behind a Doric colonnade and entablature. In the attic are dormers. Some of these have architraves, keystones, and either segmental or triangular pediments; the others are flat-topped and contain casement windows. The entrance is on the second bay from the left in North John Street. The doorway has Doric columns and is round-headed. The first floor contains a round-headed window surrounded by a portico with a broken segmental pediment containing carved figures. Above this bay rises a three-stage campanile bearing an octagonal cupola with a gilded dome. On the Dale Street façade is a Venetian window. The second floor contains a frieze designed by C. J. Allen depicting themes relating to insurance. At the corners of this front are octagonal turrets with cupolas and finials. Between the turrets at attic level are three round-headed windows with rusticated Ionic pilasters, an entablature, and an iron balcony.
The interior contains the former General Office on the ground floor which, because of the steel frame, is free from any columns. Above this, the former Board Room has a tunnel vault. Both rooms are decorated with stucco in 17th-century style. The building is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.
There is an earlier "Royal Insurance Building", dating from 1839, in nearby Queen Avenue, also Grade II* listed.


Santa Maria in Publicolis

Santa Maria in Publicolis is a Baroque church in Rome. It is located in the rione of Sant'Eustachio. The facade was designed by Giovan Antonio de' Rossi.
History and Description.
The derivation of the suffix name of the church is unclear; some sources said that Valerio Publicola named the church. But others state the family of the prince Santacroce founded the church. Cardinal Marcello Santacroce rebuilt this parish church in 1645 using the designs of Giovanni Antonio de Rossi. The first chapel on the right and the main altarpiece were by Ottavio Vannini. The "St Francis" painted for an altar is a copy by Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi of a work by Carracci. Grimaldi also fashioned the tomb monument of the Santacroce family. The portrait of D. Scipione was completed by Giovanni Battista Maini.


Kefeli Mosque

The Kefeli Mosque (, meaning "the mosque of the Caffariotes", after the inhabitants of the city of Caffa in Crimea, or also "Kefeli Mescidi", where "Mescit" is the Turkish word for a small mosque) is a former Eastern Orthodox church, later jointly officiated by Roman Catholics and Armenians, and finally converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. The Catholic Church was dedicated to Saint Nicholas. Its date of dedication as an Eastern Orthodox church is unknown, but it is commonly identified with the 9th-century Monastery of Manuel ().
The interest of Kefeli Mosque arises because it repurposes the early Christian basilica form during the later Byzantine period.
Location.
The building lies in Istanbul, in the district of Fatih, in the neighborhood of Salmatomruk, on "Kasap Sokak", more or less halfway between the mosque of Chora and the mosque of Fethiye.
History.
The origin of this building, which lies on the slope of the sixth hill of Constantinople, is not certain. The tradition says that in the ninth century Manuel the Armenian, a general in the wars against the Saracens during the reign of Emperor Theophilos (r. 829–842), built a monastery converting his house, which lay near the cistern of Aspar. Manuel was the uncle of Empress Theodora, wife of Theophilos, and before retiring to his monastery he was one of the three counselors who assisted her in the regency for her infant son Michael III, following the death of her husband.
The Monastery of Manuel was rebuilt by Patriarch Photius, and was restored again by usurper Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944). Emperor Michael VII (r. 1071–1078) retired here after his deposition. All these events show the importance of this monastery in Constantinople. Nevertheless, the attribution of this building to the complex founded by Manuel is far from certain, and has been denied by the newest research.
The documented history of the current edifice begins in 1475, shortly after the Fall of Constantinople, when the Ottomans conquered the Genoese colony of Caffa, in Crimea. All the Latin, Greek and Jewish inhabitants who lived in Caffa ("Caffariotes" or, in Turkish, "Kefeli") were then deported to Istanbul and relocated to this quarter. The Latins, mainly Genoese, were authorized to use this building as a church together with the Armenians. The church, dedicated to Saint Nicholas, was officiated by the Dominicans, and kept by four Catholic families. Armenians and Catholics had separated altars. This small church depended on the near Catholic "Church of Saint Mary", which later became the Odalar Mosque. In 1630, under the reign of Murad IV (1623–1640), the church was converted into a "mescit" (a small mosque) by Great Vizier Receb Pasha, but retained the denomination, being first known as "Kefe Mahalle", then as Kefeli Mescidi. In exchange, the Armenians got a Greek church in Balat.
Architecture.
The building is a large hall, 22.6 meter long by 7.22 wide, and is oriented in north–south direction, which is quite uncommon among the Byzantine churches in Constantinople. Its masonry consists of alternate courses of bricks and stones. The original building had a triple-nave plan, but the only remains of the side aisles belong to the end wall of the western one. To the north side there is an arch and a semicircular apse made of bricks, which outside has a polygonal shape. The walls of the apse are indented by two niches. The main aisle has walls which are lighted by two ranges of windows, which are irregularly spaced. The southern wall is also lighted by two ranges of windows. The lower windows are much larger than the higher. The entrance is situated in the middle of the western wall. Under the western side there is a cistern, whose roof rests on three columns.
The dating of the edifice is uncertain. The polygonal apse and the niches in the apse are typical of the churches of Palaiologan foundation. The building is architecturally interesting because it is an example of reproposition of the early Christian Basilica form during the later Byzantine period.


Kulttuuritalo

Kulttuuritalo (, ) is a building in Alppila, Helsinki, Finland. The building was designed by Alvar Aalto, and is considered to be one of his main works.
The building.
The building combines a concert hall, an office building and a lecture-theatre block connecting the two. Uniting the whole, along the street frontage, is a canopy.
History.
Kulttuuritalo was originally built for Finnish Communist cultural organizations. Aalto designed the building "pro bono" and was given complete artistic freedom; the construction work was done largely by volunteers. Work began in 1955, and the building was opened in 1958.
The building was owned by the Communist Party by a nonprofit foundation until the 1990, when the bankruptcy of the Finnish Communist Party forced its sale.
Today its owned by the government owned Senate Properties. The building is protected by a decision made by the Finnish Council of State in 1989.
Famous artists who have played at the venue include Jimi Hendrix in 1967, Cream in 1967, Led Zeppelin in 1970, Frank Zappa & Queen in 1974, AC/DC in 1977, Ramones in 1977 and 1990, Tina Turner in 1982, Metallica in 1984, Hanoi Rocks and Leonard Cohen in 1985, Iron Maiden in 1995, Lady Gaga in 2009, Stratovarius and Helloween in 2010. Frank Zappa played 3 concerts in September 1974, that were released as an album in the early 1990s.


Basildon Park

Basildon Park is a country house situated 2 miles (3 kilometres) south of Goring-on-Thames and Streatley in Berkshire, between the villages of Upper Basildon and Lower Basildon. It is owned by the National Trust and is a Grade I listed building. The house was built between 1776 and 1783 for Sir Francis Sykes and designed by John Carr in the Palladian style at a time when Palladianism was giving way to the newly fashionable neoclassicism. Thus, the interiors are in a neoclassical "Adamesque" style.
Never fully completed, the house passed through a succession of owners. In 1910 it was standing empty and in 1914, it was requisitioned by the British Government as an army convalescent hospital. It was again sold in 1928 and quickly sold again. In 1929, following a failed attempt to dismantle and rebuild the house in the USA, it was stripped of many of its fixtures and fittings and all but abandoned.
During World War II, the house was again requisitioned and served as a barracks, a training ground for tanks, and finally a prisoner of war camp—all activities unsuited to the preservation of an already semi-derelict building. In 1952, a time when hundreds of British country houses were being demolished, it was said of Basildon Park "to say it was derelict, is hardly good enough, no window was left intact and most were repaired with cardboard or plywood."
Today, Basildon Park is as notable for its mid-twentieth-century renaissance and restoration, by Lord and Lady Iliffe, as it is for its architecture. In 1978, the Iliffes gave the house, together with its park and a large endowment for its upkeep, to the National Trust in the hope that "The National Trust will protect it and its park for future generations to enjoy."
History.
Early history.
Basildon is first documented in 1311 when it was granted by the crown to Elias de Colleshull. During the 16th and early 17th centuries, the manor of Basildon was held by the Yonge family. In 1654, the Basildon estate was purchased probably on behalf of Royalist Colonel George Fane by his brother-in-law the 5th Earl of Bath who died the same year (confusion as to for whom bought was caused by the political state of the country at the time and by George Fane's premature death). Lord Bath's widow, the former Lady Rachael Fane, bequeathed the estate to her nephew Sir Henry Fane, George Fane's son. Little is known of Basildon during the Fane ownership, but a mansion house was built with Gothic lodges. These lodges survive and serve the present house. The manor remained a Fane possession until it was offered for sale in 1766 by the heirs of the 2nd Viscount Fane, namely, his two married sisters Dorothy Montagu and Mary de Salis.
The estate was purchased in 1771 by Sir Francis Sykes. Having made a fortune in India, Sykes returned to England to realise his social and political ambitions. For these to be fulfilled, Sykes required a grand estate conveniently close to London; he built Basildon Park to serve that purpose.
18th century.
Basildon Park was built for Sir Francis Sykes. Born in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1732, the son of a yeoman farmer, he left his native country to make his fortune in India. He joined the British East India Company and amassed a fortune in Bengal, at the court of the Nawab. He later became Governor of Kasimbazar and became what was then known as a nabob, a title derived from the Indian "Nawab."
Returning to England in 1769, possessed of vast wealth (estimated at between £250,000 and £500,000) he purchased Ackworth Park in his native Yorkshire. In 1770, he acquired the Gillingham Manor estate, Dorset, an estate of some . This purchase enabled him to become Member of Parliament for the constituency of Shaftesbury. To further his political aspirations he required a house suitable for entertaining and indicative of his wealth conveniently nearer to London than the distant counties of Yorkshire and Dorset.
Basildon fitted Sykes' requirement well, not only politically, but also socially. At this time this area of Berkshire was home to so many of the newly rich returned from India that it was referred to as "the English Hindoostan." Sykes' close friend Warren Hastings was already resident in the area, and another friend, the 1st Lord Clive, (better known as Clive of India) had himself attempted to buy Basildon in 1767.
From the moment Sykes purchased the Basildon site in 1771, his good fortune changed. The commencement of work on the house was delayed until 1776 as a result of the crash of the East India Company's shares, which caused Sykes to lose £10,000 in a single day. Shortly afterwards, his and Clive's activities as part of the Bengal Administration were investigated by Parliament. Sykes as the Bengali Tax Collector had levied unjust taxes and was publicly censured. Two years later, in 1774, while Sykes was still a subject of public opprobrium, his finances suffered further when allegations of corruption pertaining to his constituency were made against him. As a result, he lost his parliamentary seat and was forced to pay £11,000 in compensation.
Finally, in 1776, work on Basildon began and lasted for the remainder of Sykes' life. Although his finances continued to dwindle and he was throughout his life to be vilified as an "archetypal nabob", he managed to regain his political and social lives. He was created a baronet in 1781, and became MP for Wallingford in 1784. As Sykes aged, work on Basildon slowed. This may have been for financial reasons or just because of a lack of momentum due to family disappointments. A younger son was drowned in 1786 and Sykes' heir proved to be dissipated and a further drain on Sykes' resources.
Sykes died at his London house on 11 January 1804. His body was returned to Basildon for burial in St Bartholomew's Church, Lower Basildon. and placed in a previously owned 14th century chest tomb. At Basildon Park, the principal rooms remained unfinished.
19th century.
On Sir Francis Sykes' death, Basildon was inherited by his son, Sir Francis Sykes (2nd Baronet) who died a few weeks later. The house then passed to his grandson, the five-year-old Sir Francis (3rd Baronet). By this time, the Sykes fortune was almost spent and Basildon was already mortgaged. The family finances suffered further as a result of the 3rd Baronet's association with the extravagant Prince Regent. Aged just 14, he entertained the Prince at Basildon. As a result of the Prince's occupation of the North side of the second floor, where the best bedrooms are located, for many years afterwards this range of rooms were known as "The Regent's Side" as opposed to the family's less formal rooms on the South side of the floor.
From the late 1820s, Sykes was suffering serious financial problems, and in 1829, the estate was placed on the market. The house was not quickly sold, as Sykes refused to accept any price less than £100,000. During this period, the house was often let. However, Sykes and his family were in residence between 1834 and 1835 when the future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was a house-guest at Basildon. Disraeli, who was the lover of Sykes' wife Henrietta, immortalised her along with some descriptions of Basildon and its rooms in his novel, "Henrietta Temple". Another romantic attachment of Lady Sykes was to result in her husband being immortalised in a novel, this time in a less flattering light. Lady Sykes had been conducting an affair with the painter Daniel Maclise. Her husband publicly denounced Maclise, causing an unacceptable high society scandal. As a result, Charles Dickens, a friend of Maclise, then writing "Oliver Twist", based his villainous and cruel character Bill Sikes on Sir Francis.
In 1838, as "Oliver Twist" was published, Sykes, out of funds and publicly humiliated, finally sold Basildon Park for just £3,000 less than the £100,000 he had been seeking.
Basildon's interiors were now finally completed and the estate had a seventy-year period of security. The new owner was James Morrison, a Hampshire born, self-made millionaire. From humble beginnings as an employee of a London haberdasher, he had married his employer's daughter, entered into partnership with his father-in-law and expanded the business. By 1820, Morrison was possessed of a fortune he was investing wisely to become one of Victorian England's wealthiest men. A politician, between 1830 and 1847, he was one time MP for St Ives, Ipswich and the Inverness burghs.
In addition to Basildon, Morrison owned several estates, including Fonthill and Islay. The mansions provided a setting for his huge art collection, which included works by Constable, Turner and many Italian and Dutch old masters. Basildon was to be the setting for some of his finest works.
To create that setting, Morrison employed the architect John Buonarotti Papworth. At Basildon, Papworth combined the roles of architect and interior decorator, helping to create what Morrison described as "a casket for my pictorial gems." Many of Papworth's more ambitious plans were not realised; the demolition and replacement by colonnades of the yards, the conversion of a courtyard into a sculpture gallery, and the creation of a carriage ramp to the piano nobile on the East front were all declined by Morrison. However, the house was fitted up with a hot water system and fire precautions, and the decoration of the principal reception rooms was completed in suitably classical styles.
Morrison died at Basildon on 30 October 1857.
20th century.
Basildon Park was occupied by James Morrison's unmarried daughter, Ellen, until her death in 1910. Her demise marked the beginning of a downward turn in Basildon's history. The house and estate were inherited by a nephew, James Morrison. Initially, he improved the estate and its buildings, commissioning the architect Edwin Lutyens to design workers' cottages in the neighbouring villages. However, he never occupied the house, using it only for occasional shooting parties. In 1914, the house was requisitioned by the British Government and used as a convalescent home for injured soldiers, suffering the attendant damage which accompanies institutional use.
During the war Basildon's owner served with distinction, obtaining the DSO and, according to Harold Macmillan, always "insisted on walking rather than crawling under enemy fire." Surprisingly, considering the form in which his courage manifested itself, Morrison survived the war. However, his love of shooting, a lavish lifestyle and three marriages led to such a serious decline in his fortunes that in 1929, he was forced to sell the Basildon estate.
The new purchaser was the 1st Lord Iliffe. He wished to expand and consolidate his estate at nearby Yattendon, where he had built a new house. He immediately annexed the estate from house and park back, stripped the mansion of some doors and fireplaces for his London house, and placed the house back on the market.
Thus it was that in 1929 Basildon Park was purchased by a property developer, George Ferdinando. who bought the estate as park land. George Ferdinando was 65 when he bought the house and as his children were grown up his wife was unwilling to take on another large house and so he produced a sales notice, the idea being to sell the house as one lot in America. Encouraged by the then current fashion amongst wealthy American citizens for inhabiting ancient European houses and palazzi, Ferdinando produced a sales brochure advertising Basildon to any American citizen for $1,000,000. For this sum, he promised to "carefully take it down" and "re-erect in America", thus providing an opportunity to "Any patriotic American wishing to benefit his native state by presenting this imposing building … ready for occupation as a private residence, museum, college building or public library." Fortunately he had a change of heart and decided instead to convert the old sawmill at the top of the park into a house for himself and his wife. George also persuaded one of his sons Eric to return from America where he was a cotton grower with his young family to live in the south pavilion then called the east wing. Eric then oversaw the return of fixtures and fittings such as the stair balustrade, the renovation and running of the house and estate. No evidence is available to say whether it was George Ferdinando, the first Lord Iliffe or the executors of the Morrison estate who sold off the dining room fixtures. However elements from the Dining Room have been reused in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York and doorcases designed by John Carr are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Louisiana State University Museum of Art.
World War II saw Basildon used as a billet for troops, while the park became a training ground for troops deployed in tank and ground warfare. George Ferdinando continued to live at Basildon during this time. Eric served in the navy during the war and on his return set about mending the walls that had been damaged by bridging units used on the river and the huge holes left in the demolition area. The house was then requisitioned for the Ministry of Works, whose caretaker stole the lead from the roofs. He was caught and imprisoned for two years. Unfortunately the ministry were only willing to pay back one tenth of the cost of the repair to the roof and other damage done including a fire. Having lived at Basildon now for twenty years George moved to Shoreham-by-sea in Sussex where he died in 1949, but was buried in Basildon. Unable to foot the cost of repairing the house and the inheritance tax the house had to be sold and Eric and family moved to the converted barn house formerly part of the estate. The second Lord Iliffe, who lived in the area, visited the house at this point which was in rather a sad state. However, encouraged by the potential she saw in the mansion, Lady Iliffe persuaded her husband to buy it. This was the beginning of Basildon Park's salvation and renaissance.
Under the direction of the Iliffes (later the 2nd Baron and Lady Iliffe), Basildon was completely restored and refurnished. This was achieved over a period of 25 years. Many fixtures and fittings were purchased from similar houses in a greater state of dereliction prior to their demolition. While often the Iliffes found great bargains, obtaining 18th-century mahogany doors and marble fireplaces, at other times their luck was less favourable; Lady Iliffe recalled attending the Mentmore Towers auction of 1975 with the intention of buying marble topped console tables for Basildon, but through economic necessity returned with only a coal-scuttle.
Architectural appraisal.
Basildon Park was begun in 1772; the architect, John Carr of York, was one of the leading architects in northern England. His work was initially influenced by the Palladian architects, the Earl of Burlington and William Kent and later by the neoclassicism of Robert Adam. At Basildon, Carr's most southerly commission, both these architectural influences can be discerned. It has been speculated that the principal facade, the West Front, was inspired by Palladio's Villa Emo. Whatever the inspiration, it was one Carr relied on heavily in his work, and it can be seen again most evidently in his designs for .
The mansion consists of the three quite separate blocks, but indistinctly so. The three floored corps de logis contains the principal rooms, and two flanking pavilions of two floors each; the north designed to contain the Kitchen, Scullery and Housekeeper's Room and the south to contain the Laundry and Dairy. The upper floor of each pavilion contained accommodation for servants. This arrangement, of a central block flanked by pavilions, is original to Palladio's concept; however, in England Palladianism (a form of architecture based only loosely on Palladio's concepts) had evolved to a point that where Palladio had filled the distance between corps de logis and the flanking blocks with a void space or colonnade. The evolved 18th-century Palladianism usually filled the space with long wings containing enfilades of rooms. At Basildon, the architect used windowed walls to create service courts in the void. This had the double advantage of not only unifying the facade, but also (in a comparatively small mansion) of creating a discrete space for utilitarian stores, lavatories and the drying of clothes.
Exterior.
The principal facade is the long West facade of the corps de logis and its flanking pavilions. Built of Bath stone, the three-storied rectangular corps de logis has a rusticated ground floor, with a piano nobile above and a bedroom floor above this. This block is of seven bays; the central three bays are behind a recessed Ionic portico. Entrance to the mansion is by three segmented arches under the portico, or more formally, by climbing a double curved staircase behind the three arches. The stairs rise to an open loggia beneath the portico which gives access to the mansion's principal entrance. The fenestration is designed to indicate the status of their floor. Thus, small windows indicate the domestic ground floor and secondary upper floor, while the windows of the first floor piano nobile are tall and large. These larger windows are unified along the full length of the facade extending on to the pavilions by a balustrading beneath them which continues the line of the balustrading protecting the central loggia. The roofline is concealed by a high parapet concealing the roofs themselves and broken only by the portico's pediment. This pediment is echoed as a smaller pediment over both of the two-storied pavilions.
In contrast to the Palladianism of the West front, the East front is austere in its neoclassicism. It projects from the flanking pavilions, which on this side of the house are partially screened by planting. The fenestration which is concentrated on the broad bay at the centre of the facade provides the essential rhythm and relief. Above the second floor, a balustrade not only hides the roof, but unites the projecting bay with its flanking bays.
Interior.
The corps de logis (central block) is built on the three floors. In the 18th century, such floors (known, because of their outer brickwork, as "the Rustic") would have been used by both the owners and their servants. The Rustic contained the wine cellars, Servants' Hall, estate offices, and secondary reception rooms. This is very much the case at Basildon where the former Servants' Hall is now the ground floor visitors' tea room and the former Summer Breakfast Room (beneath the Octagon Drawing Room) which later saw service as a billiard room, is now a lecture room for the mansion's paying visitors. The lower hall, beneath the first floor hall, was the everyday entrance to the mansion for the family.
The first floor.
The first floor was designed to be a piano nobile (meaning literally a "noble floor"); as its name suggests, it contains the principal rooms of the house. During the 1770s, when Basildon was built, a domestic and architectural movement from formality towards informality was in progress. Thus, while the exterior of Basildon is pure symmetry, this symmetry is not reflected in the interior layout of the rooms as would have been the case just a few years earlier. In any case, the builder of Basildon was not eminent enough to require a suite of state apartments on the piano nobile in permanent expectation of a royal visit. Thus, in keeping with this newly found spirit of informality Basildon has no formal and symmetrical enfilade of rooms of increasing splendour, but two separate first floor suites, one feminine and one masculine, were placed on either side of the hall. The library ("10 on plan"), considered a masculine room, was placed next to the owner Sir Francis Sykes' dressing room ("9") while on the opposite side of the hall ("11 and 12") were the bedroom and dressing room of Lady Sykes. Sir Francis appears not to have had a bedroom on this floor, an arrangement not uncommon in the 18th century, when a dressing room served as a study and reception room combined—the owner would descend from his bedroom above to the dressing room and receive business callers while the finishing touches were made to his dressing by a servant. Lady Sykes' dressing room or boudoir ("11 on first floor plan"), also used as private sitting room by the late Lady Iliffe, is now known as the Sutherland Room; it is currently used to display some of the studies by the 20th-century artist Graham Sutherland for his tapestry "Christ in Glory" at Coventry Cathedral.
The principal receptions are a communicating circuit of rooms designed for entertaining. This was a late 18th-century feature, first introduced by the architect Matthew Brettingham in 1750.
The Hall is the principal entrance to the house which would have been used by any eminent guests; entering the house by climbing the double staircase beneath the portico the guest immediately sees, through a gilded doorcase, a short enfilade through the staircase hall to the Octagon drawing room. While the hall in its use was not comparable with the Great Hall of earlier manor houses, it was still more than a mere entrance vestibule; in the 18th century, it was considered that any house of note required three principal reception rooms when entertaining: one for dancing, one for supper and one for cards. Thus, the hall, dining room and Octagon Drawing Room would fulfil those roles.
The hall retains more of its original neoclassical decorative features than many other rooms in the house; the walls' plasterwork panels and ceiling are all original, as are the Spanish mahogany doors (these had been removed during the 1920s, but were returned to the house in 1954). Only the white marble fireplace is not original to the house, but salvaged from the now demolished Panton Hall. The furniture in the room, against the walls in 18th-century fashion, is in the style of William Kent.
The Staircase Hall is at the centre of the house and is considered to be one of Carr's "most monumental interiors." Typically of this period, the double height room is lit by a clerestory while the wide cantilevered staircase, the Great Staircase, rises in flights around three of the four walls, to a gallery. The balustrading of the staircase and landing is of gilded wrought iron adorned with medallions with classical motifs which were heavily restored in 1952. The groundfloor walls beneath the gallery are decorated with some of Carr's neoclassical plasterwork depicted in white against the eau de nil colour of the walls. Recent analysis of the paint has shown that the walls were originally a pale stone colour and the staircase balustrade was painted blue with gilded figures on the (blue) plaques.
The Great Staircase, which rises only between the first and second floors, is just one of three staircases all within metres of the other at the centre of the house. A narrow spiral stair, concealed in one of the cut off corners of the Octagon Drawing Room rises from the ground floor to the roof, while "the backstairs" is another large staircase lit by the same clerestory as the Great Staircase; this rises from the ground floor to the second floor.
The Octagon Drawing Room ("7 on first floor plan") completes the short enfilade beginning at the front door. It is the principal room of the house. Unfinished by Carr, the room has an ornate gilded ceiling with recessed panels in the Italian Renaissance style, installed in 1840. Of the room's eight sides, three have windows forming a large bay, at the centre of which is a large Venetian window echoing the Palladian inspiration of the mansion. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries this room was used to display the finest art its owners possessed. Today, hung with red felt, it contains works by Pompeo Batoni and Giambattista Pittoni. The room contains fine neoclassical furniture, including items made to designs by Robert Adam, and curtains originally made for the state rooms of Blenheim Palace.
The Dining Room ("marked 8 on first floor plan") is one of the rooms most frequently changed since the completion of the mansion. Yet today it closely resembles its original form. Sited on the first floor of the corps de logis, some distance from the original kitchen (on the ground floor of the North Pavilion), the Dining Room is decorated in a neoclassical style inspired by the work of Robert Adam. The ceiling is divided into geometric panels by ornate plasterwork. Each panel originally contained a painted lunette or medallion by Theodore de Bruyn, depicting a classical scene in grisaille. The walls too have plaster panels which contained medallions, matching those of the ceiling.
In 1845, the room was redecorated by the architect David Brandon, who replaced Bruyn's paintings with polychrome depictions of Dante's "Divine Comedy". The walls to which Brandon added mirrors, however, retained much of their 18th-century plasterwork. In 1929, the owner, George Ferdinando, stripped the dining room of its painted panels, mirrors, fireplace and doors and sold them to a firm of architectural antique dealers, Crowther's. The Dining Room's former decorations then crossed the Atlantic. Today, they form the Basildon Room of New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
In 1952, the new owners, Lord and Lady Iliffe, had the now bare room painted by the decorator John Fowler and transformed it to a drawing room. During the late 20th century, the artist Alec Cobbe was employed to redecorate the room in a style similar to the original scheme by de Bruyn. Much of Carr's "loops and bows" plasterwork had survived, and this, coupled with a fireplace and doors salvaged from Panton Hall and very similar to those which crossed the Atlantic, allowed the room to return to its original neoclassical form.
The Kitchen was originally in the North pavilion. The concept of placing kitchens in a separate block to the house (and dining room) was a practice which had begun in the 1680s to prevent kitchen smells pervading the main house. Thus, Palladio's idea of a villa flanked by pavilions (intended to house farm animals) suited this practice admirably. However, the need for symmetry meant a balancing second pavilion was required. Therefore, it was common, as at Blenheim Palace, for the kitchen to be balanced by a chapel or an orangery, or for the less spiritual, a brewery or, as at a Basildon, a laundry. This meant that at Basildon, hot food "en route" to the dining room had to cross an open courtyard in all weathers, be taken through the ground floor of the mansion up the back stairs, cross the second floor and then be laid behind a colonnaded screen in the dining room before being finally served. During the modernisations at Basildon in the 1950s, Lady Iliffe had a new and state of the art kitchen installed on the piano nobile in the former bedroom allotted to former ladies of the house ("12 on first floor plan"). This solved the problem of hot food. The new kitchen is now open to the public as a nostalgic 1950s set museum piece, containing kitchen appliances and food stuffs and packaging contemporary to the mid 20th century. This is shown in the same fashion as the remainder of the house.
The Green Drawing Room is between the Octagon Drawing room and the new kitchen. It had always previously been used as a breakfast room or small dining room, less formal than the Dining Room itself. When the National Trust took over management of the house, the room was refurnished and displayed as a drawing room. The room has a moulded plaster neoclassical ceiling and is hung with green silk which was formerly curtains at Englefield House, Berkshire. The white marble fireplace in this room is one of the few original to the house.
The second floor.
The second floor was designed to be of considerably less importance than the piano nobile below, which is indicated externally by the smaller windows. However, unlike in a Baroque house of just a few years earlier, it was not reserved for lesser guests, children and servants, as is evident by its approach from a monumentally grand staircase.
Basildon and its future.
At the time of its building, the design of Basildon was already old-fashioned. From 1750s onwards large houses were being built without a rustic, and having the principal floor on the ground was becoming commonplace. Basildon, with its piano nobile, large portico denoting status, and main facade falsely elongated by fenestrated walls, was never innovative architecture, but, like many other houses, was built to bolster the status of its owner, the newly rich Sir Francis Sykes, keen for a political career.
Basildon is not one of the great houses of Britain; houses of similar style and size exist the length of the country. Neither is the mansion of great architectural importance. Its architect, described as "one of the most prolific of the 18th century" is far better known for his works elsewhere. Neither is Basildon remarkable for its contents. While it has some fine plasterwork, its contents, though high quality antiques, are not of the finest museum quality and its art collection consists mostly of mediocre paintings of the 17th and 18th century Italian schools, bought for their size and suitability for the decoration of the interiors rather than for their quality.
Instead, Basildon is remarkable and notable for its survival against all odds in the 20th century. At a time when it was near ruin and its destruction seemed inevitable, it was saved. Since 1900, over 1,000 country houses, many of far greater architectural importance than Basildon, have been demolished. The destruction of many of these houses began as a trickle just prior to World War I, but became a tidal wave in 1955, when one house was demolished every five days. The destruction did not halt until 1975, by which time the Iliffe's restoration work at Basildon was almost completed.
In 1978, the Iliffes gave the house, together with its park and a large endowment for its upkeep, to the National Trust, enabling the house to provide a paying public with not only an insight to the interior of a grand house during both the 18th and 19th centuries, but also a rare view of how such houses were adapted to suit a more modern life-style during the last half of the 20th century. It was Lord and Lady Iliffe's wish that "The National Trust will protect it and its park for future generations to enjoy."
Filming location.
In addition to being open to the public, the house has also served as a filming set. It was used as the location for Netherfield Park in the 2005 film "Pride & Prejudice," and more recently the 2016 film "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," as a location for the 2006 movie "Marie-Antoinette," and as Lord and Lady Radley's house in the 2009 film "Dorian Gray." As well as appeared in the movie The Gentlemen in 2019. The interiors of Basildon stood in for the Crawley family's London mansion, Grantham House, on the series "Downton Abbey".


Molde Cathedral

Molde Cathedral () is a cathedral of the Church of Norway in Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the town of Molde. It is the church for the Molde parish as well as the seat of the Molde domprosti (arch-deanery) and the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Møre. The white, brick church was built in a long church style in 1957 by the architect Finn Bryn. The church seats about 700 people.
This building was built to replace an earlier church here, and it is the third church to be located on the same site. It became a cathedral in 1983 when the Diocese of Møre was created.
Structure.
The cathedral is a double-nave basilica that has a free-standing bell tower next to the main building. The cathedral seats about 1000 people. The church building is shaped like a long "basilica", but with a central aisle and another on the north side, but not on the south side. The entrance consists of two copper-clad doors surrounded by fields in natural concrete under a gable roof. The square campanile (bell tower) is at the church's southwest corner, and it is approximately tall. Behind the church's main entry doors to the west, there is a spacious rectangular foyer which leads into the sanctuary.
History.
This is the third church to stand in the town of Molde. The first, cruciform in plan, was built in approximately 1661. When it burned down, a wooden neo-Gothic dragestil church was built to replace it in 1887. This wooden church burned down during the bombing of the town center on 29 April 1940 (during World War II). After the war was over, planning for a new church began, to designs by architect Finn Bryn (1890-1975), who was awarded the contract after winning a competition for a new church in Molde in 1948. Total costs came in about . The church was completed and consecrated on 8 December 1957.
Bishops.
The cathedral has been the seat of the Bishop of the Diocese of Møre since its establishment in 1983. The following Bishops have served in this cathedral:


Aalto Centre, Rovaniemi

The Aalto Centre (Finnish: "Aalto-keskus") is an urban area milieu in the city of Rovaniemi, in the Finnish Lapland, designed by the renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, comprising the city's key administrative and cultural buildings.
Background.
Up to 90% of Rovaniemi's building stock was destroyed during the Lapland War by the retreating German forces, necessitating the rebuilding of the city centre. In January 1945, Rovaniemi commissioned a new urban design from the Finnish Association of Architects rebuilding unit, with the design work headed by Alvar Aalto.
Aalto's eventual design, approved in 1946, is called "Poronsarvikaava" (literally, "Reindeer Antler Plan"), and incorporates five arterial roads forming the shape of a reindeer antler. In 1960, when Rovaniemi was granted its city charter, the formal decision was made to implement Aalto's plan.
At the centre of the design, the complex of Aalto-designed public and administrative buildings is known as 'Aalto Centre'.
The complex has been designated and protected by the Finnish Heritage Agency as a nationally important built cultural environment ("Valtakunnallisesti merkittävä rakennettu kulttuuriympäristö").
The Rovaniemi cityscape is one of two urban plans designed by Aalto which were eventually completed; the other being that in Seinäjoki.
Key buildings.
Notable Aalto-designed buildings in the centre include:
The park surrounding the Aalto Centre also forms an integral part of the milieu.


Grand Hotel Kronenhof

The Grand Hotel Kronenhof is an historic five-star Belle Epoque-era Grand Hotel in Pontresina, , Switzerland.
The hotel is situated in the "Laret" quarter of the village, adjacent to the , and is included in the .
For over 140 years, the hotel was owned by its founding family, the Gredigs.
History.
In 1848, Andreas Gredig (1806–1877) acquired the Gasthaus Rössli for his son Lorenz Gredig (1829–1905). The guesthouse business included a wine shop. Lorenz Gredig initially named the business "Gasthaus zur Krone-Post", but later changed the name to "Krone". Over time, by constructing additions and incorporating existing outbuildings, he also steadily enlarged the guesthouse and transformed it into a hotel.
Between 1896 and 1898, the architects expanded the hotel into a representative, horseshoe-shaped three-winged structure. Since then, it has had a "Cour d'honneur" (three sided courtyard) dominated by a crowned dome, which still surmounts the main entrance of the hotel and its neo-baroque-style light-bathed entrance hall.
At the time of the expansion, the hotel's name was changed to "Grand Hotel Kronenhof und Bellavista", from which its present name, "Grand Hotel Kronenhof", was later derived.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 put an abrupt end to further expansion plans. The war and crisis years impacted the hotel's profitability, but its survival was secured by the wine shop, which was still trading, and agriculture.
In 1989, the heirs of the founding Gredig family sold the hotel to two Swiss private investors. In 2004, the two investors, in turn, sold it to the "Grand Hotels Engadinerkulm" company, which also owns the historic "Hotel Kulm" in St. Moritz. Extensive renovation work was begun that year, but the hotel's original Belle Epoque exterior and interior have both been largely preserved.
In 2006 Heinz E. and Jenny Hunkeler take over the leadership of the Kronenhof in October 2006. In September 2006 have started the gigantic construction works, including a 100 spaces new underground garage, 28 additional guest rooms and a more than 2000qm large spa-complex. From April 2007 until November 2007 the hotel was completely closed. In addition took place the reconstruction of the staff- accommodation and the kitchen. Since the creation of the three-wing-layout of the hotel in the last century, no project to expand was as big and significant as this.
Marc Eichenberger took over the management of the Grand Hotel Kronenhof in 2013 and in 2014, the hotel was named as the best hotel in the world in TripAdvisor's annual Travellers' Choice Awards. In 2015 he initialises the extension and modernisation of the ski room. 13 double rooms and junior suites are being refurbished in 2016 with French star architect Pierre-Yves Rochon.


Milano Santa Giulia

Milano Santa Giulia is a green and residential district ("quartiere") under construction in the south-east periphery of Milan, Italy, between the districts of Rogoredo and Taliedo, in the Zone 4 administrative division. As the construction is still in progress, the district is not formally recognized as such, and its area is still referred to as being part of Rogoredo and Taliedo.
The area where Milano Santa Giulia is being built is a wide former industrial zone, where Montedison and Acciaierie Redaelli facilities used to be. For this reason, the district is also nicknamed Montecity, after Montedison.
The leading architect of the Milano Santa Giulia project is Norman Foster (UK), and the developer is Risanamento.
The plan.
According to the initial plan, the district will have two main areas, respectively where Montedison and Redaelli facilities used to be; they will be divided by a large city park, traversed by the Paullese, a major thoroughfare connecting Milan to Paullo.
The ex-Montedison area (bordering on Taliedo) is intended to become been a luxury residential area, with a prestigious shopping mall (nicknamed "Montecity Avenue"), congress facilities, and a church designed by Peter Zumthor.
The district will accommodate up to 60,000 residents and comprise retail stores as well as leisure areas. Hotels, offices, a conference center, a school, and a church are planned, surrounding a large central green area. Public art in the area has been commissioned to sculptor Anish Kapoor.
The district will be connected to Milan by the Paullese as well as the Tangenziale Est ring road. The nearby Rogoredo railway station, and Milan Metro station, will also serve the new district. The development of a tramway from the railway station across the whole district is also part of the plan.
Current situation.
Construction in the ex-Montedison area has experienced both financial and legal problems, and has been suspended. In 2010, the authorities have confiscated the area on the basis that the groundwater is polluted, an issue that is still being debated, with the Milan Metro trustees upholding that the drinking water aquifers are safe.
In the ex-Redaelli area, bordering on the Rogoredo district, residential and office buildings have been constructed, including the headquarters of the Sky Italia satellite television provider.


Westwood House

Westwood House is a stately home, near Droitwich, Worcestershire, England. It has been subdivided into twelve self-contained apartments. The house has origins as an Elizabethan banqueting hall with Caroline additions and is a Grade I listed building. It was for several centuries the seat of the Pakington family. Situated west of Droitwich, it lies in the centre of its former estate, Westwood Park, which is Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
With its four diagonal wings, added to the original, early-17th century house at some time later in the same century, the house's design was a precursor of the Butterfly plan which became popular in the 19th century.
House.
Situated on a rising ground, the house greatly resembles a Norman chateau; it is built of brick with stone quoins and parapets. The core of the house dates from about 1600 and is square and three storeys high; the saloon occupied the first floor, and was lighted by large bay windows. Wings project in a line from the centre of each corner of the house, and communicate, by doors on each floor, with the central building. At some distance from each wing, yet opposite to them, are small square towers that were once connected by walls with the main building; but the walls have been removed, or fallen, and the towers now stand alone.
The gatehouse is immediately in front of the house at some little distance in advance; the gate has a red brick lodge on each side of it with ornamental gables and pinnacles. The gate between them is ornamented with the heraldic bearings of the family, the mullet or star of five points, and below them the garbs or wheat-sheaves. These bearings are also sculptured on the parapets, the wheatsheaves forming the pilasters and the mullets the balusters. The timber-work over the gate, with its high pointed roof and small pinnacle, is very picturesque.
The stables and servants' offices were a short distance in the rear of the house, and the kitchen garden covers the site of the long since demolished convent.
Park.
Writing in 1891 Laura Valentine commented that the house was in the centre of a large and well-wooded park, with a lake of some size to the east, and a lovely avenues of grand old trees radiating from it. The front of the mansion commanded a view of the lake. From Windows in the library a grand view was obtained over "a most beautiful and undulating country". The lake (which occupies ), the radiating avenues, and the ancient oaks added to its beauty. "There is, indeed, all over Worcestershire a soft beauty of landscape that is very bewitching".
Although the house and large lake remain, the park is now a shadow of its former self. For example the only remaining tree-lined avenue is a straight one that leads from Droitwich to the gatehouse.
History.
Eustachia de Say and her son Osbert FitzHugh gave the church located at Westwood to Fontevraud Abbey, in the Loire valley, where Henry II of England, his wife Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and their son Richard I (the Lionheart) are buried. Soon afterwards, a small priory was erected at Westwood, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, for six Benedictine nuns. Over the centuries the convent grew until it ultimately numbered eighteen sisters. The last prioress, Joyce Acton, received at the dissolution an annual pension of ten pounds.
After the dissolution Henry VIII granted Westwood, with its demesne lands, to Sir John Pakington. The Pakington family seat was in the adjacent village of Hampton Lovett, but that house was burnt down during the English Civil War so they moved to Westwood. The house at Westwood was built in the reign of Elizabeth as a banqueting house by Sir John's nephew, also John Pakington (1549-1625). The house was enlarged and repaired and the park was improved.
During the latter part of the war and the Interregnum the house was the residence of Sir John Pakington (1621–1680), an ardent Royalist who was tried for his life by the Parliament; his estates were sequestered, and he was greatly plundered, but he ultimately compounded with the Parliamentary Committee for £5,000. His house was the refuge of learned men who support the King's cause: Dr. Henry Hammond found shelter with him, as did the Bishops Morley, Fell, Gunning.
There is a link between "Whole Duty of Man" (an influential and popular Anglican tract) and Westwood House, because while the author is unknown, the introduction was written by Henry Hammond, and this has led some to speculate that Sir John's wife, Dorothy, Lady Pakington, may have been the author.
During and after the Glorious Revolution the tried hospitality of Westwood House was extended to those who scrupled to take the oath of allegiance to William of Orange, and Dean George Hickes wrote several of his important works at Westwood.
In the 19th century the house was the residence of John Pakington, 1st Baron Hampton, a British Conservative politician, who before he lost his Droitwich seat in the Commons in 1874 and was raised to the peerage held a number of government posts. The man who defeated him in that election was the Liberal politician and industrialist John Corbett. He built a house in the style of a Louis XIII château. Known as Chateau Impney, it stands only about a mile away from Westwood and although it was said to be built in that style to please his Franco-Irish wife, "More relevant may have been his desire to cock a snook at his political rival, Sir John Pakington of Westwood House" (Sir Nikolaus Pevsner).
Australian connection.
On 23 May 1860, the first town gazetted in Queensland, Australia, by the Queensland Government was Westwood, named after Westwood House. Although the area had been shown as Prestone on the original survey plan, Queensland Governor George Bowen decided to name the town Westwood in honour of Lord John Pakington's role as Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1852.


Rio Cobre

The Rio Cobre is a river of Jamaica. Its source is unclear, the headwaters being a writhing of unnamed, seasonally dry tributaries. The highest of these rise just above the contour. From here it flows to meet the Caribbean Sea in the north west corner of Kingston Harbour. It is dammed by the Rio Cobre Dam just above Spanish Town.
The river's most significant feature is perhaps the gorge through which it runs between Bog Walk and northern Spanish Town.
Bridges.
There are a number of bridges over the Rio Cobre. The oldest is Flat Bridge, which was first built before 1774.
A second bridge, Iron Bridge was built in 1801. The proposal for this bridge first appeared in 1766 and the topic was discussed various bodies until 1796 the House of Assembly which originally resolved to erect a stone bridge. However technical difficulties led to an iron bridge being erected. This enabled the road to be raised above the surrounding terrain, something particularly important in the context of periodic floods in the rainy season. It used the same technology developed for The Iron Bridge in Shropshire, England, and indeed constituted the first application of this technology outside the United Kingdom. The iron components were pre-fabricated in West Yorkshire with a total weight of 87 tons. It took 43 horse-drawn wagons to transport these from the coast to the construction site. The bridge remained in use until 2000, when erosion by storm water put its future survival in jeopardy. However funds were raised for a restoration project which restored the bridge for use by 2010.