Tiananmen Square in Beijing

5 June 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  5 minutes

National Museum of China © flickr.com - Nagyman/cc-by-2.0

National Museum of China © flickr.com – Nagyman/cc-by-2.0

Tiananmen Square or Tian’anmen Square is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananmen (“Gate of Heavenly Peace”) located to its north, which separates it from the Forbidden City. The square contains the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China in the square on 1 October 1949; the anniversary of this event is still observed there. The size of Tiananmen Square is 765 x 282 meters (215,730 m² or 53.31 acres). It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history.   read more…

HaKirya in Tel Aviv

4 June 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  9 minutes

Sarona Compound © Doraharon/cc-by-sa-3.0

Sarona Compound © Doraharon/cc-by-sa-3.0

HaKirya, or The Kirya (lit.: The Campus), is an area in central Tel Aviv, consisting of an urban military base north of Kaplan Street, and a civilian area south of it. HaKirya contains the Tel Aviv District‘s government center and the major Israel Defense Forces (IDF) base Camp Rabin, named for Yitzhak Rabin. It was one of the first IDF bases and has served as the IDF’s headquarters since its founding in 1948. Being located in a dense urban environment, the base serves mainly command, administrative, communications, and support functions.   read more…

European Political Community (EPC)

3 June 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union Reading Time:  7 minutes

European Political Community © EPCMoldova

European Political Community © EPCMoldova

The European Political Community (EPC) is an intergovernmental forum for political and strategic discussions about the future of Europe, established in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The group first met in October 2022 in Prague, with participants from 44 European countries, as well as the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission.   read more…

Royal Palace of Caserta

2 June 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  12 minutes

© Editor04082022/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Editor04082022/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Royal Palace of Caserta (Italian: Reggia di Caserta) is a former royal residence in Caserta, southern Italy, constructed by the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies as their main residence as kings of Naples. It is the largest palace erected in Europe during the 18th century. In 1997, the palace was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site; its nomination described it as “the swan song of the spectacular art of the Baroque, from which it adopted all the features needed to create the illusions of multidirectional space”. The Royal Palace of Caserta is the largest former royal residence in the world, over 2 million in volume and covering an area of 47,000 . and a floorspace of 138,000 square meters in the distributed in the five storeys of the building.   read more…

The sail training ship Pelican of London

1 June 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  6 minutes

Figurehead © Bjorn som tegner/cc-by-sa-3.0

Figurehead © Bjorn som tegner/cc-by-sa-3.0

Pelican of London is a sail training ship based in the United Kingdom. Built in 1948 as Pelican she served as an Arctic trawler and then a coastal trading vessel named Kadett until 1995. In 2007 an extended conversion to a sail-training ship was completed.   read more…

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels

1 June 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month Reading Time:  7 minutes

The nave © Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-4.0

The nave © Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula (French: Cathédrale des Saints Michel et Gudule, Dutch: Kathedraal van Sint-Michiel en Sint-Goedele), usually shortened to the Cathedral of St. Gudula or St. Gudula by locals, is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral in central Brussels, Belgium. It is dedicated to Saint Michael and Saint Gudula, the patron saints of the City of Brussels, and is considered to be one of the finest examples of Brabantine Gothic architecture.   read more…

Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg

1 June 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Singer Company House (Book House) © Alex 'Florstein' Fedorov/cc-by-sa-4.0

Singer Company House (Book House) © Alex ‘Florstein’ Fedorov/cc-by-sa-4.0

Nevsky Prospect is a main street (high street) located in the federal city of St. Petersburg in Russia. Its name comes from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the monastery which stands at the eastern end of the street, and which commemorates the Russian hero Prince Saint Alexander Nevsky (1221–1263). Following his founding of Saint Petersburg in 1703, Tsar Peter I planned the course of the street as the beginning of the road to Novgorod and Moscow. The avenue runs from the Admiralty in the west to the Moscow Railway Station and, after veering slightly southwards at Vosstaniya Square, to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.   read more…

The European Union: European Universities initiative

31 May 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  5 minutes

© European Union

© European Union

At the 2017 Gothenburg Summit, European Union (EU) leaders outlined a vision for education and culture. In its December 2017 Conclusions, the European Council called on EU Member States, the Council and the Commission to take forward a number of initiatives, including   read more…

Villa d’Este on Lake Como

30 May 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hotels, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  11 minutes

© panoramio.com - Nikolai Karaneschev/cc-by-3.0

© panoramio.com – Nikolai Karaneschev/cc-by-3.0

The Villa d’Este, originally Villa del Garovo, is a Renaissance patrician residence in Cernobbio on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy. Both the villa and the 25-acre (100,000 m²) park which surrounds it have undergone significant changes since their sixteenth-century origins as a summer residence for the Cardinal of Como. Nevertheless, visiting the garden in 1903 for Century Magazine, Edith Wharton found this to be ‘the only old garden on Como which keeps more than a fragment of its original architecture’, and noted that ‘though Queen Caroline anglicised part of the grounds, the main lines of the Renaissance garden still exist’. Since 1873, the complex has been a luxury hotel.   read more…

Return to TopReturn to Top