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…

Marble Palace in Saint Petersburg

22 April 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Игорь Кленовый/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Игорь Кленовый/cc-by-sa-3.0

Marble Palace is one of the first Neoclassical palaces in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is situated between the Field of Mars and Palace Embankment, slightly to the east from New Michael Palace. Currently, the palace accommodates permanent exhibitions of the Russian State Museum, notably “Foreign Artists in Russia (18th and 19th centuries)” and the “Peter Ludwig Museum at the Russian Museum”, featuring canvases by Andy Warhol and other Pop Art idols.   read more…

Myakka River State Park in Florida

29 March 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  7 minutes

Sunset © Mwanner/cc-by-sa-3.0

Sunset © Mwanner/cc-by-sa-3.0

Myakka River State Park is a Florida State Park, that is located nine miles (14 km) east of Interstate 75 in Sarasota County and a portion of southeastern Manatee County on the Atlantic coastal plain. This state park consists of 37,000 acres (150 km²), making it one of the state’s largest parks. It is also one of the oldest parks in the state. It was delineated in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. A small portion (1,920 acres or 7.8 km²) of the park was the gift of the family of Bertha Palmer to the state. The park is named after the Myakka River.   read more…

Botanical Garden of Brussels

21 March 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  7 minutes

The main orangery buiding © Edison McCullen/cc-by-sa-4.0

The main orangery buiding © Edison McCullen/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Botanical Garden of Brussels (French: Jardin botanique de Bruxelles, Dutch: Kruidtuin van Brussel) is a former botanical garden in Brussels, Belgium. It was created in 1826 and stood on the Rue Royale/Koningsstraat in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, near Brussels’ Northern Quarter financial district, until its relocation in 1938 to the National Botanic Garden of Belgium in Meise, Flemish Brabant. Since 1984, the main orangery building has been a cultural complex and music venue of the French Community of Belgium known as Le Botanique. It can be accessed from Brussels-North railway station and Botanique/Kruidtuin metro station on lines 2 and 6 of the Brussels Metro.   read more…

Federal Palace of Switzerland in Bern

15 March 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  6 minutes

Federal Palace of Switzerland © flicker.com - Flooffy/cc-by-2.0

Federal Palace of Switzerland © flicker.com – Flooffy/cc-by-2.0

The Federal Palace is a building in Bern housing the Swiss Federal Assembly (legislature) and the Federal Council (executive). It is the seat of the government of Switzerland and parliament of the country. The building is a listed symmetrical complex just over 300 metres (980 ft) long. It is considered one of the most important historic buildings in the country and listed in the Swiss Inventory of Cultural Assets of National Importance. It consists of three interconnected buildings in the southwest of Bern’s old city. The two chambers of the Federal Assembly, the National Council and Council of States, meet in the parliament building on Bundesplatz.   read more…

Saba in the Caribbean

25 February 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Environment Reading Time:  14 minutes

View of Windwardside from Mount Scenery © Radioflux/cc-by-sa-3.0

View of Windwardside from Mount Scenery © Radioflux/cc-by-sa-3.0

Saba is a Caribbean island and the smallest special municipality (officially “public body“) of the Netherlands. It consists largely of the active volcano Mount Scenery, which at 887 metres (2,910 ft) is the highest point of the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands. Together with Bonaire and Sint Eustatius it forms the BES islands.   read more…

Scone in Scotland

23 February 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  5 minutes

Scone Palace © Gunther Tschuch/cc-by-sa-4.0

Scone Palace © Gunther Tschuch/cc-by-sa-4.0

Scone (Scottish Gaelic: Sgàin; Scots: Scuin) is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The medieval town of Scone, which grew up around the monastery and royal residence, was abandoned in the early 19th century when the residents were removed and a new palace was built on the site by the Earl of Mansfield. Hence the modern village of Scone, and the medieval village of Old Scone, can often be distinguished.   read more…

Royal Palace of Brussels

21 February 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  8 minutes

© Matthias Zepper/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Matthias Zepper/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Royal Palace of Brussels is the official palace of the King and Queen of the Belgians in the centre of the nation’s capital, Brussels. However, it is not used as a royal residence, as the king and his family live in the Royal Palace of Laeken in northern Brussels. The website of the Belgian Monarchy describes the function of the Royal Palace as follows:   read more…

St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin

10 February 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  9 minutes

© Dronepicr/cc-by-3.0

© Dronepicr/cc-by-3.0

St Stephen’s Green (Irish: Faiche Stiabhna) is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by Lord Ardilaun. The square is adjacent to one of Dublin’s main shopping streets, Grafton Street, and to a shopping centre named after it, while on its surrounding streets are the offices of a number of public bodies as well as a stop on one of Dublin’s Luas tram lines. It is often informally called Stephen’s Green. At 22 acres (8.9 ha), it is the largest of the parks in Dublin’s main Georgian garden squares. Others include nearby Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square.   read more…

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