Theme Week New Zealand – Napier, the Art Deco Capital of the World
Wednesday, 28 November 2012 - 01:33 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: New Zealand / Neuseeland General , Museums, Exhibitions
Reading Time: 6 minutes
ASB Bank and T & G building © Pseudopanax
🔊 Listen to this Post
Napier is a
New Zealand city with a seaport, located in
Hawke’s Bay on the eastern coast of the
North Island . The population of Napier is about 58,800 as of the June 2011 estimate. About 18 kilometres south of Napier is the inland city of
Hastings . These two neighbouring cities are often called “The Twin Cities” or “The Bay Cities” of New Zealand. The total population of the metropolitan area of Napier and Hastings is about 122,600 people, which makes Napier-Hastings the fifth-largest metropolitan area in New Zealand, closely followed by
Tauranga (pop. 116,000), and
Dunedin (pop. 115,000), and trailing
Hamilton (pop. 203,400).
Napier is about 320 kilometres northeast of the capital city of Wellington . Napier has a population smaller than Hastings but is seen as the main centre due to it having both the seaport and the airport, although Hastings has a small aerodrome .
National Tobacco Company Ltd building © Alan Liefting
Napier’s major tourist attraction is its architecture, which draws
Art Deco and architecture enthusiasts from around the world. The rebuilding period after the 1931 earthquake coincided with the short-lived and rapidly changing Art Deco era and the
Great Depression , when little “mainstreet” development was being undertaken elsewhere. As a result Napier’s architecture is strikingly different from any other city; the other notable Art Deco city,
Miami Beach , has
Streamline Moderne Art Deco. The whole centre of Napier was rebuilt simultaneously.
Napier is a popular tourist city. It has one of the most photographed tourist attractions in the country, a statue on Marine Parade called
Pania of the Reef . Thousands of people flock to Napier every February for the
Art Deco Weekend event, a celebration of its Art Deco heritage and history. Other notable tourist events attracting many outsiders include the region’s annual Wine & Food Festival (named
Harvest Hawke’s Bay ), and Mission Concert at the Mission Estate Winery in the nearby township of
Taradale .
Here you can find the complete
Overview of all Theme Weeks .
Read more on
Napier City Council ,
Napier Visitor Centre ,
Art Deco Trust ,
Port of Napier ,
Hawke’s Bay Tourism ,
Hawke’s Bay Airport and
Wikipedia Napier . Photos by Wikipedia Commons.
VIDEO
Recommended posts:
[caption id="attachment_154206" align="aligncenter" width="590"] North part of Opole's centre © Kaww[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Opole is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River (Odra). It has a population of 126,000 and is the capital of the Upper Silesia, Opole Voivodeship and, also the seat of Opole County. Opole hosts the annual National Festival of Polish Song. The city is also known for its 10th century Church of St. Adalbert and the 14th century Church of the Holy Cross.
Alongside German and Polish, many citize...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_153561" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Fontaine République on Place de la République © Le grand Cricri[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Brive-la-Gaillarde is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Corrèze department. It has around 50,000 inhabitants, while the population of the urban area was 89,260 as of 1999. Although it is by far the biggest commune in Corrèze, the capital is Tulle.
The commune was named "Brive" until 1919, when it was renamed "Brive-la-Gaillarde". The word "Gaillar...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_227617" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Historic centre of Riga, an UNESCO World Heritage Site © Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the Baltic states; and is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of 64,589 km² (24,938 sq mi), with a popula...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_153680" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © PlanetSolar[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]What is the goal of the PlanetSolar team? To be the first to circumnavigate the globe in a "solar" boat, i.e. one driven by a silent, pollution-free electrical engine powered exclusively by solar energy.
With this project, the PlanetSolar team has two objectives. Firstly, to show that current technologies aimed at improving energy efficiency are reliable and effective, and secondly to advance scientific research in the fiel...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_160557" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Aerial view of Alytus © Auriukux[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The sixth largest city in the country, the biggest regional economic, administrative, cultural and educational centre of Southern Lithuania. Alytus occupies 40 square kilometres with more than 68 thousand inhabitants.
Alytus has a favourable geographic situation: Alytus County borders Belarus, Poland and Russia. Alytus is on the highway both to the West (France, Germany, Poland, etc.) and to the E...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_223262" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Darjeeling Himalayan Railway diesel locomotive © Subhrajyoti07/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Mountain railways of India are the narrow-gauge railway lines that were built in the mountains of India. Three of them, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, and the Kalka–Shimla Railway, are collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name "Mountain Railways of India". The fourth railway, the Matheran Hill Rai...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_160787" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Les Arcs © Dmitry A. Mottl[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Bourg-Saint-Maurice is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It is the last large town along the Tarentaise valley in the heart of the French Alps.
Bourg-Saint-Maurice is part of the Paradiski ski area (425 km of slopes, 141 lifts, 239 slopes - 12 Green, 132 Blue, 66 Red, 29 Black). Although there is no skiing at this altitude, it is conveniently linked to...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_23403" align="alignleft" width="590"] Uffizi © Riccardo Speziari/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Uffizi Gallery is a museum in Florence, Italy. It is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.
Building of the palace was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de' Medici as the offices for the Florentine magistrates - hence the name "uffizi" ("offices"). The Palazzo degli Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices, the Tribunal and th...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_153648" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Le Havre Beach © Urban[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total population of the greater Le Havre conurbation is smaller than that of Rouen. It is also the second largest subprefecture in...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_150714" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Lake Windermere © geograph.org.uk - Mari Buckley[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains (or fells) but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth and the other Lake Poets.
The majority of the area was designated as the Lake...
[ read more ]
