Château Ksara in Lebanon

1 March 2026 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, House of the Month, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  10 minutes

© Philippe48/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Philippe48/cc-by-sa-3.0

Château Ksara is a winery in Beqaa Valley of Lebanon. it is located in the town of Ksara near Zahle. It was founded in 1857 by Jesuit priests. Château Ksara wine is most popular in Lebanon, but due to a large Lebanese diaspora all over the world, it can be found and purchased in many countries. Château Ksara produces approximately 3 million bottles annually. Its wines are exported to over 40 countries. Main export markets include Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Brazil, Africa, Australia and Arab Countries.   read more…

Medingen Abbey in Bad Bevensen

26 February 2026 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Abbey Church © FriedrichFrisch/cc-by-sa-4.0

Abbey Church © FriedrichFrisch/cc-by-sa-4.0

Medingen Abbey, located in Medingen, a district of Bad Bevensen in Lower Saxony, is a former Cistercian nunnery that has existed as a Protestant women’s foundation since the Reformation. It originated in 1228 from the Cistercian convent of Wolmirstedt, initially in Restorf (now part of Höhbeck, Lüchow-Dannenberg district) and, after several relocations, in Medingen (then called Zellensen) from 1336 onwards. Medingen lies approximately 16 kilometers north of the old Hanseatic city of Uelzen. At its peak in the 16th century, the abbey played a significant role in cultural history, primarily through the written dissemination of medieval songs.   read more…

Theme Week Thessaly – Kalabaka

28 January 2026 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Meteora with view over Kastraki in Kalabaka © Alma/cc-by-sa-3.0

Meteora with view over Kastraki in Kalabaka © Alma/cc-by-sa-3.0

Kalabaka (Greek: Kalabáka, alternative transliterations are Kalambaka and Kalampaka) is a town and seat of the municipality of Meteora in the Trikala regional unit, part of Thessaly in Greece. The population was 11,492 at the 2021 census, of which 8,573 in the town proper. The Meteora monasteries are located near the town. Kalabaka is the northwestern terminal of the old Thessaly Railways, now part of OSE.   read more…

Theme Week Thessaly

26 January 2026 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Street scene in Larissa © Iolchos07/cc-by-sa-4.0

Street scene in Larissa © Iolchos07/cc-by-sa-4.0

Thessaly (Greek: Thessalía; ancient Thessalian: Petthalía) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia (Ancient Greek: ??????, Aiolía), and appears in Homer‘s Odyssey.   read more…

Weltenburg Abbey in Bavaria

22 January 2026 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Octobrist/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Octobrist/cc-by-sa-4.0

Weltenburg Abbey (Kloster Weltenburg) is a Benedictine monastery in Weltenburg near Kelheim on the Danube in Bavaria, Germany. The abbey is situated on a peninsula in the Danube, in a section of the river valley called the Weltenburg Narrows (otherwise known as the Danube Gorge).   read more…

Vondel Church in Amsterdam

3 January 2026 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© IdsVanHouten/cc-by-sa-4.0

© IdsVanHouten/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Vondel Church (Dutch: Vondelkerk) was a church building located on Vondelstraat in Amsterdam-West. From 1880 to 1977, the building—designed by architect Pierre Cuypers—served as the Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus for the Roman Catholic parish of the same name. After its deconsecration, the central nave was used for purposes including concerts, while surrounding spaces were rented out as offices.   read more…

Maulbronn in Baden-Württemberg

30 December 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Bon appétit, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Dguendel/cc-by-4.0

© Dguendel/cc-by-4.0

Maulbronn is a city in the district of Enz in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. Founded in 1838, it emerged from a settlement, built around a monastery, which belonged to the Neckar Community in the Kingdom of Württemberg. In 1886, Maulbronn officially became a German town and was an administrative centre until 1938. The return of many displaced persons following the Second World War significantly raised the local population.   read more…

Church of the Pater Noster in East Jerusalem

29 December 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  6 minutes

© W. Robrecht/cc-by-sa-3.0

© W. Robrecht/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Church of the Pater Noster (French: Église du Pater Noster) is a Catholic church located on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem. It is part of a Carmelite monastery of cloistered nuns, also known as the Sanctuary of the Eleona. The Church of the Pater Noster stands next to the ruins of the 4th-century Late Roman/Early Byzantine Church of Eleona. The ruins of the Eleona were rediscovered in the 20th century and its walls were partially rebuilt. Today, France administers the land on which both churches and the entire monastery are standing, following the Ottoman capitulations, as the Eleona Domain (French: Domaine de l’Éléona), part of the French national domain in the Holy Land, which has been formalised by the Fischer-Chauvel Agreement of 1948-49, though the agreement has not been ratified by Israel’s Knesset.   read more…

Mission Santa Barbara in California

26 December 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

© Chris06/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Chris06/cc-by-sa-4.0

Mission Santa Barbara (Spanish: Misión de Santa Bárbara) is a Spanish mission in Santa Barbara, California, United States. Often referred to as the ‘Queen of the Missions’, it was founded by Padre Fermín Lasuén for the Franciscan order on December 4, 1786, the feast day of Saint Barbara, as the tenth mission of what would later become 21 missions in Alta California.   read more…

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