Trieste on the Adriatic Sea

18 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Trieste Collage © DanieleDF1995

Trieste Collage © DanieleDF1995

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy’s border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city. Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste and throughout history it has been influenced by its location at the crossroads of Germanic, Latin, Austro-Hungarian and Slavic cultures. In 2009, it had a population of about 205,000 and it is the capital of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trieste province. Trieste was one of the oldest parts of the Habsburg Monarchy from 1382 until 1918. In the 19th century, it was the most important port of one of the Great Powers of Europe. As a prosperous seaport in the Mediterranean region, Trieste became the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (after Vienna, Budapest, and Prague). In the fin-de-siecle period, it emerged as an important hub for literature and music. However, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Trieste’s union to Italy after World War I led to some decline of its “Mittel-European” cultural and commercial importance. Enjoying an economic revival during the 1930s and throughout the Cold War, Trieste was an important spot in the struggle between the Eastern and Western blocs. Today, the city is in one of the richest regions of Italy, and has been a great centre for shipping, through its port (Port of Trieste), shipbuilding and financial services.   read more…

The water town Fürstenberg on the Havel

9 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Brandenburger Strasse with Havel church bell tower © Christopher Voitus/cc-by-sa-3.0

Brandenburger Strasse with Havel church bell tower © Christopher Voitus/cc-by-sa-3.0

Fürstenberg is a town in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany. Until 1950, Fürstenberg was part of the former Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Fürstenberg is situated on the River Havel, 21 kilometres (13 mi) south of Neustrelitz, and 75 kilometres (47 mi) north of Berlin.   read more…

Theme Week Warsaw – Museum of the History of Polish Jews

1 January 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  10 minutes

© Wojciech Kryński/cc-by-sa-3.0-pl

© Wojciech Kryński/cc-by-sa-3.0-pl

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Polish: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich) is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word Polin in the museum’s name means, in English, either “Poland” or “rest here” and is related to a legend on the arrival of the first Jews in Poland. The cornerstone was laid in 2007, and the museum was first opened on April 19, 2013. The museum’s Core Exhibition opened in October 2014. The museum features a multimedia narrative exhibition about the vibrant Jewish community that flourished in Poland for a thousand years up to the Holocaust. By the middle of the 1930s, Poland had the largest Jewish minority in Europe, with a share of about 10% of the total population. The building, a postmodern structure in glass, copper, and concrete, was designed by Finnish architects Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma.   read more…

Budapest

17 November 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Budapest Castle © Karelj

Budapest Castle © Karelj

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country’s principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. Budapest has 1.7 million inhabitants, the Commuter Area is home to 3.3 million people. The city covers an area of 525 square kilometres (202.7 sq mi) within the city limits. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of right (west)-bank Buda and Óbuda with left (east)-bank Pest.   read more…

Jewish Museum in Berlin

8 November 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Berlin, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  14 minutes

Kollegienhaus, the baroque part of the Jewish Museum © flickr.com - Jess & Peter/cc-by-2.0

Kollegienhaus, the baroque part of the Jewish Museum © flickr.com – Jess & Peter/cc-by-2.0

The Jewish Museum Berlin (Jüdisches Museum Berlin) is one of the largest Jewish Museums in Europe. In two buildings, one of which is a new addition specifically built for the museum by architect Daniel Libeskind, two millennia of German Jewish history are on display in the permanent exhibition as well as in various changing exhibitions. German-Jewish history is documented in the collections, the library and the archive, in the computer terminals at the museum’s Rafael Roth Learning Center, and is reflected in the museum’s program of events. The museum opened to the public in 2001.   read more…

Theme Week Ukraine – Lviv, Little Paris of the East

30 August 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Opera House © Jan Mehlich/cc-by-sa-2.5

Opera House © Jan Mehlich/cc-by-sa-2.5

Lviv is a city in western Ukraine and the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast. Formerly capital of the historical region of Galicia, Lviv is now regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today’s Ukraine. The historical heart of Lviv with its old buildings and cobblestone roads has survived Soviet and Nazi occupation during World War II largely unscathed. The city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as Lviv University and Lviv Polytechnic. Lviv is also a home to many world-class cultural institutions, including a philharmonic orchestra and the famous Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumière in the city centre in September 2006.   read more…

Bergen in the Lüneburg Heath

17 May 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Römstedthaus - Local History Museum © Hajotthu/cc-by-3.0

Römstedthaus – Local History Museum © Hajotthu/cc-by-3.0

Bergen is a town located between Soltau and Celle on the Lüneburg Heath in Lower Saxony. Administratively it acts as a municipal borough divided into 12 subordinate parishes based on the town and its surrounding villages. The town has 13,100 inhabitants. Members of the British military and their families, who were not included in the census, bring the actual population to about 17,000. These soldiers occupy a NATO base and exercise on the Bergen-Hohne Training Area just outside the town. The Sieben Steinhäuser, a cluster of dolmens dating from the Stone Age, are located within the training area.   read more…

Terezín on Ohře river

15 May 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

City Hall © Sokoljan/cc-by-sa-3.0

City Hall © Sokoljan/cc-by-sa-3.0

Terezín (German: Theresienstadt) is a former military fortress and adjacent walled garrison town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. In the late 18th century, the Habsburg Monarchy erected the fortress along the Ohře River, near its confluence with the Elbe River at Litoměřice. It was named Theresienstadt after Empress Maria Theresa. Construction started in 1780 and lasted ten years. The fortress consisted of a citadel, the “Small Fortress” (Kleine Festung), to the east of the Ohře, and a walled town, the “Main Fortress” (Große Festung), to the west. The total area of the fortress was 3.89 km². In peacetime it held 5,655 soldiers, and in wartime around 11,000 soldiers could be placed here. Trenches and low-lying areas around the fortress could be flooded for defensive purposes. Fortress Josefov in eastern Bohemia was built at the same time and had a similar purpose. Together with fortress Terezín, it was intended as protection against attacks from Prussia, but its military importance, like other such fortresses built across Europe, was minimal as decisive battles were often fought elsewhere.   read more…

Neuengamme in the Vierlanden

13 May 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hamburg Reading Time:  9 minutes

© Pincerno/cc-by-sa-3.0-de

© Pincerno/cc-by-sa-3.0-de

Neuengamme is a quarter of Hamburg, located in the Bergedorf borough, near the river Dove Elbe (a tributary of the river Elbe). In this rural quarter, part of the Vierlanden,consisting of the villages Curslack, Kirchwerder, Neuengamme and Altengamme, the population is at 3,500. Neuengamme is located in the southeastern part of Hamburg. In 2007 the quarter had a total area of 18.6 km².   read more…

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