Al-Karak in Jordan

5 February 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  11 minutes

Al-Karak and Kerak Castle © Berthold Werner/cc-by-3.0

Al-Karak and Kerak Castle © Berthold Werner/cc-by-3.0

Al-Karak, known in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as Kerak, is a city in Jordan known for its Crusader castle, the Kerak Castle. The castle is one of the three largest castles in the region, the other two being in Syria. Al-Karak is the capital city of the Karak Governorate. Al-Karak lies 140 kilometres (87 mi) to the south of Amman on the ancient King’s Highway. It is situated on a hilltop about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level and is surrounded on three sides by a valley. Al-Karak has a view of the Dead Sea. A city of about 32,000 people has been built up around the castle and it has buildings from the 19th-century Ottoman period. The town is built on a triangular plateau, with the castle at its narrow southern tip.   read more…

Jesus Trail in Israel

24 December 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  7 minutes

Walking the Jesus Trail near Nazareth © Zeromancer44/cc-by-sa-3.0

Walking the Jesus Trail near Nazareth © Zeromancer44/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Jesus Trail is a 65 km (40 mi) hiking and pilgrimage route in the Galilee region of Israel that traces the route Jesus may have walked, connecting many sites from his life and ministry. The main part of the trail begins in Nazareth and passes through Sepphoris, Cana (Kafr Kanna), the Horns of Hattin, Mount Arbel Cliffs, the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Tabgha, and the Mount of Beatitudes. An alternate return route passes by Tiberias, the Jordan River, Mount Tabor, and Mount Precipice. The Jesus Trail runs within the 1967 border.   read more…

Neresheim Abbey

21 October 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  13 minutes

© Holger Uwe Schmitt/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Holger Uwe Schmitt/cc-by-sa-4.0

Neresheim Abbey or the Abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra, Neresheim is located above the town of Neresheim in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany. It is now a Benedictine monastery and is part of the Beuronese Congregation.   read more…

St. Michael’s Church in Hamburg

11 October 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hamburg Reading Time:  11 minutes

Port of Hamburg and St. Michael's Church © Dietmar Rabich/cc-by-sa-4.0

Port of Hamburg and St. Michael’s Church © Dietmar Rabich/cc-by-sa-4.0

St. Michael’s Church (German: Hauptkirche Sankt Michaelis), colloquially called Michel, is one of Hamburg‘s five Lutheran main churches (Hauptkirchen) and one of the most famous churches in the city. St. Michaelis is a landmark of the city and it is considered to be one of the finest Hanseatic Protestant baroque churches. The church was purposely built Protestant unlike many other Hamburg churches which were originally built by Roman Catholics and were converted to Protestantism during the Reformation. It is dedicated to the Archangel Michael. A large bronze statue, standing above the portal of the church shows the archangel conquering the devil. The 132-meter high Baroque spire totally covered with copper is a prominent feature of Hamburg’s skyline and has always been a landfall mark for ships sailing up the river Elbe.   read more…

Aachen Cathedral

7 October 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  18 minutes

© CEphoto - Uwe Aranas/cc-by-sa-3.0

© CEphoto – Uwe Aranas/cc-by-sa-3.0

Aachen Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Aachen,Germany, and the see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen. One of the oldest cathedrals in Europe, it was constructed by order of the emperor Charlemagne, who was buried there in 814. From 936 to 1531, the Palatine Chapel saw the coronation of thirty-one German kings and twelve queens. The church has been the mother church of the Diocese of Aachen since 1802. In 1978, Aachen Cathedral was one of the first 12 items to be listed on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites.   read more…

Milan Cathedral

2 October 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  17 minutes

Milan Cathedral from Piazza del Duomo © Øyvind Holmstad/cc-by-sa-4.0

Milan Cathedral from Piazza del Duomo © Øyvind Holmstad/cc-by-sa-4.0

Milan Cathedral is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Dedicated to the Nativity of St Mary (Santa Maria Nascente), it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Archbishop Mario Delpini. The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the largest church in Italy (the larger St. Peter’s Basilica is in the State of Vatican City), the third largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world.   read more…

Portrait: The sculptor, painter, architect and poet Michelangelo

28 August 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Architecture, Portrait Reading Time:  9 minutes

Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra © Metropolitan Museum of Art - online collection

Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra © Metropolitan Museum of Art – online collection

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni or more commonly known by his first name Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered by many the greatest artist of his lifetime, and by some the greatest artist of all time, his artistic versatility was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival, the fellow Florentine and client of the Medici, Leonardo da Vinci.   read more…

Salem in Massachusetts

21 August 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Peirce-Nichols House © Fletcher6/cc-by-sa-3.0

Peirce-Nichols House © Fletcher6/cc-by-sa-3.0

Salem is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located in the North Shore region. It was one of the most significant seaports in early American history.   read more…

Berlin Cathedral

22 March 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Berlin, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  9 minutes

© A.Savin/cc-by-sa-3.0

© A.Savin/cc-by-sa-3.0

Berlin Cathedral (German: Berliner Dom) is the short name for the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church (German: Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin) in Berlin. It is located on Museum Island in the Mitte borough. The current building was finished in 1905 and is a major work of Historicist architecture of the “Kaiserzeit“.   read more…

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