Santiago de Compostela

4 July 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union, European Capital of Culture, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Casa del Cabildo © flickr.com - Aestudio/cc-by-2.0

Casa del Cabildo © flickr.com – Aestudio/cc-by-2.0

Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain, with 95,000 inhabitants. Santiago is the site of the University of Santiago de Compostela, established in the early 16th century. The main campus can be seen best from an alcove in the large municipal park in the centre of the city.   read more…

The Benedictine abbey Stift Melk in Lower Austria

2 March 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  4 minutes

Park © Veleius

Park © Veleius

Melk Abbey is an Austrian Benedictine abbey, and one of the world’s most famous monastic sites. It is located above the town of Melk on a rocky outcrop overlooking the river Danube in Lower Austria, adjoining the Wachau valley.   read more…

St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall

17 January 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  7 minutes

St. Michael's Mount harbour © geograph.org.uk - Chris Downer

St. Michael’s Mount harbour © geograph.org.uk – Chris Downer

St Michael’s Mount is a tidal island located 366 metres (400 yards) off the Mount’s Bay coast of Cornwall. It is a civil parish and is united with the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway of granite setts, passable between mid-tide and low water.   read more…

Mount Athos in Greece

6 November 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Mount Athos © flickr.com - Gabriel

Mount Athos © flickr.com – Gabriel

Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in the Macedonia region, Greece. A World Heritage Site and self-governed state in the Hellenic Republic, Athos is home to 20 stavropegial Eastern Orthodox monasteries under the direct jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople. Today Greeks commonly refer to Mount Athos as the “Holy Mountain” (Greek: Άγιον Όρος, Agion Oros). In Classical times, while the mountain was called Athos, the peninsula was called Akté (Ἀκτὴ) (sometimes Acte or Akte).   read more…

Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the popes

5 September 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  7 minutes

Castel Gandolfo © Deblu68

Castel Gandolfo © Deblu68

Castel Gandolfo is a small Italian town or comune in Lazio that occupies a height overlooking Lake Albano about 15 miles south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills. It is best known as the summer residence of the Pope. It is an Italian town with the population of 8834. The town was voted one of the most beautiful towns in Italy.   read more…

The Way of St. James

22 August 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Editorial, EU blog post series, European Union, Bon voyage, Museums, Exhibitions, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  12 minutes

Ways of St. James in Western Europe © Manfred Zentgraf/CC-BY-SA

Ways of St. James in Western Europe © Manfred Zentgraf/CC-BY-SA

The Way of St. James or St. James’ Way (Spanish: El Camino de Santiago) is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried. The Way of St. James has existed for over a thousand years. It was one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during medieval times, together with Rome and Jerusalem, and a pilgrimage route on which a plenary indulgence could be earned; other major pilgrimage routes include the Via Francigena to Rome and the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.   read more…

Lourdes in the northern foothills of the Pyrenees

4 July 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Lourdes Basilica © Darreenvt

Lourdes Basilica © Darreenvt

Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France. Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes said to have occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous. At that time, the most prominent feature of the town was the fortified castle that rises up from a rocky escarpment at its centre.   read more…

The Luther City of Wittenberg

18 May 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Memorial plaque Wittenberg Old Town Market © OTFW

Memorial plaque Wittenberg Old Town Market © OTFW

Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000.   read more…

The Maria Laach Abbey

25 April 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

Aerial view © Dr.G.Schmitz

Aerial view © Dr.G.Schmitz

Maria Laach Abbey (in German: Abtei Maria Laach) is a Benedictine abbey situated on the southwestern shore of the Laacher See (Lake Laach), near Andernach, in the Eifel region of the Rhineland-Palatinate. It is a member of the Beuronese Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation. The abbey was known for nearly 770 years as “Abtei Laach” (“Abbatia Lacensis” or “Laach Abbey”, meaning the “Lake Abbey”) until 1862 when the Jesuits added the name “Maria”.   read more…

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