Finland - Kanta-Häme - Hämeenlinna

FINLAND

Hämeenlinna

Sent by Hilda from Turenki near Hämeenlinna, Finland.

Hämeenlinna (Finnish: [ˈhæmeːnˌlinːɑ]; Swedish: Tavastehus; Karelian: Hämienlinna; Latin: Tavastum or Croneburgum) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Kanta-Häme. It is located in the southern interior of the country and on the shores of Lake Vanajavesi. The population of Hämeenlinna is approximately 68,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 94,000. It is the 15th most populous municipality in Finland, and the 14th most populous urban area in the country.

Hämeenlinna was located in the heart of the historic province of Häme (Tavastia). Since then, Hämeenlinna has remained an important regional centre. The medieval Häme Castle (also known as Tavastia Castle) is located in the town.

Hämeenlinna is known as the birthplace of the Finnish national composer Jean Sibelius and designer Antti Nurmesniemi. It is now part of the Kanta-Häme region and was the residence of the Governor of the province of Southern Finland until 2010. Nearby cities include the capital Helsinki (98 km or 61 mi), Tampere (73 km or 45 mi) and Lahti (72 km or 45 mi), the regional centre of Päijät-Häme.

The neighbouring municipalities of Hämeenlinna are Akaa, Asikkala, Hattula, Hausjärvi, Hollola, Janakkala, Loppi, Padasjoki, Pälkäne, Tammela, Urjala and Valkeakoski. The former municipalities of Hauho, Kalvola, Lammi, Renko and Tuulos were merged with Hämeenlinna on 1 January 2009; with these mergers, the municipality of Hattula is almost completely surrounded by Hämeenlinna (read more).

China - Fujian Province - Swaying Stone at Dongshan

Dongshan Wind-Moving Stone (also known as the Swaying Stone or Fengdongshi), a famous natural wonder located on a coastal cliff in Dongshan Island, Fujian Province, China.

Sent by Ling from Beijing, China.

Dongshan Island Fengdong Rock is located on the stone cliff of the east gate of Dongshan Ancient City. It has always been the natural wonder of the people on the island and is regarded as a treasure. Dongshan Island wind-moving stone is famous for its strange, dangerous and hanging. The huge stone stands on the steep cliff. bottom are round and shaped like Xiantao. People stand under the Dongshan wind-moving stone. There is a thrilling feeling, which is a wonder of the world. The name is "wind stone". The wind-driven stone and the surrounding scenery complement each other. When visitors see this stone, they will be impressed (read more).

Qatar - Calligraphy Sculpture

Calligraphy Sculpture on the Doha Corniche in Qatar.

Sent by Nikola from Germany who had a vacation in Qatar.

Designed by: Sabah Arbilli

Location and Spatial Context: Doha Corniche – It is a small scale open artwork in a popular and huge public space.

Typology: It is abstract with a strong message.

This artwork has a very interesting and intricate design. It is based on a poem by H. E. Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani. The meaning of the poem is “And amongst the sultans I stood out; as a lanneret floating over mountain peaks.” This sculpture surely captured a lot of attention among the visitors of corniche. The sculpture is made of stainless steel and is 7.5m high including its base. It has added beauty and a topic of discussion in a popular public place like corniche (read more).

Remarkable Man - Robert Koch (1843-1910)

Robert Koch, the German physician and the pioneering microbiologist.

Sent by Uwe from Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (/kɒx/ KOKH; German: [ˈʁoːbɛʁt kɔx]; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. He won the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his investigations and discoveries in relation to tuberculosis".

As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, he is regarded as one of the main founders of modern bacteriology. As such he is popularly nicknamed the father of microbiology (with Louis Pasteur), and as the father of medical bacteriology. His discovery of the anthrax bacterium (Bacillus anthracis) in 1876 is considered as the birth of modern bacteriology. Koch used his discoveries to establish that germs "could cause a specific disease" and directly provided proofs for the germ theory of diseases, therefore creating the scientific basis of public health, saving millions of lives. For his life's work Koch is seen as one of the founders of modern medicine.

While working as a private physician, Koch developed many innovative techniques in microbiology. He was the first to use the oil immersion lens, condenser, and microphotography in microscopy. His invention of the bacterial culture method using agar and glass plates (later developed as the Petri dish by his assistant Julius Richard Petri) made him the first to grow bacteria in the laboratory. In appreciation of his work, he was appointed to government advisor at the Imperial Health Office in 1880, promoted to a senior executive position (Geheimer Regierungsrat) in 1882, Director of Hygienic Institute and Chair (Professor of hygiene) of the Faculty of Medicine at Berlin University in 1885, and the Royal Prussian Institute for Infectious Diseases (later renamed Robert Koch Institute after his death) in 1891 (read more).

Royal Crown Cola Ad Card

A vintage Royal Crown Cola print advertisement from approximately 1960. The ad features a woman in a yellow rain slicker and a hat holding a bottle of the soda and asks, "How fresh can you get?".

Sent by Ania from Wrocław, Poland.

RC Cola (short for Royal Crown Cola) is a carbonated cola beverage owned in the United States by Keurig Dr Pepper and internationally by RC Global Beverages, Inc.

The Cole-Hampton-Hatcher Grocery Store was established in Columbus, Georgia in 1901. The Hatcher family took sole ownership and the name was changed to the Hatcher Grocery Store in 1903. The grocery store was located at what was 22 West 10th Street. Today's address (after house number changes) is 15 West 10th Street. At the same time, the popularity of bottled soft drinks rose rapidly, and grocery store owners wished to maximize their profit. As a grocery wholesaler, Claud A. Hatcher purchased a large volume of Coca-Cola syrup from the local company salesman, Columbus Roberts. Hatcher felt that the company deserved a special reduced price for the syrup since it purchased such large volumes. Roberts would not budge on the cost, and a bitter conflict between the two erupted. Hatcher told Roberts he would win the battle by never purchasing any more Coca-Cola, and was determined to develop his own soft drink formula. He started developing products in the basement of the store with a recipe for ginger ale (read more).

Marilyn Monroe (8)

MARILYN MONROE

A moment of glamour during a media appearance/ radio interview for NBC studios in Hollywood.  She is pictured wearing a white ur stole and a sequined dress. This photo appears to have been taken during a session around August 1952. During this time, she recorded an episode titled "Statement in Full" for the Hollywood Star Playhouse program, which was later broadcast on August 31, 1952.

Sent by Lotti from Cologne, Germany.

Marilyn Monroe (7)

MARILYN MONROE

"ROSE"

May 21, 1952

Marilyn Monroe in a red  bolero jacket during a wardrobe test for the 1953 film Niagara.

Sent by Andrea from Bielefeld, Germany.

Niagara is a 1953 American noir thriller film directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by Charles Brackett. Brackett also wrote the screenplay alongside Walter Reisch and Richard Breen. Among the top-billed stars are Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, and Jean Peters. Denis O'Dea, and Max Showalter (credited as Casey Adams) are among other stars appearing in the film. Set in Niagara Falls, the film tells the story of two couples: one, a pair of newlyweds on their honeymoon, and the other, a husband and wife whose turbulent marriage is wracked by jealousy and deceit.

Unlike other films noir of the time, which were typically black-and-white, Niagara was shot in "three-strip" Technicolor (one of the last films to be made at 20th Century Fox in that format, as a few months later the studio began converting to CinemaScope, which had compatibility problems with three-strip but not with Eastmancolor).

Niagara was a box office success and received positive reviews from film critics. It was one of 20th Century Fox's biggest box office hits that year. Monroe was given top billing in Niagara, which elevated her to movie star status. Monroe's next two films, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire (both 1953), were even bigger successes commercially (read more).

Philippines - Historic City of Vigan

VIGAN

The City of Vigan [ spanish : La ciudad de Vigan / ilocano : La ciudad ti Vigan] is a 3rd class city in the provvince of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. It is the capital city of Ilocos Sur. The city, located on the western coast of the large island of Luzon, facing the West Philippines Sea.

Sent by Roxanne from Manila, Philippines.

Vigan is the most intact example in Asia of a planned Spanish colonial town, established in the 16th century. Its architecture reflects the coming together of cultural elements from elsewhere in the Philippines and from China with those of Europe and Mexico to create a unique culture and townscape without parallels anywhere in East and South-East Asia. An important trading post before the colonial era, Vigan is located at the river delta of Abra River, along the northwestern coastline of the main island of Luzon, in the Province of Ilocos Sur, Philippine Archipelago. The total area of the inscribed property is 17.25 hectares. The traditional Hispanic checkerboard street plan opens up into two adjacent plazas. The Plaza Salcedo is the longer arm of an L-shaped open space, with the Plaza Burgos as the shorter. The two plazas are dominated by the St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Archbishop’s Palace, the City Hall and the Provincial Capitol Building . The urban plan of the town closely conforms with the Renaissance grid plan specified in the Ley de la Indias for all new towns in the Spanish Empire. There is, however, a noticeable difference between Vigan and contemporary Spanish colonial towns in Latin America in the Historic Core (known as the Mestizo district), where the Latin tradition is tempered by strong Chinese, Ilocano, and Filipino influences. As its name implies, this district was settled by affluent families of mixed Chinese-Ilocano origin. The area contains the historic footprint of the entire town and consists of a total of 233historic buildings tightly strung along a grid of 25 streets.

The two storey structures are built of brick and wood, with a steeply pitched roof reminiscent of traditional Chinese architecture. The exterior walls of the upper storey are enclosed by window panels of kapis shells framed in wood which can be slid back for better ventilation. Most of the existing buildings were probably built in the mid 18th to late 19th centuries. Due to the economic decline of Vigan as an economic center after the World War II, only a few of the historic buildings had internal reorganization for alternative use. The Chinese merchants and traders conducted their business from shops, offices and storerooms on the ground floors of their houses, with the living quarters above. In addition to the domestic and commercial architecture, Vigan possesses a number of significant public buildings, which also show multi-cultural influences (read more).

Taiwan - Houtong Cat Village

Houtong Cat Village, New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Sent by Fishflies from Taipei, Taiwan. 

The Houtong Cat Village or Houdong Cat Village (Chinese: 猴硐貓村; pinyin: Hóudòng Māo Cūn) is a village in Ruifang District, New Taipei, Taiwan known for its cat population.

Houtong was originally called Kau-tong (Chinese: 猴洞; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: kâu-tōng; lit. 'monkey cave') due to the existence of a cave inhabited by monkeys in the early days.

Houtong was once a small, rich mining town in Ruifang, renowned for a well-preserved culture surrounding its railway which was built during the Japanese rule of Taiwan. During its prosperous years, the area produced around 220,000 tons of coal per year, the largest coal output of a single area in Taiwan. This attracted many immigrants to the area, which further spurred the town's growth to as many as 900 households with a population of more than 6,000 people. The last facility built in the area was a coal purification factory, built in 1920 (read more).

France - Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur - Rémy Potey Sundial

Restoration of the Rémy Potey sundial, Hameau du Rouet (Queyras - Hautes-Alpes - France).

Sent by Véronique from Loyat, France.

The sundial was the means to read the time in a country where the sun shines 300 days a year!

Many dials were painted by Giovanni Francesco Zarbula during the second half of the 19th century. In the last decades, Remi Potey has restored some of them and created others.

Most of them have a motto, either in Latin, French or dialect.

There are more than twenty of them in the village and the hamlets of Saint Véran (read more).

France - Nouvelle-Aquitaine - La Rochelle

LA ROCHELLE

17 - Charente Maritime - France

Sent by  Clément and Meghan who live near Angers, France.

La Rochelle (UK: /ˌlæ rɒˈʃɛl/, US: /ˌlɑː roʊˈʃɛl/, French: [la ʁɔʃɛl]; Poitevin-Saintongeais: La Rochéle) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. With 78,535 inhabitants in 2021, La Rochelle is the most populated commune in the department and ranks fourth in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region after Bordeaux, the regional capital, Limoges and Poitiers.

Situated on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean the city is connected to the Île de Ré by a 2.9-kilometre-long (1+3⁄4-mile) bridge completed on 19 May 1988. Since the Middle Ages the harbour has opened onto a protected strait, the Pertuis d'Antioche and is regarded as a "porte océane" or gateway to the ocean because of the presence of its three ports (fishing, trade and yachting). The city has a strong commercial tradition, having an active port from very early on in its history.

The city traces its origins to the Gallo-Roman period, attested by the remains of important salt marshes and villas. The Dukes of Aquitaine granted it a charter as a free port in 1130. With the opening of the English market following the second marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, the presence of the Knights Templar and the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem quickly made this small town the largest port on the Atlantic (read more).

Czechia - Charles Bridge

The historic, most iconic and pictyuresque sights of Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic

Sent by Ami from Milovice, Czechia.

Charles Bridge (Czech: Karlův most [ˈkarluːf ˈmost], German: Karlsbrücke) is a medieval stone arch bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the early 15th century. The bridge replaced the old Judith Bridge built 1158–1172 that had been severely damaged by a flood in 1342. This new bridge was originally called Stone Bridge (Kamenný most) or Prague Bridge (Pražský most), but has been referred to as "Charles Bridge" since 1870.

As the only means of crossing the river Vltava until 1841, Charles Bridge was the most important connection between Prague Castle and the city's Old Town and adjacent areas. This land connection made Prague important as a trade route between Eastern and Western Europe. The bridge is located on the historic coronation route of the Bohemian kings.

The bridge is 516 metres (1,693 ft) long and nearly 10 metres (33 ft) wide. Following the example of the Stone Bridge in Regensburg, it was built as a bow bridge with 16 arches shielded by ice guards. It is protected by three bridge towers, two on the Lesser Quarter side (including the Malá Strana Bridge Tower) and one on the Old Town side, the Old Town Bridge Tower. The bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues and statuaries, most of them baroque-style, originally erected around 1700, but now all have been replaced by replicas (read more).

Czechia - Jilemnice

JILEMNICE - KRKONOŠE

A town hall in Jilemnice, Czech Republic in a winter setting.

Sent by Arnold from Krkonoše, Czech Republic.

Jilemnice (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjɪlɛmɲɪtsɛ]; German: Starkenbach) is a town in Semily District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,400 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone (read more).

Czechia - Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž

Archbishop's Chateau and the Chateau Garden, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kroměříž, Czechia.

Sent by Emil from Kroměříž, Czechia.

The ensemble formed by the archiepiscopal castle, an adjacent garden (Podzámecká zahrada) and a pleasure garden (Květná zahrada) situated nearby, is located in the historic centre of the town of Kroměříž, in the Zlín region of the Czech Republic.

The “Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž” illustrate a type of early Baroque architectural ensemble which introduced to central Europe, ravaged by war, high architectural values of Italian origin, linked with high-quality sculpture, paintings, and applied arts and enhanced by the acme of garden design in which the technological potential of the use of water was developed with virtuosity. The Castle Garden demonstrates, in an extraordinary way, the creative affinity between the garden art of central Europe and broader European trends in the design of landscape parks. The Pleasure Garden influenced Moravian garden design, whilst the influence of the Castle spread further, to the Danube region.

The “Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž” constitute a remarkably well preserved and basically unchanged example of a Baroque aristocratic ensemble (in this case the seat of an influential ecclesiastic) of residence and pleasure garden, with a larger park that reflects the Romanticism of the 19th century (read more).

Switzerland - Jet d'Eau in Geneva

GENEVA

Jet d'eau, a fountain in Geneva, Switzerland. This iconic landmark is a popular tourist attraction and symbol of the city.

Sent by diams1 from Ursy, Switzerland.

The Jet d'Eau (French pronunciation: [ʒɛ do], Water-Jet) is a large fountain in Geneva, Switzerland and is one of the city's most famous landmarks, being featured on the city's official tourism web site. Situated where Lake Geneva exits as the Rhône, it is visible throughout the city and from the air, even when flying over Geneva at an altitude of ten kilometres (33,000 ft).

Five hundred litres (130 US gal) of water per second are jetted to an altitude of 150 metres (490 ft) by two 500 kW pumps, operating at 2,400 V, consuming one megawatt of electricity and costing 510,000 CHF per year. The water leaves the ten-centimetre (4 in) nozzle at a speed of 200 km/h (55 m/s). At any given moment, there are about 7,000 L (1,800 US gal) of water in the air. Unsuspecting visitors to the fountain—which can be reached via a stone jetty from the left bank of the lake—may be surprised to find themselves drenched after a slight change in wind direction (read more).