Architectural Photographs

[truehobbit]

I will agree with the Emporer Julian, christiannities greatest crime was and is in the suppression of the Hellenist thought, preferring to replace reason with faith and humanity with relegiosity.

Yes, and especially as reason is so useful when it comes to justifying all sorts of atrocities, isn't it?
And all that about loving everybody and all that - ick, who wants that?



Lovely pics, though!
Pity the city looming behind the ruins is so ugly.

[eborr]

They keep on reconstructing the Parthenon, the current plan is to restore it to the 1639 version, which was before the Turks blew it up, they decided it was a good place for an ammunition store.

There is a lot of re-building there, much of the challenge is to fix the previous attempts at shoring it up.

In earlier "fixes" they had used steel pins, which have corroded the limestone, know they are using titanium.

As a Archaelogical purist, I am not really keen on "restoration" of course there has to be preservation and conservation, and there are safety considerations, but I have never been keen on "rebuilding".

I have never seen the acropolis without cranes, so it was no surprise this time to see as it is.



If you want to see vandalism of a lovely building, take a look at this picture, this is a lovely 11c Byzantine church, and they have built this horrible extension around the whole building, it's just awful, the integrity of a building that has survived for 1000 years and has seen Byzantine, Frankish, Ottoman and Greek rulers, has been compromised for what !

[eborr]

last from here

this is from the Temple of Olympian Zeus - it was massive



the tree is front is approx 15 feet tall


The scale of the thing fills me with awe, I like this photo with the brooding presence of the Acropolis on the hill, it's picked up a sort of red tone which is certainly in the columns, but I don't remember it being that strong




this last one is for the lawyers, called the court of Delphinious it dates from the Archaic period, and so is a relatively rare and early building.

As we all know the routes of our liberal democracy rests in having a clear and fair legal system, which the Greeks got from Solon and Draco, there laws could have been debated and enforced here 2200 years ago

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

This is a picture of some ruins on Forge Road in Ridley Creek State Park about a half hour outside Philadelphia.



BrianIs AtYou

[MaidenOfTheShieldarm]

Going back a page or two . . .

TIGG, I spent a month at the University of St. Andrews doing a summer program, and I miss it there so, so much. I'm hoping to transfer. Maybe we'll end up there at the same time! I hope you make it back.

Hobby, how could you not take a photo of that courtyard? It's absolutely breathtaking. One of the few truly beautiful examples of modern architecture, in my very uninformed opinion.

eborr, all of those photos are stunning! It must be amazing to be in a place so rich with history.

And my contribution for the moment:

[eborr]

Bit of a cheat this one, but since my piccys of the place are not that good and really at best derivative I have put in this link

http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtour/que ... ge/map.htm

to a virtual tour you need apple quick time which id downloadable for somewhere

my son is an undergrad at the college, is is pretty unique amongst Oxford colleges in the sense that it is one of the few older colleges that has a completely homogenous building, more at home in Versailles than on the High in Oxford.

He currently lodges in another notable Oxford building the Florey

http://www.benjaminedwards.net/Utopia/i ... /0102.html

a well known modern monstresety which has a grade 1 listing !!!

[Athrabeth]

eborr, thanks so much for your series of photos from Athens. About twenty years ago my husband and I travelled through Turkey for a couple of months. We always said that if Turkey got "stale" or unpleasant, we'd just "pop over" to Greece, but you know, it never did, so we never did! I'll have to look up some of our old slides from the trip.

This weekend, we've been clearing out a storage area in the basement, and came across all kinds of boxes and bags of memorabilia, including a small marble box inlaid with lapis and other semi-precious stones that I was quite convinced was lost forever. I bought it in Agra, India, as a reminder of the exquisite stonework we saw on the Taj Mahal.

I've been fortunate to see many beautiful and magnificent structures in many countries, but none has ever moved me to tears like the Taj did. It is quite beyond anything "man-made" that I have ever seen - absolutely magical and heartbreakingly lovely:



And the closer one gets, the more astonishing the quality of each and every little detail:





I am SO glad that I found that box!

[IdylleSeethes]

Tigg started this with Bibury and I would like to revisit.

[TIGG]

IdylleSeethes





that is Arlington Row, how did you get that perspective???

[truehobbit]

Oxford!
Thanks for the link, eborr, the virtual tour is great!
(The Florey building, though, is a bit, um, disturbing. )

Ath - wow! Those photos are fantastic!
I also think that the architecture of the Taj is as perfect as you can get - the balance and harmony of the structure is universally valid, somehow, and it has never struck me as exotic - I mean, yes, it's Indian, but in some respects it has a sense of balance that everybody can feel. (Not sure I can explain this.)
I was quite disappointed when I learned how new the building was, btw - something so universally harmonious I probably thought should also date from the depths of time somehow.

Glad you found the box!

IS, what a lovely place! Where is Bibury?

[Athrabeth]

Ath - wow! Those photos are fantastic!
I also think that the architecture of the Taj is as perfect as you can get - the balance and harmony of the structure is universally valid, somehow, and it has never struck me as exotic - I mean, yes, it's Indian, but in some respects it has a sense of balance that everybody can feel. (Not sure I can explain this.)
I was quite disappointed when I learned how new the building was, btw - something so universally harmonious I probably thought should also date from the depths of time somehow.

Hobby, the perfection of the Taj just defies rational thought, so I'm not surprised you can't find the words to explain your feelings. Seeing it for the first time through a lovely veil of golden-pink morning mist, really did bring tears to my eyes. As a matter of fact, I had to just stop and sit and gaze adoringly at it for quite some time before I could venture towards it. It was quite unlike anything I've ever experienced. When I picture the buildings of Tirion while I'm reading the Sil, it's the Taj that is my "model". There's something very "Valinorian" about it.

Glad you found the box!

Oh my, so am I!!

I had really given up on it, you know. But that didn't help heal the ache I would feel whenever I thought about it losing it. I blamed my zeal for yearly purging of accumulated "stuff".......thought that it probably was mistakingly culled during one of my "deep cleansings". "The Box" is now safe and sound in our new display case in the living room. It even has a place of honour under one of the halogen lights. I'll try to sneak a pic on one of my kids' digital cameras so I can show it off here!

All of the pics of our Asia travels (some twenty-five years ago now) are in the form of slides. Mr. Ath has sworn that one day SOON, he'll get them formatted onto a CD. Until then, this is very close to how I remember seeing the Taj for the first time:

[IdylleSeethes]

Tigg,

Now that you mention it, it seems like levitation would have been required. I think the trout brook runs horizontally under the picture. I seem to be 15 feet above the brook. I can assure you I didn't visit anyone on the opposite side of the road, so I really don't know how I got up in the air.

truehobbit,

Bibury is in the Cotswolds, west of Oxford. William Morris called it the "most beautiful village in England". It may be.


This is the crossing in Canterbury. I love gothic architecture, but is predictable structurally, although more variable in ornamentation. Most floor plans are flat, as seen in Salisbury, Winchester, Wells, Chartres, Rouen, Rheims, Notre Dame in Paris, etc. This crossing is interesting because the floor is rising at the crossing, shifting the vertical relationships in the architecture above from normal.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This picture could problably go in either this or the other thread:

[truehobbit]

Thanks, IS! Hmmh, I'm pretty sure there are other similarly beautiful villages in the UK! But I'm putting it on the "want to visit"-list!

And the cathedral is lovely! The crossing in a cathedral usually affords most impressive views!

Voronwë, your subliminal messages are quite beautiful!

Here's another bridge (and, yes, hopefully a subliminal message, too ):



The railway bridge leading to the central station in Cologne, with the ridge turret (hope that's the right word, I looked up "Dachreiter" and got this) of the Cathedral in the foreground.

[IdylleSeethes]

truehobbit,

That's a wonderful juxtaposition of gothic architecture with 20th century industrialism.

We would call that a spire on a cathedral. A smaller church would have a steeple. "Turret" is a term applied to the tower of a castle or something mimicking it. I chose "Spire" as the name of a product we hope to launch this year and was overruled because of the religious connotation, since it is targeted to a government market.

This is the Tour du Marquis of the Chateau de la Bretesche:

[Rowanberry]

This one could well go in the other thread too, but since it's of something man-made, I'll put it here; the Espoonkartano Bridge, built in 1777, and still in use:



Usually, the rapids in the front are much more impressive, but the summer when I took the photo was very dry.

[eborr]

folks was going to give you a guess where I am, however a combination of lousy photo skills and cheap camera screwed that uo

first a couple of interiors

the brickwork in that arch is roman yes Roman looks like imperial I would gues probably Hadrian-Trajan timescale in a modern building - it's a hotel



this is the best hotel, I can only afford to stay in it because we get corporate rates - a wonderful boutique hotel - ordered a single nightcap - cost the same as my three course supper with i litre of wine and liquer- but I am staying in the forum ,.......................




I think this little pillar has been repositioned, but what a great sight to look at with the after dinner espresso.



this is where I am tonight, the eternal city - much as I love Athens, and Cape Town and Manchester, and Oxford there is nothing like Roma, I often think that instead of invading if the Romans had simply offered to cook for everybody, we would still be under the sway of Rome today, of course that presumes nobody is stupid enough to let massive intellects such ad Geo. Bush have anything to do with human destiny, it is such placesas the Forli Imperali that thoughts strike even the terminaly stupid like me

[truehobbit]

this is where I am tonight, the eternal city - much as I love Athens, and Cape Town and Manchester, and Oxford there is nothing like Roma, I often think that instead of invading if the Romans had simply offered to cook for everybody, we would still be under the sway of Rome today,

Well said!

[eborr]

You knew this was coming

Eborr and more ruins




This is a view of the Forum looking Northwest-ish the Palatine is in the background



Pretty much 180 degree reverse from the Forum looking towards the Capitol - the structure at the bottom is the Tabularum, which is where the Romans kept their records, and built above it is the Palazzo Sentatorio which is a medieval building, I love it when you see buidings being constructed on top of other buildings like this




Another example of Roman stuff being re-used a temple becomes a church - nice when it happended - in fact more of the destruction of the great buildings of Rome was due to the Church than barbarians, from time to time various popes ordered the destruction of wonderful building to nick the marble for their rancid structures.



Having said that my favourite buiding in Rome survived because it became a church the wonderful Pantheon, I was only able to get these pcis late today, I had two meetings at either end of the city - and so was only able to get across here at about 5.30 pm - then the camera batteries ran out

some interiors





If you do one thing in life, go to the Pantheon and look up.

I was irritated by the pompous notice saying that this was a Christian place of worship and should be respected as such, oh for the Lupercale



back to the forum and some detail of the arch of Septimus serverus

finally one of the palaces of the imperial era



think it was Tiberius it's the scale of the thing - don't know if you can pick out the small door, but it's man size

[Erunáme]