Architectural Photographs

For the appreciation of the glorious beauty of nature and in unexpected places.
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Architectural Photographs

Post by TIGG »

To start the thread off. ( Thanks VTF)
Not totally architectural, but my version of a Hobbitish lane

Arlington Row, Bibury, England


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Post by Jnyusa »

Hurray! I'm off to find some googlephotos of Goslar, Germany - imo one of the most beautiful cities in the whole world.

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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Thank YOU, Tigger.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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Post by Jnyusa »

We lived in the small town of Braunschweig, Germany for a year - moved there for my husband’s sabbatical just after my oldest daughter’s first birthday. I used the time to travel as much as was possible with an an infant.

We were about 1.5 hours north of the Hartz Mountains - a major tourist area in Germany, famous for its mineral springs and landscape beauty. The old medieval Salt Road passed just west of the Hartz Mountains, going from Amsterdam/Hamburg to Salzburg, Austria. The Salt Road was the object of many wars, the net result of which was to unite/disunite northern and southern Germany several times. The periods of unification are what the Germans refer to as ‘Reichs’ - the first Reich being the north-south unification under Karl der Grosse (Charlemagne), and the second Reich being the east-west unification under Friedrich Wilhelm.

At the outskirts of the Hartz Mountains is the city of Goslar, which was the ‘throne’ of Friedrich Barbarossa, and became the center of control over the Salt Road in the 12th century when Barbarossa conquered Heinrich der Lowe, founder of Braunschweig and Munich, and so gained control over trade all the way from the north of lower Saxony to the south of Bavaria. Although this 12th ce. unification is not referred to as a Reich ... it is more a continuation of the Holy Roman Empire under a different dynasty ... in the Emperor’s ‘convention center’ (Kaiserpfalz) in Goslar, they have huge murals depicting the conquest of Charlemagne, the accession of Heinrich der Lowe, and the conquest of Friedrich Wilhelm, representing the three phases of ultimate unification for all the landes of Germany.

Goslar was easy driving distance for me with my infant daughter and I would often just drive down and spend the day there, walking the streets pushing a stroller and having lunch and a late coffee in some conditerei. Goslar is a medieval city, about two hundred years older than Braunschweig, and the roofs of the houses are made from black slate tiles. In the rain, with all the gables and turrets, this makes for the most stunning horizon of glistening black rooftops. It’s a genuine fairy tale setting.

Here’s a brief history from the internet:

“Goslar was founded in 922, and when in 968 the first silver was extracted from the metallic ore of the Rammelsberg, the city began to grow. It became one of the seats of the Holy Roman Empire until the 13th century. At the end of the 13th century Goslar became a member of the Hanseatic League, and prospered during the 15th and 16th centuries. The mines at the Rammelsberg, from where zinc, lead and copper were extracted, remained in operation until 1988.”

A nice example of the black slate rooftops (a) on a street corner, and (b) a view from the marktplatz.

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The castle Wernigerode (a) looking upward toward the turrets, and (b) a front view. The streets are very narrow. Looking up from between these ancient, leaning, three and four-story building gave me vertigo!

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Front view of the Kaiserpfalz ... it is a fabulously beautiful structure on beautiful grounds. This picture grabs nicely the effect of the great sloping lawn that you climb to reach the staircase.

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And the interior murals showing main events in the history of German unification ... this is the great hall where the medieval nobility under Barbarossa would congress to decide the fate of trade in Germany. The murals are ‘modern’- I’ve forgotten now the date when they were added

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Jn

edit: pics have been reloaded to change size, per following posts.
Last edited by Jnyusa on Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by TIGG »

Jyn, I just cleared my cookies and they are now the same size as my one.


Living there must have been like living in a sort of wonderland. I know I was overwhelmed with Europe, the age of everything, the history was amazing. (comes of coming from a young country (170 years).)

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a street in Cartona, Italy, I love the structure of this picture, it was my wallpaper for a few weeks after we got home form holiday.
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Post by Jnyusa »

I just cleared my whole cache and I am still getting oversized pictures. But if they aren't stretching the page for anyone else, then I'll just leave them alone, I guess.

Thanks, Tigg. I love that last pic you posted, btw. The thing I love best about the Mediterannean is the sunlight ... it has a character all it's own. It's not just light, you know, it's a particular kind of light ... hm, got no words for this. :)

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Post by TIGG »

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an old pump house at the Laxey Wheel, Isle of Man. At first I dismissed the photo, because of the lack of vibrant color, but it has grown on me.

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and the Cathedral? in Milan. Taurie came and collected us from our hotel and took us in the city centre, just in time to see the sun set behind the Cathedral. The front is covered in scaffolding as it is being restored. But the beauty is unmistakable.
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Post by Rodia »

Jny, most of your photos look TINY to me.... :help: I can barely see what's on them!

Architecture...ahh:) I'm a city hobbit and there is nothing more fun than houses.

This is too small but I haven't got the bigger file on hand...

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Toronto from high up. :)


And this is my city's skyline...

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And this photo I call the quintessence of London...:P

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Post by Jnyusa »

Ro I'm going to delete them from my photobuck and download them again. I think I should have loaded them from the thumbnails instead of opening them to the large size first.

Jn

edit: OK, I put the thumbnails into my photobucket instead of putting in the big pics and downsizing them. Now they're small ... are they still too tiny for you to see, Ro?

(don't know why these pics are giving me so many problems)

If this still isn't right, I'll download the big ones but resize them before I link to them. Maybe that will help.
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Post by truehobbit »

:clap:

I've been waiting for this thread! :D

No oversized pics here for me (and that's saying something! ;) ) - in fact, TIGG's are really small. But the hobbitish lane is just swoonsome! :love:

Goslar, Jny? :shock: I'm curious to see your pics! :D I know there is (or was?) an imperial palatinate building (or whatever else is English for "Kaiserpfalz"), but I don't think I've ever heard the city named for its beauty.

Ro, is that the Warsaw skyline, then?

I love the London pic! :)

I always want to post pics in all the lovely threads here, but that means finding them on my PC or some CD and shrinking them, or finding them online, saving (and possibly shrinking) them, and then uploading them to photobucket...I'm afraid I hardly ever get round to it.

So, here are two, which are small because I had them as sig pics, but the larger versions are too large - LOL.

Here's the outline of Cologne Cathedral at night (pic found on the internet):
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And my beloved Cambridge (an artsy sepia postcard, but I love it, it has something, um, Novemberly about it :) ) - the gate of Trinity College Lane:
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Edited to add: Jny, your post was still under construction when I wrote this one - can see your pics now (but they are still very small).
And I edited this post a bit, because I didn't know the Kaiserpfalz at Goslar was not Carolingian! :oops: :oops: :oops:
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Post by Jnyusa »

TH - I reposted the pics. You can see them now in the second post (I think). There's two pics of the Kaiserpfalz - one exterior, one interior. I believe the original structure containing the great hall is 12th ce., built by Barbarossa. But it has all been restored and the mural are modern. Some of the building must be later than 12 ce ... possible 19th ce?

I'll have to google a history. It is really impressive.

The other impressive thing in Goslar is a life-size musical clock in one of the marktplatzen ... you know those cuckoo clocks where the little figures come out of the doors and dance? This one is on the second floor of a building ... I guess the whole second floor is the watchwork ... and the life-size figures comes out doors in the face of the building and 'perform' while a mozart song is played. The figures are from the history of Goslar, the miners, the nobles, etc. It's very elaborate, and people gather in the platz to sing along
with the music on the hours when the clock chimes. It plays about three times a day, iirc.

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Post by TIGG »

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no prizes for guessing this one.
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Post by Athrabeth »

What a great idea, TIGG! :cheers:

For my first submission, here's Byodoin Temple, or actually, what remains of the temple built about a thousand years ago near Kyoto, Japan. This is more precisely The Phoenix Hall, the sole purpose of which is to house a wonderful golden statue of Amida Buddha. I think it's one of the loveliest structures I've ever seen.

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Post by truehobbit »

TIGG wrote:no prizes for guessing this one.
Um - Chicago, Illinois? :P :D

It's beautiful, TIGG - did you take it? Getting all nostalgic for Rome here. :love:

Ath, that is indeed a beautifully harmonious structure - perfect! :)

Jny, thanks for all the background info! (Much of which I didn't know about! :oops: :blackeye: ) The pics are still very small, but you can see how lovely it is there. :)
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Post by TIGG »

Ath,... :love:

I love it

TH, yes I took it in Rome, about 4 hours after we were robbed, I only wish I had not allowed the robbers to steal the opportunity from me to walk among those fabulous ruins :cry: ... regrets
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Post by Sassafras »

Gorgeous photographs, all :love:

These two (I hope they are not too large ... if they are I'll reduce) are sections of the great Temple at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It was built in 12c and dedicated to Vishnu, by the 15thc it was converted to Therevada Buddhism ... it has never been completely abandoned although much restoration and reclamation from the encroaching jungle was done in the 20thc.

One of my life-long dreams is to walk here ...

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Ever mindful of the maxim that brevity is the soul of wit, axordil sums up the Sil:


"Too many Fingolfins, not enough Sams."

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Post by TIGG »

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a Gondola's eye view of Venice.

Sass, They are beautiful!!!!
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Post by Sassafras »

Sass Your photos have not shown up for me??,

wonders if you forgot the links???
:oops:

Ahem. Yes.
All remedied now.

*slinks away*
Image

Ever mindful of the maxim that brevity is the soul of wit, axordil sums up the Sil:


"Too many Fingolfins, not enough Sams."

Yes.
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Post by truehobbit »

Sassafras wrote:Image
This looks like there's an Ent walking through the ruins! :shock:

TIGG, darn, spoiling this for you is a worse crime than stealing the money! :(

Love the perspective from the Gondola! :D Another one of yours?
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Post by TIGG »

TH, all my photos are my own ones. :D

Sass I edited that out so fast...and you still saw it :(, I had wondered if my computer was just being slowww.
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