Marie of Romania, the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania, visited Balchik in 1921 and liked the location of the summer residence, ordering the vineyards, gardens and water mills of local citizens to be bought so a palace could be constructed at their place. Balkan and Ottoman Turkish motifs were used in the construction of the palace that was carried out by Italian architects Augustino and Americo, while a florist was hired from Switzerland to arrange the park. The main building's extravagant minaret coexists with a Christian chapel, perfectly illustrating the queen's Baháʼí Faith beliefs.
Today many of the former royal villas and other buildings of the complex are reorganized inside and used to accommodate tourists. Some of the older Bulgarian water mills have also been preserved and reconstructed as restaurants or tourist villas.


Bald Eagle State Forest is a Pennsylvania state forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #7.  The main office is located in Laurelton in Union County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The forest is found in Centre, Clinton, Mifflin, Snyder, and Union Counties. Bald Eagle shares a common border on its western extent with Rothrock State Forest and on its northern extent with Tiadaghton State Forest.
Five Pennsylvania State Parks are contained within the forest: Poe Valley, Poe Paddy, R. B. Winter, Reeds Gap, and Sand Bridge, as well as two former state parks: Snyder-Middleswarth Natural Area (formerly Snyder-Middleswarth State Park) and Hairy Johns Picnic Area (formerly a state park known as both "Hairy John's State Forest Park" and "Voneida State Forest Park").


Bald Hill is a major tourist destination commonly visited for sight seeing, hang gliding and paragliding. In September 2000 a hang glider pilot and paraglider pilot died after colliding over Bald Hill, which resulted in a coronial enquiry and the adoption of a management plan over Bald Hill in May 2003. Significant improvements to the management of hang gliding and paragliding activities have been undertaken since. Bald Hill (Lawrence Hargrave Memorial Park) is listed in the Wollongong Local Environment Plan as a heritage item of state significance. It is also listed in the Illawarra Regional Environmental Plan as a heritage item.
The name is becoming rather a misnomer, for growth of weeds and grasses has become quite prevalent on its mid slopes from its base. There are toilet and carpark facilities and several sculptures, notably one depicting a hang glider gliding above the escarpment. Motorbike tour groups use the reserve as a stop on their tours and nearby Otford has a similar lookout. Access to the lookout is by way of Lawrence Hargrave Drive from either Stanwell Tops, Otford or Stanwell Park. There is currently no major track to the lookout, although there is a small walking track from Chellow Dene Avenue in Stanwell Park to the top of the hill. In 2013, the Wollongong City Council announced plans to proceed with an A$5.3 million plan to redevelop Bald Hill.
In November each year, the Stanwell Park Festival of Flight is celebrated to commemorate the anniversary of Hargrave's achievements.


During the Second Opium War in 1860, on the morning of 21 September, a combined Anglo-French force that had recently occupied Tianjin engaged a Chinese army numbering some 30,000 strong at Baliqiao. A fierce battle ensued, with the Anglo-French force inflicting massive losses on the Chinese army and invading Beijing thereafter. Historians estimate the losses on the Chinese side as about 1,200. The French and British, in contrast, lost only five soldiers. The French troops were led by Charles Guillaume Cousin-Montauban, who was then awarded the title Count of Palikao by Napoléon III.
It was at the bridge where the Chinese imperial commissioners agreed to all the demands put forth by the British and French, including the payment of reparations and acceptance of foreign diplomats at the imperial court in Beijing.


The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1327, but that was not the year of construction. The medieval stone church was built around the year 1170. The church has Romanesque, Norman and early Gothic style. The nave is rectangular and the chancel has a semi-circular apse on its east end.
In 1714, the old church porch was torn down and the nave was extended to the west to make the nave larger. This extension is still referred to as the "new church". The old nave had no windows on the north side, while the new church has windows on both the north side and the south side. A new church porch was built on the west end of the newly enlarged nave and a sacristy was also built on the north side of the chancel. There is also an octagonal tower (from 1822) on the roof near the west end of the nave.
The altarpiece is often called the Mary tablet and is unique in Norway. The artist community at Balke church has given names to the Balkeskolen. A crucifix and a number of saint figures from the church can be found in a museum in Oslo.


The Ballard Carnegie Library is a historic Carnegie library in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. The institution was preceded by a freeholders' library in the 1860s, which was eventually replaced in 1901 by a reading room organized and funded by a women's group. Various funds including a $15,000 grant were used to create a new library for Ballard, then an independent city. The library opened to the public on June 24, 1904. It was the first major branch of the Seattle public library system after Ballard was annexed by Seattle in 1907, and also employed one of the first African American librarians in Seattle.
The Ballard Carnegie Library remained in use until 1963, when a newer and more modern facility replaced it. After its sale, the old library building housed a variety of private commercial enterprises, including an antique shop, a restaurant and a kilt manufacturer. In 1976 it was nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places by Seattle architect Larry E. Johnson, and formally added to the list in 1979.


In the late 1860s, when Ballard was a new settlement along the edge of Salmon Bay, a homesteader named Ira Wilcox Utter helped create a freeholders' library. In 1901, the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Ballard began raising money with fairs and socials for a new reading room on Ballard Avenue, which was moved and expanded several times. Having decided to build a proper library, the Ballard City Council established a library board in 1903 and applied to the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie for a grant to help underwrite the construction costs.
The library was built on a lot of 100 feet (30.5 m) square, which was purchased for $2,100. The costs for the building were raised by local businesses and citizens, with support from the earlier fundraising and book collections of the women's union and a $15,000 grant from Carnegie. When construction was completed, the building included facilities such as a 500-seat auditorium and a men's smoking room (the latter of which was later converted into a reading room). Part of the construction work was done by a chain gang.
Initially, the library had a cache of books provided by local residents and schools on standby for the completion and grand opening, as Carnegie's grant did not cover the initial costs of new books. An appeal was made to citizens to donate books and expand the collection. In 1907, the Seattle Public Library took control of the Carnegie library, when Ballard was annexed by the neighboring city. Early Scandinavian immigrants to the region made up a large proportion of the new facility's users (the Ballard area is noted for its significant historical presence of Scandinavian people). Early in the library's existence, it had a turnstile at the entrance to its book stacks, to count the number of book borrowers that passed through.
Following the start of World War I, the Carnegie Library became the location of various community activities, such as the distribution of information on the ongoing war. It also hosted Red Cross and English language classes. In 1942, during World War II, one of the first African American librarians in Seattle, Lucille Smith, was assigned to the library.
In 1956, Seattle voters approved a municipal bond to replace what was by then considered the "inadequate and impractical" library. The Ballard Carnegie Library was closed in 1963, when a new and larger public library was built in the area. The former library became an antique store. One of the cited reasons for the closure and sale of the library building was a number of expert claims that the building would not be able to withstand earthquakes (which have taken place in the Seattle area at numerous points in its history; the building has in fact survived several quakes in the meantime).
From 2003 to 2010 the old library building was home to Carnegie's, a French restaurant. Other businesses it has been home to during the 21st century include Ström and Ström Consulting, offering legal and marketing services to mental health professionals; and Root Integrative Health, a holistic wellness center. The building is currently owned by Karoline Morrison and her husband, Dennis Beals, and has been occupied by the Kangaroo and Kiwi Pub since 2012.
The area around Market Street where the building is located is a part of Seattle that has been quickly rising in land value; the area has been compared to Belltown, a growing Seattle neighborhood also being affected by gentrification. As the Carnegie Library building is without the City of Seattle's landmark status despite its NRHP status, it is at risk from new development.


BallinStadt ([baːliːnʃtat]) is the name given to a memorial park and former emigration station in the Port of Hamburg, Germany.
From the 1850s to the early 1930s the ground's emigration halls were last homestead for some five million emigrants from various parts of Europe, waiting for their departure to the Americas. The BallinStadt museum was opened in 2007 and named after Albert Ballin (1857–1918), then director General of the Hamburg America Line. The site is also marketed as the "Emigration Museum" or "Port of Dreams".
Originally built in 1901, the site's Swiss chalet style quarters provided shelter, lodging and/or entertainment for the emigrants. In 1934 the station was closed and demolished by the Nazis, but rebuilt true to original in the early 2000s. Today, the emigration halls (German: Auswandererhallen) accommodate an exhibition related to the emigrants, their living conditions and experiences during their journeys to and from Hamburg.
The city of Hamburg decided to build the BallinStadt emigration world in December 2004, based on an overall concept developed by the Hamburg Maritim Foundation.


The first tower of the Z plan castle was built in 1546.
In 1590 the widow of the Grant of Ballindalloch married John Gordon, son Thomas Gordon of Cluny. John Grant, former Tutor of Ballindaloch, the administrator of the estate, killed one of John Grant's servants. This started a feud between the Earl of Huntly and the Earl of Moray. The Earl of Huntly went to Ballindalloch in November 1590 to arrest the Tutor. The Chief of Grant, John Grant of Freuchie promised to deliver the Tutor and his accomplices, accused of murder and other crimes, to Huntly Castle. However, Freuchie joined with the Tutor's men and the Earl of Moray, and came to Darnaway Castle, and there shot pistols at Huntly's officers and cannon from the castle, and killed John Gordon, brother of the Laird of Cluny.
After it was plundered and burned by James Graham, the first Marquess of Montrose, it was restored in 1645.
Extensions were added in 1770 by General James Grant of the American Wars of Independence (whose ghost is said to haunt the castle) and in 1850 by the architect Thomas MacKenzie. Further extensions carried out in 1878 were mostly demolished during modernisation enacted in 1965. It has been continuously occupied by Russell and Macpherson-Grant families throughout its existence.
The castle houses an important collection of 17th century Spanish paintings. The dining room of Ballindalloch is said to be haunted by a ghost known as The Green Lady.
The castle grounds contain a 20th-century rock garden and a 17th-century dovecote. The rivers Spey and Avon flow through the grounds, offering excellent fishing. The famous Aberdeen Angus cattle herd resides in the castle estate.
Today, the castle is still occupied by the Macpherson-Grant family.  It is open to tourists during the summer months and a number of workshops on its grounds are in active use.


This three-storeyed masonry office building was constructed in two stages, in 1924 and in 1926, for Ballow Chambers Ltd, a group of medical practitioners headed by Charles Thelander. The company acquired most of the site in 1924. Bunya Bunya Cottage, erected on the site c. 1870s, had accommodated a medical practice in the late 1880s, and from about 1900.
Brisbane architect Lange Powell was commissioned to design the new building. Powell was an established Brisbane architect, whose work includes St Martin's House (1922) and the Masonic Temple (1930), both in Ann Street, Brisbane.
Ballow Chambers was one of the earliest of the purpose-built specialist medical buildings in Brisbane. These interwar medical office redevelopments along Wickham Terrace included Wickham House (1923–24), Craigston (1927), Inchcolm (1930) and Brisbane Clinic (Lister House) (1930) . Their construction constituted the second phase (the first being in the 1880s) of Wickham Terrace's growth as a medical precinct, and was indicative of new directions toward specialist medicine in Queensland in the interwar years.
The ground floor and sub-floor of Ballow Chambers were constructed in 1924, with a further two storeys added in 1926. John Hutchinson was the builder for both stages. The building was named after a colonial surgeon and the first doctor to establish a private practice in Brisbane, David Keith Ballow, who died of typhus fever while treating emigrants quarantined at Dunwich in 1850.
Ballow Chambers, together with Wickham House, was the scene of a tragic occurrence in December 1955. On Thursday, 1 December 1955, Karl Kast, carrying a home-made bomb shot dead two doctors, Dr Arthur Vincent Meehan and Dr Andrew Russell Murray and wounded Dr Michael Joseph Gallagher and George Boland. A fourth doctor, Dr John Rudolph Sergius Lahz was severely traumatised due to the incident. Dr Gallahger, Kast's first victim, was shot in his offices in Wickham House. Kast then ignited three bombs in the foyer of Wickham House. George Boland, a patient of one of the doctors in the building, attempted to stub out the bomb only to have it explode and maim his hand. Kast then went to Ballow Chambers, around hundred metres down Wickham Terrace, where he shot Dr Murray and attempted to apprehend Dr Lahz, who escaped. Following his rampage, Kast locked himself in the office of Dr Lahz, within Ballow Chambers, where he shot himself and ignited another bomb. He later died in hospital. The tragedy was reported in the Courier-Mail on Friday, 2 December, as "...a horrible crime ...[that]...sent a shock of horror through the city and all Queensland".


Ballybeg Priory (Irish: Prióireacht an Bhaile Bhig), also known as Ballybeg Abbey, the Abbey of St Thomas, and St Thomas's Priory, is a 13th-century priory of the Augustinian order near the town of Buttevant, County Cork, Ireland. It is home to one of the best preserved and most substantial dovecots in Ireland.  The priory was founded in 1229 and dissolved in 1541, the land and buildings passing into private hands.  Those parts of the buildings that have escaped from the stone being removed for use in other buildings are mostly late medieval.
Along with Bridgetown Priory near Castletownroche, Ballybeg priory is one of only two substantial Augustinian monasteries in County Cork.
The abbey, dovecot, and nearby tower known both as Ballybeg Castle and as Ballybeg Tower, are collectively considered a National Monument in State Care (#301).


The priory was founded by either Philip de Barry or his son William in 1229. It is dedicated to Saint Thomas Becket, and was granted to the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. An equestrian statue of de Barry reportedly once stood in the church, in memory of his foundation. William's son, Philip's grandson, David Óg de Barry (the first Baron Barry), enlarged the revenues of the priory in either 1235, or 1251. The monks of Ballybeg were affluent: they had been granted 2,060 acres of land, and multiple rectories were appointed to them by means of advowson.
A residential tower was added in the mid-15th century.
Following dissolution in 1541, the abbey had various owners, before being acquired by the Jephson family in 1609. During this period, the priory's lands were farmed and tithes passed were passed to lay impropriators. Following this acquisition, much of the priory was quarried for stone, and the bell-tower was repurposed as a cow-byre.
According to Samuel Lewis, writing in 1837, a stone coffin had at some previous time been excavated from the ruins of the abbey, inside of which was a skeleton adorned with a cross and golden chains.


The priory complex incorporated a large dovecot (also known as a columbarium), which has been almost perfectly preserved. Located to the south east of the chancel, Frank Keohane describes it as "arguably the finest medieval dovecot surviving in Ireland." The inner walls of the dovecot are built in square compartments in regular tiers to a height of fifteen feet. There are three hundred and fifty two niches, divided into eleven tiers each containing thirty-two compartments. The tiers begin above ground level so as to allow for the collection of droppings and end well below the flight hole in the roof since doves will not perch near busily frequented exits.  The columbarium at Ballybeg, is typically located away from the main priory buildings, and still conserves a string course around the circumference of the building which served not only as a structural strengthening of the building but also to prevent weasels, martens or other vermin from scaling the walls to the entrances. The columbarium's importance stemmed from its having been a source of revenue for the priory as its principal agricultural purpose was the production of fertiliser. Pigeon fertiliser (guano) was essential for herb gardens and economically more highly valued than equivalents produced by cattle, sheep or pigs. It was also a sine qua non for the successful growing of hemp which was widely used for cloth, rope and sack making.
Since pigeons could themselves be regarded as vermin and capable of wreaking damage on grain crops, columbaria were strictly controlled by medieval law.  While tenants and others were permitted to keep a few pairs of doves in their roof-attics, a dovecot, such as that at Ballybeg, was the exclusive prerogative of the landowner who, in turn, was restricted to one nest per arpent, a medieval French measure of land equal to roughly an acre and a quarter. From this, we can infer that at the time of the construction of the truc at Ballybeg, the priory owned something in the region of four hundred and 40 acres (160,000 m²) of land or four carucates. At the time of its dissolution, Ballybeg seems to have been in possession of less than two carucates of land which would have been insufficient to justify maintenance of a dovecot of such large dimensions.
In its original charter, Bridgetown Abbey, another house of the Augustinian Canons, founded by Alexander Fitz Hugh de Roche ante 1216, on the other hand, was allotted 13 carucates or one thousand five hundred and 60 acres (240,000 m²), fish ponds, a third of the founder's mill, and the ecclesiastical benefices of his demesne. It does not appear to have had a dovecot or at least nothing has survived to indicate that it did.


Balmberg Pass (elevation 1078 m) is a high mountain pass in the Jura Mountains in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.
It connects Welschenrohr and Günsberg. The road is one of the steepest pass roads in Switzerland, with gradients of up to 25%. The road is not recommended for novice drivers, big, wide or long vehicles, buses, vans and trucks, caravans, or trailers. It is however, ideal for motorcycles. Oncoming traffic in the middle or on the wrong side of the road can sometimes be encountered, especially in the bends. During periods of snow or ice, the road is closed from the pass summit to Welschenrohr on the north side.


Balsera Palace or Sendón is located in the town of Avilés in Asturias, Spain. Formerly a private residence, it now houses the Julián Orbón Municipal Conservatory of Music.
The palace was built in the early twentieth century, in 1909, by the Pontevedran architect Antonio Palacios for Victoriano Fernández Balsera, a wealthy merchant from Avilés. The building is in the Art Nouveau style popular at the time in Catalonia. One of the outstanding interior features is the V-shaped staircase opening toward the first floor. The flat roof and tower balcony afford a view of the historic city below. Originally it had massive gardens on the scale of Versailles, but only a fragment of them remains.
It is profusely decorated and the interior is kept in perfect condition. The building was purchased by the city in 1982 and the interior was renovated in 1984 and 1997 keeping its original layout and configuration. Between 2011 and 2012, the exterior façades were restored to address the continuing deterioration from pollution and environmental conditions and the interior was repainted.
It was declared a Culturally important monument on 3 October 1991.


Balsfjorden (Norwegian) or Báhccavuotna (Northern Sami) is a fjord in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The 57-kilometre (35 mi) long fjord runs through the municipalities of Balsfjord and Tromsø. It branches off the Tromsøysundet strait just south of the city of Tromsø and it flows in a north–south direction, ranging from 2 to 7 kilometres (1.2 to 4.3 mi) wide. The European route E8 highway follows most of the eastern shore of the fjord and the European route E6 highway runs along the southern end of the fjord. The village of Storsteinnes lies along the southwestern coast of the fjord and the village of Nordkjosbotn lies at the southeastern end of the fjord.


The site was originally occupied by Baltersan House, owned by Egidia Blair, Lady Row, who died in 1530. After her death, the house was demolished. The remains of her tomb can be seen in nearby Crossraguel Abbey. Her will survives and shows she was a generous benefactor to the Abbey, relatives, friends and neighbours. The inscription above the door tell us that the existing tower-house was built on the site in 1584, the work of John Kennedy of Pennyglen (near Maybole) and Margaret Cathcart, his spouse.
Timothy Pont's 16th-century description of Baltersan described the castle as
"A stately fine house with gardens, orchards, parks and woods about it ..."
John Kennedy, "apparent of Baltersan", the heir, was a royal servant in 1601.
In 1721, the castle passed into the hands of Captain Hugh Arbuthnot, cousin to John Kennedy of Baltersan. By the middle of the 18th century, the castle had become abandoned and remains so to the present day.Int
The castle was featured in an episode of Dragons' Den in 2005 in which the owner presented his restoration plans and time share financing strategy. As of September 2020, the castle is for sale, and in need of restoration.


The castle is a three-storey L-plan castle with an attic and garret. Its walls measure 4 feet (1.2 m) in thickness. It has a vaulted ground floor and ashlar turrets on the northwestern and southeastern angles that are provided with gun loops.


Baltimore National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located along Maryland Route 144 on both sides of the boundary between the neighborhoods of Beechfield in Baltimore City and Catonsville in Baltimore County. It encompasses 72.2 acres (29.2 ha) and, as of 2021, has over 47,000 interments.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
A kiosk located on the side of the cemetery's administration building lists the names of veterans and dependents buried in this and two other cemeteries: Annapolis National Cemetery and Loudon Park National Cemetery. The kiosk also provides map locations for each grave.


Located on the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, the Baltimore World Trade Center is the world's tallest regular pentagonal-based skyscraper (the pentagonal-based JPMorgan Chase Tower in Houston is taller, but is not regular). It was designed by the architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, with the principal architects being Henry N. Cobb and Pershing Wong.
Planning and design of the building began in April 1966. Construction started in October 1973. The building was completed in January 1977, and its construction cost was of $22 million.
Rising 405 ft (123 m) above the one-acre plaza where it stands between Pratt Street and the harbor, the building is 30 stories tall when its basement, lobby level and upper utility level are included in the count. Gross floor space covers 422,000 sq ft (39,200 m²). Major building components include 309,000 sq ft (28,700 m²) of office floors, a lobby of 13,000 sq ft (1,200 m²), a basement of 20,800 sq ft (1,930 m²) and 38,000 sq ft (3,500 m²) of ground level plaza.


Two hours after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, Baltimore's World Trade Center was evacuated and closed. This was a response to a "credible" threat that the Baltimore building would also be attacked. A resident of southwest Baltimore was arrested that night and accused of giving the police a false warning.
Unsubstantiated bomb threats received on September 12 and September 14 further contributed to security concerns at the building. A temporary barrier of concrete walls was erected around the brick plaza between the building and Pratt Street, closing the area to pedestrian and vehicle access. Four barges were moved to the building's harbor side to protect it from attack by boats.
Due to the building's name and its prominent location on Baltimore's skyline, state officials presumed that a similar attack on other American cities would likely target the Baltimore World Trade Center. Their response was criticized, because "such drastic steps" were not taken at world trade center buildings in other cities. As security was relaxed later in the year, the concrete barriers and barges were removed.
The exterior lighting system was turned off and remained dark until the end of 2007. The waterfront walkway beneath the building, an extension of the Harborplace promenade, is now only open to the public during daylight hours.


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Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops is a historic industrial district in Martinsburg, West Virginia. It is significant both for its railroading architecture by Albert Fink and John Rudolph Niernsee and for its role in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It consists of three contributing buildings, one of which is the oldest covered roundhouse in the United States. The presence of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in Martinsburg dates back to the late 1840s, when the first engine and machine shops were erected for the expanding company.
The shops were designated a National Historic Landmark and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.  They are now managed by a local authority as an event venue.


The surviving church (56 m in length) and some of the cloister date from the 12th century, consisting of the nave with aisles, chancel, square presbytery with three-light window and a pair of transepts from which small chapels project. The south aisle of the church is joined to the choir by a twelfth-century doorway. Part of the original cloister, to the south of the church, has been rebuilt. The church also has 13th and 15th-century additions. The east windows and tower were built in the nineteenth century.
The stonework at the abbey shows carved humans and animals and a combination of Cistercian and Irish Romanesque architecture. The decoration on the capitals is similar to that at its daughter house Jerpoint.


The church has a large cross flanked by two altarpieces, both painted by Gustav Adolph Lammers. The cross was drawn by Per Vigeland and carved by brothers Anker and Bjarne Walle from Bamble. The 1951 stained glass window, with the risen Christ as a theme, is also by Vigeland.
The church elders inventory includes an exemplar of Christian III's Bible from 1550 and brass candlesticks that feudal lord Ove Gjedde bestowed the old church in 1643.


Every Saturday and Sunday, there is a class for young Muslims, from 08:00 to the noon prayer (dhuhr). Every year the mosque enrolls, gratis, 20 students who cannot afford government school.


Ban Jelačić Square ([bâːn jɛ̌lat͡ʃit͡ɕ]; Croatian: Trg bana Jelačića) is the central square of the city of Zagreb, Croatia, named after Ban Josip Jelačić. The official name is Trg bana Jelačića. The square is colloquially called Jelačić plac.
It is located below Zagreb's old city cores Gradec and Kaptol and directly south of the Dolac Market on the intersection of Ilica from the west, Radićeva Street from the northwest, the small streets Splavnica and Harmica from the north, Bakačeva Street from the northeast, Jurišićeva Street from the east, Praška Street from the southeast and Gajeva Street from the southwest. It is the center of the Zagreb Downtown pedestrian zone.


The dating of the Bana cathedral is a subject of scholarly debate. The Bana cathedral is mentioned in the 11th-century chronicle of Sumbat, who reports that the Georgian prince Adarnase IV (r. 881-923) ordered the building of the church of Bana "by the hand" of Kwirike, who subsequently became the first bishop of Bana. While the scholars such as Ekvtime Taqaishvili, Shalva Amiranashvili, and Stepan Mnatsakanian tend to interpret the passage literally, Chubinashvili, Vakhtang Beridze and Tiran Marutyan identify Adarnase as a renovator, not a builder of the church. This view, now shared by some art scholars, dates the Bana church – clearly modeled on the contemporaneous Zvartnots cathedral near Yerevan – to the mid-7th century. It was when the Chalcedonian-Armenian catholicos Nerses III, who presided over several important religious projects Zvartnots included, resided in exile in Tayk c. 653-58.

Devastated during the 8th century by the Byzantine–Arab war, the region of Tao was gradually resettled by its new masters, the Georgian Bagratids, and under their patronage a monastic revival took place. With the settlements gradually expanding from the predominantly Georgian-populated north to the predominantly Armenian populated south and south-west, the Georgian princes reconstructed a number of monasteries abandoned by Armenians and built new foundations.

From the time of Adarnase IV's reconstruction, the cathedral of Bana was one of the principal royal churches of the Bagrationi dynasty. It was used for the coronation of Bagrat IV in 1027 and his marriage to Helena, a niece of the Byzantine emperor Romanos III Argyros in 1032. In the 15th century, King Vakhtang IV of Georgia (r. 1442-1446) and his consort khatun were buried at Bana. It was also the seat of the Georgian Orthodox bishop of Bana, whose diocese also included the neighboring areas of Taos-Kari, Panaskerti, and Oltisi. With the Ottoman conquest of the area in the 16th century, Bana was abandoned by Christians. During the Crimean War (1853–1865), the Ottoman military converted the church into a fortress, adding the crude bulwark still visible on the south side. During the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, it was shelled by the Russian artillery, blasting the dome off and inflicting severe damage on the edifice. Later the Russians carted off much of masonry to build a late 19th-century church in Oltu.
The church was first described and sketched by the German botanist Karl Koch in 1843. He declared it the most remarkable church in the East after the Hagia Sophia. Koch was followed by the Russian ethnographer Yevgeny Veidenbaum in 1879 and the Georgian historian Dimitri Bakradze in 1881. The latter two found the church already without a dome, but reported about still surviving frescos and a Georgian inscription in the Asomtavruli script. From 1902 to 1907, the ruins of Bana were scrupulously studied by an expedition led by the Georgian archaeologist Ekvtime Taqaishvili. Inaccessible to Soviet nationals, the monument was a subject of study of some Western scholars during the Cold War era.  In 1983 the American archaeologist and art historian, Dr. Robert W. Edwards, completed a scientific assessment of the complex as well as an accurate plan drawn to scale.


The fishing bank was classified as a Bien culturel du Québec on July 17, 1981 by the Ministry of Culture of Quebec.
On June 15, 2001, the fishing bank was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada, recognizing both its architecture and its social, economic and historical importance in the cod fisheries.


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The Banca Giuratale was originally built in 1733 to house the Università of Gozo, the administrative council which had jurisdiction over the islands of Gozo and Comino. The building was designed by the French architect Charles François de Mondion, and was inaugurated by the Governor of Gozo, Pablo Antonio de Viguier.
In 1798, the Banca Giuratale served as the headquarters of the rebels during the Gozitan uprising against French occupation. The rebels would eventually establish an independent state known as La Nazione Gozitana, which lasted until 1801.
The Università system was abolished by Governor Thomas Maitland in 1819, and the building was subsequently used as a police station, post office, the Public Archives and the Agriculture Department. The building was enlarged to its present form in 1868 or 1875, to a design by Giovanni Bonello. It was included on the Antiquities List of 1925.
From 1961 to 1973, the Banca Giuratale was the seat of the Gozo Civic Council. Since 1994, the building has returned to its original role as a city hall, housing the Victoria Local Council. The Banca Giuratale also houses the culture and information sections of the Ministry for Gozo, and since 2009, it has also been the seat of the Gozo Regional Committee. Exhibitions are regularly held at the building.
The Banca Giuratale of Gozo along with that of Mdina was depicted on the Lm2 banknote that was in circulation between 1989 and 2007.
The façade of the Banca Giuratale was restored in 2014.


Bancroft Shed was a weaving shed in Barnoldswick, Lancashire, England, situated on the road to Skipton. Construction was started in 1914 and the shed was commissioned in 1920 for James Nutter & Sons Limited. The mill closed on 22 December 1978 and was demolished. The engine house, chimneys and boilers have been preserved and maintained as a working steam museum. The mill was the last steam-driven weaving shed to be constructed and the last to close.
The engine house is open to visitors and the William Roberts cross compound 600hp engine regularly runs from steam generated from donated wood.


Increased efficiency was sought, four-loom weavers were encouraged to work six or more looms. This was the more looms system, which reduced the number of weavers required. The looms were slowed from 220 picks per minute to 180 by changing the diameter of the pulleys. Elsewhere this caused industrial action, but here management maintained the four loom system in most of the mill. Additional power was required in the 1940s and a supplementary Cornish boiler was installed. In 1935, 450 people were working at the mill running 1,152 looms for 50 hours a week making 200,000 yards (180,000 m) of grey cloth.
During the 1939–45 war, many empty weaving sheds in Lancashire were requisitioned; Rover and Rolls Royce moved into Barnoldswick. An extra layer of management was imposed on the industry when the Cotton Control Board was set up by the Board of Trade. Labour and all resources were rationed. James Nutter took action to close his businesses at Grove Mill and Westfield Shed and moved his looms into storage at Bancroft. This reduced his operable looms to 500 at exactly the time he was required by the Cotton Control Board to reduce output to 40%. While other firms collapsed, Nutters wove throughout the war. From a high point of 808,797 looms nationally in 1915, the numbers had fallen to 530,000 in 1939 and plummeted to 220,000 in 1941 rising marginally to 355,500 in 1949.
Under Board of Trade control, working conditions for the weavers improved and the average wage increased from 31s 5d to 78s 0d. On 19 August 1941 a minimum wage agreement was signed. The existence of aero-engine manufacturers in the town provided alternative employment in cleaner conditions. When the war ended weavers expected better working conditions, but the more looms system became almost universal. Bancroft weavers worked eight-loom sets, then ten sets. Tacklers' sets were reduced from 140 to 70 to cope with extra work.
Conditions eased in the 1950s, mill lighting was changed from 110 V DC to 250 V AC. Mechanical Proctor coking stokers were fitted to the Lancashire boiler. The looms were re-spaced into ten sets with a separating alley, though a row of eight sets was retained as a "Pensioner Side". Opinion varied as whether a ten set produced as much cloth as an eight set run by an experienced weaver.
In 1976 production consisted of contract weaving and part warps. Experienced weavers and tacklers recognised that demand was drying up and left. In September 1978 closure was announced. The mill struggled until 22 December when it finally closed. Demolition began the following year.


The mill consisted of a two-storey warehouse, a boiler room and engine shed with a large single-storey weaving shed. On closure in 1979, the warehouse and weaving shed were demolished. A 120-foot (37 m) chimney was situated to the west and a 200-foot (60 m) by 82-foot (25 m) lodge to the south. Following demolition of the shed, the lodge was filled in and the line of the road altered. The large Lancashire boiler is kept full of water from the roof gutters, and is used in the condenser (under the engine) and as feed water for the Cornish boiler.
As originally built, the weaving shed was about 250 feet (76 m) by 200 feet (61 m), set into the hillside with typical north facing roof lights to provide natural light, it housed 1200 looms. On the west side was the boiler room and engine house, and the warehouse was to the south. The ground floor was the warehouse and the upper floor was for preparation, sizing, drawing in and winding.


Bancroft Tower is a 56-foot-high (17 m) natural stone and granite tower, which looks like a miniature feudal castle. It is located in Salisbury Park, in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts.  It was erected in 1900, in memory of Worcester native politician, historian, and statesman George Bancroft. The tower was designed by Worcester architects Earle and Fisher.  The cost of construction was roughly $15,000. Bancroft Tower is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


Bancroft Tower is located northwest of downtown Worcester, in Salisbury Park, a public park located west of Park Avenue and south of Drury Lane.  It is a two-story stone structure, built out of boulders and cobbles, with a rock-faced granite exterior.  It is asymmetrical in plan, with crenellated square towers at the corners and a taller off-center circular tower in between. To the right of that tower is an arched gate.


Nutmeg is grown on the island and trade brought the inhabitants great wealth in the premodern period. Until the early 17th century, the Banda Islands were ruled by locals magnates called the Orang Kaya. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to attempt to dominate the spice trade from the 16th century, but were replaced by the Dutch. Initially, the Dutch established friendly relations and a trading outpost in 1599, but in 1609 the Orang Kaya on Banda Neira rebelled against Dutch attempts to coerce a monopoly on the spice trade, killing 30 Netherlanders. This resulted in a brutal campaign against the people of Banda Islands by the Dutch. The Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands cumulated with the Banda Massacre of 1621, in which Jan Pieterszoon Coen, invaded the islands and subsequently began a campaign to commit genocide against the local inhabitants.
To keep the archipelago productive, the VOC repopulated the islands (including Api), mostly with slaves taken from the rest of modern-day Indonesia, India, the coast of China, working under command of Dutch planters (perkeniers). The original natives were also enslaved and were ordered to teach the newcomers about nutmeg and mace agriculture. The treatment of the slaves was severe—the native Bandanese population dropped to one hundred by 1681, and 200 slaves were imported annually to keep the slave population steady at 4,000.
Volcanic eruptions of Gunung Api were sometimes explosive; several lava flows reached the coast. Between 1586 and 1988 the volcano erupted over twenty times. For example, there was a sudden and violent eruption in June 1820, as a result of which the islanders fled to Banda Neira. Accompanied by underground rumbling, a new crater was built in 1890; at the same time there was a series of earthquakes in which many houses were damaged. In May 1901, strong earthquakes were accompanied by detonations and a bright glow at the top of the volcano.
The Dutch continued to rule the island until 1949, although the economic importance of nutmeg and mace declined greatly due to the loss of the Dutch monopoly after the British successfully planted nutmeg trees in other parts of the world (especially Penang and Grenada) following the Invasion of the Spice Islands in the Napoleonic Wars in 1810. Following Indonesian independence, the island has been administered as part of the Indonesian province of Maluku.
Banda Api erupted on May 10, 1988, from a N-SSW-trending fissure that cut across the island, with both explosive activity and lava effusion occurring.). The height of the eruption pillar was estimated at 3 to 5 kilometers on May 9; satellite measurements indicate an altitude of over 16 kilometers. To the south, north, and northwest of the summit, three craters formed, from which lava flows emerged that all reached the sea. The 1,800 islanders as well as 5,000 of the then 6,000 or so residents of the island of Banda Neira were evacuated to Ambon, some 200 kilometers away. Three people died as a result of the volcanic eruptions and most of the inhabitants chose to relocate to Banda Neira.


The Bandiagara Escarpment is an escarpment in the Dogon country of Mali. The sandstone cliff rises about 500 m (1,600 ft) above the lower sandy flats to the south. It has a length of approximately 150 km (90 mi).
The area of the escarpment is inhabited today by the Dogon people. Before the Dogon, the escarpment was inhabited by the Tellem and Toloy peoples. Many structures remain from the Tellem. The Bandiagara Escarpment was listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1989.
The Cliffs of Bandiagara are a sandstone chain ranging from south to northeast over 200 km (120 mi) and extending to the Grandamia massif.  The end of the massif is marked by the Hombori Tondo, Mali's highest peak at 1,155 m (3,789 ft). Because of its archaeological, ethnological and geological characteristics, the entire site is one of the most imposing in West Africa.


Surveys of the seabed under the planned route were conducted before the bridge design commenced. The marine geology underneath the bridge consists of basalts, volcanic tuffs and breccias with some intertrappean deposits. These are overlain by completely weathered rocks and residual soil. The strength of these rocks range from extremely weak to extremely strong and their conditions range from highly weathered and fractured, to fresh, massive and intact. The weathered rock beds are further overlain by transported soil, calcareous sandstone and thin bed of coarse grained conglomerate. The top of these strata are overlain by marine soil layer up to 9m thick consisting of dark brown clay silt with some fine sand overlying weathered, dark brown basaltic boulders embedded in the silt.


The pre-cast yard was located on reclaimed land. The yard catered to casting, storing and handling of 2342 concrete-steel pre-cast segments for the project. The storage capacity requirement of the yard was about 470 precast segments. As the area available was limited, the segments were stored in stacks of up to three layers.


The cable-stayed portion of the Bandra channel is 600 metres (2,000 ft) in length between expansion joints and consists of two 250-metre cable supported main spans flanked by 50 metres conventional approach spans. A centre tower, with an overall height of 128 metres above pile cap level, supports the superstructure by means of four planes of cable stay in a semi-harp arrangement. Cable spacing is 6.0 metres along the bridge deck.
The cable-stayed portion of the Worli channel is 250 metres (820 ft) in length between expansion joints and consists of one 150 metres cable supported main span flanked on each side by two 50 metres conventional approach spans. A centre tower, with an overall height of 55 metres, supports the superstructure above the pile cap level by means of four planes of cable stay in a semi-harp arrangement. Cable spacing here is also 6.0 metres along the bridge deck.
The superstructure comprises twin precast concrete box girders with a fish belly cross sectional shape, identical to the approaches. A typical Pre-Cast segment length is 3.0 metres with the heaviest superstructure segment approaching 140 tonnes. Balanced cantilever construction is used for erecting the cable supported superstructure as compared to span-by-span construction for the approaches. For every second segment, cable anchorages are provided.
A total of 264 cable stays are used at Bandra channel with cable lengths varying from approximately 85 metres to nearly 250 metres. The tower is cast in-situ reinforced concrete using the climbing form method of construction. The overall tower configuration is an inverted "Y" shape with the inclined legs oriented along the axis of the bridge. Tower cable anchorage recesses are achieved by use of formed pockets and transverse and longitudinal bar post-tensioning is provided in the tower head to resist local cable forces.
A total of 160 cable stays are used at Worli channel with cable lengths varying from approximately 30 metres minimum to nearly 80 metres maximum. Like the Bandra channel, the tower here is also cast in-situ reinforced concrete using the climbing form method of construction but the overall tower configuration is "I" shape with the inclined legs. Similarly, tower cable anchorage recesses are achieved by use of formed pockets.
The foundations for the main tower comprise 2-metre-drilled shafts of 25-metre length each. Cofferdam and tremie seal construction have been used to construct the six-metre deep foundation in the dry.


The Banff Springs Hotel sits at 405 Spray Avenue near the southern boundary of Banff, a resort town within Banff National Park. The hotel property is bounded by roadways and natural waterways. Two roadways bound the hotel to the north, Bow River Avenue, and Rundle River Avenue, while Spray Avenue bounds the hotel from the west. To the east, the hotel property is bounded by the Spray River. The river serves as a tributary for the Bow River, a waterway north of the hotel property. The hotel property sits near the confluence of the two rivers.
The town of Banff is located within the Rocky Mountains mountain range, situated 1,414 metres (4,639 ft) above sea level. The community itself is built around Tunnel Mountain. The hotel property looks over across the valley towards Mount Rundle. Other mountain peaks located near the hotel include Cascade Mountain, Mount Norquay, Stoney Squaw Mountain, and Sulphur Mountain. Given its location within a national park, the hotel is located near a number of attractions and natural landmarks. North of the hotel on the Bow River lies Bow Falls. The Banff Upper Hot Springs is a commercially developed hot spring located south of the hotel.


Banff Springs Hotel is one of Canada's grand railway hotels built by Canadian Pacific Railway. The present hotel property is made up of two main buildings, an eleven-storey tower, and the main block of the hotel. Designed by Walter S. Painter, construction for the tower building, or the centre wing, began in 1911, and was completed in 1914. The main block of the hotel was erected from 1927 to 1928, and replaced the original wooden hotel destroyed in a fire. The original structure was a five-storey wooden building, able to accommodate 280 guests, was designed by Bruce Price. On 24 June 1988, the hotel buildings were designated as a National Historic Site of Canada.
After the original wooden structure burnt down in 1926, John W. Orrock, an engineer with Canadian Pacific Railway, was charged with designing its replacement. The replacement building, or the main block, consisted of the north, and south wing. As with the tower added in 1911, the replacement structure is made up of a steel frame, clad in Rundle limestone. Orrock based elements of the new building with the general styles of the original wooden building designed by Price, meaning that the main block also featured elements found on the chateaus of the Loire Valley in France. As a result, the main block features massive wall surfaces, and steep copper roofs, dormers, and gables.
The original wooden structure, on which the present north and south wing designs are based, featured architectural elements drawn from Scottish baronial architecture, as well as the chateaus of the Loire Valley. This blend of architectural styles would eventually lead to the Châteauesque style used for most of the grand railway hotels in Canada. Châteauesque features found on the building include its steep pitched roofs, pointed dormers, and corner turrets. However, contrasting later Châteauesque hotels built in Canada, Banff Springs Hotel's also draws elements from the Arts and Crafts movement. Elements from this movement include rounded gables, and rough stone masonry used throughout the building. The remains of the burnt building were removed in 1926, in order to make way for the north and south wings.
The centre wing tower was a large limestone structure, influenced largely by Scottish baronial architecture. The building was designed originally as an extension of the original wooden structure.  Unlike the other wings of the hotel, the centre tower featured almost no French medieval architectural elements. Painter's designs had windows that were rounded, flat dormers as opposed to pointed ones, and rounded arches rather than pointed arches seen in French Gothic architecture. The central wing also featured a Renaissance Revival styled arcade before its first floor lounge.
The interior of the hotel features oak beams, oak panellings and linenfolds, animal carvings, plasterwork of the ceilings, Terrazzo floors, and stained glasswork. Materials found in the interior include fossil-filled carved Tyndall limestone from Garson, Manitoba, and Bedford lime flagstones on the floors of Mount Stephen Hall, an event room within the hotel.


The Banff Springs Hotel includes 757 guest rooms and suites spread throughout the hotel property. The hotel property also houses a number of event spaces, used for conferences, weddings, and other social events. Event spaces within the hotel building include the Alberta Dining Room, the Alhambra Dining Room, the Cascade Ballroom, Mount Stephen Hall, and the Riverview Walk. Given its location, the hotel property also features outdoor event spaces, including a terrace garden.
A number of areas within the hotel property are also occupied by restaurants, or other food-based services. As of December 2017, twelve restaurants operate within the hotel property. Restaurants located within the hotel include 1888 Chop House, the Waldhaus, and the Rundle Bar, "Castello". The latter restaurant also hosts the hotel's afternoon tea. The hotel also hosts a locally sourced market, Stock Food & Drinks. Other facilities located on the hotel property include a bowling alley, five turf-topped tennis courts, a swimming pool, and a 27-hole golf course designed by golf course architect Stanley Thompson. Spa facilities were opened at the hotel in 1991.


The original building was shaped as an H and included an octagonal centre hall, with an additional wing extending from its towards the Bow River. The building was clad in shingles with stone accents. Tiered verandahs were situated at the end each wing. The 1888 structure cost $250,000 and a mistake made by the builder changed the intended orientation of the building, turning its back on the mountain vista. This building included more than 100 bedrooms, centered on a five-story, octagonal rotunda. An addition in 1902 expanded and renovated the building, adding more than 200 rooms.
By 1906, plans were advanced for a complete overhaul of the Banff Springs Hotel building, proposing a replacement of much of the original structure. Walter Painter, chief architect for Canadian Pacific Railway, designed an eleven-story central tower in concrete and stone, flanked by two wings. This time correctly oriented to the dramatic view, the so-called "Painter Tower" was completed in 1914 at the cost of $2 million with 300 guest rooms and, for some time, became the tallest building in Canada. Construction of new wings was delayed by World War I, and the surviving Price wings continued in service.
The hotel was named for William Davidson, who had grown up in Moray, close to Banff, Scotland, and was the first European settler in that area of Canada. The name borne by the Canadian city and the national park is derived from his native country. Halfway up the internal staircase closest to the Bow Falls is found a painting of Davidson felling trees on the Miramichi River during colonial times.  The painting of the pioneer is by the war artist Cyrus Cuneo (1879–1916), who executed a series of paintings for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Further renovations designed by architect, J. W. Orrock, who continued in style originated by Painter, significantly expanding the Painter Tower, altering its roofline, and adding his substantial additions. In 1926, while work was proceeding on the new wings, a fire destroyed the remainder of the original building designed by Price. The two new wings completed and opened in 1928.
The Monarch of Canada, King George VI, and Queen Elizabeth visited the hotel during their 1939 royal tour of Canada. From 1942 to 1945, the hotel was shut down in an effort to free up labour for the war effort.
In 1968, the building underwent a process of winterization, allowing for the hotel to operate year-round. The hotel went through several renovations during the latter half of the 20th century, including one in 1971, and another in preparation for the 1988 Winter Olympics.
In 2001, Canadian Pacific Hotels, the hotel division of Canadian Pacific Railway, was reorganized as Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, adopting the name from an American company it had purchased in 1999. The hotel's name was changed to the Fairmont Banff Springs as a part of this re-branding effort. In 2006, seven Fairmont hotels, including Banff Springs sold to Oxford Properties, a company owned by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. Fairmont Hotels and Resorts continues to manage the resort following the sale of the hotel property.


The first explorer that passed through the Sunshine area was Governor George Simpson  of Hudson's Bay Company. His party passed through the area in 1841 seeking new quicker routes into the Columbia District. His diary noted "Hole in the Wall" Goat's Eye mountain and he left a blaze in a tree that has since been preserved in the Banff Natural History Museum. The next significant exploration party was the Palliser Expedition in the late 1850s; Mt. Borgeau, is named for one of its members.
Everything changed with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway and its arrival in Banff in the late 1880s.  Bill Peyto may have been the first person to bring real tourists through the Sunshine area. The eccentric Peyto was a trapper and prospector. He was also a competent guide, as his rugged life gave him the skills required to face the often harsh realities of nature. In the 1890s Peyto would guide tourists through the Sunshine Meadows to the base of Mt. Assiniboine, the highest peak in the Southern Continental Ranges of the Canadian Rockies.
By the 1920s, Sunshine Meadows had become a popular camping site. Pat Brewster, the youngest son of dairyman John Brewster, was the first to regularly bring tourists for overnight camping at Sunshine Meadows. This area was nicknamed Tee Pee Town on account of the many tents that overnight campers would set there.  Upon reaching the top of the Tee Pee Town chair lift today, one is looking over the same Sunshine Meadows that were busy with campers those many decades earlier.
In 1928, the Canadian Pacific Railway built a log cabin lodge for the use of The Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies, a club of horse enthusiasts who were sponsored by the tourist-friendly railway. This cabin was certainly not the first lodge built in the region (Bill Peyto’s cabin near Simpson’s pass was built more than 30 years earlier), but it is now the oldest building at Banff Sunshine and is known as the Old Sunshine Lodge. Housing Mad Trapper's Saloon and Bruno's Bistro, the OSL is situated at the timberline above what was then known as Wheeler’s Flats and just below a vast expanse of high alpine meadows.
In March 1929, Cliff White and Cyril Paris, two local extreme sports enthusiasts, created a plan to use the CPR cabin as an overnight point in their ski trek over the great divide. Unfortunately they could not find the cabin that night and were forced to sleep in a dug-out in the snow. Upon waking in the morning they discovered that they had only just missed the CPR cabin. These two men were the first to ski what is now known as Banff Sunshine.
In 1934 Jim and Pat Brewster leased the cabin from the CPR and began offering ski vacations. They bought the lodge in 1936.  In 1939 they hired Swiss guide Bruno Engler as the first ski instructor. In 1941 a rope tow was built.  The Brewster's owned the area until 1951 when it was sold to George Encil, who also owned nearby Mt. Norquay. He added "Village" to the name and made numerous improvements including the addition of a "Ski-Kuli" lift.
In 1961 the resort was purchased by local Banff businessman Cliff White, Jr. and his wife Bev. Their vision has shaped the resort.  Partnering with Power Corporation Resorts, they built the Sunshine Inn  (now Sunshine Mountain Lodge), the Daylodge and opened up the slopes of the Continental (Great) Divide Chairlift.  He ushered in the modern era with the opening of the first gondola, which replaced bus access to the ski area, in 1980,
In 1981, the resort was purchased by Ralph T. Scurfield of Calgary. Since his passing in 1985, his sons,  Ralph, Sergei, and John have run the resort and made many improvements. In 1988, the resort's first high speed quad opened with the construction of the Angel Express on Lookout Mountain. In 1995, the resort expanded onto Goat's Eye Mountain, constructing a Poma high speed quad to service the new terrain. A year later, the Great Divide double chairlift to the summit of Lookout Mountain was replaced with an extended high speed quad, also built by Poma. In 2000, Poma replaced the two chairlifts on the mountain in between Goat's Eye and Lookout Mountains. The Wheeler double chairlift was replaced with a high speed quad, the Wolverine Express, and the Fireweed T-Bar was replaced with a fixed-grip quad, Jackrabbit.
In 1991, the resort hosted Downhill and super -G events for the 1991 Winter Deaflympics.
In 2001, the aging gondola that had brought guests up to the mountain since 1980 was replaced with a modern gondola built by Poma, reusing the same line and many of the original towers. At the same time, the WaWa T-Bar was removed and a fixed grip quad was built by Poma to replace it. In 2003, the Standish double chairlift was upgraded by Leitner Poma to a high speed quad, providing high speed lift service to Mount Standish.
In 2010, the Strawberry triple chairlift was removed and replaced with a used Doppelmayr CTEC high speed quad. The Strawberry Express had originally been built as a temporary lift at Whistler Blackcomb in 2009 for the 2010 Winter Olympics to transport spectators from the Creekside base area to the finish line on the downhill course. In 2015, the last remaining double chairlift on the mountain, Tee Pee Town, was removed and replaced by Doppelmayr with a bubble high speed quad containing heated seats.
Banff Sunshine now hosts some 500,000 skiers and snowboarders annually over a ski season that stretches from early November to late May.
In 2019,  Parks Canada and the resort reached an agreement over future expansion and leasehold area. The owners were forced to agree to a 42-year lease with an agreement to then give Sunshine Village Ski Resort to the Crown for $1, or sever and remove every facility and return the land to its natural state.


Bang Luang Mosque (Thai: มัสยิดบางหลวง) is a historic mosque in Bangkok located in Soi Arun Amarin 7, New Arun Amarin Road, Wat Kanlaya Subdistrict, Thon Buri District, Thonburi side within Kudi Khao Community by the Khlong Bangkok Yai (formerly Khlong Bang Luang) near mouth of  Chao Phraya River, it's also known as Kudi Khao (กุฎีขาว; lit: white  cloister) and Kudi To Yi (กุฎีโต๊ะหยี; To Yi's  cloister).
This mosque was built in the early Rattanakosin period (approx. 1784) during the reign of King Phutthayotfa Chulalok (Rama I) by a Muslim merchant named "To Yi" (โต๊ะหยี). The mosque is decorated with Thai brick and painted in white color, which got the Mosque name. It is the only Thai-style mosque in the world, decorated with three-tiered art including Thai, Chinese and European. There's embodiment of the spirit of the goddess reflecting the devotion of Allah. Furthermore, they're tombs located in front of the mosque and the mosque is now being classified as “Unseen in Bangkok” tourist destination.
Bang Luang Mosque is not far away from other religious houses of worship viz Wat Prayurawongsawat, Wat Kalayanamitr, Santa Cruz Church and Kian Un Keng Shrine. Also opposite the old mosque is another important one, Tonson Mosque.


One of the most important symbols of the Bangladesh government, the Bangabhaban holds a status akin to the official residence and office of heads of states around the world. The palace is an important historical landmark and the centre of media and tourist attraction. Special public ceremonies are held during Independence Day of Bangladesh on 26 March every year. The Bangladesh president frequently holds meetings, conferences and state dinners for all occasions representing Bangladesh, including national leaders, intellectuals and visiting foreign heads of states and ambassadors. The traditions and pomp of the palace are a symbolic indication of the presidency's ceremonial superiority to other public and national institutions.


The Bangabhaban is a mix of Moghul architecture with touches of British era designs that typify numerous buildings of the British-era (1857–1947) in Dhaka. With the reconstruction between 1961 and 1964, many elements of Islamic architecture and Bangla styles were incorporated. The palace has high boundary walls on all four sides. The main building is a three-storeyed palatial complex, around which stands extensive greenery and tree cover. The floorspace of the ground floor is 7000 square metres. The president's residence is on the north-east corner, comprising two storeys of two suites along with five well-furnished spacious bedrooms.
The president's office, the office of the civil and military secretaries and other presidential officials, and separate rooms for audience with local and foreign visitors are also located in the ground floor. In addition, there is a cabinet room, banquet hall, darbar hall (court), state dining hall, a small auditorium and a lounge for local visitors. In addition to the president's residence, there are five rooms for officials, a control room and a studio in the first floor. In the second floor, there are four suites for foreign heads of state and government.
The Bangabhaban has an open compound of 50 acres (20 ha) of land. The security office, post office, bank, cafeteria hall, tailoring shop, a three-domed mosque and barracks of the president's guard regiment are located in the vicinity of the main gate of the Bangabhaban. The residential quarters for officers and staff of the President's office are located in three outlying areas of Bangabhaban. There are also two bungalows one for the military secretary and the other for the assistant military secretary.


All that remains of the fort is the Delhi Gate and remnants of two bastions. After they captured the fort in 1791, the British started dismantling it, a process that continued till the 1930s. Ramparts and walls made way for roads, while arsenals, barracks and the other old buildings quickly made way for colleges, schools, bus stands, and hospitals. In November 2012 workers at the neighbouring Bangalore Metro construction site unearthed 2 huge iron cannons weighing a ton each with cannonballs dating back to the times of Tipu Sultan.


The station is officially referred to by the State Railway of Thailand as Sathani Rotfai Krung Thep (สถานีรถไฟกรุงเทพ) in Thai (Krung Thep is the transliteration of the common Thai language name of Bangkok),'Bangkok Station' in English. Hua Lamphong (Thai: หัวลำโพง) is the informal name of the station, used by locals, tourist guides and the public press. In outlying areas of Thailand the station is commonly referred to as Krungthep Station, and the name Hua Lamphong is not well-known. In all documents published by the State Railway of Thailand (such as train tickets, timetables, and tour pamphlets) the station is uniformly transcribed as Krungthep (กรุงเทพ) in Thai.
The name Hua Lamphong is the name of both a canal and a road (now Rama IV Road) that used to pass near this station. The name Hua Lamphong, some say originated from the green plains surrounding the area in the past that were used to graze the cattle of the Muslim community, when the people saw the cattle running vigorously in the plains, it was named the Thung Wua Lamphong ('swaggering bulls plains'), eventually being called Hua Lamphong. Others presumed that the name originated from a species of plant called Lamphong (Datura metel), a toxic plant that used to grow abundantly in the area.
It is also thought that the name may have a Malay origin as a mixture  of khua in Thai, meaning 'bridge', and the word lampung in Malay (pronounced lumpung) meaning 'to float'. Loi Khua Lumphung, thus meaning a temporary bridge (across or floating on the river) then become known as Hua Lamphong by Thais.
Hua Lamphong railway station actually was a name of another railway station of private Paknam Railway Line which operated before the founding of the Royal Siamese Railway Department (now the State Railway of Thailand). Hua Lamphong railway station was opposite the present day Bangkok railway station. It opened in 1893 and closed in 1960 in conjunction with the dissolution of the Paknam Railway Line. The site of the demolished Hua Lamphong railway station borders Rama IV Road. Today, the Bangkok subway's Hua Lamphong MRT station lies beneath it.


The Bangladesh National Museum (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ জাতীয় জাদুঘর), is the national museum of Bangladesh. The museum is well organized and displays have been housed chronologically in several departments like department of ethnography and decorative art, department of history and classical art, department of natural history, and department of contemporary and world civilization.  The museum also has a rich conservation laboratory. Nalini Kanta Bhattasali served as the first curator of the museum during 1914–1947.


The third floor consists of pictures of international politicians, artists, scientists, famous pictures and four international galleries - Chinese, Korean, Iranian and Swiss.


The zoo is currently home to 2,150 animals from 134 species.
The zoo exhibits 58 species of mammals, including elephants, cheetahs, rhinos, zebras, waterbucks, otters, hyenas, deer, giraffes, impala, black bears, tapirs, hippos, lions, many species of monkeys, chimpanzees, baboons, and Bengal tigers.
The aviaries at the zoo house more than 1500 birds representing 91 species, including peacocks, rhea, African gray parrots, cassowary, owls, ostrich, emus, teals, finches, babblers, owls, vultures, and eagles. The two lakes at the zoo also host migratory water birds each winter.
Visitors can also see 13 species of reptiles including snakes and crocodiles, and 28 species of fish.


Vernon Oswald Wright 1895–1897
Llewelyn Jones 1889–1902 (then organist of Christ Church, Llanfairfechan)
William E. Jones 1902 –
Michael Mullinar ca. 1909 – ?
James Griffiths 1964–2007
Marc Rochester 1978–1980
Martin Brown 1990–2014
Cathedral organist
2014 Martin Brown
The celebrated bard Dafydd ap Gwilym, who wrote in the 14th century, makes particular mention of an organ and choir at Bangor in his time, in a commendatory ode addressed to Hywel, Dean of Bangor. The ode, which was in Welsh, has the following: "Whose organ, and harmonious choir, are unrivalled in performance." Hywel was made Dean of Bangor in 1359 and Bishop in 1370. This ode, therefore, must have been written between 1359 and 1370, and the allusion to an organ implies that there must have been an Organist at that time.
There have been many assistant organists over the years, including Arnold Lewis who became head of music BBC Wales, James Griffiths (1964–2007) and Martin Brown. The post changed title in 2014 and the assistant organist is now known as the cathedral organist. Along with this change the post of "organist and master of the choristers" changed to "director of music".


In 635, Paneas gained favourable terms of surrender from the Muslim army of Khalid ibn al-Walid after it had defeated Heraclius' forces. In 636, a second, newly formed Byzantine army advancing on Palestine used Paneas as a staging post on the way to confront the Muslim army at the final Battle of Yarmouk.
The depopulation of Paneas after the Muslim conquest was rapid, as its traditional markets disappeared. Only 14 of the 173 Byzantine sites in the area show signs of habitation from this period. The Hellenised city thus fell into a precipitous decline. At the council of al-Jabiyah, when the administration of the new territory of the Umar Caliphate was established, Paneas remained the principal city of the district of al-Djawlan (the Djawlan) in the jund (military Province) of Dimashq (Damascus), due to its strategic military importance on the border with Jund al-Urdunn, which comprised the Galilee and territories east and north of it.
Around 780 CE the nun Hugeburc visited Caesarea and reported that the town 'had' a church and a great many Christians, but her account does not clarify whether any of those Christians were still living in the town at the time of her visit.
The transfer of the Abbasid Caliphate capital from Damascus to Baghdad inaugurated the flowering of the Islamic Golden Age at the expense of the provinces. With the decline of Abbasid power in the tenth century, Paneas found itself a provincial backwater in a slowly collapsing empire, as district governors began to exert greater autonomy and used their increasing power to make their positions hereditary. The control of Syria and Paneas passed to the Fatimids of Egypt.
At the end of the 9th century Al-Ya'qubi reaffirms that Paneas was still the capital of al-Djawlan in the jund of Dimshq, although by then the town was known as Madīnat al-Askat (city of the tribes) with its inhabitants being Qays, mostly of the Banu Murra with some Yamani families.
Due to the Byzantine advances under Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces into the Abbasid empire, a wave of refugees fled south and augmented the population of Madīnat al-Askat. The city was taken over by an extreme Shī‘ah sect of the Bedouin Qarāmita in 968. In 970 the Fatimids again briefly took control, only to lose it again to the Qarāmita. The old population of Banias along with the new refugees formed a Sunni sufi ascetic community. In 975 the Fatimid al-'Aziz wrested control in an attempt to subdue the anti-Fatimid agitation of Mahammad b. Ahmad al-Nablusi and his followers and to extend Fatimid control into Syria. al-Nabulusi’s school of hadith was to survive in Banias under the tutelage of Arab scholars such as Abú Ishaq (Ibrahim b. Hatim) and al-Balluti.


The Crusaders' arrival in 1099 quickly split the mosaic of semi-independent cities of the Seljuk sultanate of Damascus.
The Crusaders have held the town twice, between 1129–1132 and 1140–1164. It was called by the Franks Belinas or Caesarea Philippi. From 1126–1129, the town was held by Assassins, and was turned over to the Franks following the purge of the sect from Damascus by Buri. Later on, Shams al-Mulk Isma'il attacked Banias and captured it on 11 December 1132. In 1137, Banias became under the rule of Imad al-Din Zengi. In late spring 1140, Mu'in ad-Din Unur handed Banias to the Crusaders during the reign of King Fulk, due to their assistance against Zengi's aggression towards Damascus.
With the arrival of fresh troops to the Holy Land, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem broke the three-month-old truce of February 1157 by raiding the large flocks that the Turcoman people had pastured in the area. In that year, Banias became the principal centre of Humphrey II of Toron's fiefdom, along with his being the constable of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, after it had first been granted to the Knights Hospitaller by Baldwin III. The Knights Hospitaller, having fallen into an ambush, relinquished the fiefdom. On 18 May 1157, Nūr ad-Din began a siege on Banias using mangonels. Humphrey in turn was under attack in Banias and Baldwin III was able to break the siege, only to be ambushed at Jacob's Ford in June 1157. The fresh troops arriving from Antioch and Tripoli were able to relieve the besieged crusaders.
The Lordship of Banias which was a sub-vassal within the Lordship of Beirut, was captured by Nūr ad-Din on 18 November 1164. The Franks had built a castle at Hunin (Château Neuf) in 1107 to protect the trade route from Damascus to Tyre. After Nūr ad-Din's ousting of Humphrey of Toron from Banias, Hunin was at the front line securing the border defences against the Muslim garrison at Banias.
Ibn Jubayr, the geographer, traveller and poet from al-Andalus, described Banias:
This city is a frontier fortress of the Muslims. It is small, but has a castle, round which, under the walls flows a stream. This stream flows out from the town by one of the gates, and turns a mill ... The town has broad arable lands in the adjacent plain. Commanding the town is the fortress, still belonging to the Franks, called Hunin, which lies 3 leagues distant from Banias. The lands in the plain belong half to the Franks and half to the Muslims; and there is here the boundary called Hadd al Mukasimah-"the boundary of the dividing." The Muslims and the Franks apportion the crops equally between them, and their cattle mingle freely without fear of any being stolen.”
After the death of Nūr ad-Din in May 1174, King Amalric I of Jerusalem led the crusader forces in a siege of Banias. The Governor of Damascus allied himself with the crusaders and released all his Frankish prisoners. With the death of Amalric I in July 1174, the crusader border became unstable. In 1177, King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem laid siege to Banias and again the crusader forces withdrew after receiving tribute from Samsan al-Din Ajuk, the Governor of Banias.
In 1179, Saladin took personal control of the forces of Banias and created a protective screen across the Hula through Tell al-Qadi. In 1187, Saladin's son al-Afdal was able to send a force of 7,000 horsemen from Banias, that participated in the Battle of Cresson and the Battle of Hattin. By the end of Saladin's life, Banias was in the territory of al-Afdal, Emir of Damascus, and in the Iqta' of Hussam al-Din Bishara.

In 1200, Sultan al-Adil I sent Fakhr al-Din Jaharkas to seize Kŭl’at es-Subeibeh, a fortress located on a high hill above Banias, from Hussam al-Din, and reaffirmed Jaharkas as the holder of the iqta' in 1202. A strong earthquake the same year had its epicenter close to Banias, and the city was partially destroyed. Jaharkas rebuilt the burj (fortress tower). He took control of other properties - Tibnin, Hunin, Beaufort and Tyron. After his death, these lands were in the hands of Sarim ad-Din Khutluba. Shortly after the start of the Fifth Crusade, Banias was raided by the Franks for three days. Later, Al-Mu'azzam Isa, son of al-Adil, started to dismantle fortifications across Palestine, in order to deny their protection should the Crusaders gain them, by fight or by land exchange. So, in March 1219, Khutluba was forced to relinquish Banias and destroy its fortress.
Probably at the same time, the city was passed to Al-Mu'azzam's brother, al-'Aziz 'Uthman. For a while it was ruled  as the hereditary principality of the dynast and his sons. The fourth prince, al-Sa'id Hasan, surrendered it to As-Salih Ayyub in 1247. He later tried to retake the land, at the time of An-Nasir Yusuf, but was imprisoned.
In 1252 Banias was attacked by the forces of the Seventh Crusade and took it, but they were driven by the garrison of Subeiba.
Al-Sa'id Hasan of Banias, released by Hulegu during the Mongol invasion of Syria, allied with him, and took part in the Battle of Ain Jalut.


The traveller J. S. Buckingham described Banias in 1825: "The present town is small, and meanly built, having no place of worship in it; and the inhabitants, who are about 500 in number, are Mohammedans and Metouali, governed by a Moslem Sheikh.
In the 1870s, Banias was described as "a village, built of stone, containing about 350 Moslems, situated on a raised table-land at the bottom of the hills of Mount Hermon. The village is surrounded by gardens crowded with fruit-trees. The source of the Jordan is close by, and the water runs in little aqueducts into and under every part of the modern village."


The Syria-Lebanon-Palestine boundary was a product of the post-World War I Anglo-French partition of Ottoman Syria. British forces had advanced to a position at Tel Hazor against Turkish troops in 1918 and wished to incorporate all the sources of the Jordan River within the British controlled Palestine. Due to the French inability to establish administrative control, the frontier between Syria and Palestine was fluid. Following the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, and the unratified and later annulled Treaty of Sèvres, stemming from the San Remo conference, the 1920 boundary extended the British controlled area to north of the Sykes Picot line, a straight line between the mid point of the Sea of Galilee and Nahariya. In 1920 the French managed to assert authority over the Arab nationalist movement and after the Battle of Maysalun, King Faisal was deposed. The international boundary between Palestine and Syria was finally agreed by Great Britain and France in 1923 in conjunction with the Treaty of Lausanne, after Britain had been given a League of Nations mandate for Palestine in 1922. Banyas (on the Quneitra/Tyre road) was within the French Mandate of Syria. The border was set 750 metres south of the spring.
In 1941, Australian forces occupied Banias in the advance to the Litani during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign; Free French and Indian forces also invaded Syria in the Battle of Kissoué. Banias's fate in this period was left in a state of limbo since Syria had come under British military control. When Syria was granted independence in April 1946, it refused to recognize the 1923 boundary agreed between Britain and France.
Following the 1948 Arab Israeli War, the Banias spring remained in Syrian territory, while the Banias River flowed through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into Israel. In 1953, at one of a series of meetings to regularize administration of the DMZs, Syria offered to adjust the armistice lines, and cede to Israel 70% of the DMZ, in exchange for a return to the pre-1946 International border in the Jordan basin area, with Banias water resources returning to Syrian sovereignty. On 26 April, the Israeli cabinet met to consider the Syrian suggestions, with head of Israel's Water Planning Authority, Simha Blass, in attendance. Blass noted that while the land to be ceded to Syria was not suitable for cultivation, the Syrian map did not suit Israel's water development plan. Blass explained that the movement of the International boundary in the area of Banias would affect Israel's water rights. The Israeli cabinet rejected the Syrian proposals but decided to continue the negotiations by making changes to the accord and placing conditions on the Syrian proposals. The Israeli conditions took into account Blass's position over water rights and Syria rejected the Israeli counter-offer.
In September 1953, Israel advanced plans for its National Water Carrier to help irrigate the coastal Sharon Plain and eventually the Negev desert by launching a diversion project on a nine-mile (14 km) channel midway between the Huleh Marshes and Sea of Galilee in the central DMZ to be rapidly constructed. This prompted shelling from Syria and friction with the Eisenhower Administration; the diversion was moved to the southwest.
The Banias was included in the Jordan Valley Unified Water Plan, which allocated Syria 20 million cubic metres annually from it. The plan was rejected by the Arab League. Instead, at the 2nd Arab summit conference in Cairo of January 1964 the League decided that Syria, Lebanon and Jordan would begin a water diversion project. Syria started the construction of canal to divert the flow of the Banias river away from Israel and along the slopes of the Golan toward the Yarmouk River. Lebanon was to construct a canal from the Hasbani River to Banias and complete the scheme The project was to divert 20 to 30 million cubic metres of water from the river Jordan tributaries to Syria and Jordan for the development of Syria and Jordan. The diversion plan for the Banias called for a 73 kilometre long canal to be dug 350 metres above sea level, that would link the Banias with the Yarmuk. The canal would carry the Banias's fixed flow plus the overflow from the Hasbani (including water from the Sarid and Wazani). This led to military intervention from Israel, first with tank fire and then, as the Syrians shifted the works further eastward, with airstrikes.
On June 10, 1967, the last day of the Six Day War, the Golani Brigade captured the village of Banias. Israel's priority on the Syrian front was to take control of the water sources. After the local residents fled to Majdal Shams, the village was destroyed by Israeli bulldozers, leaving only the mosque, church and shrines.


While Banias does not appear in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Medieval writers such as Philostorgius, Theodoret, Benjamin of Tudela and Samuel ben Samson incorrectly identified it with the biblical city of Dan (also known in the Bible as Laish), now known to be located at Tel Dan. Eusebius of Caesarea accurately places Dan/Laish in the vicinity of Paneas at the fourth mile on the route to Tyre. Eusebius's identification was confirmed by E Robinson in 1838 and subsequently by archaeological excavations at both Tel Dan and Caesarea Philippi.


WikiWeb_Bank of America Building (Baltimore)_1

10 Light Street was the tallest building in the state, and the tallest office building in the United States south of New York City when constructed in 1929. The Art Deco building was designed by the firm of Taylor and Fisher, and completed in eighteen months, fashioned from Indiana sandstone and local brick over a steel frame at a cost of (U.S.) $3 million.
The building's exterior is decorated with carved Romanesque human and animal images, stylized eagles, and is capped with a copper and gold roof. The ornate, two-story main banking lobby is highly decorated with mosaic floors designed by Hildreth Meiere, and historic murals by Griffith Baily Coale and McGill Mackall on historic themes:  the Baltimore fire of 1904, and the writing of the National Anthem at the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. These mosaics are planned to be covered by artificial turf, so that the historic lobby can be used as an Under Armour gym.


WikiWeb_Bank of California Building (Portland, Oregon)_3

The building occupies a 50-by-100-foot (15 m × 30 m) site at the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and Stark Streets; it faces 6th.   The main façade features five large, 28-foot (8.5 m) tall windows which are arched at the top. Above each is a smaller rectangular window at the second-floor level. The third floor is within the building's hipped roof and is windowless. The exterior is clad in cast terracotta with marble trim, and the roof is covered in red clay tiles. Terracotta is also used for the cornices. Two ornate bronze lamps flank the central entrance, similar in style to fixtures used on Portland's Doyle-designed Public Service Building of the same period. A bronze portico frames the bronze gates of the main entrance, located in the central arch of the five tall arches. For many years, this was the building's only entrance. However, in 1977, during work to modify the building for non-banking uses, a second entrance was built in the northernmost arch of the main façade, accessing a new, smaller lobby and providing more direct access to the upper floors, .
Originally, the building's north side was directly adjacent to the six-story Fenton Building (also known as the Guaranty Building), obscured from view, and was not given any decorative surface when built. However, following that building's demolition in 1971, the Bank of California Building's newly exposed north façade was resurfaced in cast terracotta in a pattern simulating that of the west and south façades. A surface parking lot took the Fenton Building's place, and a drive-up teller window was added to the building's north end; this addition was the only substantial alteration to the building's exterior between its completion in 1925 and its nomination to the National Register in 1978. The drive-up window was removed in 1977, after the building's use as a bank ended. In 1980, the parking lot gave way to a new 13-story office building known as the TN Building. It was converted into a 16-story hotel in 2008, the Marriott-owned Courtyard Portland City Center, leaving the north façade hidden from view again.


WikiWeb_Bank of California Building (Portland, Oregon)_4

In addition to three main floors, the building has a mezzanine situated between the first (ground) and second floors. At the time of the building's opening in 1925, the windowless third floor was not fully outfitted for use, and was planned to be "held in reserve" until then-anticipated expansion of the bank's business in Portland created a need for additional work space. It was eventually equipped "as a lounge, library, and recreation space for the bank's employees". A basement was also included. It housed the bank vaults (of which there are three), among other facilities.  The ground floor was occupied by the main banking room, with a line of teller windows along the east side. It was designed as a "grand two-story room with ornate coffered beam ceilings", which are 36 feet (11 m) high. The mezzanine was originally situated only along the north side and is 16 feet (4.9 m) wide there. The floor of the former banking lobby is marble, as were the teller counters (since removed). Most other interior surfaces are cast materials made to simulate travertine marble.
Along with removal of the line of teller windows, other work undertaken during the 1977 modifications included an extension of the mezzanine southwards along the east wall to the south wall, and the addition of a freestanding stairway between it and the center of the ground-floor lobby.


WikiWeb_Bank of China Building, Shanghai_2

The Bank of China Tower occupies a gross floor area of 50,000 square meters (540,000 sq ft), consisting of two buildings. The east building is the main structure with 15 floors facing the Bund. The ground floor has a higher ceiling, plus two floors underground, making a total of 17 floors. The west building is an annex on four floors. The overall outlook carries a traditional Chinese style, clad in smooth Jinshan stones. Its top is a pyramid with a square base. Parts of the brackets are decorated with stone door arches. A cut-out of the Chinese character for "longevity" can be spotted on both sides of each floor, imparting a calm and peaceful air to the grand construction. Traditional decorations are also adopted for the flower patterns and panes on the railing.
In Shanghai's international concessions, the erection of the Bank of China Tower among numerous foreign buildings, a building funded by the bank and constructed by Chinese workers and combining the Chinese and Western architectural styles, has broken the foreign dominance of Shanghai's grand buildings. In other words, it has again demonstrated Bank of China's determination to compete with western banks in China.
Mr. Soong Tse-ven, chairman of Bank of China, will lay the foundation stone in person. Mrs. Song (Madam Zhong Leyi) will put the commemorative box under the foundation stone. According to sources, drawings of the new building, photos of scenes on the Bund, various local newspapers, various fractional currencies, exchange certificates from Bank of China, list of employees, recent yearbooks of the bank, and among others, are hid inside the box. The bank occupies an area of 55,000 square chi, with its east facing the Bund, its south neighboring Renji Road and the west bordering Yuanmingyuan Road. The underground is 13 chi into the soil. Considering the loose soil of Shanghai, its adjacency to high building on three sides, its closeness to the Bund and the din produced by cars on the street, the difficulties of digging are evident. Although the foundation has not been completed for now, we can tell how grand the construction plan is by simply judging from the completed part. It is told that the outlook of the building will convey a sense of magnificence through a simple style. The surrounding wall in the lower part will use granites from Suzhou. The 18-floor building tops 227 feet, featuring both the modern architectural styles and the typical Chinese forms. The floor area of the underground is quite huge, equaling the total footprint. A parking lot was built at the entrance on Yuanmingyuan Road. Its equipment including the reserve and safe are quite refined and solid. The total number of safes amounts to over 10,000. The new building serves many functions: one for the head office, one of the Shanghai Branch, and another for leasing. Rumors have it that various institutions under the central government will lease the foyer on the ground floor for their offices. The ground floor also hosts two key functions of the bank: circulation and cashing. On the first floor, there stays the Trust Department, the Savings Department, the Marketing Subsection and the office for the vice manager of the Shanghai Branch. The Marketing Subsection occupies an area above 15,000 square chi, with a half-circle ceiling in height of around 35 feet. The 2nd floor and the third floor are home to various departments of the Head Office and offices for senior employees. A living room, lounge, gym and clinic can be found on the 4th floor. In addition, there is a cafeteria which can accommodate 400 people and a lecture room capable of accommodating 375 people. The architect estimates that the overall weight of the new building will reach 70,000 tons. 2000 trunks, each in 100-foot length, are needed to support this weight. Dozens of nouveau and super-speed elevators are installed inside the building, being completely automatic and with a maximum speed at 500 feet per minute. All offices will be equipped with air conditioning, heating pipes, water pipes and fire equipment.
The total length of metal pipes utilized is 20 miles. Cables used for lights, telephone, bells and various alarms total above 70 miles. The bank will dig two wells, each in depth of 700 chi, contributing a pumping capacity of 600 gallons of water a minute. Upon the completion of its internal installation, the building will become a giant structure in Shanghai.


WikiWeb_Bank of New South Wales building, Brisbane_3

The Bank of New South Wales Building was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria.
The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.
The building and site are significant in illustrating the pattern and evolution of Queensland's history. The site has been associated with the Bank of New South Wales/Westpac since 1851.
The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.
The building is significant as the predominantly intact 1920s interior of the ground floor banking chamber represents a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage.
The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.
The building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an interwar neo-classical bank building.
The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.
The building is important in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the use of the neo-classical design for a 20th-century financial institution reflecting the dignity and solidity of such institutions and the quality and craftsmanship of the building's main interior spaces.
The building makes a significant contribution to the streetscape of Queen and George Streets.


The library was originally also the smoking room, so it is surprising that the original painted ceiling has survived and could be fully restored. The ceiling is heavily painted, gilded and sculptured in an eclectic manner, taking its general design from classical sources. The background is cream, but there is much use of Pompeiian red, an earth colour which gained popularity in Victorian England after the renewed excavations by Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1860. Small panels feature clearly painted classical motifs and portraits with distressed backgrounds, to look like pieces of ancient frescoes. Four medallions show the named poets Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer and Tennyson, all admired by the Romantics. All the spaces on the cream background are filled with illustrations imitating the original maiolica style, featuring stylised goats and fauns, cornucopia, grapes, birds and flowers, but also angels and putti in the centre. The decoration around the edge has a Green Man.


The fireplace is red Rouge de Rance marble with cream and black marble, patterned with inlaid semi-precious stone including green malachite: all imported materials. The intertwined initials of Edward and Elizabeth his wife are central on the fire surround and fireback, which is prominently dated 1867. The inlay features the White Rose of Yorkshire, possibly in Parian marble, which is repeated on the carved corinthian columns on the fire surround. The mantelshelf is massive enough to support three lifesized marble busts: Edward Akroyd on the left, his father Jonathan in the centre, and his wife Elizabeth Fearby (d.1884) on the right (by the Florentine sculptor Niccolò Bazzanti (1802–1869)). The bust of Elizabeth is remarkable in that it has the trompe-l'œil effect of a veil over the face. The glazed hearth tiles are similar to Mintons tiles but are probably locally made.


The Halifax Literary and Philosophical Society was started by 13 Halifax merchants, professionals and military officers in 1830 for research and study, to promote science and the arts and to start a museum to display their collections.  These collections of curios were acquired from their Grand Tours and travels for business and military purposes; they were objects of geology, natural history, anthropology, the arts, as well as oddities from around the world. Their museum was at first successful but by 1895 had declined, so was closed and the exhibits given to Halifax museums.  Some of Bankfield's share has survived and a few items are exhibited to demonstrate Victorian antiquarian taste.
Lemuel Clayton was a Halifax councillor, silk spinner and one of the co-founders of Bankfield Museum in 1887. He was a member of the Literary and Philosophical Society, had travelled the world and amassed a collection of curios, and these curios were some of the first exhibits shown in the museum. One of the curios was a stone carving of a baby which he acquired in 1886 from the Higashi Honganji temple at Kyoto. It was not appropriate for him to take home one of these stone babies which were images intended to bring luck to childless women, but Clayton convinced the jūshoku to allow him to have one, after insisting that he was not a missionary. So in 1887 yet another image of a baby was added to the number already in Bankfield House's decorations while the childless Elizabeth Akroyd was still alive and her husband had died the same year.
Emile Clement (1844–1928) donated or sold some of his Western Australian aboriginal material to the museum, but this collection was later given to Manchester Museum.
Henry Ling Roth was an anthropologist and curator of the Halifax museums between 1900 and 1925. He published numerous items on anthropology, including 23 numbers of Bankfield Museum notes. He was "The man who developed a small, confused, unattractive museum into an important centre of spectacular interest and research". The museum had followed the 18th century pattern of displaying curiosities, but Roth classified and rearranged the displays for educational purposes about peoples of the world and of the past. His main interest was textiles, so he displayed textile machinery from Calderdale and "an old spinning jenny in use at Dobcross until 1916". He acquired and displayed spinning wheels, looms and textiles from the southern and eastern continents. He was commended for this in 1916.
Edith Durham was an anthropologist and collector of Balkan textiles who donated her collection to the museum in 1935. It is thought that the museum possibly acquired this important collection as Bankfield still carried the reputation given to it by Ling Roth, or perhaps because Roth's successor from 1925 to 1932 as curator was George Carline, brother of Edith Durham's friend Hilda Carline. The Durham collection was displayed at Bankfield in the "Bread and Salt in our Hearts" exhibition in 1997.