The building of Downside abbey church was begun in 1873 with the transepts and the Lady Chapel. The foundation stone was laid on 1 October 1873 and the ceremony was reported in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette on 9 October 1873:
Yesterday week the foundation stones of the new church and collegiate and monastic buildings were laid amidst much ceremonial. Archbishop Manning presided at the ceremony, and he was accompanied by Bishop Clifford of Clifton, The Bishop of Newport and Menevia, the Cistercian Abbot of Mount St Bernard’s, Leicestershire, Monsignor Capel, Monsignor Parfitt, Dr. Neve, the Vicar-General of the Diocese, Dr. Williams, President of Prior Park College, and among the Benedictine clergy, to which Order Downside belongs, was the Very Revd. Dr. Sweeney, of Bath. The ceremony commenced with Pontifical High Mass, celebrated by Dr. Clifford. After the Gospel the Archbishop preached, taking as his text, "One body and one spirit", Eph iv 4. After Mass, the music of which was strict Gregorian, a procession was formed and moved through the grounds of the college to the spot where the stones to be laid were prepared. The chief stone, forming the base of the north transept of the church, was laid by Archbishop Manning; the stone of the college by the Bishop of Clifton, and that of the monastery by the Bishop of Newport. At the end of the ceremony about £100 were laid upon the stone, but in addition to that promises of contributions were very liberal. At the conclusion of the religious part of the day’s proceedings the Benedictine Fathers entertained the visitors, numbering about 200, at a luncheon laid out in the exhibition room of the college. The style of the new building, the architects of which are Messrs. Dunn and Hansom, of Newcastle, is mediaeval Gothic. The church, it is said, will be exceptionally grand, and with its lofty tower and spire will be a striking object to all the neighbourhood. The building is to be constructed of stone from the neighbouring quarries at Doulting, which it may be mentioned furnished the material of the structure of Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury Abbey. The present Benedictine community purchased about 70 acres of land at Downside in the year 1814, and removed thither from Acton Burnell in Shropshire. By degrees they have increased their property to some 350 acres, and are known to have the best cultivated farms in their part of the county of Somerset.
In 1925 the unfinished nave was dedicated to those old boys of the school killed in World War I.


The abbey church was consecrated in 1935. At the same time it was raised to the rank of a minor basilica by Pope Pius XI. The consecration was reported in the Wells Journal for 13 September 1935.
To-day, with the full solemnity of Catholic ritual, Downside Abbey, which was commenced more than a half-a-century ago, was consecrated by the Cardinal Prince-Primate of Hungary, Monsignor Seredi, who is one of the Benedictine Members of the Sacred College. The ceremony was attended by Cardinal MacRory from Ireland, seven Archbishops, twelve Bishops and fifteen Abbots. Over 500 priests accepted invitations to attend and among the lay guests were the Lord Mayor of London and leading members of the Roman Catholic community throughout Great Britain. In honour of the occasion the Abbey Church has been raised by the Pope to the dignity of the Minor Basilica – the first in England – and this confers upon the Abbot the right to wear the Cappa Magna, a long black cloak. Cardinal Seredi, who directly represented the Pope, consecrated the High Altar and performed the greater part of the consecration of the church, the building of which has cost over £200,000.


The church houses the relics of St. Oliver Plunkett, archbishop of Armagh, an Irish martyr, executed at Tyburn in 1681, who entrusted the disposal of his body to the care of a Benedictine monk of the English Benedictine Congregation. The church is one of only four in the United Kingdom to be designated a minor basilica by the Roman Catholic Church, the others being St. Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham, The National Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham and Corpus Christi Priory, Manchester.


The church is built in the Gothic Revival style, in Bath stone ashlar with plain red tile roofs; the east chapels are roofed in copper sheeting. It is designed to rival in size the medieval cathedrals of England that were lost to the Catholic Church through the Reformation. The earliest part is the decorated transepts by Archibald Matthias Dunn and Edward Joseph Hansom, dating from 1882. The choir is the work of Thomas Garner (who is buried there), dedicated in 1905. The nave by Giles Gilbert Scott (c. 1923–25) remains unfinished, with its western wall in crude Lias stone standing bare and undecorated. The Lady chapel is acknowledged as one of the most complete and successful schemes of Sir Ninian Comper, with a reredos and altar furnishings incorporating medieval fragments and a reliquary containing the skull of St Thomas de Cantilupe. The tower, completed in 1938, at 166 feet (55 m), is the second highest in Somerset. The choir stalls are modelled on those of Chester Cathedral.
The building, together with the attached north part of the cloister, was designated as Grade I listed in 1986.


The first pipe organ at Downside was built in 1805 by George Pike England of Tottenham Court Road for the Music Room in Brighton Pavilion; when removed in 1882 (without its original case) to the south transept gallery of the new church, it had 16 stops over two manuals and pedals. Removed to the parish church of Saint Vigor in nearby Stratton-on-the-Fosse in 1907, it survives today somewhere in America, having been sold following water damage sustained in Stratton in 1969.


The England organ was to be replaced in 1905 with a new instrument by Garrard of Lechlade, consisting of three manuals and 55 speaking stops: it was supplied two years later by the renamed firm of Garrard, Spooner & Amphlett, but was never completed satisfactorily.


The current organ in the abbey church was built by John Compton in 1931 to replace the Garrard organ: it has 142 speaking stops over four manuals and pedals. This extraordinarily large number of stops is derived from 38 ranks of pipes by means of extension and transmission. The whole instrument is enclosed within three stone and concrete chambers with swell shutters facing upwards, except the Tuba box which speaks down into the transept. Unusually, the casework (designed by Giles Gilbert Scott and carved by Ferdinand Stuflesser of Ortesei in the Italian Tyrol) has no pipefronts: it is of solid oak with fretwork, but has no roof: consequently, the whole organ speaks up into the transept vaults and is projected down the nave. The console, a typical Compton luminous stop button affair which faces west from near the crossing down the north side of the nave, is made from timber from HMS Bellerophon, which transported Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo.


The Monastery's collections consist of some 450,000 books, incunabula, manuscripts and periodicals, held alongside the archives of the English Benedictine Congregation. The collection of medieval manuscripts has been described as "the most important in the South West of England". The collections are housed in a six-storey octagonal building designed in 1960s style by Francis Pollen and completed in 1971.
Following a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £856,000 in 2013, the archives have opened to the public, and much of the collection of rare books and manuscripts has been digitised. The grant also enabled repair and improvement of the library building.
In March 2017 it was reported that the Abbey was to publish a copy of a Georgian recipe book from 1793 that was discovered in its library in 2016.  Amongst other items it included one of the earliest known UK recipes for curry. It also chronicles day-to-day life at Begbrook House near Bristol.


John Bede Polding (later Archbishop of Sydney) (1805–19)
Prior/Abbot Edmund Ford (1894–1906)
Abbot Cuthbert Butler (1906–22)
Abbot Leander Ramsay (1922–29)
Abbot John Chapman (1929–33)
Abbot Bruno Hicks (1933–38)
Abbot Sigebert Trafford (1938–46)
Abbot (later Bishop) Christopher Butler (1946–66)
Abbot Wilfrid Passmore (1966–74)
Abbot John Roberts (1974–90)
Abbot Charles Fitzgerald-Lombard (1990–98)
Abbot Richard Yeo (1998–2006)
Abbot Aidan Bellenger (2006–14)
Prior Administrator Leo Maidlow Davis (2014–18)
Prior/Abbot Nicholas Wetz (Prior Administrator 2018–20, Abbot 2020–)


Dom Christopher Butler OSB, abbot, bishop, scripture scholar, author, theologian, council father
Dom David Knowles OSB, Regius Professor at Cambridge, historian of monasticism
Cardinal Dom Francis Aidan Gasquet OSB, Vatican librarian, historian
Dom Bernard Orchard OSB
Dom Illtyd Trethowan OSB, (sub-prior 1958–1991), theologian
Dom Richard Connolly (1873–1948), Syriac scholar
Dom Roger Vaughan OSB, the second Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Australia
Dom William Bernard Ullathorne OSB, bishop and theologian
Dom Hubert van Zeller, author, sculptor, and cartoonist


Downside monks founded daughter houses at Ealing, west London (founded 1897, independent 1947, became Ealing Abbey in 1955); and at Worth, West Sussex (founded 1933, independent 1957, became Worth Abbey in 1965).


Downside School, attached to the monastery, is a Roman Catholic public school for boys and girls from the age of 11 to 18. As in most Roman Catholic schools in the 21st century, non-Catholic students are accepted.
During the 19th century, Downside remained a small monastic school. Dom Leander Ramsay was the founder of modern Downside; he planned the new buildings that opened in 1912 and now form two sides of the Quad.
The school has a board of governors with eleven members, one of whom is from the Abbey community.
Since September 2019, the school and the abbey are run by separate trusts as part of reforms overseen by the Charity Commission in the wake of the investigation into child abuse of pupils by monks.


In January 2012, Father Richard White, a Downside Abbey monk who formerly taught at its school, was jailed for five years for gross indecency and indecent assault against a pupil in the late 1980s. White, 66, who was known to pupils as Father Nick, had been allowed to continue teaching after he was first caught abusing a child in 1987 and was able to go on to groom and assault another pupil in the junior school. He was placed on a restricted ministry and did not have any contact with the school after the second incident but was not arrested until 2010.
Two other monks with connections to Downside, also former teachers, received police cautions during an 18-month criminal investigation. One of the cautioned monks has been named as Brother Anselm (Michael Hurt), brother of actor John Hurt, who decided to transfer his monastic stability to Glenstal Abbey in Ireland in the 1980s.
Department for Education officials were said to be taking an urgent interest in child protection arrangements at the school. Inspection reports referred specifically to seven monks who had worked at the school at different times and whose behaviour had been "a cause for concern". The Independent Schools Inspectorate had previously criticised a lack of urgency in making improvements to child protection. The Charity Commission also sent a compliance team to work with the school on this, which it treated as "a high-risk case". The Abbot responded by apologising to parents and reported that 50 years of confidential school records indicated that four of the monks had faced police action, two had restrictions imposed on them, and one was cleared and returned to monastic life. A review of school governance was already taking place.
The Independent Schools Inspectorate's most recent report, 2013, states: "The arrangements for welfare, health and safety are excellent. The school’s safeguarding arrangements are much improved since the November 2010 inspection and, as in the advisory visit in November 2011, policies and practice meet the requirements in full. Thorough procedures ensure the safe recruitment of staff, and all the necessary checks are carried out...The quality of the pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is excellent. This fulfils the school’s aim of developing high personal standards in each pupil in the light of the school’s Christian context. By the time they leave, their personal development is excellent...The quality of the school's arrangements for pastoral care is excellent."
In November 2017, the national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) started to examine evidence of children being targeted for abuse at Downside School, along with another major Catholic school located at Ampleforth Abbey, as part of its investigation into the prevalence of paedophilia in the English Benedictine Congregation and its failures to properly protect young people over many decades.  IICSA heard that children at the two schools could still be "at risk". The enquiry heard evidence that in 2012, the then headmaster, Father Leo Maidlow Davis, who is now the senior monk at Downside Abbey, made trips with a loaded wheelbarrow to a distant part of its grounds, where he made a bonfire, destroying staff files dating back to the early 1980s that might have contained evidence of child abuse at the school.
Father Charles Fitzgerald-Lombard, abbot of Downside from 1990 to 1998, was among three Downside abbots accused by Father Aidan Bellenger, in a private letter, of tolerating child abuse. Father Aidan, abbot from 2006 to 2014, said his predecessors "protected and encouraged" paedophile monks. Wrongdoers at the school were quietly moved between Benedictine monasteries and parishes when they fell under suspicion.  Reference was made to instructions from Rome to destroy documents that were damaging to priests. Father Leo insisted that his decision to make a bonfire of Downside's staff files was prompted by a desire to "get rid of unnecessary old material". He accepted that the files should, under safeguarding requirements, have been kept for 70 years, conceding that he may have unintentionally destroyed information about child abuse.


In May 2020, it was reported that in the time following the 2018 release of the IICSA report, the school experienced major financial difficulties due to legal costs, settlement payments and falling rolls, and was obliged to sell some of its Renaissance-era paintings.


The Abbey and the daily activities of two monks were the subject of Episode 1 of the television series Retreat: Meditations from a Monastery, first shown on BBC Four in October 2017.


Drübeck Abbey (German: Kloster Drübeck) is a former Benedictine monastery for nuns in Drübeck on the northern edge of the Harz in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Today it is a conference venue for the Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony with an educational-theological institute and pastoral centre.


The Abbey of Drübeck was supposedly mentioned for the first time in a document dated 26 January 877. However, this has been exposed as a forgery. Thus a deed by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, dated 10 September 960, is seen as the first confirmed record of the Drubechi Abbey.
In 995, Emperor Otto III confirmed the election of "free" abbesses (German: Äbtissinnenwahl) (i.e., without imperial or episcopal oversight) and thus the special legal position of the abbey. This meant that during the 10th century the foundation enjoyed privileges like those of the Imperial Abbeys (German: Reichsabteien) in Gandersheim and Quedlinburg.
During the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation, the German Peasants' War and the Thirty Years War, monastic life died out. At the end of the 17th century the abbey buildings were transferred to the Counts of Stolberg-Wernigerode, who established an evangelical convent there in 1732. At the request of the last abbess, Countess  Magdalena of Stolberg-Wernigerode, the Evangelical Church Province of Saxony took over the abbey in 1946 as a convalescent home and conference centre.


The earliest record of its construction dates to 1 August 1004. From a deed signed by Emperor Henry II it emerges that either a new monastery was erected or a major renovation had taken place. It was designed as a flat-roofed church with three double bays and simple alternation of piers and columns (Stützenwechsel) in the nave. Even today the walls of the central nave, five columns with Ottonian capitals and the southern wing of the transept retain this structure.
In very recent times new excavations have taken place, which have revealed the northern aisle that had been lost around 1660, as well as part of an angular foundation in the area of the transept. This could have belonged to a previous building.
In the 12th century extensive modifications were carried out: the imposing west transom with its two towers was built, the church was arched and the tiered stalls added.
During the peasants' war the building was badly damaged. In 1599 a fire was started by a band of robbers, whose ringleader was never captured. After makeshift repairs, more modifications were carried out during the Baroque era.
In the 20th century attempts have been made to recover the original structure in places and the crypt was re-opened to its halfway point. The abbey buildings are part of the Romanesque Road, a tourist route in Saxony-Anhalt.


Adelbrin was the legendary first abbess of the monastery. The non-contemporary grave monument is preserved in the crypt of the church which is accessible from the outside. It is sandstone grave slab engraved with figures and leaning against a wall. The narrow side leans on a plain grave slab. Adelbrin was the legendary founder of the abbey and a saint. She is believed to be the sister of the two founders of the abbey, Theti and Wikker.


The abbey gardens are part of the tourist project "Dream Gardens - Historic Parks in Saxony-Anhalt". The present external area was recreated in Anhalt based on a plan drawn by J. A. Dieckmann in 1737. Following the abbey's acquisition at that time by the Counts of Stolberg-Wernigerode, the courtyard and gardens were relaid. As part of this the convent gardens with their prayer houses and the abbess's gardens were established; these remain part of the garden scenery even today.
Around 1730, as part of this renovation, a lime tree was planted in the abbey courtyard. This "abbey lime" - almost 300 years old - is now a natural monument for the district of Harz.


WikiWeb_Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden_0

The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden (simplified Chinese: 中山公园; traditional Chinese: 中山公園; pinyin: Zhōngshān Gōngyuán; Jyutping: Zung1saan1 Gung1jyun4) is the first Chinese or "scholars" garden built outside of China, and is located in Chinatown in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is located at 578 Carrall Street and consists of a freely accessible public park and a garden with an admission fee. The mandate of the garden is to "maintain and enhance the bridge of understanding between Chinese and western cultures, promote Chinese culture generally and be an integral part of the local community."


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The garden was built in 1985–1986. The outer park was designed by architects Joe Wai and Donald Vaughan, while the inner garden was conceived by Wang Zu-Xin as the chief architect, with the help of experts from the Landscape Architecture Company of Suzhou, China. Funding for the project came from the Chinese and Canadian governments, the local Chinese community, and other public and private sector sources, and it opened on April 24, 1986, in time for Expo 86.
Because the winter climate in Vancouver is similar to that of Suzhou, many of the same plant varieties are found in the garden as in its Suzhou counterparts. The plants were chosen according to their blossom schedules in order to emphasize seasonal changes, especially the "awakening" in spring. They are also selected to invoke the symbolic, historical, and literary meaning of each plant and are used sparingly, in contrast to western gardens, and provide colour through all the seasons.
Classical Chinese gardens employ philosophical principles of Feng shui and Taoism, striving to achieve harmony and a balance of opposites. Craggy rocks, for example, are juxtaposed against delicate foliage. Water is also an important element of the garden, and the large pond offers stillness, sound, a reflection of the sky, and helps to unify the other elements. Fish and turtles live in the garden and also serve a symbolic purpose. Bats, dragons, and phoenixes are represented in objects throughout the garden. Numerous large rocks are strategically placed and are intended to represent mountains concealing and revealing park elements.
The garden is named in honour of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, a nationalist leader who is considered the "father of modern China." The attribution is not arbitrary, as it emphasizes his connection with Vancouver. While traveling the world to raise awareness of, and funding for, the Chinese nationalist movement, Sun Yat-Sen stayed in Vancouver on three occasions for extended periods. At the time, there was a significant presence of Chinese nationalists in British Columbia, who helped finance the Xinhai Revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Sun Yat Sen subsequently became the first president of the Republic of China.
The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden are two separate entities, linked by the artificial pond. While the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is all of the above, the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park is a public park built in a Chinese style, with mostly North American materials.


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The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden was used as the backdrop for many episodes of Season 4 of Falling Skies. The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden also appears in Season 5 Episode 1 of Psych, titled "Romeo and Juliet and Juliet". The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden was also the site of a calligraphy task during the second episode of The Amazing Race Canada 1.


Located 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) south of the capital Sofia's neighbourhood of Dragalevtsi, Dragalevtsi Monastery was established by Tsar Ivan Alexander (r. 1331–1371) in 1345 at the time of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The monastery was first mentioned in the Vitosha Charter issued before 1382 by Tsar Ivan Shishman (r. 1371–1395). The charter granted lands and tax exemptions to Dragalevtsi Monastery, including ownership of the village of Novachene.
After Sofia fell to the Ottomans in 1382, the monastery was disbanded and its buildings destroyed. It was rebuilt in the second half of the 15th century with the financial support of local feudal lord Radoslav Mavar and rapidly developed into a repository of Bulgarian cultural records. In 1612, while staying at Dragalevtsi Monastery, the monk Job Kasinets from Timișoara wrote the Boyana Beadroll, a list of medieval Bulgarian rulers. The document shows the extent to which medieval rulers were remembered in 17th-century Bulgarian lands. Other manuscripts completed in this period at the monastery's scriptorium include Priest Nicholas' Gospel of 1469, the Dragalevtsi Gospel of 1534 and a psalter finished in 1598.
Today only the monastery church survives from what was a significantly more extensive complex of buildings in the 15th century. The church was expanded in 1818 and 1932. In the late 19th century, Dragalevtsi Monastery was often visited by national hero Vasil Levski, who used it as a centre for his revolutionary activities. The monastery is currently inhabited by nuns.


WikiWeb_Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park_0

Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park is a provincial park in Central Alberta, Canada, located about 103 km (64 mi) southeast of Red Deer and 16 km (9.9 mi) east of Trochu. The park is situated along the Red Deer River and features badlands topography. Its name derives from the large plateau in the middle of the park, 200 m (660 ft) above the Red Deer River, which has never been developed by humans and retains virgin prairie grasses.
The park is situated at an elevation ranging from 720 m (2,360 ft) to 875 m (2,871 ft) and has a surface of 34.5 km² (13.3 sq mi).
The park is the site of an ancient buffalo jump, where Cree native people drove bison over the cliffs in large numbers to provide for their tribes. The hills also contain unique flora and fauna that are not found this far east of Alberta's Rocky Mountains in as large numbers as at Dry Island. The park contains the most important Albertosaurus bone bed in the world, which was first discovered by Barnum Brown in 1910 and rediscovered by Dr. Phil Currie in 1997. The bone bed excavation was halted at the end of August, 2005. Dr. Currie left the Royal Tyrrell Museum in October 2005 to become the Canada Research Chair with the Biological Sciences Department at the University of Alberta. Under university auspices, excavation at the bone bed has continued in the summers of 2006, 2007 and 2008.


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The following activities are available in the park:
Birdwatching (with 150 bird species spotted, including turkey vulture, golden eagle, red-tailed hawk,  Swainson's hawk, prairie falcon, white pelican, mountain bluebird, belted kingfisher and other warblers, great blue heron, marbled godwit, peregrine falcon and willet)
Camping (two campgrounds are maintained: Tolman East and Tolman West)
Canoeing and kayaking
Fishing (brook trout, brown trout, bull trout, burbot, westslope cutthroat trout, emerald shiner, goldeye, lake chub, lake sturgeon, lake whitefish, longnose dace, longnose sucker, mooneye, mountain sucker, mountain whitefish, northern pike, quillback, rainbow trout, sauger, shorthead redhorse, spoonhead sculpin, Trout-perch, walleye, white sucker, yellow perch)
Scenic viewing


Dubare is a forest camp on the banks of the river Kaveri in the district of Kodagu, Karnataka.


The cathedral was built on the site of several former cathedrals, including 7th, 10th and 11th century buildings, and their 12th century successor in the Romanesque style. The money to build the basilica was partially contributed by the English king Richard the Lion Heart, as a votive for having survived a shipwreck near the island of Lokrum in 1192 on his return from the Third Crusade.
This building was largely destroyed in the earthquake of 1667. The Senate of Dubrovnik appealed to the Italian architect Andrea Bufalini of Urbino, who sent a model for the new church in Baroque style with a nave, two aisles and a cupola. Several other Italian architects including Francesco Cortese (present from 1669 until his death in 1670), Paolo Andreotti of Genoa (present 1671-1674), Pier Antonio Bazzi of Genoa (present 1677-78), and friar Tommaso Napoli of Palermo (present 1689 - 1700), all working with local and imported stonemasons, completed the Cathedral over the next three decades. Napoli made several crucial changes to the original plans including the use of a cross vault and the opening of large thermal windows at the upper level. This gives the whole interior a lighter and brighter feel. The style of the cathedral is in keeping with the esthetics of Roman Baroque architecture as practiced by Bernini, Carlo Fontana and their 17th century contemporaries. The construction began in 1673. The building was finished in 1713 by the Dubrovnik architect Ilija Katičić.
The building was damaged by the 1979 Montenegro earthquake, requiring several years of repairs.
The cathedral was damaged by at least one shell during the Siege of Dubrovnik in 1991. The damage has since been repaired.


The portal of the facade is flanked by four Corinthian columns. On top of the central part is a large Baroque window with a triangular gable and a balustrade with statues of saints. The deep niches in the facade contains statues of Saint Blaise (patron saint of Dubrovnik) and Joseph with Child. The lateral sides of the cathedral are rather plain, articulated by pillars and semicircular windows. The side entrances are smaller than the frontal portal.
The building features a high nave, separated by massive columns from the two aisles, three apses and a grand Baroque dome at the intersection of the nave and the transepts. The main altar holds a polyptych by Titian, portraying a version of the Assumption of the Virgin. This painting probably dates from 1552; the side altars hold paintings of Italian and Dalmatian masters of later centuries.


The Cathedral treasury (Riznica Katedrale) shows clearly the numerous connections Dubrovnik had with the main seaports in the Mediterranean Sea. The treasury holds 182 reliquaries holding relics from the 11th to 18th centuries; from local masters, Byzantium, Venice and the Orient. Its most important object is the gold-plated arm, leg and skull of Saint Blaise (patron saint of Dubrovnik). The head is in the shape of a crown of Byzantine emperors, adorned with precious stones and enameled medals. The treasury holds also a relic of the True Cross. Other outstanding examples in the treasury are a number of church vessels (13th to 18th century), many of them manufactured by local goldsmiths, and a number of valuables, such as the Romanesque-Byzantine icon of Madonna and Child (13th century) and paintings, among others, by Padovanini, Palma il Giovane, Savoldo, Parmigianino and P. Bordone.


Dubrovnik, history, culture, art heritage by Antun Travirka; Forum, Zadar, 2014; ISBN 978-953-179-884-6
The Cathedral Treasury
Vežić, Pavuša (2014). "Ikonografija romaničke katedrale u Dubrovniku". Ars Adriatica (in Croatian) (4): 63–74. Retrieved 9 January 2017.


Oengus, Mormaer of Moray, led a rebellion against David I, King of Scots in 1130. After Oengus' defeat and death in battle, David installed Freskin, a nobleman probably of Flemish origin, as his chief agent in Moray, and he was probably the first to build a castle at Duffus.
Freskin’s background is uncertain. The consensus amongst historians is that he was of Flemish background, the principal argument being that "Freskin" is a Flemish name.  Undoubtedly, King David, himself a Normanised magnate with extensive estates in northern England and Normandy, granted lands to many nobles from Flanders as well as Normans.  The unlikely alternatives are that he may have been an Anglo-Saxon or a Scot who fought for King David and his English general Edward Siwardsson in Moray. At that time, when Flemish nobles were referred to in writs by nationality (almost never), they were styled "Flandrensis". Freskin appears in no contemporary sources, and was never referred to by his national origin. Regardless of his origin, by the 13th century his descendants were referring to themselves as 'de Moravia' ('of Moray') and had become one of the more powerful families in northern Scotland.
It was Freskin who built the great earthwork and timber motte-and-bailey castle in c. 1140 on boggy ground in the Laich of Moray. It was certainly in existence by the time the king came to visit in 1151. The motte was a man-made mound with steeply sloping sides and a wide and deep ditch that surrounded the base.  Timber buildings would have stood on its flat top and would have been further protected by a wooden palisade placed around the edge of the summit. The motte was accessed from the bailey.  This is a wide stretch of earth elevated above the surrounding area but not as high as the motte.  At Duffus, the motte would have been reached by steps set into the mound.  The bailey contained the buildings necessary to sustain its inhabitants – brew and bake houses, workshops and stables – as well as the living accommodation.
The castle may have been destroyed in 1297 during a rebellion against English rule in the region, and it might have suffered further during Robert the Bruce's campaign in Moray in 1306.


In 1270, the castle passed into the ownership of Sir Reginald le Chen (d.1312) by marriage to the heiress Mary de Moravia, a descendant of Freskin. With the death of Reginald le Chen of Duffus in 1345, Duffus passed to his daughter Mariot who was married to Nicholas, the second son of Kenneth de Moravia, 4th Earl of Sutherland. The Sutherlands themselves were descended from Freskin and the castle remained in their possession until 1705 when it was abandoned.
In 1305, it was recorded that Reginald le Chen received a grant from King Edward I of England of 200 oaks from the royal forests of Longmorn and Darnaway "to build his manor of Dufhous", demonstrating that a large construction project was being carried out. The wood could have been needed for scaffolding, flooring and roofing of a new stone fortress. Alternatively, the stone structure, which dates from the early 14th century, could have been built by the younger Reginald.
A two-storey rectangular tower was built on the motte and was the main residence. The first floor held the lord's hall, with a latrine and bed chambers. The ground floor was the main storage space and also accommodated the lord's household. The tower was built as a defensive structure with a small number of narrow windows. There was only one entrance on the ground floor, which also housed a portcullis. On the second floor, two doors exited onto the walkway of the curtain wall. This wall enclosed the bailey. The putlog holes built into the curtain wall indicate the presence of a number of buildings. On the north side, a later building was erected that housed a kitchen, a great hall with a reception room and the great chamber bedroom. It is possible that this building was constructed by the Sutherlands. It is not known when the serious subsidence took place but there is evidence of repairs to the tower before it slid down the motte. The tower shows no further repairs and may have collapsed early on, but the newer hall became the main residence.  This building shows continued alterations over time. In 1689, John Graham, 1st Viscount of Dundee was a guest of Lord Duffus just before the Battle of Killiecrankie, and would be one of the last important visitors before the castle's abandonment.


The Dufourspitze is the highest peak of Monte Rosa, an ice-covered mountain massif in the Alps. Dufourspitze is the highest mountain peak of both Switzerland and the Pennine Alps and is also the second-highest mountain of the Alps and Western Europe, after Mont Blanc. It is located between Switzerland (Canton of Valais) and Italy (Piedmont and Aosta Valley). The peak itself is located wholly in Switzerland.
Following a long series of attempts beginning in the early nineteenth century, Monte Rosa's summit, then still called Höchste Spitze (English: Highest Peak), was first reached on 1 August, the Swiss National celebration day, in 1855 from Zermatt by a party of eight climbers led by three guides: Matthäus and Johannes Zumtaugwald, Ulrich Lauener, Christopher and James Smyth, Charles Hudson, John Birkbeck and Edward Stephenson.


The peak is distinguished by the name Dufourspitze (in German, lit. Dufour Peak; French: Pointe Dufour, Italian: Punta Dufour). This replaced the former name Höchste Spitze (English: Highest Peak) that was indicated on the Swiss maps before the Federal Council, on January 28, 1863, decided to rename the mountain in honor of Guillaume-Henri Dufour. Dufour was a Swiss engineer, topographer, co-founder of the Red Cross and army general who led the Sonderbund campaign. This decision followed the completion of the Dufour Map, a series of military topographical maps created under the command of Dufour.
The point just 80 m (260 ft) east of the Dufourspitze and only 2 metres lower, the Dunantspitze, was renamed in 2014 in honor of Henry Dunant, the main founder of the Red Cross.


The Dufourspitze of Monte Rosa is the most elevated point of Valais and Switzerland, although it is not the most prominent of the country, that distinction belonging to the Finsteraarhorn, nor the most isolated, that distinction belonging to Piz Bernina. The Swiss national map gives an elevation of 4,634.0 metres (15,203.4 ft) for the summit, which is 4,441 metres above Lake Maggiore, Switzerland's lowest point. The height difference between the summit and the plains of northern Italy, from where Monte Rosa is well visible, reaches over 4,500 metres (15,000 ft). Monte Rosa has a topographic prominence of 2,165 m (7,103 ft), the Great St Bernard Pass being the lowest col between it and the culminating point of the Alps. A 2000 survey, involving universities and the offices of cartography of Italy and Switzerland and part of the TOWER project (Top of the World Elevations Remeasurement), was made in order to record a more precise elevation for Monte Rosa. The result was 4,635.25 metres (15,207.5 ft) from the Italian side and 4,634.97 metres (15,206.6 ft) from the Swiss side, with a margin of error of 0.1 m. Monte Rosa succeeded the Finsteraarhorn as the highest summit of Switzerland in 1815, when Valais joined the Swiss Confederation.
Though the Mediterranean can hardly be visible from the summit of Monte Rosa because of intervening mountains, the view to the south extends to the Apennines, the mountains of Corsica and the Maritime Alps. On the north side the view extends to the Jura and further to the Vosges, the Swiss Plateau being mostly hidden by the high range of the Bernese Alps.


Monte Rosa could be seen from many places on the south side of the Alps and it had been mentioned in many travel diaries. At the end of the 15th century some outlines of the mountain may possibly have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci into the background of the Madonna of the Rocks or other pictures. Da Vinci explored the Italian side of the mountain and made some observations, though there is but scanty evidence that he had climbed even a minor summit in the neighbourhood. He was intrigued by the permanent snow lying on the mountain and the darkness of the sky above him, he wrote:
"The base of this mountain gives birth to the 4 rivers which flow in four different directions through the whole of Europe. And no mountain has its base at so great a height as this, which lifts itself above almost all the clouds; and snow seldom falls there, but only hail in the summer, when the clouds are highest. And this hail lies [unmelted] there, so that if it were not for the absorption of the rising and falling clouds, which does not happen more than twice in an age, an enormous mass of ice would be piled up there by the layers of hail, and in the middle of July I found it very considerable; and I saw the sky above me quite dark, and the sun as it fell on the mountain was far brighter here than in the plains below, because a smaller extent of atmosphere lay between the summit of the mountain and the sun."
At the end of the eighteenth century, the people of the Italian valleys believed that a lost valley existed, hidden away between the glaciers of the great chain. The discovery of the valley was due to Joseph Beck of Gressoney-Saint-Jean. He put together a party, including his brother Valentin, and the Gressoney mountain guides Sebastian Linty, Joseph Zumstein, Nicolas (Niklaus) Vincent, François Castel and Étienne Lisco. They set out on a Sunday of August 1778. They started from their sleeping places at midnight, and roped carefully. They had furnished themselves with climbing irons and alpenstocks. At the head of the glacier, they encountered a slope of rock devoid of snow, which they climbed.
"It was twelve o'clock. Hardly had we got to the summit of the rock than we saw a grand-an amazing-spectacle. We sat down to contemplate at our leisure the lost valley, which seemed to us to be entirely covered with glaciers. We examined it carefully, but could not satisfy ourselves that it was the unknown valley, seeing that none of us had ever been in the Vallais."
The valley, in fact, was none other than the upper valley of Zermatt, and the pass, which these early explorers had reached, was the Lysjoch, where, to this day, the rock on which they rested bears the name that they gave it, the "Entdeckungsfels" (German: Rock of Discovery). Beck's party thus reached a height of 4,178 metres (13,707 ft), probably a record in the Alps at that times.
Count Morozzo of Turin was inspired by the view of Monte Rosa and in 1787 he tried to reach its summit from the east face. However he did not go very high, and the mountain looked much too inaccessible to encourage him to proceed further. He reached the place of the actual Marinelli hut, 1,500 m below the summit. The route on the east face was opened only in 1872. In 1789, following the recommendation of the Count, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure went to Macugnaga to explore the mountain. He climbed Pizzo Bianco, a 3215 m summit facing the mountain from the east and measured the altitude of Monte Rosa. He found a height of 2430 toises.
A first serious attempt was made in 1801 by a doctor of Alagna, Pietro Giordani. He reached alone a great height when climbing a 4,046 metres high point on the south-east ridge of the Vincent Pyramid, later named Giordanispétz or Punta Giordani in his honour. He arrived too late to proceed to the Vincent Pyramid summit and night drove him away. He had to sleep in a cleft of ice at about 14,000 feet. He wrote an account of his exploit: After an eloquent description of the view, he expresses his annoyance at the lack of scientific instruments, and the lateness of the hour which prevented him from ascending "Monte Rosa" itself.
The 4215 m Vincent Pyramid summit was eventually successfully climbed on 15 August 1819 by Johann Niklaus and Joseph Vincent from Gressoney, after whom the peak has been named. The brothers Vincent tried to reach the highest summit again the next year, together with Joseph Zumstein, and guides and porters. On August 1, 1820, they reached a 4,563 metres high secondary summit, later named Zumsteinspitze. The climb was dangerous, as the party had to traverse under threatening walls of ice; they also had great difficulties on descent, because the afternoon sun had melted the snow on the slopes. They used mules to carry their equipment as far as the snow-line. During the expedition they thought they had climbed the true highest peak, but when they reached the summit they found out it was only a subpeak of Monte Rosa. Zumstein was anxious to return later and reach the highest summit, but his desire did not materialize.


The first approaches to the summit were made from the northern slopes over the Gorner glacier via the Silbersattel (4,510 m). This pass was first reached on August 12, 1847, by Matthias and Johann zum Taugwald (guides from Zermatt whose name is also written "Zumtaugwald"), Johann Brantschen and Joseph Moser guiding the French professors Victor Puisieux and Edouard Ordinaire. Precisely a year later (12 August 1848), Johann Madutz from Matt, Glarus, and Matthias Zumtaugwald guided the Swiss theologian de:Melchior Ulrich to the pass for an ascent of the highest summit. Ulrich had to give up, but the guides proceeded to climb to what they thought to be the Eastern summit of the Dufourspitze (Ostspitze, since 2014 Dunantspitze, 4632 m) and established a new altitude record in Switzerland. The descent over the same route was so tricky that Madutz at places had to lower down Zum Taugwald by rope. Three years later, on 22 August 1851, Johann Zumtaugwald returned, with Peter Taugwalder and Peter Inderbinen and the Swiss botanist brothers Adolf and Hermann Schlagintweit to repeat this ascent. They did not dare to traverse to the western summit, which the Schlagintweits estimated to be 7 meters higher. In 1891, W.A.B. Coolidge analyzed these ascents and concluded that both parties had reached the 4,618 m Grenzgipfel instead, which is a mere 50 meters to the east of Ostspitze. He transferred the honor of first climbing the Ostgipfel to Ulrich Lauener from Lauterbrunnen and the brothers Christopher, Edmund and James G. Smyth from Great Yarmouth, who reached the Ostspitze on September 1, 1854, from the Silbersattel. Some sources have the Zumtaugwald brothers also among this party. Zumtaugwald brothers returned twice more to the East summit, Johann and Matthias 10 days later (11 Sep 1854) with Edward Shirley Kennedy and Benedict Leir, and Matthias and Stephan later again with Edward Levi Ames. On these five occasions they never tried the difficult traverse to the western summit, also because the summits were both mapped as 4,638 m high at the time. Partially with the technical difficulty (UIAA III) of the route from Silbersattel in mind, many consider the Madutz and Zumtaugwald ascent in 1849 the true first ascent of Monta Rosa.
The first ascent of the western summit finally took place on August 1, 1855, by the above guides Matthias and Johann zum Taugwald and Ulrich Lauener and two of the Smyth brothers (James Greenville and Christopher). They were joined by the English gentlemen John Birkbeck, Charles Hudson and Edward Stephenson. Deeming the approach from the east summit unfeasible, the guides devised a route over the junction of the Monte Rosa and Grenz glaciers and over the west ridge directly to the west summit. Not two weeks later, on 13 August 1855, Johann and his brother Peter zum Taugwald guided eight more people, including Johann Jakob Weilenmann, to the summit over the same route. The west ridge route immediately became very popular and is still the normal route to the Dufourspitze.
The Irish physicist John Tyndall was guided to the summit in a group led by Ulrich Lauener in August 1858, but returned the next day (or week?) to make the first solo ascent of Dufourspitze on 17 August 1858, which he described in his account, Glaciers of the Alps.
"After breakfast I poured what remained of my tea into a small glass bottle, an ordinary demi-bouteille in fact; the waiter then provided me with a ham sandwich, and, with my scrip thus frugally furnished, I thought the heights of Monte Rosa might be won..."
After encountering a party of climbers guided by Lauener, Tyndall reached alone the summit:
"A world of clouds and mountains lay beneath me. Switzerland, with its pomp of summits, was clear and grand; Italy was also grand, but more than half obscured. Dark cumulus and dark crag vied in savagery, while at other places white snows and white clouds held equal rivalry. The scooped valleys of Monte Rosa itself were magnificent, all gleaming in the bright sunlight — tossed and torn at intervals, and sending from their rents and walls the magical blue of the ice."
Among mountain guides, the eastern wall had the reputation of being unconquerable. Ferdinand Imseng was convinced that the long snow couloir in the middle of the face could be ascended. He succeeded in convincing other climbers and, on 22 July 1872, Richard Pendlebury, William and Charles Taylor, Ferdinand Imseng, Gabriel Spechtenhauser and Giovanni Oberto began the ascent from Macugnaga. They were aware of the objective dangers of the wall but they decided to go as high as possible, without compromising their lives. After a bivouac on the actual Marinelli hut emplacement, they headed towards the Grenzsattel. Suddenly, when they arrived near the Grenzsattel, an avalanche started and rivers of snow began to flow everywhere around the climbers. They were able to reach the safe rocks of the Grenzgipfel just in time to save their lives. They finally reached the summit and descended to Riffelalp on the other side, concluding an 18-hour journey.
This ascent made Ferdinand Imseng a famous mountain guide. He lost his life in 1881 on the east wall during the third ascent with Damiano Marinelli and guide Battista Pedranzini. On 8 August, they were caught by an avalanche and brought 1,200 metres down. The accident was reported by a porter who survived. The couloir was then named Canalone Marinelli.


In 1889 Achille Ratti, who became later Pope Pius XI, made the first traverse from Macugnaga to Zermatt by the Zumsteinjoch. After climbing the Dufourspitze, he spent the night on the summit with his companions.
Visiting Zermatt in 1894, the young Winston Churchill insisted on an ascent of Monte Rosa rather than of the Matterhorn, not only because of its superior height but also because the guides' fee was substantially less.
More recently, on August 1 (which happens to be the Swiss National Day), 2005, the Swiss Minister of Treasure Joseph Deiss climbed the Dufourspitze. The expedition marked the 150th anniversary of the first ascent.


The normal route to the summit begins at the Monte Rosa Hut. The normal route is mainly a glacier itinerary on the west slopes of Monte Rosa (Monte Rosa Glacier), with the final rocky west ridge to the summit. Although the itinerary itself is not difficult, it requires physical endurance and good acclimatization.


Retrieved from the Swisstopo topographic maps. The key col is the Great St Bernard Pass (2,469 m)
Retrieved from Google Earth. The nearest point of higher elevation is east of Mont Blanc.
The geoportal of the federal authorities of the Swiss Confederation (2013)
"La Misura del Monte Rosa (The Measurement of Monte Rosa)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-18. (989 KB)
"Journey through time – Maps". map.geo.admin.ch. Swisstopo. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
von Humboldt, Alexander (2010-07-15). Essay on the Geography of Plants. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 138. ISBN 9780226360683.
Thomas Hinchliff, after reaching the summit of Monte Rosa in 1856, described the panorama (Hinchliff, Summer months among the Alps: with the ascent of Monte Rosa, pp. 127–132):
"Not a cloud defaced the gigantic panorama before us: the fair land of Italy commenced at our feet, and stretched far and far away till the view was only bounded by the obscurity of distance. Sitting at the very edge of the vast precipices which descend about 12,000 feet right down to the head of the Val d' Anzasca, we were at the end and extremity, as well as the summit, of the wild kingdom of rocks and snow; and a new world of verdure and cultivation was suddenly spread out before our eyes. The green plains of Lombardy and Sardinia, faintly tinged with blue by distance, and studded with innumerable towns and villages, some of which only looked like white specks of various sizes, fatigued the eye in the endeavour to comprehend their magnitude: all that we could do was to seize upon the most salient points of the picture, and fix them for ever on our minds."
"Comparatively in the foreground were the lakes of Maggiore, Lugano, and Como; for though the head of the latter is eighty miles in a direct line from Monte Rosa, it was not even dimmed by the haziness of distance: all around these beautiful lakes was fresh and verdant; and, as we looked at the somewhat long and narrow pond which we knew to be Lago Maggiore, it was indeed difficult to believe that the journey down its lovely surface was in reality about as long as that from London to Brighton. Lower down, and seemingly but a short distance from the foot of the lakes, was a city in which we thought we could perceive a shining white mound that we felt to be what Tennyson calls "a mount of marble, a hundred spires" — the far-famed cathedral of Milan. Turning slowly to the right, the eye passed over an immense extent of seemingly plain country, and took in almost at a glance the whole continental possessions of the king of Sardinia, with the vast chain of Alps stretching from Mont Blanc to the Mediterranean. This chain presented a very beautiful serrated outline, in which the higher tops of Mont Cenis and Monte Viso were conspicuous, and terminated abruptly at the southern extremity on the edge of the sea. I could not distinctly assert that we really saw the Mediterranean, for the distance is so enormous that it becomes impossible to distinguish the horizontal line which separates the sky from the water: but judging from the perfect clearness with which we saw the very end of the Maritime Alps, and from the fact that the Apennines were not high enough to appear noticeable in the view, it is undoubtedly certain that our true horizon must have included part of the Gulf of Genoa, though the similarity of tint at so immense a distance made it impossible to say which was sky and which was water. Still turning farther to the right, a change came o'er the fashion of our dream: farewell to the fertile green and purple tinted plains of Italy! The Titans of the mountain world once more confront our sight; and here, close in front, separated from us by a vast gulf of snow crevassed into every fantastic variety of form, rises the nearest of them, the Lyskamm. Even while we were looking at it, there came the roar of a few hundreds of tons of ice thundering down its precipitious side, as if a great frozen giant had tumbled out of bed, and was waking the mountain echoes with his groaning."
"A little beyond this came the Breithorn, now so much below us that we could look down upon its splendid white head, high over which Mont Blanc and all its dependencies were seen with perfect clearness, though the distance of sixty miles had so reduced the apparent size of this large group, that it was only just long enough to cover the summit of the nearer mountain. The Matterhorn had lost that unique grandeur of isolation which gives it so wonderful an appearance when seen from below, and was now backed up by countless peaks and glaciers of the almost untrodden land, only made known by Studer and Professor Forbes, which extends from the neighbourhood of Zermatt to that of St. Bernard and the Combin, beyond which again some of the highest summits of France were visible. The Gorner glacier with all its ramifications was laid out like a map beneath our feet as far as the Cervin pass and the foot of the Matterhorn; and scores of the smaller glaciers shone with nearly all the colours of the rainbow in their various beds, according as their position and inclination affected the dazzling light that fell upon them."
"The rocks beneath whose shelter we were entrenched prevented us from seeing the view towards the north till we rose to our feet again; and then in an instant nearly the whole of Switzerland was added to the vast panorama! Near us, and only separated by a ridge, was the Nord end of Monte Rosa, the only one of the points which remains unsealed: but though the last part of it would no doubt be very difficult, I should not think it is altogether unattainable. Further to the north, we had an admirable view of the two great ranges which enclose the valley of the Gorner Visp, that to the west culminating in the Weisshorn, and that to the east in the Dom or Grabenhorn, the highest point of the Mischabel. The last was, as far as we could judge, quite as high as the point we stood upon, and the slopes of rock and snow which lead to its sharp-pointed summit appeared to be inclined at so terribly steep an angle as to present a most formidable difficulty- to the climber. The Weisshorn forms a magnificent star amid the constellation of mountains around Zermatt, and is about 15,000 feet high: seen from Monte Rosa its peak is remarkably like that of the Dom."
"Far beyond these, and seen through a wide gap between the Dom and the Mittaghorn, shone the Jungfrau, queen of the Oberland, tinged with the same delicate yellowish shade that I had already observed on Mont Blanc: the Finsteraarhorn and many a well-known summit looked at us from afar like old friends; and yet further to the east, group after group of distant mountains, some of which must have been looking down upon the tranquil waters of Lucerne, were followed by the Tyrolese ranges, many of them far beyond the Ortler Spitze, where, at a distance of 200 miles, they displayed their snowy heads all tinged with a rosy light, though we had only arrived at the middle of the day. Thus we observed a regular gradation of colour on the snows, varying in proportion to their distance. Such was the sublime view which we had the rare fortune to enjoy."
Claire Eliane Engel, A History of Mountaineering in the Alps, p. 82
 "The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci" (Note 1060).
Arnold Lunn, The Alps, p. 86
On July 14, 1775, Jean-Nicolas Couteran, Francois and Michel-Gabriel Paccard and Victor Tissai may have reached a similar height while attempting to climb the Dôme du Goûter near the Mont Blanc.
Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, Voyages dans les Alpes, p. 51
Wolfgang Pusch, Helmut Dumler, Willi P. Burkhardt, Viertausender der Alpen, Bergverlag Rother GmbH, 2013, p. 119
Since 1820 held at 4,563 m by the climbers of the Zumsteinspitze.
Gottlieb Studer, Über Eis und Schnee: Die höchsten Gipfel der Schweiz und die Geschichte ihrer Besteigung, Volume 2, Schmid, Francke & Company, 1899, pp. 78–85
Grenzgipfel was in Coolidge and Studer's time thought to be 4,631 m vs. 4,638 for both summits of the Dufourspitze, i.e. exactly 7 meters lower, which was then used to argue that the Grenzgipfel must have been reached. The current heights of 4618, 4632 and 4634 m suggest a weakness in Coolidge's argument, and modern writers like Dumler and Burkhardt assume that the 1848 and 1851 ascendants were on the Ostspitze after all.
Studer, pp. 85–86
Dufourspitze at summitpost.org
John Tyndall, The Glaciers of the Alps, p. 151
Gos, Charles (1948). "The Blast of an Avalanche". Alpine Tragedy. Trans. Malcolm Barnes. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 116–124.
Nicholas Shoumatoff, Nina Shoumatoff: The Alps: Europe's Mountain Heart (page 198). University of Michigan Press 2001, ISBN 0-472-11111-6
Switzerland for skiing: Don't look down, look up independent.co.uk, retrieved 21 April 2009
Switzerland enjoys the highs of August 1, swissinfo
Maurice Brandt, Alpes valaisannes 4: du Theodulpass au Monte Moro, 1992, Swiss Alpine Club
History of alpinism Macugnaga-Monterosa.com Archived July 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
"Saudan Sylvain biography". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
Walter Berardi, MonterRosa4000.it Archived February 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine


The internal  hoist system was powered by an external waterwheel. The head race was taken from the canal, and the tailrace fed down to the River Tame 33 feet (10 m) below. The high breastshot waterwheel was constructed in 1841 to a suspension design introduced by Thomas Hewes and William Armstrong Fairburn and had rim gearing. It cost £1078. It was 24 feet (7.3 m) in diameter and 3 feet (0.9 m) in width and produced 15 hp (11 kW). Power was transmitted by a line shaft. Using a suspension system, akin to the spokes on a bicycle, allowed the wheel to be lighter than the wooden one it replaced. Taking the power train off the rim rather than from axle reduces the stress and gears up the line-shaft leading to less power loss.


Portland Basin is the location of the Portland Basin Museum, housed within the restored nineteenth century Ashton Canal Warehouse, covering the area's industrial heritage. The warehouse was built in 1834, and interprets aspects of local history, industry and trades. Exhibits include a 1920s period street with shops, period room displays and historic machines.


The junction is located on the southern edge of Ashton-under-Lyne, and the Ashton Canal approaches it from the south-east. The canal is level for 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to Fairfield Junction, where the Hollinwood Branch turned north, and the Fairfield locks begin the descent to Manchester. The Peak Forest Canal heads south, and is level for 7 miles (11 km) to the first of the sixteen Marple Locks. It passes through two short tunnels at Woodley and Hyde Bank, the second of which is slightly too narrow to allow two boats to pass. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal heads to the north-east, and passes through a tunnel under an Asda supermarket to reach the first of 32 locks that ascend to Standedge Tunnel, 0.4 miles (0.64 km) from the junction.
A slender bridge carries the towpath over the line to the aqueduct and the Peak Forest Canal. It carries the date 1835, and is a grade II listed structure. Nearby is Cavendish Mill, a former cotton spinning mill built in 1884-5, and one of the first to use steel girders and lintel plates to support concrete floors, rather than using brick arches. The construction method was pioneered by Edward Potts, who failed to obtain a patent for the design in 1884. The junction is the location for the Tameside Canals Festival, held in mid-July each year.


WikiWeb_Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica_0

Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica (Spanish: Catedral Basílica del Dulce Nombre de María) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Guam. It is the seat of the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Agaña. It is located on the site where the island's first Catholic church was constructed in 1669, under the guidance of Padre San Vitores. The present building looms above the palm trees and is a familiar landmark in downtown Hagåtña. The basilica enshrines the image of Santa Marian Kamalen, Patroness of Guam.


WikiWeb_Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica_1

The precursor of the present day Basilica was a chapel, or capilla, constructed of rough logs and nipa thatch built within the perimeter of the Plaza de España. The Church was the focal site around which the administrative buildings were built. Built under the direction of Padre Diego Luís de San Vitores, with the assistance of the Chamorros of Hagåtña, it was dedicated on February 2, 1669.
Queen Maria Ana donated 300 pesos and Chief Quipuha of Hagåtña contributed the land. In 1670 a more permanent structure was erected. Built of coral stones with the technique of mamposteria, this structural foundation expanded to become the Cathedral. Within this structure were walls, ceilings and floors constructed of ifil wood. A fresco on the rear wall depicted the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The original Cathedral was destroyed by bombardment during the 1944 Second Battle of Guam.
According to historian Benigno Palomo, in 1669, one of the main missions of the Spanish soldiers and missionaries was to exalt "the Catholic faith" and that "the people living in islands and land of this sort, you will and ought to bring to the Christian religion", from the Bill of Partition issued by Pope Alexander VI.
Other churches were built at Funa near Umatac, at Tepungan by Asan, at Ritidian, at Tarrague, at Dededo and at Orote. Initially, many of these churches were destroyed by the Chamorros in their effort to regain their independence. Others were destroyed by natural causes. Over the years, the Chamorros gradually accepted the faith of the Spanish as their own.
Before the war, there were nine churches and 22 chapels throughout Guam. These chapels were little sanctuaries between villages where one could privately pray during the long journey to and from home. All were destroyed during World War II except San Dionisio at Umatac, San Jose at Inarajan and San Francisco at Yona.
The Cathedral-Basilica's existing structure has reached its golden age of 50 years after being constructed and dedicated on April 20, 1959. The Cathedral-Basilica serves as local landmark and is home to a community of parishioners who regularly attend Sunday Masses, sacred liturgies and annual events. It is also a place where Guam's visitors embrace the island's rich Catholic history and identity.
The National Museum of the Dulce Nombre de Maria is located above the Chapel of St. Therese of Lisieux. The museum features changing displays of inspirational art created by local artists.


Dun Dornaigil is an Iron Age broch in Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands (grid reference NC45714501). It is in Strathmore on the eastern bank of the Strathmore River. It is under the care of Historic Environment Scotland. The interior has been filled and is now inaccessible.


Dun Dornaigil is located next to the Strathmore River, south of Ben Hope. Under the care of Historic Environment Scotland, it has limited parking space and an information board for visitors.


The broch has an external diameter of about 14.5 metres. The walls of Dun Dornaigil generally survive from 2 to 3 metres around the circumference of the broch, but above the doorway they rise to nearly 7 metres. The entrance is on the northeast side but is filled with debris. There is a massive triangular lintel over the entrance which measures 1.4 metres along the base, and 0.9 metres in height. The interior of the broch is still filled with collapsed rubble from the upper levels and is therefore not accessible.


The Dunedin Botanic Garden (known in local slang as the "Botans", Botanic or Botanical Gardens) is located at the northern end of central Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand. The garden is close to the University of Otago and one of the city's most historic cemeteries, the Northern Cemetery, on a spur of Signal Hill and on the river plain immediately below it.
The location of the gardens makes them popular with University students, as they lie between the University and the mouth of North East Valley, which houses a substantial proportion of the city's tertiary students. The gardens are also easily accessible by road from the city centre, being located close to the northern end of the city's main business street, George Street, and at the northern end of the city's one-way street system, part of State Highway 1. A small suburban shopping centre lies close to the Garden's northern entrance at an intersection known as The Gardens Corner.


The two parts of the Dunedin Botanic Garden are known simply as the upper gardens and the lower gardens. The lower gardens are at an altitude of some 25 metres; the upper gardens rise up the hill-spur to a height of 85 metres.


The lower gardens' features include the Winter Garden, a heated Edwardian glass house, rose and herb gardens, a duck pond, children's playground, sound shell, and Japanese garden, the latter commemorating links with Dunedin's Japanese sister city, Otaru. The lower gardens are also noted for their sculptures and statues, among them an ornate fountain, a gift of Wolf Harris, and a pair of statues by Cecil Thomas depicting Peter Pan and the Darling children from the novel Peter Pan. A more modern sculpture decorates the northern entrance to the gardens.
Two places within the lower gardens are listed as Category II Historic Places by Heritage New Zealand: the Wolf Harris fountain (listed in 1982), and the sound shell (listed in 1986).
A small tributary of the Leith, the Lindsay Creek, flows through the lower gardens. A cafe and visitors' centre are located to the west of this creek, next to a large duck pond and tropical greenhouse.


The upper gardens are split by a winding public road, Lovelock Avenue (named for former Dunedin resident, Olympic gold medallist Jack Lovelock). Along each side of this road are bush walks. The upper garden features a geographic plant collection, a small aviary, native plant collection and an extensive rhododendron dell. Also a geological walking trail shows the Dunedin Volcano's different eruptive phases in the upper gardens and along the Water of Leith.


The Dunedin Botanic Garden is the oldest botanical garden in New Zealand, and was established in 1863 on a site surrounding the Water of Leith now occupied by the University of Otago. After extensive flooding in 1868, the gardens were moved to their current site in 1869. The name of the former site is still recorded in corrupted form in the now little-used name of Tanna or Tani (i.e., Botanic) Hill for the small but steep rise located close to the university's registry building).
The garden was extensively enlarged during the early years of the 20th century under the stewardship of David Tannock. The garden forms part of Dunedin's Town Belt, a green belt surrounding the inner city, and covers a total of 28 ha (69 acres).
In July 2010, the Dunedin Botanic Garden was awarded a rank of "Garden of International Significance" by the New Zealand Gardens Trust, becoming one of only five gardens nationwide to be awarded this honour. The only other garden in the South Island with this ranking is also in Dunedin, at Larnach Castle.


The Dung Gate (Hebrew: שער האשפות Sha'ar Ha'ashpot) or Silwan Gate, also known as the Mughrabi Gate (Arabic: باب المغاربة Bab al-Maghariba), is one of the Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was built as a small postern gate in the 16th century by the Ottomans, first widened for vehicular traffic in 1952 by the Jordanians, and again in 1985 by the Israeli authorities.
The gate is situated near the southeast corner of the Old City, southwest of the Temple Mount.
Directly behind the gate lies the entrance to the Western Wall Plaza. The Dung Gate is a main passage for vehicles coming out of the Old City and for buses headed to the Western Wall.


Built by the Ottomans in the 16th century, this small gate was then called Mughrabi Gate. In the 19th century, it started being called Dung Gate by Jews. It is also known as the Silwan Gate.
The original ''Dung Gate'' (Hebrew: שער האשפות Sha'ar Ha'ashpot) was, in the Hebrew Bible (Neh 3:13-14), the name of a gate in the Jerusalem wall which was near the Pool of Siloam in the days of the Second Temple. It was probably named after the residue that was taken from the Jewish Temple into the Valley of Hinnom, where it was burned. The name was transferred to this small gate - at first, a small rectangular postern in the tower of the wall - in the 19th century.
Arabs refer to the gate as "the Mughrabi Gate", but that name is ambiguous as it also applies to one of the gates that allow entrance into the Temple Mount, inside the Old City walls. The name alludes to the Mughrabi Quarter, a neighborhood of North African Kutama Fatimids which was situated between both gates until 1967.
Finally, the name Silwan Gate refers to the village of Silwan, that lies outside the gate, broadly southeast of it.


The Dung Gate was built as part of the new city walls erected under Suleiman the Magnificent between 1537 and 1541. The original gate was just 1.5 metres wide, topped by an arch and only designed for pedestrians and pack animals to pass through. Initially the gate, or more precisely the postern, included an inner gate tower, which was demolished before the end of the Ottoman period. Towards the end of Ottoman rule, a new gate tower or gatehouse was added, but this time outside the wall, in a style that blended in with the 16th-century fortifications. This outer tower was demolished by the British Mandate officials in 1938, probably as part of their drive to restore the walls to their original look, this bringing back to light the old stone decorations.


In 1952, when the gate was widened by the Jordanian authorities to allow cars and buses to pass through it, a reinforced concrete girder was installed under the old stone arch. In 1984-85 the gate was again enlarged, the old arch and the other decorative elements being raised, so that the opening reached a height of 4.5 metres. The modern gate is built of reinforced concrete, but clad in stone, and the new design helps the old and new elements blend together without disturbing the general style of the city wall, with the gate's opening closing in a more curvy line instead of the straight Jordanian lintel. Landscape architect Shlomo Aronson cooperated with architect Arthur Kutcher at implementing the decision of the Jerusalem Foundation established by then-mayor Teddy Kollek, motivated by the sharp increase in pilgrims traffic.


Dzików Castle  or Tarnowski Family Castle in Dzików (Polish: Zamek Tarnowskich w Dzikowie) is a 15th-century (or perhaps a 14th-century) castle located in Tarnobrzeg, Poland. It is set in a park complex with gardens.


The building of the castle was started in the 15th century as a fortified residence. Between the 17th and 18th centuries, it was acquired by the Tarnowski family and reconstructed. The castle was a site of Dzików Confederation of 5 November 1734, led by Adam Tarło, starosta from Jasło, organized in order to reinstate Stanisław Leszczyński as a king of Poland after the death of August II the Strong. However, Leszczyński resigned his command over the confederation not believing in its success against the superior Saxon and Russian armies. He limited himself only to calls for support from France, Sweden, Turkey and Prussia, but ultimately did not receive any. As a result, Leszczyński consented to abdicate on 26 January 1736; and, as a token of gratitude, received the perpetual right to use the royal title. Dzików Confederation ended in failure. In 1830, the castle was reconstructed in the Gothic Revival style by Franciszek Maria Lanci.


Over the years, the Tarnowski family acquired an impressive art collection housed in the Castle. In the 19th century, there were 250 paintings there, among others of Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Jacek Malczewski, and Jan Matejko. Apart from the paintings there were also valuable prints there including the oldest copy of the Polish Chronicle by Gallus Anonymus, manuscript Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz, the first Bogurodzica copy, the original Chronicles by Wincenty Kadłubek and the Wiślica Ststutes. The Polish Rider by Rembrandt, also known as Lisowczyk, one of the most valuable paintings in Poland was found in Dzikovia Tarnowski collections. In 1910, it was sold by Zdzisław Tarnowski to Henry Frick and taken away to New York, in spite of the public protests. It is currently displayed in the Frick Collection. During the war, priceless treasures of the national and European culture  were left carefully hidden in Dzików, as well as deposited in the National Museum in Warsaw and Ossolineum in Lwów. Later all sorts of state institutions seized them, e.g. they are in a Łańcut Castle, close to 500 exhibit items around Dzikowia, and in the Rzeszów Museum there are over 80. The deposited part was only left scarce in the West, quite a lot of it, however, went missing without trace with eastern areas seized by Soviets.
On 21 December 1927, the castle was badly affected by a fire in which some of the collections were destroyed. 8 people died during the evacuation of priceless items from the castle, including Alfred Freyer, Polish long-distance runner and an 8-time Polish Champion. In 1931, the castle was rebuilt in the Baroque Revival style.
In 1974, a treasure chest was discovered in the basements of the palace consisting of old collections of silverware with a considerable number of precious Polish artifacts. The whole lot was transported to the Castle in Łańcut.


From 2007, the palace was under renovation. Roofing was replaced, new foundations were laid, castle basements were repaired. For the first time it is possible to view three new exhibitions: "Ancient history of Tarnobrzeg", "Ceramics of Miechocin" and "History of the castle in Dzikovia".
In 2011, the entire collections of the Historical Museum of the City of Tarnobrzeg (Polish: Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Tarnobrzega) were moved to the castle. The Museum, under the direction of Adam Wójcik and patronage of the City of Tarnobrzeg, was established at the castle in 2009.


East Burra (Scots: East Burra; Old Norse: "Barrey") is one of the Scalloway Islands, a subgroup of the Shetland Islands in Scotland. It is connected by a bridge to West Burra.
With an area of 515 hectares (1,273 acres) it is the twelfth largest of the Shetland Islands.
East Burra has a much smaller population than West Burra and no substantial settlement; rather, there are a few hamlets and a scattering of individual croft houses.  It is known for its Neolithic remains including a burnt mound, and for sea caves.  The roofless, plain, Old Haa (manor or laird's house) of Houss is a prominent feature.  From Houss, it is possible to walk the two kilometres or so to the cliffs at the southern end of the island.  From there, the island of South Havra, nowadays home only to sheep and seabirds, can be clearly seen.
East Burra is linked to the Shetland Mainland via West Burra and Trondra by a series of bridges.


Conceived in the early 1930s by Robert Moses, East River Park opened on July 27, 1939. Prior to this time, the East River waterfront had been an active shipping yard and later became home to many of the city's poorest immigrants. The park became the largest open green space on the Lower East Side.  Since that time, the park has been encroached upon by various developments such as the widening of the FDR Drive and the extension of South Street. Still, the park provides a respite for residents of the Lower East Side, particularly in summer months when there are refreshing breezes from the river.
In 1998, through an agreement with the New York City Parks Department, the Lower East Side Ecology Center became the steward of the park. For 20 years, this local environmental nonprofit has been the park's caretaker and had its offices and education center inside the Fire Boat House, located in the park near the Williamsburg Bridge. Each year the Ecology Center led thousands of volunteers in up-keeping the park, tending to garden beds, and enhancing the park by planting hundreds of thousands of native plants and bulbs.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the city rebuilt the amphitheater, which had fallen into disrepair. A new soccer field was also built at this time.  Companies throughout the U.S. donated materials for the reconstruction, and the project was finished in record time and dedicated to those children who lost parents in the attacks. In December 2001, East River Park was renamed after former New York City Mayor John Lindsay.
In 2008 the City Parks Foundation brought free music, dance, and theater arts programming to the amphitheater in an effort to further engage the surrounding communities in the revitalization of the park. The first performance held was a music concert by Fiery Furnaces which drew an audience of 1,500. KRS-One and Willie Colón also performed in 2008, drawing crowds upward of 3,000 people.


Critics of the current renovation plan have voiced concerns over the cost, oversight, lack of resident involvement, destruction of plants (including more than 1,000 mature trees), and animal habitats. One alternative presented by critics was a plan for storm barriers along the FDR. Community members argue that the park closure will primarily impact low-income NYCHA residents and that the renovation project will leave the Lower East Side especially vulnerable to storm surge during the renovation.
Supporters of the current plan include Councilwoman Rivera, other Democratic politicians, and Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES).
In February 2020, a dozen groups and 75 individuals, including members of East River Park Action, sued the city to stop the ESCR based on the grounds that the plan constitutes park alienation and requires approval from the state legislature. The judge ruled against opposition groups and in August 2020, the city was given approval to begin park demolition.  The demolition began in December 2021, prompting protests and court orders against the work. State assemblymember for the district Yuh-Line Niou and incoming city councilman for the Lower East Side and the East Village Christopher Marte expressed support for the protesters.


In early 2022, construction on the southern half of the park commenced, beginning with the demolition of athletic fields, the amphitheater, and a section of the East River Esplinade. The construction project expected to last until 2026, during which time significant sections of the park will be closed.


The park's acreage was purchased by the city in 1869 from Joseph Longworth (1813–1883), son of Nicholas Longworth, a prominent Cincinnati landowner and horticulturist, who had previously used it as a vineyard. Longworth called his scenic estate the "Garden of Eden," after the biblical Garden of Eden, and the name was partially retained for the park. The park area was originally designed by noted landscape architect Adolph Strauch, who also was responsible for Spring Grove Cemetery.
The city constructed a 12 acres (4.9 ha), 96 million gallon reservoir between 1866 and 1878. The Eden Park Station No. 7 pumped water from the Ohio River into the reservoir and then into the Eden Park Stand Pipe. The reservoir was removed in the early 1960s and the site redeveloped into the Mirror Lake reflecting pool and baseball fields.  The former reservoir's dam, Eden Park Station No. 7, and Eden Park Stand Pipe still stand as historical remnants.


Eden Park holds a number of city landmarks and landscape features. The Elsinore Arch, built in 1883, serves as a natural entrance to the park.
The 1904 Spring House Gazebo is the oldest enduring structure in a Cincinnati park, and as an icon of the entire park system it appears in the logo of the Cincinnati Park Board. The Park Board Administration building is situated by the Gilbert Avenue entrance.
The Cincinnati Art Museum complex is located in the park. It is linked to the Elsinore Arch via a flight of wooded hillside Cincinnati steps. The Art Academy of Cincinnati was formerly adjacent to the Art Museum, until relocating to the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Live entertainment venues include Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and the Seasongood Pavilion, a natural amphitheater built in 1959 and named for Cincinnati mayor Murray Seasongood.
The Krohn Conservatory is a Gothic Revival and Art Deco Style public conservatory completed in 1933. A flight of Cincinnati steps lead from Krohn Conservatory to the Presidents' Grove trail through a row of trees planted in honor of U.S. presidents. The first tree, an oak planted in 1882, honors George Washington.
The Twin Lakes area features a footbridge traversing adjoining lakes, at the site of a former quarry. Near the footbridge is a grove of buckeye trees (Aesculus glabra), the state tree of Ohio.
Public art at the Twin Lakes includes the Capitoline Wolf Statue replica, a gift of the City of Rome, and the statue of a cormorant fisher, a gift from Cincinnati's sister city Gifu in Japan. Two structures at the Twin Lakes, a concession stand and comfort station, were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1937.
A road from the Twin Lakes leads past the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and over the historic Melan Arch Bridge to the Eden Park Overlook near the park's highest point.  The Ohio River Monument stands overlooking the river valley. It was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover in 1929 to commemorate canalization of the river for year-round water transport.


Many events are held at Eden Park annually including the popular EdenSong Music Series every Friday in July at the Seasongood Pavilion. The series is sponsored by the Cincinnati Park Board and the Queen City Balladeers.
Each November, Eden Park also hosts  "Balluminaria", one of the largest hot air balloon glow events in the country.


In the 1960 film The Apartment, C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) tells the story about how he once tried to commit suicide by shooting himself at Eden Park. A police officer approaches him while he is sitting in his illegally parked car. Baxter accidentally shoots himself in the kneecap while trying to hide the gun.


Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England. It is home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club and its T20 team Birmingham Bears. Edgbaston has also been the venue for Test matches, One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals. Edgbaston has hosted the T20 Finals Day more than any other cricket ground. Edgbaston is the main home ground for the Birmingham Phoenix men's team in The Hundred competition from 2021.
Edgbaston was the first English ground outside Lord's to host a major international one-day tournament final when it hosted the ICC Champions Trophy final in 2013. With permanent seating for approximately 25,000 spectators, it is the fourth-largest cricketing venue in England, after Lord's, Old Trafford and The Oval.
Edgbaston has played host to matches in major tournaments as it hosted matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 where England won its first World Cup and the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 where Pakistan won.
Edgbaston also hosted the first women's T20 event at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games where Australia won the gold medal match.
Edgbaston was the venue of the first senior game under floodlights in English cricket in July 1997 between Warwickshire and Somerset in the then AXA Life Sunday League and hosted the first day/night Test match in England in August 2017 when England played the West Indies.


The land that now makes up Edgbaston Cricket Ground was originally owned by the Calthorpe Estate, who have now sold the site onto Wylam Investments (Edgbaston Holdings) on a long lease. Calthorpe Estates had developed the manor of Edgbaston into an exclusive Birmingham suburb over the course of the 19th century, and believed that a cricket ground would be an asset that would add to the genteel image of the area. Warwickshire County Cricket Club had considered Rugby and Leamington Spa for their headquarters, but club secretary William Ansell believed that Birmingham's large population and comprehensive railway connections made it preferable – envisaging first-class status for the county and Test status for the ground.
The club had initially favoured the Wycliffe Ground on Pershore Road, but were instead offered a 12-acre "meadow of rough grazing land" in an undeveloped area on the banks of the River Rea by the Calthorpe Estate – the less attractive development land having more to gain from association with the cricket ground. With the site only 20 minutes' walk from New Street Station, Warwickshire agreed in 1885 to lease the land for £5 per acre over a 21-year period. A further £1,250 was spent on draining and enclosing the site and building a wooden pavilion. The new ground's first match took place on 7 June 1886 against the MCC, watched by 3,000 spectators over two days, with 6,000 turning out on 9 and 10 August to watch Warwickshire play Australia.
Edgbaston's first Test match was the first in The Ashes series against Australia in 1902, for which the club erected a permanent stand, two temporary stands and facilities for 90 members of the press. These developments cost a total of £1,500, however, and Warwickshire's share of the tour funds was only £750.


The first piece of development in the post-war era was the construction of the Rea Bank and the Thwaite Memorial Scoreboard in 1950. In 1956 an Indoor Cricket School was built and the Pavilion Suite was completed in the same year. By the time the William Ansell Stand opened in 1967 the facilities at Edgbaston were considered to rival those at Lord's.
In 1989 executive boxes were added to the rear of the Priory and Raglan Stands and the Stanley Barnes Stand was reconstructed and enlarged, expanding the ground capacity of 17,500.
In July 1997, Edgbaston was the scene of the first competitive floodlit day-night cricket match in Britain.
The pavilion end on the south side of the ground was completely redeveloped between 2010 and 2011 at a cost of £32 million, partly paid for from a £20 million loan from Birmingham City Council, bringing the ground's capacity up to 25,000. Demolition of the pavilion – parts of which dated back to the 1890s – and the Leslie Deakins, R. V. Ryder and William Ansell Stands took place in January 2010, with construction of the new South and West Stands starting in April 2010 and reaching completion 66 weeks later. 5 permanent floodlight pylons were erected around the ground at the same time, allowing up to 15 days of day-night cricket annually. The new development was officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on 25 July 2011. The first test match to be played at the redeveloped venue was the third Test vs India on 10 August 2011, which saw England reach the number 1 position in the ICC Test Championship for the first time with victory by an innings and 242 runs on the fourth day of the match.


Edgbaston is considered to be one of England's leading cricket grounds. Wisden's guide to cricket grounds in 1992 commented that "Lord's is really its only superior in the United Kingdom" with The Daily Telegraph agreeing in 2009 that "taken all in all, it is now the best ground outside Lord's." After the opening of the new South and West Stands in 2011 the England and Wales Cricket Board commented that "the spacious facilities are cutting edge, marginally better than the Home of Cricket".
The atmosphere at Edgbaston is reputed to be the most hostile in England for visiting teams. Former England captain Alec Stewart recalled "On a world level I would put it up there with Eden Gardens in Calcutta, which holds about 100,000. It inspires a team. It's like having another man in your side." and the former England wicketkeeper Geraint Jones describes how "The crowd here makes such a big noise when you are doing well ... it's a unique environment." After winning the 2015 Ashes Test Match with Australia at Edgbaston, England captain Alastair Cook commented "The Edgbaston crowd was up there with the loudest I can remember. With some of the chants, even guys who have played a fair bit of cricket were looking at each other and realising how special it was. Edgbaston has been a fantastic venue for us."
The record attendance at a County Championship match at Edgbaston is 28,000 against Lancashire in the championship-winning season of 1951, and the record for a single day of a test match is 32,000 against the West Indies in 1957.
For some years until 2000, Edgbaston had a distinctive motorized rain cover system, known as the Brumbrella.


South Stand. Built over the site of the previous pavilion in 2011, the stand is a multi-tiered structure which holds the Press Box, hospitality suites, players changing rooms, administration offices, Visitor and Learning Centre, the Club shop and banqueting halls. The South Stand (Pavilion) has a seating capacity of over 4,000 spectators.
West Stand. Built in 2011 on the site of the previous William Ansell Stand, the West Stand has two large tiers of seating. Adjacent to the south is the Edgbaston Suite – a 750-seat banqueting and exhibition space whose bright blue presence is a distinctive feature of both the inside and the outside of the ground – above which facing the pitch is a large electronic scoreboard.
Drayton Manor Family Stand – (Priory Stand). This is the main family stand at Edgbaston and was renamed in 2014 with a sponsorship deal with Drayton Manor Theme Park.  It has a single tier structure and is between the West and Raglan Stands. The environment of this stand is designed to be suitable for families with children.
Raglan Stand. This is a single tier structure and is parallel to the wicket on the opposite side to the Eric Hollies Stand. The Raglan Stand is the location of the Aylesford Hospitality Boxes situated at the rear overlooking the ground.
R. E. S. Wyatt Stand. Built at the City End in 1995 and named after the Warwickshire and England all-rounder Bob Wyatt, who died that year, the R. E. S. Wyatt Stand consists of a single tier of seating beneath two rows of executive boxes. Facilities in the stand include two pitch-view restaurants: the Marston's Suite and the Executive Club, together with the David Heath Suite, currently used by Warwickshire members.
Scrivens (Press Box) Stand. Built in 1957 and first used for that year's test match against the West Indies, this stand was given to the club by Langton Iliffe, 2nd Baron Iliffe and his fellow directors of the Coventry Evening Telegraph. It hosted the ground's press facilities until the opening of the new South Stand in 2011. A two tier stand, it is allocated as an alcohol-free family area for top-class matches. Now named the Scrivens Stand after a sponsorship deal with Scrivens Opticians.
Stanley Barnes Stand. A small single tier stand opened in 1989, the Stanley Barnes Stand is situated in front of the Thwaite Memorial Scoreboard, the ground's most distinctive feature.
Eric Hollies Stand.  Formerly known as the Rea Bank, after the River Rea which runs immediately to its rear, this is traditionally the most raucous area of the ground. The stand was renamed after the Warwickshire and England leg-spinner Eric Hollies in 1989, and was rebuilt in 2003 with 5,900 seats, an increase of 1,300 over its predecessor. The design won a 2003 Civic Trust Award, and British Constructional Steelwork Association Structural Steel Award. It features a series of eight aluminium sunshades suspended over the single tier of seating on simple steel masts, appearing to hover over the crowd beneath.


1886 – Warwickshire's first match at Edgbaston took place on 7 June against the MCC, watched by 3,000 spectators over two days.
1886 – 6,000 spectators turn out on 9 and 10 August to watch Warwickshire play Australia.
1902 – First Test match at Edgbaston was England v. Australia and was drawn due to rain, with England making Australia follow on after bowling them out in the first innings for 36. Wilfred Rhodes had bowling figures of 7 for 17.
1957 – Stand of 411 between Peter May and Colin Cowdrey against the West Indies, England's highest-ever partnership.
1973 – England women's cricket team beat Australia by 92 runs in the final group match at Edgbaston to win the first Women's World Cup. The limited overs tournament was a round robin event with the winners of the final scheduled match becoming champions. Australia were top and England were second in the group going into the match with a one-point difference.
1975 – Hosted group matches in the 1975 ICC Cricket World Cup
1979 – Hosted group matches in the 1979 ICC Cricket World Cup
1981 – England beat Australia to take a 2–1 lead in the Ashes. Australia needed 151 in their second innings to win but were bowled out for 121 with Ian Botham taking 5 wickets in 28 balls, later Botham said the Edgbaston crowd had inspired his performance in a match where no batsman on either side made a 50.
1983 – Hosted group matches in the 1983 ICC Cricket World Cup
1994 – Brian Lara scored 501* for Warwickshire against Durham, the highest score by a batsman in first-class cricket.
1997 – Warwickshire beat Somerset by 35 runs at Edgbaston in the first senior limited overs match to be played under floodlights in England.
1999 – Australia tie with South Africa in the 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup semi final.
2004 – Marcus Trescothick becomes the first player to score a century in both innings of a Test match at Edgbaston, against the West Indies, scoring 105 & 107 for England.
2005 – Australia lose to England by two runs in the second Test of the 2005 Ashes, the closest Ashes match ever.
2008 – South Africa secure their first series win in England since 1965, chasing down 281 to win the third Test, the highest ever successful pursuit at this ground. South African captain Graeme Smith scored 154* to lead his team to victory.
2011 – Alastair Cook scores 294 against India, as England become the number one ranked Test team. England also make the highest innings score in a Test match at Edgbaston, with 710 for 7.
2012 – Tino Best scores 95 for the West Indies against England, the then record highest score for a number 11 batsmen. This notably formed part of a 143 run partnership with Denesh Ramdin, the third-highest Test stand with one wicket remaining.
2013 – India crowned ICC Champions Trophy winners following a nail-biting 5-run victory over England.
2014 – Edgbaston hosts its sixth NatWest t20 Blast Finals Day, with Birmingham Bears being crowned champions on their home ground for the first time in Warwickshire's history.
2015 – England score 408, their highest score ever in a One-Day International (ODI) 50 overs match, against New Zealand. England also recorded their biggest margin of victory of 210 runs in the same match.
2015 – Brendon McCullum scores 158 not out off 64 balls for Birmingham Bears against Derbyshire in a domestic T20 group match. It was the highest score in English domestic T20 history and second-highest ever score in any T20 match.
2016 – The opening partnership of 256 by Jason Roy and Alex Hales for England against Sri Lanka is the highest successful run chase without losing a wicket in ODI history. It is also the highest partnership for England for any wicket in ODIs and only the second time both openers have scored a century for England in the same ODI.
2017 – Edgbaston co-hosts the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and hosts 5 matches, including the semi final between India and Bangladesh. The stadium's record attendance for an ODI was raised three times during the Champions Trophy, with the semi-final attracting a crowd of 24,340, which was the highest attendance for any match in the tournament, including the final.
2017 – Edgbaston hosted the first day/night Test match in England, between England and West Indies, starting on 17 August. It would also mark the debut for the pink ball made by Dukes. England beat the West Indies by an innings and 209 runs within 3 days with Alastair Cook and Joe Root both scoring centuries. Stuart Broad became the second-leading wicket-taker in Test matches for England. The West Indies lost 19 wickets on day 3 of the match, the first time they lost 19 wickets in a single day of a Test match. It was also the 50th Test match to be held at Edgbaston.
2018 – Jos Buttler hits the fastest Twenty20 International half-century by an England batsman to propel the home side to a 28-run win over Australia at Edgbaston. England score 221–5, their second-highest ever T20I score.
2018 – Hosted England's 1,000th Test match during India tour of England. England won the match by 32 runs.
2019 – Hosted 4 group matches and one semi-final in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. All matches were sold out months in advance as England advanced to the final by beating Australia by 8 wickets in the semi-final.
2019 – Edgbaston hosts the first Test match in the 2019 Ashes where Australia beat England by 251 runs with Steven Smith getting 144 in the first and 142 in the second innings. Smith helped Australia recover from 122 for 8 in the first innings and became the second batsman to score a century in both innings of a Test match at Edgbaston. It was also the first time Australia had won at Edgbaston since 2001.
2021 - Warwickshire win the Country Championship for the 8th time on the final day of the season after beating Somerset by 118 runs at Edgbaston.
2022 - England beat India by 7 wickets in the fifth and final Test match of the delayed 2021 Indian tour of England to draw the series 2-2. England broke their record for the highest total in a 4th innings to win a Test match on the fifth day by scoring 378 for 3 at Edgbaston.
2022 - Edgbaston hosts the women's T20 event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. All group, semi-final and final matches were played at Edgbaston. Australia won the first gold medal in the event by beating India in the final and New Zealand the bronze by beating England.


Edgeley Park is a football stadium in Edgeley, Stockport, England. Built for rugby league club Stockport RFC in 1891, by 1902, the rugby club was defunct and Stockport County Football Club moved in.
Edgeley Park is an all-seater stadium holding 10,900 spectators. Stockport County shared it with Sale Sharks rugby union club between 2003 and 2012.
In 2015, Stockport Council purchased the stadium for around £2 million, leasing it back to the football club, in order to prevent it from being demolished and redeveloped.