WikiWeb_Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary_12

Edward M. Burke (Q '61) is a Chicago alderman; the longest continuously serving alderman in the history of the Chicago City Council.
Michael Edward Harper (QS '76) is a former NBA center-forward with the Portland Trail Blazers (1980–82).
John Jordan (Q '29) was the men's basketball coach at the University of Notre Dame (1951–64).
James F. Keane was an Illinois state representative and educator
John H. Leims was a U.S. Marine awarded the Medal of Honor for service during the Battle of Iwo Jima (attended Quigley, later graduated from St. George High School in Evanston, Illinois).
Harry Lennix (QS '83) is a television and film actor.
Michael McCaskey was the former chairman of the Chicago Bears (attended Quigley, later graduated from Notre Dame College Prep in Niles).
Ray Meyer was the head men's basketball coach at DePaul University (1942–84). He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979 (attended, and later graduated from St. Patrick High School).
George Mikan (Q' 41) was a Hall of Fame basketball player (1946–56), best known for his time with the Minneapolis Lakers. He was named the greatest player of basketball's first 50 years, and one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.
Antonio Munoz (QS '82) is an Illinois State Senator (1999–present).
Bill O'Neill, American football player
Richard Phelan (Q '55) was an attorney who served as special counsel for the US House investigation of former Speaker Jim Wright and President of the Cook County Board.
Dan Savage (QN '82), sex columnist and political pundit, co-founder of the It Gets Better Project, left Quigley in his second year.
Martin Sandoval (QS '82) was an Illinois State Senator (2003–2020).
Lawrence Suffredin (QN '65) is an attorney and Cook County Commissioner (2003–present).
Ed Zotti (aka Cecil Adams) (QN '69) is an editor, columnist and author best known for his column The Straight Dope.


Ardee Castle also known as St. Leger's Castle, is a fortified medieval tower house in Ireland. Built in the 15th century, the castle was used as a prison during the 17th and 18th centuries and became Ardee's district courthouse until June 2006 when a specialised facility took its place. Ardee Castle is the largest fortified medieval Tower House in Ireland or Britain. The castle was originally built by Roger de Peppard in 1207, but not much is left from the original walls.


The rectangular building stands four storeys high, with turrets situated at the north-west and south-west angles, the main entrance was protected by a machicolation on the outside, with a 'murder-hole' on the interior.
The ground floor has a rounded barrel vault, and access to the upper storeys is by means of a stairway in the north-west turret.
As the structure has been in continuous use, most of the windows have been replaced and modernised over time, however a twin-light ogee-arched window survives at ground level and three single looped, internal splay windows survive on the fourth floor.


St. Leger's Castle was built in the 15th century by John St. Leger and it served as a stronghold for the defence of the Pale. Over the years it was fought over by the O'Neills and the English. In 1641 Sir Phelim O'Neill took possession of the town and set up the Irish Army headquarters, but on the retreat the town and castle were retaken by the English Forces under the command of Sir Henry Tichborne, a garrison was then placed and O'Neill's rear-guard was defeated. In 1690 the castle was used by James II as his headquarters prior to the Battle of the Boyne.


The Arita Porcelain Park is a small theme park located in Arita town, Saga Prefecture, Japan. The Porcelain Park is a recreation of a traditional German village, and is located just on the outskirts of Arita on the road to Hasami. Most stunning is the reproduction of the “Zwinger,” a famous palace in the German city of Dresden. Inside the palace are impressive permanent exhibition of both European porcelain in one wing and Arita-yaki in the other. Behind the palace lies a European style garden. There is also a large ancient kiln which can be visited. The theme park also houses various stores selling both traditional Japanese and European-style products.


The Ark of Bukhara is a massive fortress located in the city of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, that was initially built and occupied around the 5th century AD. In addition to being a military structure, the Ark encompassed what was essentially a town that, during much of the fortress's history, was inhabited by the various royal courts that held sway over the region surrounding Bukhara. The Ark was used as a fortress until it fell to Russia in 1920. Currently, the Ark is a tourist attraction and houses museums covering its history. The museums and other restored areas include an archaeological museum, the throne room, the reception and coronation court, a local history museum, and the court mosque.


The Ark is a large earthen fortification located in the northwestern part of contemporary Bukhara. In layout, it resembles a modified rectangle, a little elongated from the west to the east. The perimeter of the external walls is 789.6 m (2,591 ft), the area enclosed being 3.96 ha (9.8 acres). The height of the walls varies from 16 to 20 m (52 to 66 ft).
The ceremonial entrance into the citadel is architecturally framed by two 18th-century towers. The upper parts of the towers are connected by a gallery, rooms, and terraces. A gradually rising ramp leads through a winch-raised portal and a covered long corridor to the mosque of Dzhuma. The covered corridor offers access to storerooms and prison cells. In the center of the Ark is located a large complex of buildings, one of the best-preserved being the mosque of Ul'dukhtaron, which is connected to legends of forty girls tortured and cast into a well.


In legend, the creator of the Ark was the epic hero Siyavusha. As a youth, he hid in the rich oasis country of Turana from his stepmother. Siyavusha and the daughter of the local ruler of Afrosiaba fell in love. The girl's father agreed to permit them to marry provided that Siyavusha would first build a palace in the area bounded by a bull skin, obviously intended as an impossible task. But Siyavusha cut the bull skin into slender strips, connected the ends, and inside this boundary built the palace. (This is essentially the classical legend of Dido and the founding of Carthage in North Africa, as recorded in antiquity.)


The Ark is built on the remains of earlier structures, which constitute a layer twenty meters deep under the base arch, the layers indicating that previous fortresses had been built and destroyed on the site.
The first known reference to the Ark is contained in the "History of Bukhara" by Narshakhi (899 - 960). Abubakra wrote "Bindu, the ruler of Bukhara, built this fortress, but it soon was destroyed. Many times it was constructed, many times destroyed." Abubakra says that when the last ruler to rebuild asked counsel of his wise men, they advised him to construct the fortress around seven points, located in the same relation to each other as the stars of the constellation Ursa Major. Thus built, the fortress was never again destroyed.
The age of the Ark has not been established accurately, but by 500 CE it was already the residence of local rulers. Here, in the fastness of the citadel, lived the emirs, their chief viziers, military leaders, and numerous servants.
When the soldiers of Genghis Khan took Bukhara, the inhabitants of the city found refuge in the Ark, but the conquerors smashed the defenders and ransacked the fortress.
In the Middle Ages the fortress was worked on by Rudaki, Ferdowsi, Avicenna, Farabi, and later Omar Khayyám. Here also was kept a great library, of which Avicenna wrote:
I found in this library such books, about which I had not known and which I had never before seen in my life. I read them, and I came to know each scientist and each science. Before me lay gates of inspiration into great depths of knowledge which I had not surmised to exist.
Most probably, the library was destroyed following one of the conquests of Bukhara.
During the Russian Civil War, the Ark was greatly damaged by Red Army troops under the command of Mikhail Frunze during the 1920 Battle of Bukhara. Frunze ordered the Ark bombed by aircraft, which left a large part of the structure in ruins. There is also reason to believe that the last Emir, Mohammed Alim Khan (1880–1944), who escaped to Afghanistan with the royal treasury, ordered the Ark to be blown up so that its sacred places (especially the harem) could not be desecrated by the Bolsheviks.


Designed in an "L" shape, the house is built of red brick with blue diaper patterning and stone dressings under a slate roof. It has two principal floors plus attics and a basement. The windows have stone surrounds, mullions and transoms.  The south front is symmetrical, with seven bays and a pierced stone parapet.  The external bays project forwards and have canted windows.  A single-storey porch extends from the central bay. The building has a segmented entrance ornamented by a coat of arms in the spandrels flanked by Ionic columns. The west front includes a first-floor oriel window.  The chimneys are in Tudor style, grouped in threes and fours.


The principal entrance was formerly through the porch on the south front, but its large doors caused too many draughts. In 1862 an entrance was created in the west front, leading to the West Hall, which contains panelling from the old house.  The West Hall in turn leads into the Library, which has one of Latham's most elaborate ceilings. The windows contain French stained glass, designed and made in Paris by M. Lusson.  The Library leads to the former Front Hall, which was transformed into the Dining Room when the original dining room was demolished in 1968.  In the Dining Room is a portrait of a noblemen, attributed to Cornelis Jonson.  The Gallery was the family's principal sitting-room during the 19th century. The overmantel of the fireplace contains sculptures depicting St George slaying the dragon and, on each side, personifications of Hope and Patience, with appropriate inscriptions.  The Drawing Room is in a different style from the other rooms on the ground floor, being plastered rather than panelled, and it contains much gilding.  The room is devoted to the memory of Rowland Egerton-Warburton and contains a number of family portraits.  Its coved ceiling, also designed by Latham, has a frieze depicting birds eating grapes.  The final room on the ground floor open to the public is the Small Dining Room.  It has a barrel-shaped ceiling, again designed by Latham.  In the room is a virginal dated 1675 by Stephen Keene, and is one of the oldest surviving English keyboard instruments. Its front is decorated with portraits of Charles II and Queen Catherine.  The Grand Staircase is considered to be Latham's finest work in the house. The staircase itself and the doorways are made of oak, and the decoration is in plasterwork and strapwork. Above the staircase is a glass-walled domed ceiling.
On the upper floor, the South Bay Bedroom was originally the principal bedroom.  It contains a collection of watercolours by Elizabeth Ashbrook.  The Exhibition Room occupies a former dressing room and contains information about the history of the hall.  The Emperor's Room is named after Prince Louis Napoleon, later Napoleon III, who stayed in the hall during the winter of 1847–48.  It contains watercolours by Piers Egerton-Warburton, including pictures of timber-framed buildings in Northwest England and views of Arley and Great Budworth. The final room on the upper floor open to the public is the General's Room, dedicated to the memory of Sir George Higginson, the great-grandfather of the present Viscount Ashbrook, and contains memorabilia relating to him. Leading back to the ground floor is the Small Staircase, with its balustrade of oak capped with mahogany.


The chapel is built in red sandstone and rendered brick with a slate and tile roof.  The sandstone came from quarries in Runcorn.  Its plan consists of a four-bay nave with a north aisle, a two-bay chancel, a porch and a bell turret to the north. On the east front is a canted oriel window supported on a buttress. The bell turret is octagonal with eight lancet openings at the bell stage and is surmounted by a red-tiled spirelet. Inside the chapel is a richly painted iron screen, which hides the central heating, and three corona-shaped chandeliers. The stained glass in the east window, dated 1895, is by Kempe.  The font is a richly carved stone bowl on a cluster of marble columns. In the chancel is a piscina and a triple sedilia.


The first gardens were created in the 18th century by Sir Peter Warburton, 4th Baronet, who developed pleasure grounds, a walled kitchen garden and a landscape park. Sir Peter Warburton, 5th Baronet, enlarged the park and engaged William Emes to develop a plan for the park and gardens. These gardens were mainly to the east of the house.  In the 19th century Rowland and Mary Egerton-Warburton began to develop the area to the west of the house as pleasure gardens. The new features included a ha-ha designed by George Latham. The present gardens are much as the Egerton-Warburtons designed them. During the Second World War and for some years afterwards, the gardens were used to provide food for the house, and a skeleton staff prevented the pleasure gardens from total decay. In 1960 the gardens were opened to the public. They continue to be maintained in the style of a pre-war country house garden.


The gardens and landscape park have been designated as Grade II* in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.  Designation as Grade II* on the Register means that the site is "particularly important, of more than special interest".  They have been described as "some of the finest in Britain".
The formal gardens cover an area of 12 acres (4.9 ha). The visitor approaches the hall and gardens along an avenue of pleached lime trees which are clipped each year.  The main path passes under the Clock Tower (see below) and a path on the right leads into the Flag Garden, so-called because its paths are formed from flagstones. This leads to the Furlong Drive, a straight path leading in a southwesterly direction from the house to the Sundial Circle, which is exactly a furlong (220 yd or ~200 m) in length.  Parkland lies on the southeast side of the path, and this is separated from the formal gardens by the ha-ha. To the north of this path is the double Herbaceous Border, which was one of the first in England.  It consists of four pairs of flowerbeds which are backed on one side by a 19th-century wall and on the other by a yew hedge. Between the sections of the border are yews which have been pruned into decorative shapes.   To the south of the herbaceous border is the Ilex Avenue which consists of seven pairs of holm oaks clipped into the shape of cylinders 8 metres (26 ft) high and 3 metres (9.8 ft) in diameter.  In the angle between the Herbaceous Border and the Ilex Avenue is the Shrub Rose Garden.
At the southwest end of the Furlong Drive is the Sundial Circle, which contains a sundial surrounded by a lawn and borders of shrub-roses and other flowering shrubs. From the Sundial Circle a path leads into an area known as the Rootree.  This was created in the 19th century as an alpine rock garden but since 1960 it has been planted with flowering shrubs. From the Rootery paths lead to the Fish Garden, a small sunken garden containing a pond, and to the Rough, a semi-wild area.  From the north end of the Ilex Avenue a gate leads into the Walled Garden.  This was formerly one of the kitchen gardens and was redesigned in 1960.  It contains a pond surrounded by statues of four heraldic beasts which were originally on the roof of the house. In the centre of the pond is a modern flower sculpture designed by Tom Leaper. This garden also contains lawns, trees and shrubs. To its east is the Kitchen Garden, where vegetables as well as flowers and crab apples are grown. To the east of the Kitchen Garden are two small gardens, the Herb Garden and the Scented Garden, the former containing herbs and the latter strongly scented flowers and shrubs.
The latest area to have been developed is the Grove, to the north and northeast of the hall. This formerly contained the path leading from Arley Green to the chapel but by the early 20th century it had become neglected. Beginning in about 1970 the area has been cleared and planted with a variety of trees, shrubs and bulbs. At the extreme east of the Grove a woodland walk has been created.


The main entrance to the grounds is through an arch over which is the 19th-century Clock Tower. The clock it contains has only one hand. Extending from the south of the Clock Tower is a building now known as The Ride.  This was originally a barn built in 1471 and converted into an indoor riding school in the 19th century.  It is a timber framed building with brick infill on a stone plinth with a slate roof.  Internally there are seven cruck trusses. This building is listed Grade I.  A Grade I building is one which is "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important."  In the other direction, extending to the north of the Clock Tower is another barn, this one dating from about 1602. It is built in brick with stone dressings and has a slate roof. It is now used as a tea shop and kitchen, and is listed Grade II.  A Grade II building is "nationally important and of special interest".  The forecourt walls and gate piers at the south front of the hall, and the balustrade to the east of the hall are listed Grade II.  Both the Walled Garden and the Kitchen Garden are listed Grade II.  At the western end of the Herbaceous Border is a structure known as The Alcove which was built about 1790.  This is a garden seat enclosed in a decorated surround built in brick, rendered brick and stone.  It is listed Grade II.
Attached to the north wall of the Kitchen Garden is a greenhouse known as the Vinery which was built in 1872–73.  It contains fig trees which were planted shortly after it was built.  Originally this had a curved rood but this was replaced in 1921 by the present straight roof.  It is listed Grade II.  A sundial in the south forecourt of the house is also a Grade II listed structure. It dates from the 18th century and consists of a lead figure of a kneeling American Indian in a loincloth on a stone base with the dial on his head and a 20th-century gnomon.  To the north of the Shrub Rose Garden is a half-timbered building known as the Tea Cottage. This was built in the mid-19th century and was used by the family for afternoon tea and garden parties; it now contains panels bearing verses, which were previously part of the tower above the south front of the main house (demolished in 1968). In the Kitchen Garden are two structures. One is a seat enclosed by an arch of Malus trees, known as the Malus Seat. Opposite this is a highly decorated arbour made from white-painted wirework.
The estate occupies an area of 2,000 acres (8 km²), which includes Stockley Farm's 750 acres (3 km²). Stockley is an organic farm growing fruit and other crops, and also has 200 milking cows.  It is open to the public and is organised as a tourist attraction, particularly targeted at children.


The hall and estate are situated to the south east of the village of Arley, at the end of a minor road running south from Appleton Thorn.  The hall was designated as a Grade II* listed building on 5 March 1959,  and the chapel was given the same grading on 7 September 1979. The hall, chapel, gardens, and grounds, are open to the public at advertised times. The hall is licensed for civil wedding ceremonies. Parts of the hall can be hired for private and corporate functions.  The hall has been used as a location for filming.
A variety of events take place in the hall and its grounds, which, along with the Tudor Barn, are available for corporate or private hire.  In January 2009 a further venue was opened.  This was converted from former barns, is named Olympia, and has facilities for corporate events, weddings and parties.  The Tudor Barn has been converted to a licensed restaurant, and a shop and plant nursery are nearby.   In 1987 the gardens won the Christie's Garden of the Year Award.  In 2008 they were selected as one of the Gardens of Distinction for Cheshire's Year of the Gardens.  Stockley Farm is also open to the public at advertised times.  The farm was given the award of Farm Attraction of the year 2007 through the National Farm Attractions Network and in 2008 was the Supreme Champion Farm in the Cheshire Farms Competition.
Arley Hall is used as a location for filming and for photoshoots.  It appeared in the series Cluedo and has doubled as Soames' house in The Forsyte Saga. It was also used as a backdrop for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and has been the scene of two Coronation Street weddings. In 2016, it appeared in the BBC television show Peaky Blinders, doubling as a house in Arrow, Warwickshire, the home of the main character, Thomas Shelby.


Armathwaite Hall is a luxury hotel and spa adjacent to Bassenthwaite Lake, in Cumbria.


The present hall dates back to circa 1500; it was acquired by the Highmore family in 1540, by James Spedding (squire to Lord Egremont) in 1748 and then by Sir Frederick Fletcher-Vane (who had the courtyard and chapel added) in 1796. Ownership then passed to John Boustead (who owned coffee plantations in Ceylon and who had the hall extensively enlarged) in 1850. It then passed to Thomas Hartley (a local mine owner who had the hall extended to the designs of Charles John Ferguson) in 1880, to the Wivell family (owners of the Keswick Hotel) in 1926 and to the Graves family (the current owners) in 1976. It is now a hotel.


Upon completion of repairs, the newly refurbished Arthur Foss was assigned to Foss's Port Angeles division with the task of towing log cribs and later bundled log rafts in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, mostly under contract to Crown Zellerbach, Rayonier, and Weyerhaeuser. Each raft averaged about 750,000 board feet (1,800 m³) of timber. Arthur Foss operated between Neah Bay, Sekiu, Clallam Bay, Pysht, Port Crescent, and Port Angeles; and continued this work for 20 years, setting the record for the longest uninterrupted towing service in the Straits. During this period the tug was almost exclusively under the command of captains Lynn Davis and Arnold Tweter. In 1964 during annual overhaul the tug was renamed Theodore Foss in honor of Thea Foss's eldest brother-in-law; a brand-new oceangoing tug took on the venerable name Arthur Foss that year. Upon retirement in July 1968, Theodore Foss was moved to Tacoma and sat idle for the next two years. In 1970, the vessel was donated to Northwest Seaport by Foss Launch & Tug Company and renamed Arthur Foss once again (since no longer part of the commercial fleet). Henry Foss himself, youngest and last surviving son of Thea Foss, presided at the official transfer ceremony.


Northwest Seaport volunteers cleaned and organized the tug's interior and refurbished the main engine piece by piece, with the first official startup as a museum ship occurring in 1980. Afterward Arthur Foss regularly cruised Puget Sound waters during the summer months with a volunteer crew, participating in tugboat races, boat shows, and other maritime heritage events until 2001. The tug's excursions ended that year due to rising fuel and insurance costs, and increased safety concerns, in the wake of the 11 September attacks. Volunteer crew burnout, lack of organizational development, and the increasing need for major restoration work also played a part. Varying non-professional attempts at spot repairs over the years were superseded beginning in 2004 with larger but specifically focused restoration projects run by contracted professionals. However, a comprehensive restoration has not yet been attempted. Following extensive survey, documentation, and hull maintenance projects in 2017, planning and fundraising efforts are under way to restore the vessel to its 1940 appearance, in cruising condition.
Arthur Foss was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989, is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a Seattle Landmark. The tug was also named a Washington State Centennial Heritage Flagship in 1989, when both tug and state celebrated their 100th "birthday".
Arthur Foss is currently docked at the Historic Ships Wharf at Seattle's Lake Union Park, and is a featured attraction open for public tours most summer weekends, or by appointment. Visitors of all ages enjoy a glimpse of life aboard what is now one of the oldest and most historic vessels in the United States.


The Ashbridge Estate is a historic estate in eastern Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The property was settled by the Ashbridge family, who were English Quakers who left Pennsylvania after the American Revolutionary War. In 1796, as United Empire Loyalists, the family were granted 600 acres (240 ha) of land on Lake Ontario east of the Don River, land which they had begun clearing two years earlier.
The family constructed log cabins and frame homes on the shore of a bay, which was later named for them. The present home was built starting in 1854, with additions in 1900 and 1920. As the city of Toronto grew and encroached on the estate, the family gradually sold off their land, leaving only the current 2-acre (0.81 ha) property by the 1920s.
The estate is located on Queen Street East near Greenwood Avenue in the Leslieville neighbourhood. In 1972, the family donated the estate to the Ontario Heritage Trust, although members of the family continued living in the home until 1997. The site was listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places in 2008. The Ashbridges are the only family in the history of Toronto to have continuously occupied land that they settled for more than 200 years.


The museum owes its origin to a donation to the city of San Francisco by Chicago millionaire Avery Brundage, who was a major collector of Asian art. The Society for Asian Art, incorporated in 1958, was the group that formed specifically to gain Avery Brundage's collection. The museum opened in 1966 as a wing of the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park. Brundage continued to make donations to the museum, including the bequest of all his remaining personal collection of Asian art on his death in 1975. In total, Brundage donated more than 7,700 Asian art objects to San Francisco.
Despite Brundage’s stated goal of creating a “bridge of understanding” between the U.S. and Asia, a deeper insight into his actions revealed that he held racist, sexist and anti-Semitic beliefs that entirely contradicted the mission and values of the museum. In 2020, the museum removed a statue of Brundage from its lobby and launched a thorough re-examination of his controversial legacy.
The museum was awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation for their contributions to promotion of cultural exchange through art between Japan and the United States on December 1, 2020.
Jay Xu is the Museum's Director.


Until 2003, the museum shared a space with the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. As the museum's collection grew, the facilities in Golden Gate Park were no longer sufficient to display or even house the collection.  In 1987 Mayor Dianne Feinstein proposed a plan to revitalize Civic Center that included relocating the museum to the Main Library. In 1995, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Chong-Moon Lee made a $15 million donation to launch the funding campaign for a new building for the museum.
During its last year in the park, it was closed for the purpose of moving to its new location. It reopened on March 20, 2003, in the former San Francisco city library building opposite of the San Francisco Civic Center, which was renovated for the purpose, under the direction of Italian architect Gae Aulenti. Lord Cultural Resources, a cultural professional practice, was also commissioned to undertake a three-part sequence of planning studies for the relocation of the Museum.
The old Main library was a Beaux Arts-style building designed by George Kelham in 1917. The new $160.5 million project, designed by Gae Aulenti, introduced an indoor sky-lit court to provide a dramatic central core to the museum.  Removing some interior walls, Aulenti created a sense of openness to facilitate visitor movement and the display of the artwork.  The new 185,000-square-foot (17,200 m²) museum increased the exhibition space by approximately 75 percent compared to the former Golden Gate Park location.
The renovation also brought a seismic upgrade scheme to the building involving base isolation. Bearings were placed over the foundation system below the building's current slab on grade with a new basement  constructed above the bearings in the process. Furthermore the superstructure was stiffened through the addition of concrete shear walls, allowing for a rigid lateral load path for all sections of the building.
In October 2011, the museum launched a new identity. Designed by the branding agency Wolff Olins, the logo is an upside down A, representing the idea of approaching Asian art from a new perspective.


In March, 2016, the museum announced that it will build an additional new pavilion to its current San Francisco Civic Center Building. The new pavilion will sit atop an existing, lower-level wing on the museum's Hyde Street side; and it will add about 9,000 square feet of new space to the museum's first floor. The expansion is expected to open by September 2019. In January 2019, Abby Chen was appointed as the Head of Contemporary Art.


The collection has approximately 18,000 works of art and artifacts from all major Asian countries and traditions, some of which are as much as 6,000 years old. Galleries are devoted to the arts of South Asia, Iran and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, China, Korea and Japan. There are more than 2,000 works on display in the museum galleries.
The museum has become a focus for special and traveling exhibitions, including: the first major Chinese exhibition to travel outside China since the end of World War II (in 1975), an archaeological exhibition which attracted 800,000 visitors over an eight-week period, and an exhibition on wisdom and compassion opened by the Dalai Lama in 1991.


A Japanese tea house is displayed on the second exhibition floor of the museum. This teahouse was built in Kyoto, disassembled, shipped to San Francisco and reconstructed in the museum by Japanese carpenters.  The name of the tea house can be seen on a wooden plaque "In the Mist" located next to the Tea House on the second floor of the museum, The calligraphy on this wooden plaque is based on the calligraphy by Yamada Sobin and commissioned by Yoshiko Kakudo, the museum's first curator of Japanese art. The Tea House was designed by architect Osamu Sato as a functioning teahouse, as well as a display case. It is a three and three-quarters (sanjo daime) mat room. It is complete with an alcove for the display of a scroll and flowers, an electric-powered sunken hearth used in winter for the hot water kettle, and a functioning preparation area (mizuya) with fresh running water and drain.


WikiWeb_Astronomy Tower of the Sorbonne_0

The Astronomy Tower of the Sorbonne is a tower at the Sorbonne University's Paris campus built to house an astronomical observatory for its students. The structure was erected during the reconstruction of the Sorbonne, between 1885 and 1901. The tower is 39 meters high, has an upper and lower dome, and includes several rooms. The upper dome houses the telescope, and the lower dome contains an optics workshop for amateurs to make mirrors (previously, a meridian circle was installed in that space). The tower is operated by the Société astronomique de France and is available for tours and amateur observations.


WikiWeb_Astronomy Tower of the Sorbonne_1

The observatory originally had an equatorial mount telescope of 241 mm diameter and a 3,755 mm focal length constructed by the R. Mailhat company. The  instrument was transferred to the Paris Observatory in 1909.
In 1980, an equatorial mount refracting telescope of 153 mm diameter and 2,300 mm focal length was installed in the upper dome. The telescope is owned by the Société astronomique de France. It was built in 1935 and was originally installed in the Observatory of the rue Serpente on top of the society’s former headquarters at 28, rue Serpente, Paris.


The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, located at 219 S. 6th Street between St. James Place and Locust Street in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a special collections library and museum founded in 1814 to collect materials "connected with the history and antiquities of America, and the useful arts, and generally to disseminate useful knowledge" for public benefit.  The Athenaeum's collections include architecture and interior design history, particularly for the period 1800 to 1945.  The institution focuses on the history of American architecture and building technology, and houses architectural archives of 180,000 drawings, over 350,000 photographs, and manuscript holdings of about 1,000 American architects.
Since 1950 the Athenaeum has sponsored the annual Athenaeum Literary Award for works of fiction and non-fiction.


The building was designed in 1845 by architect John Notman in the Italianate style, and was one of the first buildings in the city to be built of brownstone, although it was originally planned to be faced in marble – brownstone was used because it was cheaper.  Notman's design was influenced by the work of the English architect Charles Barry.
The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976, as one of the nation's first examples of a building with a palazzo-style facade, and for its historic importance as an educational institution. Today, it is operated as a museum furnished with American fine and decorative arts from the first half of the nineteenth century.
On the right of the athenaeum is the house of Richardson Dilworth, the Mayor of Philadelphia from 1956 to 1962.


The Athenaeum Literary Award is a literary award presented by Athenaeum of Philadelphia since 1950. It is awarded to authors who are "bona fide residents of Philadelphia or Pennsylvania living within a radius of 30 miles of City Hall". Eligible works are of general fiction or non-fiction; technical, scientific, and juvenile books are not included. The award was established in 1950 by Charles Wharton Stork (1881–1971), who was a board member of the Athenaeum from 1919 until 1968.
Recipients
Source: Athenaeum Literary Award previous winners (1949–present)
1949
John L. Lamonte, The World of the Middle Ages
1950
Henry N. Paul, The Royal Play of Macbeth
1951
Arthur Hobson Quinn, 'The Literature of the American People
1952
Nicholas B. Wainwright, A Philadelphia Story
1953
Lawrence Henry Gipson, The Great War for the Empire 1760-1763, vol. 8, The Culmination, 1760-1763
1954
Davis Grubb, The Night of the Hunter
1955
Conyers Read, Mr. Secretary and Queen Elizabeth
1956
Livingston Biddle, Jr., The Village Beyond
Samuel Noah Kramer, From the Tablets of Summer
1957
Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Lion and the Throne
Bettina Linn, A Letter to Elizabeth
1958
Loren Eisley,[sic] Darwin's Century
Lyon Sprague DeCamp,[sic] An Elephant for Aristotle
1959
John Edwin Canaday, Mainstreams of Modern Art: David to Picasso
1960
Edwin Wolf II (with John F. Fleming), Rosenbach: a biography
David Taylor, Storm the Last Rampart
1961
Roy F. Nichols, The Stakes of Power, 1845-1877
Lauren R. Stevens, The Double Axe
1962
Curtis Bok, Maria
Carleton S. Coon, The Origin of Races
Richard S. Dunn, Puritans and Yankees
1963
Daniel Hoffman, The City of Satisfactions
Samuel Noah Kramer, The Sumerians
1964
Kristin Hunter, God Bless the Child
Elizabeth Gray Vining, Take Heed of Loving Me
Dorothy Shipley White, Seeds of Discord
1965
Laurence Davis Lafore, The Long Fuse
1966
Edward S. Gifford, Jr., Father Against the Devil
1967
Daniel P.Mannix, The Fox and the Hound
Edmund N. Bacon, Design of Cities
1968
Ernest Penney Earnest, Expatriates and Patriots
Robert C. Smith, The Art of Portugal
1969
Henry Clarence Pitz, The Brandywine Tradition
Chaim Potok, The Promise
1970
No award
1971
Loren Eiseley, The Night Country
1972
Jerre Mangione, The Dream and the Deal
1973
John Maas, The Glorious Enterprise
1974
John R. Coleman, Blue Collar Journal
1975
Martin P. Snyder, City of Independence
1976
No award
1977
Seymour Adelman, The Moving Pageant
John Francis Marion, Famous and Curious Cemeteries
Barbara Rex, I Want to Be in Love Again
1978
Anthony F.C. Wallace, Rockdale
Peggy Anderson, Nurse
Elizabeth Gray Vining, Being Seventy
Jan V. Westcott, A Woman of Quality
1979
E. Digby Baltzell, Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia
Richard J. Boyle, John Twachtman
Dorothy Shipley White, Black Africa and De Gaulle
1980
Arthur R.G. Solmssen, A Princess in Berlin
Lois G. Forer, Criminals and Victims
James C. Humes, Churchill: Speaker of the Century
1981
David Bradley, The Chaneysville Incident
Daniel Hoffman, Brotherly Love
John A. Lukacs, Philadelphia, Patricians & Philistines, 1900-1950
Edgar P. Richardson, Charles Willson Peale and His World
Russell F. Weigley, Eisenhower's Lieutenants
1982
Susan Gray Detweiler, George Washington's Chinaware
Jean Seder, Voices of Kensington
Desmond Ryan, Deadlines
Seymour Shubin, The Captain
David R. Slavitt, Ringer
1983
Gerald Carson, The Dentist and the Empress
Helen H. Gemmill, E.L., the Bread Box Papers
1984
Roland M. Frye, The Renaissance Hamlet
Jean Gordon Lee, Philadelphians and the China Trade, 1784-1844
Philip Chadwick Foster Smith, The Empress of China
1985
Ralph Keyes, Chancing It
Thomas Maeder, Crime and Madness
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Disorderly Conduct
1986
David Eisenhower, Eisenhower: At War, 1943-1945
Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Pat Nixon
Michael Malone, Handling Sin
Barry Schwartz, The Battle for Human Nature
1987
No award
1988
Marilyn Gaull, English Romanticism
Barbara Holland, The Name of the Cat
John Allen Paulos, Innumeracy
1989
Coral Lansbury, The Grotto
Emily W. Sunstein, Mary Shelley
James Snyder, Medieval Art
1990
Matthews Masayuki Hamabata, Crested Kimono
Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae
Paul Halpern, Time Journeys
Ora Mendels, A Taste for Treason
1991
Art Carey, The United States of Incompetence
Elizabeth Johns, American Genre Painting
Roger Lane, William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours
1992
Arthur Power Dudden, The America Pacific
1993
Seymour I. Toll, A Judge Uncommon
Susan Q. Stranahan, Susquehanna, River of Dreams
1994
Paul Fussell, The Anti-Egotist
Steve Lopez, Third and Indiana
Barry Schwartz, The Costs of Living
1995
Thomas Childers, Wings of Morning
Witold Rybczynski, City Life
Susan Stewart, The Forest
1996
Peter Conn, Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography
Diane McKinney-Whetstone, Tumbling
1997
A.C. Elias, Jr., Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington
Kathleen A. Foster and Kenneth Finkel, Captain Watson's Travels in America
David P. Silverman, Ancient Egypt
Mary Walton, Car
1998
James J. O'Donnell, Avatars of the Word
Leonard Warren, Joseph Leidy: The Last Man Who Knew Everything
1999
J. Welles Henderson & Rodney P. Carlisle,  Jack Tar: A Sailor's Life, 1750–1910
Witold Rybczynski, A Clearing In The Distance
Jonathan Weiner, Time, Love, Memory
2000
Susan Sidlauskas, Body, Place, and Self in Nineteenth-Century Painting
Patricia Tyson Stroud, The Emperor of Nature; Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World
George E. Thomas, William L. Price; Arts and Crafts to Modern Design
Ben Yagoda, About Town; The New Yorker and the World It Made
2001
No award.
2002
Jane Golden, Robin Rice & Monica Yant Kinney, Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell
Charlene Mires, Independence Hall in American Memory
2003
Jack Repcheck, The Man Who Found Time
2004
Roger W. Moss, Historic Sacred Places of Philadelphia
2005
Kermit Roosevelt, In the Shadow of the Law
2006
David Traxel, Crusader Nation: The United States in Peace and the Great War, 1898–1920
2007
Jon Clinch, Finn: A Novel
2008
Walter A. McDougall, Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829–1877
2009
Richard Beeman, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of The American Constitution
2010
Robin Black, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This: Stories
Stephen Fried, Appetite For America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire that Civilized the West
2011
No award.
2012
Liz Moore, Heft: A Novel
Steven Ujifusa, A Man and His Ship: America’s Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the S. S. United States
Robert McCracken Peck and Patricia Tyson Stroud, A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science
2013
Adrian Raine, The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime
George H. Marcus and William Whitaker, The Houses of Louis Kahn
2014
Jessica Choppin Roney, Governed By A Spirit of Opposition
2015
David Grazian, American Zoo: A Sociological Safari
Barbara Miller Lane, Houses for a New World: Builders and Buyers in American Suburbs
2016
Gino Segre and Bettina Hoerlin, The Pope of Physics
Judith E. Stein, Eye of the Sixties
2017
Erica Armstrong Dunbar, "Never Caught: the Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge"
Carol Eaton Soltis, "The Art of the Peales in the Philadelphia Museum of Art"
2018
Madeline Miller, Circe
Patrick Spero, Frontier Rebels: the Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765-1776
2019
Edward Posnett, Strange Harvests
Witold Rybczynski, Charleston Fancy
2020
Michele Harper, The Beauty in Breaking
Lynn Miller and Therese Dolan, Salut! France Meets Philadelphia
2021
Quiara Alegria Hudes, My Broken Language
Miles Orvell, Empire of Ruins


The Atumashi Monastery (Burmese: အတုမရှိကျောင်း [ʔətṵməʃḭ tɕáʊɰ̃]; formally Mahā Atulaveyan Kyaungdawgyi or မဟာ အတုလဝေယန် ကျောင်းတော်ကြီး [məhà ʔətṵla̰ wèjàɰ̃ tɕáʊɰ̃dɔ̀dʑí]) is a Buddhist monastery located in Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma).


It was built in 1857 by King Mindon, two years after the capital was moved to Mandalay. The monastery was built at a cost of 500,000 rupees. The original monastery structure was built using teak, covered with stucco on the outside, with its peculiar feature being that it was surmounted by five graduated rectangular terraces instead of the traditional pyatthats, Burmese-style tiered and spired roofs.
The structure burned down in 1890 after a fire in the city destroyed both the monastery and the 30 feet (9.1 m) tall Buddha image, as well as complete sets of the Tipitaka. During the fire, a 19.2-carat (32 ratti) diamond, which adorned the Buddha image (originally given to King Bodawphaya by Maha Nawrahta, the Governor of Arakan) disappeared as well.
In 1996, Burma's Archaeological Department reconstructed the monastery with prison labor.


Aubonne Castle is a castle in the municipality of Aubonne of the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland.  It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.


Auckland Castle, which is also known as Auckland Palace and to people that live locally as the Bishop's Castle or Bishop's Palace, is located in the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England. In 1832, this castle replaced Durham Castle as the official residence of the Bishops of Durham. It is now a tourist attraction, but still houses the Bishop's offices; the Castle is a Grade I listed building.


The history of Auckland Castle goes back to the 12th century. Previously a deer park, Bishop Hugh Pudsey established a manor house on the site in around 1183. Because it was near to his hunting estate, a successor, Bishop Bek, relocated his main residence from Durham Castle to Auckland and he later converted the manor house into a castle. In this process, he added the great hall, the chapel and the defensive walls.
In 1603 after the Union of the Crowns, Tobias Matthew invited Anne of Denmark, Prince Henry, and Princess Elizabeth to stay at Auckland on their journey from Scotland to London. After the disestablishment of the Church of England at the end of the First English Civil War in 1646, Auckland Castle was sold to Sir Arthur Hazelrigg, who demolished much of the medieval building, including the original two-storey chapel, and built a mansion. After the Restoration of the Monarchy, Bishop John Cosin, in turn demolished Hazelrigg's mansion and rebuilt the castle converting the banqueting hall into the chapel that stands today.
In 1756, Bishop Richard Trevor bought the notable set of paintings, Jacob and his twelve sons, by Francisco de Zurbarán which still hang in the Long Dining Room. It is possible that the seventeenth century paintings were intended for South America. However they never reached their supposed destination, eventually coming into the possession of James Mendez who sold twelve of the thirteen to Bishop Trevor in 1757.
Bishop Trevor was unable to secure the 13th portrait, Benjamin, which was sold separately to the Duke of Ancaster and hangs in Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire. Bishop Trevor commissioned Arthur Pond to produce a copy painting of "Benjamin". The copy, together with the 12 originals, hang in the castle's Long Dining Room, which Bishop Trevor had redesigned especially to take the pictures.
Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham from 1791 to 1826, employed the eminent architect James Wyatt to match the disparate architecture of the palace in the late 18th century, including its Throne Room and Garden Screen. In 1832, when William van Mildert, the last prince-bishop, gave over Durham Castle to found Durham University, Auckland Castle became the sole episcopal seat of the See of Durham.
In 2001 the Church Commissioners voted to sell the paintings, a decision that was revoked in 2011 following a donation of £15 million by investment manager and philanthropist Jonathan Ruffer; new arrangements placed the paintings, along with the castle, under the Auckland Castle Trust, making them available to the public after centuries during which they hung in a private home where they could be seen only by invited guests or by special arrangement with the Bishop's staff.


News reports in 2019 clarified the situation, stating that in 2012, Ruffer had purchased the castle and all of the contents, including the artwork, which included the works by Francisco de Zurbarán. The paintings which had been on tour, were returned to the site in time for the re-opening of the castle to visitors on 2 November 2019 as the Auckland Project, after a multi-million pound restoration project, funded partly by the National Lottery.
By the time of the opening day, a new 115-foot (35 m) high tower had been erected as a visitor centre; the structure has a lift and a staircase as well as balconies for views of the castle from above. The interior had been fully restored, including the bishops' "palatial" quarters. According to one news item, "each of the 14 restored rooms, recreated from contemporary accounts and personal recollections" features the career of one former bishop. The Faith Museum of world religion and a huge glass greenhouse were under construction on Castle property.
Other attractions already operating at or near the Castle include the Mining Art Gallery (in a nearby former bank building) showing work mainly by self-taught or night school-educated miners; this attraction opened in 2017 (thanks to support provided to the Castle Trust by Bishop Auckland and Shildon AAP and Durham County Council); an open-air theatre, Kynren, depicting "An Epic Tale of England" with a cast of 1,000; and the Bishop Trevor Gallery at the Castle; the latter started displaying the National Gallery's Masterpiece touring exhibit in October 2019.
In future, other attractions were expected to open at or near the Castle: a display of Spanish art (in another former bank building) the Faith Museum (already being built in 2019), a gallery that will feature the works of Francisco de Zurbarán, a boutique hotel (in former pubs) and two restaurants in addition to the current Bishop's Kitchen café.

According to The Guardian,
 "The aim is to make the town – the heart of the abandoned Durham coalfields – a tourist destination that holds people for a day or two rather than just a couple of hours. The scheme will create hundreds of entry-level jobs in a county that suffers high unemployment and has some of the most deprived areas in northern Europe".


In February 2020, it was announced that the ruins of Bek's chapel had been found at the castle by archeologists. It had long been known that the chapel which would have been one of the largest in Europe, was located on the castle grounds, but its location was unknown. The chapel was built by the warrior-bishop Anthony Bek in roughly 1300 at a cost of £148. There will be a special exhibition at Auckland Castle from 4 March 2020 to 6 September 2020 to display items found in the ruins.


Despite the conservation work and its operation as a tourist attraction, the Castle still houses the offices of the Bishop of Durham in its Scotland Wing and services are held in the chapel. Interestingly, the Scotland Wing is so named from its historical accommodation of Scots prisoners.
Auckland Castle owns 12 of the 13 celebrated 17th-century paintings in the series Jacob and his twelve sons, by Francisco de Zurbarán, depicting Jacob and his 12 sons.
The Castle is surrounded by a deer park of 800 acres (3.2 km²) of parkland.  It retains many of the medieval elements, including the fish ponds and woodland paths, providing an important record of how the medieval bishops lived, entertained and hunted there.
The grounds, Auckland Castle Park, have been Grade II listed since 7 October 1986 (List Entry Number: 1000727) while the Castle has been Grade I listed since 21 April 1952 (List Entry Number: 1196444).

The Castle and its grounds contain seven Grade I listed buildings. These include a Deer House, which was built in 1760, a large castellated-stone building to shelter the deer, with picnic grounds and rooms that afford a fantastic view. The Park's listing summary states:
A medieval deer park associated with the residence of the bishops of Durham, Auckland Castle, which has C12 or earlier origins, with landscaping of C18 date. Walled gardens around the Castle are of late C17 or earlier origin, as is the kitchen garden.


The castle was used as the backdrop for Lewis Carroll's story "A Legend of Scotland" in the 19th century. In 2006, Auckland Castle was the setting for two episodes of BBC's Antiques Roadshow. In 2013, a 15th-century bed owned by Henry VII was put on display at the castle.


The Audubon Theatre and Ballroom, generally referred to as the Audubon Ballroom, was a theatre and ballroom located at 3940 Broadway at West 165th Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1912 and was designed by Thomas W. Lamb. The theatre was known at various times as the William Fox Audubon Theatre, the Beverly Hills Theater, and the San Juan Theater, and the ballroom is noted for being the site of the assassination of Malcolm X on February 21, 1965. It is currently the Audubon Business and Technology Center, which is part of Columbia University's Audubon Research Park.


The Audubon Ballroom was built in 1912 by film producer William Fox, who later founded the Fox Film Corporation. Fox hired Thomas W. Lamb, one of the foremost American theater architects, to design the building. The building contained a theatre with 2500 seats, and a second-floor ballroom that could accommodate 200 seated guests. During its history, the Audubon Ballroom was used as a vaudeville house, a movie theater, and a meeting hall where political activists often met.
In the 1930s, Congregation Emes Wozedek, a synagogue whose members were predominantly immigrants from Germany, began to use basement rooms of the Audubon Ballroom to conduct its religious services. At around the same time, several trade unions, including the Municipal Transit Workers, the IRT Brotherhood Union, and the Transport Workers' Union, utilized the meeting rooms. In 1950, the congregants purchased the building, and they continued to hold services there until 1983.
Among the many events held at the Ballroom was the annual New York Mardi Gras Festival.
After Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964, he founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), whose weekly meetings were held at the Audubon Ballroom. It was at one of those meetings, on February 21, 1965, that Malcolm X was assassinated as he was giving a speech.
Because of non-payment of property taxes, New York City took possession of the theatre in 1967. Nevertheless, in the 1960s and 1970s, the Ballroom operated as the San Juan Theater, showing films which catered to the increasingly Hispanic neighborhood. It closed in 1980, and the building remained vacant and the exterior deteriorated.


In 1989, Columbia University, with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as a partner, reached an agreement with the city, and in 1992 it began the process of demolishing the Audubon Ballroom to replace it with a medical research facility. Although many city officials, including Mayor David Dinkins, were strongly in favor of the project because of the jobs and economic impetus it would bring to the area, which had suffered greatly in the economic downturn of the 1970s, community activists and Columbia University students – who occupied Hamilton Hall on campus – protested the planned demolition, and historic preservation groups unsuccessfully sued to prevent it. They were also unable to persuade the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to hold a hearing on giving the building landmark status.
Eventually a compromise was reached, at least in part due to pressure brought by Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger and Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz, who both favored adaptive reuse of the building. They were supported by a report on its structural integrity produced by a pro bono team of architects assembled by the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the Municipal Art Society. The compromise allowed Columbia to build on the northern part of the building their research facility – now the Audubon Business and Technology Center in the Mary Woodard Lasker Biomedical Research Building, part of the Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park a public-private partnership between Columbia University Medical Center and the New York state and city governments. In return, 2/3rds of the Audubon Ballroom's original facade – the part along Broadway and West 165th Street – would be preserved and restored. In addition, a portion of the interior ballroom where Malcolm X was killed was restored and protected, to be made into a museum honoring him.
In 2005, the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center opened in the lobby to commemorate the contributions Malcolm X made to the civil rights movement.


Architect Thomas Lamb, who later would design the nearby eclectic United Palace, was an advocate of the use of ornamentation and color on his building's exteriors. He would write: "Exotic ornaments, colors and scenes are particularly effective in creating an atmosphere in which the mind is free to frolic and becomes receptive to entertainment." In line with this philosophy, the facade of the Audubon Ballroom presents terra-cotta glazed polychromy, encrustations and cornices. Its ornamentations include brown foxes between the windows on the second floor, intended to flatter Fox, and, most prominently, a colorful protruding three-dimensional statue of Neptune on a ship.
Alterations to the building in 1996 were made by the architecture firm of Davis Brody Bond, who also designed Columbia University's new building, while the restoration of the facade was handled by preservation specialist Jan Hird Pokorny.


WikiWeb_Audubon Center at Bent of the River_0

Audubon Center at Bent of the River is a 700-acre preserve in Southbury, Connecticut. It is located off South Britain Road and is open year-round.
The Center's mission is to conserve land and promote biodiversity. Its website states "When Mrs. Althea Clark bequeathed Bent of the River farm to National Audubon Society, she left explicit instructions about its use for education and the maintenance of the land— such as preserving it for native flora and fauna and having no trail blazes or interpretive signs. She wanted the Bent to be kept in a state of "mild wildness."
The property features about 15 miles of trails through fields, forests, shrub and grasslands along the Pomperaug River, and is considered to be an excellent site for bird watching. The property includes a brick house named the Clark House and a mid-19th century barn used for nature education programs and events.


The land now housing the park was a plantation during the French and Spanish colonial periods and early American statehood. It belonged to Étienne de Boré, the first mayor of New Orleans and the first successful sugar planter in Louisiana; his plantation also included what is now the location of Tulane University and Audubon Zoo.
It was used by both the Confederate and the Union armies in the American Civil War, and as a staging area for the Buffalo Soldiers. At the time of its establishment, it was the last large undeveloped parcel of what was to become uptown New Orleans. The area was annexed by the City of New Orleans, along with the surrounding communities of Jefferson City and Greenville in 1870, and the following year the city purchased the land.
Use as an urban park was intended from the start, with "Upper City Park" originally selected as a name to distinguish the park from City Park, but few improvements occurred in the first decade.  The nascent park accommodated a World's Fair soon thereafter, the World Cotton Centennial of 1884.  After the closing of the fair, the park's development began in earnest.  Most of the fair's buildings were demolished, with the exception of Horticultural Hall, which remained in the park until destroyed in the 1915 New Orleans hurricane.  The only notable reminder of the fair to remain in the park in the 21st century is a large iron ore rock from the Alabama State exhibit (which in local lore has often been misidentified as a meteorite).  Audubon Park's present form largely follows a design drafted by John Charles Olmsted, a principal of the renowned Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture practice.
Early in the 20th century, part of the park became home to the Audubon Zoo.  The zoo received significant improvement at the hands of the Works Progress Administration, and again from the 1970s onwards.
Numerous early- and mid-20th century park attractions like the miniature railway, the enormous Whitney Young public swimming pool, the swan boats in the lagoons, and the carousel were closed, dismantled and/or discontinued in the 1970s, though a far smaller public pool was constructed in the 1990s adjacent to the site of the original Young pool.
The park features sports fields and picnic facilities along the Mississippi River, in an area called Riverview Park. This riverside portion of Audubon Park is known colloquially as "The Fly", an almost-forgotten reference to the modernist, butterfly-shaped river viewing shelter constructed in the 1960s and demolished in the 1980s in the aftermath of its severe damage one foggy morning at the hands of blundering river traffic.
The ring road around the park was closed to automobile traffic at the start of the 1980s and became a popular 1.7-mile (2.7 km) walking, jogging and biking route. A 2.2 mile dirt path located around the perimeter of the park is also popular for runners seeking a less congested route.
A few of the park's old live oak trees were blown down when Hurricane Katrina hit the city in 2005, but as the park is wholly located on high ground comprising the Mississippi River's natural levee, it was spared the flooding experienced by the majority of the city after Katrina. Audubon Park was used as a makeshift helicopter port and encampment for National Guard troops and relief workers after the storm.


In 1898 the Audubon golf course opened within the park. In 2002, the golf course was renovated and converted to a mostly Par 3 executive course, to complaints from many non-golfing users of the park, who alleged that the original Olmsted Brothers design was being desecrated.  The Heymann Memorial Conservatory, closed for many years prior, was demolished to accommodate the golf course renovation and new golf clubhouse.  Also in 2002, the New Orleans city council renamed the park's "Avenger Field" to "David Berger - Avenger Field" in memory of David Mark Berger, an athlete and graduate of Tulane University who was captured and killed in the 1972 Olympic Games hostage crisis. The field was officially dedicated to Berger's memory on June 10, 2013.


Ochsner Island on the east side of the park features a rookery that is one of the prime birding spots in Greater New Orleans.  The island attracts hundreds of wading birds, including great egrets, cattle egrets, snowy egrets, ibis, little blue herons, green herons, night herons and others.  The park is also home to diving double-crested cormorants and anhingas, as well as to many species of ducks.  Recently, black-bellied whistling ducks have begun using the park's lagoons as a stopover on their migrations.


The church was originally built in 1773 (some sources say 1766) in the village of Nes in the former municipality of Bjugn, where it was known as Nes Church. The Bjugn parish sold the church to the parish of Volda in April 1879 for 2800 kr. The church was then disassembled and moved from Nes to the village of Fyrde. It was reassembled there and renamed Austefjord Chapel (it was later renamed as a church). The builder was Gjert Lien from Nordfjord. The new church was completed and put into use in November 1879. The building was consecrated on 1 July 1880 by the local parish priest Lars Gledistch. Originally, the church was painted red, but later this was changed to white.


The Autonomous Port of Dakar (French: Port autonome de Dakar, abbreviation: PAD) is a Senegalese public enterprise which is headquartered in Dakar, located in the east of city. Thanks to the strategic position that gives it a sheltered harbor, it is now the third largest port in West Africa after the Autonomous Port of Abidjan and the Port of Lagos It is also the ninth-largest port on the African continent.
The port has one of the largest deep-water seaports along the West African coast. Its deep-draft structure and 640-foot-wide (200 m) access channel allows round-the-clock access to the port. Its current infrastructure includes tanker vessel loading and unloading terminals, a container terminal with a storage capacity of 3000 20-foot-equivalent units, a cereals and fishing port, a dedicated phosphate terminal and a privately run ship repair facility. The port's location at the extreme western point of Africa, at the crossroad of the major sea-lanes linking Europe to South America, makes it a natural port of call for shipping companies.
Nearby over 10 km west of the port is Les Mamelles Lighthouse (also the Ouakam Lighthouse) in which the port maintains together with its beacons.


"Le port de commerce de Dakar, escale active et saine" in the Bulletin d'information et de renseignements de l'Afrique occidentale française, no. 181, February 13, 1939, p. 79-82
"Le port de Dakar : travaux et projets" in the Bulletin d'information et de renseignements de l'Afrique occidentale française no. 212, January 31, 1938, p. 29-30
"Le port de Dakar" in L'Équipement de l'AOF. Aperçu des réalisations du FIDES, 1 July 1950, Paris, La Documentation française, 1950, 213 p.
"Le port de Dakar" in the Bulletin d'information de l'Afrique occidentale française, no. 65, August 31, 1950, p. 1-4 ; no. 66, September 7, 1950, p. 1-4
"Le port autonome de Dakar" in Sénégal d'aujourd'hui (Senegal Today), special edition, around 1973, p. 50-71


Côte occidentale d'Afrique. Port et Mouillage de Dakar. Levés en 1875 ... par Mr F. Leclerc (Coast of West Africa), Paris, 1876 (carte conserved in the British Library)


Averbode Abbey was founded about 1134–1135 by Arnold II, Count of Loon. With land donations from the Abbey of Sint-Truiden, the lords of Aarschot and Diest, and some years later Godfrey III of Leuven, the abbey was situated right on the border of the County of Loon and the Duchy of Brabant. The first canons and abbot Andreas came from the Sint-Michielsabdij in Antwerp, founded in 1124.
The abbey started rather small but grew over the centuries, until it was some 5500 ha in the seventeenth century, including farms, fields, woodland, mills, heath, and local chapels. The abbey also provided the priests for 27 parishes. The first abbey church was inaugurated in 1194, and soon after the nuns, who until then resided in Averbode as well, moved to Keizerbos, where it stayed until it disappeared in 1796.
New buildings were erected all the time at the abbey. The gatehouse, built at the end of the 14th century, is the oldest remaining building. The church and part of the abbey was destroyed by a fire after a lightning strike on October 25, 1499.
The abbey went through a prosperous period in the first half of the 16th century, under Abbot Gerard vander Schaeft. The church was rebuilt and richly decorated. Unrest and plundering troops made it necessary to flee the abbey four times in this period. Political and religious instability in the latter half of the century, with the Beeldenstorm, made the canons flee the abbey again in 1578 to the refuge of Diest. The death of 12 monks in 1579 because of the bubonic plague reduced the abbey to only 28 monks in 1584. They returned to Averbode only in 1604.
The seventeenth century saw a return to strength of the abbey, with 80 monks by 1670. Between 1664 and 1672, a new church was built, after a design by the Flemish architect Jan van den Eynde II.  Almost all the buildings were rebuilt during this century.
Van den Eynde was awarded the commission in 1664, after Lucas Faydherbe’s plans were rejected.  The first stone was laid on July 31, 1664. The ground-plan of this Baroque church combines a centralized cruciform space to the west for the laity with a deep choir, which was necessary for Norbertine choral services. The treatment of space is more emphatic here than in other Norbertine abbey churches, on account of the happy combination of a radial plan with a very long and axially accentuated choir. The design combined Gothic structural forms, such as ribbed vaults, with Renaissance ornamental details. The church is considered a peculiar synthesis of Baroque and Gothic. No dome was built over the central section because in January 1668 one of the major piers collapsed. Because two other pillars collapsed after that, the fourth pillar also had to be pulled down. Works restarted with more solid material and the building was roofed over by the end of 1670. The community inaugurated the new abbey church on July 11, 1672, the feast of St. Norbert. The solemn consecration was not celebrated until June 19, 1681. Van den Eynde also produced the church's sculptures.
At the end of the 18th century, in 1789, the Brabantse Omwenteling started a period of great political turmoil, with the French and the Austrians fighting for control over Brabant. Travelling troops heavily damaged the abbey. After the French disbanded most abbeys on September 1, 1796, the canons of Averbode were evicted on February 14, 1797. Most parts of the library and the archive were brought to safety beforehand, and the abbot and some canons fled across the Rhine. In 1802, brother Ignatius Carleer bought the abbey and some monks were able to return. The church was used as parish church for Averbode. Because of financial problems, most of the church treasure had to be sold. Meanwhile, the library and archive were seized by the government and transferred to the University of Liège and the Royal Archives of Belgium in Brussels.


The abbey was reestablished on December 14, 1834, with the 12 surviving monks of 1796. Averbode also served as the novitiate for the abbeys of Postel,
Grimbergen and Tongerlo. By 1840, there were again 23 people connected to the abbey, a figure which slowly rose to 31 in 1850 and 43 in 1868, of which only 19 actually stayed in the abbey. Most of the others where parish priests.
In 1877, the abbey founded a "Broederschap van O.-L.-Vrouw van het Heilig Hart" ("Brotherhood of Mother of the Sacred Heart"), linked with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Issoudun. This brotherhood would give a new élan to the abbey and define its status and works until today. Membership soared, with 60,000 in 1879 and 100,000 in 1883, reaching 400,000 by 1894. In 1881, a first press was bought to print the magazines and leaflets for the Brotherhood. In the meantime, the judicial status of the abbey was still unclear, and in 1887 the abbey was sold to the Countess of Merode, and most of the ground to her father. In the years before World War I, the abbey prospered and grew through the Brotherhood and the printing activities, with some of its magazines printed in more than 100,000 copies. The abbey was now the largest employer of the region, and built social houses for its employees in 1899 and created a cooperative dairy in 1907 and a bank in 1911.
The abbey was at the time a motor of the village life, with also a school, a harmony, a library and a thespian society.  It was the center of Marian-centred pilgrimages, which attracted many visitors and benefited the local shops and bars.
In 1896, the abbey first started with missionary work, when two canons left for Pirapora,  Brazil, where they started a school which also served as the seminary until 1949. Another school was started in Jaguarão in 1901, which was moved to Jaú in 1915. The college in Petropolis came under the leadership of Averbode in 1909 as well. A second mission started in 1903 in Denmark, where the abbey founded the parish of Vejle, with a new Catholic school and from 1913 on a hospital.


In 1921, the abbey was able to buy back its buildings and grounds from the family de Merode. The year before, the "Eucharistische Kruistocht" ("Eucharistic Crusade") was founded, a movement to bring the faithful more in line with the Church and its doctrines, in line with the teachings of Pope Pius X. The priest Edward Poppe, although not a member of the abbey, was the leading force behind the Crusade until his death in 1924 at the age of 34. New youth magazines were created as a means of spreading the Crusade amongst the youth, who were the main target of the movement. These would become the second main branch of the printing activities, together with the purely religious publications.
In the early 1930s, the abbey came into financial problems due to the high costs of new buildings for the abbey and machinery for the publishing company. A reorganisation, which made the publishing company a separate company owned by the abbey instead of an integral part of the abbey, and a strict financial control helped the abbey to pay off the debts over the next decade. On the other hand, the abbey flourished now more than ever.  Because of the success of the Brotherhood, the Crusade and the missions, and the population explosion in Belgium, the numbers of canons increased to 230 by 1937.
The central buildings of the abbey, apart from the church, burned down almost to the ground on December 29, 1942. In 1945, a school in Brasschaat which was run by the abbey was hit by a V-1 flying bomb, killing a canon and three priests. The abbey reached its greatest population in 1959 with 242 people, 88 of which resided in the abbey. The others were divided over the missions, schools, dependencies and parishes maintained or serviced by Averbode. In the same year, a second Sint-Michielscollege was founded in Schoten, complementary to the one in Brasschaat. In Brazil, a new parish in Piracicaba was started, and an abbey was founded in Salto in 1963.
The general decline of Catholicism in Western Europe and especially in Flanders started to affect the abbey of Averbode as well though.  The work on the new abbey in Brazil was stopped and the college of Jaú was closed down. The schools in Brasschaat and Schoten saw the canons leave as well, but they continued to exist. The publishing activities also were more and more led by laymen, and the printing activities were sold in 1996. In 2011, the abbey housed 78 canons, of which 45 lived and worked in the abbey.


The park holds 104 species of plants. The main floral species are Cedrus deodara, blue pine, yew, silver fir, horse chestnut and oak. Around 21 plants belonging to 19 families are known for their medicinal properties. Many of these are used in treatment of jaundice, stomach ulcers, snake bites, internal infections, diabetes, psoriasis and more. Some plants are said to have anti-carcinogenic effect as well. Also, some are used as biological insecticides and pesticides, mostly due to their insect-repellent nature. The World Wide Fund for Nature has launched an ethno-botanical initiative here "to demonstrate the sustainable use of plant resources as a means for protecting biodiversity.
There are 23 mammals, 203 birds and 13 herpto-fauna in the park.
Mammals found in the park include:
Indian leopard,P.p.millardi
Leopard cat,F.b.himalayana
Golden jackal,C.a.indicus
Red fox,V.v.griffithi
Yellow-throated marten,M.f.flaviugula
Masked palm civet,P.l.himalayana
Asian palm civet,P.h.isabellinus
Central European boar,S.s.scrofa
Java pipistrelle,P.j.himalayensis
Big-eared horseshoe bat,R.macrotis
Serotine bat,E.serotinus
Rhesus macaque,M.m.villosa
Indian porcupine,H.i.blandfordi
Kashmir field mouse,Apodemus rusiges
Ward's field mouse,Apodemus wardi
Turkestan rat,R.turkestanicus
Murree vole,H.wyneii
Kashmir flying squirrel,E.fimbriatus
Red giant flying squirrel,P.p.albiventer
Some of the Himalayan specialty birds of Ayubia include:
Kalij pheasant,L.l.hamiltonii
Koklass pheasant,P.m.biddulphi
Wedge-tailed green pigeon,T.sphenurus
Speckled wood pigeon,Columba hodgsonii
Spotted dove,S.chinensis
Great barbet,M.virens
Himalayan cuckoo,C.saturatus
Crested serpent-eagle,S.cheela
Besra,A.virgatus
Golden eagle,A.c.daphanea
Himalayan black-lored tit,M.xanthogenys
White-cheeked tit,A.leucogenys
Kashmir nuthatch,Sitta cashmirensis


WikiWeb_Azerbaijan State Academic National Drama Theatre_1

The theatre has its origins in national holidays and dances. Elements of theatricality were contained in many kinds of national creativity accompanying national festivities, traditional holidays and other occasions. On 10 March 1873, under the guidance of Hasan bey Zardabi and with the participation of students of the Real School of Baku, comedy  "Vizier of Lankaran khanate" by M.F.Akhundov’s was staged. The professional Azerbaijani theatre was originated after this very performance. In 1919, separated troupes joined up and the theatre acquired the state recognition.
Then Azerbaijan Dramatic Theatre had different names in different years-"State Theatre", "United State Theatre", "Azerbaijani Turkic Drama Theatre" and others. Through 1923–1933, the theatre was named after Dadash Bunyatzade, but in 1933–1991, it was named after Meshadi Azizbekov. In 1991, the theatre was renamed to the  "Azerbaijan State Academic Drama Theatre".


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During the Soviet period the theatre was awarded many awards of the USSR for successful activity. Such actors as Huseyn Arablinski, Mukhtar Dadashev, Jahangir Zeynalov, Mirzaagha Aliyev, Sidgi Ruhulla, Alasgar Alakbarov, Adil Isgenderov, Barat Shekinskaya, Leyla Badirbeyli and other famous actors played at the theater during its activity period. Plays to works of Jafar Jabbarli, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Ali bey Huseynzade, Najaf bey Vazirov, Huseyn Javid, Sabit Rahman, Nariman Narimanov, Ilyas Efediyev, also to works of other world classics such as Shakespeare, Schiller, Molière, Dumas, Hugo, Balzac, Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Gogol were staged in the theatre.
The troupe of the theatre was repeatedly on tours, to: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Tbilisi, Tashkent, Ashgabat, Turkey, Germany and Cyprus. Some performances were awarded state grants of the USSR and Azerbaijan.


WikiWeb_Azov-Syvash National Nature Park_0

Azov-Syvash National Nature Park (Ukrainian: Азово-Сиваський національний природний парк) is a national park of Ukraine, located on Byriuchyi Island in the northwestern Sea of Azov.  The park was created to protect the unique coastal environment of the north-western Azov. It is particularly important as a stop on the flyway for migratory birds, with over a million birds visiting each year.  It is located in Henichesk Raion of Kherson Oblast. The park was created on 25 February 1993 and has the area of 52,582.7 hectares (203.023 sq mi).


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There are two separate areas in the park:
Azov Site: Byriuchyi Island in the Azov Sea (about 7,700 hectares).  The island is in fact connected to land by the narrow Fedotova Spit. The terrain is mostly sand-end-shells estuary plains.
Syvash Site:  The waters and islands of the marine estuary stretching inland along the lagoon-like Syvash Bay (37,785 hectares).


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The park is in the Pontic–Caspian steppe ecoregion.
The official climate designation for the Azov-Syvash area is "Humid continental climate – hot summer sub-type" (Köppen climate classification Dfa), with large seasonal temperature differentials and a hot summer (at least four months averaging over 10 °C (50 °F), at least one of which is over 22 °C (72 °F).  The average temperature in January is −3 °C (27 °F), and 24 °C (75 °F) in July.  Precipitation is among the lowest in Ukraine, with an average of 260 mm/year.


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This bay is a particularly valuable land for wetland birds in winter. More than 1 million birds (swallows, ducks, marsh terns, waders, mute swans, shelducks, herons, etc.) are registered in seasonal clusters during the year; including rare, vulnerable and endangered species listed in the Red Book of Ukraine, such as kentish plover, black-winged stilt, eurasian oystercatcher, white-headed duck, Pallas's gull and white-tailed eagle. Nearby in the steppes of Prysyvashshya the great bustard, the little bustard, the Demoiselle crane and common crane, the hen harrier, the pallid harrier, golden eagle, greater spotted eagle, saker falcon, peregrine falcon, lesser kestrel. A total of 30 species of "Red Book" birds have been registered in the park. Of these, the white-tailed eagle and the little bustard are also included in the European Red List. More than 1% of individuals of red-breasted goose and Greylag goose populations that overwinter here can live in the lands . A total of 197 bird species have been registered in the park.
Steppe grasses contributed to the formation of large populations of acclimatized animals. Acclimatization work began in 1928. The maximum number of red deer (830 heads) was observed here in 1992, fallow deer (1425 heads) in 1991, mouflon  (987 heads) 1992, onager  (37 heads) 1994. Of the hunting birds, the common pheasant is acclimatized here, the number of which periodically reaches several hundred. In addition, the Byriuchyi Island has created favourable conditions for the existence of aboriginal species of fauna, such as the grey hare, fox and acclimatized raccoon dog. The number of these animals, given the tense epidemiological situation in the region, has to be constantly regulated.
In total, there are more than 5,000 species of animals within the park, including 250 species of vertebrates. Amphibians often include the green toad and the marsh frog, among the reptiles there are numerous sand lizards, multi-colored lizards, grass snakes and dice snakes. Of the 26 registered in park waters of fish species of commercial value are european flounders and kalkans, marbled goby, caucasian dwarf goby, russian sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, as well as the recently acclimatized in the Sea of Azov so-iuy mullet.
The park also protects many species of animals listed in the Red Book of Ukraine: great jerboa, steppe polecat, azov dolphin, four-striped and yellow -bellied slugs, smooth snake, Vipera renardi, as well as two species of hydroid polyps, one species of ringworm and 5 crustaceans insect species: empusa pennicornis, iris plyamystokrylyy, wasp road, Cryptocheilus rubellus, dauber, Stizus fasciatus wasp, white leucomigus.
In total, 250 species of vertebrades live on the territory of the Azov-Syvash National Nature Park, 48 of them are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine.


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As a national park, Azov-Syvash is divided into four use-specific zones, providing for a protected area (38,970 hectares in Central Syvash), a regulated recreation zone (618 ha), a local recreation area (93 ha), and an 'economic zone' (12,473 ha).


Bávaro is an area of Punta Cana, located in La Altagracia province, the easternmost province of the Dominican Republic. Bavaro was originally developed as a town for resort workers together with the resort area and tourist region of Punta Cana. As hotels started to rise along the east coast, north from Punta Cana, Bavaro itself became a center of services.


Bávaro starts at a crossroad Verón, after the town of Higüey and the small village of Otra Banda, and extends 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north until the crossroad for Macao Beach. Other beaches to the North include Uvero Alto beach, Roco Ki beach, La Vacama beach. Bavaro has 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) of sea shore.
At the center of Bávaro is the crossroad of Friusa. Beyond the crossroad Verón, on the right side is an important road to Cabeza de Toro, most eastern tip of the island of Hispaniola, and the Dominican Republic as well. The next crossroad, El Coco Loco, leads to the Friusa Centar and further points to the north.


The electricity is powered by Consorcio Energetico Punta Cana Macao (CEPM), a wind and solar energy producer led by US-based Argentine businessman Rolando Gonzalez-Bunster.


The oldest hotel in the area, Barcelo, is past the crossroad Coco Loco and Villas Bavaro I and II. One of the newest hotels is the Now Larimar Resort. The Cocotal Golf and Country Club is in front of two Melia Hotels (Paradisus Palma Real, Meliá Caribe Tropical) and the shopping mall, Plaza Palma Real.
Beyond the Melia Hotels is El Cortecito, the first sand road connecting Punta Cana International Airport. The oldest building in Los Corales (where El Cortecito starts) is Pirata, now home to two beach bars: Soles and Umi.


Tourism in Bávaro has been developing at a rapid pace. The best examples are Los Corales, Cocotal and El Cortecito, among other options. All are just minutes away from the Punta Cana International Airport, where most visitors fly in.


The next crossroad, Plaza Bavaro, is full of gift shops, and can take you to discothèque Mangu and Areito, as well as to the White Sands golf course.
Office of Politur (Turistic Policia or Tourist Police) is next to the bus station, close to Friusa. On the part of the road from Plaza Bavaro to Friusa, there are hospitals and shopping malls with bars and restaurants. Bavaro ends at the crossroad to Macao Beach, where the Hotel RIU is located.


Büyük Han (lit. Great Inn) (Greek: Μεγάλο Πανδοχείο Megálo Pandocheío) is the largest caravansarai on the island of Cyprus and is considered to be one of the finest buildings on the island. Located in the capital of Cyprus, it was built by the Ottomans in 1572, the year after they had seized Cyprus from the Venetians. In the centre of the open courtyard is a mosque with a fountain for pre-prayer ablutions. It became the first city prison under British administration. After spending most of the 1990s being restored, the inn has been revived as a thriving arts centre, consisting of several galleries and workshops. There are also several courtyard cafes and souvenir shops.


According to historical records, the building was built in 1572 under the auspices of Muzaffer Pasha, the first Ottoman governor of Cyprus, and was modelled after Koza Han in Bursa. The building was reportedly built upon the remains of an older one. However, archaeologist Tuncer Bağışkan attributes the construction of the inn to his successor, Sinan Pasha, as Muzaffer Pasha had been appointed as the governor of Tripolitania on 26 August 1571. There is one surviving letter from Selim II about the inn, where, upon being informed that some shops had been  demolished to build a caravansarai, he ordered that if the caravansarai was not profitable for the vakıf, it should be demolished and replaced with new shops. Journalist Ahmet Tolgay, however, has written that Muzaffer Pasha ordered the construction and oversaw the groundbreaking of the building before being executed. According to İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Muzaffer Pasha requested an architect for the reconstruction of Cypriot fortresses from Constantinople. The architect that was sent, named Bostan, could have constructed Büyük Han.
Initially, the caravansarai was known as "Yeni Han", "the New Inn". It also became known as "Alanyalılar Hanı", "the Inn of those from Alanya", as it was frequented by merchants from Alanya. However, when the smaller Kumarcilar Han was built opposite the Asmaaltı Square, it became known as "the Great Inn" (Büyük Han) in the 17th century.
Upon the British takeover in 1878, the inn was restored for use as a prison. It was used as the Central Prison of Nicosia between 1892 and 1903, when the prison was moved to a new building west of the Pedieos. In the years 1900 and 1901, when the British administration left the building, the shops at the back were extended up to the point where they met the road, with the permission of the Evkaf Administration. Between 1903 and 1947, the building was used as an inn. Between 1947 and 1962, it became a refuge for poor families where they could rent rooms cheaply.


The inn has two floors and a more or less square shape; its dimensions are 50.67 m by 45.25 m. There is a large inner courtyard which is surrounded by the rooms that have colonnades with cross vaults in front. There are 68 rooms in both floors, with the ones at the ground floor being historically used for commerce and the ones at the first floor historically used for accommodation. There are also 10 one-storey shops behind the colonnade at the eastern entrance.
The entrance to the inn is through two doors at the east and the west. The main door is located at the eastern side and opens to Asmaaltı Square. There are hexagonal or octagonal stone chimneys placed above fireplaces in each room; Rupert Gunnis found these chimneys idiosyncratic and claimed that they could originate from the medieval building that once stood at the site.
In the middle of the inner courtyard is a special type of masjid known is Turkish as köşk mescidi ("mansion masjid"). The stones that were used to build this masjid are believed, according to Bağışkan, to have come from other buildings. The masjid corresponds to similar masjids built in Anatolian caravansarais such as Koza Han in Bursa or Rüstem Paşa Hanı in Edirne during the 13th–17th centuries. In 1927, George Jeffery noted that the masjid was used as a hayloft.
There is a grave that lies to the southwest of the masjid. This grave is traditionally held to belong to either a high-standing person who died whilst worshipping in the masjid or Muzaffer Pasha himself who is traditionally held to be executed. However, Bağışkan draws attention to the pasha's appointment to Tripolitania and says that it is a myth that he is buried there. The grave was historically used as a place for offering, though this use ended "a long time ago".


Since its restoration, the Evkaf Administration has mandated in tenancy agreements that all products sold within Büyük Han are manufactured by the tenants themselves and has placed a ban on selling externally produced items. As such, shops in the caravanserai sell traditional Cypriot handicrafts and most tenants are women that produce such handicrafts. The Evkaf Administration carries out checks to ensure that the tenants comply with the terms of the tenancy agreement, and warns tenants if any violations are detected.


The Bărboi Church (Romanian: Biserica Bărboi), dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, is a Romanian Orthodox parish church located at 12 Bărboi Street, Iaşi, Romania.


The current church was raised on the foundation of a church built in 1613-15, dedicated to Saint Paraschiva and commissioned by the vornic Ioan Ursu Bărboi. In 1669 this church became a monastery under the authority of Vatopedi monastery on Mount Athos. The church was seriously damaged in 1821 and demolished in 1829. Between 1841 and 1843, the logofăt Dimitrie Sturdza and his family members, with financial assistance from Vatopedi and the efforts of Metropolitan Grigore Irinopoleos, had the current church built on the site of the old one. The architect Andrei Caridi was assisted by the Greek master builders Atanasie and Gheorghe. The resulting church resembles certain Athonite buildings in form and dimension, and is the city's only church in the shape of a Greek cross.
The church was shaken by the 1977 earthquake, and from 1980–88, the exterior was restored and the interior paintings and furnishings cleaned. Metropolitan Teoctist Arăpaşu began this project, and on 27 November 1988, by then Patriarch of All Romania, he re-consecrated the church. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments.
Today, in addition to hosting religious services, the church is the headquarters of the local branch of the Romanian Orthodox Women's Society and of the Romanian Orthodox Brotherhood; the latter undertakes philanthropic and cultural activities. Art exhibitions, awards ceremonies, book signings and similar activities take place on the premises. Moreover, every Lazarus Saturday since 1990, thousands of pilgrims have gathered at the church, carrying icons of Christ and making their way toward the Metropolitan Cathedral.


The church is rectangular in plan and made of valuable stone blocks alternating with rows of brick. To the east, north and south, there are small semicircular apses beneath the top of the walls, flanked by pilasters that rest on bases. The wide central dome, with Neo-Gothic and Romanesque elements, sits above a square base, and is surrounded by four much smaller domes with octagonal bases. The main entrance features an imposing portal held up by eight Doric columns. Above this is a classical facade that also features Doric columns.
The church's spacious Byzantine interior is composed of three naves: a central one and two lateral ones, divided by columns of Carrara marble topped by Corinthian capitals. Looking inside, a harmony of arches can be observed: each pair of columns is linked by two or even four arches in perfect symmetry. The iconostasis is carved from wood and gilt. The walls are covered in paintings of saints (including military ones), Biblical scenes, the Madonna and Child and the Four Evangelists.
An inscribed tablet records various phases in the church's history. Inside is the crypt of the noble Sturdza family (which includes the grave of Prince Ioan Sturdza), bathed in candlelight, next to that the poet Alecu Russo. The Bărboi Church is also where writer Ion Creangă served as deacon and lived in the parish house from 1863-65.
The bell tower, built in 1726-33 by masons from Padua, has four levels; clocks rest in the uppermost one (uniquely for the city) and bells in the middle two. The lowest level has an exterior of quality stone, well worked and preserved; the other levels have a plaster exterior. It is through the lowest level that one enters the church grounds; the gate is made of decorated cast iron. The tower once contained the library of the writer Costache Conachi.
The 19th-century parish house is based on traditional Moldavian monastic houses. It has two floors and a simple plan, with rooms arranged symmetrically about a central hallway. Starting in 1834, it housed Moldavia's first girls' school, founded by Mihail Sturdza.


The BELvue Museum (French: Musée BELvue, Dutch: BELvue Museum) is a museum in central Brussels, Belgium, that focuses on the history of Belgium. It is managed by the King Baudouin Foundation (KBF).
The museum is located in the Hôtel Bellevue, an 18th-century neoclassical hôtel (townhouse) between the Place des Palais/Paleizenplein and the Place Royale/Koningsplein, next to the Royal Palace of Brussels. This site is served by Brussels Central Station, as well as by the metro stations Parc/Park (on lines 1 and 5) and Trône/Troon (on lines 2 and 6).


Since its opening, the BELvue Museum, managed by the King Baudouin Foundation (KBF), has completely renewed its permanent exhibition. Employing a theme-based approach and with a modern, interactive exhibition layout, the museum offers visitors the keys to understanding Belgium and Belgian society.
Seven social themes are addressed in the rooms: democracy, prosperity, solidarity, pluralism, migration, language and Europe. Each theme is firstly presented from the perspective of the present day, then subsequently developed and explained through the history of Belgium. In the BELvue’s new exhibition, history is not an end in itself, but rather a means to explain and provide the keys to understanding and interpreting our society.
This overview of Belgium's past and present is complemented by a gallery of more than 200 objects. Presented chronologically from the 19th century to today, the pieces embody Belgium’s "physical memory". Visitors will find everyday objects, works of art and design, well-known brands, scientific discoveries, references to great sporting achievements as well as objects that recall the richness of our popular culture.


Baba Budan Giri  also known as Dattatray Peeta is a mountain in range of the Western Ghats of India. Located in the Chikmagaluru taluk, Chikmagaluru District of Karnataka, Dattatreya peeta is known for its shrine to a pilgrimage site for  Hindus and Muslims.Sangh parivar organizations started "Datta Jayanti" celebrations in the late 2000s as part of their fight to claim "Sri Guru Dattatreya Swami Dattapit". People go to have a darshan of the Samadhi.
The main peaks in this range are the Mullayanagiri and Baba Budangiri (height 1895 m). Collectively, these peaks are known as Chandradrona Parvatha Shreni (Chandradrona Mountain Range) as they naturally form the shape of a crescent moon.
Mullayanagiri (also spelt Mullayangiri or Mullainagiri) is the highest peak in the Dattatreya peeta range. With a height of 1930 m (6317 ft), it is the fourth highest peak between the Himalayas and the Nilgiris. There is a famous trekking trail between Mullayanagiri and Baba Budangiri.


The Baba Budangiri shrine is   shrine named after the Sufi saint Baba Budan, who is revered by both Muslims and Hindus. Its origin appears to be a syncretization of reverence for an 11th-century Sufi, Dada Hayath (Abdul Azeez Macci); for the 17th-century Sufi Baba Budan, said to have brought coffee to India; and for Dattatreya, an incarnation of Shiva (or of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu). It has been controversial due to political and religious tension over its status as a syncretic shrine.


Dattatreya, for whom the shrine was once named, is considered by some Hindus to be God who is an incarnation of the Divine Trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara (Shiva), in the form of an ascetic in the discipline of Avadhuutha (God intoxicated monk). A Sufi saint known as Baba Budan is believed to have later been in the same cave for some time. Some Hindus have making a claim over the shrine, which is controlled by Muslims. This has led to tension between the two communities. This has become the place of communal riots on the occasion of Urs (the death anniversary of the Sufi saint) and the occasion of Datta Jayanti in the month of December. Hindu Shobha Yatras have been organized at the same time give rise to the communal conflict.
The Supreme Court of India has ruled that only religious ceremonies which were performed prior to 1975 be permitted. As Shobha Yatra was not performed prior to 1975, police have in some years denied buses permission to approach Bababudangiri on Datta Jayanti.
Baba Budan Giri represents a unique syncretic culture of Hindus and Muslims where both offer prayers in a cave-like structure. It derived its name from a Muslim Sufi saint who was in turn the disciple of another Sufi saint called Dada Hayath Meer Khalandar. Dada was one of the earliest to arrive in India (1005 AD) from west Asia to preach Sufism in India. When he came to south India, he selected the present cave for his meditation. In fact, the Puranic name of the hills was Chandra Dona, as it look like a crescent or a horse shoe. The place Dada selected was equally believed to be the seat of Dattaraya Swamy, who is said to be the last avatar of Vishnu; he is believed to have vanished from one of the caves to Kashi to be reincarnated in future. Another belief is that Dada Khalandar and Dattaraya Swamy are one and the same person. The story goes that after clearing the area Dada decided to settle down for meditation. “He needed water to perform ‘wazu’ for his prayers. He was a stranger in this area and did not know where water was available. He prayed and started digging the ground in front of the place he had selected as his seat of meditation and found a perennial spring. He thanked god and spent the night in prayers and meditation. Early in the next morning a Brahmin and a jangama entered the cave, as per their custom, for worship. Seeing Dada absorbed in meditation they thought that he was the incarnation of Sri Dattaraya Swamy”.
Likewise the Hindus, Muslims also believe that Dada had disappeared from one of the caves to Mecca and Madina and is alive and will in due course appear before the disciples. After him, Baba Budan, one of his closest disciples who introduced coffee to this hilly region, brought from Mocha in the west Asia, carried his mission further. Baba Budan, whose history is usually traced to Bagdhad, reached Chickmagalur via Malabar and Mangalore. Baba Budan was killed in an ambush near the present cave and was buried along with two other Sufis inside the cave. He is also called Syed Meran Baba and also Jan-e-Pak Shaheed. The institution of custodian of the site although it is traced to Dada, began to centralise in a single family after the death of another Sufi saint, Syed Shah Jamaluddin. "For reasons not known Jamaluddin also became famous as Baba Budan during his lifetime.". The custodian of the site/shrine is called Sajjade Nishin. There are a few characteristics attached to him: “only Sayyads can become swami, either Husseins or Khadris, the descendents of Hussen or Hassan, sons of Ali. After initiation, a Khadri becomes Shah Khadri, and after apostolic seat, he is styled Sajjade. No unmarried man can become Sajjade”