WikiWeb_Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa_1

August 15, 1540: This is the date in which the city was founded by Garcí Manuel de Carbajal.  The Cathedral started construction on this very date.  In the "Act of Foundation" of Arequipa, it can be read: "...in the name of its majesty Governor Francisco Pizarro, founded the beautiful village in the valley of Arequipa, in the Collasuyo section, above the river edge, in his name he put the cross, in the location signaled for the Church; He put the pike in the Plaza of the village, which he stated would do in the name of its majesty..."
February 14, 1544: The representatives of the Council, Justice and Directorate of the city signed a contract with the architect Pedro Godínez, then regent of the city and commander of San Juan Bautista de Characato, and the carpenters Juan Rodríguez and Gregorio Álvarez to build the church.
September 1544: Miguel Cornejo, the Mayor of the City, assigned the building of the portal to the master Toribio de Alcaraz, who agreed to build it using white petrified volcanic lava (sillar).  The church is built with 2 main sections.
January 22, 1583: An earthquake reduced the church to rubble.
1590:  It is decided to rebuild again the main church, and this is assigned to Gaspar Báez, who is helped by several Spanish officials and many hundreds of "Mitayo" Indians.  The new design would have 3 sections, arcs and vaults of brick.
February 1600:  When construction was almost finished, the violent eruption of the Huaynaputina stratovolcano (also known as Quinistaquillas or Omate), together with several earthquakes and a rain of ash, destroyed part of the structure.
1604:  Another earthquake completely destroyed what was remaining of the structure.
1609: The Bula of Pope Paul V created the Arequipa Diocese, separating it from the one in Cuzco.  The Arequipan Catholics had become impoverished since the Volcano eruption, but decided to rebuild the Cathedral.
January 27, 1621:  Mr. Andrés de Espinoza was assigned the construction of the Cathedral.
1628: Espinoza died.
1656: The construction of the Cathedral was finished.  It had 3 sections, 180 feet long by 84 feet wide (84.86 m by 25.6 m), 8 pillars, 5 chapels, 22 arcs, 15 brick vaults.
1666: Earthquake.  Some damage, but no structural damage.  Reconstruction started immediately.
1668: Earthquake.  Some damage, but no structural damage.  Reconstruction started immediately.
1687: Earthquake.  Some damage, but no structural damage.  Reconstruction started immediately.
1784: Earthquake.  Some damage, but no structural damage.  Reconstruction started immediately.
December 1, 1844: There was a fire in the Cathedral.  The fire destroyed several parts of the church and many paintings, sculptures and furniture pieces, as well as several vaults and pillars.
December 15, 1844:  Present reconstruction work was made, under the direction of the Bishop José Sebastián de Goyeneche y Barreda, and his brother Juan Mariano de Goyeneche. Technical direction was under the architect Lucas Pobrete. In this restoration it was enlarged reaching the place of the old San Juan church (destroyed in 1784).
1850:  The Bishop Goyeneche assigned the production of several jewelry pieces to adorn the Cathedral to the Spanish jeweler Francisco de Moratilla, who was then jeweler of the Queen of Spain.  The nephews of the Bishop (the count of Guaqui, the duchesses of Goyeneche and Gamio and Jose Sebastian de Goyeneche) gave the Cathedral the main altar (still exists today) which was installed by an Italian architect of last name Guido.
1854: The clock of the tower, made in England, was installed.  Also the music organ and twelve giant wood sculptures, all made in Belgium, of the apostles.
1879:  The pulpit, made at the shop of Buisine-Rigot in Lille, France, was installed thanks to the Peruvian ambassador in France, Mr. Juan Mariano de Goyeneche, count of Guaqui.  It was given to the church by Javiera Lizárraga de Alvarez Comparet.
August 13, 1868: A violent and long earthquake destroyed several parts of the Cathedral: The towers, part of the main portal, some of the facade arcs, some altars.  In the following years, thanks to the Bishop and the Goyeneche family and under the technical direction of Lucas Pobrete, the two towers and the facade arcs were rebuilt.
June 23, 2001:  The 2001 southern Peru earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale on June 23. The left tower was destroyed and the right tower suffered major damage.
August 15, 2002: On the anniversary of its foundation, the then Mayor Manuel Guillén finished the restoration of the towers.


WikiWeb_Basilica of Our Lady of Geneva_1

The church was built according to the design of Alexandre Grigny between 1852 and 1857 on the site of a former stronghold fortifications. This neo-Gothic building, whose appearance is partly inspired by the Beauvais Cathedral, could break ground thanks to the city of Geneva, which had ceded land to religious communities to build places of worship, and through donations and manual labor provided by the Geneva Catholics.
The dedication is celebrated 4 October 1857. Father Gaspard Mermillod, future episcopal vicar of Geneva then cardinal pronounced the sermon. He was later expelled from Switzerland by the government.
After the coming to power of an anti-clerical government, Notre Dame is occupied on June 5, 1875 and closed. This occupation is accompanied by a protest against the Roman Catholic and more unrests. The commitment of Catholics to this sanctuary becomes even greater. Notre-Dame was bought by the Catholic Church in 1911–1912.
Pope Pius XII raised the shrine to the status of Minor Basilica on 4 August 1954. The decree was publicized by a diocesan Catholic Bishop on 5 December 1954.


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The oldest art works of the basilica date back to the time immediately preceding the Protestant Reformation:
a torch, decorated with paintings, belonging to a convent deleted during the Protestant Reformation;
a carved wood panel with bas-relief image of the Virgin Mary, mutilated with an ax by Protestants.
Other works or art objects are the object or through the worship the statue of Our Lady of Geneva, the tabernacle and the carved liturgical furniture (altar, ambo, clams).
The stained glass windows of the basilica are particularly remarkable. Some are semi-industrial production neo-gothic, but most show the evolution of the art of stained glass during the twentieth century, in various styles, after those of Claudius Lavergne (installed from 1857 to 1875). From 1912, several artists have successively contributed to adorn the basilica: Charles Brunner, Alexandre Cingria, Maurice Denis, Gherri Moro, Paul Monnier, Jean-Claude Morend, Théodore Strawinsky. The building is classified as Cultural Property of National Significance.


The Basilica of St. Teresa (Spanish: Basílica de Santa Teresa) It is one of the most important Catholic churches in Caracas, capital of Venezuela. It is the main center of veneration of the image of the Nazarene in San Pablo Easter, is located on the corner of La Palma and Santa Teresa in the city center in Santa Teresa Parish of Libertador Municipality.
This basilica is composed of two neoclassical churches joined together by a dome where it is placed under the high altar, the west facade is dedicated to Santa Ana and Santa Teresa east facade.
The President Antonio Guzmán Blanco ordered the demolition of the church of San Felipe Neri and other Catholic churches of Caracas, but then ordered the construction of a monumental church in the same place that occupied the San Felipe Neri, in 1870 commissioning project architect Juan Hurtado Manrique, the execution works of the church started in 1877 and ended in 1881, on 28 October of that year is inaugurated the structure like Church of Santa Teresa in honor of his wife Doña Ana Teresa a devout Catholic. On December 9, 1959 was declared a National Historic Landmark.


WikiWeb_Basilica of the Most Blessed Sacrament_0

The Basilica of the Most Blessed Sacrament (Portuguese: Basílica do Santíssimo Sacramento) Also Church of St. Efigenia Is a Catholic temple located at the corner of Casper Libero Avenue and Santa Ifigenia Street, in the district of the same name in the city of Sao Paulo in the south of Brazil. The Santa Ifigenia viaduct ends in front of the church.


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Located near the Anhangabaú Valley, the current Church of Santa Ifigenia was built on the site of one of the oldest chapels of the city, the Chapel of Our Lady of Conception, built before 1720. This first chapel was renovated in  1794, and by disposition of the prince regent Don João VI, in 1809 the parish of Our Lady of the Conception and Santa Ifigenia appeared.
Between 1930 and 1954, due to the construction of the cathedral of St. Paul, the church of Santa Ifigenia served as cathedral of the city. On April 18, 1958, the church was elevated to the rank of basilica, under the name of Basilica of the Blessed Sacrament, by Pope Pius XII. It was protected by the Municipal Council of Historic, Cultural and Environmental Preservation of the City of Sao Paulo (CONPRESP) in 1992.


WikiWeb_Basilica of the Visitation of Our Lady_0

The Basilica of the Visitation of Our Lady (German: Basilika Mariä Heimsuchung) also called Werl Basilica is a Catholic church located in Werl, Germany which was declared a minor basilica in 1953. It is dedicated to the Visitation of Mary.
The church was built in 1904-1906 according to the plans of the chief architect of the diocese of Münster, Wilhelm-Sunder Plaßmann in Neo-Romantic style. The temple houses the pious statue of the Virgin of Werle, also called afflictorum Consolatrix (Consolation of the afflicted), dating from the twelfth century.
Pope Pius VII granted the venerated Marian image a canonical coronation on 1 November 1811. The consecration of the church was carried out on 24 May 1911 by the bishop of Paderborn, Monsignor Schulte. Just next to the basilica is the pilgrimage church, built by the Capuchin convent of Werle in the late 18th century that had become too small for pilgrimages.
Pope Pius XII raised her sanctuary to the status of Basilica via another decree signed on 16 October 1953.
The Franciscans of Werl since 1848 are the guardians of the pilgrimage church and the Basilica of the Visitation. Its convent rebuilt in the 19th century is next door.
The basilica has been restored several times during the twentieth century and especially in the period 2002 to 2003.


WikiWeb_Basilique Saint-Urbain de Troyes_0

The Basilique Saint-Urbain de Troyes (Basilica of Saint Urban of Troyes), formerly the Église Saint-Urbain, is a massive medieval church in the city of Troyes, France.
It was a collegial church, endowed in 1262 by Pope Urban IV. It is a classic example of late 13th century Gothic architecture.
The builders encountered resistance from the nuns of the nearby abbey, who caused considerable damage during construction.
Much of the building took place in the 13th century, and some of the stained glass dates to that period, but completion of the church was delayed for many years due to war or lack of funding.
Statuary includes excellent examples of the 16th century Troyes school.
The vaulted roof and the west facade were only completed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has been listed since 1840 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.


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Saint-Urbain is a classic example of French Gothic architecture of this period.
The exterior has perforated gables with sharp points, narrow buttresses with many pinnacles, and openwork flying buttresses.
The effect is visually complex, perhaps discordant.
The main structural elements are built from a resistant limestone from Tonnerre, while softer local chalk is used for infilling masonry of the walls.
The interior floor plan is compact.
There is a short nave with three bays, a transept that does not project from the side walls and a stubby chevet that ends in three polygonal apses.
There is no  ambulatory.
The building makes spectacular use of tracery and attenuated forms.
The interior walls have two different patterns.
The apse has two levels of glass windows, which create a luminous area around the altar, above a plain masonry base.
There is a walkway on the lower level behind an open tracery screen whose mullions rise to the clerestory above.
The sanctuary, transept and nave have a strongly built arcade at the lower level supported by composite piers, above which rises a clerestory of similar height.
The two patterns are unified by the framework of rectilinear wall sections and the grid of vertical and horizontal elements.
The building does not aim for monumental effect, as with earlier Gothic buildings, but instead has been called a "delicate glass cage".
The architect eliminated the triforium, simplified the plan and concentrated on refining detail.
The streamlined design was copied in later Gothic churches.
The architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814–79), who led the Gothic revival of the 19th century, considered that Saint-Urbain represented the finest example of the system of construction in which the columns that support the vault extend continuously into the arches of the vault, without the massive Romanesque capitals of earlier periods.
Saint-Urbain has been called the "Parthenon of Champagne".


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The  sober, elegant interior of the church is filled with light from the huge windows.
The original church glazing followed the new band window style, with colored compositions in large rectangular fields surrounded by bright grisaille glass.
This system is used for narrative depictions in both the upper and lower levels.
Viollet le Duc dated the stained glass in the church to around 1295, but the ornament in its borders and grisaille is from an earlier tradition. It has a cross-hatched ground, as in Merton College, Oxford, but has a very simple leaded pattern and includes much natural foliage.
The windows of the choir, and others in the church, date to the original glazing of 1264–66.
They were badly damaged during the fire of 1266, but still show two rows of full color figures.
Jane Hayward considers that the windows "exhibit the reuse of surviving figures by two masters, one preferring elongated figures in broad-fold drapery ... and the other more archaic and regional (with leaded-in eyes)."
For some reason the windows did not depict either Saint Cecilia or Saint Urban, although tapestries to these saints were meant to be hung in the choir.
The original windows were restored in 1992 by Le Vitrail of Troyes.
The other windows date to the late 19th or early 20th centuries.


WikiWeb_Basilique Saint-Urbain de Troyes_5

The piscine of Saint-Urbain, which dates to 1265, is unusually large.
This is a carved stone recess in the choir where the ampoules containing holy oils are placed, pierced with holes through which waters used in purification ceremonies are poured.
The Saint-Urbain piscine is accessed through two high windows above which are trefoil decorations of three scenes: Jesus blessing the Virgin in the centre, Urban IV presenting the church choir to the left and Cardinal Ancher presenting the transept to the right.
Above these decorations, which were damaged during the French Revolution, is a carved representation of armed soldiers, clergymen and workers struggling to defend the walls of a medieval town against enemies.
There is a magnificent 13th-century Last Judgement on the pediment.
The Champagne fairs made Troyes a prosperous city before the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453).
With the return of peace in the mid-15th century the city recovered, and its workshops making sculpture, paintings and stained glass flourished.
The sculptural style from before the wars was revived, with the Gothic tradition of clean lines, simple facial expression and sober garments.
Starting in the 1530s the influence of artists from the Château de Fontainebleau began to spread in the region.
The style evolved under the influence of the Renaissance, with more elaborate hair styles, more natural poses and richer clothing.
The statue of the Vierge aux Raisins in the chapel on the south aisle is an excellent example of the Troyes school of the 16th century.
However, some of the studios in Troyes, such as those of the Maitre de Chaource, resisted these innovations and continued to create works of great quality in the pure Gothic tradition.


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Pierre Desrey (c. 1450–1514) gave instructions for the design of tapestries that would depict the legends of Saint Urban and Saint Cecilia for the church, but left much discretion to the artist.
The tapestries were apparently never woven.
In 1783 J. C. Courtalon-Delaistre wrote of the church, "Old tapestries representing the life of Urban IV surround the choir. Here you see his father working at the craft of shoemaker and his mother winding her distaff. They were made in 1525, at the expense of the canon Claude de Lirey called Boullanger".


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The pope gave the architect Jean Langlois a huge amount of money to undertake the work.
Construction probably began in 1263.
Although Pope Urban IV died the next year his nephew, Cardinal Ancher, supervised the continued construction.
The church was built from east to west.
The choir and transept were erected quickly between 1264 and 1266.
The main altar was dedicated in October 1265.
Visitors to the church on 25 May 1266, the saint's feast day, were granted an indulgence of one year and forty days.
The Abbey of Notre Dame aux Nonnains had great power and privileges in Troyes.
A collegiate church that would be outside its jurisdiction and directly under the Holy See was a serious threat.
In 1266, when the date on which Saint-Urbain would be consecrated had already been decided, the abbess Ode de Pougy sent a gang to the site that destroyed as much as possible.
The doors were broken off, the high altar and capitals broken, the columns vandalized and the carpenters' tools and material confiscated.
New doors were installed, which were also broken and removed soon after.
A few months later a fire broke out that destroyed the wooden parts of the walls and the roof.
After the fire a new architect continued the work, but was short of funds.
In 1268 the nuns hired armed men who prevented the Archbishop of Tyre and the Bishop of Auxerre from blessing the new cemetery.
On 15 July 1268 Pope Clement IV excommunicated Ode de Pougy and her associates.
Construction continued despite the opposition of the nuns and the lack of money.
The envelope wall and the easternmost bay of the nave were added before work stopped at the end of the 13th century.
Work resumed in the late 14th century, when two more bays were added to the nave, and a simple wooden shell was added to serve as a vault over the unfinished portion.
The church was consecrated on 1 July 1389 while still unfinished.
The main section of the church was not finished until the 16th century, and the tower was not completed until 1630.


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No more work was done for many years, and the structure deteriorated.
Fourteen houses were built against the church walls.
During the French Revolution the church was used as a granary and then as a store for distribution of supplies.
In 1802 the building again became a parish church.
The baptismal font comes from the Saint-Jacques-aux-Nonnains church.
All the furniture of this church was sold during the Revolution.
A few years later the font was found in the courtyard of a house in Troyes, where it was being used as a curbstone for a well.


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A project to fully restore the building was initiated in 1846.
The abutting houses were removed.
The architect Paul Selmersheim (1840–1916) finished the upper part of the nave at the end of the 19th century according to the original plan.
In the late 20th century the apse and its windows were completely restored.
Between 1890 and 1905 the upper vault and buttresses of the nave were completed and the porch of the facade was added.
The portal which covers the west side of the church was completed in 1905.
Urbain IV had been buried in the Perugia Cathedral in 1264, although he had wanted to be buried in the church at Troyes.
His remains were transferred to the church in 1935.Pope Paul VI elevated the church to the rank of a minor basilica in 1964.
A one-year study of air pollution inside the church in 2002–03 showed that CO₂ spikes occur during Sunday masses, when large volumes of outside air are admitted, while Elemental Carbon (EC) pollution is primarily caused by candle burning. The effect on the stained glass is not yet understood.


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"Basilique Saint-Urbain (13th C)". Office de Tourisme de Troyes. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
"Basilique Saint-Urbain de Troyes - Sites Religieux". Visiter la Champagne (in French). Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
Hourihane, Colum (2012-12-06), The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture, OUP USA, ISBN 978-0-19-539536-5, retrieved 2015-12-16
Janson, Horst Woldemar; Janson, Anthony F. (2003), History of Art: The Western Tradition, Prentice Hall Professional, ISBN 978-0-13-182895-7, retrieved 2015-12-16
Kane, Tina (2010), The Troyes Memoire: The Making of a Medieval Tapestry, Boydell & Brewer, ISBN 978-1-84383-570-7, retrieved 2015-12-16
Léniaud, Jean-Michel (1994), Viollet-le-Duc ou les délires du système, Beaux Livres (in French), Éditions Mengès, p. 225, ISBN 2-8562-0340-X
Murray, Stephen; Tallon, Andrew; O'Neill, Rory, "Troyes, Église Saint-Urbai", Mapping Gothic France, Media Center for Art History, Columbia University; Art Department, Vassar College, retrieved 2015-12-16
Pastan, Elizabeth Carson; White, Stephen D.; Gilbert, Kate (2014), The Bayeux Tapestry and Its Contexts: A Reassessment, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, ISBN 978-1-84383-941-5, retrieved 2015-12-16
Rivière, Rémi (2001), Basilique Saint-Urbain, Troyes : Guide de visite (in French), Roy, Dominique, photography, p. 64, ISBN 2-907894-26-9
Saiz-Jimenez, C. (2004-08-15), Air Pollution and Cultural Heritage, CRC Press, ISBN 978-1-4822-8399-0, retrieved 2015-12-16
Simpson, Patricia (1997), Marguerite Bourgeoys and Montreal, 1640-1665, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, ISBN 978-0-7735-1641-0, retrieved 2015-12-16
"Troyes, basilique Saint-Urbain", Patrimoine-histoire (in French), retrieved 2015-12-16
Westlake, Nat Hubert John (1882), A History of Design in Painted Glass, J. Parker and Company, retrieved 2015-12-16


The Bateau-Lavoir ("Washhouse Boat") is the nickname of a building in the Montmartre district of the 18th arrondissement of Paris that is famous in art history as the residence and meeting place for a group of outstanding early 20th-century artists, men of letters, theatre people, and art dealers. It is located at No. 13 Rue Ravignan at Place Emile Goudeau, just below the Place du Tertre.
A fire destroyed most of the building in May 1970 and only the façade remained, but it was completely rebuilt in 1978.


Formerly a ballroom and piano factory, Bateau Lavoir was squatted and divided into 20 small workshops in 1889. Distributed along a corridor, small rooms were linked without heating and with a single point of water. The name "Le Bateau-Lavoir" was coined by French poet Max Jacob. The building was dark and dirty, almost seeming to be scrap pile rather than a dwelling. On stormy days, it swayed and creaked, reminding people of washing-boats on the Seine River, hence the name.
The building stands on a small cobblestone square that was known as Place Ravignan. In 1911, it was rechristened Place Émile Goudeau for Émile Goudeau (1849–1906), a popular novelist, poet, and journalist who founded Les Hydropathes, a renowned and famous literary club. The square now has a Wallace fountain and is planted with horse chestnut trees.
Maxime Maufra (1863–1918) was the first noted artist to take up residence in Bateau-Lavoir, around 1890. Kees van Dongen and Pablo Picasso took up residence between 1900 and 1904. After 1904 more artists and writers moved in, including Otto van Rees, Amedeo Modigliani, Pierre Mac Orlan, Juan Gris, André Salmon, Pablo Gargallo, Max Jacob and Pierre Reverdy.
It became an unofficial club that included artists Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Marie Laurencin, Modigliani, Jean-Paul Laurens, Maurice Utrillo, Jacques Lipchitz, María Blanchard, Jean Metzinger and Louis Marcoussis; writers Guillaume Apollinaire, Alfred Jarry, Jean Cocteau, Gustave Coquiot, Cremnitz (Maurice Chevrier), Paul Fort, André Warnod, Raymond Radiguet, and Gertrude Stein; actors Charles Dullin, Harry Baur, and Gaston Modot; and art dealers Ambroise Vollard, Clovis Sagot, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and Berthe Weill.
While residing at the Bateau-Lavoir, Picasso painted works such as Young Girl with a Flower Basket, and Garçon à la pipe (Boy with a Pipe) in 1905, and one of his most noted works, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907, considered by art historians as a proto-Cubist painting (the precursor of a movement that became known as Cubism).
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, creative artists living at the Bateau-Lavoir and in the neighbourhood began moving elsewhere, mainly to Montparnasse.


In 1908, a celebration banquet for Henri Rousseau was organised in Picasso's studio in the Bateau-Lavoir.
One night, Amedeo Modigliani destroyed a number of his friends' paintings while in an alcoholic rage in the Bateau-Lavoir, according to memoirs of his daughter, Jeanne.


The Le Bateau-Lavoir is a featured setting in the 2018 season of Genius, which focuses on the life and art of Pablo Picasso.
It is also featured in the 1995 Eric Rohmer film Les Rendez-vous de Paris.


The South Reformed Church, an offshoot of the Old First Reformed Church (Brooklyn, New York) was organized in 1838. Its first building was a plain wooden structure measuring 40 by 55 feet which stood on the corner of 43rd Street and Third Avenue.  Mr. George King was the architect, the Messrs. Rhoades, the carpenters, and the Messrs. Buchanan and Van Nostrand the masons, having completed it at a contract price of $1660 on June 23, 1840.

Its first pastor was Rev. Cornelius Cullan Ardsdale.  He was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Merrill Woodbridge who was installed on Dec. 12 in 1841. In 1890 he was Dean of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church of New Brunswick, New Jersey.
  During his pastorate the consistory bought the building then owned by the Fourth Presbyterian Church (New School) of the City of Brooklyn (Brooklyn Fourth) located on 3rd Avenue between 20th and 21st Street, Brooklyn, which was organized by the Third Presbytery of New York in the Village of Gowanus, in February, 1838.  A house of worship was erected soon after, and the Rev. Robert R. Kellogg was installed June 4, 1839, by the Presbytery of Brooklyn. He was dismissed on the 7th of December following, and the congregation being few, and oppressed with debt, the church was dissolved by the presbytery, May 9, 1842.  Subsequently, the building was purchased by the Third Dutch church, and for several years services were held alternately in the morning and evening in the two churches.  About 1850, the congregation divided into two portions; those worshipping in the 22nd Street church known as the North Gowanus Church moved to Twelfth Street, where they were then known as the Twelfth Street Reformed Church.  At the South Reformed Church the Rev. Dr. Woodbridge's pastorate ended on April 29, 1850.  He was succeeded by the Rev. Jonathan M. Rowland, who was called from the Presbyterian Church on May 18, 1852 but who died suddenly on Sunday Oct. 2, 1853.
There was an interval of a few years when the church was without a pastor.  On July 17, 1854 the Rev. John H. Manning became pastor and continued until June 30, 1873.  During his pastorate the church went through a crisis with the yellow fever in July and August 1856.  Three of the four members of the church consistory died of the disease and the church membership was decimated.  The neighborhood was panic-stricken, but the church bravely kept at its post.
In March 1863, the church building was destroyed by fire.  The fire was said to have been caused by a heating stove.  After meeting in P.S. 2 at 47th Street and 3rd Avenue, in 1875 the new church edifice at 52nd Street and 3rd Avenue, which had been begun a few years before, was dedicated.  It cost about $35,000.  The church started with seventeen members and grew to 200 members, with a Sunday school of 325 in 1890.
Rev. Dr. Henry.V.S. Myers was pastor from Oct. 15, 1874 to May 1,1882.

The Rev. Alfred DeWitt Mason was pastor from November, 1882 until October 12, 1891.  On December 7, 1890 the evening service was occupied in the formal receiving of a baptismal font, communion table, kneeling stool and collection plates given to the church by the members of the Bergen family.
When the church was formed fifty years earlier the territory of Bay Ridge was very sparsely settled and would have discouraged a less hardy class of people.  The several branches of Bergens were the real reason for the permanent establishment.  While many of the Bergens had left the neighborhood, fifty-one joined in the tribute to the church.  Mr. deHart Bergen read the deed of the gift and the list of fifty donors and handed it over to the pastor.  Teunis G. Bergen, grandson of Teunis G. Bergen, followed in a very brief address, speaking on behalf of the family.  The communion table and chair were massive and made of black walnut.
Rev. John Tallmadge Bergen was pastor from April 26, 1892 to September 2, 1895, and the Rev. Benjamin E. Dickhaut from 1896 to 1903.
As the congregation grew, the church needed to expand to a new location, so they moved to 55th Street and Fourth Avenue.  The cornerstone of the church was laid in on Saturday afternoon, September 6, 1902.  The pastor presided and a large children's chorus sung under his leadership "Praise Ye the Father" and "The Psalms."  He read the contents of the box that was placed in the stone. The church was called the South Reformed Church. The contents of the box included a photograph of Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, bearing his autograph and sent by himself, copies of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Brooklyn Daily Times and many church items. The new building was of Gothic architecture and was built by the Church Construction Company of Manhattan. W.L. Spicer was the architect. H.L. Spence was Chair of the Building Committee.  The first steps towards securing the property were taken in 1899.  The noise of both elevated and trolley along Third Avenue proved too much and the old church was sold to Spence Brothers who razed it and erected flat houses on the site.  The old church was sold for $30,000 which went towards the $80,000 for the new building.
The first service was held on March 16, 1904 with the Reverend Dr. William J. MacDonald as its pastor. He served the church from February 11, 1904 to April 19, 1917.  In an M. P. Moller ledger book is a handwritten copy of the Letter of Agreement of March 26, 1910, between Möller and the South Reformed Church. Möller agreed to build a two-manual organ with tubular-pneumatic action and casing of quartered oak that would be ready for use on or before the 1st day of September 1910; however, the organ was not shipped until September 3. Möller also replaced the old water motor with a new one. The total cost of the organ was $4,500, less an allowance of $1,000 for the old organ, then in the church, which became the property of Möller.

In 1915, the Brooklyn Home Talk reported that there were 1500 students in the Sunday School.
 On its 75th anniversary it was stated that South Reformed was the pioneer church in that section of Brooklyn and was the parent of Greenwood Heights, the Twelfth Street and the Bay Ridge Reformed Churches.  Bay Ridge Reformed eventually became the current Union Church of Bay Ridge.
The Rev. Dr. Robert A. Watson was pastor from October, 1917 to December 31, 1927.  In 1918 the church had a membership of 1198 with a Sunday school of 1415. $10,560 was raised and the property value was $75,000. Dr. Watson accepted a call to the First Dutch Reformed Church of Jamaica in December, 1927.
The Rev. George Steininger was installed as pastor on May 10, 1928 and served until November 1, 1938.  "The Yearly Report January 1, 1929-1930" reported $11,541 in receipts and disbursements and a Sunday school of 500. In 1940 the church had a membership of 400 with a Sunday School enrollment of 350.
The Rev. Dr. Leroy C. Brandt was pastor from 1939-1942. On May 5, 1940 the church began the observation of its centenary. A number of special services and other events marked the anniversary. It closed on May 17th with a dinner at the Hotel Bossert.
Rev. Frank Curtis Williams was pastor from 1943 until his last service on July 28, 1962.  In 1967 Rev. John A. Shope resigned.  From January 28, 1968 to June 15. 1969 the Rev. Ronald Maxam was interim pastor.  On October 26, 1969 the Rev. H. Lyle Rozeboom was installed.
When the congregation united with Bay Ridge United Presbyterian Church to become Bay Ridge United Church, the Reverend Lyle Rozeboom was the pastor and the Reverend Frank Williams was pastor emeritus. The Reverend Ephraim Felix was the pastor of the Hispanic congregation which was started in 1973.


The Bay Ridge United Presbyterian Church (BRUPC) came into existence on July 3, 1907, under the name the "Bay Ridge United (Presbyterian) Church." This early group met each Sunday under the leadership of the Reverend William J Pinkerton, in a house in Bay Ridge, located on 76th Street near Fifth Avenue. (476 76th Street) They remained at this location until May, 1912, when "preaching services" were begun in a store at 6811 Fort Hamilton Parkway which the pastor had rented for $12 a month. After eight months, the church headquarters were again transferred to the 76th Street house due to the difficulty heating the store.
Under the pastoral guidance of a new minister, the Rev. J.J. Munro, the church moved in November, 1913 to a store at 7302 Sixth Avenue for $22.50 a month. Rev. Munro was previously chaplain to the Prison Evangelistic Society of New York. At the time there was some controversy as to location, whether the church was in Bay Ridge or South Brooklyn, and it was finally changed to the "South United Presbyterian Church."
Their first major step under Pastor Munro's leadership was the purchase of the $6000 property on 75th Street, 303.68 feet southeast from 6th Avenue, on which to build their own church building. In July, 1914, confident that they were ready to begin construction, the church trustees obtained a loan from the United Presbyterian's Church Extension at Pittsburgh.
The cornerstone was laid at a ceremony on Saturday April 17, 1915. The work progressed so that by July 8, 1915 the building was ready for the first Sunday morning worship service. However, it was not until October 17, 1915 that the building was officially dedicated. Even then the ambition of the members was not fully satisfied. They set forth to increase church membership. In 1918 there were 80 members with 250 in the Sunday School.  $2,699 was raised and the property was worth $15,000. Pastor Munro continued working for the growth of the church until he answered another call in 1920.
His successor, J.L. McCreight, continued his fine work. McCreight, however, was a trained educator, and within a year he was called to a professorship in a Western Seminary college.
From June 1921 to July 1922, the pulpit of the South United Presbyterian Church, as it was then called, was filled by clergymen and divinity students supplied by various church organizations. The search for a new pastor ended, however, when on July 13, 1922, a young seminary student, John H. Egner, was ordained and on the same day installed in the church as its pastor. Like former pastors,  Egner worked tirelessly for the improvement of the church and the Sunday school. Aided by the church members, he increased membership to over 400. While Egner was pastor, the church developed from an organization partially supported by the Board of Home Missions of the United Presbyterian Church to a completely self-supporting organization, ably operating on a sound financial basis.
A native of the Netherlands, the Rev. Egner came to this country at age 23 years. During World War I, he served with the U.S. Engineers, and after the Armistice, attended the Biblical Seminary in New York. In October 1921, as senior student in the department of theology, he supplied the pulpit of the Bay Ridge Church and upon graduation from the Biblical Seminary in the spring of 1922 was ordained and installed as pastor of the church.
When Egner took charge of the church in 1922, there was a membership of about 40. Under his leadership the church began to grow and in 1932 it had a membership of 325. During those ten years the Sunday school experienced a rapid growth. When Egner came to the church, there were little more than a handful enrolled. In 1932 the enrollment was 300. There also was an active Young People's Organization and a women's society which has loyally supported the pastor in his work in behalf of the church. In 1932, Special Services marked the 10th anniversary of Rev. John H. Egner's pastorate.
The church, which in its early days had a hard struggle to exist, became self-supporting for many years and was cleared of debt in 1927.
Egner was married in June 1931 to Patience M. Love of Thompsonville, Connecticut. Mrs. Egner was a graduate nurse of the Springfield, Massachusetts Hospital. For seven years she was a nurse in the Springfield schools and for two years served as school nurse for the Thompsonville and Enfield Schools.
Under the leadership of Reverend Egner, the congregation changed its name in 1925 to the Bay Ridge United Presbyterian Church.  There was more building in 1935 when the congregation voted to make a two-story extension at the back of the church.
Dedication Services were held on Sunday, October 3, 1937 for the dedication of church windows at the morning service at 11:00 am and a special dedication of the Masonic Window, presented by Free Masons of the Church, 1937 at the evening at 8:00 pm. Speakers were the Right Worshipful Raymond C. Ellis and Most Worshipful Jacob C. Clinck, Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York.

The candle window "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness" is a memorial to John Stuart, David Bruce Stuart, and Mrs. Thomas Roden.  John and David were the children of Gertrude Littlejohn Roden and her husband Walter Roden.  They died as infants. Mrs. Thomas Roden was the mother of Walter.
On May 31, 1939, a parsonage was purchased.  Finally, because of Reverend Egner's energy and efforts, the membership of the congregation reached 400.
Pastor Egner resigned on April 5, 1944 to accept a call to the Presbyterian Church in Delancy, New York.  His last Sunday was May 7.
In February 1941, the church began Wednesday "released time" classes which were allowed by the Coudert-McLaughlin Law passed in Albany.  A great deal more besides "released time" classes went on.  There was a vibrant Boy Scout troop, a Brownie and Girl Scout troop and a basketball team of young men who competed with other area church teams.  There was also a junior high youth group and a very vital senior high group.
Rev. Wistor R. Smith served as pastor from January 11, 1945 to December 31, 1945.
Rev. Norman Webster served from April 4, 1946 until he was called to Waterloo, Iowa on October 21, 1950.  During his time there was great spiritual growth with three young men entering the ministry: Edwin (Scotty) Prophet, John Geldmacher and Neil M. Stevenson. Rev. Stevenson became a Navy Chaplain in the United States Navy Chaplain Corps and rose to the rank of Rear Admiral.

On Thursday evening, February 15, 1951, Robert I. Scott was installed as minister by the New York Presbytery.  Rev. Scott served until called to Greenport, New York on June 30, 1963. He died on August 22, 1964 after a long illness.  He was 48.
Rev. Ralph H. Reed was stated supply from September 1, 1963 to February 29, 1964.  Rev. Jack Burback was pastor from April 12, 1964 to September 14, 1965.  Rev. S. Bruce Wagner was stated supply from September 6, 1965 to October 30, 1966.  Rev. Jeffrey C. Wood was pastor from November 20, 1966 to August 31, 1973.  He was married to Margaret Ann Lloyd on December 31, 1967.  Rev. Donald Scott was stated supply from November 1973 to September 1974.
The Bay Ridge United Church was formed by a merger of the South Reformed Church and the Bay Ridge United Presbyterian Church in 1976.  At that time, the Reverend Lyle Rozeboom was pastor of the South Reformed Church, and Bay Ridge United Presbyterian Church was without a minister.  Pastor Rozeboom was called to serve as pastor of the combined congregations and the name became Bay Ridge United Church.  For its first decade of existence, Lyle Rozeboom led the new united congregation.
In 1985, Pastor Rozeboom resigned to take a pastorate in upstate New York.  After an interim pastorate by William Hoffman, Pastor Howard Ashley arrived in 1986.
In 1991, during Pastor Ashley's ministry, the facade on the front of the church was rebuilt. This helped the church stand out from the rest of the buildings around it on Bay Ridge Parkway.
Pastor Ashley resigned in 1994 to take a pastorate on the west coast. After Pastor Ashley's resignation, Bay Ridge United Church was served by three interim pastors.  The Reverend Susan Huizenga served from September 1994 and left in May 1995 to be married.  The Reverend Dr. Richard W. Smith came in August 1995 and served as interim pastor until August 1996 when his wife accepted a teaching position in Chicago.  The Reverend Calvin Spann was ordained on November 10, 1996 and became the contract pastor on December 1, 1996 and left in April 1998.  The Reverend Boyd Lowry became interim pastor on September 1, 1998 and retired on June 30, 1999.
The Reverend Ann Akers served as Interim Pastor from September 15, 1999 until May 31, 2000. The Reverend Christine Dyke was called and approved at a Congregational Meeting in April, 2000. She became pastor on June 1 and was installed in October. Reverend Dyke's ministry was characterized by change as she sought to grow the membership.  The longtime choir director left in 2003 and Reverend Dyke resigned in December 2003.
Reverend Spann again served as contractpPastor from January until June 2004 with Pulpit Supply serving until May 2005.
The Reverend Jane Donnelly was approved at a congregational meeting on March 20, 2005.  She became pastor on May 15, when she was ordained and installed.
In 2011, with the passing of an active member, Jim Gillies, Bay Ridge United voted to add the memorial donations received in his memory to their scholarship fund and designate it in his memory.  The Jim Gillies Scholarship Fund is managed by the Sunday School and gives awards to deserving students.
Jim Gillies, who had been battling multiple myeloma, died on the morning of September 25, 2011 at Lutheran Medical Center where he succumbed to an infection. Jim was born on February 25, 1943 and was baptized by Rev. Egner and confirmed at the church. He was active in the church's Cub and Boy Scout troops and attended P.S. 127, McKinley J.H.S. and Fort Hamilton High School (Class of 1960) and Long Island University.  He worked in brokerage houses, retiring from Lehman Brothers. He was a dedicated elder, providing hospitality in the narthex every Sunday with his buddy Frank McCarthy, counting the offering, and participating in worship and all church functions. He was always ready to help and be of service in any way possible. All enjoyed Jim's warmth, his sense of humor and his easygoing style. On October 30, 2011 the church held a memorial service honoring Jim's Scottish heritage. Plaid ribbons were tied everywhere around the church where Jim's influence was felt. Jim was truly a pillar of the church. He did his part. He wore many hats and was fully engaged with the church at every level.
Due to dwindling membership, similar to all the churches in the neighborhood, in 2001 the Manse was sold to establish an endowment fund.
With the continued loss of members and the death of certain key ones, the congregation voted in 2014 to integrate with Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church, located nearby on Fourth Avenue between Senator and 68th Streets. To assist the congregation the Classis of Brooklyn superseded the Board and appointed a Supersession Committee. Similarly the Presbytery of New York City appointed an Administrative Commission. In accordance with the wishes of the congregation, the board granted permission to sell the building to Iglesia Cristiana Fuente de Luz. Most members moved to Fourth Avenue and joined January 24, 2016.  The sale of the building closed on May 6. 2016.
The records of the precedent churches were sent to their respective archives; the South Reformed to the Reformed Church in America (RCA) in New Brunswick, New Jersey and the Bay Ridge United Presbyterian to the Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The records of the Bay Ridge United Church were sent to the PCUSA archive.
The Bay Ridge United Church, a New York State Religious Corporation was dissolved at a Special Term Part 72 of the Supreme Court of the State of New York held in and For the County of Kings at 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, New York, on the 24th day of March, 2017 (Order of Dissolution Index No. 5902/16.)


The Bay Ridge United Church building contained many memorial items from the former Bay Ridge United Presbyterian Church. They included:


The Saint Dominic Cathedral, commonly referred to as the Bayombong Cathedral, is an 18th-century, Baroque church located at Brgy. Salvacion, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines. The cathedral, which is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bayombong, is under the patronage of Saint Dominic.
Saint Dominic Cathedral of Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines was founded in 1739 by the Augustinian Friars of Spain.


It was April 12, 1739 when the first Eucharistic Celebration was held there with Fray Pedro Freire presiding. During these days in the 18th century, this cathedral was still called The Church of St. Augustine. It won’t be until a few months later, on September 8, that it will be dedicated to St. Dominic De Guzman.
The mission in present-day Bayombong had its roots in the mid-18th century when it was formally accepted by the Dominicans as mission center in a region previously referred to as Paniqui. Soon after founding the mission, the erection of the church structure took place in 1780 under the supervision of Father Juan Crespo, OP. According to records, the church, and other nearby structures, was gutted by fire in 1892. Father Cerefino Martinez, O.P. initiated the reconstruction of the church. It was completed three years after, in 1895, with the installation of galvanized iron roofing, new altarpieces and a new pulpit.


The church façade is described as a close copy of that of the San Vicente Ferrer Church in Dupax del Sur and the Santa Catalina de Siena Church in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, with its doors, windows and oculus, not to mention the pediment shape that’s also similar to that of the older  Tuguegarao Cathedral in Cagayan province. A difference, however between this church and the two above-mentioned churches is the lack of columns framing the windows. The slightly-detached, octagonal campanile is also distinct to the church of Bayombong. The façade, with its squat appearance, is divided into four sections by cornices. The façade is ornamented with two windows on the second level (flanking a saint’s niche) and an oculus on the third level.


Bead Geyser is a cone-type geyser in the Lower Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
Bead Geyser is part of the Pink Cone Group. Other geysers in this groups are Box Spring, Dilemma Geyser, Labial Geyser, Labial's Satellite Geyser, Narcissus Geyser, Pink Geyser, and Pink Cone Geyser. Eruptions of Bead Geyser last about 2½ minutes and are 25 feet (7.6 m) high. Bead is an extremely regular geyser. The interval between eruptions is 28–36 minutes. This changes with time but the average for any given time hardly varies. The duration is also highly regular at about 150 seconds.
Bead Geyser was named after the geyser eggs, loose spherical pieces of geyserite, that used to be found near the geyser. Over the decades since it was discovered, souvenir hunters have removed all of the geyser eggs.


The bridge was bid on December 19, 1947, to Pioneer Construction Company of Malvern, Arkansas. The construction foreman who led the project was M. R. Blair (1914-2014), who later served as lead foreman on numerous bridge and highway projects across Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, and who led the construction of numerous dams, highways and bridges throughout the southwestern United States, including the 1964 Big I interchange of Interstates 25 and 40 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Remarkably, Blair and his team completed the project without the benefit of an industrial crane, using only a pickup-mounted, knuckle-boom type crane.
Since the construction was coincident with the building of Table Rock Dam, completion was delayed until 1949 as the United States Army Corps of Engineers required the bridge to be raised 40 feet (12 m). Upon completion, the bridge remained a vital link for the citizens of Beaver until its closure for major deck rehabilitation in 1981. Further rehabilitation occurred in 2003. The bridge has a 10-ton weight limit. The bridge was temporarily closed for inspection in October 2018 after two overweight buses crossed it.


The Beijing Shejitan (simplified Chinese: 北京社稷坛; traditional Chinese: 北京社稷壇), also known as the Altar of Earth and Harvests or the Altar of Land and Grain, is a Confucian altar located in the Zhongshan Park in Beijing, China. Built in 1421 by the Ming dynasty, it was where national soil and grain ceremonies were conducted during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Shejitan is also located in the opposite geometric location to the Imperial Ancestral Temple.  Along with the Imperial Ancestral Temple, the Temple of Agriculture, and the Temple of Heaven, it is one of Beijing's main imperial temples.


The earliest written record of Maresha was as a city in ancient Judah (Joshua 15:44). The Hebrew Bible mentions among other episodes that Rehoboam fortified it against Egyptian attack. After the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah the city of Maresha became part of the Edomite kingdom. In the late Persian period a Sidonian community settled in Maresha, and the city is mentioned in the Zenon Papyri (259 BC). During the Maccabean Revolt, Maresha was a base for attacks against Judea and suffered retaliation from the Maccabees. After Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus I captured and destroyed Maresha in 112 BCE, the region of Idumea remained under Hasmonean control. In 40 BC the Parthians devastated completely the "strong cite", after which it was never rebuilt.
Beth Gabra or Beit Guvrin succeeded Maresha as the main town of the area. Conquered by the Roman general Vespasian during the Jewish War (68 CE) and completely destroyed during the Bar Kochba revolt (132–135 CE), it was re-established as a Roman colony and in the year 200 it received the title of a city and the ius italicum, under the new name of "Eleutheropolis", 'city of freemen'. Sources from the Byzantine period mention both Christian and Jewish personalities living in the city.


Maresha was first excavated in 1898–1900 by Bliss and Macalister, who uncovered a planned and fortified Hellenistic city encircled by a town wall with towers. Two Hellenistic and one Israelite stratum were identified by them on the mound. Many of the ancient city's olive presses, columbaria and water cisterns can still be seen.
Both Maresha and Beit Guvrin/Eleutheropolis were excavated after 1989 and 1992 respectively by the Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner. Important finds at the latter site were the amphitheater built by the Roman army units stationed there, a large Roman bath house, and from the Crusader period a fortress integrating the walls of the Roman amphitheater and bath house, as well as an attached church.


There are about 800 bell-shaped caves located in the area. Many of the caves are linked via an underground network of passageways that connect groups of 40–50 caves.
The largest bell caves are in the east part of the park. They have been dug since prehistoric times, the excavations reaching their zenith in the Hellenistic period and during the Byzantine and Early Arab Period, when blocks of chalkstone extracted from the caves were used for construction work (buildings, etc.). The bell caves consist of limestone in their upper-layer (to a depth of about one to two meters), beneath which is rock consisting solely of a beige-colored, soft chalkstone, utilized by its early inhabits for carving caverns and dwellings. There are numerous bell caves within the park grounds and events are held in one of them. They are large (over 60 feet (18 m) high), airy and easily accessible.


The National Park is known for some of the best preserved columbaria from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. One of the largest is located on the west side of Tell Maresha (Khurbet es Sandahannah), described by Conder and Kitchener in their Survey of Western Palestine, and formerly known by its local inhabitants as Es Sûk. It has been carved underground from the soft chalkstone endemic to the area, and built with tiers of niches capable of housing hundreds of brooding pigeons.


Saint Anne's church was first built in the Byzantine period and then rebuilt by the Crusaders in the 12th century. The ruin is known in Arabic as Khirbet (lit. "ruin") Sandahanna, the nearby tell (mound) of Maresha being called Tell Sandahanna. The freestanding remains of the apse are well preserved (see photo).


The remains of a Roman amphitheater were uncovered in the mid-1990s. The amphitheater was built in the 2nd century, on the northwestern outskirts of Beit Guvrin. This amphitheater, in which gladiatorial contests took place, could seat about 3,500 spectators. It had a walled arena of packed earth, with subterranean galleries. The arena was surrounded by a series of connected barrel vaults, which formed a long, circular corridor and supported the stone seats above it; staircases led from the outside and from the circular corridor to the tribunes. It was built for the Roman troops stationed in the region after the suppression of the Bar Kochba rebellion. The amphitheater is an elliptical structure built of large rectangular limestone ashlars. It was in use until destroyed in the Galilee earthquake of 363.


Byzantine mosaics depicting birds and animals were discovered on the hilltop in 1924.


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The Beitou Refuse Incineration Plant (traditional Chinese: 北投垃圾焚化廠; simplified Chinese: 北投垃圾焚化厂; pinyin: Běitóu Lèsè Fénhuà Chǎng) is an incinerator in Zhoumei Borough, Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan.


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The plant was originally established as the Shilin Refuse Incineration Plant on 1 July 1991. On 1 July 1995, the plant was renamed Beitou Refuse Incineration Plant and it was made a unit of the Department of Environmental Protection of the Taipei City Government.


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The plant spans over an area of 10.6 hectares. It can treat 1,800 tons of garbage from the Taipei area per day.


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The plant's smokestack is equipped with an observation deck at an altitude of 116 meters. On 1 January 2000, a revolving restaurant opened above it (claimed to be world's first restaurant on a waste incinerator chimney), which seats 120 guests and is powered by energy from the incinerator.


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The plant is accessible within walking distance southwest of Shipai Station of Taipei Metro.


Many of the palace's works of art were looted by communist Partisans in 1944, following the liberation of Belgrade from German occupation. One of the looted pieces was the Rembrandt school's painting 'Quint Fabius Maximus'.


Belintash (Bulgarian: Белинташ, pronounced as Belantash and Belǎntash in some local Bulgarian dialects) is a small plateau in the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria bearing traces of human activity. It is assumed that this is a cult site of the ancient Thracian, though the very essence and purpose are not yet fully understood. There are also suggestions that the sanctuary was dedicated to the god Sabazios (Ancient Greek: Σαβάζιος) built and operated by the independent Thracian tribe Bessi. The upper platform of the plateau is marked with carved round holes, trails, niches and steps that some researches interpret as stellar map. It is claimed by some Bulgarian media that in 2006, anonymous tourists had discovered the so-called "Inscription of Belintash" - a petroglyph carved into the rocks, which according to some theorists, confirm that the Thracians had their own alphabet that pre-dates Greek alphabet. However, the authenticity of the petroglyph has not yet been confirmed or denied by archaeologists working on the site of Belintash.


The rocky plateau of Belintash (Белинташ) is located on the ridge of Dobrostan (Добростан) in the central part of the Rhodopes Mountains (Bulgaria). It is 3 km in the south of the village Vrata and 3 km in the south-west of the village of Sini Vruh (Сини връх). It is in central position in regard to a group of rock sanctuaries in the indicated above part of the mountain: Pitvoto, In Kaya, Turskata Kulya cromlech, Karadzhov Kamuk Arc and Haydushki Kamuk.
The plateau is a large rock elevation with a top area of about 5000sq.m., and south–north orientation of its longitudinal axis. Three areas – northern, central and southern – had formed on the plateau as a result of the rock sinking in most ancient times. The ancient Thracians cut in the north most part of the first area steps and niches of various sizes. Hundreds of round holes (about 300) are seen in the northern and central areas of the plateau, as well as two large "sterns" (used for sacrificial pits according to some theories) and cut in the rock beds for wooden beams. Two dug by treasure-hunters stone tumuli were discovered 500m in the north of the triangulation spot of Belintash. The tumuli mark the only way to the plateau and had been parts of a necropolis, the major part of which had been discovered.


The first archaeological studies conducted on Belintash plateau by Bulgarian archaeologists Iveta Moreva - Arabova and Georgi Velev from Historical Museum of Asenovgrad (Bulgaria) took place in 1975.
The site had been studied during the 1980s by a team of Bulgarian archaeo-astronomers that made Belintash of interest in Bulgarian archaeology. According to the archaeo-astronomers the plateau was used as sanctuary used by ancient Thracians as well as a solar observatory – to satisfy the needs of certain agricultural and religious activities of society at the time.
A silver votive plate from Roman period with the representation of Dionysus-Sabazius was found among the rocks. It is kept now in the collections of Bulgarian National Institute of Archaeology with Museum at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. According to Bulgarian archaeologist Dr. Ivan Hristov, the silver plate should be dated in an earlier epoch. A resemblance with a monument that was discovered in 2004 in the already famous tumulus of Svetitsata near the town of Shipka, Bulgaria gave a reason to this conclusion of Hristov. The above-mentioned monument is the gold mask of so-called Teres discovered by Bulgarian archaeologist Dr. Georgi Kitov and has almost identical facial features with those of the male figure on the silver plate found among the megalithic rocks in the base of the Belintash plateau.


"Belintash". BulgariaTravel.org. Archived from the original on 8 January 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
"Музеите на Асеновград". asmuseum-bg.com. Archived from the original on 11 July 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
Стоев и кол. 1990 : А. Стоев, П. Мъглова, В. Гинева, Ц. Радославова. Тракийското скално светилище Белинташ край с. Мостово, Пловдивска област – модел на древна слънчева обсерватория. – Интердисциплинарни Изследвания, XVII , 1990, 156–167


The trees located in the center of the park are part of a memorial to Eastside World War I veterans. On November 11, 1926, the Bellevue Minute Women and Bellevue School District dedicated the memorial. The original monument consisted of a plaque with the names of three men killed in the war, three elm trees, and a 48-star US flag flying on a 65-foot (20 m) pole. The flag pole is no longer present. In 2006, one elm tree died and was replaced after a severe windstorm. For years, the city and private parties planned to restore the aging monument. Restoration work began in 2015.


Downtown Park utilized a unique funding mechanism, heavily reliant on donations from the community.  It was important for the City of Bellevue to demonstrate visible progress on the park construction immediately.  Because of this, the park was developed on a pay-as-you-go basis, with fundraising processes running parallel to construction.
Phase I of park development included construction of the northeast corner of the park, and was officially opened at a ceremony on September 13, 1987.  Phase II of park development, which included completion of the western side of the park, was finished in 1990 following approval of a park bond issue.
Since that time, additional portions of the park have been completed, including:
construction of a parking lot along the park's west boundary;
construction of a restroom and children's play area in the southwest corner of the park;
additional parking and re-alignment of SE 2nd Street in the southeast corner of the park; and
removal of a structure from the northwest corner of the park.
A major expansion project, including completion of the circular canal, improved parking, enhancements to park entrances, and a new "Inspiration Playground", was completed in June 2017.


"Style Guide: Regency Classicism". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
Historic England. "Belsay Hall (1304489)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 December 2007.
Historic England. "Belsay Hall (1001042)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
"Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens". English Heritage. Retrieved 21 December 2007.


Ben Crom (from Irish: Binn Chrom, meaning 'curved/stooped peak') is a 526 metres (1,726 ft) mountain in the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is situated beside Ben Crom Reservoir, which is upstream from Silent Valley Reservoir. The mountain is composed of  granite. An exposed area on the south west of the mountain shows where the Eocene aplitic granite meets the laccolith top of the older Mesozoic granite ring dike. The summit of the mountain features granite crags which are crossed by basic and feldspar porphyry dikes. The mountain is used for sheep grazing and hill walking.


Ben Yehuda was already one of Jerusalem's main streets long before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. As a busy thoroughfare, it has been a prime target for terrorist bombings between 1948, when the worst atrocity happened, and 2001, during the Second Intifada.
In 1983, the street was closed to automobile traffic. In Hebrew it is called a midrachov (pedestrian mall – a Hebrew neologism formed from the words "midracha" [sidewalk] and "rechov" [street]. Many of the businesses cater to tourists. The street is lined with souvenir and Judaica shops and sidewalk cafes, and street musicians play there throughout the day. It was long considered the "secular heart of Jerusalem," but since the 2000s, disaffected Orthodox Jewish youth have joined the mix of tourists and locals.
The comedy club Off the Wall Comedy Empire (also known as Off the Wall Comedy Basement) is located in the basement at 34 Ben Yehuda Street.


Berkeley Springs State Park is situated in the center of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, USA. The centerpiece of the Park is its historic mineral spa.  These waters were celebrated for their medicinal or restorative powers and were generally taken internally for digestive disorders, or bathed in for stress relief. Native peoples visited these springs as did George Washington. Berkeley Springs is the only state-run spa in the United States and is operated by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.


The Park is located on land which has been used as a health resort since the 1750s as the property of Lord Fairfax. On 18 March 1748, George Washington, then 16, visited the spa for the first time. An annual event is held to commemorate this historic visit, but the tub where Washington supposedly bathed was rebuilt in the 1930s. Colonial maps dating as early as 1740 credit medicinal properties to the springs'  waters.
The land was officially granted to Virginia in 1776. The town of Bath was incorporated that same year (it was called Warm Springs before its incorporation).
The historic Roman Bathhouse, the oldest public building in Berkeley Springs, was built in Federal-style architecture in 1815 on the site of an earlier bathhouse attributed to James Rumsey. The earlier bathhouse, built in 1784, is described as having had five bathing chambers and dressing rooms.
On 1 January 2019, the Old Roman Bathhouse building closed down for renovation (including handicap access, new bath tiles, bath benches, new boiler system) for a period of 6 months and a $1-million budget.


Water flows from natural mineral springs at a constant temperature of 74.3 degrees, emerging from  the Oriskany (Ridgeley) sandstone of Warm Springs Ridge. Five major springs merge on the location of the spa. The water contains significant amounts of sulfates, nitrates, and carbonates—mostly magnesium carbonates.  The discharge varies from 750 to 2,000 US gallons (2,800 to 7,600 L) per minute.
The water is available for bathing at two park bathhouses and for drinking from a fountain at the 19th century Gentlemen's Spring House — as well as from every tap in town since the springs serve as the source of the municipal water supply. The current bathhouse includes nine separate bathing chambers with tubs capable of holding a total 750 gallons of water heated to 102 degrees. These baths are open to the public daily throughout the year and water is also bottled and sold commercially.
The town is also the organizer of the annual Berkeley Springs’ International Water Tasting Competition.


The Berlinische Galerie is a museum of modern art, photography and architecture in Berlin.  It is located in Kreuzberg, on Alte Jakobstraße, not far from the Jewish Museum.


The Berlinische Galerie was founded in 1975 as a society devoted to exhibiting art from Berlin.  For the first few years it was based in an office in Charlottenburg, and its exhibitions were displayed at the Akademie der Künste and the New National Gallery among others. In 1978 the Galerie moved into a former Landwehr officers' mess (now the Museum of Photography) on Jebensstraße, near Zoo Station.  In 1986 it moved again, into the Martin-Gropius-Bau. In 1994 the collection became a public-law foundation.
In 1998 the Berlinische Galerie had to leave the Martin-Gropius-Bau due to reconstruction. After six years without a permanent home, it opened in its new location, in former industrial premises in Kreuzberg, in 2004. Built in 1965, the current building was originally a glass warehouse, and took the Galerie a year to renovate. The museum reopened again in 2015 following a €6 million refurbishment that mainly involved updating the museum’s security and technical equipment.


The permanent and temporary exhibitions are displayed across two floors of the building; there is also an auditorium, an archive, a library, a study room, and an art school for children and adults.  The oldest works in the Galerie's ownership date from 1870.  The museum's visual art collection includes works by the Berlin Secession (Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth), New Objectivity and Expressionism (Otto Dix, George Grosz and Hannah Höch), as well as Georg Baselitz, Wolf Vostell, and the Junge Wilde.  The museum also owns a large graphic art collection (around 15,000 works) as well as photographs and architectural models, and sometimes hosts contemporary installations.


The Bernard Ginsburg House is a single-family private residence located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Brush Park district. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.


The Bernard Ginsburg House is significant for both the original owner and the architect. Owner Bernard Ginsburg was an important figure in philanthropy, civic service, and the Jewish community in Detroit during the late 19th and early 20th century. Architect Albert Kahn went on to become well known in industrial and commercial architecture; the Ginsburg house and its English Renaissance style exhibited is typical of Kahn's early work.


Bernard Ginsburg was born in Columbus, Indiana, in 1864; his parents were Polish immigrants who had arrived in America in the mid-1850s. The family moved to New York and then to Detroit, where Bernard graduated from high school in 1881. Than same year, Bernard and his father began in business as iron merchants under the name, "R. L. Ginsburg". The business was successful, and Bernard became very well-to-do. He served as Public lighting Commissioner for two years and as a member of the Public Library Board. He was active in Jewish charities, particularly supporting the Eastern European Jews who were migrating into the country. He served as President of the United Jewish Charities, vice president of the National Conference of Jewish Charities, director of the Jewish Orphan Asylum in Cleveland, Ohio, and President of Temple Beth El from 1918 to 1919.


The Bernard Ginsburg House is a two-and-one-half-story structure made of red brick and stone. A carved wood arcade atop stone walls runs the width of the front porch. Unique and beautiful statues support the porch roof. The openings for windows and doors have frames and quoins constructed of limestone.


Berovo Lake is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of North Macedonia.
The lake lies within 7 km of the North Macedonia-Bulgaria Border, near the town of Berovo. The lake is surrounded by evergreen and deciduous type species of forests. Many locals go swimming, fishing, or sailing in the lake. The forested areas that surround the lake are protected by the Macedonian Forestry Police. Illegal cutting down forested areas for fire is prohibited in most areas of the country.


Built in 1444 by sultan Murad II, it was the first Ottoman bath in Thessaloniki and the most important one still standing throughout Greece. For this reason, it is a part of those few important vestiges of Ottoman culture remaining in Thessaloniki and Greece in general.
It is a double bath, with two separate parts for men and women. The male quarters are the most spacious and luxurious, but each one follows the same tripartite plan - a succession of three parts, the cold, tepid, and hot rooms. A large rectangular cistern flanks the baths to the east and guarantees their water supply.
The baths for the men include a large octagonal cold room, with a gallery resting on columns, arcades surrounding their windows, and a painted cupola. It is followed, in south-east, by the tepid room, also octagonal, equipped with a cupola with occuli and with a rich series of painted depictions of plants. Further to the east lies the complex of hot rooms, ordered around a large cruciform room, wherein the massage table might always be found, standing, now as ever, in its centre. Eight small hot and tepid rooms open on this space and are equipped with basins and marble benches.
The baths remained in usage, under the name "Baths of Paradise", up until 1968, where they were leased to the Greek archaeological service for four years. After the 1978 Thessaloniki earthquake, which shook Thessaloniki especially hard, the baths were restored, and are used to this day for cultural events and short-lived exhibitions. Meanwhile, the eastern annex became the principal shop of the Foundation of Archaeological Receipts of the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Culture.


Bhu Varaha Swamy temple is a Hindu temple, located at Srimushnam, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture, the temple is dedicated to Varaha (Bhu Varaha Swamy), the boar-avatar of the god Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi as Ambujavalli Thayar.
The temple had contributions from Medieval Cholas of the 10th century with later expansions by Thanjavur Nayak king Achuthappa Nayak. A granite wall surrounds the temple, enclosing all the shrines and the temple tanks. There is a seven-tiered rajagopuram, the temple's gateway tower.
Six daily rituals and three yearly festivals are held at the temple, of which the Chariot festival, celebrated during the Tamil month of Vaikasi (April–May), being the most prominent. The festival also symbolises Hindu-Muslim unity in the region - the flag of the chariot is provided by Muslims; they take offerings from the temple and present to Allah in the mosques. The temple is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Endowment Board of the Government of Tamil Nadu. The temple is one of the few temples where Muslims are allowed to worship till the Ardha Mandapam.


The existence of Bhuvaraha Swamy temple during the medieval Chola period is seen from the inscriptions from 11th century.
The temple was expanded by Thanjavur Nayak king Achuthappa Nayak (1560 - 1614 AD). The life size image of the king and his brothers are found in the sixteen pillared hall of the temple. An epigraph dated 1068 in the nearby Shiva temples indicates gifts by Virarajendra Chola (1063–1070 AD) to the Varaha shrine. Another inscription dated at 1100 by Kulothunga Chola I (1070–1120) indicates a gift of a village to the temple, where the presiding deity is referred as Varaha Azhwar. The later inscriptions are from Vijayanagara kings of the 16th century like Virupaksha Raya II (1465-85 AD) dated 1471 AD, Sriranga I (1572–86), Venkata II (1586 - 1614) indicating various gifts to the temple. The most notable contributions of the temple were from Achuthappa Nayak (1560 - 1614 AD) who built the sixteen pilla red Purushasuktha Mandapa along with other smaller shrines of the temple. The Zamindars of Udayarpalayam have contributed to the temple by offering costly jewels and commissioned additional structures, notably Udayavar Mandapam.


There are two gopurams (temple-towers at the entrance) in the temple and two precincts enclosed within large granite walls; the western tower is seven-tiered and is the commonly used entrance. The five-tiered one on the eastern side is opened only during Vaikunta Ekadasi. There is a small image of Srinavasa Perumal (Vishnu) on the upper portion of the inner side of the tower. Outside the temple, there is an 80 ft (24 m) tall monolith pillar with the image of Garuda on its top facing the presiding deity of the temple. The Sthala Vriksha of the temple is Ashvatha tree.
The central shrine houses the presiding deity Varaha (Bhu Varahaswamy). The 2 ft (0.61 m)-Saligrama stone image depicts the boar-faced Varaha standing in a victorious posture with his hands on his waist; the human body faces West, while the head is turned towards the South. The Utsavar (festival icon), Patharaavi, is made of panchaloha (a five-metal alloy) and is accompanied by two consorts as in most Vaishnava temples. The festival icon is housed in the Artha Mandapa, the hall before the sanctum.  The temple has two Dvarapala (guarding deities) on both sides of the entrance of the central shrine made of panchaloha, one of which is commissioned during the modern times. The older one on the left side was confiscated during the Mysore war and was having a wooden replica till it was replaced in 2004.
The sixteen pillared hall is called Purushasuktha Mandapa and it is the place where the hymns of Purusha sukta are recited each day during sacred ablution of the presiding deity. The vimana over the sanctum is called Pavana Vimana and is surmounted by a gold-plated Kalasa. The 16 columned pavilion is considered a masterpiece of Nayak art built by Achutappa Nayak. The columns are sculpted with images of musicians, dancers and miniature idols. The ceiling has lotus medallion sculptures and scroll work. The central shrine is topped by a conical roof. The decorated outer walls are atypical of Chola Art. There is a shrine of Garuda and Nammazhwar facing the sanctum away from the sixteen pillared hall. There is a separate shrine for Ambujavalli Thayar, the consort of Bhu Varaha Swamy in the second precinct which also houses the shrines of Andal and Ramanuja. Udayarpalaya Mandapam, as indicated by its name was built during the period of zamindars and it houses the Kannadi Arai (room of glasses). There are other shrines for Venugopala, Vishwaksena, Vedanta Desika, Thirumangai Azhvar, Manavala Mamunigal, Kuzhanthai Amman and Tirukachi Nambi.  There is a garden on the northern side of the temple that houses a shrine of Rama. In this temple there is a statue of Hanuman lifting Rama and Lakshmana on his shoulders.
The temple is administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department of Tamil Nadu government. The religious head, the Pedda Jeeyar of Tirupati is the permanent trustee of the temple.
The temple bears the inscriptions in Telugu, one of which says the grants made by Sri Ranga Raya Deva of Vijayanagar.


The temple follows the traditions of the Thenkalai sect of Vaishnavite tradition and follows Paancharathara aagama. The temple priests perform the pooja (rituals) during festivals and on a daily basis. As at other Vishnu temples of Tamil Nadu, the priests belong to the Vaishnavaite community, a Brahmin sub-caste. The temple rituals are performed six times a day: Ushathkalam at 7 a.m., Kalasanthi at 8:00 a.m., Uchikalam at 12:00 p.m., Sayarakshai at 6:00 p.m., Irandamkalam at 7:00 p.m. and Ardha Jamam at 8:30 p.m. Each ritual has three steps: alangaram (decoration), neivethanam (food offering) and deepa aradanai (waving of lamps) for both  Sri Bhuvaraha Swamy  Perumal and Sri Ambujavalli Thayar. During the last step of worship, nagaswaram (pipe instrument) and tavil (percussion instrument) are played, religious instructions in the Vedas (sacred text) are recited by priests, and worshippers prostrate themselves in front of the temple mast. There are weekly, monthly and fortnightly rituals performed in the temple.
Some of the festivals of the temple has been practiced during the Nayak times as indicated by the inscriptions on the walls of the first precinct. The inscriptions indicate patronage for the festivals to be conducted during the presence of Sun in 12 zodiac signs during various months of the year. The usage of processional vehicles during this occasion is also prescribed. The temple follows Pancharatra mode of worship. There are two Brahmotsavams celebrated in the temple, one each during the Tamil month of Masi and other during the month of Chittirai (April -May). During the first, the festival deity of Bhu Varaha Swamy is taken for seven days around the villages of Srimushnam. The chariot festival is a symbol of Hindu - Muslim unity in the region, with the flag of the temple chariot offered by the local Muslims. They also accept the offerings from the festival deity and present it to Allah in the mosques. The Muslim devotees thank Allah to have brought Bhu Varaha Swamy to their place. The other festivals are Sri Jayanti Utsavam during Aavani, Navaratri, Vijayadasami, Deepavali and Makara Sankranti. The temple is one of the few temples where Muslims are allowed to worship till the Ardha Mandapam.


WikiWeb_Biblioteca Nacional de Uruguay_0

The Biblioteca Nacional de Uruguay is the National Library of Uruguay, located in Montevideo. It was created in 1815 and is the legal deposit and copyright library for Uruguay. It has been located in its current building since 1955. In 2006, it had more than 900,000 books, and 20,000 periodicals, audiovisual materials, maps, scores, engravings, watercolors, photographs and manuscripts.


WikiWeb_Biblioteca Nacional de Uruguay_2

Uruguay Room: Keeps all books and pamphlets printed in the country, whether or not Uruguayan they are authors and works of local authors published abroad and work on Uruguay are published abroad. In order to preserve this important body of literature, in the year 1978 was assigned a separate area includes a comfortable reading room in which it will provide better service to scholars and national and foreign researchers. Uruguay Room has a catalog which records chronologically by year of publication, all the books and pamphlets that enter the library.
Special Materials Room: This room houses the most valuable works held by the institution: rare and unique copies (incunabula, large volumes of antiquity, illuminated books, etc.). The library collection includes materials from history books, art, travel accounts, and so on. Museum preserves this room first American editions, editions of 16th century  and historical manuscripts. They are also unique examples of domestic and foreign handouts, first newspapers in the country, such as The Southern Star (1807). In addition to the bibliography, this sector has a map collection: drawings, watercolors, photographs, postcards, sheet music, medals, coins and audiovisual material. For its inestimable value, it is a collection of unique material in our environment-the loan is restricted to researchers and scholars.
Newspaper: is where you get all sorts of magazines of Uruguay.


The Biblioteca Palatina or Palatina Library was established in 1761 in the city of Parma by Philip Bourbon, Duke of Parma. It is one of the cultural institutions located in the Palazzo della Pilotta complex in the center of Parma. The Palatina Library was named after Apollus Palatinus.


The first librarian was the Theatine priest Paolo Maria Paciaudi, who was assigned as "Antiquario e Bibliotecario". The goal was to form a public library as part of a project by Duke Filippo's prime minister, Guillaume Du Tillot. The library lacked many of the works that had been collected by the House of Farnese while ruling in Parma, when the future Charles III of Spain, brother of Filippo and who was Duke from 1731 to 1735, moved the local library and archives to Naples in 1736.
Paciaudi failed to acquire the collections of Cardinal Domenico Passionei in Roma and of the Pertusati family of Milan, and thus embarked on shopping for books in the market. He catalogued his purchases under six main classes: Theology, Nomology, Philosophy, History, Philology, and Liberal and Mechanic Arts. The books required the importation of Louis Antoine Laferté, a master book binder.
The collection was kept in a gallery refurbished for the purpose by the court architect, Ennemond Alexandre Petitot, and inaugurated in 1769. In 1771, both Du Tillot and Paciaudi fell out of favor, and the library fell under the supervision of the Benedictine Andrea Mazza. However, Paciaudi was recalled from 1778 till his death in 1785 to his former office.
Paciaudi was replaced by the polymath cleric Ireneo Affò; he presided over expansion into the Galleria dell'Incoronata. When Affò died in 1797, he was replaced by former Jesuit priest Matteo Luigi Canonici, until 1805.
In 1804, the Napoleonic administration of the Duchy named Angelo Pezzana as director, a post he held till 1862. Pezzana catalogued the books under five classes: Theology, Jurisprudence, Science & arts, Belle-Lettere (Fine Literature), and History.
Under his management, the library acquired the collections of the Hebraist professor, abate Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi; the manuscripts of Francesco Albergati Capacelli; the Carte of Monsignor Casapini; the collections of designs and engravings belonging to Massimiliano Ortalli and canon Raffaele Balestra; the collection of Judaica and Hebrew manuscripts sold by Salomon Stern and Mordecai Bisliches; and collections of Bartolomeo Gamba, Michele Colombo, and Giovanni Bonaventura Porta; as well as the typographic/printed artifacts of Giovanni Battista Bodoni (now gathered in the adjacent Museo Bodoni in the Palazzo Pilotta.
The ceiling of the Sala Dante was frescoed (1841–1857) by Francesco Scaramuzza. The next librarians included Federico Odorici (1862-1876) and Luigi Rossi (1888–1893).
During the Italian Campaign of the Second World War, in March and April 1944 the RAF bombed Parma. The main targets were Parma's train station and marshalling yards, but the high altitude bombing was often inaccurate and many of Parma's historic buildings were damaged, among them the Biblioteca Palatina. Some 21,000 volumes of the library's collection were  lost. In 1950, this loss was partly made up for by copies made from books in the library of Mario Ferrarini.


Today the Library's collection contains more than 708,000 printed works, about 6620 manuscripts, and 3042 incunabula, and 52,470 graphic prints. There is a unique musical section of 93,000 books. The music section was established in 1889. The electronic catalogue of the Palatina was started in 1994.
The library holds some medieval manuscripts, among them the biblical manuscripts 360 and 361.


The Bibliotheca Thysiana was erected in 1655 to house the book collection of the lawyer Johannes Thysius (1621–1653). Upon his early death, he left a legacy of 20,000 guilders for the building of a public library ("tot publycque dienst der studie") with a custodian's dwelling. Designed by the architect Arent van ‘s-Gravensande, the building follows the Dutch Classical style and is regarded as one of the jewels of Dutch 17th-century architecture. Bibliotheca Thysiana is one of the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites. It is distinguished by its balanced proportions and the purity of its Ionic order on top of a high basement.
The Bibliotheca Thysiana is the only surviving 17th century example in the Netherlands of a building that was designed as a public library.  It is quite extraordinary that a complete private 17th century library has been preserved and thus offers a good impression of the book collection of a young, learned bibliophile from the period of late Humanism.  The collection contains about 2,500 books and thousands of pamphlets in all scientific fields. The library also houses one of the 14 still existing bookwheels in the world.
The library has a separate special collection of several hundred books from and about Emanuel Swedenborg.


(in English) Adriaan Smout: The Thysius Lute Book / Het Luitboek van Thysius. Facs. ed. (ms. 1666). Leiden & Utrecht, 2009. ISBN 9789065520555
(in Dutch) Paul Hoftijzer: Bibliotheca Thysiana. 'Tot publijcke dienst der studie' . Leiden, 2008
(in French) Esther Mourits: Fortune - Du Bartas dans la Bibliotheca Thysiana à Leyde. In: Oeuvres & critiques; vol. 29 (2004), no. 2, pag. 78-86
(in Dutch) D'avoir une chambre garnie de plus belles editions. Uit de correspondenties van Johannes Thysius. [Ed.: Esther Mourits & G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes]. Leiden, Bibliotheca Thysiana, 2001.


The Bijou Theatre building consists of two parts— the original hotel section, completed in 1817, and the rear theater section, built in 1909.  The main entrance opens into a foyer, from which the rear theater section and the building's front corner wings are accessed (the south corner wing is occupied by a restaurant, The Bistro).  From the foyer, the rear entrance opens into a bar, with passageways to the left and right leading to the theater's orchestra floor, and stairways to the left and right accessing the theater's balconies and the original building's second floor (now offices for the theater).
The building's facade was probably designed in the Georgian style, but its original appearance was extensively altered in the 1850s.  Many of these alterations resulted from the macadamizing of Gay Street in 1854.  The grading of the street during this period exposed the hotel's cellar, which was subsequently converted into the main entrance.
The theater has a capacity of approximately 700, with two balcony levels. There are two loggia levels and three box levels on each side of the building.  The stage is 35 feet (11 m) deep and 69 feet (21 m) wide.  The theater is decorated with notable Classical Revival elements, which include Corinthian columns supporting the box levels, reclining muse pediments above the top box levels, and grape-and-vine motifs adorning the front of the boxes and balconies.


The Bijou stands on Lot 38 of the original survey of Knoxville drawn by Charles McClung in 1791.  Thomas Humes, who operated a nearby store on Gay Street, purchased parts of the lot in 1801 and 1805.  In 1816, Humes began building the three-story structure on the lot that he planned to operate as a tavern and hotel, but died before the building was completed.  Humes's widow, Margaret Russell Cowan, continued construction, however, and the "Knoxville Hotel" opened sometime around July 1817.
The hotel was initially managed by a local tavern owner named Archibald Rhea, and was advertised as the largest in East Tennessee.  The three-story hotel featured 13 rooms, a saloon, dining room, and had its own granary and stables.  Throughout much of the 1820s and 1830s, the hotel was managed by a local hotelier named Joseph Jackson, and developed into a popular gathering place for the city's elite.  Humes's children sold the hotel in 1837 to John Pickett and William Belden, who rechristened it the "City Hotel."  During this period, each room in the hotel contained two feather beds, a table and chairs, and a washstand and looking glass.  The hotel also had its own library, a lounge with a piano, and a dining room that served meals on silver plates and china.


The Auditorium Company, headed by businessman C. B. Atkin and theater manager Jake Wells, purchased the hotel in 1908 with the intention of adding a theater.  The hotel's ell wings were torn down, and the brick theater wing was built in their place, with entrances added to the hotel's lobby.  The theater, built at a cost of $50,000, originally had a capacity of 1,500, and featured electric lighting.  The theater's backstage was equipped with a two-story scene dock and an Otis elevator to move sets.
On March 8, 1909, the theater's opening night production of George Cohan's Little Johnny Jones was viewed by a sold-out audience.  Traditional theater played a major role in the Bijou's early success, with performances that included Mr. Green's Reception, which starred the Marx Brothers.  Between 1914 and 1921, B. F. Keith's company managed the Bijou, and vaudeville became the theater's primary attraction.  While African-Americans were only allowed in the theater's gallery (now the upper balcony) on main performance nights, Knoxville Colored High School used the theater for commencement ceremonies in the 1910s, and Knoxville College performed plays at the theater.
Performers at the Bijou during the 1920s included John Philip Sousa and his band, Anna Pavlova and the Ballet Russe, and magician Harry Blackstone.  In 1935, Kincy Theaters purchased the Bijou for use as a second-run moviehouse (the Tennessee Theatre, which opened in 1928, was Knoxville's first-run moviehouse).  Live performances continued, however, among them Dorothy Gish in Life with Father in 1941, Lunt and Fontanne in Robert Sherwood's There Shall Be No Night in 1941, and Ethel Barrymore in Emlyn Williams's The Corn Is Green in 1943.  The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra used the Bijou for its performances between 1936 and 1941.


By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Knoxville's downtown area had deteriorated, and various companies were using the Bijou to show pornographic movies.  In 1974, after its owner was evicted for unpaid property taxes, the building was threatened with demolition, and a group of concerned citizens (the forerunner of Knox Heritage) organized a successful campaign to save the building.  The theater was renovated as a center for the performing arts.  Another partial renovation followed 20 years later, but funding remained a problem, and maintenance suffered.  By 2005, the theater was in danger of defaulting on its mortgage, and was saved once again by two Knoxville businessmen, who held off foreclosure while the loan was renegotiated.  After a fundraising campaign spearheaded by Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam and the award of a federal grant, another renovation followed, repairing water damage, renovating the theater seats, and upgrading the stage with modern lighting, sound, and fly equipment.


Birkenhead Town Hall is a civic building and former town hall in Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, England. The building was the former administrative headquarters of the County Borough of Birkenhead, and more recently, council offices for the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Birkenhead Town Hall remains the location of the town's register office. However, since the closure of the Wirral Museum in 2010, there is uncertainty over the future purpose of the Grade II* listed building.


When Hamilton Square was designed in the early 19th century, a plot of land was made available for the siting of a town hall between Hamilton Street and Chester Street. Designed by local architect Christopher Ellison, the building was constructed using Scottish granite and sandstone from the now filled-in local quarry at Storeton. It was officially opened in 1887.
The building consisted of a council chamber, offices, with a concert hall and function rooms known as the Assembly Rooms. Birkenhead's magistrates' court chambers are located in a separate building of the same design to the rear. The clock tower is 200 feet in height and consists of four faces. After a fire in 1901, the upper part of the clock tower was rebuilt to a design by Henry Hartley. The rebuilding included a stained glass window by Gilbert P. Gamon representing Edward I's visit to Birkenhead Priory in 1277.
Despite the abolition of the County Borough of Birkenhead on 1 April 1974, the building continued to be used as council offices until the early 1990s, when work was undertaken to restore the external stonework and many interior decorations and features, including the former council chamber.
The Wirral Archives Service was based in the building until 2008, when it transferred to the council's Cheshire Lines Building nearby. The service collects and stores all types of historical documents relating to the Wirral area, its people, businesses and institutions. Amongst the records in the collection are documents and photographs from Birkenhead's Cammell Laird shipyard, when the original company closed in 1993.
Between 2001 and 2010, the Wirral Museum occupied a significant portion of the building. It featured both themed and permanent exhibits such as the history and development of Wirral, the Cammell Laird collection, the Wirral Silver and Mayoral collections, Della Robbia Pottery and a detailed scale model of the historic Woodside area in 1934.


Birkenhead Town Hall still retains some civic service, such as the municipal registration centre for births, marriages and deaths and as a venue for local and national elections. It is also utilised for the celebration of notable occasions and as the town's focal point for annual Remembrance Sunday ceremonies. Some of the grand civic rooms are also used for social events including weddings.


In 2009 owners Wirral Borough Council advertised the building for sale or lease, as part of its Strategic Asset Review. The council has invited "expressions of interest from individuals and organisations who can demonstrate that they can secure a sustainable use for this important building."


The church dates from the Middle Ages and was probably originally built in a Romanesque style (probably during the 12th century) but was heavily rebuilt already in medieval times and attained its present form in the 14th or 15th century. The vaults of the church are of a type that was common before the 15th century, indicating it may have been rebuilt during the 14th century. Its western tower is at heart Gothic but with later changes, i.e. the roof and spire with a lantern which dates from the 18th century.
Inside the church walls are decorated with murals in the style of the so-called Strängnäs School, which was particularly popular in neighbouring Södermanland. Biskopskulla Church is the northernmost church decorated with murals of this style. The paintings depict religious subjects. In the choir, there are representations of the four evangelists with their respective symbols and of the four doctors of the Church. In the nave, there are murals with Marian themes and a depiction of the Last Judgment. The richly decorated church porch contains depictions of the Wheel of Furtune and Saint George and the Dragon.
The church contains a medieval wooden triumphal cross and a baptismal font from the 13th century made of limestone from Gotland. Other furnishings are post-Reformation. These include the pulpit from 1686 (repainted and gilded in 1753), a former altarpiece from 1753, the organ from 1870, four iron chandeliers from the 18th century and a more recent baptismal font from 1965.
A renovation of the church was carried out in 1955.