WikiWeb_Church of St. John the Warrior_1

The lowlands between present-day Bolshaya Yakimanka Street and Moskva River were regularly flooded in spring; they were occupied by sloboda settlements of Streltsy, Poles and ordinary farmers.
Legendary accounts link the present-day church with Peter I. Peter, examining the damage done by the flood, noticed the ruined church of St. John (1625). He ordered to rebuild in on a higher, safer lot, and financed the construction to commemorate the Battle of Poltava. The fence around St.John was erected later, in 1754-1758. In 1779-1791, the church was decorated by Gavriil Domozhirov (frescoes) and Vasili Bazhenov (iconostasis); this artwork was lost in 1860s. In 1928, the church was refitted with an iconostasis taken from the demolished Three Saints church at Red Gates.
After the Russian Revolution, numerous icons and relics from the churches destroyed by the Communists were stored in the Church of St. John. The church itself operated continuously through the entire Soviet period.


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The church combines elements of the Muscovite baroque style with the Ukrainian baroque and European influences prevalent in Russian architecture of Peter's reign. Architect remains unknown; similarities with Menshikov Tower suggest the work of Ivan Zarudny. The main building is a traditional muscovite octagon on a square (восьмерик на четверике), however, this time there are two coaxial octagons, each crowned with a half-dome.


WikiWeb_Church of St. Mary of the Spring_1

The church is located in Istanbul, in the district of Zeytinburnu, in the neighbourhood of Balıklı, along Balıklı Sivrikapı Sokak. It lies a few hundred meters outside the walled city, about five hundred meters from the Gate of Silivri (Turkish: Silivri Kapısı). The complex is protected by a high wall, and – being surrounded by Eastern Orthodox and Armenian cemeteries – lies in a green landscape.


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According to historians Procopius and Cedrenus, the church was originally erected by Emperor Justinian in the last years of his reign (559-560) near a fountain of water from a holy well (Greek: ἁγίασμα, hagiasma, whence Turkish: ayazma) situated outside the walls of Theodosius II in correspondence of today's Gate of Silivri. During hunting the Emperor noticed a small chapel surrounded by many women. Asking the meaning of the building, he was told that this was the “source of the miracles”. He at once ordered that a magnificent church be built there, with the material remaining after the erection of the Hagia Sophia.
According to a later legend, the sanctuary was erected by Emperor Leo I the Thracian (r. 457–474) because of a miracle that occurred when he was still a soldier. Before entering the city, Leo met a blind man who asked him to give him water. A female voice ordered the future Emperor to wet the eyes of the blind man with water from a nearby swamp. The same voice added that she had chosen that very place to be worshiped and that he would one day receive the crown to the empire. Leo followed her order and at once the blind man recovered his eyesight. After his accession to the throne, the emperor erected a magnificent church on this place. This legend is possibly a later invention of the monks of the sanctuary. It is possible that, before the Justinian's building was erected, a small monastery had already existed there.
The building underwent many repairs over the centuries. The largest were required because of earthquakes: in 790, under Empress Irene, and – after the great earthquake of 869 – under Basil I (r. 867–886). On 7 September 924 Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria burned the complex, which was at once restored by Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944). Three years later the son of Simeon, Peter was married to Maria, the niece of Lekapenos.
Due to its position outside the city, the monastery was often used as place of exile. In 1078 Georgios Monomachos was banished there. In 1084, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos confined the philosopher John Italus to the monastery, because of his neoplatonic theories.
After the Latin invasion of 1204, the church was occupied by the Latin clergy and, according to Byzantine sources, this caused the end of the so-called "habitual miracle" (to synetés thauma).
In 1328 Andronikos III Palaiologos used the monastery as base to attack Constantinople. Two years later, as he lay dying in the town of Didymoteicho, he drank water from the spring and recovered at once.
During the Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1422, Sultan Murad II camped in the sanctuary. It is unknown whether the Byzantines restored the building before the conquest of the city in 1453  Russian pilgrims of the fifteenth century do not mention the church, only the spring.


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The 16th-century French scholar Pierre Gilles writes that in 1547 the church did not exist anymore, but the sick continued to attend the spring.
In 1727 Nikodemos, Metropolitan of Dercos and Neochorion, built a small chapel above the Hagiasma. An icon, discovered in the foundations of the old church, was venerated in the chapel. The Armenians tried to take possession of the spring, but several firmans secured the possession to the Greeks. The complex was controlled by Turkish guardians, who collected from the pilgrims a tax that used for the maintenance of the prisons. Later the complex came into the possession of the Patriarchate, until in 1821 the Janissaries destroyed the chapel and poisoned the spring. In 1833, a firman allowed Patriarch Constantius I to rebuild the church, which was inaugurated in 1835.
During the Istanbul Pogrom on 6 September 1955 it was targeted by the state-sponsored fanatic Muslim mob. During this attack the sarcophaguses of the Ecumenical Patriarchs which are located outside the church were opened and their remains were scattered. Moreover, the church and the monastery were completely burned to the ground. Since then the damage has been restored.
The sanctuary is directed by a titular bishop and is one of the most popular among the Orthodox of Istanbul, who visit it especially during the Friday after Easter and on September 14. On these two days, a great feast, both profane and religious takes place there. Funerals of people to be buried in the nearby cemetery are also celebrated in the church.
In Byzantine times the sanctuary was one of the most important in Constantinople. On Ascension Day, the Emperor arrived by boat to the small harbor of the Golden Gate. He rode up to the sanctuary, where he was acclaimed by the factions, who offered him a cross and garlands. Later, he dressed in his ceremonial robes in his apartments and, after receiving the Patriarch, the two entered the church hand-in-hand. After the celebration, he invited the Patriarch for dinner.
Each future Empress coming to Constantinople for her wedding was received by her future spouse in the Monastery of the Spring.
The dedication feast of the church took place on July 9. Moreover, the Ascension, the Marriage at Cana (8 January) and the anniversary of the Miracle of Leo I on 16 August were celebrated here.
The Life-giving spring gave origin to many churches and monasteries bearing the same name in the Greek world, but most of them were erected after the end of the Byzantine Empire.
The icon that represents the Virgin of the Spring shows the Virgin blessing and embracing the Child. She is surrounded by two angels and usually is sitting on the more elevated of two basins which are sustained by a water jet coming from a larger marble basin adorned with a cross. Around this, stands the Emperor with his guard, while on the left there is the Patriarch with his bishops. On the background, is represented Leo I with the blind man together with the walls of the city. Under the basin a paralytic and a mad are healed with the spring's water.


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According to Nikephoros Kallistos (writing in fourteenth century) the church by that time had a rectangular shape of basilica type, with a 4:3 proportion between the sides, and was partly subterranean. It was surrounded by two exonartheces (on the E and W side)  and two esonarteces (on the S and N sides). The light coming from outside was concentrated on the source, which could be reached descending two stairs having 25 steps. Each stair was delimited by a marble balustrade and surmounted by a marble arcade. The water fell into a marble basin, and a canalization distributed it in the church. The edifice was adorned with frescos and surmounted by a dome glittering with pure gold. Around the church there were three chapels, devoted respectively to Saint Eustratius, the Theotokos and Saint Anne.
The present church is also rectangular in shape. It is roughly oriented in E - W direction, and has three naves divided by columns and preceded by an esonarthex. By the Northwest corner rises a metallic bell tower. The interior is richly adorned. On the right side near the middle of the nave there is a Pulpit, while at the end lies a rich iconostasis. Right of the iconostasis there is an icon which the tradition says painted by Saint Luke. The source lies in a subterranean crypt outside the church, and can be accessed descending a stair parallel the long sides of the church. A symmetric stair leads from the crypt to the church's yard. The crypt is adorned with paintings and icons, and is surmounted by a dome painted with Christ in a starry sky. The water flows into a marble basin, where fishes are swimming. These fishes, present in the basin since centuries, gave origin to the Turkish name of the complex (balikli in Turkish means "place where there are fishes"). According to a late legend, the day of the Conquest of Constantinople a monk was frying fishes in a pan near the source. When a colleague announced him the fall of the city, he replied that he would have believed him only if the fishes in the pan would have come back to life. After his words these jumped in the source and began swimming.
The yard in front of a church is a cemetery with marble tombs – mostly of them dating to the nineteenth and twentieth century - belonging to wealthy Rûms of Istanbul. Also several Patriarchs are buried here. Characteristic of this cemetery are also several gravestones with Karamanli inscriptions, which constitute by far the largest surviving group in this language. The complex is also surrounded by two large cemeteries, respectively Armenian and Greek, each enclosed in high walls.
About one kilometer south of the church is active an important Greek hospital, the Balikli Rum Hastanesi Vakif (“Balikli Greek Hospital Foundation”).


The Society of the Free Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in the New York City was incorporated on December 3, 1868. Thomas McKee Brown wanted to build a church in New York City dedicated to expressing the full witness of Catholic thought in ritual and teaching within the Episcopal Church. A year after his ordination, Brown brought his plan to the Bishop of New York, Horatio Potter, who suggested that a church was needed near Longacre Square – which was renamed Times Square in 1905 – on the west side of what is now Midtown. John Jacob Astor gave three lots on West 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, "stipulating that the Church should be free, and positively orthodox in management and working."
On April 6, 1868, the cornerstone was laid for the first church, located at 228 West 45th Street, which is today the site of the Booth Theatre. The rector and trustees named the church for the Blessed Virgin Mary. The first church was designed by William T. Hallett, and was dedicated on December 8, 1870, the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Potter was unable to officiate at the service, but his place was taken by Horatio Southgate, the Episcopal Church's former missionary bishop to the Ottoman Empire.
After the Episcopalians left the church on West 45th Street, it became the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer and then Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist.


By 1890, the congregation had outgrown the church on West 45th Street. In 1892, the late Miss Sara L. Cooke, a member of the parish, left the church a legacy which eventually amounted to $700,000, in addition to real estate. Brown and the other trustees decided to use this legacy to fund a new church on an eight-lot parcel running through from 46th to 47th Streets. The new complex was to include a rectory at the 47th Street end of the lot, a clergy house for curates and assistants and a mission house for the sisters. The style would be French Gothic of the 13th and 14th centuries, with a church seating 800 people.
Erecting this building was a challenge to the architectural firm of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons, with Pierre LeBrun as the lead designer, because of its size and the location. The LeBrun firm had experience working with steel framing, which is buried within the walls, making it the first church in the world built on a concealed steel skeleton, "redefining the conventional methods of church construction." The facade of the church is clad in limestone, while the other buildings in the complex are brick-faced.
The cornerstone for the new church was laid on December 8, 1894, and the church was dedicated in 1895. The completed church was 60 feet (18 m) wide and 180 feet (55 m) long, and the nave was 80 feet (24 m) from floor to ceiling and 46 feet (14 m) wide. The chancel, at the north end of the building, was 48 feet (15 m) deep, terminating with the marble high altar moved from the former church. Complementing LeBrun's design were many sculptural decorations by J. Massey Rhind.


Today, Saint Mary's is known for its solemn liturgies and choral and organ music. Solemn High Mass and Solemn Evensong and Benediction are celebrated on Sundays, and Mass is offered daily. Because of the copious use of incense, the church is sometimes referred to as "Smoky Mary's". In 1996-97, the interior of the church was restored by J. Lawrence Jones & Associates, resulting in vivid colors, including cobalt blue vaulting with gold stars.


The choir of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin is a professional ensemble that sings music for the liturgy. At each Solemn Mass, the plainchant is sung in the original Latin. The choir's repertoire of Masses and motets stretches from the Middle Ages to works by living composers.
A number of musicians have served as organist and music director at the parish, among them McNeil Robinson, Kyler Brown, Christopher Babcock, Robert McCormick, James Kennerley, and Simon Whalley.  The current organist and music director is David Hurd.


The Church of Saint Nicholas (Serbian: Црква Светог Николе/Crkva Svetog Nikole) is a church of the Serbian Orthodox Church, located in the village of Brezova, 26 km southwest of Ivanjica. Situated on Mučanj mountain, it was built during the first half of the 17th century at the place of an older church. Folk tradition links the construction of the church with Despot Stefan Lazarević whose fresco portrait is located in the church, although he lived in the 15th century.
An Archeological survey of the church, but also its conservation and restoration was being conducted at several instances (1971–1972, 1973–1975. and 1987), resulting in church's present status of state protected monument of great cultural significance.


Saint Nicholas' Church in Brezova is a single-nave building with polygonal dome and backside rose windows. The church's cella is divided into three aisles. The dome is raised over the middle aisle, while the side aisles are topped with barrel vaults. The altar apse has a semi-cylindrical shape. Large narthex and the second (north-side) entrance were built subsequently. The Iconostasis of the older church dating from the 14th century is preserved in the Saint Nicholas' Church.
Primarily because of its plan, but also because of other architectural features, the church is classified in the group of Serbian churches built during the period of Ottoman rule over Serbia and influenced by the old Raška architectural school.


The church's frescos were being painted during the 1730s  by two painters of "entirely different education, talent and artistic styles"  who "failed to accomplish harmonic unity", but their paintings have "exceptionally interesting iconography". The decoration of the greater part of the church was conducted by the less talented of the two, an apprentice of priest Strahinja from Budimlje. The frescos of the second painter are "characterized by the affinity to icon-painting, the elegance of elongated figures and color modeling".
The frescos are dominated by scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas and portraits of Car Lazar of Serbia, Carica Milica and despot Stefan Lazarević. The portrait of despot, placed on a northern wall near the north-west corner of the church, is considered to have been made after an authentic  fresco, which had probably been painted between 1421. and 1427, during the despot Stefan's rule. Next to the despot's portrait, on the western wall, stands the portrait of his father, Lazar of Serbia.
Painter Simeon Lazović made the imperial portal and doorway with Nedraman's eye  in 1805, as a part of the church's iconostasis.


The Church of St James the Less is in the village of Tatham, Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Tunstall, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the diocese of Blackburn. Its benefice is united with those of St Wilfrid, Melling, St John the Baptist, Tunstall, St Peter, Leck, the Good Shepherd, Lowgill, and Holy Trinity, Wray, to form the benefice of East Lonsdale. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It stands above the flood plain of the River Wenning.


A church has been present on the site since at least the Norman era. Most of the fabric of the present church dates from the 15th century, with elements remaining from the Norman period and from the 13th century. The tower was rebuilt in 1722. In 1885–87 the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin added a saddleback roof to the tower. They also carried out an extensive restoration that included adding an organ loft and a vestry, repairing walls, adding windows, fittings and a floor, and removing the ceiling. The restoration cost £3,269 (equivalent to £370,000 in 2019).


Inside the church between the nave and the aisle is a three-bay arcade. It consists of pointed arches carried on octagonal piers, with bases and capitals said to date from the 12th century. In the floor of the chancel is a medieval grave-cover. Also in the chancel are a triple sedilia and a piscina with trefoil heads; both of these have been restored and reconstructed. The sandstone font is octagonal and carved. The choirstalls, pews and pulpit were designed by Paley and Austin. The stained glass in the east window is by Burlison and Grylls and dates from the late 19th century. The window also incorporates glass depicting the arms of the Duke of Lancaster in grisaille, dating from about 1300 to about 1400. The west window in the aisle contains glass by Shrigley and Hunt, dated 1909, depicting Saint Helen. In the church are brasses dating from the 17th century. Also in the church are the painted royal arms of George II. The two-manual organ was built in the 1880s by Abbott. There is a ring of three bells. The oldest of these was cast in 1771 by an unknown founder, and the other two in 1887 by John Taylor and Company.


The Church of St Lawrence in Westbury-sub-Mendip, Somerset, England was built in the 12th century. It is a Grade II* listed building.


The church was built in the 12th century and then changed in the 13th and 15th centuries before a major Victorian restoration in 1887, when the tower was completely rebuilt.
In 2012 a small kitchen was installed in the church. Also in 2012 an antique table and chest were stolen from the church.
The benefice of Westbury-sub-Mendip with Easton is part of the Diocese of Bath and Wells.


The stone building consists of a nave and chancel  each of three bays, with an aisle, transept and porch on the south side. The organ chamber and vestry are on the north. The two-stage unbuttressed west tower has a small perpendicular stair turret.
Some of the fitting inside the church are from the 13th century including the piscina and font.


The Church of St Lucy is a small Roman Catholic church situated in Valletta, Malta. The church was built in 1570 and features a titular painting above the high altar and the corpse of St Lucian, the martyr.


The church of St Lucy was built in 1570, four years after the construction of the city of Valletta began. It was originally dedicated to St Francis of Paola, a statue of whom is on the corner of St Lucy's street just opposite the church. The first Dominicans who went to Valletta from Birgu first administered the sacraments from this church before their church was constructed. The church was rebuilt with money paid by the wine merchants of Valletta. After the church was rebuilt, it was dedicated to Saint Lucy and Saint Vincent Ferrer.
The church building is listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.


The titular painting on top of the high altar depicts the Immaculate Conception with Saint Paul, Saint Lucy, Saint Vincent Ferrer and Saint Clare. Beneath the high altar one can find the corpse of St Lucian the Martyr brought from the cemetery of Priscilla in Rome. The side altar are dedicated to St Francis of Paola and St Paschal Baylon.


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The Church of St Luke and St Andrew in Priston, Somerset, England has a nave dating from the 12th century, on the site of an earlier Norman church. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.
The arches under the central tower include original stonework from the Norman era, but were rebuilt in 1859, with the chancel being restored 10 years later under Sir George Gilbert Scott.
The tower dates from the 15th century and is crowned with a disproportionately large weather vane given as a gift by the lord of the manor in 1813.
The interior includes a 14th-century octagonal font.
The parish is part of the benefice of Timsbury with Priston, Camerton and Dunkerton within the Diocese of Bath and Wells.


WikiWeb_Church of St Mary & All Saints_0

The Church of St Mary's & All Saints is the parish church of Conwy, Wales in the United Kingdom.  It was originally the Cistercian Aberconwy Abbey, but in 1283 King Edward I of England moved the Abbey to Maenan.  The parish registers date back to 1541.
The foundations of the church date back to 1172, and the Aberconwy Abbey was completed in 1186. Since then the church has grown and changed. The East and West-end buttresses and parts of the walls, particularly on the North side, are original. In the fourteenth century, the church received the lower portion of its tower, the South transept, and the North and South porches. A room north of the tower was enclosed to serve as a charnel house. The fifteenth century saw the completion of the tower, and the installation of the rood screen and the early Tudor period baptismal font. This includes Sir Richard Pole's, badge, (an eagle's claw grabbing a fish) who was the constable of Conwy castle between 1488 and 1504.
In the sixteenth century the roofs over the aisles were raised. Next to the altar at the south end is the tomb of Robert Wynne, a major benefactor of St Mary's, and the builder of Plas Mawr on Conwy's High Street. The chancel floor was raised at a later date, and in 1872 the roof of the nave was raised by Gilbert Scott. At some point the South window of the transept was reconstructed and the clerestory windows were reset to where they now remain. Also in the nineteenth century, Lord Penrhyn donated the tower clock. In 1921 the church received a memorial chapel on the church's north side, and five years later the vestry was enlarged. In 1949 the former charnel house became the Parish Room. The church holds a number of objects of interest dating back to medieval times, and two windows in the nave's south aisle made by the William Morris company, a workshop with associations with the Pre-raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones.
In the summer months the church is a venue for Conwy's Classical Music Festival, a series of weekly hour-long concerts by professional musicians.


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The Church of St Mary and St David is a Church of England parish church at Kilpeck in the English county of Herefordshire, about 5 miles from the border with Monmouthshire, Wales. Pevsner describes Kilpeck as "one of the most perfect Norman churches in England". Famous for its stone carvings, the church is a Grade I listed building.


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The church was built around 1140, and almost certainly before 1143 when it was given to the Abbey of Gloucester. It may have replaced an earlier Saxon church at the same site, and the oval raised form of the churchyard is typical of even older Celtic foundations. Around the 6th and 7th centuries the Kilpeck (Welsh:Llanddewi Cil Peddeg) area was within the British kingdom of Ergyng, which maintained Christian traditions dating back to the late Roman period.  The possibility of the site holding Roman and even megalithic remains has been raised, but is unproven.
The plan of the church, with a nave, chancel, and semicircular apse, is typical for the time of its construction, the Norman period. It was originally dedicated to a St David, probably a local Celtic holy man, and later acquired an additional dedication to Mary from the chapel at Kilpeck Castle after it had fallen into disrepair.  At the time the current church was built, the area around Kilpeck, known as Archenfield, was relatively prosperous and strategically important, in the heart of the Welsh Marches.  The economic decline of the area after the 14th century may have helped preserve features which would have been removed elsewhere. However, it is unclear why the carvings were not defaced by Puritans in the 17th century.  The church was substantially repaired in 1864, 1898 and 1962, and its unique features were protected and maintained. Pevsner describes the Victorian restorations, firstly by Lewis Nockalls Cottingham and latterly by John Pollard Seddon as "competent [and] disciplined".


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The carvings in the local red sandstone are remarkable for their number and their fine state of preservation, particularly round the south door, the west window, and along a row of corbels which run right around the exterior of the church under the eaves. The carvings are all original and in their original positions.  They have been attributed to a Herefordshire School of stonemasons, probably local but who may have been instructed by master masons recruited in France by Oliver de Merlimond.  He was steward to the Lord of Wigmore, Hugh Mortimer, who went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain and, on his return, built a church with similar Romanesque carvings (now largely lost) at Shobdon, 30 miles north of Kilpeck.  Hugh de Kilpeck, a relative of Earl Mortimer, employed the same builders at Kilpeck, and their work is also known at Leominster, Rowlestone and elsewhere. The writer Simon Jenkins notes the influences of churches found on the pilgrimage routes of Northern Europe.
The south door has double columns. The outer columns have carvings of a series of snakes, heads swallowing tails. In common with most of the other carvings, the meaning of these is unclear, but they may represent rebirth via the snake's seasonal sloughing of its skin. The inner right column shows birds in foliage; at the top of the right columns is a green man. The inner left column has two warriors who, unusually, are in loose trousers. The outer sections of the arch above the doorway show creatures which can be interpreted as a manticore and a basilisk, and various other mythical and actual birds and beasts. The semicircular tympanum depicts a tree of life.
For many years the south door was hidden by a wooden porch, but this was removed in 1868 to allow visitors to see the carvings as originally intended. Although this has left the doorway exposed to the elements, the sandstone is exceptionally robust, and its condition is carefully monitored. In 1968 a narrow protruding strip of lead was let into the mortar above the arch to protect the carvings from water running down the wall above.
Eighty-five corbels survive, one fewer than are illustrated by Lewis in 1842 (originally there were 91). The meaning of most is obscure, but some probably come from a bestiary, and they include a Sheela na Gig.
Two green men appear as capitals on the richly decorated columns of the west window. In the centre of the corbel table below the window, and at each corner of the nave's west wall, are large protruding dragons' heads with coiled tongues. Each of the three mouths gapes to a different degree, rather like an animated sequence evenly spaced across the western facade. (A fourth dragon head, on the south-east corner of the nave, is broken.)
Inside the church, the chancel arch is also richly carved, though far less spectacular than the south doorway. Its carved figures are said to have been inspired by those on the "Puerta de las Platerias" at Santiago de Compostela. Both Pevsner and Jenkins suggest Ferrara Cathedral as a closer inspiration. The ceiling boss or keystone of the apse depicts four lions' heads. There is a massive baptismal font of polished conglomerate, a curious holy water stoup, shaped like a fat, tightly girdled torso (brought from a chapel near Wormbridge), and a rare Romanesque font-stopper. Jenkins suggests that the stoup represents a woman in pregnancy.
A very simple belfry now rises from the roof; although its design is in keeping with that of the rest of the church, it is a 19th-century addition. Elsewhere too, the restoration and necessary modernization of the church have conserved it well. The church is a Grade I listed building.


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The churchyard contains the war grave of a World War II King's Shropshire Light Infantry officer, west of the church.


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The church is the subject of the short story Sheela-na-Gig by British poet, novelist and filmmaker B. S. Johnson.
Jeff Nuttall, in his 1954 unpublished Masters thesis, The Church of St. Mary & St. David Kilpeck, concluded that: "My intended detachment was completely destroyed. The building refused to be seen as an arrangement in stone, as the key to a time and a tradition, or as a piece in the jig-saw puzzle of art history. It stood unavoidably as a work of art, the timeless expression of a vision experienced under that same sun which now winked at me through the deep yew tree."


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Bailey, James. The parish church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck. 2000. A booklet, available within the church, that describes the church. No publisher is specified.
Brooks, Alan; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2012). Herefordshire. The Buildings of England. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12575-7.
Jenkins, Simon (1999). England's Thousand Best Churches. Penguin. ISBN 0-713-99281-6.
Lewis, G[eorge] R. "Illustrations of Kilpeck church, Herefordshire." 1979. Pamphlet derived from a book of 1842.


St Mary de Castro is an ancient, Grade I listed church in Leicester, England, located within the former bailey of Leicester Castle. Today it acts as a parish church in the Church of England's diocese of Leicester. "St Mary de Castro" is Latin for "St Mary of the Castle"; a name chosen to differentiate from nearby "St Mary de Pratis": "St. Mary of the Meadows".
The building was closed in 2011 to the public after the spire was found to be unsafe but as of April 2015 is open again. The spire has been demolished, and funds are currently insufficient to replace it and repair the tower beneath.
It is believed to have been the first church in the UK to be viewable online using Google Street View, having been photographed in August 2012.


It dates its founding to 1107 after Henry I of England granted the lands and castle to Robert de Beaumont, although the chronicler Henry Knighton implies that an Anglo-Saxon college of St Mary had existed and Robert merely refurbished it. Robert established it within the castle bailey as a college served by a Dean and 12 Canons (that is, a collegiate church) in honour of the Virgin Mary and All Souls and as a chantry chapel for the souls of him, his family and the first three Norman kings. He endowed this and four other churches with £6 of his income and land in or near the city. However, in 1143 these endowments were all transferred by his son Robert le Bossu, 2nd Earl of Leicester, to his own new Augustinian foundation of Leicester Abbey. The collegiate church retained, or had restored to it a dean, six clerks and a chaplain, along with Robert de Beaumont's grant of 20 shillings for lamps. It also retained parish offerings and most of the tithes. The collegiate nature of the church lasted until the college was disbanded in 1548 under the Chantry Act of Edward VI.
The early-12th-century church had no aisles, and various parts of these walls survive. It underwent a major expansion in the 1160, with a north aisle, doorways to north and west, and an extension to the chancel. The two doorways provide striking external Norman zigzag decoration, but it is the Sedilia and Piscina in the Chancel extension that Pevsner describes as "the finest piece of Norman decoration in the county". Thirteenth-century alterations culminated in a major reworking of transepts and south aisle, to create an aisle wider than the nave, providing much more space for local parishioners. Also the huge east window of the south aisle, with ingenious tracery, was created around 1300. The tower was built inside the south aisle, apparently as an afterthought, rising to a quatrefoil frieze, four decorated pinnacles, and the needlelike spire rising from the battlements. The spire was completely rebuilt in 1783, but retained its crockets and three tiers of lucarnes. The interior was worked on by George Gilbert Scott throughout the 1860s.


The church was closed when the spire was found to be unsafe. The 14th-century octagonal spire, having been rebuilt in 1783, had developed six-metre-long cracks in four of its faces in September 2013. After inspections by structural engineers, it was deemed at risk of collapse. The severe condition of the spire meant it had to be demolished, at an estimated cost of £200,000, in 2014. Over £358,000 has been raised since 2011; however, there are currently insufficient funds to rebuild the spire and repair the tower.


It is rumoured that here, around 1366, Geoffrey Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet (a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford who later (c. 1396) became the third wife of Chaucer's friend and patron, John of Gaunt).
The infant king Henry VI was knighted in the church at Whitsuntide 1426 by his uncle, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, the Regent of France (whilst the Parliament of Bats was being held at the Castle). Henry then proceeded to himself dub a further 44 knights on the same occasion, the first of whom was Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York.
William Bickerstaffe, a charitable local schoolmaster and antiquarian, was baptised, buried and held a seven-year curacy at the church.


The church contains a three manual pipe organ which was originally installed in 1860 by Forster and Andrews. It has been the subject of modifications and restorations in 1880 by Joshua Porritt, and R. J. Winn in 1960. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.


Henry Bramley Ellis organist 1878–1910
Benjamin Burrows 1910–?
William Snow, father of C. P. Snow 1930 – c. 1950
John M. Bence


The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a large parish church and formerly formed part of the Benedictine Pilton Priory which was founded 925-940 as a cell of Malmesbury Abbey. It was closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1533 when it was acquired by the Chichester Family of Raleigh Manor. The church building we see today is partly 13th-century (it was dedicated in 1259) and partly 15th-century with some limited restoration and rebuilding during the 17th century. It is built with local purple, grey and brown slatestone with sandstone dressings; the roofs are of slate. The church is approached through the pretty imitation-Tudor almshouses built in 1849.
The tower and South aisle date from the time of the Priory and on the church's North side the roof-line of the adjoining monastic buildings can still be seen, the cloister having run along the nave (hence the high sills of the North aisle windows) and traces of other taller buildings can be seen butting against the North tower. The church has a peal of eight bells some of which date from 1712. The tower is described as `rebuilt' according to an inscription on the porch by Robert Nutting in 1696 as a result of damage during the Civil War; the church has later rebuilding from 1845 to 1850.


The North aisle has plain glass in its windows but some fragments of Medieval coloured glass can be seen in the tracery at the top. The nave and chancel were added to the North aisle section of the church in about 1320 to 1330, which is confirmed by an extract from the Register of Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, who in 1311 made a contribution to Pilton Priory towards the cost of building the chancel.
The parclose screen into the South East chapel (the Raleigh Chapel) is of three bays and is well carved with a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance detail and is inscribed with an R for Raleigh and is presumably post-1533. It may have been brought to the church from the private chapel at Raleigh Manor when it was demolished in the 18th century. The stone pulpit is Perpendicular Period of about 1550 and stands on a stem while its panels are decorated with blind arcading with a Tudor rose carved above the pedestal and retaining some traces of its original colour. The pulpit has a Jacobean sounding board and projecting from the side there is an unusual iron arm and hand which is probably Elizabethan which once held an hourglass for timing the sermons. In 1616 a payment was made for a replacement hourglass, and in 1646 a half-hour glass was purchased, which suggests that shorter sermons had become the fashion. The baptismal font has a plain octagonal Ham Hill bowl on a stem and a fine font cover which Nikolaus Pevsner believed was put together in the Elizabethan era. The font also dates to about 1550 and stands beneath a canopied tester made from pieces of Gothic and Renaissance carving including linenfold, figure panels, applied barley-sugar ribs and Gothic fretwork. The altar table with its pull-out leaves is late 16th-century and was restored in 1985. The communion rail is Elizabethan.
The rood screen that separates the chancel and Raleigh Chapel from the nave and South aisle has lost its coving and cresting while the spandrels have been filled with a variety of remnants from the missing pieces. The panels in the lower section once depicted the Apostles some of which have been restored to something like their original appearance. These images were added to the screen at the expense of Thomas Martyn who, when he died in 1510, left a legacy in his will for this purpose. Sometime later the images were obliterated with lime wash and red and green paint, while in Victorian times they were over-stained in brown. The expensive restoration process has been discontinued at present owing to cost but the aim is to restore further panels in the future.
A plaque is located above a very narrow moulded doorway in the chancel which originally lead to an East end chapel with an adjoining cell which was inhabited by a recluse in 1329. The Royal Arms of 1707 are those of Queen Anne and are painted on boards and fixed to the West end of the North wall. A section of medieval wall painting is visible on the West wall.


The Church of St Nicholas is a Church of England parish church in the village of Hinxworth in Hertfordshire and is a Grade II* listed building dating mostly to the 14th century. The church comes under the Diocese of St Albans.
The church is dedicated to St Nicholas and almost certainly stands on the site of an earlier church; however, there is no mention of a priest at Hinxworth in the Domesday Book. The West tower and battlemented nave are 14th century with 15th century alterations and are built of flint rubble with clunch dressings. The chancel, which was rebuilt in about 1830, is of early 19th-century red brick chequered with stone dressings. The tower is in two stages with angle buttresses and battlements. The gabled South porch dates to the 15th century. The chancel measures 20 ft. by 16 ft., the nave 42 ft. 6 in. by 20 ft., the west tower 10 ft. 6 in. square, and the south porch 12 ft. by 10 ft.
St Nicholas' has an aisleless nave with a late 19th-century panelled roof supported on four 15th-century carved wooden corbels. In the splay of the North nave window and in the south-east corner of the nave are two unusual canopied niches. Beside the north window is a 14th-century spiral staircase, now blocked at the top, which originally led up to the now lost rood screen. The west arch is of about 1350 and has semi-octagonal shafts. The original chancel arch was demolished in about 1440 and a mis-shaped replacement was built about 2 ft further east. The clerestory was raised at the end of the 15th century, and a new low-pitched roof was installed above it. The chancel has a panelled ceiling with simple bosses, while the stained-glass windows are mid-19th century.
Two monumental brasses can be found in the chancel, with that high on the north wall being mid-15th century and believed to be the figures of Simon Ward, 1453, and his wife, 1481; that on the floor of a man, woman and six children is said to be of John Lambard, Alderman of London (died 1487), the eldest daughter was supposedly Elizabeth (better known as Jane Shore, mistress of Edward IV of England). The pulpit is mid-18th century with fielded panels, near which is a 16th- or early 17th-century Rector's chair. The small octagonal baptismal font in the west is mid-19th century. There are six bells with the treble by Mears & Stainbank (1908); the second by John Briant of Hertford (1820); the third and fourth by Miles Graye (1651); and the fifth and tenor by John Briant (1825 and 1820). These bells and the tower were restored between 1981 and 1986 with money given in response to a BBC Radio Appeal by author Monica Dickens, who had lived in the village before her marriage, and with funds raised by the Friends of the Church. The church has been Grade II* listed since May 1968.


WikiWeb_Church of St Peter the Poor Fisherman_0

The Church of St Peter the Poor Fisherman in the village of Noss Mayo, in Devon, England, was built in 1226. It is located in the former civil parish of Revelstoke. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.  It was declared redundant on 6 April 1971, and was vested in the Trust on 28 June 1972.
The mediaeval church has Saxon origins with portions being built in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The aisle and the porch still have their carved wagon roofs; however, the roofs have fallen down over the rest of the building.
In 1880–82 a new church, also dedicated to St Peter, was built nearby and this church fell into disrepair. It is still consecrated and occasional services are held in the church during the summer.


Church of the Holiest Saviour (Polish: Kościół Najświętszego Zbawiciela) is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Śródmieście district of Warsaw, Poland. It is located on the Saviour Square.


The Church of the Holy Cross (Welsh: Eglwys y Grog) at Mwnt, Ceredigion, Wales, is a parish church and Grade I listed building dating probably from the 13th century.


The Church of the Holy Cross is an example of a medieval sailor's chapel of ease. The site is said to have been used since the Age of the Saints, but the present building is probably 14th century. It has an example of a 12th or 13th century font made of Preseli stone. Mwnt was a civil parish in its own right for several centuries, but before the 17th century it was a detached chapelry of the parish of Llangoedmor. Since 1934, it has been part of the parish of Y Ferwig.
The building was restored in 1853 and again after storm damage in 1917. A 1912 photograph shows the south windows in different positions.


In December 2021 the church was extensively vandalised; within days, an international fundraising appeal had achieved its target of £20,000. Discussions on safety and security were planned.


The interior is a single chamber with deep-set windows and an unusual roof type. The font is 13th century; the hexagonal pulpit is Victorian.
Externally, the church is whitewashed rubble stone walls under a slate roof. The small, enclosed churchyard contains a number of graves; monumental inscriptions are held by Dyfed Family History Society.


The Church of the Holy Trinity, also called the Russian Church, in Belgrade is a metochion of the Russian Orthodox church in Belgrade, Serbia. It was erected in 1924 according to the plans of Russian émigré architect Valery Stashevsky and was meant mainly for refugees from Soviet Russia who arrived in Serbia in thousands from 1920, after the defeat of the White Army in European part of Russia in the Russian Civil War. The church is located on the northern edge of the Tašmajdan Park, next to a much bigger St. Mark's of the Serbian Orthodox Church.


The Russian ecclesiastical community in Belgrade, a city where in the early 1920s Russians constituted over 10% of the capital's population, was founded in November 1920 by Russian émigré priest Petar (Pyotr) Belovodov (Петр Беловидов). Initially, the venue for services was the assembly hall of the Third Belgrade Gymnasium.
The construction of the church was begun in September 1924, in Tašmajdan, on the location of the former cemetery and next to the old St. Mark's church (a new, much larger one, was completed by 1940). The Serbian clergy of the St. Mark's parish opposed having a Russian church on their land, but through the intervention of Serbian Patriarch Dimitrije, they  relented, albeit with some conditions attached: it was to be only temporarily on the ground of the Serbian church and without its own belfry. However, prime minister Nikola Pašić donated a bell to the Russian church.


The church building was consecrated by Serbian Patriarch Dimitrije on 5 July 1925. From the beginning, the church's parish was in the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), headed until 1936 by Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky) (on 31 August 1921, the Council of Bishops of the Serbian Church passed a resolution, effective from 3 October, that recognised Metropolitan Anthony's Temporary Higher Church Administration Abroad  as an administratively independent jurisdiction for exiled Russian clergy outside the Kingdom of SHS as well as those Russian clergy in the Kingdom of SHS who were not in parish or state educational service; the THCAA (later, ROCOR) jurisdiction also extended to divorce cases of the exiled Russians). The main Russian shrine that was preserved in the church from the end of 1927 until September 1944 was the Kursk Root Icon.
Patriarch Varnava of Serbia (1930–1937) conducted a service in the Russian church on 22 June 1930, shortly after the enthronement as Patriarch, and delivered a passionate anti-Bolshevik speech in Russian.
The first rector was Archpriet Petar (Pyotr) Belovodov, from 1924 until his death in 1940. Belovodov was succeeded by Jovan Sokalj (1883—1965).
Russian general Pyotr Wrangel, the last commander of the Russian Army in South Russia, was re-buried in the church in October 1929. Until 1944, over 200 military flags of Napoleon′s and Ottomans′ armies, which were trophies of the Russian army, were kept inside the church. They included flags from the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the Siege of Sevastopol in 1854-55 and Serbian-Ottoman war in 1876–78. There were also flags of the White movement military units, formed during the Russian Civil War in 1917-22 but also other relics, silver trumpets, etc., so for a period of time, members of those units were organizing night guards of honor around the church.
On 5 July 1931, Patriarch Varnava consecrated the Iveron Chapel in the New Cemetery in Belgrade, which, while modeled on the Iveron chapel in the Red Square (destroyed in 1929), was in effect a church in its own right, complete with an altar, and served as a separate parish until 1945, when it was attached to the Trinity church metochion.


In September 1944, shortly before the capture of Belgrade by the Red Army and Communist partisans, the parish was abandoned by the Karlovci-based administration of the anti-Soviet ROCOR (then headed by Metropolitan Anastasius (Gribanovsky)); its rector priest Sokalj, who in 1946 became a citizen of the USSR and in January 1950 had to leave for the USSR, requested transfer to the jurisdiction of the pro-Soviet Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and in April 1945 joined the Moscow Patriarchate. The parish was transformed into a metochion (representation) of the Moscow Patriarchate and was part of the Patriarchal deanery in Yugoslavia. The deanery was abolished in 1956 and all other Russian parishes in Yugoslavia were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Serbian Church. The Russian Iveron chapel in the New Cemetery as well as the Russian part of the cemetery were adjoined to the metochion.
Since 1950, the position of rectors of the metochion church has been held by the Tarasyevs family, the first rector being Vitaly Tarasyev born in Mariupol, the Russian Empire, in 1901, who emigrated to Serbia through Galipolli in 1920.
In April 1999, the church building was severely damaged during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, by an air missile attack that targeted the building of Radio Television of Serbia located next to the church; the church was re-consecrated in March 2007.


The church was projected by the Russian architect Valery Vladimirovich Stashevsky, in the old, Novgorod-style of religious architecture. It has a valuable iconostasis, carved in xylograph, with copies of the old, Russian frescoes.


Church of the Virgin Mary (Slovak: Kostol Mena Panny Márie; Hungary: Szűz Mária Templom) is a church that was built in 1879 and is located on Poľnohospodárska street, in the Vrakuňa district of Bratislava. Its capacity did not meet the demand, so the church was extended with an addition. The foundation stone and the building site of the new part were feasted on 28 February 1993. The new church was put in use on 1 January 1994, and the ceremonial dedication was made by Archbishop Ján Sokol on 9 September 1995.


WikiWeb_Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary_0

Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Polish: Kościół Nawiedzenia Najświętszej Maryi Panny) is a historic Roman Catholic church in Kraków, Poland; located at ul. Karmelicka 19 street in the Old Town. It is the city's first Carmelite Church, hence the name of the street on which it stands.


WikiWeb_Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary_1

According to legend, the earliest church on the same site was founded in the 11th century by Duke Władysław I Herman after a vision led him to this spot northwest of the city walls, where he found blooming violets in sand which cured him of a disfiguring case of scurvy. The sand gave the church its alternative name, the Carmelite Church in Piasek. However, the first attested church building was begun in 1395 on the initiative of Jadwiga of Poland and Władysław Jagiełło. On the outside wall of the church along Garbarska Street there's a stone with a footprint carved into it, allegedly set by the Queen herself. The church was handed over in 1397 to the Carmelite Order recently invited by the Polish monarchs from Prague. The Gothic church was largely destroyed during the Swedish Deluge and was rebuilt in a Baroque style in the second half of the 17th century and consecrated in 1679. On August 15, 1683, Jan III Sobieski said his final prayers in Kraków at this church before setting out for his victorious Battle of Vienna against the Ottoman Empire.  When the Confederacy of Bar seized control of the Old Town of Kraków in 1772, Russian troops used the church (just outside the Old Town walls) as an artillery sighting platform, leading to considerable damage. In 1997, Pope John Paul II raised the church to the status of a minor basilica.


WikiWeb_Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary_2

The Baroque facade of the church is based on the design of Il Gesù in Rome. On the south-side wall of the church, at the corner of ul. Garbarska, there is the 18th century sculpture representing Golgotha with its central Crucificion. The main altar depicts the Visitation of Saint Elizabeth by Virgin Mary, and is one of the largest examples of Baroque woodcarving in Kraków. The most famous work of art in the church is the icon of Our Lady of Piasek, which can be found in a chapel on the south side of the nave.  According to legend, the icon is reputed to have been miraculously completed when left unfinished by its original artist in the 15th century. It survived unscathed even during the destruction of the majority of the walls around it by the Swedes.   It was later fitted with a crown designed by the artist Jan Matejko, whose own wedding was held here in 1864.
Behind the church, now completely hidden from outside view by the surrounding buildings, there is still a surviving fragment of the old Carmelite orchard.


The Citadel of Dinant (French: Citadelle de Dinant) is a fortress located in the Walloon city of Dinant in the province of Namur, Belgium. The current fort was built in 1815 on a site which was originally fortified in 1051 when the region was ruled by the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. The citadel overlooks the city of Dinant and the strategic Meuse river which runs through the town. It is open to the public.
Together with Huy, Liège and Namur, the Citadel of Dinant forms part of the so-called Meuse Citadels.


The Citadel of Port-Louis is a citadel built in the 16th century by the Spaniards, then modified in the 17th century by the Frenchmen in Port-Louis (France).


The Citadelle is a functioning military installation for the Canadian Armed Forces, as well as an official residence of both Canada's monarch and its governor general. The latter, by tradition, resides there for several weeks during the summer as well as other shorter periods throughout the year. As is done at the other federal royal residence, Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Canadian award presentations and investitures and ceremonies for both incoming and outgoing ambassadors and high commissioners to Canada are held at the Citadelle. The residence is also open to the public, running a visitors' program and free tours of the state rooms throughout the year as well as educational tours for students. The Citadelle attracts approximately 200,000 visitors each year.
A number of military ceremonies related to the Royal 22ᵉ Régiment take place at the Citadelle's parade ground, such as the changing of the guard and of battalion command and the consecration of each successive Batisse the Goat as regimental mascot. Additionally, daily at noon, a cannon is fired from the fort, the sound of which can be heard throughout Quebec City. Originally, two guns were fired each day, at 12:00 pm to alert Quebec City residents of the lunch hour and Angelus, or noon-day prayer and at 9:30 pm, marking the curfew for gunners and soldiers in the city. The tradition has continued since 1871, save for between 1994 and 2008.


City Hall (Welsh: Neuadd y ddinas) is a civic building in Cathays Park, Cardiff, Wales, UK. It serves as Cardiff's centre of local government. It was built as part of the Cathays Park civic centre development and opened in October 1906. Built of Portland stone, it is an important early example of the Edwardian Baroque style. It is a Grade I listed building.


The distinctive clock tower is 59 m (194 ft) in height and has a 3.7 m-diameter (12 ft) gilded dial on each of its four faces. The clock mechanism includes an hour bell and four quarter bells which are each inscribed with mottoes in English or Welsh.


In front of the entrance portico is a rectangular pool with fountains. The fountains were created to mark the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in July 1969.


On the southern side of the building are two memorials: the memorial on the right is dedicated to victims of the Second World War while the one on the left is dedicated to the Polish soldiers, airmen and sailors who gave their lives during that war.


The first floor landing of City Hall is decorated with statues in Pentelicon marble of famous figures from Welsh history. These were funded by a gift from David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda; the personages to be commemorated were decided by a competition in the Western Mail. The Marble Hall with completed statues was unveiled by David Lloyd George, then Secretary of State for War, on 27 October 1916.
Boudica (first century queen of the Iceni) by James Havard Thomas
Saint David (sixth century, patron saint of Wales) by Sir William Goscombe John
Hywel Dda (King Howell the Good. law giver tenth century) by F. W. Pomeroy
Gerald of Wales (Scholar and writer in the 12th & 13th centuries) by Henry Poole
Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf (Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last ruling Prince of Wales) by Henry Albert Pegram
Dafydd ap Gwilym (Welsh poet of the 14th century) by W. W. Wagstaff
Owain Glyndŵr (Welsh patriot and warrior of the 14th and 15th centuries) by Alfred Turner
Henry VII ( Founder of the Tudor dynasty 15th & 16th centuries) by Ernest Gillick
Bishop William Morgan (translated the bible into Welsh in the 16th century) by Thomas John Clapperton
William Williams, Pantycelyn (Revivalist and hymn writer 18th century) by Leonard Stanford Merrifield
Sir Thomas Picton (General at Waterloo, 18th & 19th centuries) by T. Mewburn Crook
In July 2020, Cardiff City Council voted to remove the marble statue of Sir Thomas Picton, from Cardiff City Hall, on account of his links to slavery.


This room has hosted royalty, international statesmen and diplomats, and can seat 500 diners simultaneously. It is used for miscellaneous ceremonies, conferences and events during the year. It is decorated with mouldings picked out in gold leaf, of mermaids and other sea creatures. Three large bronze chandeliers are contemporary to the original architects' design.


This is located above the main entrance portico and directly below the main dome of the building. Hanging from the dome is a bronze chandelier designed by Edwin Alfred Rickards. The arrangement is unusual in that the seating is set in a circular pattern whereas normally British council chambers have semicircular seating. The chamber was designed to host Cardiff's Council meetings (which have subsequently been relocated to Atlantic Wharf). The dome of City Hall is supported by four massive pillars of Italian marble with bronze Ionic capitals. The chamber is paneled throughout in oak. The plaster work is by G.P. Bankart and the stained glass window depicts a personification of the City of Cardiff, by Alfred Garth Jones dated 1905.


The cover of the Catatonia single "Mulder and Scully" has a UFO above the building similar to the movie poster for Independence Day.


Around 1100 a wooden building was constructed on the location of the current Gravenzaal of the City Hall. Traces of this building were found in 1955.
After large fires in 1347 and 1351,William I, Duke of Bavaria who was also the Count of Holland at that time, donated the remains of the Gravenzaal to the city's municipality. A new building was built there. The central square building dates from the Middle Ages, but the distinctive façade of the building was designed by architect Lieven de Key and built from 1602-1604. The way it originally looked can be seen in a painting from 1460 by the Master of Bellaert. Originally the city hall was just the front of the building, and the rear cloister belonged to the Dominican brotherhood. After the Protestant Reformation this came into the possession of the city council and it is now a large complex with offices and meeting rooms. Both the Frans Hals Museum and the Haarlem Public Library originally were located in the city hall.
The town hall is still used for civic weddings and nearly every Friday in Spring, brides can be seen entering and leaving by the main stairway. All year on Saturdays and Mondays there is a big market in front of the City Hall, where on Saturdays mainly flowers, household goods, and food is sold, though on Mondays the products are mainly cloth, sewing accessories and clothing. Although the market is frequented by the local population, it is also a tourist attraction and worth a visit, if only to try the raw herring from the fish stand, or stroopwafels from the stroopwafel stand. The town hall is also still used for state visits, most recently when the King and Queen paid a visit to Haarlem on 14 June 2013. They heard the local choir Zang en Vriendschap sing and received a book about all the previous royal state visits to Haarlem.
The town hall was traditionally a gathering place for various gentlemen, and the Dutch Society of Science started meeting there in 1752, which was the beginning of a municipal museum for natural history, that today no longer exists, though its "competitor" founded in 1781 still does; namely the Teylers Museum. When they moved out, the paintings stayed and they became the Haarlem municipal museum, which moved out in 1913 to become the Frans Hals museum.


A large number of paintings and objects from Haarlem's rich history can be found inside the building. One series of paintings depict the various counts of Holland, starting from Dirk I to Maximilian from Austria. In the Middle Ages these paintings were hanging in the Carmelieten Cloister in Haarlem; they were painted between 1486 and 1491. In 1570 it is mentioned in city archives that the paintings were hanging in the City Hall; possibly they were moved there in 1566 to protect them from the iconoclastic riots. Other paintings and objects are either part of the original interior, or too big to fit in the Frans Hals Museum.


City Hall Square (Danish: Rådhuspladsen, [ˈʁʌðhusˌpʰlæsn̩]) is a public square in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark, located in front of the Copenhagen City Hall. Its large size, central location, and affiliation with the city hall make it a popular venue for a variety of events, celebrations and demonstrations. It is often used as a central point for measuring distances from Copenhagen.
City Hall Square is located at the southwestern end of the pedestrian street Strøget which connects it to Kongens Nytorv, the other large square of the city centre, passing Gammeltorv/Nytorv and Amagertorv along the way. Opposite Strøget, Vesterbrogade extends into the Vesterbro district and later crosses the border to Frederiksberg. H. C. Andersens Boulevard, Copenhagen's most heavily congested street, and Vester Voldgade pass the square on either side of the city hall.
Apart from the City Hall, notable buildings around the square include Politikens Hus, the headquarters of national daily newspaper Politiken, and Industriens Hus, the headquarters of the DI.


City Hall Square is located at the site of Copenhagen's old hay market and the Western City Gate of the Fortifications of Copenhagen.
When the fortifications were disbanded in the 1850s, it was decided to use the vacant land for an exhibition area which played host to first the Nordic Exhibition of 1872 and later the Nordic Exhibition of 1888.
Vilhelm Klein designed an exhibition building for the first exhibition which was built at the corner of Vesterbro Passage which was built from 1870 to 1872. The four-winged, two-storey building was built in red brick to a design which was inspired by Italian Renaissance architecture. In 1879 the centre of the complex was re-built into a large domed exhibition hall.
On 1 January 1888 the hay market moved to a new location outside Kødbyen, the new cattle and meat market which had opened in 1878. The site is still named Halmtorvet after it. The main venue of the Nordic Exhibition of 1888 was a large timber structure topped by a huge dome with a flag pole at its top. Its architect was the young and unknown Martin Nyrop who was later also to design the new city hall.


In the 1880s, plans were conceived to build a new city hall on the grounds, and in 1888, the expo area was cleared. An architecture competition was held in early 1889. Apart from Nyrop, who won the competition, Vilhelm Dahlerup and Valdemar Koch were among the participating architects. The design of the city hall was greatly inspired by the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, Italy, and the design of the square was accordingly modeled on the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo outside that building.
On 28 July 1894, the foundation stone was laid. When it was inaugurated in 1905, the square in front of it became one of the most central and important spaces of the city.
The square was redesigned in 1995 and 1996 by KHR Architects, on the occasion of Copenhagen being the European Capital of Culture. The intersecting street leading from Vesterbrogade to Strøget was removed, uniting the two sides of the square. A bus hub was built on the northern side of the square.
In 2010, work began on a metro station on the site, requiring a major reorganisation of the site, with work was opened on 29 September 2019.


The Dragon Fountain (Danish: Dragespringvandet), depicting a bull and a dragon in combat. Designed by Thorvald Bindesbøll and Joakim Skovgaard, out was inaugurated in 1904.
The Weather Girl (Danish: vejrpigen) is perched high on the Richs Building on the corner of Rådhuspladsen and Vesterbrogade. It is a gilded sculpture group telling the weather. One sculpture  rotates to the front, depicting the girl with her bicycle. When the weather is set for rain, another sculpture rotates to the front, depicting her with an umbrella walking her dog. The sculpture group is from 1936 and designed by Einar Utzon-Frank.
The Lur Blowers is a bronze depicting two lur blowers standing atop a column on tiles. Standing 20 m tall, it was created in 1911 to 1913 by Siegfried Wagner.
A statue of Hans Christian Andersen is in the square.


The square's central area is 9800 m². It is often a venue for demonstrations and buskers, and several bars and nightclubs are located in the vicinity. Rådhuspladsen also houses one of the city's bus centrals.


The park was originally a location used for dueling. In the 1800s, men would defend their pride and honor by dueling each other under the oaks at what is now City Park but then was a normally quiet spot secluded from the rest of the city. Originally, there were two "dueling oaks," but one was lost in a hurricane in 1949.
Some of the city's most notable figures who participated in duels in City Park include Bernard de Marigny, a nobleman and president of the Louisiana Senate in 1822-23. Many of the disputes between parties were either reconciled before the duel or after one party sustained a minor injury. Dueling deaths were reported, however. In 1805, Micajah Green Lewis, Gov. William C.C. Claiborne's private secretary and brother-in-law, was killed by Robert Sterry, a Claiborne opponent. By 1890, dueling was outlawed.
New Orleans City Park lost approximately 2,000 trees after Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures, but the Dueling Oak still stands where Dueling Oaks Drive meets Dreyfous Drive between the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden and the New Orleans Museum of Art. There’s a small sign in front of it.


City Park was established in the mid-19th century on land fronting Metairie Road (now City Park Avenue), along the remains of Bayou Metairie, a former distributary of the Mississippi River.  The tract of land, formerly the Allard Plantation, became city property in 1850 through John McDonogh's will and was reserved for park purposes. In 1854, the 4th District Court pronounced the property a public park. The park originally extended 100 acres back from City Park Avenue, as swampland covered most of the landscape between Bayou Metairie and the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. This area, to the north of the original park, was actually platted for streets by city planners, though none was ever realized. In 1891, the City Park Improvement Association is founded, and the property was officially established as "City Park."
The carousel, originally mule-driven, opened in 1897, and was updated to a mechanical carousel in 1906. The miniature train opened in 1898 and the original golf course was built in 1902. A racetrack opened February 11, 1905, but closed only 3 years later in 1908. In the first two decades of the 20th century, numerous improvements were undertaken by the City Park Improvement Association.  The Peristyle was constructed in 1907 and the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, later renamed the New Orleans Museum of Art, opened in 1911. Two years later, in 1913, the Casino building opened offering refreshments. The Casino building is currently occupied by Cafe Du Monde. The Popp Bandstand was constructed in 1917 and dedicated on July 4. The Irby swimming pool was built in 1924. City Park's governing board also accomplished a number of large land acquisitions, such that the park assumed its current boundaries.
In 1915, the Gen. Beauregard Equestrian Statue was erected at the entrance to City Park. On June 24, 2015, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu acknowledged the impact of the June 2015 Charleston church shooting, and called for the removal of several city memorials to Confederate slaveholders. On December 17, 2015, the New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 to remove the Gen. Beauregard statue, along with three other historical monuments; the Beauregard statue was removed on May 16, 2017.
In 1919, William McFadden purchased property on the park and built a mansion. In 1949, this mansion began to be used as Christian Brothers School, an all-boys middle school for grades 5-7, and still remains a boys' school today. In 1927, the city extended the park by 900 acres, and the first tennis courts were built in the following year. In 1928, John Philip Sousa performed at the Popp bandstand.
The park was expanded in the 1930s  due to a $12 million grant from the Works Progress Administration. A master plan, by Bennett, Parsons & Frost of Chicago was commissioned to guide the development of the greatly enlarged park; this plan was largely implemented in the 1930s by the W.P.A. This included the installation of many sculptures by WPA artist Enrique Alférez, construction of buildings, bridges, roads, and much of the electrical and plumbing infrastructure that were still serving the park when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. A formal rose garden was developed, the genesis of today's New Orleans Botanical Garden. The WPA also planted Couterie Forest and constructed Popp Fountain, City Park Stadium, a second 18-hole golf course - home for many years to the New Orleans Open golf tournament - and a golf clubhouse, which was later partially demolished to accommodate I-610.
Many events have taken place at Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park. Actress Dorothy Lamour from New Orleans traveled the country selling war bonds, and in 1942, made a stop in her hometown to sell war bonds in Tad Gormley stadium. Bob Hope performed in the stadium in 1944. Roy Rogers and Trigger appeared in the stadium in 1959. Even the Beatles performed in the stadium in 1964, and tickets costed just $5. In 1992, Tad Gormley Stadium was remodeled to host the US Olympic Track & Field Trials.
After World War II, two additional 18-hole golf courses were added, I-610 was constructed through the park, a new golf clubhouse was erected, the Wisner Foundation subsidized the development of a scenic parkway running almost the entire length of Bayou St. John (Wisner Boulevard), and multiple rounds of expansion and improvement occurred involving various park facilities.  By the 1970s, City Park featured four 18-hole golf courses, over 50 tennis courts, numerous other athletic fields and facilities, and the newly expanded New Orleans Museum of Art. However, as was the case with many urban parks during this period, City Park began to suffer neglect, the result of insufficient maintenance due to budget cuts. Towards the end of this period the Friends of City Park were formed (1979) to rally support and raise resources for the park.
The first City Park Big Bass Fishing Rodeo took place in the park in 1946. In 1960, 593 fishermen from around the country participated in the rodeo.
Until 1958, two years after Storyland opened, all park amenities, including the playground and Storyland, were restricted to white residents. African American children and families were banned from entering the park.
Since 1999, City Park has been the venue for the Voodoo Experience, which has become the largest of the live music events held in the park.
Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 did $43 million in damage to the park, with winds toppling an estimated 1,000 trees and damaging many more. The subsequent failure of multiple floodwalls brought about the inundation of much of the city, and 95% of the park was flooded with 1 foot (0.30 m) to 10 feet (3.0 m) of water that remained for two to four weeks, damaging all buildings, amusement rides, maintenance equipment, electrical systems and vehicles, and causing the death of more trees and landscaping - including nearly the entire plant collection in the New Orleans Botanical Garden.
About 75,000 local and national volunteers assisted in repair projects that began in 2005. As of 2017, City Park is administered and being redeveloped according to its 2005 master plan, the existence of which proved invaluable to the effective channeling of rebuilding assistance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The park has recovered since Hurricane Katrina with the facilities having reopened and many new attractions being added, including a water park coming soon and many future plans such as a skate park and an Environmental Education Center. A dedicated bikeway was added between Wisner Boulevard and Bayou St. John for the length of the parkway, another was installed between Bayou St. John and Marconi Drive along the park's northern boundary, and a third was introduced alongside Harrison Avenue. Most recently, a landscaped walk debuted surrounding Big Lake, adjacent to the New Orleans Museum of Art. This new amenity, called for in the park's 2005 master plan, has realized the long-held wish of surrounding neighborhoods for a pedestrian- and bicycle-only scenic walk akin to the popular facility long offered in Audubon Park, Uptown.


City Park Cross Country Course
City Park Disc Golf Course
City Park Driving Range
City Park Golf Courses
City Park/Pepsi Tennis Center
City Park Practice Track
City Park Rugby Pitch
City Putt
Lagoon Soccer Fields
Matt Savoie Soccer Complex
Pan American Stadium
Quadruplex (Softball)
Rotary Baseball Field
Scout Island Athletic Fields (Lacrosse)
Tad Gormley Stadium


The City Theater (Persian: تئاتر شهر, Teātr-e Šahr) is a performing arts complex in Tehran, the capital of Iran. This complex is considered as the main outlet of Iran artistic theater. It was built with the initiative of Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi under the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran.
It contains several performance spaces including the halls of Cheharsou, Qashqai, Sayeh, the performance studio, and the main hall. The complex was designed by architect Ali Sardar Afkhami in the 1960s, and opened in 1972. After the 1979 Revolution, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has overseen its operation. City Theater of Tehran is closed on Saturdays.


City Tower (formerly Sunley House) is a 30-storey skyscraper situated in the Piccadilly Gardens area of Manchester city centre in England. It is one of the highest office spaces currently available in Manchester, standing 107 metres (351 ft) tall.


City Tower was completed in 1965, one of three buildings forming the Piccadilly Plaza complex which was designed by Covell, Matthews & Partners and developed by Bernard Sunley & Sons between 1959 and 1965.
The Piccadilly Plaza was remodelled by Leslie Jones Architects in 2001-02. City Tower stands at right angles to Piccadilly and the north-facing wall is covered with designs based on circuit boards. In the remodelling the building to the west of City Tower, Eagle Star House, was replaced by a building whose roofs are a pale echo of the swooping roofs of the original.
It is currently the seventh tallest building in Manchester. The Tower has retail and leisure units on the ground floor and is Manchester's main radio transmitting station, which is located on the roof. The developer Bruntwood sold City Tower to the asset management company Schroders for £132 million in 2014 but kept their headquarters in the building.


The Tower has entrances on York Street (renamed New York Street in 2008) and Piccadilly Gardens (formerly Parker Street). A refurbishment programme was drawn up in the late 1990s, but this was never realised until Bruntwood purchased Piccadilly Plaza for £65 million in 2004. This plan is complete, with a new central ground floor entrance. The next phase involved repainting and fitting an atrium to the sides of the Tower. An advertising screen has been erected showing video clips to passers-by in the Gardens.
The Tower is one of Manchester's main broadcast transmission sites, hosting the antennae of local radio stations Radio X, XS Manchester and Capital on FM and digital radio multiplexes Digital One, BBC and CE Manchester.
The penthouse on floor 28 differs from the other floors as it originally had a walkway around the perimeter. When Bruntwood acquired City Tower, they removed the walkway and installed wider windows. The redesign included an overhang with floor to ceiling windows.

Although City Tower is not the tallest building in the city, the 28th floor is the highest commercial office space in Manchester. This floor was occupied by UKFast but now appears to be at least partly vacant.


The temple was constructed in 1753. According to legends the temple was founded by a wandering monk who came upon a group of Matsu devotees. Together they raised money for ten years and then built the temple.


The temple is accessible within walking distance North of Songshan Station of Taiwan Railways.


The Claregalway Friary is a medieval Franciscan abbey located in the town of Claregalway, County Galway, Ireland.
The abbey site features an east-facing, cruciform church (minus a south transept) with a 24-metre (80 ft) bell tower.  The ruins of the living quarters and cloister are situated to the south of the church building.


The monastery was commissioned in about 1252 by John de Cogan, a Norman knight who took possession of the area following the Norman conquest of Connacht.
The Franciscan community at the abbey lived under the patronage of the de Cogan clan until 1327, when John Magnus de Cogan gave them the building and surrounding lands.  In return for this favour, the monks were asked to present a rose to de Cogan and his descendants on the annual feast day of St. John the Baptist (24 June).
The community flourished until the mid-16th century, when the English Reformation disrupted the Catholic establishment in Ireland.  From that time on, the monks of Claregalway struggled to keep the abbey viable against political and economic forces.
On 11 July 1538, forces under the command of Lord Leonard Gray ransacked and looted the abbey while on march to Galway.  In 1570, Queen Elizabeth I granted possession of the monastery to Sir Richard de Burgo.  In 1589, the monastery buildings were turned into a barracks under the administration of the English provincial governor, Sir Richard Bingham.
During the reign of King James, the property was given to the Earl of Clanrickarde.  By 1641, the Franciscans had reoccupied the abbey, but the building was in poor repair and the community lacked the ability to renovate it.
In 1731, Edward Synge, Anglican archbishop of Tuam recorded that "there is a friary in Claregalway, where three at least are always resident."  The High Sheriff of the county, Stratford Eyre, reported in 1732 that the monks "lived close" to the abbey.
Church records indicate that the community numbered about 220 religious in 1766, but this number had declined to about 150 by 1782.  French diplomat Coquebert de Montbret wrote in 1791 that "the monks are settling down among the ruins."
The size of the community continued to dwindle.  By 1838, it was down to only two members.  Archives of the Galway Vindicator, a local newspaper, indicate that the community's last two monks departed for a larger community in Galway in November 1847.  For some years after the monastery closed, members of the Galway friary continued to travel to the site on feast days to celebrate Mass and hear confession, but these activities had ceased by 1860.
In 1892, a Lord Clanmorris donated the property to the Commissioner of Public Works under the provisions of the Ancient Monuments Act of 1882.
Today, the abbey buildings and grounds are open to the public free of charge.  The burial grounds surrounding the building are maintained and still in use.


The Clemson College Sheep Barn (Barnes Center) is a two-story barn built in 1915 on the Clemson University campus. It is the oldest surviving building associated with agriculture on this land-grant university. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places on January 4, 1990.


The barn is a rectangular building about two stories tall on a brick foundation. It has a standing-seam metal, gabled roof. The roof has three square, vented cupolas with metal roofing and ball finials. The facade and about 15 feet (5 m) of the side elevations are constructed of clay brick. This native clay brick was laid in English bond. The brick is similar to that used for the Trustee House, which is a contributing property to the Clemson University Historic District II, and the Campbell Museum of Natural History, which was originally called the Kinard Annex, on the Clemson campus. The facade has a wooden sliding door on a metal track. Above this door, there is a weatherboarded section with a window for the hayloft. The gable is weatherboard with a louvered lozenge, which appears as a decoration on several other Clemson agricultural buildings. The rear elevation's original door was replaced with a garage door. Most of the sides are weatherboarded. The northeast elevation has a single door, another doorway covered with weatherboard, and nine window openings that have been covered with vertical boards. The southeast elevation has about ten window openings covered similarly. Additional pictures of the barn are available.
Following a remodel starting in 2014, The Barnes Center now has space for dining, activities, and more. It now has white siding, refurbished floors and sliding door, and original brick. The building is also outfitted with modern amenities such as WiFi, televisions, and modern light fixtures. Additional information and construction timeline can be found on the Barnes Center website.


WikiWeb_Cleveland Feast of the Assumption Festival_1

Held annually since 1898 (with exceptions in 1917–18, 1942–45 and 2020), the Feast occurs around August 15 in concordance with the observance of the Assumption of Mary. It includes a procession of a statue of the Virgin through the streets leading to the church, as well as a nightly mass. In addition to its religious nature, the Feast is also a general celebration of Cleveland's Italian cultural heritage in its largest Italian neighborhood, which has demographically remained relatively unchanged since its establishment in the 19th century.
Highlights of the festival include live musical performances, carnival and casino games, carnival rides and fireworks. The Feast is also famous for its food, with numerous street booths operated by local restaurants and shops from around the neighborhood selling traditional Italian food and other items to the large crowds that come to the neighborhood from all over the Greater Cleveland area.


The Clinton D. Gilson Farm is an outstanding example of a vernacular constructed farmstead for the late 19th century.  The farm consists of outbuildings, the English barn, brooder houses, and a machine shop. The farm is located 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northeast of Hebron, Indiana.  The Clinton D. Gilson Barn was built in 1892 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  It is the dominant structure on the Gilson Farm. A windmill was once located on the west end of the barn and an elevator on the east end.


The barn is a gambrel-roofed frame building. The barn is 80 feet (24 m) long by 40 feet (12 m) and 44 feet (13 m) high.  The eaves are 27 feet (8.2 m) above the ground.  A cupola is centered on the roof. The exterior of the barn was originally red siding with white trim along the roof and down the corners.  In the 1950s a white gypsum siding was placed over the original wood siding.  The foundation is built of cut stone hauled from Joliet Prison in Joliet, Illinois.  There are two large sliding doors located in the middle of the north and south walls. These doors have been altered from their original position and several small doors have been added. All the windows are original. Each is a pedimented, double-hung sash windows with six over six lights.  Fourteen are on the lower half of the barn (North 6, East 1, South 6, West 1) with the remaining 8 higher on the walls. A number of fixed sash windows were added in the 1950s, but have been removed by the summer of 2014. The gambrel roof is covered with cedar shake shingles. The cupola has shuttered windows all four directions with four gables. A metal trim tops each gable.


The Gilson Barn is significant as one of the largest and most elaborate barns in Porter County, and as a representation of the work of Clinton D. Gilson, the original owner and builder. The barn took a year to build.  It was constructed in 16 feet (4.9 m) sections and lifted into position by a pulley system pulled by a steam engine. Clinton Gilson was the builder hand traveled, with a crew, houses and barns. He installed a windmill to grind feed, an elevator to transport hay to the haymow, and gas lamps and piping: Two other barns in Boone Township have been identified Gilson barns. Neither the Maplehurst Farm Barn and the Arthur Gilson Barn have ornamental features.


The Clock Tower of Tirana (Albanian: Kulla e Sahatit), was built in 1822 in Tirana, Albania by Etëhem Bey Mollaj, a Bejtexhinj poet who also finished the Et'hem Bey Mosque next to the clock tower. Watchmaster Ismail Tufina was the first to assemble the Tirana clock mechanism in 1822. It is a monument of culture of first category, approved on 24 May 1948.
The stairs have 90 steps that go in a spiral fashion. It is 35 metres (115 ft) tall and was the tallest building in the city at the time. Since the restoration of 2016, 9,833 visitors were counted, who have visited the tower. The installation of the clock was done by the renowned Tufina watchmakers.  The Tufina's took care of the clock from 1822 until 1973 when forcefully removed by the communist regime.


The clock tower was built by the Ottoman Turks in an Islamic style and with simply a bell from Venice to be rung every hour. Ismail Tufina was the first watchmaker of the clock tower in 1822. In 1916 during World War I the clock was damaged. It took until 1928 to put a new mechanism. The new mechanism was purchased in Germany at the price of 13,300 golden francs, which was funded from the wealthiest families in the city and by the Tirana Municipality. Watchmaker Arif Tufina and his sons installed the new mechanism.  Due to the mechanism being bigger than the actual tower they constructed an extra 5 meters on the tower and a new roof.
In 1928, the Municipality of Tirana purchased an actual clock from Germany necessitating a rebuilding of the upper floors.  The clock was destroyed by bombardments during World War II and was replaced in 1946 with a Roman numeral clock from a church in Shkodër. In 1970, the Roman numeral clock was replaced by a Chinese clock. The tower underwent renovation in 1981 and also in 1999. Access to the top of the tower has been available free of charge since 1996. A new restoration is ongoing by The Municipality of Tirana in 2010 for tourists.


Its base (ground floor) is squared and in the upper part of the premises is the clock mechanism. The clock tower has only a gate for entrance.
The lower part was built with thick stone walls supporting wooden stairs that lead to the top of the tower. Lighting is provided by narrow windows. The tower's upper portion reflects the modifications made in 1928 to accommodate and protect the mechanisms of an actual clock. The tower was last restored in 2016 by the Municipality.


Clover Valley trends north-south. The Wood Hills lie along the northeast and eastern edge, to the southeast of Wells; Spruce Mountain is south-southeast.
Dissected lowlands or flatlands surround Snow Water Lake, which lies near the valley's center, except on its west at the East Humboldt Range foothills bordering the lake.


The first permanent settlement at Clover Valley was made in 1864. A station on the Western Pacific Railroad between Ventosa and Wells was named for a directional sign posted on the building pointing the way to the local bar.  Crudely written it was read and assumed to be the location of TOBAR.
A post office established at the site as Clover City and changed to Tobar December 20, 1911 and renamed Clover City again December 11, 1918.  Tobar again became active from January 18, 1921 until it was decommissioned September 17, 1942.


U.S. Route 93 extends through the valley's west from Wells, south to the south terminus of the East Humboldt Range, at Warm Creek Ranch; Route 93 continues southeasterly to Currie in Goshute Valley. From the west, Nevada State Route 229 from north Ruby Valley connects to US 93 south of Warm Creek Ranch.
In the northwest, south of Wells, Nevada 232 follows the foothills west of the Slough region, where about fifteen creeks descend from the East Humboldt Range. All other interior valley regions are accessed by unimproved roads. The north perimeter of the valley is approximately where Interstate 80 travels east from Wells.


The Cobra Museum of Modern Art (Dutch: Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst) is an art museum in Amstelveen in the Netherlands. The collection of the museum consists of key works by artists associated with three art movements, Vrij Beelden (1945), Cobra (1948–1951), and Creatie (1950–1955). In addition, the museum organizes temporary exhibitions by national and international avant-garde artists.


The Cobra Museum of Modern Art opened its doors on November 8th, 1995, as a reference to the founding date of the Cobra movement on the 8th of November, 1948. Architect Wim Quist designed the building. Initially, the museum exhibited the private collection of collector J. Karel P. van Stuijvenberg. Later on, the collection was regularly supplemented with own purchases, long-term loans and donations.

From the beginning of the twenty-first century, the museum has also come to focus on contemporary artists who work in the spirit of Cobra. This focus has led, among other things, to the Cobra Kunstprijs Amstelveen, which was awarded biennially between 2005 and 2017 to 'a visual artist who creates innovative work that demonstrates commitment in the spirit of the Cobra movement.' The laureates are Joost Conijn (2005), Johannes Schwartz (2007), Gijs Frieling (2009), Nathaniel Mellors (2011), Metahaven (2013), Jennifer Tee (2015) and Christian Friedrich (2017). The prize consisted of a cash prize, an exhibition in the Cobra Museum, and a catalog or other publication accompanying that exhibition. The museum is also involved in the triennial Amstelveen Triënnale.


Guggenheim Collection to the Cobra Museum of Modern Art (2014)
Miró & CoBrA, experimental play (2016)
Le Corbusier's fourth dimension (2017)
Eugène Brands: From living room to universe (2018)
An indomitable force: The child as a source of inspiration
New Nuances: Female artists in and around Cobra (2019)
This is Surrealism! The Boijmans Masterpieces (2020)
Under the Skin: The Life and Work of Claude Cahun (2020)
Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera: A Love Revolution (2021)
Constant 101: The future can be humane (2022)


The permanent collection of the Cobra Museum has its roots in the private collection of J. Karel P. van Stuijvenberg. The collection includes works by well-known Cobra artists such as Karel Appel, Constant, Lucebert and Corneille. More unknown group members, as well as related artists who were never officially part of this group, have also been given a place in the collection. These include Anton Rooskens, Eugène Brands, Jan Sierhuis, Theo Wolvecamp and Lotti van der Gaag. During changing collection presentations, work from the collection is shown, sometimes arranged thematically. In addition to paintings, sculptures and other unique items, the museum also owns a large collection of Cobra publications. The Cobra Museum also maintains close ties with other museums of which Cobra forms an important part of the collection, such as Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.


The five-meter high statue The fountain in front of the entrance of the museum was made especially for the museum by Karel Appel. The statue contains four water outlets and it is the only fountain ever made by Karel Appel. The unveiling of the statue took place in 2001 on the occasion of Appel's eightieth birthday. The model of the fountain was donated to the museum by Karel Appel and is on permanent display. The fist in the fountain symbolizes strength and the bird represents freedom. Various elements that make up the fountain are so-called objets trouvés.


The museum was designed by architect Wim Quist. Characteristic is the large amount of natural light that falls through the large windows on the ground floor. The space is about 2500 square meters, spread over two floors. Collection presentations are usually shown on the ground floor, but there is often also space for temporary exhibitions. The museum and shop are also located there, where, among other things, a wide range of books is sold about Cobra and related artists. Temporary exhibitions are organized on the second floor. There is also space here for work from the permanent collection, as well as a children's studio, in which creative and educational workshops related to Cobra are organized.
Appropriately enough, the building is situated on Sandbergplein, which is named after Willem Sandberg, former director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, who was responsible for the controversial first major Cobra exhibition in 1949. Leo Duppen, director of the Cobra Museum when it was founded, described the building as 'thought out and functional, there is nothing superfluous and the walking route is logical. Inside everything is white and gray, the color must come from the paintings.'


The Cobra Museum has a round, inaccessible inner garden, in the form of a Japanese zen garden, which was created by Shinkichi Tajiri. The garden was specially designed by Tajiri for the Cobra Museum and was unveiled at the museum's opening in 1995. The garden depicts a haiku, which refers to the four elements. The standing, organically shaped plates of corten steel refer to the mountains (earth), the sea (water) and the clouds (sky). The sun shining on the artwork symbolizes the fire. The sheets of steel are placed on a pattern of pebbles raked with specially crafted tools, which is maintained monthly in flowing and concentric shapes.


Illa Coelleira, or Colleira (Spanish: Isla Conejera, literal translation: Rabbits' Island), is a small island located in the mouth of the Barqueiro river, off the town of Viveiro, in the Rias Altas coastal region of Galicia, Spain. The island is part of O Vicedo municipality. It is known best as the site of a former monastery, and today houses a lighthouse to aid navigation.


The island's Galician name, Illa Coelleira, means "island of the rabbits", a reference to the numerous rabbits that today inhabit the otherwise bare island.  Documents show its name in the 11th century as Quonicularia.


Historians have speculated that the monastery was founded during the reign of Leovigildo (573-586 AD), a period during which Christians were persecuted. This theory holds that the monastery was populated with monks fleeing the monastery of San Claudius of León, who then spread out to work throughout Galicia.
A firm record exists of a donation by Vimara Menéndez to the monastery of San Miguel de Quonicularia in 1095. The donation gave over to the monastery one third of the church of San Julian de Loiva under an intermediary bishop, Gonzalo.
Little record of the island exists from the 11th to 15th centuries. Some accounts describe the island being settled by Templars, who were then massacred in 1307. Reports resume in the 15th century, with the 1485 union of the island monastery with the mainland monastery of San Martiño de Mondoñedo under prior Ares Pérez de Viladonga. There followed numerous difficulties for the Coelleira monastery, until in 1534 a papal bull annexed the monastery to Mondoñedo Cathedral.


The Coesfelder Berg (152 m) is the westernmost top in the Coesfeld-Darup Hills, a range that is the southwest continuation of the Baumberge hills in the Münsterland in North Germany.
The hill, which is east of the town of Coesfeld (Coesfeld county, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a wide ridge that rises between the streams of the Berkel and the Honigbach, descends towards the west relatively steeply from around 140 m above sea level (NN) to just under 80 m above sea level (NN) in the borough of Coesfeld. It is the hausberg for the town.
From the Ludgerirast, the highest point of the hill, there are good views thanks of large parts of the western Münsterland thanks to the treeless summit. It is here that, according to Ludgerus (Ludger or Liudger), the first Bishop of Münster paused whilst out walking and blessed the Münsterland on the evening before his death in Billerbeck. The Dreilindenhöhe, with the three lime trees (Tilia europaea that give it the name) and a viewing point on the hillside above the town of Coesfeld.
In a scenic side valley south of the Ludgerirast, at a height of 125 metres, is the Benedictine abbey of Gerleve. According to legend, St. Liudger blessed the Bishopric of Münster, that he had founded, from the highest point of the hill on the evening before his death. This is commemorated by a monument erected in 1934 by Brother Dominikus Zwernemann (1901-1983) of Gerleve Abbey.