The palace was built during reign of Maharao Shri Khengarji III, the Maharao of Kutch, as a summer resort for the use of his son & heir to the kingdom, the Yuvraj Shri Vijayaraji and is therefore, named after him as Vijaya Vilas Palace. The construction of palace started in year in 1920 and was completed in year 1929. The palace is built with red sandstone. It has all the elements of Rajput architecture and draws largely on the plan of palaces of Orchha and Datia. The central high dome on the pillars, the Bengal domes on the sides, the windows with colored glass, carved stone 'jalis', domed bastions at the corners, extended porch and other exquisitely stone-carved elements, make the palace worth visiting. The palace is set in the middle of well-laid gardens with water channels and marble fountains. The carved stone works of Jalis, Jharokas, Chhatris, Chhajas, murals and many other artistic stone carvings, colored glass work on windows and door panels all have been done by the architect and craftsman from places like Jaipur, Rajasthan, Bengal and Saurashtra, and local Kutchi artisan community, the Mistris of Kutch and Suthars. The mixture and mingling of architect and style of different regions of India, as such, can be distinctly seen in design & architect of the Vijaya Vilas Palace. The balcony at the top affords a superb view of the surrounding area. The tiny intricate windows gives one feeling to be out in open, through which cool sea wind passes out.
The campus also houses a Chhatri of Vijayaraji, who died in 1948, to whom this palace was very dear.


Vijaya Vilas Palace has its own private beach which offers air-conditioned tented accommodation. The royal family of Kutch State now reside permanently in the palace, who earlier used it only as a summer resort. It was after the 2001 Gujarat earthquake in which one of the wings of their other palace at Bhuj - the Ranjit Vilas - was heavily damaged, they moved into Vijaya Vilas Palace. The Palace also houses a museum.


Scenes from the Bollywood blockbusters Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Lagaan, Commando as well as a number of Gujarati films, were shot in the palace.


The Villa Avenue Train Station is one of two former Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad (CA&E) stations in Villa Park, Illinois. The building was also used as an office by the Western United Gas and Electric Company. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, it is now the home of the Villa Park Historical Society Museum.


The station is a Tudor Revival structure built between August and November 1929. The station replaced two smaller waiting rooms on the east side of Villa Park. The western portion of the station served passengers, while the eastern portion functioned as a Western United Gas and Electric Company office. Both the railroad and the utility company were owned by utilities mogul Samuel Insull. Realtors Ballard & Pottinger would offer free railway trips to the station on Sundays to show off properties in the local region. The station was across the street from the American Ovaltine factory, the largest employer in the village. Villa Park eventually became the largest commuter customer for the railroad. Villa Avenue Train Station closed on July 3, 1957, due to the decline of the CA&E. On August 22, 1986, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today the station is the headquarters of the Villa Park Historical Society Museum. It is one of only four CA&E stations still standing. Today it is found along the Illinois Prairie Path, which was constructed along the former CA&E right-of-way.


The building was designed by Arthur U. Gerber, staff-architect of Samuel Insull who owned the CA&E at the time. The single-story building is rectangular, measuring 28 by 104 feet (8.5 m × 31.7 m). A gable roof covers the waiting room section and the portico. The roof includes a limestone chimney and synthetic shingles. Window and door frames are made of wood. Walls are built with wood, stucco and limestone. The southern elevation features a 4-foot (1.2 m) limestone wall topped with two rows of limestone blocks. The western portion includes a stone-arched window with mullioned casements. The eastern half has three high square windows. The three gables are half-timbered and stuccoed.


Villa La Pietra is a renaissance villa in the hills outside Florence, in Tuscany in central Italy. It was formerly the home of Arthur Acton and later of his son Harold Acton, on whose death in 1994 it was bequeathed to New York University. The villa is now home to NYU Florence.


Villa La Pietra was bought and somewhat modified in the 1460s by the Florentine banker Francesco Sassetti. In 1545 or 1546 it was sold to the Capponi family. The villa was given its present form in the seventeenth century by the cardinal Luigi Capponi, possibly with the assistance of Carlo Fontana. During the brief period from 1865 to 1871 when Florence was capital of the Kingdom of Italy, the villa was used as the embassy of Prussia.
In 1903 Arthur Acton, an Anglo-Neapolitan art dealer, rented it after his marriage to Hortense Mitchell, the daughter of John J. Mitchell a banker from Chicago, Illinois. With money from her family, the couple bought the villa in 1907.
The villa contains the art collection assembled by the Actons, which reflects twentieth-century Anglo-American taste. It is used for didactic purposes by New York University. The collection includes works from the circle of Giotto, Romanesque sculptures, a relief of the Virgin and Child by Donatello, and fifteenth-century tapestries made for the de' Medici family.
Between 1905 and 1930 the gardens of the villa were substantially altered by the Actons, only the walled lemon garden to the north-west of the villa remaining mostly unchanged since the time of Luigi Capponi. The Actons laid out a formal Baroque Italian garden with extensive stonework, including almost two hundred statues, many of them by the Venetian sculptors Orazio Marinali and Antonio Bonazza, brought to Florence from the villas of the Brenta. The gardens were restored in the early years of the twenty-first century.


Charles de Noailles was born in 1891, his wife Marie-Laure in 1902.  They were married in 1923. Before their marriage, they became friends of artist-filmmaker Jean Cocteau, and Noailles commissioned a portrait of his wife by Pablo Picasso in 1923.
In 1923, they signed a contract with the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens to build a summer villa in the hills above the city of Hyères.  Construction took three years, and eventually also included a triangular Cubist garden designed by Gabriel Guevrekian.
The main artists noticed at the Salon des artistes décorateurs of 1924 for their integrated furniture were commissioned. The decoration included furniture bought or made specially for the villa, by Mallet-Stevens himself with his armchair « Transat » created for the swimming pool, by Djo-Bourgeois, Francis Jourdain, Pierre Legrain, Pierre Chareau, Jean Prouvé, Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand, Dominique (Marie André Domin), Sybold van Ravesteyn and Theo van Doesburg from De Stijl, the Wassily Chair of Marcel Breuer, or from the brands Smith & Co and Ronéo, as well as textiles by Raoul Dufy and Sonia Delaunay, luminaires by Jean Perzel, ironworks by Claudius Linossier, stained glass by Louis Barillet and pieces of art : sculptures by Jean and Joël Martel, Henri Laurens, Constantin Brâncuși, Alberto Giacometti, Jacques Lipchitz, paintings by Mondrian or Braque, etc.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the couple were important patrons of modern art, particularly surrealism; they supported film projects by Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, and Luis Buñuel;  and commissioned paintings, photographs and sculptures by Balthus, Giacometti, Constantin Brâncuși, Miró, and Dora Maar. Villa Noailles features prominently in Man Ray's film Les Mystères du Château de Dé.
In 1940 the villa was occupied by the Italian Army and turned into a hospital.  From 1947 until 1970, the villa was the summer residence of Marie-Laure.  She died in 1970, and the house was purchased by the city of Hyères in 1973. Charles de Noailles died in 1981. The villa is now used as an arts center and for special exhibits.
James Lord was a guest there in the mid-fifties. In his book Picasso and Dora: a memoir he writes: "...an undistinguished cubist extravaganza of reinforced concrete set atop a high hill, within the ancient walls of a Saracen fortress. It had been designed in the late twenties by a fashionable architect named Mallet-Stevens, contained something like fifty rooms and was surrounded by a large garden." He recalls the room, where Marie-Laure tried to seduce him: "...a large salon at Saint-Bernard which had no windows but was lighted from above by a bizarre cubist skylight which occupied almost all the ceiling, adding to the sense of existing outside time in a stranded ocean liner." The beauty of the location did not help, however, the "redoutable viscountess" in conquering his chastity.


The Villa del Trebbio is a Medici villa in Tuscany, Italy.


The villa is located near San Piero a Sieve in the Mugello region, in the province of Florence, in the area from which the Medici family originated.  It was one of the first - if not the first - of the Medici villas built outside Florence.  The estate is situated on a strategic position in the Apennines, on the top of a hill dominating the Val di Sieve, near a crossroads (giving rise to its name, from the Latin trivium).
The villa belonged to Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, the founder of the Medici bank and of the fortunes of the Medici family.  Following his death in 1429, it was remodelled by his son, Cosimo de' Medici, whose architect, Michelozzo, restyled it as a fortified castle.  Michelozzo retained the windowless tower, moat and drawbridge, and added a perimeter walkway with corbels.  There is a central courtyard with a well.
The villa remained essentially a fortified house, but various features indicate its secondary purpose as a place of pleasure, including an early walled garden, built on two terraces beside the villa.  The upper terrace has a stone pergola, with a double row of columns; a similar pergola has disappeared from the lower terrace.  The garden was a place of retreat for Cosimo, away from the troubles of politics in Florence, where he could tend his fruit trees.
On the other side of the villa stands a chapel. The villa was surrounded by woods and an agricultural estate, bordering that of the Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo.
In the sixteenth century the villa was enlarged by Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who enjoyed hunting in the estate, and his son Ferdinand I.  Ferdinand II sold the estate to a wealthy Florentine, Giuliano Serragli, in 1644, who gave it to the Oratorians.
The garden to the front of the villa, with roses and box hedges, was laid out in the twentieth century.
As of 2008, it belongs to a private individual who uses the property to produce fine wines.  Wine tasting and tours are available to interested groups in English and Italian.


Sint Petrus Church (also called Sint-Pieter beneden), in Neo-Romanesque style


In common parlance, the neighbourhoods of Jekerdal, Villapark and Sint Pieter are all perceived as constituting Sint Pieter.


In 1146, 12 Cistercian monks and three lay brothers from Clairvaux came to Villers in order to establish the abbey on land granted them by Gauthier de Marbais. After establishing several preliminary sites (Villers I and Villers II), work was finally undertaken in the 13th century to build the current site. The choir was constructed by 1217, the crypt by 1240, and the refectory by 1267. The church itself took 70 years to build and was completed by the end of the century.
During this period, the abbey reached the height of its fame and importance.  Contemporary accounts suggest that roughly 100 monks and 300 lay brothers resided within its walls, although this is possibly an exaggeration.  The lands attached to the abbey also expanded considerably, reaching some 100 km² of woods, fields, and pasturage.
Decline set in during the 16th century, tied to the larger troubles of the Low Countries.  Spanish tercios, during the campaign of 1544, did considerable damage to the church and cloister, both of which were partially restored in 1587.
In the early 17th century, Crisóstomo Henríquez wrote the history of the abbey.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the abbey's fortunes continued to diminish. The number of monks and the abbey's wealth dwindled, and it was finally abandoned in 1796 in the wake of the French Revolution.


Further degradation to the site occurred in 1855, when the railway line between de Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve and Charleroi passed through the old abbatial grounds.
In 1893, the Belgian state purchased the site and launched a conservation effort. Classed as an official historic site in 1973, the abbey has subsequently enjoyed considerable restoration, and the remains of the abbey along with numerous outbuildings can still be seen, including the cloister, refectory, kitchens, dormitories, and brewing house.  Since 1992, the site has been maintained by the Association pour la Promotion Touristique et Culturelle de Villers (APTCV).
The church, although in ruins, is an outstanding example of Cistercian architecture, with imposing vaulting, arches, and rose windows.
The abbey now hosts an annual choir festival "Nuit Des Choeurs" in which a number of choirs sing a variety of music - classical through to gospel, jazz and pop arrangements - from different parts of the grounds over successive nights, culminating in a fireworks display and centre stage concert.


Vilnius University Library or VU Library (also VUL) is the oldest and one of the largest academic libraries of Lithuania. It was founded in 1570 by the Jesuits and as such is nine years older than Vilnius University. VU Library holds 5.4 million documents on shelves measuring 166 kilometres (103 mi) in length. The holdings, accessible to members of the university and wider public, include some of the oldest manuscripts, incunabula and engravings in Lithuania and Eastern Europe. At present the library has 36 thousand users.
Vilnius University Library consists of the Central Library which is situated near the Presidential Palace, the Scholarly Communication and Information Centre in Saulėtekis and libraries of faculties and centres that are scattered all around the city.


Invited by Bishop of Vilnius Walerian Protasewicz, the Jesuits came to Vilnius in 1569. On 17 July 1570, they established a college and a library. The core of the library consisted of the collections of the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Sigismund Augustus and suffragan bishop of Vilnius Georg Albinius. The library of Sigismund Augustus contained the best of classical works, travelogues, historical books, chronicles, and literature on natural science, law, military, and medicine published in the 16th century. It included the Bible translated by Martin Luther, works by Euclid and Claudius Ptolemaeus, the first edition of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium by Nicolaus Copernicus, and many other works.
Privileges issued by King Stephen Báthory on 1 April 1579, converted the Vilnius Jesuit College into a university, and the library into a university library. In 1580 Bishop Protasewicz bequeathed several thousand books to the library upon his death. Many of Lithuania's clergy and the nobility also donated books to the library.
During the 200 years of Jesuit rule at the university, the library collection grew from 4,500 volumes (in 1570) to 11,000 volumes (in 1773). A series of wars, fires and plunders prevented the library from growing further and a great many of its books ended up in libraries in Russia, Poland, Sweden and elsewhere.
After the suppression of the Jesuit Order in 1773, the Commission of National Education took on custody of the Vilnius University. In 1781 the University was renamed Head School of Lithuania. Its academic course altered, and the library fund was replenished with books on natural science and medicine.


After the Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, the greater portion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, including its capital Vilnius, became part of the Russian Empire. In 1803 the Head School of Lithuania was renamed the Vilnius Imperial University. By the 1820s, Vilnius University ranked among the leading universities in the Russian Empire; the revival of academic research had a positive effect on the library as well. In 1804 professor Gottfried Ernest Groddeck was appointed the head of the library. He succeeded in making it accessible to the public. A Lending Department was opened in 1815, and university staff and students, officials of the educational districts, and gymnasium teachers were allowed to borrow books. The library was moved to the Small Aula, which had a ninety-seat reading room. Groddeck initiated the compilation of an alphabetic and later a systemic card catalogue. Compared with other libraries in the Russian Empire, the Vilnius University Library had attained the most advanced European standards at that time.
After the November Uprising, Tsar Nicolas I closed the university on 1 May 1832. A large part of library's collection was taken from Vilnius and distributed to various academic institutions in Russia. There were unsuccessful attempts 1834 to establish a public library with the remaining books from the university library. In 1856 the Antiquities Museum and a reading room began to function under the auspices of the Archaeological Commission. In 1865 they were converted into the Vilnius Public Library and Museum. The library was given nearly 200,000 volumes of valuable books and manuscripts from the collections of schools, cloisters, and private libraries that had been closed after uprisings in 1831 and 1863. By 1914 the Vilnius Public Library contained more than 300,000 books and ranked 4th among the libraries in the Russian Empire. It was devastated during World War I, and books were once again transported to Russia.


Vilnius University was reopened by Poles on 11 October 1919, and renamed in honor of Stephen Báthory. Though it had been plundered, the library retained a fairly large collection. During World War II, the library suffered again from plunder and fire. The destroyed university and its library needed rapid restoration after the war. Reading rooms were installed and bibliographical activities soon organized. The library managed to retrieve approximately 13,000 of its valuable publications.
The Vilnius University Library witnessed the following significant events during the period of 1945–1990: the 400th anniversary of the library and the university (in 1970 and 1979 accordingly), the building of two new book depositories, and founding of new departments. The early book collections needed restoration, and Jurgis Tornau, then director of the library, undertook to establish the Department of Restoration in 1968. The library acquired the Department of Graphic Arts in 1969. At the end of the 1960s a decision was made to safeguard integral collections from various donors in the main library depository.


The library has an electronic catalogue since 1993, accessible via the Internet since 1994.
In 2000 VU Library together with other Lithuanian libraries started to subscribe to various databases, and EBSCO, a universal database of full-text documents, came first.
On 1 December 2001 a user service sub-system enabling placing a request for an item via electronic catalogue from any study space equipped with computer was introduced in the library.
In 2003 the library became the seat of Vilnius Bookbinders Guild (established in 1664) and the library's bookbinder Cezar Poliakevič was elected as its Chairman.
In 2005 an information centre "Odysseus" for people with disabilities was opened for the first time in the history of Lithuanian academic libraries. The first Media Collection has been started at the Central Library of Vilnius University in 2006.
In 2006 refurbishment of premises of the Central Library was started,
In 2006 a technical project for the new library building in Saulėtekis Valley was completed, a concept of the Scholarly Communication and Information Centre was being developed.
On 26 March 2009 a tripartite agreement was signed between the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania, the Central Project Management Centre and Vilnius University on financing and management of new Vilnius University Library building “National Open Access Scholarly Communication and Information Centre” (SCIC). The new building was opened on 6 February 2013 and the SCIC became the first building at the Saulėtekis Science and Technologies Valley.


The library provides services for the academic community of Vilnius University, all citizens of the Republic of Lithuania and foreign subjects. Academic materials can be borrowed only by members of academic community of Vilnius University, whereas registered users over 16 can borrow fiction and books for leisure.
Besides traditional services, the library offers users some unconventional ones such as booking of study spaces or premises, guided tours or 3D printing. The library is supplied with special software for visually and physically impaired.
Users can search for resources using virtual library. Study spaces or premises can be booked through internet, with help of which users can browse the library's digital collections, virtual exhibitions, or even take a virtual tour.


The Rare Books Division has accumulated over 170 thousand items from the 15th through the 21st century. It is the largest depository of old books in Lithuania equaling the most famous libraries of Eastern Europe. The library's holdings contain the largest collections of incunabula (328 items, one of the earliest incunabula is Roberto Valturio De re military (Concerning Military Matters, Verona, 1472), one of the largest collections of post-incunabula (around 1.7 thousand items) in Lithuania and the richest in the world collection of early printed Lithuanian books (including the first printed Lithuanian book by Martynas Mažvydas, Katekizmas by Mikalojus Daukša, works by Baltramiejus Vilentas); especially valuable old atlases (1.2 thousand items) and maps (around 10 thousand items); book collection of the Old Vilnius University Library – Bibliotheca Academiae Vilnensis (it includes books from collections of Sigismund August, Sapieha family, Georg Albinius, Walerian Protasewicz, Michał Kazimierz Pac, Eustachy Wołowicz, university professors and eminent figures of Lithuania).[3]
The Manuscripts Division contains more than 325 thousand items in various languages of the world as well as autographs by eminent scholars and cultural figures of Lithuania and the world, members of royal families and rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The major part of materials is related to Vilnius University and its history. The division contains personal archives of former and current professors and researchers of the University, collection of dissertations and final papers, materials collected in ethnographic and local history investigation expeditions, archives of societies and associations, special collections (parchments, photographs, music sheets, architectural drawings and blueprints, land layouts, autographs, collection of newspapers from 1988–1993 National Renaissance Periodicals.
The Division of Graphic Arts  has around 92 thousand items in its collection. The most significant part of the collection (around 12 thousand prints) covering the period from the 16th to the 19th century.


At first the hall was an almost square chapel with a vaulted ceiling, rising upwards through the second and third floors. The centre of the vaults was taken up by a panel with a painted portrait of St. Stanislaus Kostka, the guardian of students. The chapel was built at the end of the 17th century according to designs of Tomasz Zebrowski. After the dissolution of the Jesuit Order the hall was used by the Department of Paintings. The hall was divided into two floors during the first quarter of the 19th century. For a long time the third floor was home to the Art Department, and the workplace of famous artist Jan Rustem. In 1929, professor Joachim Lelewel bequeathed a valuable collection of books and atlases to the library; they were transferred from Kurniki to this hall, which was then named in his honour and commemorative exhibition was arranged.


The history of the White Hall is part of the history of the old observatory (founded in 1753) of the Vilnius University. The observatory was designed and built by Lithuanian architect and astronomer, VU professor, Tomasz Zebrowski. Funds for the building were donated by Ignacy Ogiński and his daughter Elżbieta Ogińska-Puzynina, whose particularly generous contribution of 200,000 Polish złoty gained her the title of the observatory patron.
The observatory was composed of the White Hall, the Small Hall, two slender three-storey square towers, and two small single-storey towers. Six massive Baroque pillars, girded with ornamental cornices divide the White Hall into three parts. An oval opening in ceiling appears to connect the White Hall with the Small Hall above it, and thereby conveys the Baroque concept of infinite space. A remarkable portrait of King Stanisław August Poniatowski is positioned in the centre of the tympanum. The portrait is surmounted by allegorical figures of the sitting women representing Diana and Urania. Diana holds a portrait of benefactress Elżbieta Ogińska-Puzynina, while Uriana has a wreath of stars in her hands.
At the end of the 18th century, Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt built an extension to the observatory, designed by architect Marcin Knackfus in the Classical style. The extension housed a large quadrant and other instruments. The White Hall contained not only astronomical equipment but also a valuable library with works on astronomy, mathematics, physics, geography, architecture, and other subjects taught at the university. The books were kept in 12 cupboards in niches between the windows. The hall was decorated with approximately 30 oil paintings of prominent individuals and university scholars. The observatory was seriously damaged by fire in 1876 and closed in 1883. During the time of the Public Library of Vilnius, the White Hall was used as a book depository. It was reopened in 1997 after 10-year renovation. A unique collection of ancient astronomical instruments, including globes made in Amsterdam in 1622 as well as globes made in 1750 and dedicated to King Stanisław August Poniatowski, is displayed in the White Hall. Now it houses the Professor's Reading Room and plans are made to arrange a museum of the university's history.


The Philology Room occupies the second floor above the Hall of Franciszek Smuglewicz. At first the room was the assembly hall of the Jesuit Academy, later it was converted into a library. When the library was transferred to the present Small Aula in 1819, the room housed a museum of mineralogy. After the university was closed, the hall belonged to the Museum of Antiquities from 1855 to 1865. In 1945, the hall was converted into the General Reading Room for the Vilnius University Library. The hall has once again been newly restored, according to a project by architect Aldona Švabauskienė. The parquet floor was restored according to the surviving samples from the mid-19th century. The 17th-century vaults have been preserved, but their decorations of plaster-work were painted over at the beginning of the 20th century, and now the room is devoid of embellishments. In the end of 2010 the hall was converted into the Philology Reading Room.


The Scholarly Communication and Information Centre (SCIC) is a subdivision of Vilnius University Library situated in the Saulėtekis Science and Technologies Valley. Four faculties, two centres, namely Centre for Physical Sciences and Technology, and Life Sciences Centre as well as other institutions are located in the Valley. Distinguishing itself by modern environment, SCIC works 24 hours a day and 7 days a week providing around 800 study spaces. Users are offered with special reading rooms, rooms for individual or group work, seminar rooms, a conference hall equipped with modern technologies, a playroom designated for children, 3D printer, special laboratories supplied with assistive technologies for visually impaired. Relaxation zones and a café also serve the needs of users.
The most advanced technologies are applied for the library's maintenance and book transportation systems. Underground storage and technical floors have modern book transportation, security and fire extinguisher with mist spay systems.
The library's building was designed by Rolandas Palekas, a winner of the Lithuania National Award. In 2013 the Ministry of the Environment acknowledged the Scholarly Communication and Information Centre one of the best architectural creations in the field of urbanistic and architecture.


Vinohrady Water Tower (Czech: Vinohradská vodárna) is a building in Vinohrady in Prague 10 which was originally built as a water tower. Today its architecture is acknowledged as culturally important although it is now converted to accommodate offices and apartments. The viewing platform at the top is 40 metres above the street level.


The Vinohrady water tower building was created in 1882 to house steam engines and an underground reservoir. The engines pumped water up from the reservoir, creating a gravitational feed to nearby homes and businesses. Antonin Turek designed the building while he was the municipal architect.
The seventh floor originally contained a tank that could hold 200 cubic metres of water. Initially this was pumped from the River Vltava until 1912, when the water source was switched to a plant at Káraný. The water descended from the tank to supply Strašnice, Žižkov and Vršovice with drinking water.
In 1914 the tower's steam engines were replaced with electric motors. The revised system used water that was treated at a plant at Podolí and then stored in water tanks underground before being pumped to the top of this tower for use.


Today its architecture is acknowledged to be of national historical importance, even though the building serves no modern purpose for water supply, as the motors, pumps and pipes have been removed. In 1993, the inside was converted to accommodate offices and apartments. The viewing platform at the top is 40 metres above the street level – once this provided a commanding view of the area, but today it is only slightly taller than the tenements that surround the tower.  On each corner there are the statues of angels with clock faces between them. Below the clocks are four medallions celebrating Vinohrady. In 1991 the tower was recognised as being of cultural importance and was listed by the Czech Ministry of Culture.


The trams started in Prague with the horse drawn network extending to Vinohrady in 1883. In 1891 electrification was gradually introduced. The line from Vinohrady to Prague had 15 stations in a route that was less than six kilometres long. The unification of the trams into one company was not complete until the twentieth century and electrification was complete in 1905.
A memorial plaque and sculpture were installed in 2010 to record the place where the last trolleybus in Prague left for its final journey on 15 October 1972.
The buildings were part of the tram system until 1933 but it was then used for temporary storage since then.
The building was opened as part of European Heritage Days in 2012 where visitors can see the buildings which still date from 1897.


The Vishvanatha Temple is a Hindu temple in Madhya Pradesh, India. It is located among the western group of Khajuraho Monuments, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The temple is dedicated to Shiva, who is also known as "Vishvanatha" (IAST: Viśvanātha), meaning "Lord of the Universe".
The temple is believed to have been commissioned by the Chandela king Dhanga, and was probably completed in 999 CE or 1002 CE. Its architectural style is similar to that of the older Lakshmana Temple and the newer Kandariya Mahadeva Temple. It features several sculptures of various deities, surasundaris (celestial maidens), couples making love, and mythical creatures.


A dedicatory inscription, now affixed to the porch of the Vishvanatha temple, provides information about the construction of a Shiva temple by the Chandela king Dhanga. The original date of the inscription is read variously as 1056 VS (999 CE) or 1059 VS (1002 CE).
The inscription mentions that Dhanga's descendant Jayavarman had it re-written in clear letters in 1173 VS. It states that Dhanga constructed a magnificent Shiva temple with two lingas (symbols of Shiva). One linga – Marakateshvara ("Emerald Lord") – was made of emerald. The other linga – Pramathanatha ("Lord of Pramathas or goblin-like spirits") – was made of stone. The inscription appears to have been issued after Dhanga's death: it states that after living for more than a hundred years, Dhanga attained moksha by abandoning his body in the waters of Ganga and Yamuna. Unlike some other Chandela temple inscriptions, it does not mention the Pratihara overlords of the Chandelas. This suggests that the Chandelas were no longer vassals of the Pratiharas by this time. The bit about the emerald linga (possibly an emerald-studded linga) also supports this theory. According to the Puranas, a jewel-studded linga is an appropriate donation to be made upon the fulfilment of a desire. This suggests that Dhanga built the temple after attaining a high political status as a sovereign.
Based on this inscription, scholars believe that the temple was completed in 999 CE or 1002 CE. However, according to art historian Shobita Punja, the temple referred to in this record may or may not be the Vishvanatha temple. According to her, there is a possibility that Dhanga built two temples, one with a stone linga and another with an emerald linga.
The inscription names Chhichha (or Chiccha) as the architect of the temple. It states that the temple's torana (gateway) was designed by Vishvakarma (the patron deity of architects), who had entered the architect's body.


The Vishvanatha temple is characteristic of the Central Indian architectural style that begins with Lakshmana Temple (c. 930–950 CE) and culminates with the Kandariya Mahadeva Temple (c. 1030 CE). These three temples represent the most fully developed style at Khajuraho.
The Vishvanatha site was designed as a panchayatana complex, which comprises one main shrine surrounded by four smaller subsidiary shrines. However, only two of the smaller shrines now survive. The main shrine is oriented towards the east. Nandi Temple, the shrine to its east is dedicated to Shiva's mount Nandi, whose 2.2 m high statue faces the main shrine. The shrine in the south-west is dedicated to Shiva's consort Parvati. The Parvati temple is partially damaged, with only its sanctum (garbhagriha) and roof (shikhara) surviving. The sanctum houses an idol of Parvati standing on an iguana.
The main shrine is an example of the nagara style: it contains an entrance porch (ardha-mandapa), a small hall (mandapa), a large hall (maha -mandapa), a vestibule (antarala), and a sanctum (garbhagriha) with a roof tower (shikhara). All these are located on a base with several sculptures. The stairs leading from the base to the porch are flanked by lions on one side, and elephants on the other side. The rectangular plan of the main shrine measures 27.5 metres (90 ft) x 13.7 metres (45 ft).
The sanctum has a stone linga; the emerald linga mentioned in the inscription is missing. The linga is surrounded by a passage for parikrama (circumambulation). The sanctum has balconies on three sides for light and ventilation.
Sandstone is the main building material used in the structure.


The base of the temple has several niches with sculptures of the Saptamatrikas (seven goddesses), Shiva's consort Parvati and a dancing Ganesha.
The exterior portion above the base has three bands featuring sculptures of various deities, surasundaris (female figures) such as apsaras, and mythical creatures. The surasundaris are shown performing various day-to-day activities, such as applying sindoor (vermilion powder) to their foreheads and kohl to their eyes, wringing their hair after bathing, playing flute, plucking thorn from their feet, dancing, admiring themselves in a mirror, dressing or simply posing provocatively. Their hairstyles, patterned garments, ornaments and expressive faces are noticeable in these sculptures.
The parikrama passage in the sanctum features what Ali Javid and Tabassum Javeed call the "most striking carvings of females in Khajuraho". One figure shows a surasundari playing a flute, with her body slightly bent sideways, exhibiting the contemporary ideal of the female body. Another figure, which is partially damaged, shows a damsel in a dancing pose. One sculpture shows a mother holding her baby: she is slightly bending sideways to let her baby sit on her hip. Another one shows a female lifting her left foot behind her, and applying dye on it. Yet another one shows a maiden trying to tie her bra behind her back, as the twisted body accentuates her curves.
The north and south walls of the temple feature erotic reliefs. The junction of the vestibule and the sanctum features a variation of the famous "acrobatic sex" sculpture at the newer Kandariya Mahadeva temple. Like the Kandariya sculpture, this one also features a couple supported by two women, but in this sculpture, the man is on the top. The woman at the bottom fingers the woman on the left with one hand, while her other hand rests on the ground for support. Some sculptures feature men indulging in bestiality, as women cover their eyes.
The interior features faceted pillars in all the rooms. The ceiling and the brackets supporting it are intricately carved. However, the bracket figures in the large hall are now badly worn.


Various interpretations of the erotic sculptures have been proposed. Colonial arts administrator Ernest B. Havell considered these as a product of a decadent phase in the Hindu society. A contrasting view is that these are Kamashastra-inspired artistic tradition of a broad-minded society.
Vidya Dehejia, a professor of South Asian Art at Columbia University, states that these sculptures depict the rites of the Kaula and Kapalika sects. These sects believed that only those who can resist the sensual temptations can achieve salvation. To realise whether one can rise above such temptations, one had to experience them while remaining unaffected. Thus, these sects provided a theological excuse for the over-indulgent Chandela rulers to engage in "the most debased practices".
According to the Indian art historian Devangana Desai, the erotic sculptures at Vishvanatha and Kandariya Mahadeva Temples served the following functions:
These sculptures have a deeper, hidden meaning: they represent a "yogic-philosophic concept", using sandhya-bhasha (metaphorical code language). The tantrikas (tantra practitioners) used such language to avoid exposing their practices to the general public.
These figures conceal a yantra used for worship.
The figures of couples having sex (maithuna) are present at the juncture walls that connect the sanctum to the hall. These were believed to magically protect the monument at its most vulnerable part.
The erotic sculptures can give pleasure to the non-initiatied visitors to the temple.
Fred Kleiner, a professor of art and architecture at Columbia University, believes these sculptures symbolise "fertility and propagation of life and serve as auspicious protectors" of the sacred temple. Margaret Prosser Allen, a University of Delaware academic, mentions that the erotic sculptures depict the aim of human life: the union with the universal being. This depiction is based on the belief that the universe is a result of the "cosmic union of male and female elements".


The Vista Chinesa (Chinese Belvedere) is one of the belvederes of Rio de Janeiro, at the topmost of one of the roads that connect the Jardim Botânico area to the Parque Nacional & Floresta da Tijuca, known as the Estrada da Vista Chinesa.


Estrada da Vista Chinesa skirts the Mesa do Imperador viewpoint and at the Morro da Vista Chinesa (380m/1247ft) runs into Estrada Dona Castorina. From the top of the hill there are views of the Municipal Park, the botanical garden and a long stretch of the south coast.


The men's and women's 2016 Olympic cycling  road course started at Fort Copacabana and included the Vista Chinesa Circuit.   This course sector features 2 of the 4 climbs in the 2016 route layout. The circuit ran clockwise from the Estr. da Gávea, first for the Canoas climb (Estr. das Canoas), then the Vista Chinesa climb (Estr. da Vista Chinesa) before descending back to Av. Niemeyer (the coastal stretch which connects the circuit to the main route).
The men's road race included three laps of the 25.7 km (15.9 mi) circuit for a total of 77.1 km of the 241.5 km race distance. The women's competition had one lap as part of their 141 km race distance.


Vivestad church (Vivestad kirke) is located in Vivestad parish in Tønsberg municipality in Vestfold of Telemark, Norway.
After the local parish church which had dated to 1628 burned down, the present church was built between 1913–14. The new church was built in wood and consecrated during 1914. The architectural design was by Carl Berner (1877-1943). The baptismal font, altarpiece and pulpit  date from the original church.
The two church bells were cast at Olsen Nauen Bell Foundry in 1911–1913. In the 1970s, Vivestad church underwent major exterior repair.


The Voss Line (Norwegian: Vossebanen) is a railway line from Bergen to Voss in Vestland, Norway. It opened on 11 July 1883 and was extended to Oslo as the Bergen Line on 27 November 1909. It was built as 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge, but converted to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge with the connection with the Bergen Line. It was electrified in 1954, and shortened by the Ulriken Tunnel in 1963.
In addition to carrying long-haul passenger and freight trains on the Bergen Line, it is the main part of Bergen Commuter Rail. The Old Voss Line, the section from Arna to Bergen, has become a heritage railway.


The first documented idea of building a railway between Norway's two largest cities was launched by Voss forest supervisor Hans Gløersen on 24 August 1871 in the Bergensposten newspaper. He suggested building the railway via Voss and Hallingdal to connect with the Krøderen Line. Back in 1866 he had launched the idea of the Jæren Line. Within days of the launch of the Bergen Line the city council had garnered support. In 1872 the railway director Carl Abraham Pihl and two engineers went on a survey tour to look at the suggested line. At the time it was common that proposals for railways came from local initiatives, and that local municipalities and private investors would then pay about 20% of the investments, the state covering the rest, mostly through foreign debt.


On 20 October 1871 two engineers traversed the two possible routes from Bergen to Voss; via Fana, Os and Hardangerfjord; and via Dale and Sørfjord. Though covering a less populated area, the latter would be cheaper to build, and have less elevation. A railway committee was created on 25 January 1872 with a limited mandate, which was increased on 20 December. At the same time there was a dispute between the Ministry of Labour and Pihl about whether to prioritize the Bergen Line, but in July 1872 surveys were performed in person by Pihl and two engineers, and their report was positive. At the same time he launched the idea of a branch line up Valdres to Lærdal.
By 1873 agreement had been reached as to the right-of-way to Voss, but not onwards towards Oslo. On 13 January 1874 Bergen city council started issuing stock for the Voss Line, and to begin with 400,000 Norwegian speciedaler (NOK 1.6 million) was issued. In the 1873 parliamentary election railway supporter Peter Jebsen was elected, spending the next few years furiously defending the railway. Parliament did not endorse new railway projects in the 1874 session, instead making a complete plan for all railway construction, to be proposed by a committee. When the report was launched on 20 March 1875, the Voss Line was not included since it could not show a higher profitability than 1%. During the 1875 session there was not a majority for the Voss Line, partially due to the lack of capital available for local investors. This was based on a claim from Johan Jørgen Schwartz, the chairman of the committee, that the investment costs were underestimated. This was countered by Nils Henrik Bruun, a constructor from Bergen, who was willing to construct all the tunnels for less than the budgeted sum. When Jebsen in addition was willing to act as personal guarantor for Bruun in case of his death, the majority in the parliament shifted. On 9 June 1875 parliament voted 61 to 42 to build the line.


On 27 November 1909 the Bergen Line opened from Voss to Hønefoss, and the Voss Line lost its independent status. The Bergen Line was built to standard gauge, so the line from Bergen to Voss had to be converted for the opening of the Bergen Line. This was especially challenging because of the continuous traffic on the line, with 36 departures per day to Nesttun, six to Garnes and four to Voss. In preparation a few curves had to be straightened, the tunnels widened and the bridges strengthened. On the night of 10/11 August 1904 all the track was changed and in the morning the trains could operate on standard gauge to Voss.


Norway is a country with abundance of hydroelectricity and NSB saw huge amounts of money burned with imported coal. Plans for electrification of the line are as old as the railway itself, and in 1912 the line from Nesttun to Bergen was proposed electrified and doubled, having seen the Thamshavn Line open with electric traction in 1908. During the planning of the Hardanger Line and the Flåm Line during the 1930s the suggestion again arose, and both the branch lines were built with electric traction, but not the main line. Counter suggestions were raised proposing a conversion to the locomotives running on oil or coal dust. In 1939 a plan for national electrification was launched, and the Voss Line was top priority. But the outbreak of World War II set the plans back, and not until the 1950s was it again possible to afford such investments. Electric traction came into use on 2 July 1954.


NSB operates a commuter rail service from Bergen with two-hourly departures to Arna plus 14 daily departures to Voss, of which up to six continue to Myrdal. Rolling stock is Class 69 multiple units. The first part to Arna represents an important part of the public transport in Bergen, since the rail line through the Ulriken mountains is considerably faster than driving around.


Parts of the closed sections of the line, from Midttun to Garnes, has been converted to a heritage railway—the Old Voss Line—that is operated with steam trains by the Norwegian Railway Club during the summer.
The Flåm Line branch has been converted to a tourist route. The railway has spectacular scenery and a vertical descent of 864 metres (2,835 ft) or 5.5% along the 20 kilometres (12 mi) route from Myrdal to Flåm. It is operated by NSB, but marketed by Flåm Utvikling. El 17 locomotives haul B3 carriages, all painted green.


The Vuache is a range of hills in eastern France, close to the border with Switzerland (the nearest city is in fact Geneva). To the north lies the Jura and to the south the Alps.
At their northern end, the hills drop steeply down to the River Rhône. The Vuache Tunnel, carrying the A40 Geneva to Lyon motorway, cuts through the hills.
The oak woodlands along the northwest edge of the Vuache support very high densities of western Bonelli's warblers, and Eurasian eagle owl nest on the cliffs here.


Würzburg Cathedral (German: Würzburger Dom) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, dedicated to Saint Kilian. It is the seat of the Bishop of Würzburg and has served as the burial place for the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg for hundreds of years. With an overall length of 103 metres, it is the fourth largest Romanesque church building in Germany, and a masterpiece of German architecture from the Salian period. Notable later additions include work by Tilman Riemenschneider and Balthasar Neumann. The cathedral was heavily damaged by British bombs in March 1945 but rebuilt post-World War II.


The present cathedral was built from 1040 onwards by Bishop Bruno of Würzburgis. It likely was the third church on the site: the previous two, built in about 787 and 855, were respectively destroyed and severely damaged by fire. After Bruno's accidental death in 1045, his successor Adalbero completed the building in 1075. Due to several rebuildings, notably after 1133, the cathedral was only consecrated in 1187. This church already had the strong cross lay-out still present today: a long nave with a high choir, the broad transept and the two narrow western towers.
After 1237, the originally lower eastern towers were raised, showing features of early Gothic style.
The side aisles were remodelled in about 1500 in the late Gothic style. The stuccoist Pietro Magno decorated the cathedral in Baroque stucco work in 1701-04.
In 1721-34, Balthasar Neumann built the burial chapel for the Schönborn bishops, north of the transept. Around the foot of the eastern tower, he also added a Baroque vestry and Ornatkammer (1749).
Additional changes made to the western façade and towers in 1879-85 (see picture of the cathedral in 1904) were removed after 1946.
The greater part of the building collapsed in the winter of 1946 in consequence of the fire bombing of Würzburg on 16 March 1945. Reconstruction was completed in 1967, in the course of which the Baroque components were removed in favour of a re-Romanisation. The new interpretation emphasizes the contrast between the surviving historical parts of the structure, resulting in a sometimes controversial combination of predominantly Romanesque with modern and Baroque elements. The Romanesque Revival west front with a rose window, the tripartite gallery and the opening for the clock were combined during the reconstruction with a plain pumice stone wall, and revealed again during renovation work up to November 2006. In 1988 the choir was redesigned by Hubert Elsässer.
The stucco ceiling that had collapsed in 1946 was not rebuilt, but replaced by a flat wooden ceiling.


With a length of 103 metres, the cathedral is reckoned to be the fourth largest Romanesque basilica in Germany.


1. Trellis by Markus Gattinger (1750/52; outermost wings 1967)
2. Gottfried of Spitzberg (d 1190)
3. Bishop Gottfried III von Hohenlohe (d 1322)
4. Bishop Manegold von Neuenburg (d 1303)
5. Bishop Otto II von Wolfskeel (d 1345; by the so-called Wolfskeel Master)
6. Three kings with the Madonna
7. Bishop Wolfram von Grumbach (d 1333)
8. Bishop Johann II von Brunn (d 1440)
9. Bishop Albrecht II von Hohenlohe (d 1372)
10. Bishop Gottfried IV Schenk von Limpurg (d 1455)
11. Bishop Rudolf von Scherenberg (d 1495; by Tilman Riemenschneider)
12. Bishop Melchior Zobel von Giebelstadt (d 1558; by Peter Dell the Younger)
13. Bishop Lorenz von Bibra (d 1519; by Tilman Riemenschneider)
14. Bishop Friedrich von Wirsberg (d 1573)
15. Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (d 1617; by Nikolaus Lenkhart)
16. Chancel
17. Bishop Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen (d 1622)
18. Ferdinand von Schlör (d 1924)
19. Choir and apse in stucco relief
20. North transept altar and Provost's Altar (by Pietro Magno 1704)
21. Provost Faust Franz Ludwig von Stromberg (d 1673; by Johann Philipp Preiss)
22. Portal to the sacristy
23. Bishop Gerhard von Schwarzburg (d 1400)
24. Lothar Franz von Schönborn (d 1729)
25. Altar of Mary Magdalene
26. Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn (d 1724)
27. Fresco of the Resurrection (by Byss)
28. Door to the Schönborn Chapel, with angel (by Curé)
29. Bishop Friedrich Karl von Schönborn-Buchheim (d 1746)
30. Altar of the Pietà
31. Bishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn, also Archbishop of Mainz and Bishop of Worms  (d 1673)
32. Bishop Conrad von Bibra (d 1544; by Peter Dell the Elder)
33. Altar of Our Lady
34. Dean Johann Konrad Kottwitz von Aulenbach (d 1610; by Zacharias Juncker)
35. Crypt entrance and exit
36. Bishop Konrad von Thüngen (d 1540; bronze plate)
37. Bishop Conrad von Bibra (d 1544; bronze plate)
38. Bishop Lorenz von Bibra (d 1519; bronze plate, by Hans Vischer and Peter Vischer the Elder)
39. Erasmus Neustetter known as Stürmer (d 1594; bronze plate)
40. Johann Philipp Fuchs von Dornheim (d 1727; bronze plate)
41. Richard von der Kere (d 1583; bronze plate)
42. Albrecht von Bibra, dean of the cathedral chapter (d 1511; bronze plate)
43. Gg. von Giech (d 1501; bronze plate)
44. Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg (d 1631; bronze plate)
45. Bishop Franz Ludwig von Erthal (d 1795)
46. Gg. Anton von Stahl (d 1870)
47. Johann Valentin Reissmann (d 1875)
48. Franz Josef von Stein (d 1909)
49. Adam Friedrich Gross von Trockau (d 1840)
50. Georg Karl von Fechenbach (d 1808)
51. Bishop Christoph Franz von Hutten (d 1729)
52. Mural of Saints Felix, Regula and Exuberantius
53. Bishop Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim (d 1779)
54. Peter von Aufsess (d 1522; bronze plate)
55. Johann von Guttenberg (d 1538; bronze plate)
56. Erasmus Neustetter known as Stürmer (d 1594; bronze plate)
57. Johann Konrad Kottwitz von Aulenbach (d 1610; bronze plate)
58. Bishop Melchior Zobel von Giebelstadt (d 1558; bronze plate)
59. Bishop Friedrich von Wirsberg (d 1573; bronze plate)
60. Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (d 1617; bronze plate)
61. The Death of Mary (sculptural group)
62. Neithart von Thüngen, Bishop of Bamberg and Provost of Würzburg (d 1598; by Hans Juncker)
63. Apostles' Altar (three statues by Tilman Riemenschneider 1502/06)
64. Bishop Konrad II von Thüngen (d 1540; by Loy Hering)
65. Moritz von Hutten (d 1552)
66. Dean's Altar (by Pietro Magno)
67. Georg Heinrich von Stadion (d 1716)
68. Bernhard von Solms (Lich) (d 1553)
69. Doorway to cloister
70. Heinrich Truchsess von Wetzhausen (d 1548)
71. Jakob Baur von Eiseneck (d 1621)
72. Paul Truchsess von Wetzhausen-Unsleben (d 1528)
73. Burial chapel
74. Jakob Fuchs von Wonfurt (d 1558)
75. Heinrich von Seinsheim (d 1360)
76. Ebbo (?) (10th century)
77. Master of the cathedral school (late Gothic)
78. Crucifixion Group (1763)
79. Friedrich von Brandenburg (d 1536)
80. Old cathedral school gate 1565
81. Saint Kilian (1720, by Esterbauer)
82. Wall painting fragments of Christ and Mary, and of Mary and Saint John the Evangelist
83. Door to the cloister and two late Gothic coats of arms (Scherenberg and Grumbach)
84. Johann von Grumbach (d 1466)
85. Johann von Egloffstein (d 1411)
86. Johann Vitus von Würtzburg (d 1756; bronze plate)
87. Vitus Gottfried von Wernau (d 1649; bronze plate)
88. Sebastian Echter von Mespelbrunn (brother of bishop; d 1575)
89. Martin von der Kere (d 1507; bronze relief), and Konrad Friedrich von Thüngen (d 1629; bronze relief)
90. Pillar of Jachin, 11th century
91. Pillar of Booz, 11th century
92. Bronze baptismal font by Master Eckard of Worms, 1279
93. Pietà (c. 1410)
94. Heraldic fragment of gravestone of Provost Daniel von Stibar (d 1555)
95. Gravestone of Johann Philipp Echter von Mespelbrunn (d 1665)
96. Fragment of gravestone of Lorenz Truchsess von Pommersfelden (d 1543)
97. Dean Franz Christ. von Rosenbach (d 1687; by Sebastian Betz)
98. Johann Philipp Ludwig Ignaz von Franckenstein (d 1780; by Franz Martin Mutschele)
99. Saint John the Evangelist (by Tilman Riemenschneider)
100. Coat-of-arms of the Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn (d 1673)
101. Grave of Tilman Riemenschneider (copy of original tombstone)


The main organ was built in 1969 by the organ builders Klais. There is a second organ for the choir, and a third is planned for 2010.


The cathedral today has 20 bells, with a total combined weight of 26 tons.
The largest is the Salvator Bell with a diameter of 2.3 m and weighing in at 10 tons. Of the old bells only the Lobdeburg Bell, by Cunradus Citewar of Würzburg, the most prominent bellfounder of his time, dates from 1257. Because it was taken down in 1933 and stored in the crypt, it is the only ancient bell of the cathedral to have survived the firestorm caused by the bombing of 16 March 1945. It now hangs in the south-west tower and is rung every Friday at 3:00 p.m., to mark the hour of the death of Jesus Christ.
All the other bells melted and the liquid metal ran down into the basement of the towers, where the stored cathedral treasure was destroyed.


The Wachenburg (German: [ˈvaxn̩bʊʁk] (listen)) is a castle on a hill overlooking Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was built between 1907 and 1928 by the Weinheimer Senioren-Convent, a Corps of former students. The castle contains a restaurant with a nice view of the country.


The Waldo Grade is a highway grade between the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin City along U.S. Route 101 and State Route 1.  It is defined as the stretch of roadway between the Spencer Offramp and Marin City, within the city of Sausalito.  This grade is traversed by a full freeway multi-lane highway facility. This portion of US 101/SR 1 is an important link in surface transportation connecting the city of San Francisco to Marin County and the North Bay.  Nearby locations to the Waldo Grade include: the city of Sausalito, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model, The Marine Mammal Center and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It, and nearby Waldo Point along Richardson Bay between Sausalito and Mill Valley, is named after 1850s California politician William Waldo.


On January 4–5, 1982, the freeway was completely closed for 24 hours as a result of two landslides on the Waldo Grade caused by a severe storm in the San Francisco Bay area, and partially closed for nearly two weeks.
The first landslide was on January 4, with rock, mud and trees falling onto the highway blocking the southbound lanes and two of the northbound lanes.
A second debris avalanche began about 50 feet (15 m) below the freeway at about 9:35pm on January 5, in fill material that had been stable since highway construction in 1953. The slide first carried away a house on Sausalito Boulevard, and then destroyed a house below it at 85 Crescent Avenue, killing resident Sally Baum. Three hundred residents were evacuated to a Red Cross shelter.
A crack developed in the roadway and, concerned that the highway might fail, CalTrans engineers closed all northbound lanes for twelve days while the road was reinforced with vertical pilings. The closure cut Marin County off from the San Francisco Peninsula. Thousands of Marin County residents were stranded in San Francisco who could not figure out how to get to Marin by using the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge I-580 or the bus lines that serve Marin from the East Bay. Some of the earth from the landslide was later transported to Mill Valley to create a building pad for the Shelter Point office complex.


The tunnel is featured in the Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry and the Humphrey Bogart film Dark Passage.  The honking of horns in the tunnel, often done deliberately for the sake of hearing the echoes, was the inspiration for harmonicist Bruce "Creeper" Kurnow's composition "Honk If You Love Harmonica."
In the film Bicentennial Man (starring Robin Williams), a futuristic view of a relocated highway bypasses the historic Waldo Grade.
At the beginning of the 2015 Pixar film Inside Out, the main character's family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. Their first view of the Golden Gate Bridge - and the film's title card - appear as they emerge from the Robin Williams Tunnel, with real-life geography slightly altered to bring the bridge closer to the tunnel exit.


The Waldspirale is a residential building complex in Darmstadt, Germany, built in the 1990s. The name translates into English as forest spiral, reflecting both the general plan of the building and the fact that it has a green roof. It was designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, planned and implemented by architect Heinz M. Springmann, and constructed by the Bauverein Darmstadt company. The building was completed in 2000.


The Waldspirale apartment building is located in Darmstadt's Bürgerparkviertel. It contains 105 apartments and a parking garage. In the past, the topmost part of the building has had restaurants, cafes and bars for people to visit. Currently, there are no open amenities for visitors. The inner courtyard contains a playground for the children of the residents and a small artificial lake. Peculiarities of the U-shaped building are the unique facade, which does not follow a regular grid organization, and the windows, which appear as if they were "aus der Reihe tanzen," (dancing out of line) everywhere different and appearing out of order, often with 'tree tenants' – trees growing out from the windows. The diagonal roof, planted with grass, shrubs, flowers and trees, rises like a ramp along the U-form. At its highest point, the building has 12 floors.


The windows of the Waldspirale, which number over 1000, are all unique: no two windows are the same. Similarly, different handles are attached in each apartment to the doors and windows. Some of the apartments are decorated in Friedensreich Hundertwasser's personal style and exhibit the colourful tiles in the bath and kitchen that are characteristic of his work. Furthermore, all the corners are rounded off in these apartments along the roof and walls in an application of Hundertwasser's dogma "gegen die gerade Linie" or "against the straight line." For cost reasons, only a few of the apartments' interiors were designed individually.
From the outside, the typical elements of Hundertwasser's personal style attract attention: the gilded onion domes, the absence of straight lines and sharp corners, the multicoloured painting of the building in earth tones and the colourful ceramic columns.


The visual arts program has been a part of the Walker Art Center since its founding. The program includes an ongoing cycle of exhibitions in the galleries as well as a permanent collection of acquired, donated, and commissioned works. Since the 1960s, the Visual Arts program has commissioned works from artists to exhibit and held residencies for artists including Robert Irwin, Glenn Ligon, Barry McGee, Catherine Opie, Lorna Simpson, and Nari Ward.
The Walker's collection represents works of modern and contemporary art, especially focused after 1960. The Walker's holdings include more than 13,000 individual pieces including books, costumes, drawings, media works, paintings, photography, prints, and sculpture. In 2015, the Walker celebrated the 75th anniversary of its founding as a public art center with a yearlong exhibition, Art at the Center: 75 Years of Walker Collections. Some collection highlights include:
Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait
Franz Marc, Die grossen blauen Pferde (The Large Blue Horses)  This painting has been removed from the exhibit and there are no current plans to display it.
Edward Hopper, Office at Night
Yves Klein, Suaire de Mondo Cane (Mondo Cane Shroud)
Goshka Macuga, Lost Forty
Andy Warhol, 16 Jackies


Live performance art is a major part of the Walker's programming and it is seen as a leader in exhibiting the medium. In 1940, the Walker began presenting local dance, poetry, and concerts, largely organized by volunteers. By 1963, this group had become Center Opera, the Walker's performing arts program focused on exhibiting new works emphasizing visual design. In 1970, Center Opera disbanded from the Walker and became Minnesota Opera. The same year, Performing Arts was officially designated as a department of the Walker Art Center.
Since the 1960s, Performing Arts at the Walker has commissioned 265 performance works. In addition, the department programs a 25-show season every year that includes performances ranging from performance art, theater, dance, spoken word and music. It is one of the largest performing arts programs of its kind found in a museum in the nation. A number of artists have long histories working with and performing at the Walker, most notably choreographers Bill T. Jones, Meredith Monk, and Merce Cunningham, for whom the Walker staged the retrospective Life Performs Art in 1998. As a longtime associate of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the Walker was able to acquire 150 art objects central to the company's history from the Cunningham Foundation in 2011. The agreement included sculptures, sets, costumes and other works by artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.


The Walker Art Center maintains a professional, in-house design and editorial department to fulfill its various communication needs. The department is responsible for the design and editing of all printed materials, including the creation and planning of publications such as exhibition catalogues, bi-monthly magazines, and books, as well as exhibition and event graphics, signage programs, and promotional campaigns.
Additionally, the department organizes design-related projects and programs, such as lectures, exhibitions, and special commissions. Over the course of its 60-plus year history, the department has organized many important exhibitions on architecture and design, and has served as a vital forum for contemporary design issues, bringing hundreds of world-renowned architects, designers, and critics to the Twin Cities through programs such as the Insights design lecture series, which celebrated its 30th year in 2016. During the 1940s, the Walker built two "idea houses" exhibiting the latest in building materials, furnishings and architectural design trends.
From the late 1960s until the early '90s, the museum's design curator Mildred Friedman helped conceive and stage exhibitions on, among other topics, the Dutch avant-garde movement De Stijl, the design process at the Modernist furniture company Herman Miller, the history of graphic design, and traditional and contemporary Japanese arts, crafts and culture. For more than 30 years, the Walker has also offered the Mildred S. Friedman Design Fellowship, a yearlong program for young designers.


The Walker's New Media Initiatives group (renamed Digital Media in 2017) oversees mnartists.org, an online database of Minnesota artists and organizations that provides a digital gathering place for the local arts community. Through a partnership with the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Walker manages ArtsConnectEd, an online resource for arts educators that draws from both institutions' permanent collection resources.
In 1998, the Walker acquired äda'web, an early net art website curated by Benjamin Weil and designed by Vivian Selbo. The first official project of äda'web went up in May 1995, although it had been informally active since February of the same year.
In 2011, the Walker website was relaunched as a newsstyle website that features essays, interviews, and videos by both Walker staff and guest writers, as well as curated news links about global art and culture. The relaunch was met with positive reviews around the art world.


Learning is emphasized as a core experience at the Walker through a mix of education programs, community building efforts, and interpretive projects. The department conducts community, family, interpretive, public, school, teen, and tour programs, as well as mnartists.org. Each division offers programs and activities in visual art, performing arts, film/video, new media, design, and architecture. To inform these undertakings, the staff work with Walker curators and partners from local organizations, artists, schools, and community groups. Advisory groups such as the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council, Tour Guide Council, and the Parent Advisory Group are also implemented in the department for the Walker to further build relationships with its audience.


The Walker's long history of publishing includes the production of exhibition catalogues, books, and periodicals as well as digital publishing. From 1946 to 1954, it published the Everyday Art Quarterly; in 1954, the publication changed its name to Design Quarterly and "shifted its emphasis away from consuming design to understanding design's impact on society and its processes and methods of practice and inquiry." It was discontinued in 1993. The Walker's in-house design studio has created countless exhibition catalogues dedicated to the art of Marcel Broodthaers, Trisha Brown, Huang Yong Ping, Kiki Smith, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, and Krzysztof Wodiczko, among many others, as well as books on design, architecture, social practice, and other topics in contemporary art. In 2011, the Walker redesigned its homepage as an "idea hub," a news-magazine format that presents original interviews, videos, commissioned essays, scholarly writings, and newslinks. The publishing-forward homepage was hailed as a "game-changer, the website that every art museum will have to consider from this point forward" (Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes) and "a model for other institutions of all kinds" (Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic). The site won Best of the Web awards at the 2012 Museums and the Web conference, including "Best Overall Site" and "Best Innovative/Experimental Site." It also won a gold MUSE Award for "Online Presence, Media & Technology" from the American Alliance of Museums. In 2017, the homepage was redesigned, and the Walker's digital publishing was rebranded under the title Walker Reader, a magazine landing page that aggregates original content from the Walker's five verticals.


Located on a 17-acre urban campus, the Walker Art Center's 260,000 square foot, 8-story building encompasses 10 art galleries along with a cinema, theater, shop, restaurant, and café, along with other special events spaces and lecture rooms.
The original building was designed by New York-based architect Edward Larrabee Barnes and opened in May 1971. Barnes designed the building in the minimalist style of the period with a plain, modular brick exterior and expansive white spaces in the interior. The structure is a unique arrangement of galleries that spiral up around a central staircase and open onto rooftop terraces. The Walker's architecture gained critical acclaim upon its opening and Barnes was awarded the American Institute of Architects Award for his work.
In 2005, Barnes' original building underwent a $67 million expansion designed by Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. The addition was built on a "town square" concept meant to open up Barnes' boxlike building through accessible gathering spaces. Its central element is an abstract geometric tower made of aluminum mesh panels, built for Herzog & de Meuron by the Minnesota firm Spantek, and glass windows that holds the theater, restaurant, and shop spaces. Windowed halls containing expanded gallery and atrium spaces connect the tower to the original structure.
In the summer of 2015, the Walker announced a plan to unify the Walker and the surrounding
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Key features of the renovation include a new entry
pavilion for the Walker, a new hillside green space, the Upper Garden, and the reconstruction of the 26-year-old Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, a partnership with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. The project also implements green-roof technology, rainwater reclamation systems in the Garden, and the addition of hundreds of new trees throughout the campus. The Walker renovation was completed in November 2016, with the Garden reopening to the public in spring 2017.


The Walker Art Center began with Minneapolis businessman Thomas Barlow Walker, who held one of the largest art collections in the nation. In 1879, he dedicated part of his home to exhibiting the art to the public for free. In 1916, Walker purchased the land now known as Lowry Hill to build a museum for his growing collection. His museum, the Walker Art Galleries, was opened on May 21, 1927.
In 1939, the Minnesota Arts Council was granted control of the building on Lowry Hill, along with its art collection, in order to create a civic art center. With the assistance of the Works Progress Administration, building improvements were made and the Walker Art Center opened in January 1940. Daniel Defenbacher, who led the Federal Art Project's Community Art Center program, left the WPA to become the first director of the Walker Art Center. Around this time, the Walker officially began its focus on modern and contemporary works of art.
The Walker's current building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes was opened in 1971 and expanded in 1984. Minneapolis Parks and Recreation partnered with the Walker Art Center to establish the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on the Walker's campus in 1988.
Opened in April 2005, the most recent building expansion nearly doubled the size of the Walker Art Center. The expansion, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, included an additional gallery space, a theater, restaurant, shop, and special events space.
In June 2017, the opening of the gallery's art garden was delayed due to protests over Sam Durant's sculpture Scaffold.
Timeline
1879 – Lumber baron Thomas Barlow (T.B.) Walker opens the first public art gallery west of the Mississippi at his residence on Hennepin Avenue in Downtown Minneapolis
1927 – Walker Art Galleries opens in Minneapolis, on the current Walker Art Center site.
1940 – Funded by 1939 Works Projects Administration (WPA) grants, Walker Art Galleries becomes the Walker Art Center. Under its first Director, Daniel Defenbacher, it began to add modern and regional art to the eclectic collection gathered by T. B. Walker. It opens to the public with exhibitions Ways to Art, Parallels in Art, and Trends in Contemporary Art, signaling its new interest in Modern Art. Defenbacher and his wife Louise Walker Defenbacher collaborated on Design Quarterly, which showcased good modern design in housewares and furniture. Spring Dance Festival, organized by Gertrude Lippincott, is the first performance event at the Walker.
1942 – Franz Marc, Die grossen blauen Pferde (The Large Blue Horses) (1911) is the Walker's first acquisition of Modern Art.
1946 – Everyday Art Gallery, curated by Hilde Reiss, opens as the first exhibition space dedicated for design in a U.S. museum. Everyday Art Quarterly (later renamed Design Quarterly) begins publication as the first U.S. museum journal on design.
1948 – Edward Hopper, Office at Night (1940) acquired.
1950 – Walker art school closed. Defenbacher replaced as Director by H. Harvard Arnason.
1954 – Georgia O'Keeffe, Lake George Barns (1926) is acquired.
1963 – Walker Art Center establishes the Center Opera Company, which later becomes the Minnesota Opera. Guthrie Theater opens adjacent to the Walker. John Cage, with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, presents first Walker performance.
1964 – Dominick Argento's Masque of Angels performed by the Center Opera Company as first Performing Arts commission.
1967 – Andy Warhol 16 Jackies (1964) acquired.
1969 – Major acquisitions include Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait (1967–1968)
1970 – Performing Arts Department is formed.
1971 – New Walker Art Center opens, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes.
1972 – Film/Video Department is established.
1976 – The Walker becomes a public institution; T.B. Walker Foundation establishes museum endowment.
1978 – Laurie Anderson performs as part of the Perspectives series, copresented with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Summer Music & Movies in Loring Park begins.
1988 – Minneapolis Sculpture Garden opens, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes. Commissioned works include Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's Spoonbridge and Cherry (1985–1988)
1989 – Out There series of experimental performance art and theater begins.
1990 – Regis Dialogues, a series of film retrospectives and interviews with noted filmmakers and actors, begins with Clint Eastwood and James Ivory.
1992 – Minneapolis Sculpture Garden expansion opens.
1996 – New Media Initiatives Department is formed with Gallery 9, a web site for net art, launches with Piotr Szyhalski, Ding an sich (The Canon Series) (1997), the first new-media commission.
1998 – Charles Ray, Unpainted Sculpture (1997) acquired.
Art Performs Life: Merce Cunningham/Meredith Monk/Bill T. Jones, a multidisciplinary exhibition, celebrates the Walker's long-term relationships with the artists. ArtsConnectEd, a web site featuring the collections of the Walker and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, launches.
2002 – mnartists.org, a joint project of the Walker and the McKnight Foundation, launches.
2005 – Newly expanded Walker Art Center, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, opens in April.
2012 - Walker Art Center holds the first Internet Cat Video Festival
2015 - The Walker breaks ground on its renovation of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden


The Walker Art Center is supported in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota Legislature from the State's general fund and its arts and cultural heritage fund. To ensure the Walker's creative independence, then-director Kathy Halbreich forswore millions of dollars in potential state aid for the museum's $73.8 million expansion in 2005, a decision that resulted in a one-year salary freeze, some staff cuts, and the elimination of the Walker's new-media art program.
In 2011, the Walker Art Center reported net assets of $243 million. Its annual expenses were $22 million, and its endowment was at $152 million. The museum director's compensation is at around $375,000.


As of 2011, total attendance was at about 590,000 visitors, out of which 22% were Teen and Youth Visitors.


Daniel Defenbacher, 1940–1951
Harvey Arneson, 1951–1961
Martin Friedman, 1961–1990
Kathy Halbreich, 1991–2007
Olga Viso, 2007–2017
Mary Ceruti, 2019–present


The Walsall Canal is a narrow (7 feet or 2.1 metres) canal, seven miles (11 km) long, forming part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, and passing around the western side of Walsall, West Midlands, England.


The canal runs from Ryders Green Junction where it meets the Wednesbury Old Canal and the Ridgeacre Branch and immediately drops through the eight Ryders Green Locks to the 408-foot (124 m) Walsall Level. At Doe Bank Junction (Tame Valley Junction) it meets the Tame Valley Canal and the very short Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch, now private moorings, which fed water to the Ocker Hill pumps to replenish the Wolverhampton Level. It passes northwards, past the junction of the derelict Gospel Oak Branch and under the West Midlands Metro line, passes the short Bradley Branch at Moorcroft Junction. In this area it passes the huge iron gates of the Patent Shaft factory, (these gates have now been resited to a traffic island by the bus station in Wednesbury) which remain despite the factory's closure in 1980. It then passes the short Anson Branch (which once led to the Bentley Canal, abandoned 1961) and under the M6 motorway just south of junction 10. The very short Walsall Town Arm at Walsall Junction leads into Walsall itself while the main canal rises through eight locks to meet the Wyrley & Essington Canal at Birchills Junction.
The canal starts at the Birmingham Level, descends 45 feet (14 m) to the Walsall Level, then rises 65 feet (20 m) to the Wolverhampton Level.


The canal was built in four distinct stages. It started life as the Broadwaters Extension to the Wednesbury Canal which opened in 1785 to serve collieries in Moxley. This section was authorised as a detached part of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal under that canal's original Act.
Meanwhile from the other direction, the Birchills Branch of the Wyrley and Essington Canal reached Bloxwich Wharf to the north-west of Walsall by 1798. (Much of this branch from Sneyd Junction was later subsumed into the new mainline of the Wyrley and Essington, when that canal was extended towards Huddlesford, leaving about 700 metres (2,300 ft) of the Birchills Branch as a stub.)
What was by then known as the Birmingham, Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company was authorised by the combined company's sixth Act of Parliament on 17 April 1794 to extend the canal from Broadwaters to Walsall. It allowed the Company to borrow £45,000, with which to construct the canal to Walsall and three branches to serve iron-stone and coal mines in the locality, all to be completed within three years. Construction began at Broadwaters and reached Darlaston by May 1798. The second phase of construction began in April 1798: excavation was completed in 1799 but the job remained unfinished in 1800.
The canal was mapped by John Snape (1737–1816) in 1808 and this was to be his last known map.
The small gap between the Birmingham Canal Navigations line to Walsall and the Wyrley and Essington Canal's Birchills Branch was of concern to businessmen to the north of Walsall, whose access to the south was by a very circuitous route. An independent canal to link the two was planned, but in 1839 the BCN agreed to build a connection. The Walsall Junction Canal was completed in March 1841, its 0.6 miles (0.97 km) containing eight locks and completing the through route.


The Walt Whitman Bridge is a single-level  suspension bridge spanning the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Gloucester City, in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. Named after the poet Walt Whitman, who resided in nearby Camden toward the end of his life, the Walt Whitman Bridge is one of the larger bridges on the east coast of the United States. The bridge is owned and operated by the Delaware River Port Authority.


Construction on the bridge began in 1953, and it opened to traffic on May 16, 1957. The bridge has a total length of 11,981 feet (3,652 m), and a main span of 2,000 feet (610 m). The bridge has seven lanes, three in each direction and a center lane that is shifted variably (via a zipper barrier) to accommodate heavy traffic.
The bridge is a part of Interstate 76 (which, between the river and the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, is known as the Schuylkill Expressway; this was originally part of Interstate 676's route until it switched positions with I-76 in 1972).  Along with the Benjamin Franklin Bridge (which carried I-76 until 1972, and has carried I-676 since), Betsy Ross Bridge, Delaware Memorial Bridge, Commodore Barry Bridge, and the Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge, the Walt Whitman Bridge is one of six expressway-standard bridges connecting the Philadelphia area with southern New Jersey.
The bridge was designed by noted civil engineer Othmar Ammann.  The Walt Whitman statue by Jo Davidson was placed at the intersection of Broad Street and Packer Avenue, in Philadelphia near the approach to the Walt Whitman Bridge.


A $5.00 one-way toll is charged to westbound passenger vehicles (less than 7,000 lb (3,200 kg) gross vehicle weight) traveling from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. A $12 credit used to be given on a per tag basis for any DRPA-issued E-ZPass tag that crosses one of the four DRPA bridges 18 times in a calendar month, this was removed during the bridge reconstruction budget increase. Trucks, commercial vehicles, mobile homes and recreation vehicles (weighing at least 7,001 lb (3,176 kg) gross vehicle weight) pay $7.50 per axle. Seniors aged 65 and over can use a ticket program to pay $2.00 per trip of their $2.50 toll. They can also apply to have the commuter discount applied through their E-ZPass account. There is no toll for eastbound vehicles traveling from Pennsylvania to New Jersey since 1992, when one-way tolls were instituted.


The Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum is a museum based in Walthamstow, north-east London, it is contained in and around Low Hall Pumping Station, a Grade II listed building, originally built as a sewage pumping station in 1885.
The museum focuses on the pioneering achievements in road, rail, air and sea transport in Waltham Forest and the surrounding area from the early 19th century. The museum displays various artifacts, including AEC Routemaster buses, a pair of Marshall C class steam engines, and various fire fighting vehicles.
Also included in the museum's collection is a decommissioned London Underground 1967 Stock Victoria line carriage that is frequently used as a film set, concert venue for Underground Lunchtime Recitals and as a supper club three nights per week.


The Wapizagonke Lake is one of the bodies of water located the sector "Lac-Wapizagonke", in the city of Shawinigan, in the La Mauricie National Park, in the region of Mauricie, in Quebec, in Canada.


With a length of 9.2 kilometers, the Wapizagonke lake is located near the west boundary of La Mauricie National Park in northern Shawinigan. Surrounded by mountains, this lake is a narrow shape and length is in the north-south axis. It drains through its southern end into the Shawinigan River, which flows eastward and then south to empty into the Saint-Maurice River.
Major lakes feeding the Wapizagonke Lake watershed are: Reid, Houle, Jodon, Anticagamac and Avalon.


The lake appears on the cards in 1852 under the name "Lake Pisagunk". Forestry workers identified him rather as the "lake Mistagance". Wapizagonke appear on the map in 1925 and is a variation of Ouapitagone in Montagnais, which meant according to Father Joseph-Étienne Guinard (1864-1965): "kind of very rare duck species". In Abenaki, the lake is named Wawibizagak and means "surrounded by the bush". Certain visitors named the lake under two names: "Island Lake" and "Lake Croche".


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Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter is a walkthrough exhibition and studio tour in Leavesden, South East England, owned by Warner Bros. and operated by their Studio Tours division. It is located within Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, in Watford, in southwest Hertfordshire, and houses a permanent exhibit of authentic costumes, props and sets utilised in the production of the Harry Potter films, as well as behind-the-scenes production of visual effects. The tour is contained in Soundstages J and K, which were specially built for the attraction, and is separate from the studio's actual production facilities.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London opened to the public in 2012 and has since welcomed up to 6,000 visitors a day during peak times. TripAdvisor reported that Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter has been the highest-rated attraction worldwide every year since the tour opened.


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As early as 2001, after the success of the first film, Warner Bros. were putting plans to build an attraction dedicated to the series in place and so began storing items from the films when they were no longer being used. Finally, in 2010, as the last film was nearing completion, Warner Bros. announced they would be purchasing Leavesden Studios and work on the tour began.
The tour's layout and overall presentation was designed by the Burbank-based Thinkwell Group in close collaboration with Warner Bros, as well as the actual filmmakers, including Production Designer Stuart Craig, Set Dresser Stephenie McMillan, Creature Designer Nick Dudman, Construction Manager Paul Hayes and Special Effects Supervisor John Richardson. It only includes sets, props and costumes that were actually created for or used in the production of the Harry Potter film series. Sets include the Great Hall, Dumbledore's Office, Diagon Alley, the Ministry of Magic, Gryffindor Common Room and Boys' Dormitory, Hagrid's Hut and a 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts Castle (used for exterior shots).


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Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter opened to the public on 31 March 2012. The opening event was attended by many of the Harry Potter film series cast and crew members, including Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch, Warwick Davis, David Thewlis, Helen McCrory, George Harris, Nick Moran, Natalia Tena, David Bradley, Alfred Enoch, Harry Melling, producers David Heyman and David Barron and directors David Yates, Alfonso Cuarón and Mike Newell. Since 2020, Harry Potter fans have been able to purchase bottled 'Butterbeer' exclusively at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour in London.


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Over a year since the opening of the tour (and almost twenty years after the complex was converted from aerodrome to film studios) the site was officially opened by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on 26 April 2013. On their royal visit they were accompanied by the Duke's brother Prince Harry and J. K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, who had been unable to attend the tour's grand opening the year before, amongst other illustrious guests. Several hundred beneficiaries of charities they all support were given exclusive invitations to the Studio Tour on the day of the royal visit. The royal entourage visited both the tour, meeting many of their beneficiaries, as well as the studios, where they saw some of the props and costumes from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, before conducting Leavesden's royal opening.


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Each tour session typically lasts three and a half hours, and the tour has the capacity to handle 6,000 visitors daily. Despite Warner Bros. being the studio behind Harry Potter, the tour is not styled as a theme park due to the fact that Warner Bros. sold the license to do so to Universal Studios. Instead, visitors get a chance to see up close the detail and effort that goes into a major feature film at the scale of the Harry Potter series.
Though the standard tour is self guided, allowing visitors to enjoy the tour at their own preferred pace, various guided tours are available at an additional cost. Visitors with some disabilities may find, however, that certain guided tours are available to them at no extra cost if they contact the tour in advance.
Diagon Alley is available to explore virtually on Google Maps Street View.
A shuttle bus system for tour goers operates between Watford Junction and the Studio Tour.


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Warner Bros. has continued to put on special features for the school holidays, such as Dark Arts and Animal Actors, at no extra cost to visitors. Some installations like the Wand Choreography Interactive and the inside of the No. 4 Privet Drive Exterior set have been so popular that they have remained after their respective features have closed.


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In January 2015, the attraction's first expansion was announced - a brand new Platform 9¾ section, where visitors are able to board the original carriages behind the Hogwarts Express steam engine used in the films. As with the rest of the attraction, the set was constructed and dressed by the original crew members who worked on the film - including Stuart Craig himself, who designed the new set exclusively for the tour (since these scenes in the films were actually shot on location in Kings Cross). The setup includes the steam locomotive used in the films GWR 4900 Hall class no 5972 Olton Hall (wearing Hogwarts Castle nameplates) and the British Rail Mark 1 carriage that appeared in the films, brought to life by John Richardson's special effects team. Finally a new green screen experience illustrates what working on the films is like from an actor's point of view. This section opened in late March 2015.


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The attraction's Forbidden Forest expansion opened in March 2017.


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In April 2019 the Gringotts Wizarding Bank expansion opened. It is the largest expansion to date, at 16,500 ft².


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The tour was warmly received by the press in the run up to its launch. Anita Singh of The Daily Telegraph described the model of Hogwarts Castle as "the highlight" of the tour.


Warnors Theatre is a historic theater located in downtown Fresno, California.  The 2,000-seat venue opened in 1928 as the Pantages Theater, after the name of its then owner, Alexander Pantages, and later, the Warner Theater  in 1929 after it was purchased by Warner Brothers. The name was changed again in the 1960s to "Warnors" to avoid trademark issues.
The theater was designed by B. Marcus Priteca, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


The theater features a unit orchestra (a pipe organ which includes numerous features and instruments, meant to be able to replicate sounds of a full orchestra with only one organist), which was manufactured by the Robert Morton Organ Company of Van Nuys, California and installed in 1928. The organ was to be used to accompany silent films. Around the same time the organ was to be installed, movies were beginning to include sound. The theater tried to cancel the order but the organ was installed anyway.  The organ has 14 ranks built with 1,035 pipes and a four-manual console with 720 keys, pedals and combination pistons.  The organ was used primarily for motion pictures until 1973.  Because of the cost of paying orchestra members, most accompanying orchestras were replaced with unit orchestras.
The Berlin Philharmonic gave a concert in the theater on November 15, 1956, under its new music director Herbert von Karajan.


The Warwick New York is a luxury hotel at 65 West 54th Street, near Sixth Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Constructed between 1925 and 1927, it is owned by Warwick Hotels and Resorts.


The 36-floor Renaissance Revival building was designed by Emery Roth in association with the architectural firm of George B. Post & Sons. The hotel's three-story base is covered with limestone and granite. The brown brick superstructure has two wings projecting to the street from the property line. The wings set back several times, receding into the main slab—itself thinning into a top tower after further setbacks. The overall shape of the structure has a strong vertical thrust.


William Randolph Hearst built the Warwick New York in 1926 for $5 million. Long catering to the elite, Hearst built the 36-story residential tower to accommodate his Hollywood friends as well as his mistress, the actress Marion Davies, who had her own specially-designed floor in the building.
The hotel's restaurant, Murals on 54, features the 1937 murals of American illustrator Dean Cornwell. The famed murals were fully restored following a 2004 renovation of the restaurant. The Warwick is also home to Randolph's Bar & Lounge, whose rosebud leitmotif references Hearst's purported nickname for Marion Davies.
The owner of the Warwick New York is Warwick Hotels and Resorts, which was founded in 1980 with the purchase of this hotel by its chairman, Richard Chiu.


According to the Warwick Hotel website, James Dean, Jane Russell, Elizabeth Taylor, Meyer Lansky, and Elvis Presley were frequent guests. Actor Cary Grant resided at the Warwick and lived in the hotel for 12 years. During The Beatles 1965 and 1966 Tours they stayed at the Warwick.
In September 2011 and 2012, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his delegation stayed at the Warwick for the UN General Assembly, which led to protests outside the hotel.


In the Mad Men season 4 episode, "Hands and Knees", Lane Pryce's father stays at the Warwick Hotel when visiting New York in August 1965.


The castle is quoted first time in a charter dated 1335 during a division of the Licthenberg family possessions. It is enfeoffed by these last ones to Guillaume de Born (or of Burne) in 1378. In 1398, during a Fehde, Wasenbourg is besieged by the gathered troops of the bishop and the city of Strasbourg. Afterward, it will be used as residence by the vassals of the Lichtenberg, notably Hofwart de Kirchheim ( 1407 ) and Simon de Zeiskam ( 1453 ).
With the extinction of the Lichtenberg lineage in 1480, it passes by inheritance to Simon Wecker IV of Two Deux-Ponts-Bitche. Seriously damaged during the Peasants' War in 1525, it will be raised from its ruins by Jacques de Deux-Ponts-Bitche in 1535.
In 1570, a quarrel of inheritance sets Linange against Hanau-Lichtenberg, both of them successors of Deux-Ponts-Bitche. Jean-Jacob Niedheimer, baillif of Hanau, takes advantage of it to occupy the place and assumes even the title of nobility "of Wasenbourg". The castle seems to have been saved during the War of Thirty Years (1618-1648) but will be finally dismantled by the troops of Louis XIV in 1677.
The site was outstandingly emphasized by recent works of consolidation and of restoration. The castle presents the peculiarity not to possess a keep. An 18 metre high, 14 metre long and 3 metre thick shield walloverhanging a deep ditch is enough to protect the lodging house towards the attack. A plate overhanging the entrance of the castle commemorates the visit of Goethe of 1771.
East of the lower yard raises a rock known as "le Wachtfelsen", testimony of a Roman worship dedicated to the god Mercury. Having crossed the lower yard, we penetrate into the enclosure wall itself. An oriel window overhangs the East wall of the castle. The access to the lodging house is made by a door in broken bow  overhung by a sculptured head integrated into a Gothic frieze.


The courthouse was designed by Augustus Knight of St. Paul, in the Italianate style.  When the courthouse opened in 1870, the county was doing a booming business in the lumber industry.  The courthouse reflected the county's wealth and overlooked the city from atop Zion's Hill.  The foundation is built of limestone, and the building has a brick facade and is topped with a prominent dome, cupola, and flagpole. It cost $60,000 to construct, equivalent to $1,163,286 in 2021.
When the county offices were moved to the new Washington County Government Center in 1975, efforts began to reuse the structure.  Restoration has been funded through donations from local businesses and community groups, as well as grants from foundations.  The historic courthouse is still in operation and serves as a gathering place and as a venue for community, cultural, and private events.  The mission statement states, "The purpose of the operation of the Washington County Historic Courthouse is to preserve, re-adapt, restore and interpret this historic landmark for current and future generations, especially those from Washington County."  To this end, the county works with local groups to preserve and maintain the courthouse and grounds, conducts tours and provides historic interpretation of the county's heritage.  The facility is also available for rental, which offsets some of the expenses of maintaining the structure.