This Old Main Bridge was built from 1473-1543 (a mere seventy years), to replace an earlier bridge which had been destroyed. Here’s a wider view of Würzburg, with the Old Main Bridge in the middle. The name of the river that flows through Würzburg is the Main, which is pronounced Read More …
For 466 years, from 1253 to 1719, the Prince-Bishops who ruled this part of Lower Franconia lived up in the (easily defendable) Marienberg Fortress overlooking Würzburg and the Main River Valley. It wasn’t until 1720 that one of them felt secure enough to start building the Residenz down in the Read More …
Neptune, the Roman god of the sea (Poseidon to the ancient Greeks), is featured in an elaborate set of fountains at the northwest corner of Place Stanislas, next to the Fine Arts Museum in Nancy. Details of these fountains were featured in the videos used in the opera production of Lully’s Read More …
The neo-classical Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) occupies the entire south side of Place Stanislas in Nancy. In the exact mid-point of the square is the statue of Stanislas himself, facing north. The statue, dated 1831, is dedicated to “Stanislas, the benefactor” from “the thankful Lorraine”. On the other side Read More …
Behind the modern façade of the Oldenburg City Museum (Stadtmuseum), three nineteenth-century villas contain art works and cultural history exhibits from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Two of these villas belonged to the wealthy art collector Theodor Francksen (1875-1914), who bequeathed the houses and his extensive art collection to Read More …
A claque, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, was a group of people who were paid to applaud certain singers or actors, and to boo others. This group of four statues, called The Claque, was created in 1987 by Guido Messer. The statues are now located by the Enz Read More …
In the night of July 30, 1943, a devastating fire-bomb attack destroyed large parts of Hamburg and started a huge fire-storm. The fire in this neighborhood was so intense that it consumed all the oxygen from the air, causing the people who had taken refuge in one of the underground Read More …
High above the city of Belfort, in front of a steep cliff and just below the citadel, is a large sculpture, the Lion of Belfort. This Lion is 21.5 meters long and 10.7 meters high, making it quite large but no longer one of the largest sculptures in the world, Read More …
The I. G. Farben building — seen here from the top of the Main Tower in 2004 — is one of the few large buildings in Frankfurt that was not bombed during the Second World War. Legend has it that General Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the building spared so he Read More …
Recently I took a different route than usual on my daily social-distancing bicycle ride and ended up at the new Westend Campus of the Goethe University, where I hadn’t been for several years. (I studied at the old campus of the same university here in Frankfurt nearly half a century Read More …