Waterloo Day

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium.

next episode: Willem & Maurits

Daguerreotype of Stern Lady (with Chatelaine?)

One of my dags, a 6th plate daguerreotype dating from the 1850s.

Although I am more interested in faces than jewelry, a lot of these old daguerreotypes display fascinating shiny gems (sometimes in the form of chatelaines), often highlighted by their gold tinting (see my collection of dags). Unfortunately this one is a bit blurry, but I appreciate her stern look! 

More old pics can be found on  Sepia Saturday...

next episode: waterloo

Amersfoort Day !

City view, 1588 (click to enlarge)

Amersfoort gained its city rights at June 12, 1259.

next episode: dag

Tatiana

Tatiana Romanov (June 10, 1897 – July 17, 1918) and her mother, ca. 1914 (Beinecke Library).

[more Tatiana]

next episode: Amersfoort

Conwy City Walls

Conwy is a town on the north coast of Wales.

 The city walls were build in the 13th century by King Edward I, as part of the conquest of Wales by the English.

next episode: Tatiana

Barcode Flag Of Europe

Proposal for a new flag of the European Union. 
Europe's 'diversity and unity' is represented as vertical stripes.

In 2002, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO, an independent part of OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), designed a new flag in response to European Commission President Romano Prodi's request to find ways of rebranding the Union.

The barcode comprised of 15 flags, arranged from west (left) to east.

The proposed new design was dubbed the "barcode", as it displays the colors of every European flag of the then 15 members. The described aim is "to portray Europe as the common effort of different nations, with each retaining its own unique cultural identity". Unlike the current flag, it would change to reflect new member states.

Updated barcode flag depicting 25 nations.

The joining of ten new members to the EU in 2004 resulted in a first official update of the barcode. It now depicts the flags of 25 members but was never officially adopted by the EU. However, in 2006 the  Austrian Government used the flag as the logo of its European Union Presidency.

next episode: Conwy

Waterloo Veteran of the Month: Monsieur Taria

Sergeant Taria, Grenadier of the French Imperial Guard 1809-1815, wearing the grenadier bearskin. Veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and survivor of the Russian campaign. This photo was taken in 1858, when he was at least 70 years old.

next episode: barcode flag

Maude Fealy

Maude Fealy

next episode: Monsieur Taria

blog tip: Adjust Size of Displayed Image

When you look at the HTML code of the image in your post it will look like this:

<a href="http://blogspot.com/v4cahi8WcKQ/s1600/imagename.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">

<img border="0" height="640" n4="true" src="http://blogspot.com/ /v4cahi8WcKQ/s1600/imagename.jpg" width="532" /></a>

The first statement determines where you will go when you click on the image. The second statement determines how large the image will be when shown in your blog post.

To change the size of the image displayed in your post, adjust the blue numbers, or add them to the HTML code when they are not there.

Make sure you're always downsizing an image, otherwise you'll loose resolution. To be sure you can first selected 'original size' by clicking on the image, and then add the desired height and width statements into the HTML code yourself.

Some upload sites like Blogger's Picasa use the red numbers, which are the maximum size of the image when it is loaded into you post. You can change this number in the second statement to make the image appear smaller; if the orientation of the image is landscape then the number will correspond to the width, in case of a portrait he number will correspond to the height. When you do this you can remove the blue statements. To remove all limitation use s0 (s zero) (make sure to remove the blue numbers first by selecting 'original size').

next episode: Maude

The Deserted City of Ani

Church of The Redeemer (source)

Ani (Armenian: Անի)] is a ruined and uninhabited medieval Armenian city-site situated in the Turkish province of Kars, near the border with Armenia. It was once the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom that covered much of present day Armenia and eastern Turkey.

The landscape today. The Church of The Redeemer is the white building at the right side. The Cathedral of Ani is the building at the left side of the photo (source)

Called the 'City of 1001 Churches', Ani stood on various trade routes and its many religious buildings, palaces, and fortifications were amongst the most technically and artistically advanced structures in the world. Between 100.000 and 200.000 people lived here at its prime, rivaling in importance with cities like Bagdad, Cairo or Constantinople. 

The remains of the huge Cathedral of Ani (two tourists are resting at the right side) (source)

Since it is located in the border region between The Ottoman Empire (Turkey), Persia (Iran) and Russia it suffered heavily from wars (and also from various earthquakes). The city was entirely abandoned by the middle of the 18th century. Today only a few buildings still (albeit just partly) stand.

city walls: the Kars gate (source)

birds eye view (source)

next episode: a tip

Saarland

Zurück zum Vaterland! 1935 Volksabstimmung Saarbrücken (Bernt Zander, 1935).

The Saarland is one of Germany's sixteen federal states. The capital is Saarbrücken and it has a population of 1 million inhabitants.

Saarland is located at the German-France border .

After WWI, under the Treaty of Versailles, the 'Territory of the Saar Basin' (with a wealth of coal deposits and large-scale industrial exploitation) was occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France for a period of fifteen years. Prior to its creation as a territory the Saarland did not exist as a unified entity. The inhabitants voted to rejoin Germany in a plebiscite held in 1935.

 

After WWII the Saarland was a French-occupied territory (the Saar Protectorate). In 1955, in another plebiscite, 68% of the voters rejected the independence offered by France, despite the public support of West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer for this plan. The rejection was interpreted as support  to join Germany, and so Saarland did on January 1, 1957.

next episode: Ani

Zwolle City Wall

Zwolle (2010 population: 120.000), a former member of the Hanseatic League, has some parts of their city walls beautifully restored. Zwolle is located 50 miles northeast of Amersfoort.

The Sassenpoort (late 14th - early 15th century) (source:albertscorner.web-log)

A piece of restored city wall  

Wijndragerstoren (Wine Carrier Tower) (photo by Michiel Verbeek)

next episode: Saar

The Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati

 Caspar Van Wittel  - A view of the Villa Aldobrandini from the Piazza Municipale at Frascati

Caspar Van Wittel (aka Gaspar Vanvitelli) (Amersfoort, 1653 - Rome, 1736). Click on the image for a larger version.

Streetview:

Grotere kaart weergeven

next episode: Zwolle