Johanneum

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Johanneum (Dresden Transport Museum)
Jüdenhof
Dresden, September 2024

“The Johanneum is a Renaissance building, originally desingated as Stallgebäude mit Harnischkammer because it was constructed as the elite part of the electoral mews. It was the first museum of modern times built in 1586-1588 and is located at the Neumarkt in Dresden. Today the Johanneum is home to the Dresden Transport Museum (Verkehrsmuseum Dresden), which displays vehicles of all modes of transport and their history. The Johanneum was built between 1586 and 1590 as Stallgebäude mit Harnischkammer, the elite stables of the adjacent Dresden Castle. The two halls on the building's ground floor provided space for 128 expensive riding-art horses imported in part from Italy. The stands for the horses were decorated with spectacular horse-paintings, modeled after the Sala dei cavalli in Mantua's Palazzo Té. In the stable, that was designed as a princely exhibition of elite horses, 35 rooms were lavishly decorated to contain horse and rider figurines, elaborate sleighs as well as an expensive arms collection of the Saxon Electors. Later also stuffed horses, a stuffed bear and wax figurines of the electors were exhibited. One of the exhibited horses, the Merseburger, became famous for its 8 m long mane.” (Johanneum, Wikipedia)

Basilica del Carmine

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Basilica del Carmine
Piazza Petrarca
Padua, May 2025

“The Basilica del Carmine is a 16th-century Roman Catholic church located on piazza Francesco Petrarca in Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. It was made a minor basilica in 1960 by pope John XXIII. The church and an attached monastery were founded by an order of Carmelite monks, hence the name. The order became established in Padua by the late 13th-century, and we have the first documentation of a church at the site by 1212. The adjacent monastery was refurbished in 1295, and the church was rebuilt in 1335 under the design of Lorenzo da Bologna. It was consecrated as Santa Maria del Carmine in 1446. In 1491, an earthquake nearly razed the building, requiring reconstruction in 1494. The bare brick facade only gained partial marble facing in the 18th-century; formerly, the facade had an open loggia. The church structure suffered various damaging events over the centuries, including another earthquake collapsing the roof in 1696; a fire during festivities burned the cupola in 1800; and two aerial bombardments hit the church, in 1917 and 1944.” (Basilica del Carmine, Wikipedia)

Dívka s amforou

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“Dívka s amforou” (Girl with an amphora) by Jaroslav Horejc, 1956
Nosticova zahrada (Nostic Garden)
Maltézské náměstí, Malá Strana
Prague, September 2024

“The ‘Girl with an amphora’ is a white marble sculpture in the exterior of the Nostic Garden, near the Čertovka canal in Lesser Town of Prague. It is a nude of a half-naked slender girl sitting on a stone and holding an amphora on her right shoulder. The author of the work in the Art Deco style is the Czech Prague academic sculptor Jaroslav Horejc (1886–1983). The sculpture is placed on a low sandstone block plinth. The work is in the care of the Gallery of the City of Prague. The first version of the work was created in 1938 and was made of plaster. Later, the author also created a bronze work and finally, in 1956, a marble version of the work was created. In 1980 or 1983, the work was placed in the Nostic Garden. In 2002, the work was restored.” (Dívka s amforou, Wikipedia)

San Bartolomeo a Ripoli

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Abbey of San Bartolomeo a Ripoli
Via di Ripoli
Florence, December 2024

"The Abbey of San Bartolomeo a Ripoli is located in the locality of Badia a Ripoli, in the municipality of Florence. ‘Badia’ is a popular contraction of the word abbey. In Florence and its surroundings there have existed five abbeys, located as if at the cardinal points of the city: to the north the Badia Fiesolana, to the west the Badia a Settimo, to the south the Abbey of San Miniato, to the east the Badia a Ripoli and in the centre the Badia fiorentina." (Abbey of San Bartolomeo a Ripoli, Wikipedia)

Edith Stein Memorial

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Edith Stein Memorial by sculptor Bert Gerresheim, 1999
Börsenplatz
Cologne, September 2024

“The memorial was created in 1999 by sculptor Bert Gerresheim and shows the different phases of Edith Stein's life: as a Jewish girl with the Star of David, as a philosopher searching for the truth and as a baptised Carmelite following Christ. Edith Stein's personal ordeal is depicted by the numerous shoe prints, shoes and concentration camp numbers, which also represent the countless people murdered in the concentration camps. Edith Stein was born on 12 October 1891 to Jewish parents in Breslau. Among other things, she studied philosophy, converted to Catholicism and worked as a teacher until she was banned from her profession. In 1933, she joined the Carmelite Order in Cologne and took the name Theresia Benedicta a Cruce. Due to her origins and her commitment against the persecution of Jewish citizens, she had to flee from the National Socialists to the Netherlands. Edith Stein and her sister Rosa Stein were arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered in the gas chamber on 9 August 1942. Edith Stein's willingness to make sacrifices for the Jewish people and the Catholic faith prompted Pope John Paul II to beatify her in Cologne on 1 May 1987. The canonisation then took place on 11 October 1998 in Rome.” (Edith Stein Memorial, Cologne Tourist Board)

Torre del Gardello

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Torre del Gardello
Piazza delle Erbe
Verona, May 2025

“The Gardello Tower is a medieval structure located in Verona, near the central Piazza delle Erbe. At the point where the Gardello tower stands, there was previously a tower house, most likely belonging to the Gardello family, from which it would have inherited its name. This tower was restored and raised in 1370 by Cansignorio della Scala, perhaps to a design by Giovanni da Ferrara or his son; the Scaliger prince had it erected, together with the bell clock that was installed there, to promote the prestige of the family and the city. With this intervention the building assumed its substantially definitive appearance, even if it underwent further work in 1626, when the structure was slightly raised by the construction of a truncated cone roof, which gave it its final height of 44 metres.” (Torre del Gardello, Wikipedia)

Heine-Denkmal

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Heine-Denkmal (Heine Monument) by Georg Kolbe, 1913
Friedberger Anlage
Frankfurt, September 2024

“The Heinrich Heine Memorial in the Wallanlagen park of Frankfurt am Main, built in 1913, is the first and only representative monument to the poet Heinrich Heine, who died in 1856 , in Germany. It was erected with the help of public funds and survived both the terror of the Nazi era and the Second World War largely unscathed. The bronze sculpture of a striding young man and a young woman seated at his feet, created by the sculptor Georg Kolbe, is an allegory of the youthfulness and lightness of Heine's poetry. The group of figures, a typical work of Art Nouveau, stands on a shell limestone base, to which a bronze relief, also designed by Kolbe, depicts the poet's profile and name.” (Heinrich-Heine-Denkmal, Wikipedia)