Ponte di Castelvecchio

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Ponte di Castelvecchio Castel Vecchio Bridge)
Corso Castelvecchio
Verona, May 2025

“The Castel Vecchio Bridge (Ponte di Castel Vecchio) or Scaliger Bridge (Ponte Scaligero) is a fortified bridge in Verona, northern Italy, over the Adige River. The segmental arch bridge featured the world's largest span at the time of its construction (48.70 m). It was built (most likely in 1354-1356) by Cangrande II della Scala, to grant him a safe way of escape from the annexed eponymous castle in the event of a rebellion of the population against his tyrannic rule. The solidity of the construction allowed it to resist untouched until, in the late 18th century, the French troops destroyed the tower on the left bank (although it probably dated from the occupation of Verona by the Visconti or the Republic of Venice). The bridge was however totally destroyed, along with the Ponte Pietra, by the retreating German troops on April 24, 1945. The bridge's reconstruction by architect Libero Cecchini began in 1949 and completed in 1951, with the exception of the left tower.” (Castelvecchio Bridge, Wikipedia)

Liegende

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“Liegende” (Reclining) by Willi Schmidt, 1977
Große Bockenheimer Landstraße
Frankfurt, September 2024

“The female figure in Freßgass was modeled after a much smaller one that the sculptor Willi Schmidt had exhibited in Frankfurt's former Technical City Hall. Frankfurt city officials liked it so much that Schmidt was commissioned to create a larger version for the city center. The material used, Naxos marble, takes its name from a Greek island where it has been mined since ancient times and continues to this day. Rudolf Kipp also created reclining figures for the Taunusanlage and Christian Peschke for Feuerbachstraße.” (Liegende, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Frankfurt)

Santa Maria Annunciata

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Cathedral of Santa Maria Annunciata
Piazzetta del Duomo
Vicenza, May 2025

“Vicenza Cathedral (Italian: Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunziata, Duomo di Vicenza) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Vicenza, Veneto, northern Italy. It is the seat of the Bishop of Vicenza, and is dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. Construction of the cathedral was begun in 1482, to plans by Lorenzo of Bologna, and completed in the 1560s. The cupola was planned by Andrea Palladio and probably the north doorway also. Only the original façade survived the bombing of World War II; the rest of the present building has been reconstructed.” (Vicenza Cathedral, Wikipedia)

Synagogendenkmal

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Synagogue Memorial by Sebastian Helm and Anna Dilengite, 2001
Gottschedstraße / Zentralstraße
Leipzig, September 2024

“On the site of the Moorish synagogue stands today the Holocaust memorial. This powerful installation is made of 140 empty bronze chairs, representing the 14.000 Jews who once prayed there and outlining the floor plan of the destroyed synagogue.” (Leipzig, The Cultural Guide to Jewish Europe) “The site of the former synagogue had served as a parking lot and the site of a transformer station for decades. After the city of Leipzig acquired the property only in 1997, it launched a Saxony-wide, anonymous competition in 1999 in collaboration with the Jewish Religious Community, inviting ten international artists. The design by Leipzig artists Sebastian Helm and Anna Dilengite, which had only made it onto the shortlist for implementation, was ultimately chosen. Following a majority vote by the Leipzig City Council in October 2000, the site was transformed into a large-scale memorial. Inaugurated on June 24, 2001, the memorial traces the floor plan of the destroyed building on an area of ​​12 × 12 meters. The interior is a field of 140 empty bronze chairs, intended to convey a tangible sense of the loss of the architectural shell. The western boundary of the site is formed by a wall of exposed concrete, with texts in English, German, and Hebrew on three bronze plaques each.” (Große Gemeindesynagoge, Wikipedia)

Loggia dei Carraresi

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Loggia dei Carraresi (Lodge Carrarese)
Via Accademia
Padua, May 2025

“The Loggia dei Carraresi is a historic building in Padua located in via Accademia. It is the last surviving part of the Reggia Carrarese, the large residence of the Da Carrara family, lords of Padua. Since 2021 it has been included by UNESCO among the world heritage sites in the site of the 14th-century fresco cycles of Padua.” (Loggia dei Carraresi, Wikipedia)

On a drunken donkey

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“Bacchus auf einem trunkenen Esel reitend” (Bacchus riding on a drunken donkey) by Georg Wrba, 1910
(The original statue of 1952 was cast iron)
Rathausplatz
Dresden, September 2024

“Georg Wrba (3 January 1872 – 9 January 1939) was a German sculptor and graphic artist. He created some 3,000–4,000 works, including as a collaborator of the Zwinger workshop. Wrba was born in Munich in 1872, the son of a smith. His younger brother Max Wrba became an architect in Dresden. Wrba began his training with Jakob Bradl the Elder and his son Jakob Bradl the Younger. From 1891 to 1896, he studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München under Syrius Eberle. After some time spent in Italy (with Egon Rheinberger), a trip made possible by a travel award from Prince Regent Luitpold, he settled in Munich as an independent sculptor in 1897 and became director of the city's school of sculpture. In 1906 and 1907, he worked in Berlin, where he created sculptures for buildings for the architects Ludwig Hoffmann and Alfred Messel. Wrba then moved to Dresden, where from 1907 to 1930 he taught at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. He brought the Dresden school of sculpture into contact with the reforming ideas of the Deutscher Werkbund and was a founding member of the Dresden Artists' Association, known as ‘Die Zunft’ (The Guild). The basic aim of the ‘Werkbund’, and also of ‘Die Zunft’, was to achieve a collaboration between and integration of various forms of art, rejecting ornamentation for its own sake: painting and sculpture were to form integral parts of architecture. In Dresden he made, among many other works, the Marie Gey Fountain near the Dresden Hauptbahnhof in the Südvorstadt, which was donated by a Dr. Heinze for his wife, a student at the Kunstakademie, who had died young. In 1910 Wrba agreed a contract for the restoration and completion of the missing parts of the Zwinger, for which he directed the work of 53 sculptors from 1911 to 1933, and himself created many groups of figures modelled from the life. Wrba died on 9 January 1939 in Dresden, where a street is named after him. He is buried in the Munich Waldfriedhof.” (Georg Wrba, Wikipedia)

Four hooded crows

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Four hooded crows
Piazza Savonarola
Florence, December 2024

“The hooded crow (Corvus corone cornix), also colloquially called just hoodie, is a Eurasian bird subspecies of the carrion crow (Corvus corone) in the genus Corvus. Widely distributed, it is found across Northern, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle East. It is an ashy-grey bird with black head, throat, wings, tail, and thigh feathers, as well as a black bill, eyes, and feet. Like other corvids, it is an omnivorous and opportunistic forager and feeder.” (Hooded crow, Wikipedia)