Europe ::

Cologne Gateways

19/04/2024 08:47

Since Roman times, Cologne had strong walls to ensure the defence of the city. Later, in medieval age, new walls and gates were built, some of these have survived to this day. Between the 1st and 3rd centuries, the Roman city on the banks of the Rhine, on the limits of the Empire, built walls to...

Conques, in Aveyron

23/02/2024 14:49

The small town of Conques, in the former province of Rourge and a few kilometres away from the Lot Valley, today between the departments of Cantal and Aveyron, retains the charm of having preserved its medieval appearance in the shadow of the great abbey of Sainte Foy, in the measure of what...

Fauves in Collioure

06/01/2024 10:28

At the beginning of the 20th century, Collioure had begun to attract the attention of artists who went to the coastal town as the preferred centre for their work stays. Since 1905, Henri Matisse and André Derain took it as their headquarters. Matisse resided periodically until 1914. Other painters...

Oviedo Bronzes

22/11/2023 10:57

The Asturian capital is dotted with more than a hundred statues, mostly bronze that, impassive under the Cantabrian rain, decorate downtown streets. They represent real and fictional characters, who are or have been famous and to whom the city pays tribute. Starting the tour in the same centre, in...

The Book Village

11/11/2023 11:14

Urueña is a unique town, not because of its well-preserved medieval walls or for the views it has over the Valladolid plains of Tierra de Campos, but because of the particularity that its barely two hundred inhabitants have more bookstores than bars. From the hermitage of La Anunciada, a...

Aneu Valley Churches

22/07/2023 10:03

Parallel to Andorra, Aran or Boi valleys, with their famous Romanesque churches, Aneu valley, with its hidden detours, also hides its architectural treasures from the turn of the millennium, although they are not as spectacular or famous as its neighbours. At the time when the Romanesque temples...

Perez Line

09/07/2023 11:09

After Spanish Civil War and with the uncertain evolution of World War II in Europe, the new Spanish fascist government decided to create a defensive line along the Pyrenees to prevent a potential invasion into the peninsula. Between 1944 and 1957 the new regime invested a disconcertingly...

Stavkirkes, the Dragon Churches

11/10/2022 16:45

In Denmark and Sweden, as in other Northern Europe regions, old churches progressively replaced by stone buildings, however the tradition of building them out of wood endured in Norway and admirably revived in the 12th century. They are characterized by the lines of their roofs evoking, someway,...

Jordaan

05/03/2021 09:40

This neighbourhood located to the west of the Dutch city has gone from being an inhospitable slum to a desired residential area exempt of the tourist massification of the urban centre along a slow process of gentrification. At the moment Jordaan belongs to the district Amsterdam-Centrum and forms...

Visions of Paris

07/08/2020 10:25

The first vision of Paris is a stamp, a postage stamp, properly la poste. Well, and more specifically a red one dot seventy-franc stamp, with the cross that in the Rennes monument celebrates, I mean commemorates, the death of Joan of Arc. The postmark is from the post office on rue de la Tremoille,...

Collioure's Belfry

09/07/2020 09:51

At Boramar’s beach northern tip, Notre Dame des Anges church bell tower is the main landmark of Côte Vermeille most visited town. It does not only show the hours, it has also marked the rhythm of the changes town has lived along history. Anyone strolling along the sidewalk, bordering the seashore...

London's Two Most Unfortunate Years

17/04/2020 09:13

In the seventeenth century two fateful years were inscribed in the history of the British capital hurting mercilessly its population and its goods. It was 1665, the year of the Plague followed by that of the Great Fire, 1666. London retained its medieval urban structure within the walled...

Beer's Madonna

03/04/2020 13:19

The Bank House is a small bed and breakfast strategically located on the main street of Beer. The affable Bob Pearse every morning gently bend over backwards to serve the full English breakfast, i.e. two eggs any style, bacon, sausage, beans, mushrooms and tomatoes, usually parboiled or fried....

The Gran Duchy

24/01/2020 12:26

When in the tenth century Sigfried Count exchanged some lands in the Ardennes for a rocky ledge between the Alzette and Petrusse rivers to build a fortress, he couldn’t imagine how it would grow. Bastions and casemates turned the rock into a gruyere that would be nicknamed the Gibraltar of the...

Caldes Modern Style Spas

20/12/2019 13:56

In Roman times, the hot springs invited the creation of a town, Aqvae Calidae, today Caldes de Malavella. Its waters continue to be exploited, both for treatments and for bottling water. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, they attracted the attention of wealthy...