Malta – Rabat – St Paul’s Grotto
April 18, 2010
Malta – Rabat – St Paul’s Grotto
Originally uploaded by let².
Pope Benedict XVI prays in front a of statue of St.Paul in the grotto of the Saint Paul church in Rabat, Malta, Saturday, April 17, 2010.
The parish church of Rabat, founded in 1575 but remodelled in 1692, was built over one of Malta’s earliest Christian chapels, on the same spot where St Paul once preached. The Grotto of St Paul, below the adjoining Chapel of St Publius, is the main point of interest. According to local Christian belief is was here that St Paul spent several weeks preaching Christianity; another story has it that the apostle was imprisoned here. It is also said that stone scraped from the grotto walls has special healing powers and that, however much stone is scraped away, the cave never alters in size. The prominent feature, below a series of dimly lit catacombs, is a marble statue of St Paul.
The custodian will inform you that the grotto was once a Roman prison and will show you the holes in the roof from where the prisoner’s chains once hung. Two tiny chapels are dedicated to St Paul and St Luke, each one with a statute of its apostle.
In 1990 Pope John Paul II visited Rabat and came to pray in the grotto. His starting prayer, ‘God Bless Malta and the Maltese’, is inscribed on a plaque on the exterior wall of the church.
Vancouver 2009 – BC Place Stadium
January 5, 2010
Vancouver 2009 – BC Place Stadium
Originally uploaded by let².
The BC Sports Hall of Fame was founded in 1966 by Eric Whitehead and other groups of sports minded individuals in British Columbia. It was established to honour and to show tribute to British Columbia’s outstanding athletes, teams, builders and pioneers of sport.
Las Vegas 2009 – New York
December 13, 2009
Originally uploaded by let².
New York-New York Hotel uses the New York City influence of its name in several ways. Its architecture creates an impression of the New York City skyline; the hotel includes several towers configured to resemble New York City towers such as the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. In front of the property is a pool representing New York Harbor, with a 46 m tall replica of the Statue of Liberty, a roller coaster, and replicas of the Brooklyn Bridge, Soldiers and Sailors Monument, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Ellis Island, and Grand Central Terminal, among other well-known structures.
Rhodes 2009 – Lindos Acropolis
November 3, 2009
Rhodes 2009 – Lindos Acropolis
Originally uploaded by let².
Lindos is a town and an archaeological site on the east coast of the Greek island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese in southeastern Aegean Sea. It is about 55 km south of the town of Rhodes and its fine beaches make it a popular tourist and holiday destination. Lindos is situated in a large bay and faces the fishing village and small resort of Haraki.
Above the modern town rises the acropolis of Lindos, a natural citadel which was fortified successively by the Greeks, by the Romans, the Byzantines, the Knights of St John and the Ottomans. This makes the site difficult to excavate and interpret archaeologically. The acropolis offers spectacular views of the surrounding harbours and coastline
Rhodes 2009 – Kameiros
October 27, 2009
Originally uploaded by let².
Kameiros (Κάμειρος) was a city on the island of Rhodes, Greece, lying on a peninsula on the northwest coast of the island. It was the heart of an agricultural region, and constituted one of three city states on Rhodes.
The main settlement was on the middle terrace, consisting of a grid of parallel streets and residential blocks. On the lower terrace are found a Doric Temple, probably to Apollo; the Fountain House, with the Agora in front of it; and Peribolos of the Altars, which contained dedications to various deities.
During the prehistoric period the area was inhabited by the Achaeans. The city itself was founded by the Dorians. The temple foundations were begun at least as early as the eighth century BC. The earthquake of 226 BC destroyed the city and the temple. The earthquake of 142 BC destroyed the city for the second time.
Speyer 2009 – Paul Josef Nardini
September 6, 2009
Speyer 2009 – Paul Josef Nardini
Originally uploaded by let².
Speyer 2009, Germany – Relique ( Bone) Paul Josef Nardini.
Nardini was considered a saint by the members of his community, and by all the sisters of the order which he had founded, who at the time of his death numbered 220 in 35 locations. His mortal remains were entombed in the Chapel of the Congregation of the order he founded in Pirmasens. The cause for his beatification was begun in June, 1997, in the Diocese of Speyer. On December 19, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized the heroic virtues of Nardini, thus formally making him eligible for beatification.[1] Six months later, on June 26, 2006, the Pope officially recognized the miracle required for Nardini’s beatification, the miraculous healing of one of the nuns of the order he founded, Stephana Beyer, from late-stage cancer, which happened after the sisters of her order prayed at Nardini’s tomb for her.[2] Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate his cause.
Speyer Cathedral, site of the beatification
He was formally beatified in the Speyer Cathedral by Friedrich Cardinal Wetter, who read an Apostolic Letter from the pope officially recognizing Nardini as beatified. There were some 2,000 people present for the ceremony, including some 600 nuns of the order he founded, with thousands of others watching the ceremony on closed circuit television in the square of the cathedral. It was the first beatification in Germany in 10 years, and the first one in which the pope himself was not present. The current bishop of Speyer, Anton Schlembach, called Nardini a “highly gifted minister” who “opened people’s eyes to the necessity and beauty of the priesthood” (c) Wikipedia
St. Moritz 2007 – Grand Hotel des Bains / Kempinski
August 3, 2009
St. Moritz 2007 – Grand Hotel des Bains / Kempinski
Originally uploaded by let².
St. Moritz 2007, Switzerland – Grand Hotel des Bains / Kempinski
The Kempinski Grand Hotel des Bains is located next to the old “Mauritius” spring, the origin of St. Moritz.
Since two to three thousand years ago mankind has been drinking from the sour water springs of St Moritz. The iron spring was discovered during the Bronze Age and encapsulated in a well that was used until 1907. In 1553, Paracelsus von Hohenheim, visited the mineral spring of St Moritz and immediately recognized the medical benefits of such a spring which he then described in his medical writings. His writings are said to be the first known and well preserved medical writings describing the “Sanct Mauritz” sour water spring. In Parcacelsus’s subsequent writings, he detailed his preference of the St Moritz iron spring in comparison to other similar springs throughout Europe.
It was through the discovery of the mineral source more than 3.460 years ago that St. Moritz and the Engadin became popular for summer tourism. Even at the time of the Belle Époque this monumental and imposing luxury hotel, equipped with gas in 1874 and with electricity in 1888 (!), attracted people of high and highest rank, royalties, politicians and artists from all over the world, seeking and finding health and rest here.
Hamburg 2007 – Reeperbahn
July 28, 2009
Originally uploaded by let².
Hamburg 2007, Germany – Reeperbahn / St. Pauli – seXes
The Reeperbahn is a street in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg’s nightlife and also the city’s red-light district. In German it is also called die sündige Meile (the sinful mile).
The street is lined with restaurants, night clubs, discotheques and bars. There are also strip clubs, sex shops, brothels, a sex museum and the like. The Operettenhaus, a musical theatre, is also located at the Reeperbahn. It played Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats for many years, after that Mamma Mia!, an ABBA-musical, and now “Ich war noch niemals in New York”, featuring hit songs by Austrian singer/songwriter Udo Jürgens. There are other theatres at the Reeperbahn (St. Pauli Theater, Imperial Theater, Schmidts Tivoli) and also several Cabarets/Varietés.
(c) [wikipedia]
Berlin 2009 – Michael Jackson
July 17, 2009
Originally uploaded by let².
Berlin 2009, Germany – Michael Jackson (+)
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009), dubbed the “King of Pop”, was an American vocalist, dancer and businessman. One of the most commercially successful artists of all time, his contributions to music and dance, along with a highly publicized personal life, made him a part of popular culture around the world for four decades.
Jackson died at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009, in Los Angeles, California after suffering from cardiac arrest.
Berlin 2009 – Holocaust Denkmal
July 17, 2009
Berlin 2009 – Holocaust Denkmal
Originally uploaded by let².
Berlin 2009, Germany – Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe //
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (German: Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas), also known as the Holocaust Memorial (German: Holocaust-Mahnmal), is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 square meter (4.7 acre) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or “stelae”, arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The stelae are 2.38m (7.8′) long, 0.95m (3′ 1.5″) wide and vary in height from 0.2 m to 4.8m (8″ to 15’9″). According to Eisenman’s project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. A 2005 copy of the Foundation for the Memorial’s official English tourist pamphlet, however, states that the design represents a radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial, partly because Eisenman did not use any symbolism. An attached underground “Place of Information” (German: Ort der Information) holds the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims, obtained from the Israeli museum Yad Vashem. (Wikipedia)
