Antoni Gaudí

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Casa Milà

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (Catalan pronunciation: [ənˈtɔni ɣəwˈði]; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalan architect from Reus and the best known practitioner of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí’s works reflect an individualized and distinctive style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his magnum opus, the Sagrada Família.

Under the influence of neo-Gothic art and Oriental techniques, Gaudí became part of the Modernista movement which was reaching its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work transcended mainstream Modernisme, culminating in an organic style inspired by natural forms. Gaudí rarely drew detailed plans of his works, instead preferring to create them as three-dimensionalscale models and molding the details as he conceived them.

Sagrada Família

Gaudí’s work enjoys global popularity and continuing admiration and study by architects. His masterpiece, the still-incomplete Sagrada Família, is the most-visited monument…

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Københavns Frihavn

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The Free Port of Copenhagen is a bonded area in the northern part of Harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark. Created to consolidate Copenhagen’s position as an important maritime hub in Northern Europe, it was established in the area just north of the fortress Kastellet and later expanded northwards several times. The original grounds, now known as Søndre Frihavn (English: South Free Port), has since been released for other uses. It comprised Amerika Plads, a modern mixed-use development, America Quay, India Quay, Langelinie and Marble Pier, the four quays which bounded the harbour, and Midtermolen, a pier which divides it into an east and west basin.

The free port is now located in Nordhavnen and is part of Copenhagen Malmö Port.

History

Planning and construction

The Freeport under construction

In the middle of the 19th century, Copenhagen’s growth and the increasing industrialization made…

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Schloss Herdringen

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Herdringen Castle (German: Schloss Herdringen) is a castle in the Ortsteil Herdringen of the town of Arnsberg, Germany. It is the seat of the Fürstenberg-Herdringen family and the present building (built from 1844 to 1853 to designs by Ernst Friedrich Zwirner) is one of the most notable secular Gothic revival buildings in Westphalia.

In 1963, Herdringen Castle and its park were used as “Chelford Manor” during the filming of the German crime movie The Black Abbot.

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Italian baroque architecture inside Dom St. Stephan in Passau, Germany

Quite stunning.

Schloss Eckartsau

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Schloss Eckartsau is a building converted from a castle into a hunting lodge in Eckartsau not far from the Danube in the lower Austrian Marchfield. In the history books, it was the last domestic residence of Emperor Charles I after his renunciation of any portion of the state business of 11 November 1918.

The original castle was a four-sided water castle. 

In the course of time around the castle, the noble family acquired market rights, land and other castles. In the Minoritenkirche in Vienna, where the most prestigious of the land was buried, the Lords of Eckartsau also built a crypt.

Since Konrad von Eckartsau supported the Austrian Duke Albrecht V to take over the regency as a 14-year-old, he was generously promoted by him. Under Emperor Frederick III, the Eckartsauer were robbed again and again, and their castle was plundered, and on the other hand Georg von Eckartsau himself…

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Munich Rathaus

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The New Town Hall (German: Neues Rathaus) is a town hall at the northern part of Marienplatz in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It hosts the city government including the city council, offices of the mayors and part of the administration. In 1874 the municipality had left the Old Town Hall for its new domicile.

The decision to constructed a new building came due to the lack of space in the Old Town Hall and the small Town Hall on Petersbergl (destroyed in 1944). In memory of the bourgeois high season during the Gothic period, the choice fell upon a neo-gothic design, which allowed an implement an independent architectural accent in contrast to the buildings of the royal family.

The North side of the Marienplatz was chosen as the building site, where the house of the Landstände still stood which had been erected by the Bavarian Duke…

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Munich Residenz

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Munich Residenz

The Residenz (German:[ʁesiˈdɛnts], Residence) in central Munich is the former royal palace of the Wittelsbachmonarchs of Bavaria. The Residenz is the largest city palace in Germany and is today open to visitors for its architecture, room decorations, and displays from the former royal collections.

The complex of buildings contains ten courtyards and displays 130 rooms. The three main parts are the Königsbau (near the Max-Joseph-Platz), the Alte Residenz (Old Residenz; towards the Residenzstraße) and the Festsaalbau (towards the Hofgarten). A wing of the Festsaalbau contains the Cuvilliés Theatre since the reconstruction of the Residenz after World War II. It also houses the Herkulessaal (Hercules Hall), the primary concert venue for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Byzantine Court Church of All Saints (Allerheiligen-Hofkirche) at the east side is facing the Marstall, the building for the former…

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Fortress of Ulm

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The fortress of Ulm (Bundesfestung Ulm) was one of five federal fortresses of the German Confederation around the cities of Ulm and Neu-Ulm. With its 9 km polygonal main circumvallation Ulm had the biggest fortress in Germany in the 19th century and it’s still one of the biggest in Europe.

After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 the victorious powers agreed to defend the states from the inside. The fortresses were one of the few realised projects of the confederation. The fortress Ulm was planned by the Prussian construction manager Moritz Karl Ernst von Prittwitz und Gaffron and built under his supervision between 1842 and 1859.

In peacetimes the fortress should hold 5,000 men of the federal army, in wartimes up to 20,000 soldiers. A plan to expand the fortress to hold 100,000 men was never realised. The building costs were valued at 16,5 mio. guilders.

The…

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Festung Forchheim

VikingLifeBlog

Forchheim Fortress (German: Festung Forchheim) was laid out after the occupation of the town of Forchheim during the Second Margrave War (1552) by the Bishopric of Bamberg. Today about one third of the fortification works have survived and have been incorporated into the municipal parks.

In 1552, during the Second Margrave War, troops of the Margrave of Culmbach, Albrecht Alcibiades, occupied Forchheim for three months. After its recapture by Claus of Egloffstein, the Bishopric of Bamberg decided to expand the town to the southern border fortification in line with the latest Italian fortification practice. Building work began in 1553 with St. Veit’s Bastion south of Forchheim Castle, the so-called Pfalz. In 1561/62, the bastion by the Saltor Tower was added. The northeast corner of the town’s fortress was protected by a round artillery tower. New entrances were created: the Bamberg…

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Schloss Biebrich

VikingLifeBlog

Biebrich Palace (German: Schloss Biebrich) is a Baroque residence (Schloss) in the borough of Biebrich in the city of Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. Built in 1702 by Prince Georg August Samuel of Nassau-Idstein, it served as the ducal residence for the independent Duchy of Nassau from 1816 until 1866.

Count Georg August Samuel of Nassau-Idstein, appointed Prince in 1688, wanted a more impressive seat of authority than his palace in Idstein in the Taunus. He moved first to Wiesbaden, and later to Biebrich (at that time a separate community from Wiesbaden). In the immediate vicinity of the Rhine, opposite the Biebricher Wörth, he began construction of a chateau. The structure was designed by the Baroque architect Julius Ludwig Rothweil and was completed in 1702. It survives today as the West Pavilion of the palace. Only four years later, a duplicate structure was…

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