The convent of San Salvatore, later named after Santa Giulia (915) was founded at the wish of King Desiderius and his wife Ansa in 753 AD, and built on a particularly rich archeological site (the remains of Roman domus have been found under the basilica of San Salvatore and in the kitchen garden of Santa Giulia. Continue reading
High on a sloping hillside in the Commune of Carnoet, in Brittany in northwestern France, a large scale project is underway, one that hopes to cover the entire hillside with a thousand granite statues representing the Saints of Brittany. Continue reading
’’Moses’’ by Michelangelo Buonarotti, 1513-1515
Michelangelo made a sculpture of Moses with a peculiar feature, a pair of horns. Many art historians explain it by his misinterpretation of the Bible. Continue reading
In the beginning of the 2nd century, the Roman Emperor Trajan led two very successful war campaigns against the powerful Dacia kingdom by the river Danube in what is now Romania. The Dacians were a constant threat to the Roman Empire since the days of Caesar. Continue reading
Since Roman times, the towns of Graun and Reschen high in the Alps near the Italian-Swiss border had been occupied. But in 1939, the local power company drew up plans for a dam that would give the area plenty of seasonal electricity but create an artificial lake that would unify two natural lakes and submerge the towns in the valley between them. Continue reading
In an early chapter of his interesting new book, Symmetry: A Journey Into the Patterns of Nature, Marcus du Sautoy describes a visit to the Alhambra, the great Moorish palace in Granada, Spain. He and his young son spend an afternoon identifying 14 different types of symmetry represented in paving patterns, ornamentation, and tile work. Continue reading
Roman Copy of a 2nd Century BC Greek Sculpture, Couch by Bernini, 1619
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