3380 CAMBODIA (Phnom Penh) - Norodom Sihanouk Memorial

The Norodom Sihanouk Memorial is a monument commemorating former King Norodom Sihanouk located in Phnom Penh. The bronze statue is 4.5 meters tall and is housed under a 27 meter high stupa in the park east of the Independence Monument. Norodom Sihanouk died on October 15, 2012, at the age of 89, in Beijing, China, and survived by his son, current King Norodom Sihamoni, and his wife, Norodom Monineath. The statue is dedicated to Sihanouk's accomplishment on liberating the country on November 9, 1953 from French Protectorate in Cambodia.

3354 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Scott Monument - part of Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (UNESCO WHS)

Placed in Princes Street Gardens in New Town, opposite the Jenners department store on Princes Street, the Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to famous Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), designed by George Meikle Kemp and inaugurated in 1846. Sitting proudly at the base of the monument is Sir Walter himself, carved in Carrara marble by Sir John Steell. This monumental statue, fashioned from a single piece of marble weighing 30 tons, took the sculptor six years to complete. It features Scott and his beloved hound Maida.

3350 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - Greyfriars Bobby Fountain

Greyfriars Bobby (1855 - 1872) was a Skye Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh for spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner until he died himself. The story continues to be well known in Scotland, through several books and films. A prominent commemorative statue and nearby graves are a tourist attraction. A year later, the English philanthropist Lady Burdett-Coutts was charmed by the story and had a drinking fountain topped with Bobby's statue (commissioned from the sculptor William Brodie) erected at the junction of George IV Bridge and Candlemaker Row (opposite the entrance to the churchyard) to commemorate him.

3348 IRELAND (Leinster) - Images of Dublin - The Historic City of Dublin (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

3348 Dublin City - Palace Bar, Molly Malone statue
and georgian doors

Untainted, unspoiled and unperturbed by the passage of time - that's what makes The Palace Bar one of Dublin's best-loved original Victorian pubs. This priceless jewel provides a very important bridge between the 19th century Victorian pub and Dublin's great traditions of literary hostelries. During the 1940's and 50's this pub became the home of international fame and intellectual refreshment under the patronage of R.M. (Bertie) Smyllie, then Editor of The Irish Times. It was the social home of the Fourth Estate playing host to to newsmen, correspondents and compositors of Dublin's three daily papers.

2868, 3345 CZECH REPUBLIC (Prague) - Charles Bridge - part of the Historic Centre of Prague (UNESCO WHS)

3345 Charles Bridge and city skyline in the morning

Charles Bridge is an historic bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague. It is 621m long and nearly 10m wide, following the example of the Stone Bridge in Regensburg, and was built as a bow bridge with 16 arches shielded by ice guards. Protected by three bridge towers, it is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues and statuaries, originally erected between 1683 and 1714. They depict various saints and patron saints venerated at that time. Beginning in 1965, all of the statues have been systematically replaced by replicas.

2868 Charles Bridge and city skyline on sunset

The construction of the bridge started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. It  replaced the old Judith Bridge built 1158-1172 that had been badly damaged by a flood in 1342. This new bridge was originally called Stone Bridge or Prague Bridge but has been Charles Bridge since 1870. As the only means of crossing the river Vltava (Moldau) until 1841, it was the most important connection between Prague Castle and the city's Old Town and adjacent areas.

3311, 3323, 3332 FRANCE (Occitania) - Entombment of Christ in Saint-Pierre de Carennac church

3332 Entombment of Christ in Saint-Pierre de Carennac church

Posted on 28.12.2019, 01.01.2019, 04.01.2020

Carennac, one of the most beautiful villages of France, lies in the fertile valley of the Dordogne River, nestled under the barren, parched plateau locally named 'le Causse', and belongs to the historical region of Quercy. Among its most remarkable landmarks is a medieval Clunisian priory, combining 11th-century church of Saint Pierre, and cloister, which features a 15th-century mise au tombeau (entombment of Christ).

3323 Entombment of Christ in Saint-Pierre de Carennac church (detail) (2)

It is impressive by the painful expression of the characters, at the center of which is the crying Virgin Mary, supported by Mary of Clopas, Mary Salomé and Mary Magdalene. Christ, whose face is full of sweetness, is stretched out on a stone table. The shroud is supported by Joseph of Arimathea, on the right, and Nicodemus, on the left, the two disciples who detached the body of Christ from the Cross and buried it.

3311 Entombment of Christ in
Saint-Pierre de Carennac church (detail) (2)

3329 ITALY (Emilia-Romagna) - Anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio of Bologna

Once the main building of the University of Bologna, often considered the oldest university in the world, the Archiginnasio of Bologna houses currently the Archiginnasio Municipal Library and the Anatomical Theatre. The last one is a hall once used for anatomy lectures and displays. A first anatomical theatre was constructed in 1595, in a different location, but it was replaced by a bigger one built between 1636 and 1638 in the current location, following the design of the architect Antonio Levanti.

3303 MALAYSIA (Kuala Lumpur) - National Monument (Tugu Negara)

The National Monument is a sculpture that commemorates those who died in Malaysia's struggle for freedom, principally against the Japanese occupation during WWII and the Malayan Emergency, which lasted from 1948 until 1960. Located in Perdana Botanical Gardens (formerly Perdana Lake Gardens, Lake Gardens and Public Gardens), in the Federal capital, Kuala Lumpur, near the Malaysian Houses of Parliament, is the world's tallest bronze freestanding sculpture grouping, with 15 meters tall.

3296 UNITED STATES (New York) - MV John F. Kennedy in New York Harbor

In 1805, an 11 year-old boy from Staten Island named Cornelius Vanderbilt quit school to work full-time on his father's ferry. At 16, he started his own ferry business and in 1838 he took sole control of the main ferry service between Staten Island and Manhattan. By the end of the Civil War, he was known as the Commodore, the wealthiest American who had ever lived, controlling 10% of the entire nation's wealth. The Staten Island Ferry was then sold to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1884, and the City of New York assumed control of the ferry in 1905.

2428, 3278 MOLDOVA - Rudi Geodetic Point - part of Struve Geodetic Arc (UNESCO WHS)

2428 Rudi Geodetic Point

Posted on 02.04.2016, 01.12.2019
The Struve Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea (designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005), about which I wrote here. In Oblast of Moldavia and Bessarabia, back then in Russian Empire, were 27 observation points, but UNESCO included only one in World Heritage Site, located near Rudi village, in Soroca district. This point was set up in 1847, and the obelisk was opened on June 17, 2006.

3278 Rudi Geodetic Point

3266 GERMANY (Saxony) - Dresden Frauenkirche

The Dresden Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) is a Lutheran church in Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. An earlier church, building in the 11th century in a Romanesque style, was Catholic until it became Protestant during the Reformation. The original Baroque church was built between 1726 and 1743, and was designed by Dresden's city architect, George Bähr. Bähr's distinctive design captured the new spirit of the Protestant liturgy by placing the altar, pulpit, and baptismal font directly centre in view of the entire congregation.

0281, 3263 BULGARIA (Shumen) - Madara Rider (UNESCO WHS)

0281 - Madara Rider (1)

Posted on 18.07.2012, 23.11.2019
Because of the richness of archaeological monuments discovered in this zone,  Madara, a village in northeastern Bulgaria, which lies at the western foot of the Madara plateau, is called "the Bulgarian Troy". The Madara National Historical and Archaeological Reserve, located near to the village, includes Neolithic and Eneolithic findings, a Thracian settlement, Ancient Roman villa and fortress from the 2nd-5th century, medieval Bulgarian palace, pagan sanctuaries, Christian churches and monasteries, fortresses from the First Bulgarian Empire, and a cave monastery from the 12th–14th century. Most importantly, Madara is the location of the famous Madara Rider, an early medieval rock relief carved by the Bulgars, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1979.

3263 - Madara Rider (2)

Madara Rider, the only monumental stone bas-relief in Europe, dated to about 710 AD, is hewn into sheer cliffs at a height of 23m, and presents a horseman who has speared a lion, with an eagle flying in front and a dog running after him, the carving being surrounded by three inscriptions in Greek, which are a short chronicle of the Bulgarian-Byzantine relations in those times. The image is obvious a scene of triumph, incarnating the grandeur of the Bulgars ruler and the power of the Bulgar state. If the bas-relief was carved during the rule of the Bulgar Khan Tervel (r. 700–721), and is probably a portrayal of the khan himself, a part of the inscriptions (of which content can be found here) were made later, describing events  that occurred during the reigns of Krum (803–814), Omurtag (r. 814–831), and Malamir (r. 831–836).

3257 GERMANY (Rhineland-Palatinate) - Landau

3257 Landau - The Market Hall and
the statue of Prince Luitpold in Town Hall Square

Landau, or Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (kreisfrei) town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße (Southern Wine Route) district. It is a long-standing cultural centre, and a market and shopping town, surrounded by vineyards and wine-growing villages of the Palatinate wine region. Landau was first mentioned as a settlement in 1106, and was granted a charter in 1274 by King Rudolf I of Germany, who declared the town a Free Imperial Town in 1291.

3221 UNITED STATES (New York) - Wall Street

3221 New York City - Wall Street - New York Stock Exchange
and the statue of George Washington

Anchored by Wall Street, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, being home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Wall Street, originally named by the Dutch founders de Waalstraat, is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan.

3168 SLOVAKIA (Bratislava) - Čumil the Peeper

Čumil is an Bratislavian emerging sewer worker, who got his head out of a manhole and... And nothing. Nobody knows what he's doing. Is he resting? Is he heading down to clean up your mess? Or is he peeping up women’s skirts? Because he is made from bronze, he has a lot of patience and can wait without any trouble until we will find the answer. Actually he waits since 1997, when was installed to spice up the look of the area, which was traditionally marked with drab Communist-era architecture and decoration.

2440 BELGIUM (Brussels) - Manneken Pis

2440 Manneken Pis in Brussels

Manneken Pis ("Little man Pee" in Dutch) is a landmark small bronze sculpture (61cm) in Brussels, depicting a naked little boy urinating into a fountain's basin, designed by Hiëronymus Duquesnoy the Elder and put in place in 1618 or 1619. It is dressed in costume several times each week, according to a published schedule. His wardrobe consists of several hundred costumes, many of which may be viewed in a permanent exhibition inside the City Museum.

1990 AUSTRIA (Lower Austria) - The life size reproduction of Venus von Willendorf

1990 The life size reproduction
of Venus von Willendorf

The Venus of Willendorf, now known in academia as the Woman of Willendorf, is a 11.1cm high statuette of a female figure estimated to have been made between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE (in Old Stone Age). It was found in 1908 during excavations conducted by archaeologists Josef Szombathy, Hugo Obermaier and Josef Bayer at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, a hamlet which now is part of Aggsbach, near the town of Krems.

1143 BAHAMAS - St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church in Nassau

 

The capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Nassau is located on the island of New Providence, and was formerly known as Charles Town. Burned by the Spanish in 1684, was rebuilt and renamed Nassau in 1695 in honour of the Dutch Stadtholder. By 1713, it had become a haven for pirates, who proclaimed Nassau a pirate republic, which survived only 5 years.

0970 BELARUS (Minsk City) - Trinity Suburb

0970 Trinity Suburb in Minsk City

Located on left bank of the Svisloch River, on the Trinity Hill, Minsk's old town, more commonly known as Troitskoe Predmestye (Trinity Suburb) after the former Trinity Church that once stood in the area, is a slight misnomer in that it dates from just three decades ago. Built between 1982 and 1985 on the site of a former settlement dating from the 12th century, Trinity offer a break from the sprawling concrete and the Stalinist architecture of the city's centre, rebuilt (not restored) after WWII, when Minsk was destroyed in proportion of 80%.

0157 BELARUS (Vitebsk) - The house where Marc Chagall grew up

In 1897, Vitebsk (at that time located in the Tsarist Empire) had 65,900 inhabitants, of which not less than 34,400 (so around 52%) were Jews. Among them was Moishe Shagal - the eldest of nine children of Khatskl (Zakhar) Shagal, employed of a herring merchant, and of Feige-Ite - born ten years ago to Liozna, a nearby settlement. Over years he would become, under the name Marc Chagall, not only "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century", but even "one of the most successful artists of the 20th century".