Contributions
Explore One of Rome's Greatest Feats of Engineering at Pont du Gard, France
Created on October 18, 2010 by Marjorie McAtee, WriterThe Roman Empire is known for a lot of things, including feeding Christians to lions, inventing the alphabet, and popularizing the cucumber (yes, really!). The Romans were so good at empire-building that many of their edifices survive, relatively unscathed, twenty centuries later—including the Pont du Gard aqueduct bridge near Remoulins, France. The Pont du Gard Roman aqueduct was constructed to the city of Nîmes in the south of France. People had been living in the region for thousands of years before it became part of the Roman colony of Gaul in 45 B.C. The Pont du Gard aqueduct was built in the first century A.D., when Nîmes was home to about 20,000 Roman citizens. In the past, the city had relied on the spring at ...
Cross One of Europe's Oldest Bridges: The Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy
Created on October 18, 2010 by Marjorie McAtee, WriterThe Ponte Vecchio is the oldest bridge in Florence, Italy, and arguably one of the most colourful in both history and appearance. It's been around since at least 996, and may have been built by the Romans. Until 1218, the Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge across the Arno river that runs through Florence. At least two floods have taken out the Ponte Vecchio, but the existing bridge dates back to 1345, when the city of Florence reconstructed it for the second time. The Ponte Vecchio survived World War II intact, and it was the only bridge in Florence not destroyed by the Nazis during their August 4, 1944 retreat from Allied forces. Rather than destroy the Ponte Vecchio, the retreating soldiers destroyed the buildings ...
Follow the Evolution of Cubism at the Musée Picasso in Paris
Created on October 08, 2010 by Marjorie McAtee, WriterParis's Musée Picasso, located in one of the city's oldest districts, is entirely devoted to the works of the painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso. The Hôtel Salé, where the Musée Picasso is located, was constructed in 1656 by the architect Jean Boullier. Since 1985, the Hôtel Salé has been home to 156 works of sculpture and 203 paintings by Picasso. It was once the luxurious home of Pierre Aubert, a wealthy tax collector who paid for his home mostly from the proceeds of salt taxes, which he called “sale” after the French word for salty. The Musée Picasso is a French national museum that Picasso's family handed over to the state to pay for his estate’s taxes following his death. Pablo Picasso lived in Paris ...
Explore the Largest Modern Art Museum in Europe at Centre Georges Pompidou
Created on October 08, 2010 by Marjorie McAtee, WriterAnyone who’s walked through the Marais in Paris—that ritzy, Right Bank neighbourhood that stretches across the 3rd and 4th arrondissements—will have seen the Centre Georges Pompidou. The Centre Pompidou, known to Parisians as the Beauborg (because of its location on rue Beaubourg) is one of modern architecture's greatest achievements, and home to some of the world's best modern art. The doors of its Kandinsky Library are open to students, researchers, and the general public, and its cinema offers regular screenings of avant-garde films. Centre Georges Pompidou looks the way it does for a reason: it's inside out! Architects Renzo Piano, Gianfranco Franchini, and Richard Rogers won this contract in a design competition in 1971. Construction was completed in 1977, and came with a whopping price ...
Wander Ancient Rome in Ostia Antica
Created on September 30, 2010 by Marjorie McAtee, WriterThousands of years ago, Rome was the capital of the Western world. The Empire stretched across Europe, Northern Africa, and the British Isles. Today, traces of ancient Rome remain scattered throughout Europe, and those who travel to Rome itself can marvel at the ruins of the Forum, the Colosseum, and the Pantheon. If these sights leave you wondering what life was like in the Roman Empire, why not spend a day at Ostia Antica? Once upon a time, Ostia Antica was a bustling Roman seaport. Supplies of grain, wine, oil, lead, and marble were imported to the Roman capital via Ostia Antica's harbor, which eventually become the most important in the Empire. Ostia Antica experienced its heyday in the 2nd century AD, under the Emperors ...
Face Your Mortality at the Catacombs of Paris
Created on September 15, 2010 by Marjorie McAtee, WriterImagine, for a moment, a rapidly growing metropolis that gains more citizens, but also gains more dead. The existing graveyards are almost full, and the citizens are suffering from disease due to improper burial practices and the use of mass graves. They need more graveyards, but they don't have room for them. What do they do? For 18th century Parisians, the answer was simple—remove the bodies to a safer location. But where? Why not underground, into the vast network of subterranean tunnels, where, in Roman times, the limestone that built Paris was quarried. The Catacombs of Paris are one of the world's most famous burial grounds, right up there with the Egyptian pyramids. These catacombs began as limestone quarries in the Roman era, when modern ...
Was Michelangelo Forced to Paint the Sistine Chapel?
Created on February 25, 2010 by Marjorie McAtee, WriterThe Sistine Chapel is one of the Vatican's most visited and well-known attractions, and also serves as a venue for important Papal Masses. Papal conclaves—in which the College of Cardinals elects a new Pope—have been held at the Sistine Chapel since 1455, and the first Mass inside the Sistine Chapel was held on 15 August 1483 to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. Originally, the Sistine Chapel was known as the Cappella Maggiore, or Greater Chapel. The Chapel was used then, as it is now, for smaller masses not attended by the public. Pope Sixtus IV undertook to restore the Sistine Chapel between 1477 and 1480. Today, the Sistine Chapel continues to bear Sixtus IV's name. It wasn't until the next century, and the papacy ...
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