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Gothic rebus
One of the most beautiful buildings of Paris, praised by Victor Hugo, the legends and myths. A mystical image of Notre-Dame-de-Paris became an international symbol of the middle Ages, where magic is intertwined with faith and the deeper meaning of the true doctrine eternally encoded in the unique sculptures and stained glass Windows.
Notre Dame Cathedral, a magnificent structure, is able to simultaneously accommodate up to nine thousand members, is built on the Western edge of the île de La Cité in the XII century.
1. On the site of a pagan temple
For a thousand years before Christ there lived a small Gallic tribe. 400 years later the Romans came here, for which island surrounded by the waters of the Seine, was a natural fortress. On the spot where now stands the Cathedral, they erected the temple of Jupiter. Continue reading
Cyclopean structures of antiquity
Not far from the ancient Rauza in the wilderness of the forest… there is a wonderful place – these are the ruins of some historical buildings, which consumed the stones of great magnitude, taken, apparently, from afar, because close to the stone brittle. The building was listed on the large space and tiled to half of the Windows; around at a considerable distance are the same large stones, and some of them are scattered in the same direction, towards the building field. The antiquity of this building show the century-old trees, growing within her, and long moss-grown wall. People’s imagination inhabits this mysterious place of spirits, calling it “devil’s ancient settlement”.
In the late nineteenth century the correspondent of “Kaluga gubernia news” visited devil’s Fort and also saw on the hill cyclopean construction of giant stones:
The road went first, ordinary dense forest, then opened up before us a valley with a ditch at the bottom, and after SIM the steep ascent of a high mountain…. On the way to the mountain we come across the unusual size of the stones. Climbing, or rather scarykiuys higher up the mountain, on the cliff we saw a big komennoista, covered with moss on the sides and trees at the top. Continue reading
Lace Gothic Prague Castle
The place is known to everyone, and it is called Prague Castle. Today our tour guide will be already known by our previous walking man – Dr. Frantisek Kadlec, Director of the tourism Department of the Administration of Prague Castle. So, in order to understand when and why the Gothic style appeared in the Czech Republic in General and Prague in particular, let us look a little into history.
Then Charles IV decided to invite to Prague architect and the first architect who comes to Prague for the construction of the Prague Castle became a French architect Mathieu of Arras. In 1344 he laid the first stone of the future Gothic Cathedral. The Gothic style was very different from its predecessor is quite simple Romanesque style. Now we are in the so-called Third courtyard of Prague Castle, and the very structure of St. Vitus Cathedral speaks eloquently about what Gothic architecture is very luxurious and magnificent.
Mathieu of Arras was destined to work on the construction of the Cathedral for eight years. He died in 1352. Then Charles IV was forced to seek a new architect, and he found him in the person of a young native Austrian city of Gmunden Peter Parler, who at the time of arrival to Prague was only 23 years old. Continue reading
