World Places and Forwarded Mails: Europe

Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts

Miniature Wonderland

Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg

The largest model railway in the world and one of the most successful permanent exhibitions in Northern Germany.

Central Germany and the Harz

Knuffingen Area

The Alps and Austria

Hamburg

America

Scandinavia

Switzerland

Wonderland Airport

Former Monk Spends 50 YEARS Creating Giant Cathedral Junk

Justo Gallego Martinez, an 86-year-old farmer from Spain, has spent the last 50 years of his life single-handedly building a large cathedral in a suburb of Madrid, without any architectural knowledge or construction experience.

Considering the sheer size of Justo Gallego’s junk cathedral, almost 40 meters (131 feet) tall, with its large dome and spires towering over nearby apartment buildings, it’s almost impossible to believe it’s the work of a single man. But it just goes to show how far people can stretch their limits in the name of a higher purpose. In Gallego’s case, it was his faith and love of God. His mother was very pious and he grew up with a deep Christian faith and an overwhelming desire to dedicate himself to the Creator. After working as a farmer and as a bullfighter, Don Justo, as everyone calls him, joined a Trappist monastery, where he spent eight years as a monk. He was forced to leave the monastery in 1961, after he contracted tuberculosis, but promised himself that if he survived the illness he would dedicate his life to building a a chapel in the name of the Lady of The Pillar (the Blessed Virgin Marry), who he prayed to during the ordeal. His prayers were answered and he stayed true to his vow, laying the first brick of what would become a unique cathedral, almost 50 years ago.

Photo — Javier Martin Espartosa

Most people thought Don Justo was crazy to take on such an epic challenge, but he never paid any attention to their insults, instead focusing all his efforts on his project. He never had any formal plans for his cathedral, nor did he have the necessary construction materials, but he put his faith in God and knew it would all work out in the end. Martinez has spent every morning for the last half century gathering all kinds of discarded everyday objects as well as building materials leftover by nearby construction companies from their own jobs, and fitting them in his grand design. The columns of his junk cathedral were molded using empty oil drums, and the cover of one cupola is made out of cut up food tubes. Don Justo says his cathedral is partly modeled on St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican, but also features elements from the White House, various medieval castles and Madrid churches.

Photo — Javier Martin Espartosa

Justo Gallego worked on the cathedral mainly by himself, occasionally getting help from his six nephews and volunteers, and although he always worked in a hurry, hoping to see the whole thing finished, there’s only so much one man can do. The shell of the edifice may be almost complete, but he still has much work to do. There are thousands of windows to paint, the central dome has yet to be covered, the floor is bare and the spiraling staircases are only half done. Don Justo is well aware he might not live long enough to see his masterpiece finished, but still he says ”When I look at what I’ve created, it overwhelms me and I give thanks to the Lord.”

Photo — Dubas

The junk cathedral of Mejorada del Campo has never been authorized, but so far the town council has tolerated the illicit structure. Ever since Gallego’s amazing story spread on the internet, his life’s work has been bringing in a steady flow of tourists. It has become a local icon, and Don Justo hopes it will one day serve as a fully functional cathedral, although chances of that ever happening are very slim. ”It’s very difficult to get a license now,” architect Pablo Queralto told the BBC. ”For example the bricks don’t meet minimum
standards, either in themselves or the way they’ve been laid.”

Photo — Co0ntraband

Whatever happens, one thing is for certain, Justo Gallego Martinez doesn’t regret a single day of the many he’s put into his junk cathedral. ”If I lived my life again, I’d build this church again, only bigger. Twice the size,” he says. ”Because for me, this is an act of faith.”

Photo — Jorge Louzao Penalva

Photo — Dubas

Photo — Gmalon

Via — 1, 2

More Cool Stuff at :

www.worldrarecollection.blogspot.in

Alberobello a Unique Italian Village

Alberobello, the city of drystone dwellings known as trulli , is an exceptional example of vernacular architecture. It is one of the best preserved and most homogeneous urban areas of this type in Europe. Its special features, and the fact that the buildings are still occupied, make it unique. It also represents a remarkable survival of prehistoric building techniques. There was prehistoric settlement in the Itria and the tholos (dome-shaped tomb) tradition of building may have come to the region at this time. The present settlement dates from the mid-14th century, when what appears to have been an uninhabited area was granted to the first Count of Conversano by Robert d'Anjou, Prince of Taranto, in recognition of his service during the Crusades. He and his successors colonized the area by moving people from their other fiefs, allowing them to build cottages known as caselle.

However, recent research suggests that scattered rural settlements that began around AD 1000 gradually coalesced to form the village units of latter-day Aja Piccola and Monti. Tradition has it that drystone walling was imposed upon the new settlers so their houses could be quickly dismantled. This served two purposes: recalcitrant householders could be dispossessed easily and, later, it would be possible to avoid taxation on new settlements. In the latter case the buildings could be reconstructed equally rapidly. This is known to have occurred in 1644 to thwart tax inspectors sent by the King of Naples. However, historical and comparative analysis suggests that this technique was a minimal physical response to local conditions, later to be exploited for punitive purposes.

By the mid-16th century the Monti area was already occupied by some 40 trulli , but it was in 1620 that the settlement began to expand, when Count Gian Girolamo Guercio ordered the construction of a bakery, a mill and an inn. By the end of the 18th century the community numbered over 3,500, and in 1797 they brought the feudal rule of the Acquaviva family to an end by obtaining the status of royal town from Ferdinand IV, King of Naples. The name of Alberobello was adopted, taken from the medieval Latin name of the region, siva arboris belli . From this time onwards the construction of new trulli quickly declined.

These buildings were constructed using roughly worked limestone boulders collected from neighbouring fields and, later, the large water-collecting basins in the area. They were built directly on the underlying natural rock, using exclusively the drystone technique. The walls that form the rectangular rooms are double, with rubble cores, and are pierced by small windows. Fireplaces, ovens and alcoves are recessed into the thickness of the walls. The roofs, which are also double-skinned, spring directly from the walls, simple squinches allowing the transition from the rectangular to the circular or oval sections of the roofs themselves. These are built up of successive courses of grey limestone slabs, known as chianche or chiancarelle . The roofs of the larger building terminate in a decorative pinnacle, often apotropaic in function. There are ingenious provisions for collecting rainwater using projecting eaves at the base of the roof which divert the water through a channelled slab into the cistern beneath the house. Flights of narrow stone steps give access to the roofs.

The interiors are equipped with wooden fittings, such as door frames, barrel-vaulted niches, etc., and in some of the larger trulli there is a second storey formed from a wooden floor and reached by means of a wooden staircase. Stone fireplaces and ovens are ventilated through stone slabs covering them. The roofs are not painted and develop a patina of mosses and lichens; they sometimes bear mythological or religious symbols in white ash. By contrast, the walls of the trulli must be whitewashed at regular intervals, which has the effect of rounding the outlines of the stones, giving a brilliant homogeneous surface. The Monti quarter, which covers 6 ha on a hillside, contains 1,030 trulli . Its streets run downhill and converge at the base of the hill. The Aja Piccola quarter, with 590 trulli , is less homogeneous than Monti. The streets converge on a common farmyard where in feudal times the peasants were forced to thresh wheat.