Index...for not getting completelly lost! :)

Sunday 31 January 2016

Albert Memorial Clock

 
12.21 am
 
Albert Memorial Clock, Belfast 2015

Belfast has it own leaning tower, the Albert Memorial Clock, located on the East of High Street.

It was built in 1865-1869 for commemorating the death of the husband of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, who died in 1861.

12.26 am

Albert Memorial Clock, Belfast 2015

This tower is not leaning as much as the famous Italian Pisa's Tower, but anyway over the years it has accumulated a list of 1.25 metres off the vertical towards South.

12.35 am

Albert Memorial Clock, Belfast 2015

A multi million pound restoration project carried out in 2002 has allowed the stabilization of the foundations and donated to the tower the original Victorian splendour.

7.08 pm


Albert Memorial Clock, Belfast 2015
The tower is 35 meters high and constructed mainly in sandstone. It was built on wooden piles on reclaimed, marshy land around the river Farset, conditions that caused the subsidence of its foundations.

 7.10 pm
 

Albert Memorial Clock, Belfast 2015
People from Belfast comment that "the old Albert has both the time and the inclination".

Saturday 30 January 2016

St. Anne's Cathedral in Belfast

 
St. Anne's Cathedral is the heart of the Cathedral Quarter.

Cathedral Quarter, Belfast
The work for its construction began in 1899 and continued for eighty years. The architectural style is Irish Romanic.

The façade of St. Anne's Cathedral, Belfast 2015
The interior of St. Anne's Cathedral, Belfast 2015

One of the most interesting things of this church is the marble labyrinth in the central area of the floor at the West End. Its single, non-branching path represents the journey of life. Following the white route (virtue) leads the pilgrim to the Altar, that is to the Salvation. However the black route leads nowhere.

The marble labyrinth of St. Anne's Cathedral, Belfast 2015

Thursday 28 January 2016

Ireland at the Expo 2015 in Milan

Well...as architecture photography lover, food lover, and Italian....I could not miss the Universal Exposition held in 2015 in Milan, better known as EXPO 2015.

And one of my first stop....well my heart actually brought me there ;)...was the Irish pavilion...

Ok, not the best neither in terms of exposition inside nor in terms of architecture...but a jump in the green country is always welcomed, and there I could live again with the memory some of the nice places that I visited in Ireland.

Here it is possible to read more of the pavilion (in Italian)
http://www.expo2015.org/archive/it/partecipanti/paesi/irlanda.html
http://www.expo2015.org/2015/10/21/irlanda/



So, here some info on the green country

 ..the pavilion from outside....

 
and inside...
 

..it is always nice to meet you Ireland! :)



Thursday 21 January 2016

The Writers' Square

Today the post should have been dedicated to the St Anne's Cathedral of Belfast, located in the Cathedral Quarter, the photos are already ready...but well, in am not in the mood of writing and then tonight I let who is better than me with words to speak .

We are in the Writers' Square, in front of St Anne's Cathedral. The square pays homage to Belfast's rich literary tradition, with quotation about Belfast by famous local writers carved into the stone underfoot.

Instead, my quotation of today is: "Love your passions, it is the only way you have to cope with the brutalization of those who don't love anymore."

"And that night there was a great reast in Cair Parval,
and revelry and dancing, and gold flashed and wine flowed,
and answering to music inside,
but stranger, sweeter, and more piercing came the music of the sea people."
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

"See Belfast, devout and profane and hard,
Built on reclaimed mud, hammers playing in the shipyard,
Time punched with holes, like a steel time sheet, time
Hardening the faces, veneering with a grey and speckled rime
The faces under the shawls and caps
This was my mother-city,
these my paps."
 Luois MacNeice (1907-1963)

"From the night of moving shadows
 To the sound of the shipyard horn;
We hail thee Queen of the Northland
We who are Belfast born."
Thomas Camduff (1886 - 1956)

"Made when the world was fashioned,
Meant with the world to last,
The glorious face of the sleeper
That slumbers over Belfast."
Alice Milligan (1865 1953)

"On his way back to the College he wandered about the city
learning the names of the street: Oxford Street, Victoria Street,
Cromac Street, Durham Street, Townshend Street, Carlisle Circus,
and he thought of the island names - Lagavristeevore, Killaney, Crocnacreeva,
Carnasheeran, Crocaharna - words full of music
and he said them out aloud to himself as he went along."
Michael McLaverty (1907 - 1922)
 
"I should have made it plain that I stake my future
on birds flying in and out of the schoolroom window,
on the council of sunburnt comrades in the sun, 
and the picture carried with singing into the temple."
John Hewitt (1907-1987)

"Ireland is a very lovely country.
Indeed, there is only one thing wrong with it,
and that is that the people that are in it
have not the common-sense to live in peace
with one another and with their neighbours."
Robert Lloyd Praeger (1865 - 1953)

"Here's yellow - man*, an' tuffy sweet,
Girls will ye taste or pree it;
An aul' wife crys gaun through the street,
Boys treat veir sweethearts tae it."
Robert Huddlestone (1814 - 1887)
 
Do mhíle fáilte a Bhanríoghain Éire,
Go cathraigh éigseach chríche Uladh.
Mas fuar síon ar mhullaigh a sliabh,
Is grádhach díolos croidhe a bunadh.
(trad: 1000 welcomes, Oh Queen of Ireland,
To the poetic city of the land of Ulster.
If cold be the wind on its mountain-tops,
Its people’s hearts are warm and loyal.)
Roibeard Mac Adhaimh (1808 - 1895) 
Irish motto for Queen Victoria on her visit to Belfast.
 
 
Yelloman is a chewy toffee-textured honeycomb produced in Northern Ireland