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The Scottish Parliament Building, Edinburgh, Scotland
January 31st, 2007 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest placesThe Scottish Parliament Building is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Edinburgh. Construction on the building commenced in June 1999 and the Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) held their first debate in the new building on Tuesday, 7 September 2004. The formal opening by Queen Elizabeth II took place on 9 October 2004. Enric Miralles, the Catalan architect who designed the building, died during the course of its construction.
From 1999 until the opening of the new building in 2004, committee rooms and the debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament were housed in the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland located on The Mound in Edinburgh. Office and administrative accommodation in support of the Parliament were provided in buildings leased from Edinburgh City Council. The new Scottish Parliament Building brought together these different elements into one purpose built parliamentary complex, housing 129 MSPs and more than 1,000 staff and civil servants.
Krasiński’s Palace, Warsaw, Poland
January 31st, 2007 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest placesKrasiński's Palace (Pałac Krasińskich, Pałac Rzeczypospolitej) is a baroque palace in Warsaw, Poland.
It has been build between 1677-1695 for Voivode of Płock, Jan Dobrogost Krasiński according to the plans of Tylman of Gameren. Today it is a part of the Polish National Library, Special Collection Section (Manuscrpits and Old Prints).
On its facade are a number of sculptures by Andreas Schlütter. The decorations inside the building were designed by Domenico Merlini in the 1780s and restored after the Second World War.
[Source: Wikipedia]
Send by: Gh0st
Wanda Bridge, Cracow, Poland
January 31st, 2007 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest placesHolyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scottland
January 31st, 2007 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest placesThe Palace of Holyroodhouse, or informally Holyrood Palace, founded as a monastery by David I of Scotland in 1128, has served as the principal residence of the Kings and Queens of Scotland since the 15th century. The Palace stands in Edinburgh at the bottom of the Royal Mile.
Holyrood is an anglicisation of the Scots Haly Ruid (Holy Cross).
In the 15th century a guesthouse stood on the site of the present north range of the Palace, west of the Abbey and its cloister. Many of Scotland's medieval Kings stayed here before the palace’s construction, and by the late 15th century Holyrood was a royal residence in all but name; James II was born there in 1430, crowned there, married there, and buried there. Between 1498 and 1501, James IV constructed a new building, with Holyrood becoming a palace in the true sense of the word (see Palace).
The Victory Column (Siegessäule), Berlin, Germany
January 31st, 2007 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest placesThe Victory Column (German: Siegessäule) is one of the more famous sights of Berlin. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian war, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873 Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870/1871), giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, 8.3 meters high and weighing 35 tonnes, designed by Friedrich Drake. Berliners, with their fondness for disrespectful names of famous buildings, call the statue Goldelse, meaning something like "golden Lizzy".
Anchored on a solid fundament of polished red granite, the column sits on a hall of pillars with a glass mosaic designed by Anton von Werner. The column itself consists of three solid blocks of sandstone, which are decorated by cannon pipes captured from the enemies of the aforementioned three wars. A relief decoration on the foundation, which had to be removed on request of the victorious allied forces in 1945, was restored in the 1980s.
Future site for a sports club?, Peru
January 31st, 2007 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest placesFuture site for a sports club?
Look at this (in Google Earth) upside down and zoom as close as possible.
Send by: Scott Tellep
One O’Clock Gun - Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scottland
January 30th, 2007 / / Links: Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Virtual Earth / Nearest placesThe One O'Clock Gun is fired every day (except Sunday) at precisely 13:00, allowing citizens and visitors to check their clocks and watches. The origin of the tradition lies in the days before accurate timepieces, when sailing ships in the Firth of Forth needed a reliable means to check and reset their chronometers.
In 1861 Captain Wauchope, a Scottish Naval Officer in the Royal Navy invented the time ball, still seen today on top of Nelson's Monument, Calton Hill. At one o'clock the ball drops giving the signal to sailors, but this meant that someone would have to be looking out for it and it often couldn't be seen in foggy weather.
So, in the same year the gun was fired simultaneously to the time ball dropping. Originally an 18-pound muzzle loading cannon which needed four men to load and fire was fired from the Half Moon Battery.





















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