Berlin City Palace tour

Tags

Capital, City Palace, Germany, Hohenzollern

This past weekend in Berlin a special opening tour of the City Palace for curious Berliners. This project is nearing completion after 18 years of preparation and work. The former City Palace of the Kings of Prussia and Emperors of Germany was very badly damaged in 1944. After the war the old Palace was now in Communist East Berlin, like most of all the great buildings of the German Capital. The Communist leadership decided in the 1950’s to destroy what was left, despite the fact the could have restored it. Since there had been a palace on the site for 500 years, the population was not happy with this decision. For decades the area the size of 3 football fields was a parking lot and parade ground for East German troops.

After German re-unification in 1989, the idea of re-building the City Palace was put forward and the plan was approved by the Federal Government of Germany, the City of Berlin and the State of Brandenburg. The financing budgeted at 800 million Euros is shared amongst levels of government and the public donations of 105 million Euros to re-build the South, North and Western facade in the Baroque style of the 18th century. The Eastern facade is modern as will be the interior. The old rooms of the palace will not be re-built as they are now dedicated to show the collections of diverse cultures, there will be a restaurant on the roof, lecture halls, a library and concert hall.

By re-building the City Palace it completes the architectural ensemble of the heart of the City as envisioned by Frederick II of Prussia (1712-1786). Because they are Baroque facades on three sides, every element had to be carved by hand and in some cases gilded. The gilded balcony railings and many roof statues still have to be installed and the great dome and lantern need to be completed as is the landscaping.

The opening of the Humboldt Forum as the City Palace is now called is scheduled for Summer 2019. Situated next to the Lutheran Cathedral of Berlin and Imperial Mausoleum to the Hohenzollern Family and all the museums containing the wonderful collections, Unter den Linden avenue, and all the other palaces and university of the city is will certainly be a magnet.

 

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Late August

Tags

Antiquity, Cape Sounion, Greece, Pericles, Poseidon

The Sunset at Cape Sounion are truly magical. Twice I had the good fortune to be there. The site is ancient and the temple ruins are evocative. The earliest literary reference to Sounion is in Homer’s Odyssey . The story recounts that as the various Greek commanders sailed back from Troy, the helmsman of the ship of King Menelaus of Sparta died at his post. His shipmates cremate his remains on the beach at Cape Sounion.

The temple of Poseidon at Sounion was constructed in 444–440 BC. This was during the ascendancy of the Athenian statesman Pericles, who also rebuilt the Parthenon in Athens. It was built on the ruins of a temple dating from the Archaic period. It is perched above the sea at a height of almost 60 metres (200 ft). The design of the temple is a typical hexastyle, i.e., it had a front portico with six columns.

When I see such ruins dating back 2500 years, one can only be in awe considering that a human life is about 80 years. Martin Heidegger visited Sounion during his journey to Greece in 1962, as described in his book Sojourns. He goes on to reflect “the people of this country knew how to inhabit and demarcate the world against the barbarous in honour of the seat of the gods. …they knew how to praise what is great and by acknowledging it, to bring themselves in front of the sublime, founding, in this way, a world”

Sun set at the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion

The temple is located about 45 minutes outside of Athens on the Southern most tip of Attica and facing the Aegean Sea.

Berlin

Tags

Arts, cities, culture, history, Travel, World

On this warm Sunday night here are some images of Berlin my second favourite city after Rome. I hope to return to visit again in 2019 when the former City Palace reconstruction is completed, it is now known as the Humboldt Forum after the two german brothers Wilhelm and his younger brother Alexander.

 

Cities that I like in the world 1. Rome, 2. Berlin, 3. Vienna, 4. Salzburg, 5. Dresden, 6. Munich, 7. Venice, 8. Pesaro, 9. Palermo,10. Athens.

There are more cities I lived in, visited and liked, the list would be too long. We like cities for various reasons, for me it would be for the arts, culture, museum collections, fine restaurants, parks, history and elegance of urban design.

Santuari Murali

Tags

beliefs, Catholic, Italy, madonna, religion, sanctuary, superstitions

Madonella or Santuari Muralli are found almost everywhere in Italy, attached to buildings and on street corners. Most are centuries old, maintained by the people of the neighbourhood or of a parish church. Many created by great artists as a commission by a religious congregation.

People pass by them, some will stop to say a short prayer, others just nod to them as if a neighbour. On some streets people leave plants or flowers, votive candles.

There is an unwritten rule and everyone knows that the flowers and votive candles are never to be disturbed. This is a sacred place even if just on a busy street. It is as if there is an invisible precinct. The idea of these Madonella (little Madonnas) or Wall Shrine is as old as Rome, in antiquity on street corners you would have the local divinity protecting the neighbourhood usually near the local tavern which served also as a Club for the area, serving food and drink. The divinities were there to protect and they were different in each neighbourhood, they also had a local story attached to them and were said to perform miracles against an attack by unfriendly foreigners. Rome is a superstitious place and Romans have always been known to be a superstitious people.

With the gradual transformation of the City in the fourth century A.D. with the imposition by Emperor Constantine of the Christian religion, slowly these old pagan shrines are changed to Christian ones. The most popular new figure is the Virgin Mary, often associated with Venus or Aphrodite. Since Venus usually appears with a cupid, the Virgin Mary appears with a new born baby Jesus, voilà transformation and a gullible public is none the wiser.

When we lived on Via Asmara there was such a Madonella, at the bottom of the street was a big high school and many students walked back and forth passing in front of it. There was always flowers and many votive candles and I remember thinking that the kids might be tempted to steal or break what was left in a moment of piety. No never they simply walked pass it without ever touching anything. They obviously knew better than to desecrate such a site.

A lovely tradition to see such sanctuaries attached to the walls of apartment buildings or commercial ones. Just a tradition, it what was once a very Catholic country, like all places Italy has changed a lot but this millennia old tradition persists.

 

 

Books I am reading

Tags

books, D'Ormesson, France, Paris

Yes it is that time again to talk about books I am reading. I have always enjoyed reading since a very young age. My Mom started me on it and apparently I take after my paternal grandfather whose name I have, he too was a reader but mostly crime novels, he was a Police detective.

I am waiting for the arrival by mail of the latest book I ordered,  it is entitled, Rome: A history in seven sackings by Matthew Kneale.

I am still reading Josephus: The essential works by Josephus Flavius, which is the most precise description of Rome under the Flavian Dynasty as observed by the Jewish Courtier and ex-rebel Josephus. It is also considered a companion book to the Bible and the four gospels since Josephus lived in the era of the destruction of the Temple by Titus and the revolt against Roman rule in Palestine. Reading Josephus who writes about the Tribes of Israël and their conquest of the area known today as Israël and Palestine, I was reminded of another book by the great Portuguese Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, The gospel according to Jesus Christ, a very funny book where God is portrayed as a wealthy Jewish Merchant with a sadistic streak. The God of the Old Testament was one who ordered anyone not worshipping him to be killed. Josephus is clear in his description that Yahveh, God tells the Jews it is quite ok and good to kill all their enemies because they do not belong to the chosen people. And Yahveh is always willing to forgive the people of Israël if they forget him momentarily because he has only one chosen people. Strange on again off again relationship. Josephus also describes what it is like to live at the Court of the Emperor of Rome on the Palatine Hill and observe the goings on.

The other book I am struggling to finish reading is by the late Dean of the French Academy Jean D’Ormesson, the book in French is entitled Je dirai malgré tout que cette vie fut belle. D’Ormesson died last December in Paris at the age of 92 and was given a National funeral, with full honours at Les Invalides in the presence of the French President and past presidents.

For many years I saw him on French television, he spoke very well, cultivated the art of conversation and knew almost every well known person in France or Europe.  The book is about his family and his life and all the great people he knew. Written in the style of a trial in a French Court were the Judge asks questions of the accused in this case D’Ormesson details how he lived. I find it tedious to read, the style is mondain and full of reference to his very famous friends, dinner parties, vacations in Italy or Greece and always accompanied by famous friends. He sailed through life without any great difficulty, it is a life on another level far removed from the mundane or the ordinary.

Jean Bruno Wladimir François de Paule Le Fèvre d’Ormesson was a French novelist born in 1925. He was the author of forty books, the director of Le Figaro from 1974 to 1979, and the Dean of the Académie française. He received the Grande Croix de la Légion d’Honneur and his family owned 2 Chateaux, though through financial difficulties managed to loose them but nonetheless always maintained a good address in fashionable Paris.

D’Ormesson was from an old French noble family, Grandfather and father both Ambassadors, went to the great schools, a life of privilege, D’Ormesson became Secretary-General of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies at UNESCO. He was a conservative Catholic philosopher, a recipient of the Ordre National du Mérite for his achievements in civilian life.

What I always liked about him was his elegance and how he could speak so well with a wonderful vocabulary, he was a pleasure to hear, even when you disagreed with him, you still liked him. Even in this book there is a great generosity of spirit, the sign of a great mind. No doubt that he had some influence in France in the political and social sphere. With his death an era has closed.

 

Reactions

Tags

BDSM, Christianity, Prejudice, sex, sex toys

Well I have been presenting to the public the Kent Monkman Exhibit on the 150th of Confederation, titled Shame and Prejudice, a story of Resilience. It is a national traveling Art exhibit and has been to several Canadians Cities, it is all part of the Truth and Reconciliation process between First Nations and non-indigenous people in Canada.

So you can imagine that we do get a lot of reactions depending on who the visitor is and where they are from or what they know. This is the all important word Knowledge , a negative reaction to the exhibit usually comes from lack of knowledge or ignorance which is often crass. Like in many countries Canadians do not know their history and really have no idea what happened in Canada in the last 150 years and little about the French period from 1534-1763, the past is a blank. A lot of what we were told is based on stories told badly or sound bites or myths like the War of 1812.

You will not find many First Nation People who think that the colonial project of turning 4 little colonies into a country in 1867 as a good thing. They certainly lost and to this day have been marginalized, though the situation is changing, some old attitudes die hard.

The whole exhibit is very complex and requires from the viewer time to think and to reflect, the great paintings of Monkman are layered with symbolism, even the clouds mean something. He paints in a style reminiscent of the baroque era (1600-1750) but also in the romantic age (1800-1900). You have to know the history of Canada and of the First Nations. The public in general is not really aware of the many various First Nations in Canada, some ask how many were there in total. Today there are 2 million indigenous people in Canada or about 5% of the total population. Canadian History was not taught in schools. In English Canada, students got British Imperial history and in French Canada we got the history of New France from 1534 to 1763 and then history of the struggles against English oppression, deportation of the Acadians 1755-58, rebellion of 1837, rebellion of the Metis in 1880, and it would then jump to historical moments like conscription of the First World War and Second World War, and finally the Quiet Revolution of the 1960’s. But the First Nations were largely absent from it all, in French Canada you would hear about the Huron, Algonquin, Iroquois, Abenaquis, other First Nations were not mentioned since they did not figure in our history.  The relationship between the French and the First Nations was also very different in many ways. We never studied the history of British Empire.

So you can imagine how complicated it can be to present this exhibit when the public does not understand what they are looking at. I am not mentioning visitors from Asia or South East Asia who find the whole exhibit bewildering, this is not the image of Canada they have and for them First Nations are simply Indians who are cartoon figures. Many are astounded to hear this story. Then we get a few religious types who do not take kindly to the attacks on Christianity in the context of religion being used as a cudgel. The praying hands modelled after the work of Albrecht Dürer made of washable silicone gets them going.

The Confederation daddies (detail) Quebec Conference 1864. Miss Chief (mischief) with her/his LouBoutin designer high heels.

The bigger observations comes from the imagery, Monkman tells the story through the lens of a white colonial power, violence, dominance, oppression, racism, bigotry, misogyny. Using government documents and official correspondence, quoting Campbell Duncan Scott, CMG, Senior bureaucrat who writes about using residential schools as the final solution of the Indian problem.  He also uses Jane Austen’s images of society and the societal context of the time she writes about. It makes a lot of people very uncomfortable, it bothers them to see such images which cracks the mirror of pleasantness so often associated with the Victorian era and what followed. Canada not so nice after all, no we did not have General Custer and the Cavalry, we had the RCMP as enforcers of the government and Cabinet approved policy of starvation to get rid of the Indian problem.

The Iron Horse (detail) with Miss Chief (read Mischief) Eagle Tes-Tickle 

The other aspect that bothers a lot of people is the sexuality, nudity and open strong sexual messaging in the paintings and the fact that Monkman being Two Spirit and gay is not accepted by some visitors. We hear some truly disturbing remarks dismissing the whole exhibit as mere propaganda or labelling it degenerate art. Monkman to some is either psychotic or a pervert. At the same time I do not see those visitors as making any effort to understand or look at what is being presented.

Maybe the days when you visited a museum and examined the art works and looked at the composition and themes to enrich your knowledge or to seek beauty are past. Maybe people just want to be entertained and nothing more, why can’t museums be entertainment centres. Thinking in a critical manner is too difficult for some.

The Bears of Confederation (detail) Miss Chief (mischief) somewhat like a Canadian 50 shade of grey. The red handkerchief and the praying hands a strong symbolism for some.  

Little did I realize that despite our advancement in the last 40 years on many topics attitudes do not change much. Some men still grapple with difficulty with the changing mores in society and feel very threatened by any demonstrations of men cross dressing, being gay, penises, etc. For some women nudity, erect penises, BDSM, anything departing for the heterosexual norm can be a difficult topic. Or it can be as simple as finding it difficult that something terribly wrong took place in Canada and you cannot blame someone else. It happened here not in some other country. Hopefully this exhibit will get visitors to think critically about their role in reconciliation in ways that make visible contemporary manifestations of colonization.

 

 

Orwell Corner Village

Tags

heritage, Lindsay-Stewart house, McGill University, Medicine, Orwell, PEI, Sir Andrew MacPhail

A few weeks ago we went to a Strawberry social which is the most popular event in the Summer on PEI. Orwell Corner Village is or was a real village until 1963. When I first moved to PEI, I thought that it was named after the author George Orwell, not so. The village dates back to 1890, populated with Scottish Highlanders. It was a name place since 1766 in honour the British Minister of Plantations Sir Francis Orwell, during the reign of King George III.

Following Trans-Canada Highway 1 out of Charlottetown by crossing the Hillsborough Bridge you will arrive within 20 minutes at Old Uigg Road follow the road to Orwell Corner Village. Since the people of this village moved out in the 60’s the buildings have been perfectly preserved and the old cemetery is still in use to this day. People did not move far away some only a mile down the road.

The village boast, the old one room school, the old austere Presbyterian Church, the Clarke’sgeneral store and post office with the Clarke’s grand house attached, a blacksmith shop, a carriage house full of old carriages and a hearse, a machine shed, a shingle mill, a community hall, and several farm buildings with animals. All of it in operation during the Summer Season and lots of volunteers do a wonderful job of showing you around.

It also has the famous guest house built by Sir Andrew MacPhail for his dinner and visiting guests. The house is currently undergoing restoration and it quite beautiful and grand, hard to imagine that this house was built only to house dinner guests or day visitors who could not make it back to Charlottetown. In those days it took a day by horseback to return to the Capital on bad roads or through forests. The guest list of famous people who were friends of Sir Andrew is interesting, Rudyard Kipling, Canadian Author Stephen Leacock, Lucy Maud Montgomery amongst others, stayed at the house.

The Homestead of Sir Andrew was just a half mile away. Sir Andrew was very eccentric like all men used to the grand life, he was a famous medical professor at McGill University in Montreal, an author of many books and erudite in many topics, he only came home to PEI in the Summer. He would entertain lavishly but his guests had to stay/sleep at the guest house not in his house. So he would have a carriage and horse ready to ferry them the short distance. The guest house had servants etc. so it was quite nice.  The guest house is known as the Stewart-Lindsay house, named after his daughter Dorothy Lindsay and her own daughter Meg Stewart and was lived in until about 50 years ago. It has grand formal rooms, salon, dining room, study, a large kitchen, a grand staircase and a servants staircase in the back and bedrooms for guests and in the attic several servants rooms. It also has a large glassed in sun porch. If you visited Sir Andrew you would have your breakfast at the guest house and then be summoned to come and see him for lunch or dinner. Lots of music of course, walks around the beautiful estate and conversation on books and other topics.

Part of the restoration project is to clear the brush on the slope that goes down to the Orwell river to give the house the view it had once. This project will take years to complete it is all done on donations from the public but the volunteer association is hopeful for a government grant.

Personally I think that this is a site that is worth its weight in gold given who came to visit and the village and scenery. Orwell Corner Village also sits at the intersections of the old country roads that once took you to Charlottetown and other settlements and towns. The roads now disused are still clearly marked.

The guest house/Lindsay-Stewart House in need of restoration. It has brand new concrete foundations and new roof. The interior needs a good cleaning up otherwise all is good.

 

The Old Presbyterian Church where services were conducted in Gaelic and English.

The old one room school house

The old road intersection indicating where the nearest town was. Belfast is an anglicized name from the French, Belle Face.

The back of the Clarke’s home with the general store at the front.

The original Island Road to Charlottetown

The old original Island road to Belfast (Belle Face)

Jason who has been working with the PEI Museum for many a years and gives an excellent description of the life of the general store and its clients.

The Clarke’s general store in Orwell Corner Village.

If given a choice between visiting Cavendish and Anne of Green Gables or Orwell Corner Village, I would prefer the later simply because it is real and real people actually lived here until recently and their descendants are all around, including the Family of Sir Andrew MacPhail, many of whom are scholars.