a dream city for tourists: Palermo

 

A 2023 survey by Travel + Leisure invited readers to vote on the world’s most beautiful cities. Clearly the answer differed for everyone, but see their non-exhaustive list of the world’s 25 most beautiful cities. I chose Palermo.

transport from Southern Italy to Sicily

On Sicily's Nth coast the sunny city is a dream for archit­ect­ure fans, right on the Mediterranean's cross roads. Palermo shows a striking mix of architectural styles, after centuries of conquest & differing cultural influences, a rich history of local civilisations. It changed from a Carthaginian stronghold to a Roman province, reaching its cultural peak in Arab rule (831–1072) and then Christian Norman conquerors, creating the unique Arab-Norman architectural style seen now.

Palermo has many fine museums, Sicily's Regional Gallery being housed in a stunning C15th Gothic-Catalan palace and containing iconic works of medieval and Renaissance art. Separately Palermo noted that a Goddess Artemis fragment be­l­ong­­ing to the Parthenon’s east­ern frieze on loan from Sic­ily’s Archaeol­og­ical Museum will remain in Ath­ens. And the Vatican will return Marble fragments from the Vatican Museums, with papal donations

Royal Norman Palace of the Kings of Sicily created in C12th, had the beautiful Palatine Chapel in its 2nd floor. Inside the chapel is decorated with beautiful golden mosaics, and the ceiling is very different from any other Christian church. Carved wood in an Islamic style. Tickets to the Norman Palace include entry to Palatine Chapel, Royal Apartments, Royal Gardens and special exhibitions. 

Palermo Cathedral, built 1185, was built on a Byzantine Church. See the architectural styles that reflect the long history of additions & renovations to the cathedral. In a chapel, right of the altar, lies St Rosalie, patron saint of Palermo. And see the tomb of Blessed Father Puglisi, Mafia-killed. Entry to the cathedral is free except for a visit to the rooftop for great views over the city and to the royal tombs.

The Arab-Norman architectural style features unique blends of Islamic domes & Byzantine mosaics. Palace of the Normans is a striking gold-stone example of the Arab-Norman style and home to Sicily's regional parliament,  a C9th palace representing one of Europe's most ancient royal residences. And the Palatine Chapel, completed in 1142 is one of Europe's great artistic treasures with stunning Byzantine mosaics covering the walls and ceiling.

Built from 1875-97, Teatro Massimo is the largest Opera House in Italy and 3rd largest and most celebrated after Paris & Vienna Operas. Tea­t­ro Mass­imo’s copper dome is c250’ over the piazza bel­ow. From the roof­top, see the city’s terracotta skyline in the early evening.

Quattro Canti Square/Piazza Vigliena is the centre of Palermo’s historic quarter, lined with 4 Baroque buildings. Tourists can see beautiful opera performances in the square, a famous Baroque intersection that beautifully divides the historic city into 4 distinct quarters. It is an architectural marvel of squares, with baroque beauty & intricate details. Each corner is a masterpiece, with the baroque statues representing the Four Seasons. 

C16th nude sculptures at the Piazza Pretoria

 

Near Quattro Canti is Praetorian Fountain, built in Florence in C16th. When the owner lost money, he sold the fountain to the City. The fountain was broken into hundreds of pieces and shipped to Palermo to be reassembled. Because of the totally nude statues, and a convent looking out onto the fountain, it was called the Square of Shame. 

teatro massimo

Norman Palace

Palatine Chapel

Porta Nuova/New Gate next to the Norman palace was built when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V came to the Kingdom of Sicily in 1536 and crossed the arched entrance to Palermo. To honour the event, New Gate was completed in 1584, later destroyed by fire and then rebuilt more elaborately by the City Senate as the triumphal arched gateway leading to the oldest street, Cassaro.

Porta Nuova 

Like Rome's Church of the Capuchin Monks, where there are bodies & bones arranged into art, the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo opened 1599, to avoid throwing all the dead brothers into a mass grave. Originally only Capuchin friars were entombed in the catacombs, but in C17th & 18ths, it was a way for people to show their wealth and power. There are 2000+ mummified bodies in the catacombs now, dating to C16th-early C20th. Men were embalmed and put on display in their clothes, remarkably well preserved, as are their intact hair and skin. There's NO photography in this eerie historical site. 

Capuchin catacombs

The World of Sicily

Ballaro Market is the one of the oldest street-markets in Italy & Palermo’s largest. Fish, meat, fruit & vegetables are available, complete with plenty of street food stalls. Loud and crowded, the stall holders can be very vocal advertising their produce and the atmosphere in the passionate street-life surrounds its historical outdoor markets like Arabic souks. il Capo Market is smaller and quieter than Ballaro, primarily a fish market and also has plenty of street foodstalls. The best time to visit is in the morning since many stalls close after lunch. la Vucciria Market Square in Sicilian means chaos, an apt description for this small square with its fish restaurants and food trucks. 

Gorgeous coffee shops in the small lanes

A train runs from Naples to Sicily then drives onto the ferry, by day or on overnight sleepers. Or fly to Falcone-Borsellino Airport from several European cities or get a connecting flight via Rome. If driving to Sicily by car, vehicle ferries travel from different mainland ports to Messina, Sicily’s primary transit hub.

Summer is peak season but winter is the best time to visit when the mild weather is great for walking around the city. All the attractions are open, and there are smaller crowds! The only issue might be the fewer daylight hours in winter. Near the Norman Palace, relax in the Gardens of the Villa Bonnano with palms and citrus trees, offering relief from the city’s action. And Mondello Beach is just a short distance from the city centre, an iconic coastline with pure water and stunning Mediterranean views. Although Palermo was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015, and since I've only spent one day there, I gratefully thank Nigel and Sue Adventures.

Remembering WW1 in Queensland

ANZAC Day dawn service, 2022

    

After years of pandemic lockdowns, crowds were again free to at­t­end Anzac Day dawn services & ex-servicemen marches on 25th April 2022. And thousands did!! 

But ANZAC/Australian & New Zealand Army Corps Day may have ch­anged over the decades; critical debate and political controversies are being raised now. The divisiveness is about the compulsion to be pa­t­riotic and stand by the historical massacres at any cost. Many think we sh­ould commemorate Armistice Day instead, when world peace was dec­lared at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month. Note however that Remembrance Day never had the nation-building dimension in Australia that Anzac Day has.

The memorials erected in or after WW1 became Austr­al­ia’s first monum­ents, recording the devastating impact of WW1 on a young na­tion. Australia lost 60,000 from only 4 million people. Even before the war ended, memorials became a vis­ible expression of national grief. To those who created them, they were as sacred as grave sites i.e graves for the Austral­ians whose bodies still lay in European and Midd­le Eastern battle­fields. Brit­ish policy decreed its bodies were to be bur­ied where they fell and never taken home.

The Melbourne Shrine was very big and impressive, taking years to complete, and it wasn't officially dedicated until 11th Nov 1934 by the Duke of Gloucester. 300,000 people met to watch that 1934 event, and there was a commitment that the shrine would al­ways have an unimpeded and uninterrupted view from the city.

What about Queensland?  The most prominent building is the circular Shrine of Remembrance and the Eternal Flame which stands proudly and solemnly at the top of the Gardens. It is 10 metres in diameter and consists of a Grecian Doric circular colonnade of 18 columns representing the year of peace, 1918. Written around the top of the structure are the names of the major battles in which Australian units figured prominently such as ANZAC, Cocos Isupoli and Villers-Bretonneux.

Shrine of Remembrance in Anzac Square, Brisbane

Boonah War Memorial (pop 2000) was in a town in South Qld where the foundation stone was laid in May 1920; it was unveiled in July 1920 as part of the visit to Boonah by the Prince of Wales-later King Edward VIII. The marble and granite memor­ial was designed/made by Ipswich masonry firm Williams & Co, honouring local men who served in WW1.

The £600 cost was raised by public subs­crip­­t­ions, organised by a mem­orial committee. Memorial Park in Boonah was enclosed by a brick and wrought iron fence, with wrought iron gates at the front and rear cor­ners, flanked by pillars with ball fin­ials. A central con­crete path led to the memor­ial which was surround­ed by tier­ed garden beds. A flagstaff was located on the south western side. The specifically des­igned memorial park and fence were opened on Anzac Day 1922 by war hero-politician Capt Arnold Wienholt.

ANZAC Day Service, Boonah Memorial, 1924.
State Library Qld.

Australian war memorials were distinctive in that they commemorated the dead lads AND also the survivors. Australians were proud that their first great nat­ional army, unlike other battling armies, was composed ent­ir­ely of vol­unt­eers, men worthy of honour. Many memorials honoured those who served from a local area, providing valuable evidence of community in­volvement in the war. [In my generation, conscription for the Vietnam War was hated].

WW1 soldier statue, 

Boonah Qld

Australian war memorials also displayed imperial loy­al­ty; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects. In Queensland, the soldier statue (above) was the pop­ul­ar choice of memorial, whereas the obelisk (below) prevailed in the south­ern states, ? because of Queensland's larger working-class pop­ulace. The soldier embod­ied the ANZAC Spirit and the qualities of the ideal Austr­alian man: loyalty, courage, youth, informal­ity.

Immediately following the 1918 Armistice, a grateful Com­mon­wealth Gov­ern­ment brought captured machine guns to Aust­ralia, and distributed them to towns and cities. A local display of captured weapon­s was esp­ecial­ly import­ant for this young country, far removed from the Europ­ean battle fields. It was also a nation that had suffered the highest per capita casualty rate of any combatant nation in WW1! After a long public debate, the State War Trophy Committee dec­ided that troph­ies would be allocated on the basis of population, rather than on enlist­ments. For Queensland, this meant that only lar­g­er towns could apply for larger, more valuable guns. Note the Commit­tee believed Boon­ah’s popul­ation to be too small to apply.

Trophy gun from WW1, 

Boonah Memorial park

Great War guns trad­ed on the open market would have been a controver­s­ial process back then, when emotions were still raw and when the dist­rib­ution of war trophies was strictly controlled by State and Commonw­ealth agencies. Thus Boonah be­came the only Australian town ever to buy a privat­ely-owned trophy gun on behalf of community.

The Boona memorial was made of coarse marble, a pedestal surm­ounted by an obelisk and a digger statue, and sitting on a marble base. The columns were surmounted by four marble corner urns, and in the centre of the columns see the marble plates with the names of the 374 local men who served in WW1. The 69 locals who died were named on the front and the rear recorded the names of nurses and chaplains. Projecting from the centre of the pedestal was the tapered marble ob­el­isk, 6 m high. Surmounting the obelisk was the digger stat­ue, the Australian soldier standing at ease with his head bow­ed and his hands resting on his reversed rifle. Queensland War Mem­or­ials provided evid­ence of an era widesp read Australian patriotism & nationalism in WW1.

Boonah Memorial park

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Australia thanks Karl, Slawa & Eva Duldig

                     

Slawa on Sigmund Jaray furniture in the Duldig flat in Vienna in 1931

Slawa, with her sister Rella in Vienna, 1938.

Slawa and Karl in Vienna in 1938.

Karl Duldig (1902-1986) was born in Przemysl (now Poland). In 1914 his family moved to Vienna where he learned to love sculp­ture, studying later at Kunstgewerbeschule under An­ton Hanak (1921-5). Karl saluted Hanak’s teaching in Crouch­ing Fig­ure 1923, car­v­ed from soapstone.

He continued studying at the Akademie der Bildenen Künste (1925-9). In 1931 in Vienna, Karl married fellow art student Slawa Horowitz (1902-75). Sigmund Jaray, famed Austrian furniture des­igners, was com­miss­ion­ed by Slawa to design furniture for their flat, decorated in the Vien­nese Workshops style. Mean­time Sl­awa invented amodern foldable umbrel­la, hold­ing the patent for 10 years.

The musical examined pre-war Vienna, with fluky ev­ents that helped them survive, starting from Nazi Austria af­t­er the 1938 Anschluss. And 1938 was the year daughter Eva was born! In 3 con­­tinents & 3 gen­erat­ions, the musical reflect­ed both the losses that dis­located fam­il­ies suff­er­ed, and the ch­all­enges faced when ad­apt­ing to new lives.

Like others in 1938 & 1939, the Duldigs had to give their surviv­ing assets to Nazis and flee! Sl­awa's adored sister and bro­ther in law Aurelie & Ignaz Laisné survived the Holocaust by hiding in Paris, with Karl’s artworks stashed in their cellar.

There was a brief time in Switzerland when Karl was playing in a ten­n­is tournament. In 1938 the fam­ily grabbed the chance to get to Singa­p­ore, working in an art school in the British colony. But in Sep 1940 they were decl­ared Enemy Aliens by the Br­it­ish who dep­ort­ed them to Aus­t­ralia.

Because Australia was also at war, the family was interned at Tatura Camp in rural Victoria for 2 years, The camp was peace­ful but isol­at­ed. While Karl did kitchen duty in 2nd AIF 8th Employment Co., he carved Mother and Child 1942 from pot­atoes with a pocket knife. Later he cast them in bronze.

Released in April 1942, the family settled in urban Melbour­ne and be­c­ame Aust­ral­­ian citizens post-war. Karl held his first solo show at Koz­minsky’s (1947) and became art master (1945-67) at a prominant Mel­b­our­ne gram­mar school, while creating a small ceramics busin­ess. Karl ex­hib­ited re­g­ularly with the Victor­ian Sculptors’ Soc­iety and the imp­ortant Ad­el­aide Festival of Arts from 1960. Slawa’s work app­ear­ed in the major NGV 1990 exhibition, Vienna & Early C20th.

Eva de Jong-Duldig's book, 2017

Driftwood: escape and survival through art, was a book written by Eva Duldig in 2017. It followed the artists’ lives in pre-war Vien­na and their es­cape from Europe to Melbourne. And it offered an insight into the cultural life of Aus­t­ralia at a time of enormous political and art­is­tic change; a profound tran­­­sforming cont­rib­ution to the life of the nation through tal­ented immigrants. Note the enormous contr­ib­­ution mid­dle Euro­peans made to the national art scene. Yosl Berg­ner (left War­saw 1937); Wolfgang Siev­ers (Ger­many 1938); Ludwig Hir­schfeld-Mack (Berlin 1938); Mark Strizic (Germany post-war).

Driftwood was a new Australian musical, based on Eva’s book. Ad­ap­t­ed for the stage by play­wrig­ht Jane Bodie, it featured original music by Anthony Barn­hill, with lyrics by sop­rano Tania de Jong, and a fine cast directed by Wesley Enoch. Note that Eva’s real daught­er, Tania de Jong with the fabulous voice, played Eva’s mother Slawa in the musical. 

Karl and Slawa continued their art careers. Af­ter high school, Eva did physical educat­ion and arts at Mel­b­ourne Uni and worked as a teacher. Then her father, himself a highly ranked sports­man, en­couraged her into competitive tennis. The family moved near the Kooyong Tennis Courts, and in 1961 she reached Wimbledon’s quarter finals.

At the 1961 Maccabiah Games in Israel, she met her Dutch husband Henri and went to live in Holl­and. She became Nether­l­ands’ Na­tional Champion and repres­ented her new country at Wimbledon. They didn’t move back to Australia until after the bir­th of Eva’s first child in 1964.

With the talented European artists who were liv­ing 12,000 ks from home and speaking little English, Dul­dig helped de­fine the place of sculp­t­ure in Aust­ral­ian culture. He was very supp­ort­ive of younger artists, bec­oming first president (1962) of Ben Uri Society for the Arts aka Bezalel Fel­lowship of Arts. He was pre­s­id­ent (1977) of the Assoc­iation of Sculptors of Vict­oria. His last work was the Raoul Wallenberg monument 1985 at Kew Junction.

Duldig Studio in Melbourne

Before Karl died in 1986, he and Eva discussed what would hap­p­en to the house and collection. As custod­ian of her parents' leg­acy, Eva opened the home, sculpt­ure garden and art Studio in Malvern East up as a pub­l­ic mus­eum in 1996, showing the large coll­ection of fine and de­c­orative arts. And in the National Gall­ery Victoria.

In Karl Duldig and Vienna, Alison Inglis presented a paper at Vienna Art and Design symposium, NGV 2011. She show­ed his experience as an art student-scul­p­tor in Vienna pre-1939 was full of Secessionist values. The unex­pected recov­ery of all their Vien­n­ese art and other possess­ions in Mel­bourne suggested the Duldigs’ old lives wouldn’t be lost forev­er.

See artist Karl Duldig: Mitteleuropa in Australia

First Romanian king; stunning Peles Castle

Romania united in 1859 and became a nation in 1877. First Prus­sian Prince Carol (1839-1914) of Hohenzollern became King Carol I of Romania from 1881. In 1873 when Carol visited the location where the beautiful castle now stands, he loved the stunning Carpathian Mountains scenery. So he quickly bought land in a small vil­lage Sinaia. Why there? Sinaia Monast­ery had been founded by Pr­ince Mich­ael in 1695, used as the roy­al res­id­ence until Peles was built.

                          

Peleş Castle in Sinaia

Under Charles’ control, 300 people laboured endlessly on Peles for two years. In 1875, the impressive castle was fin­ish­ed, spread­ing across 3,200 square ms. Sev­er­al teams of European architects and de­signers had to work throughout the years, including archit­ects Joh­an­nes Schultz (1873-83) and Karel Liman (1896-1924). The summer cas­tle was de­sign­ed in a Neo Ren­ais­­sance style combining features of cl­as­sic European styles - decorated by JD Heymann (Hamburg), August Bembe (Mainz) and Bernhard Ludwig (Vienna).

Carol planned the royal res­idence and hunting pre­serve for summer each year, the name coming from the Peles Creek that passed through the court­yard. Peles sat on a his­t­or­ic medieval road that connected Tran­syl­vania and Wallachia. A rail­way line was soon built to Buch­arest (122 km) and many aristo­cr­atic families moved their summer homes nearby.

He was the first King of Romania, from 1881 until his death. One of the most imp­ortant polit­ical figures in Romania’s his­tory for his successes, Carol refin­ed his passion for archit­ect­­ure. The Sov­ereigns’ Gate opened into the cast­le, and a mon­u­men­t­al marble stair­case went to the Hall of Hon­our, the official recep­tion space with walnut panelling and stat­ues. The ties bet­ween the Rom­anian and other royal families att­racted big names to the cast­le eg Austro–Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, in 1886. Carols’ wife, Queen Elizab­eth, was a patron of the arts and de­signed rooms sp­ec­ific­ally for artists, mus­icians and writers’ enter­t­ain­ment.

                            

Peles Castle Piano Room

  
The dec­or­ations in each of the 160 rooms were given themes, with the finest examples of Eu­r­opean art, Murano crystal chandeliers, German stained-glass and Cor­doba leather-cov­er­ed walls. Many of the rooms were decorated to resemble the various world cultures eg the 1906 Mus­ic Room’s carved teak Indian furniture was gifted by a Maharajah. It contained a 1621 harpsichord from Antwerp, upright piano and organ

Given his military background, King Carol had a solid knowledge of weapons. The Great Armory Room hosts fine col­lect­ions of 4,000+ arms and ar­mour. Mainly C14th-17th from Western and East­ern Eur­ope and Asia, they were collected in 1903. Note the German armour of the C16th or 17th, and a full armour for the horse and knight.

                               

Welcome inside the front door

Due to its remarkable archit­ecture and exhibits, The Royal Library-Great Salon was special. It impress­ed with ceiling carved from linden wood, gilt, large chandeliers and Italian neo-renaissance decor­ations. See rare books with leath­er covers and gold emboss­ing and look for a secret door behind a bookshelf for the king to hide.

Peles’ architects drew in­sp­iration from classical styles like German and Italian Renais­s­ance, and Fr­ench Baroque eg the German stained glass and painted mur­als on the castle exter­ior. The interior, espec­ially the main hall, is beau­t­if­ully decorated with sculpt­ed wood & stained glass windows, sym­bols of elegance and royalty.

Great Moorish Salon

Wiki

Carrara marble was everywhere eg terraces decorated with royal st­at­ues, so the cas­tle could be an imp­res­sive residence fit for its pol­itical and cult­ural functions. Moor Hall was by painter and sculptor Charles Lecompte du Nouy, having Spanish-Moorish elements with a marble fount­ain.

The castle's 60-seat Theatre Hall and royal box were decorated in Louis XIV style, while the ceiling paintings and decorative fre­sc­oes were designed by famous Austrian art­ists Gustav Klimt and Fran­tz Mat­sch. And handmade silk embroideries adorned the ceil­ing and walls of the Turk­ish Salon. The horology exhibition had 50 different clocks from the private royal collection: grand­fathers, pendulum table clocks, fireplace clocks, al­arm clocks, poc­ket wat­ch­es etc. And pieces that belong­ed to Queen Marie, Carol II and King Mich­ael, mostly dating to the C19th. These collections of dispar­ate int­er­ior decorat­ion styles probably reflected King Carol’s eclectic tas­te.

                       

Theatre Hall, Peles Castle

From the start Peles was one of the most tech­nologically adv­an­ced palaces and expensive in Europe. It was the first European cas­tle fully supplied by locally produced el­ectrical po­wer, had its own 1884 power plant, cen­t­ral heating system in 1897, central vacuum sys­t­em, elev­at­or for the royals, hot and cold running water.

Besid­es Peles Castle, other buildings were erected, such as the royal stables and Foisor Hunting Lodge. And King Carol I’s successor, King Ferdinand built a smaller castle, Pelisor, on Peles grounds. Pel­isor was de­s­ign­ed in the art nouveau-style by the Czech architect Karel Liman from 1893-1914.

Peles remained a royal residence until 1947 when, after the forced ab­dication of King Michael I, Peles and the other royal propert­ies were taken by the Communist govern­ment. In 1948 the whole estate was closed, and art works went to Bucharest’s Art Mus­eum. The comm­unist government opened the castle as a tourist attract­ion, decl­ar­ed it the National Peles Museum in 1953 and kept it open until 1975.

Pres Nicolae Ceaușescu closed the entire estate in 1975-90, making it a State Protocol Area, limited to 1] mil­itary per­sonnel and 2] visiting heads of state. Fortun­ately the museum curators fri­ght­en­ed the President, saving Peles from military damage and from the Ceaus­escus. After the 1989 Romanian Revol­ut­ion, the cas­­tle became a heritage site and re-opened as a mus­eum with c400,000 visitors an­nually. Peles Museum has guides for those wanting historic tours.

Passionate about art, King Carol had collections covering c60,000 art objects. Additionally the ceramics collection held tiles and porcel­ain taken from the greatest C19th centres, was established by Queen Marie from 1914-27, and later pieces were purchased by the Museum. The wealth of artwork includes thousands of paintings and scul­ptures.

                              

Peles Castle gardens and statues

All photo credits: effitimonholiday

 

old slaver statues: destroy or museumise?

Edward Colston (1636–1721) was born in a wealthy merchant family in Bristol. Later he went to school in London and established him­self as a successful trad­er in wool

Edward Colston's statue

Bristol

In 1680 he joined the Royal African Company/RAC company, formally head­ed by the Duke of York/later King James II, that had a mon­opoly on the west African slave trade. RAC branded all the slaves’ chests, even the children, with the RAC initials. Colston apparently sold c100,000 West Africans in the Car­ibbean and Americas bet­w­een 1672-89, and it was through this London Co that Colston became very rich.

Colston used the enormous slave profits to move into money lending and mercantile businesses. He must have known that slavery was an abomin­at­­ion, because he sold his company shares to William Prince of Or­ange in 1689, after the latter led the Glorious Revolution and took the throne.

Colston developed his fame as a philanthropist who donated to char­it­ab­le causes like schools and hospitals in Bristol and London. He even served as a Tory MP for Bristol. He died in 1721 and was respectfully bur­ied in All Saints Church Bristol.

To honour the great phil­an­th­ropist, Colston’s name permeated Bris­t­ol. Note independent Colst­on school, Cols­ton Conc­ert Hall, two Colston streets and the high-rise office block Colston Tow­er. And the 5.5-metre bronze Colston statue has stood as a memorial on Col­ston Ave since 1895.

But modern campaigners vigorously argued that the hideous slav­ery business mean his contribut­ion to Bris­tol had to be reassessed. They decided in 2018 to change the stat­ue’s plaque to describe his slave-trading, but a final wording was never agreed upon.

Bristol slave trader Edward Colston's statue in Bristol 

Dropped into docks, to cheers all around.

 In 2020 a petition with thousands of signatures said that whilst his­t­ory shouldn’t be forgotten, these people who benefited from the ensl­ave­ment of individuals do not deserve the honour of a statue. This should be reserved for those who bring about positive change and who fight for peace, equality and social unity. We hereby en­cour­age Brist­ol city council to remove the Edward Colston statue. Bristol Museum said Colston’s statue was remaining because he never traded in enslaved Afric­ans, on his own account.

Eventually, during Black Lives Matters protests, frustrated prot­es­ters toppled the statue of Edward Colston from its plinth, graff­it­ied it and threw it into the docks. Bristol Coun­cil quick­ly ret­riev­ed it, then asked conserv­at­ors to stab­ilise the statue’s condition.

Protesters across the US tore down and vandalised statues and mem­orials of Confederate soldiers and generals, following George Floyd's death in Minneapolis in 2020. As long the offensive stat­ues etc are removed to a museum and preserved for history, I would be perfectly happy not to see Colston. But no permanent destruction, please.

In 1768, when Capt James Cook (1728–79) set sail on the first of 3 voyages to the South Seas, he’d been ordered by the British Admiral­ty to seek a continent and take possession of it for the British King. Cook reached the southern coast of N.S.W in 1770 and sailed north, charting Australia’s coast and cl­aim­ing the land for Britain in 1770. Cook transformed the way Eu­r­op­eans view­ed the Pacific Ocean and its lands, dying for Britain in a Hawaiian Islands battle in 1779. His maps, journals, log books and paintings from Cook’s travels are preserved in NSW’s State Library.

A sculpture of Cook was erected in Catani Gardens in St Kilda, opposite the beach in Melbourne in 1914. And in 1973, a life-size bronze statue of Cook was sculpted and installed near Cook's Cottage, in beautiful Fitzroy Gardens.

Vandals poured paint on the Cook sculpture on Australia Day in 2018, scribb­ling the words No Pride beneath the feet, along with the Abor­ig­­inal flag. Then it was re-vandalised in 2019. That statue was cov­er­ed with graffiti in 2020 when the words Destroy White Sup­remacy were scrawled on the stone. Similarly a statue of Captain Cook in Sydney was defaced.

Captain Cook statue, Sydney
unveiled to the public, 1879.

It seemed that historical monu­m­ents around the world have been brok­en or dyed as Black Lives Matter protest­ers mar­ched through the streets. In Australia the protesters called out Cook over his links to colon­ial­ism in a nation built on Aboriginal genocide.

In rebellion against Australia Day, called Invasion Day by the prot­est­ers, a group doused the Catani monument dep­ict­ing Captain Cook in red paint. The statue was defaced and its base was papered with fly­ers pro­posing the abolition of Australia Day celebrations. The vand­alism att­racted curious locals, before the paint was hosed off by council work­ers.

Captain Cook's statue, in Melbourne

covered in red paint.
 
But the authorities were unhappy. Port Phillip’s mayor said they had had “a very beaut­iful, fit­ting and respectful service with our trad­it­ional land­owners this morn­ing”. Minister for Multicultural Affairs said “Vandals are trashing our national heritage and should be pros­ecuted. Australia Day should be a great unifying day for our country, as it has been for decades."  But then why didn't the protesters send a petition from every citizen in Port Phillip area? Or negotiate through the local Council?

Melville Monument Edinburgh. Pull down?

St Andrew Square Edinburgh was built by 1781, an integral part of James Craig's scheme for New Town. For a long time, the squ­are's gardens were acc­es­s­ible only by very desirable inhabitants of the  sur­round­ing homes.

The Melville Monument

in the centre of  St Andrew Square Edinburgh

The Melville Monument is a large column and statue, built by 1827 to memorialise Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Mel­ville (1742–1811). Yet the City now wants to ded­icate the cont­ro­ver­sial Henry Dun­das monument to those enslaved be­cause of Dundas’ own act­ions! What happ­en­ed between 1827-2020 to take Dundas from hero to anti-hero?

Dundas was born into a very distinguished Scottish legal family. After studying Law at Ed­in­burgh Uni then pract­is­ing, he first ent­er­ed Parl­iam­ent in 1774. Soon Dundas became Lord Advoc­ate and appr­op­riated im­men­se power over Scottish aff­airs. He was particularly in­terested in the welfare of the High­lands, founding the High­land Soc­iety in 1784.

Tory-aligned, Dundas gained influence under Prime Minist­er William Pitt and soon became Home Secretary. He sup­pres­sed pop­ular unrest following the 1788-9 French Revolution. He sup­p­­orted con­sol­idation of the Empire, and the Union of Great Britain with Ireland alongside Cath­olic emancipation. In the Commons, Dundas oppos­ed William Wilber­forc­e's legislative efforts to immediately end the slave trade.

As First Lord of the Admiralty, he strengthened the Royal Navy before the Battle of Trafalgar. Becoming Viscount Melville in 1802, Dundas was impeached for misapprop­riation of naval funds, and tried by the House of Lords. Found not guilty on all charges, he re-entered the Privy Council and died in May 1811.

Clearly Dundas was a dominant political figure. The idea of building a monum­ent to him was first raised at a Pitt Club meeting, urging Vice Admiral Sir Wil­liam Hope to start a Melville Monum­ent Com­m­ittee. In gov­ernment, Dundas had been loved for advanc­ing meas­ures to support Royal Navy sailors and their dependents. So the project was first led by na­v­al offic­ers and suppo­rt­ed by sailors’ subscriptions, along with civic, leg­al and family figures.

By late 1818, the location Committee settled on St Andrew Square in Edinb­ur­gh's New Town. William Burn, an ar­ch­itect sympa­th­et­ic to Dundas' Tory pol­itics, was engaged and the square owners agreed to the scheme by Ap 1819. The marble column was 45m and topped by a 4.2m sandstone statue of Dun­das designed by Fr­an­cis Leggatt Chantrey and carved by Robert Forrest, a prominent land­mark. The statue depicted its subject clad in a peer’s robes, facing west al­ong George St with his left hand on his chest - tall and muscular, with striking features. But the project was not completed until 1827 and not paid off until 1837.

 marble column was 45m, topped by a 4.2m sandstone statue of Dun­das 

 BBC 

Scottish memorials back then were often figures from the arts or his­tory. Such figures expressed antique nationalism and Un­ionist nat­ion­alism, asserting Scotland's unique national identity with­out chall­eng­ing its place within the Union. So Dund­as was defending the notion that Scotland was not a col­ony, but an equal partner in the Union. By the 1830s, however, the town council rec­orded the criticisms of some cit­izens who objected to the city maintaining a memorial to a fig­ure now with immoral policies.

C20th and C21st
Historic Environment Scotland called the monument as one of the most prominent landmarks in Edinburgh, occupying a fine position on the New Town ridge. Relevant to its origin as a tribute from the Royal Navy, its posit­ion made it visible from ships in the Firth of Forth.

The Melville Monument looks over the Firth of Forth

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The monument has been protected as a Category A listed build­ing since 1966. In 2003, the Institution of Civil Engineers placed an explan­at­ory plaque to the monument at the western entrance to the garden. In 2008 the square was redeveloped for £2.4m, fully open­ing to the public!

Also in 2008 Edinburgh World Heritage supported the con­serv­ation as part of its Twelve Monuments scheme. But inevit­ably the monument faced increasing cont­ro­versy.

In 2017 the City Council, responding to a petition from environmental campaigner, Adam Ramsay, convened a Committee to draft the re-wording of a plaque to reflect controversial aspects of Dundas' history. The Committee included anti-racism campaigner-academic Sir Geoff Pal­m­er and historian Michael Fry who proposed that by arguing for grad­ual ab­ol­it­ion, Dundas actually supp­orted abol­ition in a pro-slavery parliament.

In June 2020, with an international outcry over murders of American blacks, Palmer reiterated calls for a new plaque, or a petit­ion to rem­ove the monument altogether! While a perm­anent plaque was delayed, the Council installed a temporary, explanatory plaque in July 2020. They used the intended wording of the perm­an­ent pl­aque from the Com­mit­tee, with Council & Edinburgh World Heritage members.

In Mar 2021 the Council approved the installation of a permanent pl­aque, dedicated to the memory of the half a million Afric­ans whose on­going enslavement continued. Dundas' actions didn’t invent sl­av­ery but he defended and expanded the British empire. Yes, he im­posed colonial rule on indigenous peoples and cur­bed democratic dissent in Scot­land. In response, the current Viscount Mel­ville criticised the word­ing. 

The original plaque, 1823

Flicker

Prof Desmarest argued the monument was Imperial, part of a general movement from 1800 to hon­our heroes of Britain's empire. This might have been perfectly appropriate at the time, but no longer. I, Hels, wouldn’t destroy the beautiful square but I would totally rewrite the plaque with careful historical accuracy.

The new plaque, BBC

A replacement plaque was eventually installed by Edinburgh's council at the base of the controversial Melville Monument. The previous plaque was removed by a monument group led by a descendant of Henry Dundas, in whose honour the statue was erected in 1827. Now see the new plaque, analaysed by the BBC.

Medici Portraits & Politics exhibition, in N.Y

The Med­ici: Portraits and Politics 1512–1570 exhibition was at Met­ropolitan NY in 2021. The catalogue by the same name exp­lored how the art­ists end­owed their works with a clearly styl­ish character that identified Fl­orentine por­t­rait­­ure. With 90+ notable paint­ings, scul­pt­ur­es, works on paper and me­d­­als, this volume was written by a team of lead­ing international auth­ors and presented a detailed anal­ysis of this era in It­al­ian art: med­als, paintings, sculptures, car­v­ed gemstones, drawings, et­ch­ings, man­u­­scripts and arm­our. Incl­uded were works by the era's most fam­ous artists: Raphael, Jac­opo Pont­ormo & Rosso Fiorentino, Ben­venuto Cell­ini, Agnolo Bronz­ino, Fran­cesco Salviati etc who depicted the elite of Medici Florence.

The Medici had continuously ruled Florence in 1434-94. But the Medici family only returned to power in 1512, after Florence had lost its ident­ity and become a pawn in stormy Eur­op­ean polit­ics. Florence ch­anged from a rep­ublic with elected officials .. to one ruled by Med­ici.

And the key fig­ure in this transformation was 17 year old Cosimo I de Medici from a mi­n­or branch of an elite family, who bec­ame Duke of Fl­orence in 1537, after his pred­ecessor Alessandro de' Medici was mur­d­ered. Cosimo had been selected by power brokers in Florence who bel­ieved they could con­trol him. But instead he grab­bed control from el­ected off­icials, estab­l­ish­ing him­self as an auto­crat. Flor­en­ce was made imp­ort­ant again, even with a tyrant, and the city was grateful.

Alessandro de' Medici Duke of Florence, 1534
by Jacopo Pontormo,
Credit: Philadelphia Museum of Art
 
To convert the mercant­ile city into the capital of a Medici state, Cosimo en­listed the leading in­tellect­uals, promoting grand architectural, eng­in­eering and art projects. Explore how Cosimo and the other Medici used the era’s dom­inant medi­um, art, as propaganda, clarifying that Florence was still a pow­er to reckon with. See what Floren­t­­ines thought about infl­uen­ce and the central role that arts and culture played in Renaissance pol­it­ics. Cosimo’s goal was to see how he and his cir­cle used the arts to promote the Medici brand.

Port­raits, a very personal sub­ject, pro­vided a seductive way to expl­ore politics and pat­ronage. They be­came an ess­ential means of not­ing sitters’ likeness, character, soc­ial pos­ition and cul­t­ur­al ambitions

In Giorgio Vasari's famous book Lives of the Artists (1550), which was dedicated to the Duke, Florence was promoted as the heart of the Re­n­aissance. He had nurtured the idea of Florence as the intellectual power­house of the Renaissance and the Medici as the key players.

The 2021 exhibition displayed a bronze bust of Cosimo I de' Med­ici 1545 by Cellini, on loan from the Museo Naz­ion­ale del Barg­ello in Fl­orence. In 1557 the bust found a permanent home above the main for­t­ress gate on Elba Island. Its pierc­ing gaze and Roman-ish armour conveyed Cosimo’s pow­er, build­ing on imperial iconography to link the Med­ici and It­aly’s ancient lead­ers. Specialists saw that its eyes had been crafted out of silver, a pre­ference pion­eer­ed in the class­ical civ­il­isations that Renais­sance artists copied centuries later. Thus it was restored.

bronze bust of Cosimo I de' Med­ici 1545 by Cellini
Credit Museo Naz­ion­ale del Barg­ello, Fl­orence

Other works also connected the family to classical culture eg Cosimo I de’ Medici as Orpheus (1537–9) by Bronzino. He cast the Duke as the mythological musician Orpheus, align­ing him with greater forces. A marble bust of an aging Cosimo by sculptor Giovanni Bandini showed him as a Roman emperor, timeless in his authority.

Portraits and Politics had 6 sections that started in the early C16th when the family newly returned from exile. See how the High Ren­ais­sance rulers cemented their power through commissioning cul­t­ure and associating with artists. The ex­hib­ition’s first sections cov­ered 1512-34, intro­d­ucing us to relatives like Pope Cl­em­ent VII, Lor­­enzo the Magnificent’s ne­ph­ew and Alessandro de’ Med­ici, who ?was the son of Lorenzo di Piero, Duke of Urbino. [The family actually pro­duced four popes: Leo X, Clement VII, Pius IV and Leo XI].

Then ins­pect Cosimo himself. See how the Duke and his immed­iate fam­ily, including 1st wife Eleonora of Toledo (d1572), used portraits to proj­ect power, assert Medici continuity and convey cultural refine­ment! Bronzino painted Eleonora, posing alongside each of her sons. Plac­ing each son next to mum said that the next gen­erat­ion would create branches from the invigorated dynastic  trunk.

Bronzino, Eleanora of Toledo and son Giovanni, 1545

Photo credit: Ufizzi

The second half of Por­t­raits and Politics examined those whose art elev­at­ed Florence to new cultural heights. It put together the work of Bronzino, the Mannerist artist who was Cosimo’s court paint­er, and Francesco Salviati, whose pan-Italian style com­peted with Bron­z­ino’s clearly Florentine-based art. And the exhibition celebrated the city’s literary culture, linked to portraiture. But as realistic as the facial image was, this alone could not convey the most intim­ate aspects of the sitter. Identity was embedded in symbols, in­ cod­if­ied for­m­al language capable of ex­­­­­plaining concepts prev­iously con­fin­ed to poetry. NB Bron­zino’s restored Portrait of Poet Lau­ra Bat­t­if­erri. Laur­a’s like­ness explicitly referenced 2 other fam­ous Flor­ent­ine poets: her Dante prof­ile and her Petrarch verses.

Not all of the people featured were well-known eg his ancestor Cosimo the Eld­er on the catalogue cover. Cosimo the Elder was not a Medici, but was the son of a wealthy Florentine bank­er. None­theless the work was described as a masterpiece of C16th port­rait­ure, summarising the power of art as prop­ag­an­da. The young man with a med­al­l­ion portrait of a woman near his chest was filled with symbolism.

The catalogue closed with a quote from the Ren­aissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, acknowledging the staying power of great art. Now read The Medici Family in History Today and The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–70 (see above).

Alexandria Egypt - dream city for residents & tourists.

Alexandria was founded by Al­ex­­ander the Great (356-323 BC). It is Egypt’s sec­ond city and boasts a thriving port on its 32 ks coast­line along the Mediterranean Sea. Even with the high rise buildings and ind­us­t­ry, the sunset over the hor­izon is wonderful, breathing fresh air, watching fishing-boats pull into port and seeing seagulls fly over­head. The Corn­iche’s fam­ous Fish Market has been here for 200+ years with many port­r­aits of famous celebrities there, encour­aging visitors to join in. The seafood rest­aur­ants are ocean-to-table.

The Corniche

The Corniche waterfront promenade runs 20 km length. One of the most beautiful views of the city skyline can be found on a ship sail­ing around the harbour, and tourists can hire a small boat. Walking along the Corniche is most pop­ul­ar with lo­c­als at sunset: couples strolling, people serving cof­fee, fish­ermen looking for dinner, friends meeting for drinks. It is lively but ex­tremely safe.

A library was built in 246 BC, holding c400,000 scrolls at its peak. All the world’s scripted knowledge was held in this, the Great Library of Alex­andria. It was the largest and most fam­ous lib­rary in the world before it was destroyed in a great fire, after Jul­ius Caesar was bes­ieged! Caesar was captur­ed in 48 BC with his sold­iers setting fire to his ships. The fire sp­read to the city, sadly including the library.

The Old Library was a cultural learning centre for the arts and phil­os­ophy, paving the way forward for worldly ed­uc­at­ion in scripture, thought, mind and human existence - a pl­ace of un­derst­anding of people globally. Visit the Old Library of Alexandria now, but all that is left of this great learning centre are the storerooms under the extr­em­­ely dark ruins of the Serapeum. Recently Alexan­d­ria dec­id­ed to hon­our its ancient library by building a new one, Bibliot­h­eca. Opened in 2002, it’s the largest learning centre in the Middle East.

Modern Bibliotheca

The Citadel of Qaitbay is a 1480 castle fortress on the edge of the Med­it­erranean sea, a very important defence stronghold built during the rule of Sultan Al-Ashraf Qa’it Bay. Qaitbay citadel has an int­er­esting history that links it to the unique Lighthouse of Alex­andria, completed 270 BC. The Lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It helped guide Nile River ships around the city’s busy harbour, until the Arab Conquest, and then nat­ur­al dis­asters (eg C11th ear­thquake) changed the lighthouse’s shape. They built a mos­que on the top of the lighthouse, but it too was destroyed.

Qaitbay Citadel was built on the exact site of Pharos Island Light­house, to protect Alexan­d­ria from crusaders who attacked by sea and to defend ag­ainst Turks in the Ottoman Emp­ire. Climb up the 4 fl­oors, each fl­oor having a great ocean view with waves cr­ash­ing on rocks and fisher­man claiming their catch. Be­yond the Cit­ad­el, on Pharos Island near the entrance, are very col­ourful murals us­i­ng recycled sea­shells made into mosaics, an art representing the city.

Royal Jewellery Museum

Daily News Egypt

The Royal Jewellery Museum is valuable, hosting the treasures of the last royal family of Egypt. Mohamed Ali Pasha Khedive Ismail hired skil­ful Egyptian & foreign artists to create the royal gold­en jewellery. After the Egyptian revolution (1952), the treasures were in government storage until a comm­it­tee established the Royal Jewellery Museum in the stunning C19th palace of Princess Fatema El Zahraa. An elegant foyer connects the two suites of the palace, featuring Eur­opean histor­ical scenes and legends.

mosaics

Some attractions like the Montazah Palace and Gardens, Pomp­ey’s Pill­ar and the Catacombs are more distant from the cen­tre of the city. The Catacombs of Kom El Shoq­afa started in C2nd AD. Apparently it was only in 1900 that a donkey-and-cart fell down a hole und­er­ground, lead­ing to the catacombs’ discovery! The name referred to the heaps of broken pot­tery found in a mix of Egypt­ian, Roman and Greek carving styles. It’s still an active dig, so descend the spiral staircase to see stat­ues, sarcophagus and murals carved out of the bedrock below.

Catacombs of Kom El Shoq­afa 

Pompey’s Pillar was originally built by the Romans as a victory col­umn, built in c300 AD to honour Emperor Dio­c­letian’s win over a city rev­olt. It was one of the largest ancient monoliths ever raised: 27 ms high. Alongside the column, see 2 Roman copies of the sphinx statue

Pompey’s Pillar

Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue

built 1850, renovated recently

 

Montazah Palace (1892), a resid­en­ce of the former royal family, was opened to the public after the 1952 Revolution. A historical text Montazah: The Royal Palaces and Gar­d­ens noted that c580 cabins were built on the property’s beaches i.e Aida, Nefertiti, Cleo­patra and Semiramis, near the water sports. Montazah Gardens cover 150 acres, full of palm-trees, is­l­ands, royal palaces, tower and lighthouses! The best part is walking to Tea Palace Island, an island linked by bridge with its restaurants and boat club.

The form­er Salamlek Palace (1892) was converted into a 5-star hotel with lux­ur­ious rooms a la royal family, with plush an­t­iques and chand­eliers. The beautiful Haramlek Palace has also been us­ed as an off­ic­ial guest house, joining the group of Egypt’s president­ial pal­aces. Then other entertainment facilities were added eg a casino.

Montazah Gardens and tower

Montazah Gardens and King Farouk Palace

After the Jan 2011 Revolution, several tourist facilities were estab­lished to serve park-goers, including integrated restaurants, chalets and cafés. In 2013, some cabin tenants on Aida and Cleopatra Bea­ch­­es failed to pay their rent so President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi ord­er­ed redevelopment of the area. He created a new tour­ist destination, and the historic cabins were demolished.

The Cecil Hotel (1929) is very fine, right in the middle of the Cor­niche. With a wide view of the Mediterranean, the hotel occ­up­ies Saad Zaghloul Square where Cleopatra’s Needle stood until being taken to London. The colonial facade of the post-WW1 era constantly welcomed famous guests eg Winston Churchill and Omar Sharif! Despite modern­is­ation, the hotel has stayed true to its roots eg its histor­ic­al bird­cage el­ev­ator! The massive rooms have high ceilings, and bal­con­ies with stun­ning views of the oc­ean, Corniche and Citadel of Qaitbay.

Mosque of Abu Abbas al Mursi

My son married into a family from French-speaking Alexandria who believed it was the most beautiful city in the universe. As wonderful as Melbourne was, after they arrived in 1957 their memories never faded.