TimelessEarth
The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them
Living on the Edge: Cliff Towns and Buildings
Mar 11th
Buildings and towns around the world have used cliffs for centuries for safety from attack and panoramic views of surrounding areas. Here are some of the coolest and bizarre cliff buildings in the world.
1. Bonifacio, France
Bonifacio is located directly on the Mediterranean Sea, separated from Sardinia by the Strait of Bonifacio. It is a city placed on the best and only major harbor of the southern coast and also is a commune covering a somewhat larger region including the offshore Isles Lavezzi, giving it the distinction of being the southernmost commune in Metropolitan France.
The city and its fortifications also extend for some distance along the cliff-tops, which are at about 70 meters (230 ft) elevation. The cliffs have been undercut by the ocean so that the buildings, which have been placed on the very lip of the precipice, appear to overhang it. The appearance from the sea is of a white city gleaming in the sun and suspended over the rough waters below.
Image: Paul-in-London
Today Bonifacio has around 400 residents and is a popular resort town for French and Italians. More >
Armenian Church
Mar 10th
Armenia is a region in north-eastern Turkey and north-western Iran, and includes an independent commonwealth between the Black and the Caspian Seas. No one knows exactly when Christianity first arrived there. In 314 C.E. Tiridates, the king of the country, converted to Christianity. Armenia then became the first nation in which Christianity was the established or official religion. Armenian Christianity took distinctive form in the fifth century. At that time the Bible and many church writings were translated into Armenian. More >
Gothic Style
Mar 10th
The term Gothic was unknown to the architects of the Middle Ages who practiced the style. They called their idiom – marked by soaring walls with vast windows – the ‘French Style,’ for the country form which it sprang, through the midwifery of a Benedictine Abbot named Suger in the year 1144. That was when Suger unveiled the rebuilt abbey and church of St. Denis, outside Paris. More >
Sucevita Monastery, Romania
Mar 10th
Sucevita Monastery, one of the most magnificent religious buildings in Romania, is a monument to two 16th century local chiefs and the murderess Elizaveta, who poisoned her husband so that her sons could inherit the throne. All of these figures are featured in splendid frescoes that adorn the walls of the complex. The monastery church was built in 1584, the outer walls a little later. More >
Ethiopian and Separatist Churches
Mar 10th
Compared with activities in the Americas and Asia, European colonization of Africa began relatively late, in the 1870s. In the 19th century, North Africa, new religious movements inAmerican and European, especially British, Christians took missionary work very seriously. They also took their own superiority for granted, and they acted in ways that made their racist attitudes and presuppositions all too apparent. More >
