Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place & home

Posts from the ‘UNESCO World Heritage’ category

World Heritage Sites designated and inscribed by UNESCO

My Vienna, Judenplatz: centuries & memories of the Jewish community

Above/featured: Judenplatz at night. The Holocaust memorial is in the foreground at centre. In the background are “To the little trinity” at centre and Misrachi House (Museum Judenplatz) at right. Photo, 10 Jun 2022.

At Judenplatz are clear visual reminders of the city’s first Jewish community in medieval times.

The first Jewish community in Vienna settled around present-day Judenplatz in the Middle Ages with mention in written documents dated mid- to late-13th century AD/CE. Daily Jewish life thrived around the Or-Sarua Synagogue, the Jewish School, and the Mikveh ritual bath. The community along with the surrounding Jewish neighbourhood came to an end with the Pogrom of 1421. Catholic Habsburg Duke Albrecht II rolled out a decree (Wiener Geserah, Vienna Gesera) which legitimatized the expulsion, incarceration, torture, and murder of some 800 Jewish residents; accompanied by destruction and forced takeover of buildings and property.

Below I highlight remnants and traces to the medieval Jewish community at this square in central Vienna.

Judenplatz, Vienna, Wien, Oesterreich, Austria, fotoeins.com

Facing northwest: B, Bohemian Chancellery; H, Holocaust Memorial; L, Lessing monument; M, Misrachi House; T, To the little Trinity. Photo, 20 May 2018.

Judenplatz, Vienna, Wien, Oesterreich, Austria, fotoeins.com

Facing southeast: B, Bohemian Chancellery; J, Jordan House; H, Holocaust memorial; L, Lessing monument. Photo, 20 May 2018.

( Click here for images and more )

Salisbury Crags, Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, forty-five

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

8 November 2012.

I’m in Edinburgh, high up in Holyrood Park. From the rocky no-guardrail path hugging the edge of Salisbury Crags, there’s an excellent view of the city, including Castle Hill and the steeple of the former Tolbooth Kirk (The Hub) at left, Calton Hill with Nelson Monument and National Monument at right, and the waters of the Firth of Forth in the background. After a landslide dropped boulders onto the path, the city closed public access to Radical Road and the Crags in 2018.

… Edinburgh has also been known as Dunedin, deriving from the Scottish Gaelic “Dùn Èideann.” New Zealand’s Dunedin was originally called “New Edinburgh”, the city’s nickname today is still “Edinburgh of the South”. The Scottish city’s Old and New Towns have been inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995.

I made the image on 8 Nov 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/250-sec, f/8, ISO200, and 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-mCy.

My Vienna: peek into city districts 1 to 23

Above/featured: Aspern lake at the Aspern Seestadt housing development in the 22nd district. At right in the background to the north are the Danube Tower and northern hills. Photo, 7 Jun 2022.

From early-2002 to mid-2003, I lived and worked in Heidelberg, and I travelled to Vienna at least six times across all seasons for collaboration work between MPIA and the University of Vienna. Unfortunately, I didn’t own a camera, and I have zero images from that time. “Oiiida.”

After a 15-year pause, I returned to Vienna for one week in May 2018 for the 100-year anniversary of Vienna Modernism. I brought 2 cameras, and I made a few photographs here and there. I’ve always needed more, and four years later in May 2022, I stayed in Vienna for four weeks.

The historic bread- and pastry-making company, Anker, once had a motto known among the Viennese:

Worauf freut sich der Wiener, wenn er vom Urlaub kommt? Auf Hochquellwasser und Ankerbrot.
To what do the Viennese look forward after returning from vacation? Spring water and Ankerbrot.

For all of us who’re visitors to Vienna, I put forward the modified question:

Worauf freut sich ein(e) Besucher(in), wenn man nach Wien kommt?
To what does a visitor look forward in Vienna?

There are many answers for many people. There’s art, coffee, Jugendstil, music, wine; these are only five in a lengthy list. Vienna is more than a desirable visitor location; the city reclaimed the top spot in the The Economist’s EIU Global Liveability Index for 2022.

I got to explore at least one point of interest in each of the city’s 23 Bezirke or districts. Not only did I spend a lot of time in the inner city or 1st district, but I also made my fair share in the 6th, 9th, 18th, and 19th districts. Below I provide from each of the city’s 23 districts a couple of personal highlights which may be of interest to both resident and visitor. There are more interesting locations, about which I’ll describe separately.

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Milford Sound, Piopiotahi, Fiordland National Park, Te Moana o Atawhenua, Southland, South Island, Te Wahipounamu, Te Wai Pounamu, Te Waipounamu, Te Waka a Maui, Te Waka o Aoraki, New Zealand, Aotearoa,

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, thirty-one

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

25 July 2012.

Like many before me, I’ve purchased a package for a daytrip on New Zealand’s South Island. After a 5-hour ride from Queenstown on a large comfortable coach/bus, we arrive at Milford Sound (Piopiotahi) and hop onto a 2-hour cruise into the waters of the Fiordland (Te Moana o Atawhenua). Pyramid-shaped frosted mountain peaks, steep cliffs, tall waterfalls, and deep fjords are the common sight; another bonus comes with the arrival of dolphins swimming alongside the boat.

The highlighted geographical feature in this post is located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand”. I made the image on 25 Jul 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/1600-sec, f/4, ISO200, and 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-mgM.

Aotearoa, Ka Tiritiri o te Moana, Lake Matheson, Maori South Island, Southern Alps, Tai Poutini, Te Ara Kairaumati, Te Wahipounamu, Te Wai Pounamu, Te Waipounamu, Te Waka a Maui, Te Waka o Aoraki, UNESCO, West Coast, Westland Tai Poutini National Park, World Heritage, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, thirty

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

22 July 2012.

After spending the morning and a part of the afternoon walking to and from the Fox Glacier, I arranged for an afternoon shuttle-bus ride from the township to (and back from) Lake Matheson (Te Ara Kairaumati). The walk around the lake is not physically demanding, and at the northwest end of the lake is the viewpoint called “View of Views.” A small clearing through the trees provides a view across the lake and beyond to the nation’s two highest mountains: Mount Tasman (Horokoau) and Mount Cook (Aoraki). As it’s my only day in the area, the timing is excellent at the final light of day.

The highlighted geographical feature in this post is located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand”. I made the image on 22 Jul 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/160-sec, f/4.5, ISO400, and 34mm focal length (54mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-mgJ.

Franz Josef Glacier, Westland National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Aotearoa, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, twenty-nine

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

20 July 2012.

On New Zealand’s South Island, two glaciers have unusual attributes by comparison to other glaciers around the world: they’re presently located adjacent to a temperate rainforest, and they’re both accessible on foot and with personal vehicle. One of these glaciers has the Māori name “Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere” for “the tears of Hine Hukatere”, after a tragic story passed by oral tradition from one generation to the next. The colonizers’ name is the Franz Josef Glacier, named in 1865 by German geologist Julius von Haast after the Austrian emperor of the time.

In the image here, I’m standing next to a massive terminal moraine just out of frame at right. This is the safe and “nearest” viewpoint, about 0.5 km from the head of the receding glacier. The glacier melt is responsible for the Waiho river, whose initial flow is marked by the diagonal line of rocks towards the lower left. Poor “stick people”! You can read more about my daytrip to the Franz Josef Glacier.

The highlighted geographical feature in this post is located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand”. I made the image on 20 Jul 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/1600-sec, f/4, ISO100, and 25mm focal length (40mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-mez.

Chalchiuhtlicue, Teotihuacán, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Ciudad de México, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, CDMX, Mexico

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, twelve

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

8 March 2012

The Museo Nacional de Antropología (National Museum of Anthropology) in Mexico City contains one of the finest and largest collections of ancient art, archaeological and anthropological artifacts from what is now present-day Mexico. Among the artifacts is this 1200- to 1700-year old stone statue representing the Aztec goddess of lakes and rivers. The associated caption in Spanish and English are:

Escultura monolítica que representa a la diosa Chalchiuhtlicue, consorte o análoga del dios Tláloc. Es la diosa de las aguas horizontales: lagos, lagunas, y ríos que recorren o se asientan en la tierra. Va ataviada con un tocado de banda doble, orejeras discoidales, collar, y pulsera. Viste un quechquémitl, falda, y sandallas. Se le asocia con la agricultura, las semeteras y la fertilidad.

Procede del frente de la Pirámide de la Luna, Zona Arqueológica de Teotihuacán. Época Clásica, 300-800 d.C.

(Translation via DeepL)

Monolithic sculpture representing Aztec goddess Chalchiuhtlicue (“she of the jade skirt”), consort or relative of the Aztec rain god Tlaloc. Chalchiuhtlicue is the goddess of horizontal waters: seas, lakes, lagoons, and rivers which run on or settle in the ground. She wears a headdress with a double band, disk-like earrings, necklace, and bracelet; a quechquémitl (shawl), skirt, and sandals. She is associated with agriculture, seedbeds, and fertility.

The sculpture was located at the front of the Pyramid of the Moon, Teotihuacán Archaeological Zone; dated to the period from 300 to 800 AD/CE.

The pre-colonial Teotihuacán site was built between 1st and 7th centuries AD/CE; for its vast cultural importance in Mesoamerica, the location was recognized in 1987 as UNESCO World Heritage Site. San Juan Teotihuacán is located about 50 km northeast from Mexico City.

I made the image above at Mexico City’s Museo Nacional de Antropología on 8 Mar 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and the following settings: 1/25-sec, f/3.5, ISO800, and 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). My thanks to EN and ND for making my visit to Mexico City possible. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-lI4.

Berlin Bar and Bistro, San Miguel de Allende, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato, Mexico, myRTW, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, eleven

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

4 March 2012.

It’s hard to escape Berlin, even on the other side of the planet 9700 km away in México. Berlin Bar & Bistro is at Umarán 19 in the centre of San Miguel de Allende (SMA). Our brief 2-night stay in this beautiful México town ends with beers and cheers. And yeah, the daily specials on the chalk board are tempting: banana peppers stuffed with goat cheese and tomato sauce; mixed skewers with skirt steak, chicken, sweet pepper, and onion; chicken stuffed with spinach and goat cheese, with mushroom sauce and rice. Prices listed are in Mexican pesos with conversion at that time about 12 MXN to 1 USD.

I made the image above on 4 Mar 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and the following settings: 1/25-sec, f/2.8, ISO800, and 50mm focal length (80mm full-frame equivalent). My thanks to EN and ND for making my visit possible. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-lHO.

San Miguel de Allende, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato, Mexico, myRTW, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, ten

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

4 March 2012

In México’s San Miguel de Allende, natural light illuminates the street and brightly coloured buildings on Calle Cuna de Allende (intersecting with Cuadrante); the Casa Rosada hotel is just beyond the image frame at right. For its superb historic architectural style, the town was inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. San Miguel de Allende is about 230 kilometres northwest from the national capital Ciudad de México (Mexico City).

I made the image above on 4 Mar 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and the following settings: 1/250-sec, f/8, ISO100, and 28mm focal length (45mm full-frame equivalent). My thanks to EN and ND for making my visit possible. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-lFr.

Palacio de Cibeles, Fuente de Cibeles, Plaza de Cibeles, Paseo del Prado, Madrid, Spain, España, fotoeins.com

Madrid: Paseo del Prado, new UNESCO WHS

Congratulations to Madrid and Spain!

In the Spanish capital city, the Paseo del Prado and the adjacent Parque del Retiro were inscribed together as a new UNESCO World Heritage Site on 25 July 2021. The Paseo del Prado is a wide tree-lined boulevard populated with big fountains, beautiful architecture, and buildings dedicated to scientific research and to collections of world-class art. As prototype to the Hispanic “alameda” found throughout Latin America towns and cities, Paseo del Prado is an display of vision and desire for an idyllic society within the (former) Spanish Empire.

Palacio de Cibeles, Fuente de Cibeles, Plaza de Cibeles, Paseo del Prado, Madrid, Spain, España, fotoeins.com

Plaza de Cibeles: Palacio de Cibeles (palace 1919); Fuente de Cibeles (fountain 1780, moved 1895).

Banco de España, Plaza de Cibeles, Paseo del Prado, Madrid, Spain, España, fotoeins.com

Plaza de Cibeles: Banco de España (1891).

Palacio de Linares, Casa América, Plaza de Cibeles, Paseo del Prado, Madrid, Spain, España, fotoeins.com

Plaza de Cibeles: Palacio de Linares (1877), host to Casa América.

Museo Nacional del Prado, Diego de Velázquez, Aniceto Marinas, Paseo del Prado, Madrid, Spain, España, fotoeins.com

Diego de Velázquez statue (1899) by sculptor Aniceto Marinas, in front of the Prado Museum (1819).

I made all images above on 9 May 2009 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-lhx.

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