Castles - Page 2

justone · 10-09-07, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bub

Bof, the reality is more shaded:
-> here, probably 90% of our historical patrimony has be destroyed by wars and time. Many castles/old buildings are in ruins or have totally disappeared, and here too, most of the buildings have less than 100 or 50 years.

This bothers me again… ‘’Many castles/old buildings are in ruins or have totally disappeared, and here too, most of the buildings have less than 100 or 50 years’’, at the same time “ancient” temples/buildings in India, China, and I would even say, Egypt, are still there and some of them “like new”. Tell me, how can it be? There was no wars over there? There was no time? The weather has been SO MUCH better in India/China? Tell me, how can it be?

http://slade.lyrics.info/howcanitbe.html

the makeout hobo · 10-14-07, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffMerriman

I'm trying to convince my wife to travel with me to Europe just to see the castles. She is on the fence about flying for some damn reason. If she ends up not going I'll just take someone else.

Awesome thread Bub!

Ooh! Take me!

bub · 10-15-07, 05:30 AM

What is strange, is that all those castles look as if they were built randomly, while they follow the frontiers of the medieval duchies/counties.

Today, Sombreffe or Corroy are in the middle of the country. They are not even on a provincial frontier. But in the middle-age there was the frontier between the county of Namur and the duchy of Brabant.

That's strange how things have changed: Namur became a province, with parts of the former duchy of Brabant and Liège, while Brabant was first cut in the XVIth century (the north became Dutch and is still called "Noord Brabant"), and again in 1830 when the north became the province of Antwerp, and again in 1991 when it was split between "Walloon Brabant" and "Flemish Brabant". What was one of the most powerful duchies of its time is today split in 4 provinces in 2 countries!

winston53660 · 10-15-07, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1069

There is nothing old in America. Everything here is new compared to Europe.

When I first moved to NYC I was amazed at how old everything was. I'm from Dallas Tx and old here is early 20th century.

bub · 10-15-07, 03:07 PM

lol I just discovered why I was so obsessed by history

Quote:

Herman Konings, a Belgian behavioral psychologist who studies national trends, attributes the medieval craze to excessive nostalgia for a more glorious past. The fad has emerged as the country, divided between Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north and French-speaking Wallonia in the south, is experiencing anxiety about its identity.

The desire to escape into the past may reflect fears in the Belgian psyche about national unity in contemporary Belgium, where a far-right movement known as the Vlaams Belang, which calls for an independent Flanders and rails against multiculturalism and what it calls an invasion by Muslim immigrants in particular, has been gaining ground.

The Belgian identity crisis hit new heights late last year when a spoof news program by the national broadcaster RTBF announced that Flanders had seceded from Belgium. The broadcaster’s switchboard received 2,000 frantic calls, and Belgium’s embassies around the world contacted the authorities back home to ask whether the country’s federal system had indeed collapsed.

Above all, Mr. Konings argues that little Belgium, better known for its beer than its heroic past, is fed up with being Europe’s laughingstock. This, he said, is prompting Belgians to hark back to a period when Bruges and Antwerp were trading centers that surpassed Paris and London, and Flemish painters like Jan van Eyck were the envy of the world.

“Throughout our history, we have been attacked by everyone, from the Romans to the Vikings to the Dutch,” he said. “The late Middle Ages was a time when we were mastering the world. So at a time of national doubt, they provide a great escape as well as a sense of security.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/wo...9medieval.html

bub · 10-20-07, 01:03 PM

We've re-done it today! This time we've flown westwards. Visibility was not perfect but there was no cloud. And at the end of the flight we've met another plane that has followed us!

Castle of Rhisnes (well this one was before take off lol!), it's a retirement house.

This must be the castle of Rivière, but I'm not sure. It's on a hill surounding the river Meuse, close to where the German Panzerdivizionnen crossed it in May 1940.

Castle of Ohain (?) seen from both sides.

There is an older farm-castle right in the same street!!

bub · 10-20-07, 01:08 PM

Castle (or rather keep) of Crupet. It's tiny but it looks very old. The building close to it is a mill.

Castle in ruins. I think it has burnt a long time ago: there are trees inside!!!

Castle of Gesves (I think). If you're a pensioned postman, you're sent there.

bub · 10-20-07, 01:11 PM

Castle close to Maizeret. As you see, many castles are in fact "farm-castles". A long time ago, there was a nobleman who ruled the village, and peasants who worked in the farm.

The plane!

A tractor and the shadow of our airplane.

bub · 10-30-07, 08:46 AM

Well this is not a "castle", this is the city hall of Leuven, a town in Flemish Brabant. Have you EVER seen so many details on a building? This is what I call Architecture! Probably one of the most perfect examples of Brabantian Gothic style.

You know what I mean when I say that the Low Countries were (and still are) one of the most prosperous area in the world!

238 statues of the former Dukes of Brabant and burgmesters of Leuven.

bub · 02-02-08, 06:19 PM

first flight of the year 2008!

it's still the winter so the landscape is not very nice (sad grey-brown instead of green) but fortunately there was some sun too

a castle we had never seen. I like it, on an small island. If I was Bill Gates, I'd build something like that

another castle, on the banks of the river Meuse (close to where the German panzers crossed it in 1940 and destroyed the French army)

one of the two castles of my village