Jaap van 't Veen's photos

Castelo de São Jorge (Saint George Castle) is located on a hill top - the most privileged area - of the old medieval citadel above the city of Lisbon. It consists of the castle, the ruins of the former royal palace, as well as a residential neighbourhood, which was home of the elite. The moated fortification with its towers and ramparts was built in the mid-11th century during the Moorish period. It is situated on the most inaccessible area on the top of a hill. Where most European castles intend to perform a residential role, the purpose of Castelo de São Jorge was to house military troops and - in case of a siege - the elite who lived in the citadel. After Dom Afonso Henriques conquered Lisbon in 1147, the castle began its golden age as a home for the royalty. The original buildings were modified and enlarged to accommodate the king, his court and the bishop. When Portugal became part of Spain in 1580, Castelo de São Jorge became an important military role, which continued until the early 20th century. After the devastating earthquake in 1755 the most substantial renovation work took place on the old citadel, with new buildings gradually covering over the older ruins. The castle and ruins of the former royal palace were rediscovered after major restorations between 1938 and 1940. Castelo de São Jorge regained its former magnificence and was opened to the public. Nowadays it is a National Monument and one of the most important touristic sights of Lisbon. (The main picture is taken from the observation deck of the Santa Justa Lift.)

Maimará is a small village in the heart of the Quebrada de Humahuaca , a UNESCO world Heritage site. The main characteristic of its landscape are the multicolored hills of the so called Paleta del Pintor (Painter’s Palette), an impressive geological formation made up of multicoloured - brownish, reddish, orangish, yelowish, ocher and pastel colours - hills reminiscent of a painting palette. A series of folds that correspond to the tertiary and quaternary periods.

This is a view of the Wolfgangsee (Lake Wolfgang), taken when we were hiking the so called Pillstein-Panorama-Rundweg . This is a worthwile - and quite easy - walk in wonderful mountain scene high above the Wolfgangsee and other lakes in this part of Austria. Starting point is the mountain station of the Zwölferhorn cable car above the village of St. Gilgen. One is rewarded with awesome panoramic views of the surrounding alpine pasture area, the peaks of the Osterhorn group and the limestone high Alps further away. The circular path goes around the Pillstein and returns to its starting point.

The Krma valley is one of the most scenic alpine valleys in the Julian Alps. It starts in the settlement of Zgornja Radovna (near Mojstrana) in the Radovna valley (PiP 1). It is starting point for many routes and has the easiest, yet longest, trail to Mount Triglav, the highest peak in the Julian Alps (PiP 2) with an altitude of 2.864 m.

The Quebrada de las Conchas (Shell’s Gorge) - also called Quebrada de Cafayate - is located between Salta city and the town of Cafayate. The gorge is well known for its reddish coloured carved rock formations and curious shapes, caused by natural erosion during millions of years. Through the ravine runs the Conchas River with its sometimes remarkable green banks. Following Ruta Nacional 68 one passes landscapes of very varied colours rock formations of great variety. Some of them have fancy names like ‘Toad’, ‘Obelisk’, ‘Monk’ or ‘Devil’s Dragon’. One of the most famous and visited is the so called El Anfiteatro (PiP 5). This ‘amphitheater’ owes its name to the acoustics of the place, thanks to the deep cleft in the mountain; its rock walls rise about 50 meters high.

Kloster Gnadenberg (Gnadenberg monastery) was the first Brigittine monastery in southern Germany. It was founded in 1422 by Count Johann I of Neumarkt and his wife Katharina. Katharina knew the order of the Vadstena monastery in Sweden, where she had spent her youth. In 1420 Pope Martinus V gave permission for the construction of the monastery. The official foundation document is dated 3 February 1426. The monasteries of the Brigittine Order (Order of the Most Holy Savior) were designed by the founder of the Order as double monasteries. The first monks came from the monastery of Paradiso near Florence in 1430. After the completion of the convent in 1435, the first nuns with their first abbess Anna Svenson came from the Maribo (Denmark) convent to Gnadenberg. After the reformation in the middle of the 16th century, the monastery went downhill until it was disbanded in 1570. From 1577 onwards, the properties were sold or fief used. In 1635, during the Thirty Years' War, the Swedish Tropics set fire to the church and parts of the monastery. Except for some buildings of the convent, Gnadenberg has been a ruin ever since.

The charming pilgrimage church Maria Hilf (St. Mary's Help) is dating back to 1694. In that year the son of the local shepherd Johann Prant was suddenly paralyzed. Out of desperation over this stroke of fate, he "became engaged to Our Lady" and promised to erect a Martersäule (scourging pillar) in her honour at Lengenbach, should his child recover again. After the boy recovered he received permission from the diocese of Eichstätt, after examining the recovery of his son, to erect a chapel in honour of the Mother of God in Lengenbach. Because he had often seen a chapel in his dreams, he started building one with his own hands, high and round like a Martersäule . Very soon the pilgrimage to the Mother of God began and increased rapidly. This led to the plan to build a larger chapel. The master bricklayer Leonhard Preindl from nearby Deining created the current building (1757 – 1760). Little by little the church was equipped. In 1768 it became its wonderful ceiling fresco "Assumption of the Virgin Mary"; two years later followed by the ornamented pulpit. Nowadays the interior is blocked by a fence, because in the seventies of the last century twentyfive of the partly very valuable votive pictures were stolen. So I had to take my pictures from behind that fence.

La Mitica Ruta 40 (the Mythical Route 40) is the nickname of “Ruta 40”. The highway, partly unpaved and loaded with hairpin bends, runs from the far north to the southernmost tip of Argentina. Endless desert plains, crystal clear lakes, glaciers, lush vineyards and the peaks of the Andes accompany the road. Route 40's highest point is almost 5.000 meters in Abra del Acay in Salta Province The 5.224 kilometers long “Ruta 40” connects the village La Quiaca in northern Argentina with the southern town of Rio Gallegos (at Punta Loyola) on the Strait of Magellan in Patagonia. The rugged roadtrip goes through eleven provinces and two provincial capitals, over twentyfour important rivers and along twenty natural parks !!! We only did the part of “Ruta 40” between Cachi and Cafayate. Although just 150 km it took us almost a whole day of driving on an almost completely unpaved road, which looked like a washboard in several places. "Ruta 40" - at least our part - is sometimes a wide straight road, many times very narrow and winding. Sometimes we drove along the edge of ravines, then again through a lovely green landscape. It was always hilly and went up and down all the time. Stones, dust and grit are everywhere. Despite all that, it was a great experience with a ride through a very impressive landscape - with the stretch through the Quebrada de las Flechas ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/48888910 ) as the absolute highlight - and along quaint small rural villages.

The Sella Group (Gruppo del Sella, Sellagruppe) is a plateau-shaped mountain massif in the Dolomites. It is located in Northern Italy on the border of Trentino-Alto Adige (Trentino-Südtirol) and Veneto. South of the Sella lies the Marmolada Group with the highest mountain of the Dolomites. To the west one has a view of the Lang- and Plattkofel (PiP 4). The highest peak of the Sella Group is the Piz Boè at 3.151 meters above sea level. My pictures were taken at the Pordoi Pass, with an altitude of 2.239 meters, connecting the villages of Arabba with Canazei. From the pass starts a cable car to the Sass Pordoi (2.950 m).

This was my first picture of Innsbruck after arriving by bus from Igls in the Old Town Area. Took the picture from the Marktplatz . Was there at the right moment in the morning, having the sun in my back and the beautiful light on the houses. The colourful row of houses in the Mariahilf area lies directly on the river Inn. They are typical for Innsbruck. The impressive Nordkette (North Chain) in the Karwendel range enthroned behind it with the beautiful houses must be a classic one among the city motifs. The buildings near the river Inn developed since the 12/13th century and preserve a true treasure of original Gothic spaces, even if some houses were largely rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries or their facades were renovated in the Baroque style. The relatively strong, varied colouring of the individual houses dates back to the 1950s.

We were lucky to drive a part of the famous Ruta 40 - from Cachi to Cafayate - in March. That turned out to be the harvest season of the red peppers. On several places along the road they were lying on the fields. We heard from locals that the region features the necessary aridity and the ideal level of sunlight for the cultivation of this kind of peppers.

The Hodegetria church was founded by abbot Pachomios of the Brontochion Monastery in Mystras ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/49139868 ). It was built between 1310 and 1315 as the katholikon (main church). The monastery acquired many resources in the area of Sparta and elsewhere in the Peloponnese and was so wealthy that the new church was referred by the local people as the Aphentiko (“head man” or “boss”). A new architectural type, the so-called “Mystras mixed type”, was created for the first time in this church. Its ground floor takes the form of a three-aisled basilica, while at the gallery level it has features of the more complex five domed cross-square church. The church also has a fine bell tower. Beautiful frescoes, comparable to frescoes in Constantinople, decorate the church. A Hodegetria or Virgin Hodegetria, is an iconographic depiction of Virgin Mary, holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to Him as the source of salvation for humankind. In the Western Church this type of icon is sometimes called “Our Lady of the Way”. Hodegetria church is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Mystras.

The Mitropolis (Cathedral of Agios Dimitrios) is considered being the most important church of Mystras ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/49139868 ). The church is part of a complex of buildings enclosed by a high wall. The original church was founded in the late 13th century as a wooden roofed basilica. The cathedral has a mixed architectural style: it combines the groundplan of a Roman basilica with a Greek domed church, which was added in the first half of the 15th century. The church - the oldest of the surviving churches of Mystras - stands in a courtyard. Its impressive ecclesiastical ornaments and furniture include a marble iconostasis, an intricately carved wooden throne, and a marble slab in the floor featuring a two-headed eagle (the symbol of Byzantium) located on the exact site where Emperor Constantine XI Palaeologos was crowned in 1448 (PiP 5). The church also has some fine frescoes, dating back to late 13th and early 14th centuries. Next to the cathedral is a small museum, depicting fragments of ancient cloths, buttons, jewellery and other everyday items.

In the year of 1249 the French crusader “Guillaume II de Villehardouin” built a fortress on a spur of Mount Taygetos, that came to be known as Mystras. At the foot of the fortress the inhabitants of Sparta soon settled - counting on the protection of the bourgeois - creating a new town. Ten years later “De Villehardouin” was captured by the Byzantines and as a ransom he had to hand over his possessions in the Mórea - as the Peloponnesos was then called - to Emperor Michaël Palaeologos. Mystras came under Byzantine rule and the city expanded rapidly. In its heyday there were 42.000 people living in the walled city. From 1350 to 1460 it was the residence of the Byzantine governor - called the despot - who was always the son or brother of the reigning emperor. The despots of the Despotate of the Morea decorated the city with churches, monasteries and palaces and made Mystras a centre of culture, where the decline of Constantinople was followed at a safe distance. In 1448 the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI Palaeologos, was crowned here. From 1460 to 1687 the Ottomans ruled, then the Venetians (1687 - 1715) and then again the Ottomans (1715 - 1821). The city had to endure several sieges, but the fatal blow came in 1770. During the chaos that followed the Orlofika - a Greek uprising on the Peloponnesos against Ottoman rule - the Turks sent out unregulated Albanian hordes to teach the Greeks a lesson. These looting gangs also entered Mystras and destroyed the city. This looting and the devastation during the Greek War of Independence meant the end of Mystras. Most of the inhabitants then moved to (new) Sparta, which had been built by order of the first Greek king Otto I. Nowadays Mystras is a late Byzantine ghost town, although it also has a monastery where still nuns are living. The palace and quite a lot of churches are beautifully restored and without any doubt worth a visit. In 1989 the ruins, including the fortress, palace, churches, and monasteries, were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Monument of Zalongo - placed in 1961 - commemorates the so called ‘Dance of Zalongo’, referring to a mass suicide of women and children in 1803 during the Souli War. Ali Pasha, an Ottoman Albanian ruler who served as pasha of Epirus and the western parts of Thessaly and Greek Macedonia, wanted to finish once and for all with the Souliotes; the people of Souli who were creating problems for him and the Sultan. An agreement was signed, in which one part concerned the safe evacuation of women and children from Souli. But Ali Pasha failed to comply with the agreement and his troops attacked a group of Souliotes - among them women and children - in the mountains of Zalongo. It is said that the Souli women came closer to the edge of a terrifying cliff. In order to avoid capture, enslavement and humiliation, the women held hands and started singing and dancing (Dance of Zalongo) and threw their children off that cliff and then they jumped to their death themselves one by one. Despite the fact that some historians doubt wether there was an actual dance and song, the self-sacrifice of the Souli women in order not to fall in the hands of the Ottomans is indisputable. The Monument of Zalongo - made by sculptor George Zongolopoulos - is visible several hundred meters high upon the edge of Mount Zalongo's cliff above Agios Dimitrios Monastery (PiP1). The monument depicts six abstract dancing female figures of the Souliot women. It is 18 meters long and 13 meters high. The figures are made of reinforced concrete, lined with about 4.300 limestone blocks, 40x30x25 cm. The construction took six years. The Monument of Zalongo is accessible by climbing a rather steep stone paved path (PiP2) with more than 400 steps, which starts just behind the monastery. .

The Iglesia de San José (San José Church) was built in mid 18th century as a private religious place for the Aramburu family, the former owners of the lands where it is now located. Later they gave it to serve as a church to the town. The church has a typical colonial architecture with adobe walls on a pebble foundation. It does not have a tower, but the three bells are located in the upper part of the façade. The church underwent an important modification in 1890, when a neoclassical portico was added. Inside there is an extensive nave 35 meters long and two transverse chapels very close to the main altar. The altar features traditional decorations; an image of Christ on polychrome is the fundamental piece. Much of the elements (beams, altar, confessionals) are made of cactus-wood. Iglesia de San José is located at the historical town square Plaza 9 de Julio with the white painted town hall. The church was declared a National Historic Monument in 1945.

Near the village of Agios Georgios lies the Roman aqueduct over the river Louros. The aqueduct was built by thousands of slaves after 31 BC on the orders of Octavian Augustus - a Roman statesman and military leader and the first Emperor of the Roman Empire - who founded the city of Nikopolis or Nicopolis. (Recent researchers assign its construction during Hadrian’s rule, in the 2nd cent. A.D.) The complete aqueduct carried potable water with the method of height difference from the springs of the river Louros in the mountains near Ioannina to two cisterns in Nikopolis over a distance of fifty kilometers, nearly the entire current region of Preveza. It consisted of a pipe, which was constructed in three ways: by carving a ditch, tunneling the area and constructing columns bridging the pipe over valleys. This ‘water pipeline’ is considered being one of the most important structures of the Roman period in northwestern Greece. In the second half of the 5th century the aqueduct stopped functioning. From 1978 till 1980 the arches near Agios Georgios were restored. The aqueduct bridge over the Louros is one of the very few remaining in Greece today.

The beautifully restored Turnhout Castle, also known as Castle of the Dukes of Brabant ( Kasteel van de Hertogen van Brabant ) dates back to the 12th century. Originally it was the first hunting lodge of the first Duke of Brabant. In the 16th century the castle was rebuilt into a renaissance palace by Mary of Hungary, at that time the governors of the Netherlands and was used as a court of pleasure. During the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) Turnhout Castle lay on the front line. As a result it changed hands several times between the Spanish army and the Dutch rebels. In 1597 the north wing was burned down by the troops of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange. After that the castle lost its military importance. In 1702 Turnhout became a Prussian barony under Frederick the Great. In 1789, during the Brabant Revolution, the Austrians were driven out of Turnhout. They returned twice but in 1796 the castle was occupied by the French. They turned the castle into a court house and prison. The building was also used as a warehouse, a fire brigade and a weaving school. In the 20th century the decayed castle was purchased by the province of Antwerp and was renovated in a classicist inspired neo-baroque style. The last renovation took place around the year 2000 and was opened again in May of that year. At present Turnhout Castle - one of the most interesting buildings in the city - is used as a court of justice and is not open for visitors.