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What are Plus Fours Anyway?
Photo from Daily Mail article cited below The media coverage of the late 11th Duke of Marlborough’s death made much of the fact that his pallbearers were Palace gamekeepers, or maybe groundskeepers,...
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More Art Nouveau in Hungary
My apologies to those who received a post with no content. I was trying to re-blog a post on “How to Travel in Winter” from one of my favorite travel blogs, “Picnic at the Cathedral.” I’ll try again!...
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Easter in Venice: One to Remember
Easter this year may not be the greatest in my memory. I’ve been down for the past week with a bad case of respiratory flu–the one that we all heard the flu vaccine did not protect against. Just when...
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Versailles Palaces: Grandiose, (Merely) Grand, and Petit
Even the Sun King himself sometimes tired of the over-the-top splendor he had created at Versailles. He heard Mass daily in his spectacular Royal Chapel, around 10:00. Louis XIV by Rigaud, Public...
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Petit Trianon: It’s All in the Details
Not that many tourists make the trek from the over-the-top Palace of Versailles to the much smaller Petit Trianon, built as a retreat from the crowds that filled the main palace as soon as it was...
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Resting (With a View) in Salisbury
In glorious Salisbury Cathedral, I came upon these two striking effigies, looking much more colorful than most of the effigies lined up along the nave. They somehow looked startled. Also they lay in...
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Karlskirche Dome: Up Close and Personal
Vienna’s Karlskirche, St. Charles’s Church, is a spectacular Baroque creation, built between 1716-1737. It honors St. Charles Borromeo, who was a church reformer of the 16th century and who also had...
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If I Had to Choose a French Chateau: Chenonceau
Rumbling up the drive in a carriage, here is what the long-ago aristocratic visitor would have seen. I suppose a line of nicely-turned-out servants would have stood at the ready, to haul in trunks....
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Chenonceau Addition: Nobody Leaves Diane in the Corner!
Diane de Poitiers, portrait by unknown artist, Public Domain My apologies: in my previous post about Chenonceau, I hit the Publish button too soon. Chenonceau’s most illustrious occupant was Diane de...
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The Chapel at Tyntesfield
The chapel at Tyntesfield is a spectacularly beautiful reimagining of a French medieval church, Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Tyntesfield is a Victorian neo-Gothic mansion built by the devout Gibbs...
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Parham Park: My Favorite Long Gallery
This is Parham Park, built in Elizabethan times for a wealthy old family fortunate enough to acquire the land in 1540, when King Henry VIII was busy dismantling monasteries. The land at that time...
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Doorways in Kalmar
First impression of any building: the front door. A well-chosen one is unique and inviting. This one looks like a face, don’t you think? Maybe a friendly cat? The Swedish town of Kalmar has a lot of...
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Helsinki Jugendstil Doorways
For some reason, I expected Helsinki to be a rough-around-the edges modern industrial city. Instead I found a city full of delightful architecture, much of it dating from the early 1900s. This was...
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Jugendstil in Helsinki
The island of Katajanokka, just outside the center of Helsinki, might have more Jugendstil buildings per square mile than anyplace else on earth. It seems that in the early 1900s, when...
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Copenhagen’s Romantic City Hall
My new favorite City Hall is in Copenhagen. Why do I even have a favorite City Hall? In most cities, it’s about the last place I’d care to visit. I remember a long-ago trip to Winnipeg, Canada, when I...
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Swan Maidens at Oslo City Hall
I was just planning on a quick walk-through of the building, which honestly is not to my taste. But the courtyard has sixteen large wood reliefs, each about eight feet tall, by Dagfinn Werenskiold....
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Chirk Castle
Catching-up time: I’m off to England soon, so I’m posting about places I will not see because I’ve seen them before. For a hopeless Anglophile like me, England has way too many stellar sights. Chirk...
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Arts and Crafts Perfection at Standen
If I could move into any house I wanted in the English countryside, I’d take Standen, near East Grinstead in Sussex. The house has a complicated floor plan, built in stages. I’m not exactly sure what...
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Penrhyn Castle: A Neo-Norman Victorian Fantasy
I can’t believe I even have a “least favorite” castle, but right now Penrhyn is it. Why would that be? Penrhyn is spectacular in every way. It was built to impress: a fabulous Victorian gingerbread...
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