Greifenstein Castle (Hesse)
Greifenstein Castle (german: Burg Greifenstein) lies in the eponymous village of Greifenstein in the county of Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Middle Hesse, Germany. It is a geo point in the national geopark of Westerwald-Lahn-Taunus. Location The hill castle stands on a hill in the Dill Westerwald and has a good view over the Dill valley. At above sea level (NN) it is the highest castle in the county of Lahn-Dill. The castle is a highly visible landmark. It is signed from the A 45 motorway. History The hill castle was first recorded in 1160. In 1298 it was destroyed by the counts of Nassau and Solms, as was Lichtenstein, which was not rebuilt. In 1315 it was enfeoffed by the House of Habsburg ( Albert I had purchased the castle from Kraft of Greifenstein) to the Counts of Nassau.http://regesten.regesta-imperii.de/regshow.php?pk=44588&bandanzeige= After having several owners, it had become dilapidated by 1676 and was then converted into a Baroque ''schloss'' by William Maurice o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hill Castle
A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German ''Höhenburg'' used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles are thus distinguished from lowland castles (''Niederungsburgen''). Hill castles may be further subdivided depending on their situation into the following: * Hilltop castle (''Gipfelburg''), that stands on the summit of a hill with steep drops on all sides. A special type is the rock castle or ''Felsenburg''. * Ridge castle (''Kammburg''), that is built on the crest of a ridge. * Hillside castle (''Hangburg''), that is built on the side of a hill and thus is dominated by rising ground on one side. * Spur castle (''Spornburg''), that is built on a hill spur surrounded by steep terrain on three sides and thus only needs to be defended on the one remaining side. When in the 10th and 11th centuries castles lost their pure fortress charact ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heritage Site
A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been recognized with the official national historic site status. A historic site may be any building, landscape, site or structure that is of local, regional, or national significance. Usually this also means the site must be at least 50 years or older. The U.S. National Park Service defines a historic site as the "location of a significant event, a prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, or a building or structure, whether standing, ruined, or vanished, where the location itself possesses historic, cultural, or archeological value regardless of the value of any existing structure". Historic sites can also mark public crimes, such as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia or Robben Island, South Africa. Similar to museums ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word ''fresco'' ( it, affresco) is derived from the Italian adjective ''fresco'' meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. The word ''fresco'' is commonly and inaccurately used in English to refer to any wall painting regardless of the plaster technology or binding medium. This, in part, contributes to a misconception that the most geographically and temporally common wall painting technology was the painting into wet lime plaster. Even in appar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Baroque Style
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including the Iberian Peninsula it continued, together with new styles, until the first decade of the 19th century. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (in the past often referred to as "late Baroque") and Neoclassical styles. It was encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the simplicity and austerity of Protestant architecture, art, and music, though Lutheran Baroque art developed in parts of Europe as well. The Baroque style used contrast, movement, exuberant detail, deep colour, grandeur, and surprise to achieve a sense of awe. The style began at the start of the 17th century in Rome, then spread rapidly to France, northern Italy, Spain, and Portugal, then to Austria, southern Germany, and Russia. B ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gothic Style
Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken by the Crimean Goths, also extinct ** Gothic alphabet, one of the alphabets used to write the Gothic language **Gothic (Unicode block), a collection of Unicode characters of the Gothic alphabet Art and architecture *Gothic art, a Medieval art movement *Gothic architecture *Gothic Revival architecture (Neo-Gothic) **Carpenter Gothic ** Collegiate Gothic **High Victorian Gothic Romanticism *Gothic fiction or Gothic Romanticism, a literary genre Entertainment * ''Gothic'' (film), a 1986 film by Ken Russell * ''Gothic'' (series), a video game series originally developed by Piranha Bytes Game Studios ** ''Gothic'' (video game), a 2001 video game developed by Piranha Bytes Game Studios Modern culture and lifestyle * Goth subculture, a music-cu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fortified Church
A fortified church is a church that is built to serve a defensive role in times of war. Such churches were specially designed to incorporate military features, such as thick walls, battlements, and embrasures. Others, such as the Ávila Cathedral were incorporated into the town wall. Monastic communities, such as Solovki Monastery, are often surrounded by a wall, and some churches, such as St. Arbogast in Muttenz, Switzerland, have an outer wall as well. Churches with additional external defences such as curtain walls and wall towers are often referred to more specifically as fortress churches or ''Kirchenburgen'' (literally "church castles"). Most fortified churches may be found in parts of Europe for example in the Dordogne region of France, fought over by France and England in medieval times, and in Transylvania, during the Ottoman invasions. Fortified churches were also built in places controlled by colonial empires, such as one in the Philippines at the scene of the s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Double Chapel
The double chapel, sometimes ''double church'', is a chapel or church building with two storeys that either have a central aperture enabling their simultaneous use for services or are completely separate, just connected by a staircase, and used for different liturgical functions. In the latter type, there is often a crypt on the lower level and a celebratory space on the upper floor. Architecture This special form of church building that was used in medieval European architecture up to the 13th century had two churches built on two levels, one above the other, usually with the same floor plan, but there are exceptions such as the Imperial Chapel of St. Ulrich in Goslar. The earlier arrangement of the two chapel floors, which was purported to enable a "separation between the lower and upper classes of the Middle Ages", in which the lower chapel was assigned to the "common people" and the upper chapel to the "feudal lords" and their families is not substantiated by any evidence. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Strike Tone
The strike tone, strike note, or tap note, of a percussion instrument (e.g. bell, chime or gong) when struck, is the dominant note perceived immediately by the human ear. It is also known as the prime or fundamental note. However, an analysis of the bell's frequency spectrum reveals that the fundamental only exists weakly and its dominance is a human perception of a note built up by the complex series of harmonics that are generated. The correct and accurate harmonic tuning is therefore important in creating a good strike tone. Composition of the strike tone When a bell is struck, the energy imparted causes vibration of the bell in a complex manner and a series of tones known as partials or harmonics are generated. "This atonal strike sound includes many inharmonic partials that die out quickly, giving way to a strike note or strike tone that is dominated by the prominent partials of the bell. Most observers identify the metallic strike note as having a pitch at or near the fr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Peal Of Bells
A "ring of bells" is the name bell ringers give to a set of bells hung for English full circle ringing. The term "peal of bells" is often used, though peal also refers to a change ringing performance of more than about 5,000 changes. By ringing a bell in a full circle, it was found in the early 17th century that the speed of the bell could be easily altered and the interval between successive soundings (strikes) of the bell could be accurately controlled. A set of bells rung in this manner can be made to strike in different sequences. This ability to control the speed of bells soon led to the development of change ringing where the striking sequence of the bells is changed to give variety and musicality to the sound. The vast majority of "rings" are in church towers in the Anglican church in England and can be three to sixteen bells, though six and eight bell towers are the most common. They are tuned to the notes of a diatonic scale, and range from a few hundredweight (10 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Weather Vane
A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , meaning "flag". Although partly functional, wind vanes are generally decorative, often featuring the traditional cockerel design with letters indicating the points of the compass. Other common motifs include ships, arrows, and horses. Not all wind vanes have pointers. In a sufficiently strong wind, the head of the arrow or cockerel (or equivalent) will indicate the direction from which the wind is blowing. Wind vanes are also found on small wind turbines to keep the wind turbine pointing into the wind. History The oldest textual reference in China to a weather vane comes from the ''Huainanzi'' dating from around 139 BC, which mentions a thread or streamer that another commentator interprets as "wind-observing fan" (, ). The Tower of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and Hindlimb, back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and sometimes an eagle's talons as its front feet. Because the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts, and the eagle the king of the birds, by the Middle Ages, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. Since classical antiquity, griffins were known for guarding treasures and priceless possessions. In Greek and Roman texts, griffins and Arimaspians were associated with gold deposits of Central Asia. Indeed, as Pliny the Elder wrote, "griffins were said to lay eggs in burrows on the ground and these nests contained gold nuggets." In medieval heraldry, the griffin became a Christian symbol of Divinity, divine power and a g ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spiral Staircase
Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage to the other level by stepping from one to another step in turn. Steps are very typically rectangular. Stairs may be straight, round, or may consist of two or more straight pieces connected at angles. Types of stairs include staircases (also called stairways), ladders, and escalators. Some alternatives to stairs are elevators (also called lifts), stairlifts, inclined moving walkways, and ramps. A stairwell is a vertical shaft or opening that contains a staircase. A flight (of stairs) is an inclined part of a staircase consisting of steps (and their lateral supports if supports are separate from steps). Components and terms A ''stair'', or a ''stairstep'', is one step in a flight of stairs.R.E. Putnam and G.E. Carlson, ''Architectural an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |