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Powder Tower, Riga
The Powder Tower ( lv, Pulvertornis) is situated in Riga, Latvia, and originally a part of the defensive system of the town. The current Powder Tower was built in 1650 and renovated in the years 1937 to 1940 when it was added to the structure of the Latvian War Museum. History The tower was first mentioned in 1330 as the Sand Tower (the name apparently derives from the sand hills opposite the tower). The entrance to the tower was above the ground and the building could only be entered by a narrow staircase. During the Swedish attack on Poland of 1621, the entire tower was destroyed, except the basement, on which the now visible Powder Tower was built in 1650. In horizontal cross-section, the tower was horseshoe-shaped: in some places, the thick wall of the tower faced the outskirts, while the wall on the city side was made of wood (bricks at the time were an expensive building material). The name of the powder tower dates back to the 17th century when apparently gunpowder w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medieval Architecture
Medieval architecture is architecture common in the Middle Ages, and includes religious, civil, and military buildings. Styles include pre-Romanesque, Romanesque, and Gothic. While most of the surviving medieval architecture is to be seen in churches and castles, examples of civic and domestic architecture can be found throughout Europe, in manor houses, town halls, almshouses, bridges, and residential houses. Designs Religious architecture The Latin cross plan, common in medieval ecclesiastical architecture, takes the Roman basilica as its primary model with subsequent developments. It consists of a nave, transepts, and the altar stands at the east end (see '' Cathedral diagram''). Also, cathedrals influenced or commissioned by Justinian employed the Byzantine style of domes and a Greek cross (resembling a plus sign), with the altar located in the sanctuary on the east side of the church. Military architecture Surviving examples of medieval secular architecture mainly s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers and lies above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. Riga hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, the 2006 IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, 2013 World Women's Curling Championship and the 2021 IIHF World Championship. It is home to the European Union's office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). In 2017, it was named the European Region of Gastronomy. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vecrīga
Vecrīga ("Old Riga") is the historical center and a neighbourhood (as Vecpilsēta) of Riga, Latvia, located in the Central District on the east side of Daugava River. Vecrīga is famous for its old churches and cathedrals, such as Riga Cathedral and St. Peter's Church. History Vecrīga is the original area of Riga and consists of the historic city limits before the city was greatly expanded in the late 19th century. In the old days, Vecrīga was protected by a surrounding wall except the side adjacent to the Daugava river bank. When the wall was torn down, the waters from Daugava filled the space, creating Riga City Canal. Heritage In the early 1990s, Vecrīga's streets were closed to traffic and only residents of the area and the local delivery vehicles were allowed within Vecrīga's limits with special permits. Vecrīga is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site listed as "Historic Centre of Riga", which also includes most of the surrounding Centrs district. Vecrīga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latvian War Museum
The Latvian War Museum ( lv, Latvijas Kara muzejs) is a Museum#military museum, military museum in Riga, the capital of Latvia. The Latvian War Museum was established on 15 October 1916 as the Latvian Riflemen Battalion Museum. Initially the museum had its premises at Tērbatas Street 1/3. The museum collected material relating to the Latvian Riflemen and World War I. In 1917, when Riga was bombarded, the museum was evacuated. In June 1919 the museum restored operations at the Powder Tower, Riga, Powder Tower in Vecrīga, old town Riga. The museum opened to the public in June 1921. In 1936 the government acquired the neighbouring land lot. The erection of a new museum building was initiated in 1937, according to a project by architect Artūrs Galindoms. The interior works were additionally designed by architect R. Legzdiņš. All museum artifacts were temporarily stored at the museum workshop in Torņa Street. The new museum building was finished in the summer of 1940, but the mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polish–Swedish War (1621–1625)
The Polish–Swedish War of 1621 to 1625 was a war in a long-running series of conflicts between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Swedish Empire. It began with a Swedish invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian fiefdom Livonia. Swedish forces succeeded in taking the city of Riga after a siege. The Commonwealth, focussed on war with the Ottoman Empire (such as the battles of Cecora and Chocim), was unable to send significant forces to stop Gustav Adolf, and signed a truce favorable to Sweden. The Commonwealth ceded Livonia north of the Dvina (Düna) river, and retained only nominal control over Riga. The new truce in Mitau (Jelgava, Mitawa) was signed and lasted from November 1622 to March 1625. Introduction The Polish–Swedish War of 1617–18) showed that the Swedish Army, despite several reforms, was still unable to defeat the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Furthermore, King Gustav Adolf was still regarded in Europe as a usurper. To safeguard the Swedish crown f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torture Chamber
A torture chamber is a room where torture is inflicted.Princeton Wordnet definition of Torture chamber Wordnetweb.princeton.edu. Retrieved on 2011-08-30. The medieval torture chamber was windowless and often built underground, was lit by a few candles and was specifically designed to induce "horror, dread and despair" to anyone but those possessing a strong mind and "nerves of steel". Historically, torture chambers were located in royal palaces, in castles of the nobility and even buildings belonging to the church. They featured secret trap-doors which could be activated to throw victims into dark |
Second Northern War
The Second Northern War (1655–60), (also First or Little Northern War) was fought between Sweden and its adversaries the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1655–60), the Tsardom of Russia (Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658), 1656–58), Brandenburg-Prussia (1657–60), the Habsburg monarchy (1657–60) and Denmark–Norway (Dano-Swedish War (1657–58), 1657–58 and Dano-Swedish War (1658–60), 1658–60). The Dutch Republic waged an informal trade war against Sweden and seized the colony of New Sweden in 1655, but was not a recognized part of the Polish–Danish alliance. In 1655, Charles X Gustav of Sweden invaded and occupied western Poland–Lithuania, the eastern half of which was Russo-Polish War (1654–67), already occupied by Russia. The rapid Swedish advance became known in Poland as the Deluge (history), Swedish Deluge. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania Union of Kėdainiai, became a Swedish fief, the Polish–Lithuanian regular armies surrendered and the Polish king Joh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Round Shot
A round shot (also called solid shot or simply ball) is a solid spherical projectile without explosive charge, launched from a gun. Its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the barrel from which it is shot. A round shot fired from a large-caliber gun is also called a cannonball. The cast iron cannonball was introduced by a French artillery engineer Samuel J. Besh after 1450; it had the capacity to reduce traditional English castle wall fortifications to rubble. French armories would cast a tubular cannon body in a single piece, and cannonballs took the shape of a sphere initially made from stone material. Advances in gunpowder manufacturing soon led the replacement of stone cannonballs with cast iron ones. Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, referred to as gunstone (Middle English: ''gunneston''), but by the 17th century, from iron. It was used as the most accurate projectile that could be fired by a smoothbore cannon, used to batter the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tourist Attractions In Riga
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes". Tourism can be domestic (within the traveller's own country) or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Tourism numbers declined as a result of a strong economic slowdown (the late-2000s recession) between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and in consequence of the outbreak of the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, but slowly recovered until the COVID-19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Powder Towers
A powder is a dry, bulk solid composed of many very fine particles that may flow freely when shaken or tilted. Powders are a special sub-class of granular materials, although the terms ''powder'' and ''granular'' are sometimes used to distinguish separate classes of material. In particular, ''powders'' refer to those granular materials that have the finer grain sizes, and that therefore have a greater tendency to form clumps when flowing. ''Granulars'' refers to the coarser granular materials that do not tend to form clumps except when wet. Types Many manufactured goods come in powder form, such as flour, sugar, ground coffee, powdered milk, copy machine toner, gunpowder, cosmetic powders, and some pharmaceuticals. In nature, dust, fine sand and snow, volcanic ash, and the top layer of the lunar regolith are also examples. Because of their importance to industry, medicine and earth science, powders have been studied in great detail by chemical engineers, mechanical engine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Towers Completed In 1650
A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifically distinguished from buildings in that they are built not to be habitable but to serve other functions using the height of the tower. For example, the height of a clock tower improves the visibility of the clock, and the height of a tower in a fortified building such as a castle increases the visibility of the surroundings for defensive purposes. Towers may also be built for observation, leisure, or telecommunication purposes. A tower can stand alone or be supported by adjacent buildings, or it may be a feature on top of a larger structure or building. Etymology Old English ''torr'' is from Latin ''turris'' via Old French ''tor''. The Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean langua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Towers In Riga
A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifically distinguished from buildings in that they are built not to be habitable but to serve other functions using the height of the tower. For example, the height of a clock tower improves the visibility of the clock, and the height of a tower in a fortified building such as a castle increases the visibility of the surroundings for defensive purposes. Towers may also be built for observation, leisure, or telecommunication purposes. A tower can stand alone or be supported by adjacent buildings, or it may be a feature on top of a larger structure or building. Etymology Old English ''torr'' is from Latin ''turris'' via Old French ''tor''. The Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean langua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
