Beautiful city- Venice

Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 117 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by bridges. These are located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, and artwork. The lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site.

Venice is one of the most important tourist destinations in the world for its celebrated art and architecture. The city has an average of 50,000 tourists a day (2007 estimate). In 2006, it was the world's 28th most internationally visited city, with 2.927 million international arrivals that year. It is regarded as one of the world's most beautiful cities.

Attractions

St Mark's Basilica

 The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, northern Italy. It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture. It lies at the eastern end of the Piazza San Marco, adjacent and connected to the Doge's Palace. Originally it was the chapel of the Doge, and has only been the city's cathedral since 1807, when it became the seat of the Patriarch of Venice, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, formerly at San Pietro di Castello.

Grand Canal

The Grand Canal is a canal in Venice, Italy. It forms one of the major water-traffic corridors in the city. Public transport is provided by water buses and private water taxis, and many tourists explore the canal by gondola.


One end of the canal leads into the lagoon near the Santa Lucia railway station and the other end leads into Saint Mark Basin; in between, it makes a large reverse-S shape through the central districts of Venice. It is 3.8 km long, and 30 to 90 m wide, with an average depth of five meters (16.5 ft).

The banks of the Grand Canal are lined with more than 170 buildings, most of which date from the 13th to the 18th century, and demonstrate the welfare and art created by the Republic of Venice. The noble Venetian families faced huge expenses to show off their richness in suitable palazzos; this contest reveals the citizens’ pride and the deep bond with the lagoon. Amongst the many are the Palazzi Barbaro, Ca' Rezzonico, Ca' d'Oro, Palazzo Dario, Ca' Foscari, Palazzo Barbarigo and to Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, housing the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The churches along the canal include the basilica of Santa Maria della Salute. Centuries-old traditions, such as the Historical Regatta, are perpetuated every year along the Canal.

Piazza San Marco

Piazza San Marco (Italian pronunciation, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as "the Piazza". All other urban spaces in the city are called "campi" (fields). The Piazzetta (the 'little Piazza') is an extension of the Piazza towards the lagoon in its south east corner. The two spaces together form the social, religious and political centre of Venice and are commonly considered together.

The Piazzetta dei Leoncini is an open space on the north side of the church named after the two marble lions, but now officially called the Piazzetta Giovanni XXIII. The neo-classic building on the east side adjoining the Basilica is the Palazzo Patriarcale, the seat of the Patriarch of Venice.

Beyond that is the Clock Tower, completed in 1499, above a high archway where the street known as the Merceria (a main thoroughfare of the city) leads through shopping streets to the Rialto, the commercial and financial center. To the right of the clock-tower is the closed church of San Basso, designed by Baldassarre Longhena (1675), sometimes open for exhibitions.

Lido di Venezia

The island is home to three settlements. The Lido itself, in the north, is home to the Film Festival, the Grand Hotel des Bains, the Venice Casino and the Grand Hotel Excelsior. Malamocco, in the centre, was the first and, for a long time, the only settlement. It was at one time home to the Doge of Venice. Alberoni at the southern end is home to the golf course. Frequent public buses run the length of the island along the main street.


At least half the Adriatic side of the island is a sandy beach, much of it belonging to the various hotels that house the summer tourists. These include the renowned Excelsior and the Des Bains, setting for Thomas Mann's classic novel Death in Venice, currently undergoing major renovation. These beaches are private, though towards the northern and southern ends of the island there are two enormous public beaches. The Adriatic Sea is fairly clean and warm, ideal for children, with only the occasional jellyfish to disturb swimming.

The city also relies heavily on the cruise business. The Cruise Venice Committee has estimated that cruise ship passengers spend more than 150 million euros (US $193 million) annually in the city.

External link

• Official website ENIT: Italian Government Tourist Board
• Official website Italia.it: Italian Tourism Official Website
• Italy travel and tourism at DMOZ
• "Italy: Getting to Italy and getting around". TripAdvisor. Retrieved 18 February 2016.

Florence - Heart of Italy

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence.
Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy.

Florence is an important city in Italian fashion, being ranked in the top 51 fashion capitals of the world; furthermore, it is a major national economic centre, as well as a tourist and industrial hub. In 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy.

Florence is believed to have the greatest concentration of art in the world. Thus, cultural tourism is particularly strong, with world-renowned museums such as the Uffizi selling over 1.6 million tickets a year. The city's convention centre facilities were restructured during the 1990s and host exhibitions, conferences, meetings, social forums, concerts and other events all year.

Main sights

Florence is known as the "cradle of the Renaissance" for its monuments, churches, and buildings. The best-known site of Florence is the domed cathedral of the city.

Florence Cathedral

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore is the main church of Florence, Italy. The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. These three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major attraction to tourists visiting Tuscany

The cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is currently Giuseppe Betori.


Florence Baptistery

The Florence Baptistery (Italian: Battistero di San Giovanni), also known as the Baptistery of Saint John, is a religious building in Florence, Italy, and has the status of a minor basilica. The octagonal baptistery stands in both the Piazza del Duomo and the Piazza San Giovanni, across from Florence Cathedral and the Campanile di Giotto.


The Baptistery is one of the oldest buildings in the city, constructed between 1059 and 1128 in the Florentine Romanesque style. Although the Florentine style did not spread across Italy as widely as the Pisan Romanesque or Lombard styles, its influence was decisive for the subsequent development of architecture, as it formed the basis from which Francesco Talenti, Leon Battista Alberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, and the other architects created Renaissance architecture. In the case of the Florentine Romanesque, one can speak of "proto-renaissance", but at the same time an extreme survival of the late antique architectural tradition in Italy, as in the cases of the Basilica of San Salvatore in Spoleto, the Temple of Clitumnus, the church of Sant'Alessandro in Lucca.


Historic Centre of Florence

The historic centre of Florence is part of quartiere 1 of the Italian city of Florence. This quarter was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982.


Built on the site of an Etruscan settlement, Florence, the symbol of the Renaissance, rose to economic and cultural pre-eminence under the Medici in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its 600 years of extraordinary artistic activity can be seen above all in the 13th-century cathedral, the Church of Santa Croce, the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace, the work of great masters such as Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli and Michelangelo.

Spiritual center of the city is Piazza del Duomo with the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, flanked by Giotto's Campanile and facing the Baptistry of Saint John with the 'Gates of Paradise' by Lorenzo Ghiberti. From here to the north there are the Palazzo Medici Riccardi by Michelozzo, the Basilica of Saint Lawrence by Filippo Brunelleschi, with the precious sacristies of Donatello and Michelangelo. Furthermore, the Museum of San Marco with masterpieces by Fra Angelico, the Accademia Gallery which houses among other works the David by Michelangelo (1501–1504), and the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata with the Loggia of the Innocenti by Filippo Brunelleschi.


Defensive wall

A defensive wall is a fortification used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements. Generally, these are referred to as city walls or town walls, although there were also walls, such as the Great Wall of China, Walls of Benin, Hadrian's Wall, and the metaphorical Atlantic Wall, which extended far beyond the borders of a city and were used to enclose regions or mark territorial boundaries. Beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions – representing the status and independence of the communities they embraced.

Walls may only be crossed by entering the appropriate city gate and are often supplemented with towers. The practice of building these massive walls, though having its origins in prehistory, was refined during the rise of city-states, and energetic wall-building continued into the medieval period and beyond in certain parts of Europe.


Fountain of Neptune

The Fountain of Neptune is a fountain in Florence, Italy, situated on the Piazza della Signoria (Signoria square), in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The fountain was commissioned in 1565 and is the work of the sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati.

The Neptune figure, whose face resembles that of Cosimo I de' Medici, was meant to be an allusion to the dominion of the Florentines over the sea. The figure stands on a high pedestal in the middle of an octagonal fountain. The pedestal is decorated with the mythical figures of Scylla and Charybdis. The statue of Neptune is a copy made in the nineteenth century, while the original is in the National Museum.


Orto Botanico di Firenze

The Orto Botanico di Firenze (2.3 hectares), also known as the Giardino dei Semplici, the "Garden of simples", is a botanical garden maintained by the University of Florence. It is located at Via Micheli, 3, Florence, Italy, and open weekday mornings.

The garden was established on December 1, 1545, by Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and is Europe's third oldest, behind the Orto Botanico di Pisa and the Orto Botanico di Padova. It was first laid out by landscape gardener Niccolò Pericoli to a botanical system and plantings chosen by Luca Ghini, and rose to prominence under Cosimo III, with Pier Antonio Micheli as its director. As was typical of early European botanical gardens, its prime interest was in medicinal plants. However, as in 1753 the Società Botanica was formed, the garden's focus turned to "experimental agriculture" and its layout was revised accordingly. The garden grounds opened to the public in the mid-19th century, at about the same time that its glass houses (1694 m²) were constructed.


Piazza della Repubblica

Piazza della Repubblica is a city square in Florence, Italy. It is on the site, first of the city's forum and then of the city's old ghetto, which was swept away during the city improvement works or Risanamento initiated during the brief period when Florence was the capital of a reunited Italy, work that also created the city's avenues and boulevards. The ghetto has disappeared from the square, and the Loggia del Pesce from the Mercato Vecchio was moved to Piazza Ciompi. Among the square's cafes, the Giubbe Rosse cafe has long been a meeting place for famous artists and writers, notably those of Futurism.

See also

• 2011 Florence shootings
• Category:Buildings and structures in Florence
• Chancellor of Florence
• Cronaca fiorentina
• European University Institute
• Florentine School
• Historical states of Italy
• List of squares in Florence
• University of Florence

Buenos Aires-Paris of South America

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the continent's southeastern coast. The Greater Buenos Aires conurbation, which also includes several Buenos Aires Province districts, constitutes the third-largest conurbation in Latin America, with a population of around seventeen million.

Buenos Aires is, along with Mexico City and São Paulo, one of the three Latin American cities considered an 'alpha city'. Buenos Aires' quality of life was ranked 81st in the world and one of the best in Latin America in 2012, with its per capita income among the three highest in the region.It is the most visited city in South America and the second most visited city of Latin America.

Buenos Aires is a top tourist destination, and is known for its European-style architecture and rich cultural life. Buenos Aires held the 1st Pan American Games in 1951 as well as hosting two venues in the 1978 FIFA World Cup.

Attractions

National Historical Museum

The Argentine National Historical Museum is located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is a museum dedicated to the history of Argentina, exhibiting objects relating to the May Revolution and the Argentine War of Independence.

The museum houses over 50,000 items. Portions of the collection were gathered from donations of relatives of important figures in the May Revolution and the wars of independence. Other objects were part of the collection of the Public Museum (Museo Público) created in 1822 by Bernardino Rivadavia.

Its displays include regalia, belongings, furnishings and documents belonging to José de San Martín, María de los Remedios de Escalada, Manuel Belgrano, William Carr Beresford, Juan Manuel de Rosas, Bartolomé Mitre, Juan and Eva Perón, and other Argentine, as well as foreign, statesmen, lawmakers, and military figures who played key roles in the nation's history up to 1950.

Its collection of history paintings includes works by Esteban Echeverría, Cándido López, and Prilidiano Pueyrredón, among others


Buenos Aires Japanese Gardens

The Buenos Aires Japanese Gardens are a public space administered by the non-profit Japanese Argentine Cultural Foundation in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and are one of the largest Japanese gardens of its type in the world outside Japan.

Its entrance on Figueroa Alcorta Avenue led to the gardens, a cultural center, restaurant, a greenhouse known for its collection of bonsai trees and a gift shop featuring an extensive selection of Asian garden seeds, as well as craftwork made by artisans on the grounds. The central lake is crossed by the Divine Bridge, traditionally representing entry into Heaven and by the Truncated Bridge, leading to an island where Japanese medicinal herbs are grown.

The lake is surrounded by flora of Japan, such as sakura, katsura, momiji and azalea. The park, however, also features complementing species native to South America, notably tipa and floss silk trees. The lake itself is populated with carp. Small numbers of epiphytic bromeliads of genus Tillandsia can be seen as well as one orchid of the widespread and diverse genus Oncidium.

The park is also graced by a Japanese Peace Bell and a large ishidoro, as well as numerous other granite sculptures. A Japanese Buddhist Temple is maintained on the grounds and the Institute also hosts regular cultural activities for the general public.


Buenos Aires Zoo

The Buenos Aires Zoo is an 45-acre (18 ha) zoo in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The zoo contains 89 species of mammals, 49 species of reptiles and 175 species of birds, with a total of over 2,500 animals. The institution's goals are to conserve species, produce research and to educate the public.

The grassy areas of the park are full of native birds and rodents, which come to the zoo for the food thrown to the animals by visitor. Nutria, rabbits, and peacock roam the park freely. A variety of monkeys and small mammals inhabit the zoo. Although some are in cages, others are housed on the islands in the zoo's many ponds, or roam free.

At the Farm of the Zoo (La Granja Del Zoo), visitors can pet and feed ponies, donkeys, sheep, and goats. This part of the zoo is also home to turkeys, chickens, roosters, pigs, rabbits, cows and horses.

At the Aquarium, visitors can see penguins, as well as fresh water fish including piranha and sea dwellers such as striped bream, grouper, black sea bass, sea catfish, and many tropical fish. The aquarium also has a seal show, for which visitors must pay extra.

The Reptile house is home to the zoo's reptiles.

The Tropical Rainforest does not house many animals. It is a two story building displaying tropical plant life, and contains an indoor waterfall. A large iguana is kept on the grounds outside the exit from this exhibit.

Big cats at the zoo include white tigers, pumas, cheetahs, jaguars and lions. The lions are housed in a castle complex with its own moat. Four white tiger cubs, two males and two females, recently born (January 14, 2013) from Cleo a Bengal white tiger, are now on display at the zoo for the public to visit.

Other animals at the zoo include red panda, camels, llamas, giraffes, bison, hippos, and elephants. Polar bears are housed in an exhibit that includes an underwater viewing area. Camels are exhibited amidst Moroccan-style architecture. The flamingoes are in a lake near the entrance near Byzantine "ruins" and kangaroos are surrounded by aboriginal paintings. The elephant house is built to look like the ruins of an Indian temple.


La Recoleta Cemetery

La Recoleta Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, the founder of the Argentine Navy, and a granddaughter of Napoleon. In 2011, the BBC hailed it as one of the world's best cemeteries, and in 2013, CNN listed it among the 10 most beautiful cemeteries in the world.

The entrance to the cemetery is through neo-classical gates with tall Doric columns.[ The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide variety of architectural styles such as Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baroque, and Neo-Gothic, and most materials used between 1880 and 1930 in the construction of tombs were imported from Paris and Milan. The entire cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways branching into sidewalks filled with mausoleums.


Parque Tres de Febrero

Parque Tres de Febrero, also known as the Bosques de Palermo (Palermo Woods), is an urban park of approximately 400 hectares (about 989 acres) located in the neighborhood of Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located between Libertador and Figueroa Alcorta Avenues, it is known for its groves, lakes, and rose gardens (El Rosedal).

Designed by urbanist Jordán Czeslaw Wysocki and architect Julio Dormal, the park was inaugurated on November 11, 1875. The dramatic economic growth of Buenos Aires afterwards helped to lead to its transfer to the municipal domain in 1888, whereby French Argentine urbanist Carlos Thays was commissioned to expand and further beautify the park, between 1892 and 1912. Thays designed the Zoological Gardens, the Botanical Gardens, the adjoining Plaza Italia and the Rose Garden.

Many people use the park everyday, both on foot and bicycle, and this number increases greatly at the weekends. Boat rides are available on the three artificial lakes within the park. Close to the boating lake is the Poets' Garden, with stone and bronze busts of renowned poets, including Jorge Luis Borges, Luigi Pirandello and William Shakespeare.


Plaza San Martín

Plaza San Martín is a park located in the Retiro neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Situated at the northern end of pedestrianized Florida Street, the park is bounded by Libertador Ave.

The park was the site in 1909 of the inaugural of both the first premier hotel in Argentina (the Plaza) and of the new National Museum of Fine Arts, for which the glass and steel pavilion used at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris was enlisted; structurally inadequate, the pavilion was demolished in 1932, however. Plaza San Martín and its surroundings acquired their current physiognomy in 1936, when Charles Thays' son, Carlos León Thays, designed the esplanade surrounding the monument and when the 33-story Art Deco Kavanagh building was completed. Though the surrounding area has since seen much of its older architecture replaced by high-rises (notably the 1975 Pirelli building), the plaza has remained timeless. Its western section was separated to make way for a rerouting of Maipú Street in 1972; but President Nésto
 friends of the park.


Abasto de Buenos Aires

The Abasto Shopping is one of the biggest shopping mall centers in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The building was the central wholesale fruit and vegetable market in the city ("Mercado de Abasto") from 1893 to 1984. Since 1999, it has served as a shopping mall. It is also famous for being in the area where the tango singer Carlos Gardel, known as El Morocho del Abasto ("the dark-haired guy from Abasto"), lived for most of his life. Today, the surrounding area, though part of the Balvanera neighbourhood, is sometimes referred to as Abasto.


The Abasto Shopping centre is served by the adjoining underground station Carlos Gardel of line B metro.


Teatro Colón

The Teatro Colón is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is ranked the third best opera house in the world by National Geographic, and is acoustically considered to be amongst the five best concert venues in the world. The other venues are Berlin's Konzerthaus, Vienna's Musikverein, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Boston's Symphony Hall.

The present Colón replaced an original theatre which opened in 1857. Towards the end of the century it became clear that a new theatre was needed and, after a 20-year process, the present theatre opened on 25 May 1908, with Giuseppe Verdi's Aïda.


The Teatro Colón was visited by the foremost singers and opera companies of the time, who would sometimes go on to other cities including Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

See also

• C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
• Largest cities in the Americas
• List of mayors and chiefs of government of Buenos Aires
• List of metropolitan areas by population
• List of twin towns and sister cities of Buenos Aires
• Lists of capitals
• Lists of cities
• OPENCities
• Outline of Argentina

Amazing Germany

Germany is the seventh most visited country in the world, with a total of 407.26 million overnights during 2012. This number includes 68.83 million nights by foreign visitors, the majority of foreign tourists in 2009 coming from the Netherlands, the United States and Switzerland. Additionally, more than 30% of Germans spend their holiday in their own country. According to Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Reports, Germany is rated as one of the safest travel destinations worldwide.

Germany is well known for its diverse tourist routes, such as the Romantic Road, the Wine Route, the Castle Road, and the Avenue Road. The German Timber-Frame Road connects towns with examples of these structures. There are 40 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany, including the old town cores of Regensburg, Bamberg, Lübeck, Quedlinburg, Weimar, Stralsund and Wismar. Germany's most-visited landmarks include i. e. Neuschwanstein Castle, Cologne Cathedral, Berlin Bundestag, Hofbräuhaus Munich, Heidelberg Castle, Dresden Zwinger, Fernsehturm Berlin and Aachen Cathedral. The Europa-Park near Freiburg is Europe's second most popular theme park resort.

Main Attractions

Berlin

Berlin is the capital of Germany and one of its 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million people, Berlin is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany on the banks of Rivers Spree and Havel, it is the centre of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has about six million residents from over 180 nations. Due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.

Berlin is a world city of culture, politics, media and science. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations and convention venues. Berlin serves as a continental hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination. Significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics.

Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums, entertainment venues and is host to many sporting events. Its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is well known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts and a high quality of living. Over the last decade Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene.

Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, and one of the best-known landmarks of Germany. It is built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel.


It is located in the western part of the city centre of Berlin within Mitte, at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building that houses the German parliament (Bundestag). The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees, which led directly to the royal City Palace of the Prussian monarchs.

Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events and is today considered a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace.

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the seventh most populous city in Germany. Düsseldorf is an international business and financial centre, renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. The city is headquarters to five Fortune Global 500 and several DAX companies. Messe Düsseldorf organises nearly one fifth of premier trade shows.


Düsseldorf is known for its academy of fine arts (Joseph Beuys, Emanuel Leutze, August Macke, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Andreas Gursky), its pioneering influence on electronic/experimental music (Kraftwerk) and its Japanese community. On the river Rhine, Düsseldorf holds Rhenish Carnival celebrations every year in February / March. Mercer's 2012 Quality of Living survey ranked Düsseldorf sixth city in the world.


Semperoper

The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper ballet. The building is located near the Elbe River in the historic centre of Dresden, Germany.


The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841. After a devastating fire in 1869, the opera house was rebuilt, partly again by Semper, and completed in 1878. The opera house has a long history of premieres, including major works by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.

Today, the orchestra for most operas is the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. The Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Semperoper is normally a different person from that of the Staatskapelle when it presents concerts. Exceptions have been Karl Böhm, Hans Vonk, and Fabio Luisi who have held both positions. Whilst the Semperoper does not have a GMD as of 2015, the current chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden is Christian Thielemann, as of the 2012/13 season. The current Intendant (General Manager) of the company is Wolfgang Rothe.


Dresden Frauenkirche

The Dresden Frauenkirche is a Lutheran church in Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. An earlier church building was Roman Catholic until it became Protestant during the Reformation, and was replaced in the 18th century by a larger Baroque Lutheran building. It is considered an outstanding example of Protestant sacred architecture, featuring one of the largest domes in Europe. It now also serves as a symbol of reconciliation between former warring enemies.

The Frauenkirche is often called a cathedral, but it is not the seat of a bishop; the church of the Landesbischof of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony is the Church of the Cross. Once a month, an Anglican Evensong is held in English, by clergy from St. George's Anglican Church, Berlin.


Mercedes-Benz Museum

The Mercedes-Benz Museum is an automobile museum in Stuttgart, Germany. It covers the history of the Mercedes-Benz brand and the brands associated with it. Stuttgart is home to the Mercedes-Benz brand and the international headquarters of Daimler AG.

The current building, which stands directly outside the main gate of the Daimler factory in Stuttgart, was designed by UN Studio. It is based on a unique cloverleaf concept using three overlapping circles with the center removed to form a triangular atrium recalling the shape of a Wankel engine.


Nuremberg Castle

Nuremberg Castle is a historical building on a sandstone rock in the north of the historical city of Nuremberg in Bavaria, Germany. It comprises three sections: the Imperial castle, some buildings of the Burgraves of Nuremberg, and the municipal buildings of the Imperial City at the eastern site. The castle, together with the city walls, is considered to be one of Europe's most formidable medieval fortifications.

New Town Hall (Hanover)

The New Town Hall or New City Hall in Hanover, Germany, is a city hall and was opened on July 20, 1913, after having been under construction for 12 years. It is a magnificent, castle-like building of the era of Wilhelm II in eclectic style at the southern edge of the inner city. The building is embedded in the 10 hectare Maschpark. The Old Town Hall is no longer used as the main seat of administration, but houses businesses and the registry office.

Nördlingen

Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 24,000. It was first mentioned in recorded history in 898, and in 1998 the town celebrated its 1100th anniversary. The town was the location of two battles during the Thirty Years' War, which took place between 1618–1648. Today it is one of only three towns in Germany that still has a completely established city wall, the other two being Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Dinkelsbühl.

Another attraction in the town is the Saint Georg's Church's 90 m steeple, called "Daniel", which is made of a suevite impact breccia that contains shocked quartz. Other notable buildings are the town hall, St. Salvator church and the Spital, a former medieval hospital. The Ries crater museum is located in the well-preserved medieval tanner's quarter.

The city is home to several other museums, such as the Bavarian Railway Museum, the Nördlingen city museum, the city wall museum and Augenblick museum with panoramas, magic lanterns, silent films, barrel organs, pianolas, music boxes and gramophones.

Wittenberg

Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany,situated on the river Elbe.

The importance of Wittenberg historically was due to its seat of the Elector of Saxony, a dignity held by the dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg and also to its close connection with Martin Luther and the dawn of the Protestant Reformation; several of its buildings are associated with the events of this time. Part of the Augustinian monastery in which Luther dwelt, first as a monk and later as owner with his wife and family, is preserved and considered to be the world's premier museum dedicated to Luther. Various Luther and Melanchthon memorial sites were added to the UNESCO world heritage list in 1996.

Stone Bridge (Regensburg)

The Stone Bridge in Regensburg, Germany, is a 12th-century bridge across the Danube linking the Old Town with Stadtamhof. For more than 800 years, until the 1930s, it was the city's only bridge across the river. It is a masterwork of medieval construction and an emblem of the city.

Belchen (Black Forest)

The Belchen, 1,414 metres (4,639 ft), or Black Forest Belchen  is the fourth highest summit of the Black Forest after the Feldberg, Seebuck and the Herzogenhorn. The municipalities of Münstertal, Schönenberg and Kleines Wiesental meet on the summit dome of the Belchen which is located in the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg.

The Belchen lies on the West Way, a long distance path maintained by the Black Forest Club, which runs from Pforzheim to Basle. Other marked footpaths run from Untermünstertal, Schönau and Neuenweg up the mountain.The Belchen lies on the West Way, a long distance path maintained by the Black Forest Club, which runs from Pforzheim to Basle. Other marked footpaths run from Untermünstertal, Schönau and Neuenweg up the mountain.

Because of its rare flora and fauna, Belchen was declared a nature reserve in 1949. The area was extended to 1600 ha in 1993. and is now one of the largest nature reserves in Baden-Württemberg.

Many species of rare butterfly, beetle and bird are found in the highland areas of the Belchen. Typical birds include the raven, song thrush, citril finch and water pipit, but peregrine, capercaillie and hazel grouse are also found on the Belchen.

Among the plants are relicts from the last ice age that are otherwise only found in the Alps. These include the Swiss bellflower, Alpine rose, Swiss hawkbit and lichens.

Rostock

Rostock is the largest city in the north German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Rostock is on the Warnow river; the district of Warnemünde 12 kilometres (7 miles) north of the city centre is directly on the Baltic Sea coast.

Rostock is home to one of the oldest universities in the world, the University of Rostock, founded in 1419.


The city territory of Rostock stretches for about 20 km (12 mi) along the Warnow to the Baltic Sea. The largest built-up area of Rostock is on the western side of the river. The eastern part of its territory is dominated by industrial estates and the forested Rostock Heath. Rostock is considered as the only regiopolis in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.


Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a town in the district of Ansbach of Mittelfranken, the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. It is well known for its well-preserved medieval old town, a destination for tourists from around the world. It is part of the popular Romantic Road through southern Germany.







Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the sixth largest German state by area, and the least densely populated. The coastline of the Baltic Sea, including islands such as Rügen and Usedom, as well as the Mecklenburg Lake District, features many holiday resorts and unspoilt nature, making Mecklenburg-Vorpommern one of Germany's leading tourist destinations. Three of Germany's fourteen national parks are in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in addition to several hundred nature conservation areas.


Major cities include Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Stralsund, Greifswald, Wismar and Güstrow. The University of Rostock (est. 1419) and the University of Greifswald (est. 1456) are among the oldest in Europe. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was the site of the 33rd G8 summit in 2007.

See also

• Transport in Germany
• Public holidays in Germany
• List of museums in Germany
• List of world's largest cuckoo clocks
• Economy of Germany
• Cuisine of Germany
• Tourism in East Germany
• German tourism industry
• List of World Heritage Sites in Germany

Budapest- City full of Lite

Budapest is the capital and the largest city of Hungary, and one of the largest cities in the European Union. It is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre, sometimes described as the primate city of Hungary.

Cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Budapest's extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second-oldest metro line in the world. It has around 80 geothermal springs, the world's largest thermal water cave system, second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building. The city attracts about 4.4 million tourists a year, making it the 25th most popular city in the world, and the 6th in Europe, according to Euromonitor.

Tourism in Hungary

There is a long history of tourism in Hungary, and Hungary was the world's thirteenth most visited tourist destination country in 2002. Tourism increased by nearly 7 percent between 2004 and 2005. European visitors comprise more than 98 per cent of Hungary's tourists. Austria, Germany, and Slovakia make the largest numbers of visitors to the country. Most tourists arrive by car and stay for a short period of time. Hungary's tourist season is from April through October. July and August are the best tourist months. Budapest is the country's most popular tourist destination.

Main sights and tourism 

Buda Castle

Buda Castle is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest, and was first completed in 1265. In the past, it has been called Royal Palace and Royal Castle.

Buda Castle was built on the southern tip of Castle Hill, bounded on the north by what is known as the Castle District (Várnegyed), which is famous for its Medieval, Baroque, and 19th-century houses, churches, and public buildings. It is linked to Clark Ádám Square and the Széchenyi Chain Bridge by the Castle Hill Funicular.


The castle is a part of the Budapest World Heritage Site, which was declared a Heritage Site in 1987.



Danube River

The Danube is Europe's second-longest river, after the Volga River, and also the longest river in the European Union region. It is located in Central and Eastern Europe.


The Danube was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, and today flows through 10 countries. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for 2,860 km (1,780 mi), passing through or touching the border of Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine before emptying into the Black Sea. Its drainage basin extends into nine more countries.


Margaret Island

Margaret Island is a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) long island, 500 metres (550 yards) wide, (0.965 km2 (238 acres) in area) in the middle of the Danube in central Budapest, Hungary. The island is mostly covered by landscape parks, and is a popular recreational area. Its medieval ruins are reminders of its importance in the Middle Ages as a religious centre. The island spans the area between the Margaret Bridge (south) and the Árpád Bridge (north). Before the 14th century the island was called Insula leporum (Island of Rabbits). Administratively Margaret Island used to belong to the 13th district until 2013. Now it is directly under the control of the city.

Sights in the island include:

• the Centennial Memorial of 1973, commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the city's unification;
• a small Japanese Garden with a mildly thermal fish pond;
• a tiny zoo featuring a wide range of exotic waterfowl among other animals;
• the "Music Well", a small pavilion, which was originally built for open-air concerts (it is close to Árpád bridge);
• the "Music Fountain", a fountain near which music is played and light shows are performed in summer (it is close to Margaret bridge). The water springs out according to music, so that the fountain seems to dance at the various classical themes reproduced. The last piece played is Con te partirò sung by Andrea Bocelli;
• an octagonal Water Tower of 57 m (built in Art Nouveau style in 1911, today functioning as a lookout tower and an exhibition hall, see picture).

The Music Fountain and the Water Tower are protected UNESCO sites.


Gothic Revival architecture

Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, Neo-Gothic or Jigsaw Gothic, and when used for school, college, and university buildings as Collegiate Gothic) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. Its popularity grew rapidly in the early 19th century, when increasingly serious and learned admirers of neo-Gothic styles sought to revive medieval Gothic architecture, in contrast to the neoclassical styles prevalent at the time. Gothic Revival draws features from the original Gothic style, including decorative patterns, finials, scalloping, lancet windows, hood mouldings, and label stops.

The revived Gothic style was not limited to architecture. Classical Gothic buildings of the 12th to 16th Centuries were a source of inspiration to 19th-century designers in numerous fields of work. Architectural elements such as pointed arches, steep-sloping roofs and fancy carvings like lace ant lattice work were applied to a wide range of Gothic Revival objects.



St. Stephen's Basilica



St. Stephen's Basilica is a Roman Catholic basilica in Budapest, Hungary. It is named in honour of Stephen, the first King of Hungary, whose supposed right hand is housed in the reliquary. It was the sixth largest church building in Hungary before 1920. Since the renaming of the primatial see, it's the co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest. Today, it is the third largest church building in present-day Hungary.






Nagytétény Castle

One of the finest monuments of Baroque architecture in Hungary, the former Száraz-Rudnyánszky Castle was designed by András Mayerhoffer and built by Baron József Rudnyánszky (spouse: Julianna Száraz) between 1743 and 1751 on the place of a Roman villa rustica and using an earlier castle that stood here. The Száraz-Rudnyánszky Castle was built in the so-called Grassalkovich Style. The original Gothic castle was built in the 13th century for the Tétény family that was related to the Árpád Dynasty.

The applied arts exhibition presents artifacts of Hungarian and foreign furniture-making in a historical context with contemporary carpets, stoves and ceramics. About 300 items are presented in more than two dozen rooms.


House of Terror

House of Terror is a museum located at Andrássy út 60 in Budapest, Hungary. It contains exhibits related to the fascist and communist regimes in 20th-century Hungary and is also a memorial to the victims of these regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the building.

The museum opened on 24 February 2002 and the Director-General of the museum since then has been Dr Mária Schmidt.


The House of Terror is a member organization of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience.


Csepel Island

Csepel Island is the largest island of the River Danube in Hungary. It is 48 km long; its width is 6–8 km. Its area comprises 257 km² and its population is 165,000. The word Csepel is pronounced CHE-pel.

Csepel Island extends south from Budapest; its northern point is Csepel, which is Budapest's District XXI. Most of the island is accessible from Budapest by the suburban railway.

Notable towns include Ráckeve, Szigetszentmiklós, Szigethalom and Tököl.

Csepel island was the first centre of conquering Hungarians, being the lodgement of Árpád's tribe. The island is named after Árpád's horse groom, Csepel.


Hungary's tallest structure, Lakihegy Tower is situated there.


Lake Balaton

Lake Balaton is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the largest inflow of water to the lake, and the canalised Sió is the only outflow.


The mountainous region of the northern shore is known both for its historic character and as a major wine region, while the flat southern shore is known for its resort towns. Balatonfüred and Hévíz developed early as resorts for the wealthy, but it was not until the late 19th century when landowners, ruined by Phylloxera attacking their grape vines, began building summer homes to rent out to the burgeoning middle classes.


Fisherman's Bastion

 Fisherman's Bastion is a terrace in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style situated on the Buda bank of the Danube, on the Castle hill in Budapest, around Matthias Church. It was designed and built between 1895 and 1902 on the plans of Frigyes Schulek. Construction of the bastion destabilised the foundations of the neighbouring 13th century Dominican Church which had to be pulled down. Between 1947–48, the son of Frigyes Schulek, János Schulek, conducted the other restoration project after its near destruction during World War II.

From the towers and the terrace a panoramic view exists of Danube, Margaret Island, Pest to the east and the Gellért Hill.

Its seven towers represent the seven Magyar tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in 896.


The Bastion takes its name from the guild of fishermen that was responsible for defending this stretch of the city walls in the Middle Ages. It is a viewing terrace, with many stairs and walking paths.


Gellért Hill

Gellért Hill is a 235 m (771 ft) high hill overlooking the Danube in Budapest, Hungary. It is part of the 1st and 11th Districts. Gellért Hill was named after Saint Gerard who was thrown to death from the hill. The famous Hotel Gellért and the Gellért Baths can be found in Gellért Square at the foot of the hill, next to Liberty Bridge. The Gellért Hill Cave is located within the hill, facing toward Hotel Gellért and the Danube River.


At the top of the hill is the Citadella (Citadel), from which a view is available down both directions of the Danube.



Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library

Fővárosi Szabó Ervin Könyvtár is the largest library network in Budapest, Hungary.

The Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library's main branch is housed in the 19th-century neo-baroque Wenckheim Palace.


The municipal library needed more space as its collection grew, so it expanded to a network of additional buildings while restoring the palace as a national monument. The library is now 13,000 m² and houses Budapest's largest public collection of books with a capacity for 1,100,000 volumes.

See also

• List of sights and historic places in Budapest
• List of museums in Hungary
• List of spa towns in Hungary