One of my favorite things in the world is a good bookstore or library. This beautiful bookstore in Porto, Portugal was an inspiration to J. K. Rowling for the moving staircases in Hogwarts.
Along with Bertrand in Lisbon, it is one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal and frequently rated among the top bookstores in the world (placing third in lists by guidebook publisher Lonely Planet and The Guardian).
Great to be back out in the world again! Here are some before and after finds from Brooklyn and Manhattan this past Fall.
The Roman Catholic parish of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, located in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, was established in 1863. F.J. Berlenbach, Jr., designed the Lombardian Romanesque basilica in 1870.
The Austin organ now in the Church of the Annunciation was originally built in 1912 for St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Morristown, N.J. In 1930, St. Peter’s installed a new Skinner organ (Op. 836), and the Austin organ was acquired by Annunciation Church.
Bleeker St. at the NW Corner of Bowery 1934. Cool to see the old elevated rail line in the background of the old photo. Too bad they couldn’t have saved it for another Highline.
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation, in the summer of 1944, by the Polish underground resistance, led by the Home Army, to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. The uprising was timed to coincide with the retreat of the German forces from Poland ahead of the Soviet advance.
Although the exact number of casualties is unknown, it is estimated that about 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and about 6,000 badly wounded. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions. Jews being harboured by Poles were exposed by German house-to-house clearances and mass evictions of entire neighbourhoods. German casualties totalled over 2,000 to 17,000 soldiers killed and missing.[11] During the urban combat, approximately 25% of Warsaw’s buildings were destroyed. Following the surrender of Polish forces, German troops systematically levelled another 35% of the city block by block. Together with earlier damage suffered in the 1939 invasion of Poland and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, over 85% of the city was destroyed by January 1945 when the course of the events in the Eastern Front forced the Germans to abandon the city.
Found a few new before and after photos this week in Amsterdam. This is a target rich city as so little has changed on the streets over the past century.
Beschrijving Hartenstraat 19-21, Amsterdam – 1893Beschrijving Van Baerlestraat 98, Amsterdam – 1894 Beschrijving Leprozengracht, Amsterdam gezien naar de Mozes en Aäronkerk. Na demping in 1882 werd dit het Waterlooplein – 1862 to 1882
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against Britain in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and is the German word for ‘lightning’.[4]
The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns, and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a battle for daylight air superiority between the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force over the United Kingdom. By September 1940, the Luftwaffe had failed and the German air fleets (Luftflotten) were ordered to attack London, to draw RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation.[5][6]Adolf Hitlerand ReichsmarschallHermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered the new policy on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 out of the following 57 days and nights.[7] Most notable was a large daylight attack against London on 15 September.
The Luftwaffe gradually decreased daylight operations in favour of night attacks to evade attack by the RAF, and the Blitz became a night bombing campaign after October 1940. The Luftwaffe attacked the main Atlantic sea port of Liverpool in the Liverpool Blitz and the North Sea port of Hull, a convenient and easily found target or secondary target for bombers unable to locate their primary targets, suffered the Hull Blitz. Bristol, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Southampton and Swansea were also bombed, as were the industrial cities of Birmingham, Belfast, Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester and Sheffield. More than 40,000 civilians were killed by Luftwaffe bombing during the war, almost half of them in the capital, where more than a million houses were destroyed or damaged.[1]
In early July 1940, the German High Command began planning Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.[8] Bombing failed to demoralise the British into surrender or do much damage to the war economy; eight months of bombing never seriously hampered British war production, which continued to increase.[9][10] The greatest effect was to force the British to disperse the production of aircraft and spare parts.[11] British wartime studies concluded that cities generally took 10 to 15 days to recover when hit severely, but exceptions like Birmingham took three months.[11]
The German air offensive failed because the Luftwaffe High Command (Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, OKL) did not develop a methodical strategy for destroying British war industry. Poor intelligence about British industry and economic efficiency led to OKL concentrating on tactics rather than strategy. The bombing effort was diluted by attacks against several sets of industries instead of constant pressure on the most vital.[11][12]
History Then and Now 