Unpretentious Melbourne: Arts Capital of Australia
As so often in Australia’s history, Melbourne was founded through fraud when explorer John Batman, an Australian fluent in several aboriginal languages, made a “deal” with aborigines to lease land on behalf of speculators.
While offering the Aborigines any compensation at all was progressive in a colonial culture that preferred to simply run them off the land, the fact that the native people had little understanding of rents, leases or indeed, the concept that land was something to be bought, sold and leased at all, made his arrangements no less exploitive. In return for a long term lease of 240,000 hectares of the finest grazing land in Australia, Batman gave the aborigines axes, salt, flour, blankets and jewelry. The total value of the goods was said to have been around £200.
Colonial rulers later declared his leases unlawful, claiming that the government, not the Aborigines, were the true owners of the land. After paying Batman compensation, they took over the lands and founded a settlement as the seat of regional government. The settlement became the city of Melbourne in 1837, named after Viscount Melbourne, the British prime minister at the time.
A strict town plan
Melbourne’s location was its strongest advantage. While the “acquired” farmland was of excellent quality, the city’s location on the banks of the Yarra River and well protected Port Phillip Bay contributed to its rapid commercial development. The influx of energetic immigrants and eager investors from England were determinants in the economic growth of the young city.
Once the city had 5,000 residents, city planners intervened and imposed a strict grid plan to check chaotic growth in every direction. Melbourne’s planners decreed that every main street would be exactly 30 metres wide, with perpendicular side streets one third that width. The strict grid plan has been in place ever since.
Melbourne became the capital of the new Victoria Colony in 1851. As luck would have it, miners in the outback came upon a rich seam of gold just four days later. Melbourne prospered like no other city on the continent, even after the gold rush waned.
A second boom was sparked by industrial development and immigration after World War II. Melbourne’s population more than tripled, and the plains around the Yarra River gradually grew crowded as 3 million people from 140 nations arrived to claim their piece of the Australian dream.
City planners again stepped in, authorising the construction and development of suburbs and satellite towns. In the downtown commercial districts, Melbourne began building upward and large office buildings shot up on the horizon.
A rather unassuming city, Melbourne’s grand sights are few in comparison to trendy Sydney. Of course, there is still a great deal to see, including the Melbourne Museum, the State Parliament, the royal exhibition buildings, the Stock Market, majestic St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Flinders Street Station. Freshwater Place is a luxury residential complex, with a striking, elegant design that makes it Australia’s thinnest building as well as one of its tallest.
Melbourne is well known for book shops, live shows and the arts. Many northerners desperate for culture travel south to Melbourne for their arts fix. Melbourne hosts a world class writers festival and comedy festival.
Melbourne is also renowned for sports. The annual Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix held at the Albert Park Circuit is famous around the world, but there are many more sporting highlights to enjoy.
The professional tennis season starts here with the Australian Open, drawing the best players in the world to compete in the first of four major tournaments. Local sports attract an even greater following.
When the Magpies, Bombers and Kangaroos take the field, life is frozen in time. Melbourne’s football players have always been their sports heroes, but cricket and rugby are also popular. The Grand Final of the Australian Football League (AFL) takes place each year at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. One of the eight Melbourne teams usually participates.
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Copenhagen Home of the Little Mermaid
Almost everyone who comes to Copenhagen visits the little mermaid harbour. Hans Christian Andersen’s popular story is about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince.
Love is impulsive. In the end, the unhappy mermaid looks on mutely as her beloved gives her up in favour of a woman. In Andersen’s fairy tale, the little mermaid throws herself into the sea, dissolving in the waves. Today, the bronze mermaid cast by Eric Eriksen sits on a rock on the harbour.
Vandals have attacked the statue on several occasions, but luckily, city officials keep the original bronze moulds in a safe location. Identical replacement limbs are always available to keep the tourists happy.
When Denmark became a kingdom in the 10th century, what would later become the great city of Copenhagen was a small, insignificant fishing town named Havn. Located at the entrance to the Baltic Sea, its central location attracted the attention of the Danish royalty. Recent archeological discoveries show that by the 11th century, Copenhagen had already evolved into a small town with a large estate, a church, a market, at least two wells and many smaller habitations spread over a fairly wide area.
Havn was transformed virtually overnight into an important business centre. The building of Slotsholm Fortress in 1167 is usually said to mark the city’s founding. Three years later, Copenhagen was given its current name, which in Danish means “merchant’s harbour”. In 1443, the emergent city became the official capital of the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. When the union disbanded in 1523 it became capital of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Amalienborg, the famous winter palace of the Danish royal family, stands on a broad, paved, octagonal plaza. Four nearly identical palaces were built along the four diagonal sides of the octagon. At the centre of this beautiful rococo complex, one of the loveliest in Europe, is an equestrian monument honouring King Frederik V. A changing of the guard takes place outside the palaces each noon.
The best view of the Old City of Copenhagen may be from the wide platform on top of the Round Tower. Although the tower is only 36 metres high, the spiral staircase to the top winds around 209 metres. It was once possible to ride to the top on horseback, as Peter the Great did when he visited.
Unfortunately, horses are now banned from the tower. Trinity Church is adjacent to the tower, with the shopping districts of Stroget and Straedet nearby. Most of the Old City is off limits to motor vehicles, making it one of Europe’s biggest pedestrian zones. Christiansborg Palace is on the small island of Slotsholm, the site of the original fortress, which is today joined to the rest of the city by several bridges.
The palace was once home to the Danish royal family, and is now the seat of the Danish government and its parliament, the Folketing. This is the sixth building to stand here since the 1167 founding of the city. Invading armies, fires and modernization have all taken their toll. While the first castle on the site stood from 1417 into the late eighteenth century, rebuilding and renovation has been fast and furious ever since.
The present Christiansborg was built in the early twentieth century. Accessible from every quarter of the city, Tivoli Gardens amusement park first opened on 15 August 1843. Visitors can take a trip in a small boat on the moats once used for Copenhagen’s defense or take a pleasant ride on the big wheel looking down at the city from on high. It has a new, zero-G roller coaster (”the Demon”) and twenty-five other rides, as well as many restaurants and concert venues.
The mime presentations in the Pantomimes are extremely popular. After 150 years of continuous operation, neon signs are still banned in Tivoli. Instead, more than 110,000 incandescent lanterns brilliantly illuminate one of Europe’s oldest surviving pleasure gardens. The white bulbs hung from trees contribute to Tivoli’s uniquely old-fashioned atmosphere, even as the roller Demon hurtles by.
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Piazza San Marco - One of Venice’s Most Elegant Squares
One of the world’s most beautiful squares, Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) is the heart of Venice, a vast open space bordered by an orderly procession of arcades marching toward the fairy tale cupolas and marble lacework of the Basilica di San Marco.
Perpetually packed by day with people and fluttering pigeons, it can be magical at night, especially in winter, when mists swirl around the lamp posts and the Campanile.
If you face the basilica from in front of the Correr Museum, you’ll notice that rather than being a strict rectangle, this square opens wider at the basilica end, creating the illusion that it’s even larger than it is.
The Piazza was paved in the late 13th century with bricks laid in a herringbone pattern. Bands of light stone ran parallel to the long axis of the main piazza. These lines were probably used in setting up market stalls and in organising frequent ceremonial processions. This original pavement design can be seen in paintings of the late Middle Ages and through the Renaissance, such as Gentile Bellini’s Procession in Piazza San Marco of 1496.
On your left, the long, arcaded building is the Procuratie Vecchie, built in the early 16th century as offices and residences for the powerful procurators of San Marco. On your right is the Procuratie Nuove, built half a century later in a more grandiose classical style.
It was originally planned by Venice’s great Renaissance architect, Sansovino, to carry on the look of his Libreria Sansoviniana (Sansovinian Library), but he died before construction on the Nuove had begun. Vincenzo Scamozzi (circa 1552-1616), a neoclassicist pupil of Andrea Palladio (1508-80), completed the design and construction. Still later, the Procuratie Nuove was modified by architect Baldassare Longhena (1598-1682), one of Venice’s baroque masters.
When Napoleon entered Venice with his soldiers in 1797, he called Piazza San Marco “the world’s most beautiful drawing room” and promptly gave orders to redecorate it. His architects levelled a 16th-century church with a Sansovino facade in order to build the Ala Napoleonica (Napoleonic Wing), or Fabbrica Nuova (New Building), which linked the two 16th-century procuratie and effectively enclosed the piazza.
Piazzetta San Marco, the “little square” leading from Piazza San Marco to the waters of Bacino San Marco (St. Mark’s Basin), is a landing that was once the grand entryway to the Republic. It’s distinguished by two columns towering above the waterfront.
One is topped by the winged lion, a traditional emblem of St. Mark that became the symbol of Venice itself; the other supports St. Theodore, the city’s first patron, along with his dragon. Between these columns the Republic traditionally executed convicts.
It takes a full day to take in everything on the piazza thoroughly; so if time is limited you’ll have to prioritize. Plan on one to two hours for the Basilica and its Pala d’Oro, Galleria, and Museo Marciano. You’ll want at least two hours to appreciate the Palazzo Ducale. Do take time to enjoy the piazza itself from a cafe table, or on a clear day, from atop the Campanile.
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