1. Travel in Belarus
1.1. Nesvizh
1.1.1. Nesvizh was first documented in 1223,[2] later becoming a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the 15th century, while still a minor town, it passed to the Radziwiłł princely family, and remained the family's home until 1813. The first Belarusian language book printed in the Latin alphabet, a catechism by Symon Budny, was published in Nesvizh in 1562.[3] Nesvizh Castle was founded in 1583, and between 1584 and 1598 two monasteries and a collegium, all belonging to different religious orders, were built.[4] On the initiative of Mikołaj "the Orphan" Radziwiłł the city was granted Magdeburg rights in 1586. Two epidemics that occurred in the city in the 17th century led to an establishment of a pharmacy in 1627. During the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, the city was significantly damaged by the Swedish troops. It was rebuilt in the 1720s by Michał "Rybeńko" Radziwiłł. In the aftermath of the war, in 1740s and 1750s he founded a silk belt factory (which was later moved to Sluck), a cadet corps military school, several textile manufacturers and restored the Corpus Christi Church and a printing factory. Michał's wife, Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa, founded the Nesvizh Radziviłł Theater, which included a choir and a ballet school. In 1764 and 1768 the city was occupied by Russian troops, and in 1772 the library, which included approximately 10,000 volumes, along with paintings and other objects of art, was transferred to St. Petersburg. Books from the library were granted to the Russian Academy of Sciences.
1.2. Troitskoye suburb
1.2.1. Minsk’s old town, more commonly known as Troitskoe Predmestye (Trinity Suburb, or just Trinity) after the former Trinity Church that once stood in the area, is a slight misnomer in that it dates from just three decades ago. Built between 1982 and 1985 on the site of a former settlement dating from the 12th century, Trinity does at least offer a break from the sprawling concrete of the city centre. The birthplace of the Belarusian poet and journalist Maxim Bogdanovich, the area boasts a number of decent restaurants and bars, making it worth having a look round, especially during the summer.
1.3. Mirsky castle
1.3.1. The Mirsky Castle Complex (Belarusian: Мірскі замак), is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Belarus located in the town of Mir in the Karelichy District of the Hrodna voblast, at 29 km to the north-west from another World Heritage site, Nesvizh Castle. The construction of the castle began at the end of the 15th century, in the Gothic architecture style. Building of the castle was completed by Duke Ilinich in the early 16th century near village Mir (formerly of Minsk guberniya). Around 1568 the Mir Castle passed into the hands of Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł, who finished building the castle in the Renaissance style. A three-storey palace was built along the eastern and northern walls of the castle. Plastered facades were decorated with limestone portals, plates, balconies and porches. Drawing by Napoleon Orda, 1876 After being abandoned for nearly a century and suffering severe damage during the Napoleonic period, the castle was restored at the end of the 19th century. In 1813, after the death of Dominik Hieronim Radziwiłł, the castle passed into the hands of his daughter Stefania, who married Ludwig zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. The castle later fell into the hands of their daughter Maria, who married Prince Chlodwig Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst. View from the courtyard Their son, Maurice Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst sold the castle to Nikolai Sviatopolk-Mirski, of the Bialynia clan, in 1895. Nikolaj's son Michail began to rebuild the castle according to the plans of architect Teodor Bursze. The Sviatopolk-Mirski family owned the castle up to 1939. During World War II, it came under the dominion of the Nazi occupying force and served as a ghetto for the local Jewish population prior to their liquidation. Between 1944 and 1956, the castle was used as a housing facility, which partially damaged the castle's interior.
1.4. Nemiga street
1.4.1. Nemiga street in central Minsk. Minsk is one of the least visited capitals of Europe among western tourists, which probably makes it more fun to go here. At the same time Minsk is a city that is really beatifull, both during summer when it houses a lot of nice street cafes and during the other three seasons. Winter may not be the best time of the year to visit Minsk but it’s one of the times when the city is considered to most beatifull, with a fabulous lighting. Nice lightning in central Minks. Those interested in culture may look forward to see ballet and opera performances of a very high class in Minsk. In addition to that Minsk has a lot of nice restaurants, pubs and nightclubs. In this travel guide you may read about attractions, restaurants, night life, shopping, accommodation and a lot of other interesting things. There is also a information on how to get to Minsk, Belarusian visas and other information that may be valuable when you want to visit Minsk
1.5. Lida castle
1.5.1. Lida Castle was one of several citadels erected by Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania in the early 14th century to defend his lands against the expansion of the Teutonic Knights. Other links in this chain of defense included Hrodna, Navahrudak, Kreva, Medininkai, and Trakai. The modern town of Lida, Belarus grew up around this castle. The site selected for the castle is naturally defended by the Kamenka and Lida rivers to east and west. Construction of boulder walls was carried out in 1323, 1324, and 1325. Later they were faced with red brick. The castle had two angle towers and a church, which was moved outside the walls in 1533. The upper storeys of both towers were lived in. Despite its strong fortifications, Lida was taken by the Teutonic Knights on several occasions (1384, 1392). Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas gave it to his ally, Khan Tokhtamysh, who settled "in a yurt near the castle".[1] In 1406, the family of Yury of Smolensk was locked up in Lida as hostages; his attempt to take the castle and liberate them was not successful. In 1433, Lida was a point of contention between Švitrigaila and his cousin Sigismund Kęstutaitis. The following decades were somewhat less stormy. Lida was ravaged by the Crimean Tatars in 1506 and it was stormed by the Russians during the Russo-Polish War in 1659. The Swedes, taking it twice during the Great Northern War, had both towers blown up. In 1794, the castle grounds were the site of a battle between Kościuszko's followers and the Russians. After the city fire of 1891, the south-western tower and parts of the western wall of the castle were torn down to provide stone for repairing fire-damaged houses. A team of archaeologists from St. Petersburg intervened to halt vandalism. There was only a slight restoration of the walls in the 1920s. During much of the 20th century, an itinerant zoo or circus occupied the castle compound. Every December a Christmas tree was placed within the walls. It was not until 1982 that a restoration campaign was launched. The red brick was used to denote the newly reconstructed sections (up to 12 meters in height). Significant restoration was held in 2010. Each year, the Lida Castle hosts a medieval-style tournament. A museum is being created within its towers.
1.6. Church of Saints Simeon and Helena
1.6.1. Church of Saints Simon and Helen also known as the Red Church is a Roman Catholic church on Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus. This neo-Romanesque church was designed by polish architects Tomasz Pajzderski and Władysław Marconi, and built during 1905-1910. The bricks for its walls were sourced from Częstochowa, whilst the roof tiles came from Włocławek. Its construction was financed by Edward Woyniłłowicz, a prominent Belarusian civic activist. The church was named and consecrated in memory of Woyniłłowicz's deceased children, Szymon and Helena. In 1903, about 2,000 Minsk's Catholics wrote a petition to local authorities asking for a site to start building new catholic church. This request was satisfied, and construction started in 1905. The church was consecrated on September 20, 1910. On December 21, 1910, the church was opened. In 1923, the church was robbed by the Red Army and in 1932 it was closed down by the Soviet authorities and transferred to the State Polish Theatre of the BSSR. Before the Second World War, the church was rebuilt into a cinema. In 1941, the German occupation administration returned to building to its original use as a church, but after the war it was again used as a cinema, called the "Soviet Belarus." In 1990, the building was returned to the Catholic Church. Since then it was renovated, and became an important centre of religious, cultural and social life. It also became a centre for the revived Belarusian Greek Catholic Church. In 2006, Edward Woyniłowicz, the church's donator who died in 1928 in Bydgoszcz, Poland, was reburied here.
2. Travel in London
2.1. Narrow Street
2.1.1. combination of tides and currents made this point on the Thames a natural landfall for ships, the first wharf being completed in 1348. Lime kilns or 'Lymehostes' used in the production of mortar and pottery were built at this location in the fourteenth century. The area grew rapidly in Elizabethan times as a centre for world trade and by the reign of James I nearly half of the area's 2,000 population were mariners. The area supplied ships with ropes and other necessities; pottery was also made here for the ships. Ship chandlers settled here building wooden houses and wharves in the cramped space between street and river, indeed Narrow Street may take its name from the closeness of the original buildings, now demolished, which stood barely a few metres apart on each side of the street. The Limehouse Bridge Dock was established in 1766, for barges and small ships to access the Limehouse Cut, which led to the Lee Navigation. Limehouse Basin was built in 1820, to transship imported goods to barges on the Regent's Canal. The two were linked in the early 19th century, and the lock from the Cut to the river, filled in. In 1661, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary of a visit to a porcelain factory in Narrow Street alighting via Duke Shore Stairs[1][2] while en route to view work on boats being built for Herring fishing. The Limehouse area fitted out, repaired and resupplied ships. In 1772, Smith & Sykes ran a sugar house a small factory that baked and refined sugar.[3] In 1823, Taylor Walker & Co Ltd started brewing at the site of today's pub The Narrow formerly The Barley Mow. Limehouse Cut was redirected into Limehouse Basin was one of the first docks to close in the late 1960s. Nicholas Hawksmoors' Church St Anne's Limehouse was designated a conservation area by the London Docklands Development Corporation in the 1980s. For much of the 20th century the area was dominated by the tall chimney of Stepney Power Station at Blyth Wharf, which has since been demolished. Access to the area was always difficult, with the dock standing to the north, and the entrance to the Rotherhithe Tunnel at one end. In 1993 the 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) Limehouse Link tunnel was completed; further restricting traffic to the riverside area. The Narrow Street Swing Bridge is sited between the Limehouse Basin Lock and the Thames.
2.1.1.1. Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in west London, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner. The park was the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton. The park has become a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the Suffragettes and the Stop The War Coalition have all held protests in the park. Many protesters on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park. On 20 July 1982 in the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings, two bombs linked to the Provisional Irish Republican Army caused the death of eight members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets and seven horses. The park is divided in two by the Serpentine and the Long Water. The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens; although often still assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been technically separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline made a division between the two. Hyde Park covers 142 hectares (350 acres)[2] and Kensington Gardens covers 111 hectares (275 acre),[3] giving an overall area of 253 hectares (625 acres), making the combined area larger than the Principality of Monaco (196 hectares or 480 acres), though smaller than New York City's Central Park (341 hectares or 840 acres) and Dublin's Phoenix park 707 hectares (1,750 acres). To the southeast, outside the park, is Hyde Park Corner. Although, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, Kensington Gardens closes at dusk but Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 am until midnight. Hyde Park is the largest of four parks which form a chain from the entrance of Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Park (19 hectares), past the main entrance to Buckingham Palace and then on through Saint James's Park (23 hectares) to Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall.
2.2. Hyde Park
2.3. Big Ben and the houses of parliament
2.3.1. The Elizabeth Tower , named in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II in her Diamond Jubilee year,[7] more popularly known as Big Ben,[5] was raised as a part of Charles Barry's design for a new palace, after the old Palace of Westminster was largely destroyed by fire on the night of 16 October 1834.[8][9] The new Parliament was built in a Neo-gothic style. Although Barry was the chief architect of the Palace, he turned to Augustus Pugin for the design of the clock tower, which resembles earlier Pugin designs, including one for Scarisbrick Hall. The design for the tower was Pugin's last design before his final descent into madness and death, and Pugin himself wrote, at the time of Barry's last visit to him to collect the drawings: "I never worked so hard in my life for Mr Barry for tomorrow I render all the designs for finishing his bell tower & it is beautiful."[10] The tower is designed in Pugin's celebrated Gothic Revival style, and is 315 feet (96.0 m) high (roughly 16 storeys).[11] The bottom 200 feet (61.0 m) of the tower's structure consists of brickwork with sand coloured Anston limestone cladding. The remainder of the tower's height is a framed spire of cast iron. The tower is founded on a 50 feet (15.2 m) square raft, made of 10 feet (3.0 m) thick concrete, at a depth of 13 feet (4.0 m) below ground level. The four clock dials are 180 feet (54.9 m) above ground. The interior volume of the tower is 164,200 cubic feet (4,650 cubic metres). Despite being one of the world's most famous tourist attractions, the interior of the tower is not open to overseas visitors, though United Kingdom residents are able to arrange tours (well in advance) through their Member of Parliament.[12] However, the tower has no lift, so those escorted must climb the 334 limestone stairs to the top.[11] Due to changes in ground conditions since construction, the tower leans slightly to the north-west, by roughly 230 millimetres (9.1 in) over 55 m height, giving an inclination of approximately 1/240. This includes a planned maximum of 22 mm increased tilt due to tunnelling for the Jubilee Line extension)[13] Due to thermal effects it oscillates annually by a few millimetres east and west. Journalists during Queen Victoria's reign called it St Stephen's Tower. As MPs originally sat at St Stephen's Hall, these journalists referred to anything related to the House of Commons as news from "St Stephens" (There is a feature called St Stephen's Tower in the Palace of Westminster. It is a smaller tower over the public entrance to the Houses of Parliament).[14] On 2 June 2012, The Daily Telegraph reported that 331 Members of Parliament, including senior members of all three main parties, supported a proposal to change the name from Clock Tower to "Elizabeth Tower" in tribute to the Queen in her Diamond Jubilee year. This is thought to be appropriate because the large west tower now known as Victoria Tower was renamed in tribute to Queen Victoria on her Diamond Jubilee.[15] On 26 June, the House of Commons confirmed that the name change could go ahead.[7] The Prime Minister, David Cameron, announced the change of name on 12 September 2012, at the start of Prime minister's questions.[16] The change was marked by a naming ceremony in which the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, unveiled a name plaque attached to the tower on Speaker's Green.[17]
2.4. Buckingham palace
2.4.1. Buckingham Palace has served as the official London residence of Britain's sovereigns since 1837 and today is the administrative headquarters of the Monarch. Although in use for the many official events and receptions held by The Queen, the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace are open to visitors every year. For visitor information, please visit the Royal Collection website. Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms. These include 19 State rooms, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms. In measurements, the building is 108 metres long across the front, 120 metres deep (including the central quadrangle) and 24 metres high. The Palace is very much a working building and the centrepiece of Britain's constitutional monarchy. It houses the offices of those who support the day-to-day activities and duties of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh and their immediate family. The Palace is also the venue for great Royal ceremonies, State Visits and Investitures, all of which are organised by the Royal Household. Although Buckingham Palace is furnished and decorated with priceless works of art that form part of the Royal Collection, one of the major art collections in the world today. It is not an art gallery and nor is it a museum. Its State Rooms form the nucleus of the working Palace and are used regularly by The Queen and members of the Royal Family for official and State entertaining. More than 50,000 people visit the Palace each year as guests to banquets, lunches, dinners, receptions and the Royal Garden Parties. For those who do receive an invitation to Buckingham Palace, the first step across the threshold is into the Grand Hall and up the curving marble stairs of the Grand Staircase. Portraits are still set in the walls, as they were by Queen Victoria. The Throne Room, sometimes used during Queen Victoria's reign for Court gatherings and as a second dancing room, is dominated by a proscenium arch supported by a pair of winged figures of 'victory' holding garlands above the 'chairs of state'. It is in the Throne Room that The Queen, on very special occasions like Jubilees, receives loyal addresses. Another use of the Throne Room has been for formal wedding photographs. George IV's original palace lacked a large room in which to entertain. Queen Victoria rectified that shortcoming by adding in 1853-5 what was, at the time of its construction, the largest room in London. At 36.6m long, 18m wide and 13.5m high, the Ballroom is the largest multi-purpose room in Buckingham Palace. It was opened in 1856 with a ball to celebrate the end of the Crimean War. It is along the East Gallery that The Queen and her State guests process to the Ballroom for the State Banquet normally held on the first day of the visit. Around 150 guests are invited and include members of the Royal Family, the government and other political leaders, High Commissioners and Ambassadors and prominent people who have trade or other associations with the visiting country. Today, it is used by The Queen for State banquets and other formal occasions such as the annual Diplomatic Reception attended by 1,500 guests. This is a very formal occasion during which The Queen will meet every head of mission accredited to the Court of St James's. For the diplomats it is perhaps the highlight of the annual diplomatic social calendar. The Ballroom has been used variously as a concert hall for memorial concerts and performances of the arts and it is the regular venue for Investitures of which there are usually 21 a year - nine in spring, two in the summer and ten in the autumn. At Investitures, The Queen (or The Prince of Wales as Her Majesty's representative) will meet recipients of British honours and give them their awards, including knighting those who have been awarded knighthoods. From the Ballroom, the West Gallery, with its four Gobelin tapestries, leads into the first of the great rooms that overlook lawn and the formal gardens - setting for the annual Garden Parties introduced by Queen Victoria in 1868. The State Dining Room is one of the principal State Rooms on the West side of the Palace. Many distinguished people have dined in this room including the 24 holders of the Order of Merit as well as presidents and prime ministers. Before the Ballroom was added to the Palace in the 1850s, the first State Ball was held in the Blue Drawing Room in May 1838 as part of the celebrations leading up to Queen Victoria's Coronation. The Music Room was originally known as the Bow Drawing Room and is the centre of the suite of rooms on the Garden Front between the Blue and the White Drawing Rooms. Four Royal babies - The Prince of Wales, The Princess Royal, The Duke of York and Prince William - were all christened by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Music Room. One of its more formal uses is during a State Visit when guests are presented to The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and the visiting Head of State or for receptions. The last of the suite of rooms overlooking the gardens on the principal floor is the White Drawing Room. Originally called the North Drawing Room, it is perhaps the grandest of all the State Rooms. The Room also serves as a Royal reception room for The Queen and members of the Royal Family to gather before State and official occasions. The Bow Room is familiar to the many thousands of guests to Royal Garden Parties who pass through it on their way to the garden. It was originally intended as a part of George IV's private apartments - to be the King's Library - but it was never fitted up as such. Instead, it has become another room for entertaining and is where The Queen holds the arrival lunch for a visiting Head of State at the start of a State visit.
2.5. Trafalgar square
2.5.1. Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, built around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. It is situated in the borough of the City of Westminster. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of commemorative statues and sculptures in the square, while one plinth, left empty since it was built in 1840, The Fourth Plinth, has been host to contemporary art since 1999. The square is also used for political demonstrations and community gatherings, such as the celebration of New Year's Eve. The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars over France which took place on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar in Los Canos de Meca, a town in the municipality of Vejer de la Frontera (in the municipality of Barbate since 1940), Cadiz, Spain. The original name was to have been "King William the Fourth's Square", but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name "Trafalgar Square".[1] In the 1820s George IV engaged the architect John Nash to redevelop the area. Nash cleared the square as part of his Charing Cross Improvement Scheme. The present architecture of the square is due to Sir Charles Barry and was completed in 1845. Trafalgar Square is owned by the Queen in Right of the Crown and managed by the Greater London Authority, while Westminster City Council owns the roads around the square, including the pedestrianised area of the North Terrace
2.6. Madame Tussauds museum
2.6.1. Madame Tussaudsthe family themselves pronounce it is a wax museum in London with branches in a number of major cities. It was founded by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud and was formerly known as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer used.[2][3] Madame Tussauds is a major tourist attraction in London, displaying waxworks of historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars and infamous murderers. Madame Tussauds is owned and operated by Merlin Entertainments.
2.6.2. Marie Tussaud was born as Marie Grosholtz in 1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius in Bern, Switzerland, who was a physician skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling. Tussaud created her first wax figure, of Voltaire, in 1777.[4] Other famous people she modelled at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the French Revolution she modelled many prominent victims. In her memoirs she claims that she would search through corpses to find the severed heads of executed citizens, from which she would make death masks. Her death masks were held up as revolutionary flags and paraded through the streets of Paris. Following the doctor's death in 1794, she inherited his vast collection of wax models and spent the next 33 years travelling around Europe. Her marriage to Francois Tussaud in 1795 lent a new name to the show: Madame Tussaud's. In 1802 she went to London, having accepted an invitation from Paul Philidor, a magic lantern and phantasmagoria pioneer, to exhibit her work alongside his show at the Lyceum Theatre, London. She did not fare particularly well financially, with Philidor taking half of her profits. As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, she was unable to return to France, so she traveled throughout Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. From 1831 she took a series of short leases on the upper floor of "Baker Street Bazaar" (on the west side of Baker Street, Dorset Street and King Street),[5] which later featured in the Druce-Portland case sequence of trials of 1898–1907. This became Tussaud's first permanent home in 1836.[6] One of the main attractions of her museum was the Chamber of Horrors Madame Tussauds indoor on Baker St By 1835 Marie had settled down in Baker Street, London, and opened a museum.[7] This part of the exhibition included victims of the French Revolution and newly created figures of murderers and other criminals. The name is often credited to a contributor to Punch in 1845, but Marie appears to have originated it herself, using it in advertising as early as 1843.[8] Other famous people were added to the exhibition, including Horatio Nelson, and Sir Walter Scott. Some of the sculptures done by Marie Tussaud herself still exist. The gallery originally contained some 400 different figures, but fire damage in 1925, coupled with German bombs in 1941, has rendered most of these older models defunct. The casts themselves have survived (allowing the historical waxworks to be remade), and these can be seen in the museum's history exhibit. The oldest figure on display is that of Madame du Barry. Other faces from the time of Tussaud include Robespierre and George III. In 1842, she made a self portrait which is now on display at the entrance of her museum. She died in her sleep on 15 April 1850. By 1883 the restricted space and rising cost of the Baker Street site prompted her grandson (Joseph Randall) to commission the building at its current location on Marylebone Road. The new exhibition galleries were opened on 14 July 1884 and were a great success.[9] However, the building costs, falling so soon after buying out his cousin Louisa's half share in the business in 1881, meant the business was under-funded. A limited company was formed in 1888 to attract fresh capital but had to be dissolved after disagreements between the family shareholders, and in February 1889 Tussaud's was sold to a group of businessmen led by Edwin Josiah Poyser.[10] Edward White, an artist dismissed by the new owners to save money, allegedly sent a parcel bomb to John Theodore Tussaud in June 1889 in revenge.[11] The first sculpture of a young Winston Churchill was made in 1908, with a total of ten made since.[12] Entry of Madame Tussauds in Berlin Madame Tussauds in New York City opened in 2000 The museum opened in Washington, D.C. in 2007 Madame Tussaud's wax museum has now grown to become a major tourist attraction in London, incorporating (until 2010) the London Planetarium in its west wing. It has expanded and will expand with branches in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Berlin, Blackpool, Hollywood, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, New York City, Shanghai, Sydney, Vienna and Washington, D.C. Busan (China) with locations coming to Beijing, Prague, Singapore, Orlando and San Francisco. Today's wax figures at Tussauds include historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars and famous murderers. Known as "Madame Tussauds" museums (no apostrophe), they are owned by a leisure company called Merlin Entertainments, following the acquisition of The Tussauds Group in May 2007. In July 2008, Madame Tussauds' Berlin branch became embroiled in controversy when a 41-year-old German man brushed past two guards and decapitated a wax figure depicting Adolf Hitler. This was believed to be an act of protest against showing the ruthless dictator alongside sports heroes, movie stars, and other historical figures. However, the statue has since been repaired and the perpetrator has admitted he attacked the statue to win a bet.[13] The original model of Hitler, unveiled in Madame Tussauds London in April 1933 was frequently vandalised and a replacement in 1936 had to be carefully guarded.[14][15]
3. Travel in Bulgarian
3.1. Church of Saints Peter and Paul
3.1.1. The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is a medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church in the city of Veliko Tarnovo in central northern Bulgaria, the former capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The 13th-century church lies at the foot of the Tsarevets hill's northern slopes and was reconstructed in 1981. The church is dedicated to the Christian Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It follows the cross-domed design and has a single apse. The cella is divided into three naves by two rows of columns. The columns' capitals are decorated with plastic carving and tracery. The church has a high, massive iconostasis. According to the 14th-century account of Patriarch Evtimiy, the church and the surrounding monastery were built on the order of Tsar Ivan Asen II's (ruled 1218–1241) wife Anna. After the Fall of Tarnovo to the Ottomans in 1393, the church may have become the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate for a brief period. It continued to be a metropolitan bishop's residence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople during the Ottoman rule. The bishop Hilarion of Crete was buried there and his tombstone has been preserved. Three layers of frescoes inside the church have been preserved to this day. The earliest layer consists of three images of the martyrs of Edessa in the western arch dating to the mid-13th century. The second layer is the images in the narthex; it is stylistically influenced by the Italo-Cretan school from the time of the Council of Florence in the 1430s. The local bishop Ignatius took part in the council and may have propagated the idea of ecumenism. The inscriptions of the second layer are in Bulgarian and Greek. The latest layer of frescoes is that of the images in the southern gallery from the 16th century.