Krusedol Monastery in Fruska Gora

Photo link

Fruska Gora, the only mound of the otherwise flat Vojvodina (Pannonian Plain) has been the center of Serbian-orthodox spirituality for centuries. In an area of 50kn lenght and 10km width there are 16 monasteries built in the late Middle Age (even if legends tells that some of them were found as early as the 12th century) when Serbian culture was moving northward in response to the Ottoman onslaught. 
The monasteries were built in the style of the Moravian School and the first founders of the monasteries were the despots of the House of Brankovici (descendands of medieval rulers of the House of Nemanjic). In the 18th century many of the monasteries were rebuilt in Baroque Style, getting tall bell towers and intricate Baroque iconostases.
During WW II the monasteries suffered severe damage by the hands of the Ustashas and many valuable objects were taken. Today some of them active and are renovated, others are undergoing renovation and other are left as they are and no monks live there anymore.

photo link

In this post I'd like to show some pictures of the best-known of them, located 13km of Sremski Karlovci, it's the Krusedol Monastery (Манастир Крушедол) and is known as the mausoleum of some famous Serbs.

photo from pravoslavlje.nl

The monastery church is dedicated to the Annunciation and was errected 1504-1514 and is a good example of Moravian Style (however Baroque details were added later).

The monastery was founded between 1509 and 1516, by Bishop Maksim and his mother, Angelina Brankovic (the daughter of Orthodox Christian Prince of Albania, Skanderbeg) who were supported by Walachian Duke Jovan Njagoja Basaraba. During the final retreat of the Turks from Srem, in 1716, the monastery was damaged and the church burnt down. 

The renovation started in 1721, and was completed in the late 1760s. In 1726, a baroque bell-tower was added on to the West wing of the monks' quarters and between 1742 and 1750, the church underwent certain adaptations which did not significantly change its general original appearance. The monks' quartets were reconstructed and expanded in the same period. 

photo link

The church was originally decorated with fresco paintings in the 16th century. Its interior was covered with new oil wall paintings between 1750 and 1756, done by Ukranian painter Jov Vasilijevic and Stefan Tenecki.

  

photo link

On the West facade, there is a composition of the "Last judgment" from the end of the 17th century. The iconostasis consists of icons from between 16th and 19th century and the Deesis (from early 1500) is a beautiful example of byzantine icons.

The church is also the tomb of the Brankovic Family as well as Patriarchs Arsenije III and Arsenije IV and several members of the Obrenovic dynasty - Pricess Ljubica and King Milan.

Today Krusedol is a working woman's monastery.

Links:

Pictures of the monastery on panoramio

A description on Bill's blog with great pictures

Socanica Monastery in Kosovo and Metohija

 

In the northern part of Kosovo and Metohija, not far from the way from Raska to Kosovoska Mitrovica lays the peaceful monastery Socanica.

 the bell tower and the church

The entrance of the church

There aren’t hardly written things about the beginning of this monastery, only from a grave we know that around 1643 a priest Stefan was burried here and it looks that it then already was a monastery. The baptistery was build in 1862 on the bottom of the old distroyed church which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

 the candleholder outside the church

It’s not know when that church was build or when the Turks destroyed it, there are only signs that a lot of people always brought Slava cakes and hold gatherings, and confirm so an interrupted veneration of the church over the entire time.

the guesthouse (конак)

A story says, that a municipal forest ranger and member of the Socanica community and also patron and builder of the todays temple was Cirko Terzic of Brzanca. 

 From some writings it’s also known that the temple was build bigger than the Turks would have alowded so that the members of the church council had to stay in prison for an entire year and Cirko Terzic, seen as the responsible for that was killed.

The monks that live today in the monastery keep the entire monastery going and here I would like to share a couple of pictures from my visit at the monastery. 

 

We had coffee, juice, selfmade cakes (by the monks) and rakija on the terasse of the guesthouse in a very pleasant atmosphere and we had a very nice talk with the monks that have become good friends of my friends in Zvecan.

What fascinated me a lot is the long table in the garden. It can seat 130 - 140 people and it's located under trees with view to the valley.
The monastery has a beautiful website (in serbian) here: www.manastirsocanica.com

Skopje and my favorite buildings

I've never been to Skopje so far, but I'll definitely want to visit the city at the Vardar river, because some of the most exiting building built in the former Yugolsavia are in Skopje and I want to see them live. So far I collected their pictures and want to share them here, just to let you know that this fantastic buildings exist!

The earthquake of 1963  that destroyed most of the building in the center and along the Vardar river and the communist regime in the 60's created a unique environment to create some very special projects.

The main post office 

 

 The insect like concrete building of the Glavna Posta (Central Post Office) at Orce Nikolov bb (Photo from wikipedia)

The architect was Janko Konstantinov (born in 1926) who worked also for some time in Alvar Aalto's firm in Finnland. After the earthquake he returned to Skopje with the intention to help to built the city again.

This project of the main post office was realized in 3 stages (1974, 1982 and 1989).

 

In 1974 the big soviet style concrete block with the tower was built. The tower was inspired by the towers of the old fortress across the river.

Then followed the second stage in 1982 when the a "futuristic insect with upturned legs" building with the main public area was erected. It's a purely abstract creation also in reinforced concrete.

In the main hall there are some communist style murals in bright colors made by Borko Lazeski (1917-1993).

 

picture from vlatko at  build.mk

Macedonian Telecomunication Building

pictures xerius at pbase

This concrete building is next to the Main Post Office.

 "Goce Delcev" student dormitories 

This huge dorms are a project from 1975 and are part of the urban concepts for Skopje after the earthquake. The architect was Georgi Konstantinovski. Here the Master Plan for the Reconstruction of Skopje's City Centre, the 1st place in the 1966 competition made by Kenzo Tange. 

It's probably a good thing that the project was never accomplished. Just the idea of making a belt of high-rise buildings around the city was made.

Parts of the facade of Konstantinovski's work.

(Both b/w pictures by Maren Harnack, architect,

urbanist and asistent at HCU Hamburg)

This facades show the ample use of raw concrete (beton brut) and also how the human-scale gets lost as you look at this enormous blocks. It was the socialist city concept...

 

The Student's Dormitory "Goce Delčev" (picture from macedonian boy)

Nikola Karev Highschool

(picture by Maren Harnack, architect,

urbanist and asistent at HCU Hamburg)

Another work of Janko Konstantinov is the Nikola Karev high school building from 1968. Also here an example on how Konstantinov uses raw concrete in a sculptural way, though the building is not as wild as the Post Main Office.

 

(picture by mardar at panoramio)

News Publishing Agency "Nova Makedonija" building

(picture by Ратко Мирчески)

(picture by bogoevski)

This is the building of the former News Publishing Agency "Nova Makedonija". It is a 15 storey building even if because of the shifted floors it doesn't look that high (it reminds me of the rudo building principle). Since summer 2009 the building now serves as a home for some of the Ministries of FYROM.

The Macedonian National Radio and Television building 

picture from skyscrapercity

picture xerius at pbase

St. Kliment Cathedral 

Built in 1972, the Orthodox church in one of few in the world to be designed in modern contemporary architecture. After Virgin Mary Cathedral was burned by the fascists on the end of WWII, and St. Dimitrie church was unable to meet the needs of the people, building of the new cathedral started in 1970. 

   

The main Macedonian orthodox cathedral church was consecrated in 1990, on the 1150th anniversary of the birth of the church patron, St. Clement of Ohrid.

The architect is Slavko Brezovski, and it is a bold and contemporary interpretation of Orthodox architecture.
The iconostasis icons were painted by Gjorgi Danevski and Spase Spirovski and the frescoes were painted by the academic painter Jovan Petrov and his collaborators. The Jesus Pantocrator fresco painted in the main dome covers area of 70 meters squared and just his eye is 1,5 meters long.




Republicki Hidro Meteoroloshki Zavod

Crowning a hill along  the road to old Skupi the State Hydrometeorological Institute building, projected in 1975 by Krsto Todorovski is a weird constellation of concrete pillars and slabs.

by geocenik at panoramio

Of course Skopje is much more than a few terrific concrete building. Here a couple of good links to read more about the city:

In your pocket free downloadable guide: http://www.inyourpocket.com/data/download/skopje.pdf

The book (in italian) I'm going to read before visiting Skopje:

Biljana Petrova (a Skopje based writer) Sogno di Skopje

http://cahierdiviaggio.blogspot.com/2010/01/sogno-di-skopje-il-primo-petit-cahier.html

Wikitravel guide to  Skopje (english)

http://wikitravel.org/en/Skopje

Brankov Bridge in Belgrade

Illuminated Brankov Bridge

Belgrade has a huge problem!

The capital of the Republic of Serbia with 17 districts and 1.6 Mio habitants situated at the confluence of two major rivers (Danube and Sava) has just two major bridges (Gazela and Brankov Bridge) to connect the city to the surrounding and to swallov the huge traffic that crosses the country (Belgrade lays on the north-south corridor that connects Western Europe with Turkey and Greece) and this two bridges are cronically congested! (this is expected to be alleviated by the construction of a bypass connecting the E70 and E75 highways).

(The title foto is from www.tt-group.net)

One of this two bridges, the Brankov Bridge (Бранков мост) has became a landmark in the panorama of Belgrade. It connects basically the city center with New Belgrade.

Kralj Aleksandar I  Bridge (how the bridge

was called until it was destroyed in 1941)

with serbo-byzantine decorated pylons

 

The old bridge but looking on the other direction

The bridge was rebuilt in 1957 after it had been destroyed in 1941 (WW II) replacing the former King Aleksandar I from 1934.

Brankov Bridge in the 60’s 

as it was still a single span bridge

(picture from http://www.staribeograd.com)

Novi Beograd was in the beginning (in the background the USCE-tower).

The lower part of the bridge from the New Belgrade side. 

In the night it's illuminated and give a nice look 
like you see in the title picture

(picture from panoramio map of the bridge)

The bridge actually uses lower parts of the former bridge's pylons (decorated by Ivan Meštrović in Serbo-Byzantine style) as outer constraints for its two secondary spans.

 Crossing the bridge there is a beautiful view

to the old city with the Saborna Church (here a post I made)

another landmark of Belgrade

 

On one side the view goes to the city with St.Sava Temple

 

Looking toward Brankova Street, the entrance to the city center

During communist times the bridge was named "Brotherhood and unity bridge" (Most bratstva i jedinstva) but the name was not widely used.
It found the name Brankov Bridge named after Branko Radicevic a  Serbian romanticist poet. There is a monument erected facing the sava River and it’s a work od the sculptor Aleksandar Zarin.
Gospodska Street, where he lived was renamed for him into Brankova. So the bridge now connects Brankova (near Terazije) and Mihajla Pupina Bulevar (in New Belgrade).

Modernist architecture in Havana (Cuba) - 2-

 Someillan Building

This sleek highrise building (32 floors)  was built in 1951 by the designs of Fernando R. Castro Cardenas and the structural designs by Jose A. Vila Espinosa.

This a typical floor plan

How the boardwalk near Someillan Building looked in the past.
The floor plan and the last picture are from www.arquitectura-cuba.blogspot.com (a very nice blog with lots of informations)

Plaza de la revolucion

This square (that is one of the biggest of the world) was begun in 1952 under Fulgencio Batista's presidency and was completed in 1959, the year that Fidel Castro came to power. Fidel Castro used to have his speeches from here when he was addressing the Cuban population in special occasions.
The square is dominated by the 109m high José Martí Memorial.
The square may be big, but from the urbanistic view it's rather questionable, even if surrounded by really interesting buildings, the layout doesn't work. Take a look at the link below:

http://www.360cities.net/image/plaza-de-la-revolucion-havana-cuba


Ministry of Communication

Many government ministries and other buildings are located in and around the Plaza.
The Ministry of State (now Ministry of Informatics and Communications) building (from 1951 - 54 designed by Ernesto Gomez Sampera and Martin Dominguez ) with the big steel outlines of Camilo Cienfuegos (it was made in October 2009 in honor of 50th anniversary of his death). Accompanying the stencil facade are the words "Vas bien, Fidel (You’re doing fine, Fidel), representing the famous response of Camilo to Fidel at the January 8, 1959 rally where Castro declared that the Columbia military barracks would be made into a school, and then asked Camilo, "Am I doing all right, Camilo?"

 

 today and below in the past

Directly across the Plaza de la Revolución from the José Martí Memorial stands the Ministerio del Interior building (from 1958) instantly recognizable by the enormous bronze wire sculpture of Che Guevara on the facade, which was completed in 1995.

This sculpture was based on the famous photograph of Che taken by Alberto Korda. The words which appear below Che’s image, “Hasta la Victoria Siempre” mean “Ever Onward to Victory” and were the signature in Che’s final letter to Fidel Castro before he was killed in Bolivia.