Quando il Redentore Visito’ l’Inghilterra

Posted on March 31, 2018 by Francis

Il centro della Sacralità in Inghilterra: qui, dove lo zio di Gesù, Giuseppe di Arimatea, portò il nipote nei suoi viaggi alle miniere di stagno della Cornovaglia per far commercio durante gli ‘anni perduti’ del Redentore dopo che il Cristo aveva lasciato la bottega del babbo falegname ma prima di iniziare la Sua missione tra gli uomini.

Qui, dove lo zio di Arimatea mostrò al Cristo il megalitico cerchio di pietre di Stonehenge, dove lo accompagnò a visitare i preti Druidi del Galles con la loro antica sapienza celtica.

Lo stesso Giuseppe di Arimatea che, deposto il corpo di Gesù dalla Croce, lo avvolse di una tela bianca con erbe e profumi e lo mise in una tomba appena scavata che doveva servire per sé stesso.

Lo stesso Giuseppe di Arimatea che, preso una spina dalla corona messa sulla testa del Salvatore in Croce, la portò nel paese dove era andato assieme col nipote e la pianto’ dove ora cresce la biflora crataegus monogyna, una specie di biancospino che fiorisce nelle tenebre dell’inverno, quando un fiore viene mandato per tradizione alla Regina, e di nuovo nella primavera.

Qui, dove l’abbazia più grande, più bella e ricca della nazione fu fondata e ora resta in malinconiche rovine dopo la dissoluzione dei monasteri.

Qui, dove, in cima ad una collina antica come il tempo, una torre rimane della più vecchia chiesa esterna della Cristianità mentre i fedeli di Roma dovevano ancora rifugiarsi nelle catacombe.

Qui dove venne sepolto il re Artù e sua moglie Ginevra.

Qui dove il poeta William Blake scrisse:

“E quei piedi nei tempi antichi
percorsero l’Inghilterra dai verdi monti?

E fu visto il sacro Agnello di Dio
sugli ameni pascoli d’Inghilterra?
E quel suo Volto Divino
splendere sulle nostre nuvolose colline?
E fu Gerusalemme costruita qui..?

Portatemi il mio arco d’oro ardente,
Portatemi le mie frecce di desiderio,
Portatemi la mia lancia: oh nuvole, apritevi!
Portatemi il mio carro di fuoco!
Non cessero’ la battaglia mentale
E né la spada mi dormirà in mano,
Finché non avremo costruito Gerusalemme
nella verde e piacevole terra d’Inghilterra.”

E qui, mentre un vento burrascoso ci circondava, sul monte mistico di Glastonbury Tor, abbiamo passato la vigilia del venerdì Santo.

La Sua presenza

si sente nel fruscio del vento:

fiore del tempo.

Il Foro Romano di Londra

Posted on March 24, 2018 by Francis

Dolci vizi al foro? No, non sto parlando del film, meglio conosciuto dagli inglesi come ‘A funny thing happened on the way to the forum’, basato sulle commedie brillanti di Plauto e musicato da Stephen Sondheim negli anni sessanta.

Parlo, invece, del foro romano di Londra che abbiamo visitato questo mese nel sotterraneo di un parrucchiere.

Un’altra commedia brillante? Assolutamente no, poiché affianco, dove i clienti, donne e uomini, sono fatti più belli da una brava troupe di acconciatori, esistono proprio i rimasti del foro Romano di Londra che, quasi due mila anni fa, fu l’edificio più grande dell’impero nord delle alpi, a dimostrazione dell’importanza di Londra come uno dei maggiori centri Cesarei.

Originariamente costruito nell’AD 70 e poi ampliato nell’AD 90 – 120, il foro romano con la sua basilica occupava quasi due ettari di terreno e aveva un’altezza fino a tre piani. Infatti, questo edificio era più grande dell’attuale Cattedrale di San Paolo!

Ecco una ricostruzione della basilica e il forum com’erano nell’anno 120 dopo Cristo.

reconstruction

L’enorme piazza all’aperto fungeva da luogo d’incontro pubblico e ospitava molti negozi e bancarelle. Era il centro social di Londinium, un po’ come lo è Piccadilly circus oggi.

Non pensate, però, di vedere eleganti colonne stile Corinto, grandiose basiliche, statue dei Cesari o imponenti archi trionfali. Invece tutto quello potrete vedere è questo….. un sasso:

Sebbene alcune parti del forum siano sopravvissute, la maggior parte della basilica e del forum è stata dimenticata fino alla costruzione del mercato di Leadenhall negli anni 1880. Durante questi lavori di costruzione, fu trovato un grande supporto che avrebbe servito da base di un arco in una delle colonnate della basilica. Oggi, sono questi resti che si trovano nel seminterrato del barbiere all’angolo tra Gracechurch Street e Leadenhall Market.

E se siete un pochino disillusi, dopo avere visitato le glorie dei fori imperiali di Roma, di vedere l’equivalente londinese vi consolo con tre fatti:

Il barbiere è molto buono.
Il mercato di Leadenhall è una squisita costruzione dell’era vittoriana con negozi belli e birrerie caratteristiche. Infatti, in qual modo, rimane la galleria della City di Londra come lo è la galleria Vittorio Emanuele per Milano.

3. Potrete ancora ammirare parte del muro romano che circondava Londinium nei pressi del Barbican:

(Davanti alla statua di Giulio Cesare (secondo millennio dopo Cristo) presso il muro romano di Londra.)

***

Pietre deserte

‘sic transit gloria mundi’

maggior di Roma …

Un Viaggio Attraverso il Tempo a Londra

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Francis

Saranno poche le città che sono esenti dai grandi problemi che creano i trasporti urbani. Certo, la rete di Londra ha le sue noie di cancellazioni, sovraccarici, e lavori di manutenzione. Però, viaggiare sul piano superiore di un bus double- decker, prendere la prima metropolitana costruita nel mondo, usare il grande sistema di overland – la rete di treni interurbani, e, per me il modo più piacevole, mettersi a bordo sui riverbus che, con velocità sorprendente, ti trasportano lungo un fiume così pieno di storia che è il Tamigi, è un vanto in una delle più straordinarie metropoli del mondo.

Il London Transport Museum a Covent Garden aiuta a spiegare in modo esemplare l’evoluzione dei trasporti pubblici nella grande Londra.

Il primo trasporto era sempre sul Tamigi ed è per questa ragione che i grandi palazzi furono costruiti sulle sue sponde: il Palace of Westminster, Somerset House, Hampton Court, per esempio.

Più tardi vennero le portantine dei nobili, le carrozze, le famose Hansom cab ed, infine, i primi treni che aiutarono a espandere la città a forma di ragnatela lungo le nuove linee ferroviarie.

Vennero anche gli omnibus, prima trainati da cavalli, poi dal vapore ed infine col motore a scoppio.

Intanto, le linee del underground erano sempre in continuo sviluppo. Infatti, in molti casi le stazioni furono costruite prima dei centri urbani che dovevano servire, aiutando così a trasformare Londra in una delle prime megalopoli mondiali. Erano anche le stazioni della metropolitana a proteggere gli abitanti dalle stragi naziste durante l’ultima guerra quando furono usati come rifugi anti-bombardamento.

I tram a Londra furono introdotti solo negli anni 1890, un po in ritardo in confronto con le altre città europee. Erano a due piani e non dovevano circolarsi a capolinea per ricominciare il viaggio, avendo due posti di controllo, avanti e indietro. In più, la loro sorgente elettricità era fornita da un terza rotaia scavata sotto la strada.

Con l’invenzione dei filobus la stagione dei primi tram non durò molto a lungo e l’ultimo scomparve nel 1952, completando il percorso da Westminster a Plumstead.

Fortunatamente, molto più tardi, ci fu un cambio di idee, e dal 2000 i tram sono ritornati a far parte del sistema di trasporti a Londra, almeno nel sud della città, (come sono pure ritornati a Firenze.)
Il museo dei trasporti di Londra descrive i nuovi sviluppi. Tra poco sarà aperta la Elizabeth line, una linea che faciliterà i viaggi da est a ovest di Londra. In più, nuove stazioni e progetti saranno aggiunti ad una città sempre in fase di espansione e sempre cambiando.

Il biglietto museale dura tutto l’anno, necessario perché c’è cosi tanto da vedere… per poi non dimenticare un intero hangar di altri venerabili esemplari di trasporti Londinesi che si trovano a Acton.

Infine, si spera che mai più dovranno essere usati le stazioni dell’underground in questa maniera, come lo erano nel periodo 1939-45…

Tram della vita:

alla tua capolinea

chissà l’aspetto?

Urban Exploration at Pieve Fosciana

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Francis

Outside Pieve Fosciana, near Castelnuovo Garfagnana, there’s a small thermal area where one can bathe in hot waters which are considered excellent for alleviating rheumatism and other physical ailments.

The thermal lake of Pra di Lama is where a few ducks nest and swim. It is fed by several springs, which emerge from volcanic strata, rather like those of Bagni di Lucca.

Nearby, horses graze in beautiful meadows:

The origin of Lake Pra di Lama is quite recent. In 1826 in place of the lake there was a meadow, in the centre of which, over an abundant thermal spring, a hut was built where people bathed for therapeutic purposes. Within a few months, the hut was swallowed into the earth leaving only a small pool of water.

At 11 am on August 15, 1828 a loud explosion startled the local inhabitants, and at the base of the hill there arose a great amount of muddy water blasted into the air along with a pestilential miasma that caused a serious epidemic striking at least two-thirds of the population for years and causing a marked increase in mortality. On that occasion a pond forty feet wide and eleven feet deep was formed but in 1842 it had almost completely disappeared.

Between February and March of the following year a new soil movement and the birth of ten other thermal sources expanded the lake again, and the Serchio was stained by mud for twenty kilometres up to Borgo a Mozzano. Again, in Pieve Fosciana and the surrounding areas deaths dramatically increased from diseases caused by the inhalation of the lake’s poisonous vapours.

A century later, at the end of World War Two, the lake was reduced to a small pond which locals attempted to reclaim by filling it with rubble and waste. However, new eruptions occurred, enlarging the lake again.

In the following years facilities for bathing with changing rooms and baths were built. Those using the facilities increased.

This situation lasted until the early nineteen seventies when the lake sprang to life again, swallowing trees up to a height of ten metres so that only the tops were visible and bringing down most of the buildings constructed for the thermal baths.

In March of 1996 the lake again erupted, before suddenly dropping down about two metres. (Fortunately it’s over a hundred years since one last heard of epidemics and mysterious deaths around the lake, otherwise we may not have been here to write this).

Meanwhile, chemists have established the excellent therapeutic qualities of the sulphurous lake water which is also radioactive. They include sulphate, sodium chloride with a fixed residue of 5.45 grams /per litre. The water’s temperature is 37 degrees C.

During our visit the thermal springs were being used by this gentleman.

We tested the waters and found that, although they smelt of bad eggs, they were deliciously warm and relaxing.

There are two ‘urban exploration sites near the lake. The first consists of a weird brick-built structure which I am quite unable to make out. Within it are galleries and several chambers.

What was it used for? Does it have anything to do with industry or agriculture? Is it connected in some way to the thermal establishment?

Another example worthy of urban exploration (at one’s own risk) is the following:

It’s the rapidly ruining white elephant of the thermal establishment of Pieve Fosciana. This building, dating from the early 1980’s was meant to place Pieve Fosciana in the same league as other spas, like Montecatini, but financial mismanagement caused the project to flounder miserably. We thought of exploring the concrete monstrosity but were deterred by the danger of falling masonry.

(The cupola in the first photograph above is the original cupola of a nearby church, which has since been replaced.)

What a pity! Although geologists have apparently secured the safety of the lake by controlling its noxious vapours and avoiding the asphyxiation of visitors in search of its therapeutic qualities, the presence of the decaying concrete monster leads to a feeling of dejection around the place, typical of so many pie-in-the-sky projects in Italy which have never been finished and are left for the contemplation of the frustrated public. The irony is that the poor inhabitants of Pieve Fosciana will still be paying the mortgage on this non-structure until 2030!

There is a very amusing video of the floundered establishment by Chiara Squarci of ‘Il striscione’.

http://www.striscialanotizia.mediaset.it/video/terme-di-pieve-fosciana-lucca-_27725.shtml

If you are interested in urban exploration do follow the fascinating blog at

https://foscasensi.wordpress.com/

Here you will come across sleeping-beauty-like decaying palaces, underground temples of arcane sects, failed casinos, crumbling lunatic asylums haunted by ghosts of electroshocked patients, prisons where atrocious tortures were inflicted and much else of interest.

The Castle of Controni

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Francis

I confess that some of my favourite childhood reading included Enid Blyton’s books. Not so long ago I had to rebuy her ‘Bedside book’ just out of nostalgia. However, my favourites from this prolific author were her ‘Adventure’ series. In particular I was bowled over by ‘The Castle of Adventure’ and decided that it was unfair my life should be so dull while Jack, Lucy, Dinah and Philip appeared to be having such thrilling adventures regarding a mysterious castle.

However, in 2008 I was given the chance of discovering my own ‘castle of adventure’. It’s situated on top of the hill that rises above the four villages of San Gemignano, Gombereto, Pieve di Controni and Guzzano.

The hill is best reached in winter since there is no clear path to the top and the vegetation is Mayan-jungle-like.

What remains of the castle are some massive stone walls which may be higher than they look since the earth is built up at that point.

Unfortunately part of the site is occupied by an unattractive water tank.

Controni castle was part of an extended defence system which included castles at Lucchio, Casoli, Limano and Benabbio. Its purpose was to protect the area from incursions by the aggressive Pistoiesi.

Unlike the castle at Benabbio – see my post on it at

https://longoio3.com/2017/08/14/the-wolfs-lair/ –

nothing has been done here regarding archaeological investigation, access facilitation or publicity. This is a real pity as the views from Controni castle are lovely and it could be made part of a special castle trail throughout our commune.

Incidentally, in 1990 Blyton’s ‘Castle of Adventure’ was adapted as a TV series and even starred Brian Blessed. Interestingly, the TV series was filmed at Saltwood castle, Sir Kenneth ‘Civilization’ Clark’s and his philandering son’s family home. I have not seen the television series but have found that it is on YouTube at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL4d3Pmpg7g&list=PL6fJmjt84zZiMl2pO6ioW8kUsPz7GR0IU

No matter; my childhood’s recollections of the book must surely be more vivid than any television version. That is usually the case…

Il Dio Mitra a Londra

Posted on December 23, 2017 by Francis

Nel buio del sottosuolo della City di Londra si sentono voci intonando parole mistiche in una lingua strana. A poco a poco emerge la luce, si capisce che la lingua del canto è latino, e che qui siamo trasportati quasi due mila anni quando Londra fu chiamata Londinium ed era la capitale della provincia dell’impero, detta Britannia.

Furono i romani a fondare Londra proprio nel punto più idoneo per costruire un ponte attraverso il Tamigi e, per tre cento anni, prima delle invasioni barbare, la città fioriva come centro commerciale e culturale.

Oggi rifiorisce, e durante la costruzione del nuovo centro europeo della ditta Bloomberg gli archeologi hanno fatto tra le più grandi scoperte a Londra dell’era romana.

Oltre a gioielli, scarpe, tegole, statuette votive e molti altri oggetti della vita quotidiana, è stata trovata la transazione finanziaria più antica della City. Due mila anni di storia di uno dei centri maggiori di finanze nel mondo!

Ritornando ai canti mistici: provenivano da un tempio che, trovato nel sottosuolo del nuovo edificio, è stato identificato, grazie al ritrovamento di una testa scolpita, come un centro del culto di Mitra o Mithras, una religione, importata dall’oriente, divenuta di moda tra gli uomini, specialmente quelli militari, dell’impero.

Il tempio fu, infatti, scoperto nel 1954, durante degli scavi nella Londra bombardata dai nazisti. Ora però, il tempio, solo aperto il mese scorso, e la sua conoscenza sono stati immensamente arricchiti dai nuovi scavi.

Nel atrio del Bloomberg c’è uno spazio espositivo per le scoperte archeologiche e per l’arte moderna. Poi si scende ad un livello dove si trova una mostra che spiega il culto di Mithras.

Si scende poi al livello del tempio. Grazie ad una sistemazione immaginaria l’atmosfera del culto è ben creata e le parole dei riti sono proprio quelle scoperte su tavolette trovate negli scavi.

Veramente, i misteri esistono sempre e non si conosce tanto della liturgia di questa religione; soltanto che il dio si trova nell’atto di uccidere un toro, che è responsabile per la creazione e specialmente per le stelle ed i segni zodiacali.

Il culto di Mitra è uno dei tanti importati dal medio Oriente in contrasto con la religione ufficiale che esaltava i dei e i Cesari del potente impero. Di questi solo uno fu considerato pericoloso dagl’imperatori che mandavano i seguaci nelle arene per un buon pasto per i leoni o li crocifissavano.

E solo questo è sopravvissuto ai tempi nostri e celebriamo la nascita del suo Redentore questo mese.

Buon Natale!

A Wall that Unites

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Francis

This is one wall which unites rather than divides. Yes, the great wall of China gathers the world to see it. We managed to explore and walk a small stretch of this extraordinary construction at Mutianyu. They say one can see the Great Wall from space (actually one can’t) but who wants to try to do that when it’s so much better to touch and walk along it!

The Great Wall is everything it’s cracked out to be and more. It’s simply awesome and once you set your foot on this stone dragon-serpent weaving its way up and down some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes you feel you’d like to walk on and on…and on.

There are people who have done this but it would take some months since the wall and its tributaries is over 5,500 miles long. China’s state administration of cultural relics states that the wall is actually 13,170 miles long! The problem about measuring the great wall is that some parts of it get eroded or have their bricks removed for building houses, parts of it get rediscovered after lying under the northern desert sands and parts are being restored.

There are over 7000 watch towers punctuating the wall. I think we managed to get through about ten of them. No matter. The day of our visit was splendidly blue and we truly enjoyed our experience on what must be mankind’s biggest construction project.

Started around 1000 bc in the Qi dynasty the wall was continuously added to up to the end of the Ming dynasty in 1644 ad. It was the terracotta army emperor who conceived the idea of one great wall by joining up the various sections already in existence.

One might ask how many troops were required to defend the wall against Mongol invaders. Apart from the obvious answer, a lot, one needs to add that the wall served as a customs barrier and communications network. It was both a barrier and a message line.

It was wonderful to walk our little bit of the wall, admire the construction, view the lovely scenery and come across people from all over the world. I thought about those who feel that buildings walls is about keeping people out. I felt quite the opposite on the Great Wall.

Before leaving the wall area we explored a very disneylandish cave.

The evening was taken up by some great food including Peking duck and a spectacular acrobatics show.

We were now approaching the end of our Chinese adventure and we still had to enter into the forbidden city….

The Terracotta Army Marches On

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Francis

As a kid I looked forwards to extracting plastic, free-gift Arthurian knight figures from our packets of breakfast cereals.

Later I was able to collect a few toy soldiers with reinforcements which included a centurion tank and transporter, a military ambulance, jeep, troops vehicle and howitzer.

These toys have long since vanished from my possession which is a little sad as they would certainly have considerable collectors’s value now.

The only soldier I actually managed to put together myself was the Black Prince, (modelled on his funerary statue in Canterbury cathedral), from an Airfix kit. I remember spending hours painting the heraldic symbols on this statuette. I wonder where that has gone to?

These thoughts came back to me as I gazed upon the the world’s largest model army, the terracotta soldiers and officials of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, dating back to the second century BC and only discovered by chance by a farmer, Yang Zhifa, in 1974.

It doesn’t matter how many pictures you’ve seen of this amazing archaeological discovery, certainly equal to that of king Tut. It doesn’t even matter if you return again and again (new discoveries are always happening): the terracotta army is one of the world’s most spectacular ancient sights. You feel as if the hundreds of individually crafted warriors around might, at any moment, take life and march once more after having stood to attention for over two millennia.

Of an estimated eight thousand figures around two thousand have been uncovered. Some are whole, others are in fragments, like that Airfix kit, waiting to be puzzled together. All were painted but, sadly, exposure to the climate has faded or completely discolored so many of them.

All army grades are represented: from privates to archers to battalion leaders and generals. In all cases the details are stunning, reaching even down to the threaded soles of their footwear.

In addition to the men (no women have as yet been found) there are horses and there were also wooden chariots but these have rotted away, separating riders from their steed.

In a separate building, however, two magnificent bronze chariots are on display and they are simply superb!

The most astonishing fact, however, is that what we see is just the tip of the iceberg. The huge hangar that protects the emperor’s army is merely an advance guard to Qin Shi Huang’s own mausoleum which has yet to be excavated! Archaeology is, in essence a destructive science and the Chinese have, rightly decided, to leave well alone for conservation purposes or, at least, until new techniques can uncover monuments without damage or decay.

What was China’s first emperor like? Accounts differ but one thing is sure: he was one of the powerful and ruthless persons who ever existed. Qin unified China, joined regional defences together to form the great wall, executed scolars he didn’t like and had their books burnt, built a national road network, excavated the Lingqu canal, had the workers who built his mausoleum buried alive so they could tell no secrets, survived several assassination attempts, standardised weights and measures, instituted a international philosophy denouncing Confucianism and went in for a mad quest for immortality, (don’t we all, perhaps?), involving the search for the elixir of life which, when he found it, poisoned him as it contained mercury.

Anyway the emperor’s terracotta army didn’t protect him against his (and our) greatest enemy, death but ensured him, instead, another kind of immortality for what I witnessed at the extraordinary site of Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum will remain in my mind for ever as it will remain in the mind of anyone else who witnesses this extraordinary monument to mankind’s quest for eternity.

The emperor death
marches inexorably:
all crumbles to dust.

Walk Like an Egyptian

Posted on October 31, 2017 by Francis

Several women, during those retrograde years of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when most of them were denied a university education, let alone a degree, managed to excel in the newly founded archaeological science of Egyptology.

Amelia Edwards was one of these pioneering females. She began her career as a novelist and wrote a successful ghost story called ‘the phantom coach.’ Amelia’s trip up the Nile in 1873 changed her life. She became transfixed by ancient Egypt and its preservation and as a result co-founded the Egypt Exploration Society.

It was this society which funded Flinders Petrie who, among other finds, discovered the temple of Bastet, the cat goddess.

Petrie, who was born in Maryon road, Charlton London SE, developed a more systematic approach to archaeological excavation with emphasis on stratification of objects found.

Among his students was Howard Carter, the discoverer of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Petrie expanded the collection started by Amelia Edwards with the help of his assistants (one of which was Fletcher who bequeathed his collection of keyboards to Fenton house, mentioned in my recent post.)

Other early women Egyptologists include Hilda, Petrie’s wife, Margaret Murray, Agatha Christie, Bertha Porter, Alessandra Bobbi, Anna Anderson Morton, Dorothy Eady, Winifred Brunton, Mary Brodrick and Janet Gourlay. It seems that Egyptology truly helped the cause of women’s equality and their right to undertake research.

The Petrie museum in London’s Bloomsbury area cannot compete with the British museum in terms of mummies but it does offer a much more intimate insight into ancient Egyptian life, including the earliest piece of clothing found anywhere in the world.

Among the eighty thousand plus pieces in its collection are still-untranslated papyri, late Roman era mummy portraits, votive statues, pottery, and beaded jewellery.

I especially liked the beaded dress of a dancer from over four thousand years ago and felt it would still look very good on someone today.

While there we treated by an excellent story-telling Dr. Johnston to perhaps the oldest Egyptian story to have come down to us. It’s about a sailor wrecked on a mysterious island where he meets a serpent who…..(but I won’t spoil this tale for you. You can find it, anyway, on the web).

The Petrie museum is an excellent antidote to the vast and often crowded halls of the British museum and well worth a visit.