Mozarthaus Wien

The Mozarthaus in Vienna was the residence of the Mozart family from 1784 to 1787. It is also known as the Figaro House. It is located in the old town area of Vienna – Domgasse 5, Stephensplatz. It has now been turned into a museum. History The house was built in the seventeenth century, originally with a couple of floors, and was redeveloped in 1716. Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus’ father, rented rooms here from 1784, at which time it was also known as the Camesina House, after the family who had owned it since 1720. The original entrance of the house facing Schulerstraße (the one used by Mozart) was walled up to make room for a shop. The house is entered today from its rear in the Domgasse. In 1941, marking the 150th anniversary of Mozart's death, his former rooms were opened to the public. In 1945, the running of the exhibition was taken over by the Vienna Museum. In 2004, the City of Vienna's Wien Holding Company undertook the renovation of the Mozarthaus and redesigned it for visitors. This was completed in time for Mozart Year 2006 on the 250th anniversary of his birth. The design of the historical courtyard was essentially destroyed by the installation of an elevator. The original seventeenth century stone floor of the kitchen was removed and the original oak door of Mozart's apartment was varnished. Today the Mozarthaus presents information about the composer in combination with historical exhibits and audio-visual installation. Over two hundred thousand visitors come to this museum every year. Layout The Figaro House building has five floors, with private apartments located on the fifth floor. From the fourth floor to second basement level of the house, Mozarthaus Vienna uses as a museum and event rooms. Fourth floor – Business Lounge The `Business Lounge’ is located on the fourth floor of the building. This is an event area consisting of several rooms. The event area is characterised by restored wall paintings in combination with modern wall coverings. Third floor – Vienna in the Era of Mozart The third floor exhibits Mozart's personal and social situation in Vienna. A multimedia installation presents all the places where Mozart lived during his Viennese years. Visitors also learn about Mozart's most important performance venues and people of importance to him. His fondness for social life - balls, gambling, fashion, literature and science along with his connection to the thought world of the Freemasons, are closely explained. Second floor – Mozart's Musical World On this floor, Mozart's most important musician and composer colleagues in Vienna are presented. The exhibition also covers Mozart's collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte in the operas The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. The historical stucco ceilings and wall paintings in these rooms give an impression of the original decoration of the entire house. This exhibition level also describes Mozart's Requiem and the end of his life, as well as a multimedia theatre installation "The Magic Flute - The Divine Laughter", which presents visitors with three-dimensional collages of scenes from The Magic Flute. The `Figaro Parallelo’ is a media installation that offers an up-to-date coverage of various Figaro productions from the world's leading opera houses with the different approaches of their individual directors. First floor – The Mozart Apartment The first floor houses the apartment where Mozart lived with his family from 1784 to 1787 and composed works such as his opera The Marriage of Figaro and three of the six Haydn Quartets. It was the largest and most expensive apartment Mozart ever lived in. It is the only Viennese apartment that has survived to this day. There are four rooms, two cabinets and a kitchen in the apartment and Mozart and his family are described with the help of photos and documents. An impressive flute clock is also on show. It was made around 1790. It plays a variation of the Andante in F Major for a Small Mechanical Organ, K. 616, which Mozart probably composed for this or a similar clock. Second Basement Floor – Concert Hall In the second basement, the historically unique baroque vault was converted into a multifunctional event venue using modern elements. During the restoration, the vault structure of the old brickwork was preserved.

Buda Pest Opera House

The Seat of Hungarian State Opera where Music is the Key Element Buda Pest Opera is one of the most famous buildings and tourist landmarks in this historical city. Glorifying its architecture and the possibility of attending an opera are two items that you may keep in mind if you visit Buda Pest. Music is a key element in the culture of Hungary. Most European cities show off opera houses proudly, such as the one in the Hungarian capital. The city dwellers took musical education very seriously and music played an important part in their culture and in their life in general. Location and History The Hungarian State Opera House is located on Andrassy Avenue in central Buda Pest. It was designed by a major nineteenth-century Hungarian architect, Miklos Ybl. The construction began in 1875 and was funded by the city’s municipality through the patronage of Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Opera House opened to the public on 27th September, 1884. On this day, the National Opera House opened with an initial capacity of 2,400 spectators and in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. The nineteenth century was a productive period in Central Europe. Along with business, culture also took a step forward with the building of great opera houses that have survived till today. Examples are Staatsoper Wien (Vienna Opera House), Paris’s Palais Garnier and the Buda Pest Opera. The Budapest Opera House was built keeping the architecture of the Vienna Opera House in mind, but under orders from the King not to outdo that in size. Visiting groups had performed operas in Buda Pest from the early nineteenth century. Upon its completion, the opera section moved into the Hungarian Royal Opera House, with performances gaining an excellent reputation in its repertoire of about fifty operas with about one hundred and thirty annual performances. Hub for Reputed Artists Many important artists were guests here including the composer and conductor, Gustav Mahler. He was director in Budapest from 1888 to 1891. Later, Otto Klemperer was music director for three years from 1947 to 1949. In the nineteen seventies, the condition of the building pressed the Hungarian State to ask for a major renovation, which began in 1980 and lasted till 1984. The re- opening was held exactly a century after the original opening, on the 27 September 1984. The arrival of Gustav Mahler, as director of the opera, between 1888 and 1891, changed the direction of the theatre, which had until then suffered from financial difficulties and low quality performances. Under Mahler, the Budapest Opera House reached its first Golden Age. Architectural Style The Opera’s architect was Miklós Ybl, who also designed St. Stephen’s Basilica, among many other buildings and monuments. The Budapest Opera House is built in a Neo-Renaissance style with Baroque elements, in which paintings and sculpture play an important role. It is inspired by the Paris and Vienna opera houses that were built to glorify music. The decoration of the symmetrical façade followed a musical theme. In niches on either side of the main entrance, there are figures of Erkel and Liszt. These were sculpted by Alajos Strobl. The foyer has marble columns. The vaulted ceiling is covered in murals by Bertalan Szekely and Mor Than. They illustrate the nine Muses. Wrought-iron lamps light up the wide stone staircase and the main entrance. Going to the opera was a big social event in the nineteenth century. A huge and sweeping staircase was a key element of the opera house as it allowed ladies to show off their new gowns. Performances were closed down for the two World Wars, but fortunately the building itself escaped serious damage and so they were quickly able to resume after the wars were over. Since then, the opera house has undergone several revamping to modernise its space and reduce its capacity to about one thousand two hundred and fifty in the audience. Today, the opera house is also home to the Buda Pest Opera Ball, a society event that dates back to 1886.

The Parliament Buildings by the Danube River in Buda Pest Hungary

The Hungarian Parliament Building is a significant and iconic landmark for both Buda and Pest separated by River Danube. The location is Lajos Kossuth Square. This architectural monument is majestic in its style and presence. It was designed by the architect, Imre Steindl. It is situated on the Pest side on the eastern bank of the Danube River. Style of Architecture The building is crafted majestically in neo-Gothic style and it plays an important role as the seat of the Hungarian National Assembly. It is a crucial tourist destination which offers guided tours of the interiors. The architecture is also reminiscent of Baroque and Renaissance revival styles. It is 268 metres long and 123 metres wide and 96 metres high with its cupola. Its construction started in 1885 and got completed in 1904. The interior includes the Dome Hall, The Grand Stairway and the Chamber of Peers. It is the largest building in the whole country of Hungary and the tallest building in Pest, since its completion. In Hungarian, this building is also known as Orszaghaz which means `house of the country’. The style of architecture of this building has been influenced by the Gothic designs, similar to the Rathaus (City Hall) in Wien (Vienna). Its Renaissance elements, particularly of its cupola have been influenced by that of Maria vom Siege Dom (Church) in Wien (Vienna).

Caves and the Subterranean World

Mountains symbolise the zenith of human aspiration while caves are linked with depths of the power of darkness and depravity. It is a stupid association as for thousands of years; caves have provided basic shelter for both man and animals. Caves are also attractive and colourful. Most of the caves have been formed in limestone rock or dolomite. These rocks are sedimentary because they are laid down in layers which are successive. They become susceptible to vertical cracking. Water that seeps down these vertical faults works its way along the bedding planes and it wears away the rock. It results in the formation of sink holes and horizontal caverns. Changes in these water tables have left some caves very dry but many have rivers running through them and they help feed large underground lakes and subterranean waterfalls. Diving apparatus is required at many places to explore these caves. Most caves are damp as water seeps through cracks and joints in their roofs or trickles down their walls. This water is coming through the limestone layers and it starts to dissolve some of the lime. When the water evaporates, it leaves traces behind of calcium carbonate that builds up over a period of time. Some of the calcium carbonate gets deposited at points in the ceilings where the water drips while the remainder falls to floors of the caves. As a result of this, hanging deposits or stalactites and standing deposits or stalagmites are formed. If these formations are allowed to grow for longer periods of time, they will unite and columns will be formed, usually clustered together in styles of music organ pipes. Some caves will form as a result of volcanic activity. This is because the hot lava flows from a fissure and will cool rapidly when exposed to the air and it will harden on the surface while the molten lava flowing underneath drains away, leaving a cavity. There are caves of this type in Hawaii and Iceland. Few caves are a result of water erosion, mostly from the sea and they can take on several varieties of shapes. Their rocks are not always of the same hardness. Waves that hit the cliff will soon cut into rocks which are softer than their surroundings and are likely to erode horizontal or vertical joints. Waves that crash into deep caverns will compress the air within them and this makes the rock loose at weak points in the roofs. A natural chimney or blow hole is formed at some distance back from the face of the cliff. When the arch collapses, a vertical stack will be left and an example of this is the Old Man of Hoy cliff in the Orkney Scottish Islands. The temperature in caves remains mostly constant at about fifty degrees Fahrenheit and this is a boon to many animals, particularly bats. Such kinds of caves are found on the French Riviera, Spain, the Middle East and the Philippines. A remarkable bat cave is the one in Texas USA – the Ney Cave and it is presumed to give shelter to almost fifteen million bats. Other interesting specimens are the columns that guard the entrance to Fingal’s Cave (also made popular by Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn’s haunting and mystical overture). This cave is located on the island of Staffa, Inner Hebrides, Scotland in the United Kingdom. The columns may look like Masonic work to you but they are a natural formation of basalt which split in this fashion thousands of years ago. Typical limestone formations in caves could be seen in the Tillywhim Caves in Dorset near Swansee. In this case, water has penetrated through the fissures in the rock. The channels have enlarged gradually and they have created underground rivers. The rivers dried up eventually and became dry and their mouths got exposed by the fall and the erosion of the rocks along the coast of the sea.

The Rich Biodiversity of Africa

This rich biodiversity of Africa supports its tourism industry by organizing camps and tours of its excellent wild life parks that give a glimpse of the famous lion, leopard, elephant and rhino. The wonderful safari parks in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania offer an unparalleled wild life spectacle for adventure seekers. The luxury casino resort at Sun City in South Africa is also a popular weekend destination for the elite. Africa has boundaries like the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Red Sea to the northeast and the Indian Ocean to the southeast. The great African Continent expands across the equator. It is the oldest land mass known to man. Africa is the second largest continent in the world after Asia and is home to the earliest civilizations of the world like those of Ancient Egypt. The continent geographically boasts of gigantic mountains, tropical rainforests and three large deserts. They are the Sahara, the Kalahari and the Namib. The climate ranges from tropical to sub arctic on its highest peaks like Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and Mount Mawenzi. It is a continent known for its diverse ecosystems and a variety of wild life population. Although Africa is considered as one of the richest nations in natural resources, it is still riddled with economic problems of poverty, malnutrition and underdevelopment. It has abundant reserves of diamonds, gold, petroleum, cobalt and coltan which is a dullish black metallic mineral taken out of the mines of Congo. A majority of the world’s software devices and mobile phones today use Coltan and there is a great demand for it. [Source: Wikitravel.Org]

The Beautiful Indian Desert State

People who are planning to visit India are always having a tough time deciding which place to visit that will provide them with an ideal vacation. They will be trying to look for places where they can take part in activities that they are interested in while trying something different and new. When they plot out the possibilities in India on a chart, they will find that it is the beautiful state of Rajasthan that will give colour to their vacation. Jaipur, the Pink City, will be the place that they would like to visit first in Rajasthan. They can then proceed to Udaipur, the city of lakes, in the southern part of the state. Next on the agenda will be Bikaner, the desert city, with its thrilling camel races and beautiful forts, temples and palaces. Rajasthan has become one of the most popular travel destinations in India. It s blessed with awesome sand dunes, crystalline lakes, majestic forts, virgin wildlife and many other attractions. It is made up of many historical cities such as Jaipur, Udaipur, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. The tourists can undertake a wildlife safari in Ranthambore, Desert National Park and Sariska. They can take part in the Camel or Jeep desert safari in the Thar Desert. It is an unforgettable experience. The Rajasthanis love colour and joyous celebrations. The colour comes out in the numerous festivals and fairs of this region. There are fairs to mark the changing seasons, religious fairs and animal fairs. Rajasthan has become one of the most visited tourist destination in India.