Geneva

We are on our way home from a short but delightful visit which brought us into both Switzerland and France. Happily, we have enough time in Geneva to have a brisk walk around. We start at the Place du Molard which has a delightful tower on the corner: Molard Tower, built in 1591 and reconstructed several times The last renovation took place in 1906-1907.

 Looking back we spot this rather wonderful creature.

 

At the far end of the Place is a fascinating slender obelisk. A closer look reveals that the obelisk appears to be standing on four round balls - and there is a further larger one at the top.

In nearby Rue de la Croix D'Or there are some impressive buildings in an unfamiliar, but imposing, style. I suppose they are 19th century.

 

 

We head now towards the celebrated Cathedral, passing this lovely fountain ...

 

... and the covered passageway up to St Peter's Cathedral.

St Peter's Cathedral is a former Catholic Church built in the late 12th century, but later modified. It became a Protestant church during the Reformation. 

 

 

At the rear of the church are a surprising white tower and a fleche.

 

 

We couldn't resist climbing to the roof, which gave us a wonderful view over part of Lake Geneva and the famous Jet d'Eau

 

 

Also from the tower there was a great view down of the nearby roof tiles. I thought that the colours in this one were especially appealing.

 

We then passed an intriguing group of three cannons with three descriptive panels behind them. They were captured by the Austrians in 1814 and moved to Vienna, but later restored to their original position in 1815.

 

 

We continued along the Treille Promenade. It is famous for having the the longest wooden bench in the world: 120m! It is also where “Geneva official chestnut tree” (le “marronnier officiel” in french) is located. Each year, Its first leaf announce the arrival of spring in Geneva .

 

 

 At the end you emerge into a busy square dominated by the imposing Grand Theatre of Geneva.

 

 

We continued, passing this interesting building, now dealing in wealth management ...

 ... to reach the final building on our route which is the Statue of Philibert Berthelier at the bottom of this impressive tower. Berthelier was a Genevan patriot and an uncompromising enemy of the Duke of Savoy in his ambition to control Geneva. Berthelier was arrested in August 23, 1519, and was tried for treason.  After a summary trial, Berthelier was found guilty and was sentenced to death by beheading. The sentence was carried out on the same day.

Greece: Delphi

The Temple of Apollo

We are in Greece on a butterfly spotting holiday, but this morning we are taking time out from that to visit the famous site of Delphi, where there was a celebrated Oracle (the Pythia, who became ecstatic and prophesied as the voice of the god Apollo) and where the Pythian Games were held.

Our first impression on entering is of the site stretching uphill - it's not clear how far or what's up there.

We started to climb up the Sacred Way and at the first level there were the remains of several structures whose original purpose was unclear: they were perhaps Treasuries. The brickwork and truncated columns were very atmospheric.

The first unambiguous sight was the Athenian Treasury which dates from about 500 BC. It was used to house offerings to the god Apollo. It was restored in 1903-06 and in 2004 and gives a clear idea of what such a structure looked like. It employs the Doric order and the metopes, the decorative panels which run under the roof line, illustrate the exploits of the great heroes Heracles and Theseus.

Close by is the Rock of the Sibyl, by tradition the place where the first Sibyl delivered her prophesies.
 

Immediately adjacent are two fascinating structures. The first is a 2015 replica of the Tripod of the Plataeans which commemorated a naval victory over the Persians at Plataea in 479 BC. The original was moved to Constantinople by Constantine the Great in 324 AD.

Beside it is the pedestal of the statue of Aemilius Paulus, a Roman Consul who defeated the king of Macedon in 168 BC.

Now we approached the remaining columns of the large Temple of Apollo which dates from the 4th century BC.

A steep climb above the temple leads to the Theatre, completed in the second century BC and with a capacity of 5000.

This is the even more dramatic view of the Theatre seen from above.

We continued to climb and eventually reached the astonishing Stadium located right at the top of the site, built of stone and 177.5m in length. There was seating for 6,500 spectators.

Above is the finishing line, while below is the remains of the three-arched entrance.

At length we headed back downhill. On the way I enjoyed this wooded area which put me in mind of the paintings of Paul Cézanne.

As we returned past the Temple of Apollo, we were forcefully struck by the Polygonal Wall which stabilises the huge terrace upon which the Temple of Apollo sits.

Conditions: hot and sunny.

Rating: five stars. Simply magnificent.

Note: Much of the information in this post comes from helpful information panels scattered around the site. Additional information is from Greek sanctuaries and temple architecture by Mary Emerson. Not an easy read, but a very comprehensive and informative source.

Greece: Messene

Messene wasn't on our radar when we planned our trip to the Peloponnese, but we saw a lovely photo of a what seemed to be a small temple on the site and decided to visit it on our way back to Athens. Ancient Messene turned out to be about 20 km north of modern Messini on the edge of a village called Mavromati. Messene was founded in the 3^rd century BC at the foot of Mount Ithomi and continued into Roman times, being abandoned around 360 AD. As I am writing this I have just discovered that we failed to see a section of the city walls and an ancient gateway. That is really annoying, but there was still a great deal to enjoy.

Our first view revealed a large area with numerous ruined and partly restored structures.

The first main sight was the large, partly restored, Theatre.

The row of columns further down the slope is part of a Stoa along the side of the market place.

At the back of this and elsewhere on the site there are some lovely Roman mosaics.

Then there is the Sanctuary of Asclepius, the god of healing.

We realised that we hadn't seen our small temple and headed downhill to search for it. We quickly found it at the far end of an astonishing area containing a splendid stadium and gymnasium, nicely restored, surrounded on three sides by a Stoa.

On the right was a totally restored wrestling area.

And a rather lovely restored tomb, in use between the 3rd century BC and the 1st AD.

Now finally we got close to our temple – which we had seen of course as soon as we spotted the stadium. It turns out to be the Mausoleum of the eminent Saithidae family and was in use between the 1st  and 3rd centuries AD. It was still a delight to see it in the flesh in a beautiful position with the valley stretching away behind.  

 Closer inspection revealed that it sits on an astonishingly thick base.

We retraced our steps to the car park and got into the car for the long drive to Athens airport. Our visit to Messene provided a nice note to end our holiday on.

Conditions: greyish, but mild. The rain of the previous couple of days had finally departed.

Rating: five stars.

Greece: Ancient Epidavros

The Theatre of Epidavros

The site of Ancient Epidavros (or Epidaurus) is principally famous for the Temple of Asklepius (the God of Medicine and Healing), which is sadly but a ruin, and the astonishing Theatre. We started with the Theatre. Getting there requires some care as there is a small theatre at Archea Epidavros on the coast and a modern town called Nea (New) Epidavros to which there are many signs on the main road. Ancient Epidavros is well inland and does have helpful brown signs however.

According to the celebrated Roman travel writer Pausanius, the architect of the Theatre was Polykleitos the Younger, and work started on its construction at the end of the 4th Century BC. According to Wikpedia, the theatre had a capacity of 13,000 to 14,000 and hosted music, singing and dramatic games that were part of the worship of Asklepius. It was also used as a means to heal patients, since it was believed that the observation of dramatic shows had positive effects on mental and physical health.

The first systematic excavation of the theatre began in 1881 and several stages of renovation have  brought it back almost entirely to its original form. The first modern performance at the theatre was Sophocles's Electra in 1938. Performances stopped during World War II, but the Epidaurus Festival was inaugurated in 1954 and continues today.

You walk along the main path from the entrance and fork right by the museum to reach the entrance to the Theatre. Your first view is quite oblique: you can see the two entrance gates and maybe a third of the seating.

Once inside the seating rears up to a great height and the division into sections divided by staircases becomes more apparent. There are 12 sections in the lower part and 22 in the upper.

Almost all the rows of seats have no backs, but one row about half way up did have seats with backs for distinguished guests.

The view down from the very top row is just wonderful and it is easy to test the fabulous accoustics. You can hear people talking in the circular orchestra quite clearly and while we were there a brave man sang from the centre point and was perfectly audible all around the theatre.

We sat and enjoyed the view for a while, but eventually I felt I had to see if the might any butterflies beyond the top of the Theatre. I had a short but enjoyable foray seeing a Scarce Swallowtail (below), a Swallowtail, a Cleopatra and a Freyer's Grayling, previously spotted in Mycenae.

Eventually we headed back past the museum to see the rest of the site. At first all we could see were the outlines of where several buildings had once stood ...

... but soon we passed the wonderful sight of the Stadium, in use in 500 BC and still used today for sports events by the children of local schools.

The other surprise was the round building called the Tholos which dates from the middle of the 4th century BC. This was also teh work of the architect of the Theatre, Polykleitos. The name Tholos was used by the intrepid Roman traveler Pausanias, but it seems that he may possibly have got it wrong - we saw a couple of burial chambers with this name at Mycenae. A helpful information panel reveals that it was actually called a thymele or (sacrificial) altar.

It is seemingly in the process of being at least partially re-created: several new marble columns are in place and the parts of others are scattered around. It will be a wonderful sight when (or perhaps if) its double circle of columns is finished.

Conditions: hot and sunny.

Rating: five stars.