Valea Viilor (“Wurmloch” in German, “Nagybaromlak” in Hungarian) is a village in Sibiu County, Transilvania, in a region known for its wine production during medieval times. Its name is translated in English as “The Valley of the Vineyards”. It is first mentioned in written documents in 1263 as “posessio Barwmlak”.

The church in this Saxon village was first built in the 14th century (see source). Its ruins can be seen beneath the floor of the sacristy. In 1414 a new church was erected over it. In turn, most of that later structure was then demolished or modified during the years 1500-1528, as the church was enlarged and fortified walls were built around it, making it a fortified church (see source).

Unlike a lot of other Saxon fortified churches in Transilvania, this structure received attention from later generations, and underwent needed repairs in 1738, 1782, 1826, 1969, 1987, 1996 and in recent years as well.

When we visited it back in April of 2011, the gates were locked and no gatekeeper was to be found, so we walked around its defensive walls, admiring the solid medieval architecture that has stood the test of time. Enjoy the photographs!

Fortified church, Valea Viilor, Transilvania, Romania

Places

The fortified church in Valea Viilor

Places

The fortified church in Bazna

The village of Bazna (“Baaßen” in German and “Bázna” in Hungarian) is technically a commune comprised of three villages: Bazna, Boian and Velt. Settled by Saxons in the 13th century, the land was great not only for agriculture but also gave forth natural gas and springs of water containing salt and iodine.

The fortified church you’re about to see in my photographs was built in the 15th century. A hundred years or so later, it gained the surrounding fortified walls and defense tower. You’ll find an oddity in that tower: it’s also a bell tower and it has three bells made sometime between the 14-15th century. That’s not something often seen in Transilvania, where most of the bells were melted to make weapons during WWI.

The church has a caretaker and is well-maintained, which is more (much more) than can be said for most of the other fortified churches in Transilvania.

Enjoy the photographs! I took them in April of 2010.

An old Saxon fortified church dating back to 1504, in the village of Bazna, Transilvania, Romania

Places

A visit to Villa Vizcaya

The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, previously known as Villa Vizcaya, is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering, of the Deering McCormick-International Harvester fortune. It’s located on Biscayne Bay, in the present day Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida. Deering used Vizcaya as his winter residence from 1916 until his death in 1925.

The estate property originally consisted of 180 acres of shoreline mangrove swamps and dense inland native tropical forests. The villa was built primarily between 1914 and 1922, at a cost of $15,000,000, while the construction of the extensive elaborate Italian Renaissance gardens and the village continued into 1923.

The estate’s name refers to the northern Spanish province Vizcaya (In English Biscay), in the Basque region along the east Atlantic’s Bay of Biscay, as ‘Vizcaya’ is on the west Atlantic’s Biscayne Bay. Records indicate Deering wished the name also to commemorate an early Spaniard named Vizcaya who he thought explored the area, although later he was corrected that the explorer’s name was Sebastián Vizcaíno. Deering used the Caravel, a type of ship style used during the ‘Age of Exploration’, as the symbol and emblem of Vizcaya. A representation of the mythical explorer “Bel Vizcaya” welcomes visitors at the entrance to the property.

Vizcaya is noteworthy for adapting historical European aesthetic traditions to South Florida’s subtropical ecoregion. For example; it combined imported French and Italian garden layouts and elements implemented in Cuban limestone stonework with Floridian coral architectural trim and planted with sub-tropic compatible and native plants that thrived in the habitat and climate. Palms and Philodendrons had not been represented in the emulated gardens of Tuscany or Île-de-France.

James Deering died in September 1925 on board the steamship “SS City of Paris” en route back to the United States. After his death Vizcaya was inherited by his two nieces, Marion Chauncey Deering McCormick and Ely Deering McCormick Danielson, and that’s where the tale turns even sadder, at least for me. I do wish heirs could hold on to these grand estates after they inherit them. Surely they also got some money as inheritance. Couldn’t they have become proper stewards of the place? History answers that question with a no. Over the decades, after hurricanes and increasing maintenance costs, they began selling the estate’s surrounding land parcels and outer gardens. In 1945 they sold significant portions of the Vizcaya property to the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida, to build Miami’s Mercy Hospital. 50 acres (200,000 m2) comprising the main house, the formal gardens, and the village were retained.

In 1952 Miami-Dade County acquired the villa and formal Italian gardens, needing significant restoration, for $1 million. Deering’s heirs donated the villa’s furnishings and antiquities to the County-Museum. Vizcaya began operation in 1953 as the Dade County Art Museum. The village and remaining property were acquired by the County during the mid-1950s. In 1994 the Vizcaya estate was designated as a National Historic Landmark. In 1998, in conjunction with Vizcaya’s reaccreditation process by the American Alliance of Museums, the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust was formed to be the museum’s governing body.

Visitors can now see the villa, estate and surrounding gardens at 3251 S Miami Ave, Miami, FL 33129, USA. You can get tickets and consult visiting hours at the official website.

I have prepared a gallery of 103 photographs we took there, and I hope you enjoy seeing them!

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya Village, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya Village, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA.

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA. Nothing says historic glamour like plexiglass screwed on top of the other windows and a rusty ballustrade. I know the place belongs to the NPS now but come on, spruce it up, keep it original!

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Detail from a leaf. Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

A ship carved into a stone emblem. Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya Village, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya Village, Miami, Florida, USA

Gulf water underneath mangrove trees, Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA.

Vizcaya Village, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA.

Ligia at Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA.

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya Village, Miami, Florida, USA

Ligia at Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA.

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya Village, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Ligia at Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA.

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya Village, Miami, Florida, USA.   © Raoul Pop. All rights reserved.  Available for licensing and purchase.   Website - Raoul Pop Photo Catalog - Raoul Pop Photography

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Tiny little orange-red flowers, Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA.

Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Vizcaya Village, Miami, Florida, USA

An elegant bedroom, lamp glowing softly on the nighstand. Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA

Stone island with statues, Vizcaya, Miami, Florida, USA.

Places

A visit to Las Vegas

Situated in the Mojave Desert, its Spanish name means “The Meadows” because of the wild grasses and desert springs originally found there. An oasis in an otherwise dry and unwelcoming place, it became known to Native Americans over 10,000 years ago. It was discovered by the modern world in 1829, when a young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera put it on the map. Settlers were slowly but surely drawn there and in 1905, it became a city. In 1911, it was incorporated.

Its growth back then was limited by the small water supply, but in a couple of decades, things were about to change in a big way. The year when Las Vegas came to be known as the place we know it today was 1931, when it legalized gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks. This move was “blessed” later that year when construction on the massive Hoover Dam started nearby. This meant the city now had access to an incredible water supply and it began to grow in spite of the Great Depression, helped by the influx of workers who stayed there to work on the Dam. The workers wanted to have fun when they weren’t working and thus Las Vegas began to gain its reputation as Sin City. After WWII, the big real estate developments began and the Strip as we know it today began to take shape. Hotels, casinos and stores, each bigger, more colorful and more lit than the other, dotted the ever-changing cityscape. And let’s not forget the appearance of heavy-duty, commercial air conditioning units in the 1950s, which can be credited with the tremendous growth in human settlements in what were uninhabitable areas. None of the large real estate developments in any of the hot places in the world would function without air conditioning.

Here is a gallery of photographs I took back in 2010 during a visit to Las Vegas. Drab during the day, its colors washed out by the desert sunlight, this place truly comes alive at night and it stays that way till morning. Throngs of people always crowd its sidewalks and the car traffic slows to a near halt on the Strip due to gawkers. If you’re going to visit, I recommend you do it during the cooler seasons (autumn, winter or spring). Visit the shops and museums during the daytime and save your evenings for walking around on the Strip and taking in the lights and the entertainment. It is unlike anything on Earth at night. The place screams abundance and availability of anything and everything. It is the pinnacle of consumerism. While I was there, I got a clear sense that everything you could want was readily available. Ads are everywhere, for every thing. All of the luxury brands have a visible presence there. Every big hotel has its own shopping mall inside, exquisitely decorated, lit to perfection and air conditioned to keep you comfy and happy. Restaurants are everywhere. Bars are everywhere. Should you want to go outside, hustlers on the sidewalk hand you phone numbers for “entertainers” of all sorts. Young women invite you into the casinos. Big LED panels flash ads at you non-stop. The buildings are all lit to perfection, to accentuate their architecture and make them stand out and draw you in. You will get visually and mentally overwhelmed by it all, so be ready for that. As I said above, I took these photos in 2010. The city has changed yet again since then. Some places already look different. Frequent change is the only constant there.

Enjoy the photographs!

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA.

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Strip, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

South Point Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

On the Strip at night, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Belaggio Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

A large intersection on the Strip, Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Bellagio, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

City Place, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

City Place, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

City Place, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

New York Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Treasure Island Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

The famous Las Vegas welcome sign, Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Strip, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

On the Strip, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio, Las Vegas, NV, USA

MGM Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

In the foreground, commuter airplanes for Area 51 staff — or so the guide claimed — Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Aria Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

City Place, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

The Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Places

Italian road trip – Day 6 – Rome

Day 5 ended with us exhausted, crashing onto our beds and having a sound night’s sleep after a paradoxical search for a hotel with available rooms in what is one of the largest cities in the world with plenty of hotels. But that’s how things were that night. We woke up to a beautiful day and we set out to explore Rome.

I had set a grand goal: to show my companions the Rome I knew from 1999, ten years earlier. The part I hadn’t worked out yet in my enthusiasm, was that I’d explored Rome in three weeks, by myself, and now I was going to drag four people in tow to see a lofty list of places in a single day. Make no mistake about it, there were repeated protestations as the day progressed, but it was hard to hear them as I walked ahead at a military pace…

When it was all said and done, after putting my incredibly patient companions through a full day of exploration with little food or drink (there was no time, we had to see everything on my list…), I set another goal: reach a seaside town called Ladispoli by nightfall and find a hotel. Yeah, I did that to them, too! I didn’t let them sleep, I packed them into the car and off we went. I still can’t believe they put up with me. I know I wouldn’t have. Now that I’m in my 40s (this was back in 2009 mind you), I know I wouldn’t do this to myself or to others. The pace was too hectic, we couldn’t take things in. By the end of the day, it was all a blur. Thank goodness we took photos, or else we wouldn’t remember much.

Enjoy our memories from that day!

Rome, Italy

Looking over Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

Piazza del Popolo, Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

Interior, Anglican Church, Via del Babuino, Rome, Italy

Anglican Church, Via del Babuino, Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

Piazza di Spagna, Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

Vatican, Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

A vertical panorama of Trajan’s Column, Rome, Italy. The original file is 55 megapixels in size.

Rome, Italy

Outside the Colosseum, Rome, Italy

Trajan celebrating his victory over the Daci, near the Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Interesting historical fact: Trajan was also a Dac, born near Turda in what is now Romania.