NARVA, ESTONIA 🇪🇪, IVANGOROD, RUSSIA 🇷🇺 : “IT IS A STRANGE PLACE…”

“Once we reach Narva River, the city abounds with the evening sun and the swallows are flying high above. The river divides, at a leisurely pace, the one side from the other, the one nation from the other: a fluid border. It is beautiful, and I realize that I had expected rather something gloomy…It is a strange place. Located on opposite sides of the river are two fortresses that now — once again — belong to two nations. Ivangorod, on the other side, is younger and dilapidated by comparison. But when standing in the outer courtyard of the Narva fortress, the river cannot be seen and the gray mass of the two castle arches appears to be a seamless melding into each other. As if everything were one. “An emblem of the rivalry between the Eastern and Western Roman Empire…” ~ Unn Gustafsson
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Narva, Estonia 🇪🇪
16jan22
Ice fishing across the River in Ivangorod, Russia 🇷🇺

16jan22 Narva, Estonia 🇪🇪

FRANKFURT, GERMANY 🇩🇪: (HÖCHST) CASTLES 🏰 AND STUFF

Justinuskirche or St. Justin’s Church is the oldest building in Frankfurt. The church dates back to the Carolingian era and was first consecrated in 850. The three-naved church was modified during the fifteenth century, although it still retains much of its original design. The choir however was completely rebuilt in a late Gothic style. The bombastic altar was created in the eighteenth century in the then popular Baroque style. http://www.aviewoncities.com/frankfurt/hochst.htmThe white painted watchtower of the Höchster Schloß towers over the old town. Originally built in the fourteenth century, work on the castle continued during the following centuries and at the end of the sixteenth century it was expanded with a new structure in Renaissance style, the Neue Schloß (new castle). In 1908 the dilapidated complex was acquired by the local industrial magnate Adolf von Brüning, who opened the castle’s park to the public. Since 2002, the complex is owned by the German Foundation for Monument Protection. http://www.aviewoncities.com/frankfurt/hochst.htm

21oct18. Höchst, Germany 🇩🇪

KAMIANETS-PODILSKYI, UKRAINE: THE CASTLE

“According to one legend, when Ottoman Sultan Osman II came to Kamianets in 1621 to capture the city, he was allegedly impressed by its strength and fortifications and asked “Who built this great city?” . Someone then replied to him, “God himself.” When Osman could not capture the castle, he then replied “Then let God himself take the city.” (wiki)

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29mar15. Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine.