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Top 50 Paradoxplace Pages Visited in July 2008
Link to Most visited pages January 2008 June 2007 December 2006
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Paradoxplace has nearly 1,000 pages of photos, commentary and books and food. These are the pages that had the most visitors in July 2008.
Comments
Scholarship and Discovery in Medieval Spain
A page inspired by the Dom's fascinating circumnavigation of Spain in 2006. There is something unusual and special in here because it gets several times as many visitors as the next entry. Anybody know the secret?
The Great Mughal Emperors of India 1526 - 1707
A easy to read history of the Great Mughal Emperors of India - Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb, with portraits and photos of their architectural achievements such as the Taj Mahal.
The Medici Family (1) - The Glorious 1400s
The first of several pages with portraits of and stories about the Medici (pronounced Maydichi) Family (including the two Medici Queens of France). Other pages include the Medici Popes and the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany.
Paradoxplace Chronology Pages - The World of the Middle Ages Part Two - The Renaissance and Early Modern Europe (1350 - 1600)
A descendant of the first pre web Paradoxoplace page done in Excel in 2000 as a print out for friends visiting Tuscany. A chatty chronology of the movers and shakers of the Italian Renaissance and Early Modern Europe.
Portraits of Famous Renaissance (and other) People
A large page with thumbnails linking to many of the portraits in Paradoxplace.
Some vibrant close up and field photos of Tuscan Poppies
Try the Sunflower page as well
Tuscan Photos, Food, Renaissance Art and History
Links to all the pages relating to Florence, Siena, Pisa, Other Tuscan Towns, the Tuscany Countryside and Restaurants.
Paradoxplace Portrait Pages - Sandro Botticelli and the (Medici) Magi
Botticelli's self portrait with the Medici clan in "The Adoration of the Magi" and a link to an explanation of who the Magi are and links to other Magi representations including the famous capitals by Gislebertus in Autun Cathedral.
Palermo - The Catacombe Cappuccini
One of the very few web pages with good photos from the famous catacomb filled with clothed preserved corpses. Not for the faint hearted.
10. San Gimignano (Paradoxplace Tuscan Photo Galleries)
San Gimignano - Magical Tuscan hill town with lots of towers and tourists (and the location for the film "Tea with Mussolini")
Paradoxplace Chronology Pages - The World of the Middle Ages Part One - The Middle Ages (476 - 1348)
The movers and shakers of the early and high middle ages - a completely different and in many ways more interesting world to that of the post Black Death Renaissance
Paradoxplace Site map, links and intra-site Search Engine
Paradoxplace Photo Galleries Directory
The core directory leading to all of the thousands of photos of Italy, Spain & Portugal, France and Britain in Paradoxplace.
A much visited selection of well located and mostly reasonably priced restaurants in Florence
Habsburg Emperor Charles V, Valois King Francis I, Tudor King Henry VIII, Augsburg Banker Jacob Fugger the Rich, Martin Luther, Medici Pope Clement VII and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
INSIGHT PAGE: The Age of Exploration - Travellers, Traders and Explorers 1000 - 1600
A powerful overview of the forces driving the Age of Exploration from the early "overland to China" days to the discovery of the Americas - the travellers and explorers involved including Marco Polo and Christopher Colombus, where they went and why. And some wonderful photos of Astrolabes.
Photo pages about Sicily, Puglia & Southern Italy
Links to the popular photo and history pages covering Sicily, Amalfi and the little known but equally interesting Puglia (in fact this is probably the only website which gives a good coverage of the great Byzantine / Norman Medieval Cathedrals of Puglia)
A tour de force of Spain and Portugal - from Madrid and Toledo, down to Andalucia, then up through Portugal to Santiago de Compostela and back across the churches and towns of the Camino, before dropping down through Navarre, Aragon & Catalonia to southern France - includes many of Spain's great Cistercian Abbeys.
Tuscany's brilliantly atmospheric medieval master-city
One of the most evocative monastic English Cathedrals, its architecture and art (especially stained glass and Zodiac roundels), and Archbishops Lanfranc, Anselm, Becket and Langton.
Photo pages about Venice, Piedmont and Northern Italy
Including lots of pages on Venice and Food (Truffle) festival time in Alba (Piedmond)
A guide to many of the restaurants of Chianti, with some special recommendations, photographs, phone numbers and closing days
INSIGHT PAGE: Byzantine Constantinople
Justinian's Constantinople, for centuries the greatest city in Europe. There are also pages about the famous Imperial Mosaics in Ravenna, the Topkapi Palace and the World of Suleiman the Magnificent.
INSIGHT PAGE: The Crusades (1100s and 1200s)
The extraordinary and in many ways brutally unattractive 200 years which changed everything. Described by a recent visitor to Paradoxplace as "a most interesting, entertaining, informative and provocative piece" but banished (twice) from Wikipedia.
INSIGHT PAGE: Condottieri and the Great Equestrian Statues and Paintings of the Italian Renaissance
The Renaissance revival of Equestrian statues after a 1000 year gap, plus some Condottieri and a couple of Emperors on horseback. Includes Colleoni (Verrocchio), Gattamelata (Donatello), Guidoriccio da Fogliano (Martini), Sir John Hawkwood (Uccello), Charlemagne, and Marcus Aurelius.
Cathédrale St-Lazare, Autun (Burgundy)
Home to the iconic Romanesque sculptures of Gislebertus - especially his Last Judgement tympanum, chapter house capitals and portrait of Eve in the Rolin Museum
Photo pages about Umbria and Le Marche
Links to pages on Orvieto, Spoleto, Assisi, Perugia, Gubbio, Urbino and others
30. France
Rapidly gaining in popularity, many of these pages come from the Dom's 2007 journey embracing Paris, Burgundy and Champagne, Chartres and Centre, Poitiers and South West France and the Auvergne.
Chronology, Photos and Maps of Early Medieval Islamic Spain (Al-Andalus)
The most completely original medieval of the surviving great medieval cathedrals of Europe - 9 portals, 100+ stained glass windows, the only original maze still in existence - dozens of sumptuous photos.
Links to photo and history pages for the Medieval Cathedrals and Abbeys of Northern England, Central England and Wales, and Southern England. Paradoxplace has now got photos of nearly all the old cathedrals and many significant churches in England.
Sunset photos of Florence from the hilltop of San Miniato, plus other Florence places.
Artists, Writers and Architects of the Italian Renaissance
One of the few accessible lists around of Artists, Writers and Architects of the Italian Renaissance (often found in course note links), plus links to related Paradoxplace pages.
Paradoxplace Portrait Pages - the Borgias
A larger than life Spanish Pope, his evil son Cesare and beautiful maligned daughter Lucrezia.
Photo pages about Rome, Lazio and Central Italy
Links to lots of pages about Rome, the medieval monasteries of Saint Benedict and the Cistercians, Etruscan tombs and the Abruzzi.
La Capella dei Magi in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Firenze
Benozzo Gozzoli's masterpiece.
INSIGHT PAGE: The Topkapi Palace, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and the Magic of Ottoman Constantinople (later Istanbul)
40. Monte Bianco and crossing the Alps over the Gran San Bernardo Pass
Fra Angelico's convent in Florence - now home to a large collection of his work
The Vasari Corridor (and Uffizi Gallery), Florence
Along with the page Artist Self-Portraits in the Uffizi Collection - self portraits in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery (Florence).
Another of the great monastic cathedrals of medieval England
Emperor Frederick II and the Castel del Monte (Puglia)
A much larger than life medieval King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor and his mysterious octagonal castle
For 200 years the highest building the the world and now just a beautiful beautiful medieval masterpiece
English Kings and Queens from 802 AD to the present
With links to more detailed information pages
The iconic trumeau statue of the Prophet Jeremiah plus one of the oldest cloisters in Europe.
Paradoxplace European Cathedral, Church and Abbey Photo Page Links
50. Paradoxplace British Abbey, Monastery, Cathedral and Church Photo Page Links
Some previous top pages
The Abbey Church of Vézelay (Basilique Ste-Madeleine)
The most famous and light filled of the great pilgrimage churches of Burgundy.
One of our favourite towns - this page includes links to the famous Byzantine Imperial Mosaics in San Vitale, and the mosaics in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and other Byzantine places - mostly done in the 500s.
INSIGHT PAGE: The Mongol Conquerors
Ghengis Khan, who built the largest empire the world has ever known, and his successors.
Paintings by Artists of the Italian Renaissance
Some of the blockbuster exhibitions which Central Italy enjoyed in the early 2000s plus some famous Renaissance fresco cycles
Last Supper paintings in Venice
A companion page to last Supper paintings in the Renaissance refectories of Florence's Monasteries and Convents. Includes Veronese's unforgettable "Feast at the House of Levi" and what happened when he was hauled before the Inquisition to explain himself.
The first great Florentine Renaissance fresco cycle.
Overview of the various Paradoxplace Insight Pages covering everything from WW II in Italy to the great Cistercian Abbeys of Europe.
Links to other Paradoxplace pages:
All original material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be hotlinked, or reproduced without permission