Category: Europe
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Memento mori
Memento mori When we walk through a cemetery, we may well be glad that we still belong to the world of the living, but it inevitably reminds us of our own mortality. This is certainly true of the Portuguese Jewish cemetery near Amsterdam. Many gravestones feature images symbolising death: an hourglass running out (and which…
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Anno Mundi 5490
Anno Mundi 5490 The Jewish cemetery at ‘Ouderkerk aan de Amstel’ near Amsterdam is called Beth Haim which means House of Life. This tells us something about the Sephardim philosophy of life – and death. The picture shows a detail of a partly submerged gravestone in which we see a shepherdess with her cattle. A…
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Watery grave
Watery grave I saw this sculpted marble gravestone at the cemetery of the Portuguese Jewish community in ‘Ouderkerk aan de Amstel’. The Sephardim Jews had started settling in Amsterdam in the 16th century and their cemetery in nearby Ouderkerk dates from 1614. I used to pass and visit it regularly on my walks along the…
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Death and decay
Death and decay Two headstones, one a bit more pointed than the other, are each covering a corner of two gothic church windows, one a bit more pointed than the other. A harmonious rhythm of corresponding forms that subconsciously may have caught my eye. But I took the picture in the first place because I…
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Cross on stilts
Cross on stilts I.I climbed up to an elevated cemeteryand saw a cross on stilts.Raised for a still better view?For the pursuit of heaven?Or just for fun? II.I descended the steps into a pitch-dark tomb. Groped for my camera, managed to put on the flash and took a picture. The photo shows what I couldn’t…
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Of light and loss
Of light and loss I enjoy visiting cemeteries. Gravestones, a name and two dates, sometimes a photograph of the deceased. Sometimes there are also other expressions of loving remembrance which, in all their simplicity and – often – kitsch taste, can be moving. Gravestones remind us of the dead who rest beneath them, but they…
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Necropolis
Necropolis Buried in the earth, flat, seated, wrapped in cloth, put in a coffin, embalmed, thrown in a river, fed to the vultures, burned,… Of all animals human beings are the only ones that do something special about the dead. Trying to do justice to their deceased loved ones and to their own feelings of…
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Benvenuti
Benvenuti The enormous empty roof terrace seems to be crying in vain for holiday-makers: Please come and enjoy the magnificent view over the Gulf of Baratti. But silence reigns. It’s covid times. Photo of the week: View from Populonia at the Gulf of Baratti, Italy 2020
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Maps
Maps Populonia,Via de CrinaleVia dei Cavalleggeri …Not much is left of the map on display telling us about exciting places to visit and walks to take around the Gulf of Baratti on the west coast of Tuscany. I love maps. A map can let us dream of unknown worlds, even when the elements have transformed…
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Fun fair
Fun fair Black foot playshide-and-seek?Hide yes – seek no. Merry-go-round?Not merryand no go round. Fun fair?No funand not fair. Photos of the week: Fun fair, Castiglioncello, Tuscany, Italy 2020
καιρός remembered 