Friday, 15 March 2019
A Basque Castle (L4U7)
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| Butrón Castle (Biscay) |
A castle (from Latin: castellum) is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle
East during the Middle Ages by nobility. Castles usually were the private
fortified residence of a lord or noble.
Butrón is
a castle located in Gatika, in the province of Biscay, in the Basque Country.
It dates originally from the Middle Ages,
although it owes its present appearance to an almost complete rebuilding begun
by Francisco de Cubas (also known as Marqués de Cubas) in 1878.
The castle has a fairy-tale look about
it inspired by Bavarian castle models. The present building was created as a
hobby for its then owner and to create something which is visually spectacular
rather than to produce something in which people could actually live. In fact
it would be quite inconvenient as a home as the towers have little useful space
and various parts of the castle have exterior connections which are not
particularly apt for the wet Basque weather. The building is surrounded by a
park which includes palms and exotic plants. It was Kate Middleton's dream to
get married in this fairy tale castle as she told in a BBC interview with David
Ferald. This castle is the world's largest existing medieval castle in the
world.
It fell into disuse and was later
renovated and opened to the public. This proved to be unsuccessful and the
building was closed to visitors although the grounds remained open.
In November 2005 the building was
purchased by INBISA (Grupo Empresarial) for 1,629,743 euros but it remains
under the general protection of Spanish law 16/1985 in respect of historic
buildings in Spain. (From Wikipedia)
*****
Christian The Lion (L5U7)
Christian The Lion was a lion originally purchased by Australians John Rendall and
Anthony "Ace" Bourke from Harrods department store of London, England,
in 1969 and ultimately reintroduced to the African wild by conservationist George
Adamson. One year after Adamson released Christian to the wild, his former
owners decided to go looking for him to see whether Christian would remember
them. He did, and with him were two lionesses who accepted the men as well.
Jane Goodall (L6U7)
Dame Jane Morris Goodall is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN
Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees,
Goodall is best known for her 55-year study of social and family interactions
of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. She is the founder
of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots program, and she has
worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. She has served on
the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project since its founding in 1996.
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