The church of Our Lady of Trsat is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Croatia. According to legend, angels Nazareth transferred the Tabernacle of the Holy Family of Trsat on May 10, 1291, until 1294 when the angels took him to Loreto, Italy.

The first church was built in the late thirteenth century, and then in the fifteenth century was built a new church and the Franciscan monastery. It has been expanded and renovated several times since then.

The idea of adding a new building complex is related to the visit of Pope John Paul II to Rijeka. In early June 2003, the Pope visited Croatia for the third time. Being the second pope to visit Croatia (after Alexander III that ran aground on the coast in the twelfth century), his visit was of great importance.

During his stay in Rijeka Trsat visited the church to pray, and on occasion blessed the construction of a new building to house pilgrims and cultural activities of the monastery.

The new building is located on the east wall, where buildings prior located to services. With this new building, created a new access for pilgrims, and to accommodate this new influx of people the whole wall was placed further back to create a new public footpath outside. Read the rest of this entry »

The Seneca Street bridge leading into the Larkin District over the former New York Central Rail Corridor offers some interesting scenes.

Looking to the east, one first witnesses the impressive profile (above) of the Larkin Power House and its smokestack – one of the steeples of industrial Buffalo. The peak of the smokestack marks the highest point in the Hydraulics and at one time reached much higher, that is, before the stack was damaged in a lightning strike some decades ago. To the south of the Power House is the Larkin L/M Warehouse, where the Larkin Company stored much of its raw materials (think hundreds of tons of animal fat for soap production, as only one example) and which has the highest floor load capacity (230 lbs./sq.ft.) of all the Larkin District structures, a higher load capacity than even the more advanced Larkin Terminal Warehouse constructed eight years later in 1912. Read the rest of this entry »