MySpot: The Citadel

"The medieval Cité dominated the landscape. 

It was so much more imposing than Alice had imagined, 

more substantial and complete. 

From the distance, with the purple mountains thrown into sharp relief behind, 

it looked like a magical kingdom floating in the sky. (...)

There were two sets of ramparts, an inner and an outer ring. 

She could pick out the cathedral and the castle. 

One rectangular, symmetrical tower, very thin, very tall, stood higher than everything else.

The Cite was set on top of a grassy hill. 

The slopes swept down to streets filled with red-roofed houses. (...)

Behind the imposing locked gates were the turrets and battlements of the castle. 

A fortress within a fortress.

Alice stopped, realising that this had been her destination all along."

Kate Mosse - Labyrinth

TTD: The Place Where I Am Alone with You

*Photos Studio 8mm / Edited by Studio 8mm

"It was a vision of the one thing that we both hoped someday would be...

the warmth of our bodies next to each other's, 

reflected in sunset of our secret place... 

We longed for it to be like this, each and every evening... 

Dancing in the night, 

playing hide-and-seek in the day, 

the beauty of our souls blossoms... 

Never before had we felt so happy, never before had we felt so alive... 

We hear the birds, sensing the cheerful breeze, the rainbow's end does linger here....

our tenderness, sighs and spirits speak and we do know clear... 

This place is where love and laughter meet... 

You take my hand, kiss each finger tip, 

with tears in your eyes you touch my cheek and whisper of how wondrous this, 

we share our love once again. 

The love that gives us wings to fly anew. 

Our hearts in sweet pleasing pain beat as one in the rhythm of long forgotten yet melody...
Together again at this wondrous place, 

where just our presence adds more grace and makes it what was meant to be - 

a place for you a place for me..."

Oksana Rus

Barcelona, 2013: Parc de la Ciutadella

"This park is strongly connected with the history of Barcelona. 

It is situated in the grounds where Felipe V (...) built a great military citadel to control the city. 

In order to obtain the necessary ground, 

it was necessary to demolish the walls on the extreme north-west of the city 

together with 1,262 houses in the district of la Ribera.

Almost one century and a half after, in 1869, 

and with the aim of obtaining the support of the industrial bourgeoisie in Barcelona, 

General Prim - whose equestrian statue can be seen in the park - 

handed over the citadel to the city of Barcelona 

on the condition that the grounds were to be destined to a public park. 

The recovery of this land permitted the creation of a large green area 

which was very necessary in the increasingly overcrowded Barcelona 

during the time of the industrial development. 

It was necessary to create areas where people could 'breathe', 

which was very well defined in the slogan for the project by Josep Fontsere: 

'Gardens are for the city as lungs are for the human body', 

a criteria that today seems evident, 

but at the end of the nineteenth century was not so clear."

bcn.cat

Verticality in Black and White

"The few trees still upright were stripped of their branches, 

lonely flagpoles without a nation to claim them."

Mike Mullin - Ashfall

A Great Clarifier

"My love is like a red, red rose 

That's newly sprung in June: 

My love is like the melody 

That's sweetly played in tune."

Robert Burns

TTD: A Midsummer Night's Dream

*Photos Studio 8mm / Editing me and Studio 8mm

"Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.— 

Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love 

Accompany your hearts!"

William Shakespeare