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Showing posts with the label Queen Christina of Sweden

Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...
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History revealed

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Recently, while in Innsbruck, Austria, we went to pay a visit to the Hofkirche. Our aim was to see if we could find any traces or remembrances of the time when Queen Kristina of Sweden converted to Catholicism here.  She had abdicated her throne in 1654, travelled through Europe to Antwerp, Belgium where she began her conversion. In the autumn of 1655 she left Belgium to travel to Rome. On her way she stopped over in Innsbruck and on November 3, she officially converted to Catholicism in the Hofkirche. Inner yard of the Hofkirche The Hofkirche is now a museum and Kristina's conversion is not the most important thing here. No, it is something much more spectacular. We started with an audio show which gave us a short background to the life and deeds of Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519). From 1508 until his death he was 'The Holy Roman Emperor'. He expanded the Habsburg influence, through war and marriage to include among other areas the Duchy of Burgundy and through the ...
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