Kosice – the potter

Potter Igor Macák working in his shop on Hrnčiarska ulica. Košice, European Capital of Culture 2013, Slovakia


D700 + 14-24/2.8
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Photos © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.

Kosice street art (2)

More street art from Košice, European Capital of Culture 2013, Slovakia




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Photos © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.

Hlavna, Kosice

More images from the city of Košice in eastern Slovakia, which will this weekend officially become European Capital of Culture 2013 (a title it shares with Marseilles in France). All of the following were taken on Hlavná, the city’s pedestrianized main street, which runs through the centre of the old town.
East Slovak Museum

University Church of the Holy Trinity (Sv Trojice)

Franciscan Church

The so-called ‘Beggar’s House’

Cathedral bell, cracked and broken after falling from the bell tower during a fire in 1966. The bell tower is dedicated to St Urban (patron saint of winemakers, hence the grapes).

To read an earlier post on St Elizabeth’s Cathedral, on Hlavná’s long ‘square’ (it’s actually lenticular), click here.
For more information on Košice visit www.kosice2013.sk.
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Photos © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.

Bardejov

The Town Hall, which dates from the Renaissance, and the Basilica of St Egidious (Bazilika Sv Egidia) in the historic centre of Bardejov, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Slovakia

Stone basins for measuring one bushel of grain (dated 1519), on one side of the Town Hall

View of the Town Hall and central square from the bell tower of the Basilica of St Egidious

Painted facade of a house at the far (southern) end of the square

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Photos © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.

Wooden church at Hervartov, Slovakia

Wooden church at Hervartov (Roman Catholic, dedicated to St Francis), near Bardejov, northeast Slovakia. It was built around the end of the 15th century, and (along with several other wooden churches, both Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic, dotted around the the Polish and Ukrainian borders in this part of Slovakia) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


And a glimpse of the beautifully painted interior…

Shot at high ISO in rapidly fading light (I wasn’t travelling with a tripod, unfortunately); D700 + 24/3.5 PC-E (exterior) or 50/1.4 (interior).
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Thanks to the Košice Tourist Board for making this particular visit to Hervartov and other wooden churches possible.
Photos © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.

St Elizabeth’s Cathedral, Kosice

St Elizabeth’s Cathedral (Dóm Sv Alžbety), Košice, eastern Slovakia. Built from the late 14th to early 16th century, with further work and restoration during the 18th and 19th century, it is the largest cathedral in Slovakia and one of the easternmost Gothic cathedrals in Europe. It is a beautiful building, with extensive sculpture on the exterior, and a Gothic double-staircase inside (one of only five to have survived in the world) as well as an enormous winged altarpiece (you’ll need to visit around Christmas to see the paintings on the other side of the panels, when the altarpiece is ‘closed’). The cathedral is also one of the reasons why Hlavná, the city’s lovely main street, is pedestrianized and blissfully car-free – the constant rumble of trams (which formerly passed very close to the cathedral) was beginning to take its toll on the building, leading to the whole street being closed to trams and traffic. Košice is European Capital of Culture in 2013.



For more information on Košice visit www.kosice2013.sk.
Click here for more images of Slovakia.
Photos © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.

Kosice street art

Street art in Košice, European Capital of Culture 2013, Slovakia




Košice’s Street Art Communication Festival runs from May to August 2013.
Click here for more images of Slovakia.
Photos © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.

Kosice hats

Eleonora Gaskova, 3rd generation hat-maker from Košice (European Capital of Culture 2013), Slovakia, on the Slovakian stand at WTM (World Travel Market) 2012, Excel Centre, London, UK (6 November 2012)

Photo © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.

Silvayovci

Slovak band Silvayovci, from the city of Košice (European Capital of Culture 2013), performing at the Sports Cafe in Haymarket, London, this afternoon. Silvayovci are a traditional band with a twist, using trad instruments to play both traditional Slovak music and reworked interpretations of modern Western pop hits – they were covering Billy Jean in one of these images.
Although shooting at the Sports Cafe (which is being used as a meeting and entertainment venue by the Slovak Tourist Board during the Olympics) freed me from the usual three songs / 15 minutes time constraint of most concert venues, it meant that the band were surrounded by several large flat screen TVs showing coverage of the Olympics (nice red wall though). Avoiding these screens effectively limited me to shooting two band members, Slávka Lorencovičová (vocals and cajón in the first image, and violin in the third one – that’s Pavol Križalkovič in the background of the first one playing accordion) and Juraj Helcmanovský (cimbalom in the second image). Hopefully I can get some more shots of Silvayovci when I’m in Košice later this year….
All shot on a D700 with a 50/1.4G at 2000 or 1600 ISO, using available light.



Photos © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.

Bratislava (2)

More shots from Bratislava, Slovakia.

Bratislava Castle (Bratislavsky hrad)

‘Cumil’, by Viktor Hulik, was the first of several humorous statues which now grace the streets of the Slovak capital

Bratislava Castle (Bratislavsky hrad)

‘Paparazzi’

‘Schoene Naci’ (‘Handsome Ignatius’, based on local resident Ignac Lamar), on the Korzo

St Michael’s Gate (Michalska brana), the last surviving gate tower of the four medieval gates which once guarded Bratislava’s old town, renovated in the 18th century

The Baroque tower of the Old Town Hall (Stara radnica), on the Main Square (Hlavne namestie)

‘Bat outta hell’. Sculpture on the entrance to the Museum of the History of the City of Bratislava (housed in the Old Town Hall), from Primacialne namestie
All photos © Rudolf Abraham. No unauthorized use.