Latest news with #monument
CTV News
2 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Ten Commandments monument back at Winnipeg park
The Ten Commandments monument in Assiniboine Park is seen on July 28, 2025. (Glenn Pismenny/CTV News Winnipeg) A monument displaying the Ten Commandments that was briefly removed from a city park is being returned close to its original location. The City of Winnipeg confirmed Monday that the monument, which was previously located in Assiniboine Park, was reinstalled near The Leaf on Friday. 'Last September, we pledged to work with the City of Winnipeg to find a permanent home for the monument consistent with the direction provided by the Executive Policy Committee and City Council,' a City of Winnipeg spokesperson said in a statement. 'After further consultation with stakeholders, we agreed to return it to the Park.' The monument was originally a gift from the Fraternal Order of Eagles and was on display from 1965 to 2017. It was the only monument donated to a Canadian city, according to the city, as the remaining monuments were donated to U.S. cities. It was placed in storage due to the construction of The Leaf. In 2024, city council approved returning the monument to the Fraternal Order of Eagles. 'Over the past year, working with the CAO's office, (Assiniboine Park Conservancy) consulted with stakeholders regarding future placement of the monument and ultimately agreed to reinstall it in the Park,' the city spokesperson said. -With files from CTV's Danton Unger.
Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Times
What links a sexy devil, UFOs and a tsar's drunken night out?
In a secluded hollow in Brussels Park a monument marks the spot where the Russian tsar Peter the Great was drunkenly sick after attending a particularly boozy banquet in April 1717. The strange memorial is featured in a new travel guide, Bizarre Belgium, gathering together 50 of Belgium's strangest places — and making a good case for the country to be considered among Europe's most idiosyncratic. 'Belgium is an eccentric country because of its history and weird situation, with the different languages and peoples. So, I think we try to make it fun and this is why we have a surrealist tradition,' Kamiel De Bruyne, one of the guide's authors, said. Belgium is a country regarded by many historians as an artificial creation by Europe's great powers after the defeat of Napoleon, which often seems to be on the brink of falling apart. It is an uneasy marriage between the Dutch-speaking Flemish and francophone Walloons, governed by a famously dysfunctional state, with various dark chapters in its less than 200-year history. • The best of Belgium: where to stay and what to do Karen François, De Bruyne's girlfriend and co-author, said Belgians think their nation 'very normal', adding: 'We wouldn't say 'weird little Belgium' ourselves.' The couple, both aged 33, are uncovering the remains of a fountain basin in Brussels Park, formerly known as the Royal Park, dating back to the 18th century and covered by hedge trimming dumped by park keepers. It bears an inscription in cod Latin: 'Petrus Alexiowitz Czar Moscoviae magnus dux margini hujus fontis insidens illius aquam nobilitavit libato vino hora post meridian tertiadie XVI April's anno 1717'. Translated, Kamiel said, the inscription relates that the tsar, 'seated at the edge of the fountain, enriched its waters with the wine he has consumed, at 3pm on April 16, 1717'. Drunk after a lavish banquet, Peter the Great was sick and, legend has it, fell asleep there until the next morning. Several feet away is a bust of the Russian autocrat and emperor raised in the 19th century by an aristocratic countryman to mark the visit. 'It is a tribute to a royal puke,' said De Bruyne. 'Instead of politely forgetting the whole thing, someone in Brussels decided to immortalise it.' Located in a less-than-inviting corner of the park, right opposite and below the present royal palace, reflecting the lower street level of the 18th century, the statue was once infamous as a trysting spot between government officials and prostitutes, according to François. De Bruyne said that of other landmarks in the travel guide he had a particular soft spot for western Europe's only monument or memorial to UFOs by a roadside in Flanders. 'It is absolutely my favourite,' he said. It recalls a traffic jam, a traditional sight on Belgium's national day of July 21, as everyone headed to the coast in 1955. Marin Vandercruyssen, an 18-year-old soldier, was riding pillion on his father's motorbike when they saw a crowd of more than 20 people pointing up in the air. He followed their gaze and saw five gigantic silver circular flying saucers. They were at least 100 metres in diameter, according to Vandercruyssen and other witnesses. After ten minutes the UFOs supposedly disappeared but changed Vandercruyssen's life for ever. 'He was convinced the alien would come back,' De Bruyne said. 'His dream was to be taken to their planet and that is why he wanted to put the marker there, so they could find him. It even includes a picture of him from 1955 so they can recognise him.' Vandercruyssen died in 2020 — 'no aliens ever turned up', De Bruyne added. 'It is very sad, beautiful and Belgian.' The top pick for François is the 'sexy Satan' of Liège. The 19th-century statue of Lucifer in the city's cathedral depicts the fallen angel as a brooding and muscular young man. The first version of the work, L'ange du mal (Angel of evil) by Joseph Geefs in 1842, was considered to be too seductive and was removed. It is now in a Brussels museum. The second, 1848's Le génie du mal, (The genius of evil) by Joseph's brother William, was still controversial, even though it had more clothes, and was allowed to stay. 'Very typical Belgium: we make something. Oh, no, it's too much. Too hot. Sexy Satan. We will remove it. Now we'll make an even better one. Super sexy Satan,' she said, recounting how the 'sunlight streams through the stained glass windows right on to his six-pack and muscular thighs'. No guide to Belgium can be complete without Leopold II, the great, great, great-uncle of the present king, Philippe. Now seen as a monster, he ran the Congo as his personal colonial fiefdom between 1885 and 1908 when at least ten million Congolese people, more than half the population, either died or were killed. The book includes a British-built pedal tricycle, now in a military museum, which Leopold used to visit one of his mistresses, Blanche Delacroix. The guide also features a now boarded-up royal station. Built in a neo-classical style, the station was purpose-built to receive high-ranking guests and, rumour has it, to ensure Leopold received the first edition of The Times by express train every day. 'I think you should come and visit Belgium and do all the typical tourist places and visit Bruges, which is great and amazing and beautiful,' De Bruyne said. 'But if you come to Belgium a second time, bring this book to go to these weird and peculiar places that otherwise you would miss.'
France 24
4 days ago
- Sport
- France 24
Liverpool to remember Jota with permanent tribute
Father of three Jota died alongside his brother on July 3, 11 days after marrying his long-term partner Rute Cardoso, after their car came off the road and burst into flames in northern Spain. A large number of tributes in the shape of flowers, scarves, cards and jerseys have been left at Anfield which Liverpool said would form the basis for the permanent monument. "The thousands of physical tributes outside Anfield have been gradually removed over the course of the last week and carefully separated and safely stored," the club said in a statement. "Floral tributes will then be composted and used in flower beds across all club sites. "The remaining artefacts will be recycled by a specialist company and used to help create a permanent memorial sculpture that will become a future focal point of remembrance at Anfield." The club also said that players will have a "Forever 20" emblem - referencing Jota's now-retired shirt number - printed on their shirts and stadium jackets for the season. Liverpool paid tribute to Jota and Silva during their friendly at Preston a fortnight ago and will hold their main commemoration, which will feature a fan mosaic and a minute of silence, before they kick off the new season at home to Bournemouth on August 15.
The Guardian
7 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Neolithic long cairn in Yorkshire given extra protection after walkers remove stones
A rare and remarkable 5,000-year-old monument that is an example of one of the earliest visible structures in England is to receive extra protection because walkers, sometimes innocently, have been removing and moving stones. The Dudderhouse Hill long cairn in the Yorkshire Dales has been granted 'scheduled monument' status by the government, making it a site of national importance with greater legal protection. The long cairn is remarkable in many ways and helps us understand the lives, deaths and beliefs of the first farming communities, said Paul Jeffery, the national listings manager at Historic England, which has advised the government. 'This time was the beginning of everything.' To the untrained eye Dudderhouse Hill may look like a large pile of stones in the middle of nowhere and that helps explain the often unintentional damage, said Jeffery. The long cairn, near the village of Austwick in North Yorkshire, dates from about 3,400-2,400BC and is one of the oldest visible reminders of our prehistoric past. It is thought to be one of the first structures communally constructed by humans. Jeffery said: 'The fact it has survived at all demonstrates how well constructed it was and how monumental in the landscape back in its time.' The long cairn, which was built by a Neolithic farming community who were the successors to hunter-gatherers and lived in caves and stone huts, may have had a number of purposes. One of those was funerary, as a 'home for the dead', although not for whole bodies. Evidence suggests the deceased were left to the birds and elements before body parts were ritualistically interred in the monument. Long cairns may also have been positioned, like Stonehenge, to help communities know when seasons started and ended. Another function of the long cairn was to say 'this is our land', said Jeffery. 'Building a structure like that would have taken a lot of people a significant amount of time. They would have had to be fed by others, there would have been specialist stonemasons and engineers – a lot of effort would have been invested into those structures. They are a statement of 'this is us', 'we are here'.' Research suggests the long cairn was used as an animal pen in the 16th century and in more recent years has been damaged by people removing and moving stones, sometimes innocently to create way markers for walkers. 'The problem is this causes sustained and considerable damage over time,' said Jeffery. 'People might only be taking one stone and don't realise the harm they're doing. If it was left unchecked, eventually the evidence for its existence would be lost completely.' Scheduled monument status means the long cairn will receive the highest level of protection available and means the national park authority can carry out a project to educate people about the site's importance. Duncan Wilson, the chief executive of Historic England, said: 'Scheduling this remarkable neolithic long cairn ensures that this rare and fragile piece of our prehistoric heritage receives the protection it deserves.'
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mexico City bids adiós to monument to Castro and 'Che' Guevara
Goodbye, Fidel. Hasta la vista, Che. Denunciations and accolades greeted the abrupt removal this month of a controversial monument in the Mexican capital commemorating the two revolutionaries, Fidel Castro and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. The monument, a pair of bronze, life-sized sculptures of Castro and Guevara chilling on a bench, recalls a consequential moment in both Mexican and Cuban history — the pair's first meeting, which took place in an apartment in Mexico City in June or July 1955, according to historians. At the time, both were twentysomething militants in the formative stages of their transformation into leftist icons who would inspire a global generation of revolutionaries and activists. A leftist Mexico City government installed the monument in 2017 in a small park in the capital's Colonia Tabacalera neighborhood, not far from where the storied duo first met in a Cold War encounter that has taken on near-mythical dimensions among many on the left. In the two sculptures, both men stare straight ahead and are decked out in light combat garb — Guevara in his trademark beret (a look immortalized on T-shirts across the globe) and Castro sporting a fighter's cap. His legs crossed, Castro grasps a cigar in his left hand, and a book on his right. Guevara's right hand secures a pipe. The sculpture has long sparked polemics: While adherents of the left generally applauded it, and some visitors would leave flowers, critics assailed the artwork as a tasteless shrine to a bloody communist dictatorship. 'Ideological censorship' César Huerta, left-wing journalist, on the statues' removal Spearheading its removal Wednesday was Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, conservative borough president of the capital's central Cuauhtémoc district, where the bench (known as Encuentro or Encounter) was situated. Her decision, Rojo de la Vega initially explained on social media, was based on legality — not politics. She said there wasn't "one single paper" authorizing the monument's installation. Its removal, she added, would allow park denizens to stroll in "liberty and security." Read more: Case of 'El Chapo' son cooperating with U.S. prosecutors roils Mexico She posted images of city workers prying out the two figures from the bench and the bronzed Castro and Guevara being ignominiously hauled away in a bulldozer. But the borough president later pivoted to a more ideological rationale. "This city cannot ... promote or provide refuge for figures who injured human dignity, be it in Mexico or the rest of the world" Rojo de la Vega told Radio Formula. As to the fate of the dual bronzes, she said that officials may consider a sale, using the proceeds — likely from lefty purchasers enthralled with the Cuban uprising — for park upkeep. Read more: Many Mexican immigrants swept up in L.A. raids are deeply rooted in U.S. "If we auction them off, it will mark a first — the communists will use their money, not someone else's," Rojo de la Vega said. "If they love them so much, they can put them in their garden, or their patio." Not pleased was Mexico's leftist president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who said she would speak to the Mexico City mayor — a political ally — about placing the monument elsewhere. The question isn't whether one embraces or rejects the views of the two protagonists, Sheinbaum argued to reporters on Thursday. The Castro-Che encounter, the president said, recalled "a historic moment" that unfolded in Mexico and merited a display of memory. The contretemps here echoes spats in the United States about monuments glorifying Confederate generals: Critics decry the displays as exalting traitors and white supremacists, while others argue that the statues just reflect history. 'An assassin with good press' José Luis Trueba Lara, radio commentator, on Ernesto 'Che' Guevara In the case of the Castro and Guevara likenesses, Sheinbaum suggested that their removal was partisan payback for her own signature monument-canceling moment — the banishment of one of Mexico's most illustrious landmarks, a virtual symbol of the city. In her former post, as mayor of Mexico City, Sheinbaum ordered the removal of a soaring bronze of Christopher Columbus, which, for more than a century, graced a pedestal in the capital's elegant Paseo de la Reforma. The stylized tableau depicted Columbus as a noble conqueror: one hand raised to the horizon, the other lifting a veil from a globe. For years, Indigenous activists and others staged protests at the statue, labeling Columbus and other conquistadores as perpetrators of genocide. In 2020, Sheinbaum finally ordered that the Columbus monument be taken down for renovations; it was never returned to its lofty perch. Its ejection enraged both Columbus' admirers and others who viewed the monument as an integral marker of the Mexican capital. They accuse Sheinbaum of bowing to political correctness. The traffic circle where Columbus long lent his presence has now been renamed the Women Who Fight roundabout, a rallying point for Indigenous, feminist and other protesters hoisting handwritten placards. The grandiose Columbus figure, meantime, remains out of public sight in museum storage. The Castro-Guevara bench, situated in an easy-to-miss park, didn't compare in size or significance to the towering Columbus of the stylish Paseo de la Reforma. But its removal lit up social media, rekindling historic enmities. "An intent to erase the symbols of battle, of resistance, of Mexican-Cuban humanity," César Huerta, a left-wing journalist, wrote on X, blasting the action as "ideological censorship." Read more: How 'El Diablo,' a corrupt Mexican lawman, helped create a narco-state A radio commentator, José Luis Trueba Lara, bid good riddance, calling Guevara "an assassin with good press" and Castro a "bloodcurdling dictator." Carlos Bravo Regidor, a columnist, berated the left for being more concerned "about the retirement of some miserable statues of Fidel and el Che than for the misery suffered by those who live beneath the yoke of the Cuban dictatorship." At the time of his 1955 encounter with Guevara, Castro, then 28, was not long out of a Cuban prison for an insurgent attack against the U.S.-backed Cuban dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Guevara, one year younger, was a physician from a middle-class Buenos Aires' upbringing brimming with revolutionary fervor — and a vision of a pan-Latin American socialist union, free of U.S. "imperialism." The two young men immediately hit if off, historians say, embarking on a lifelong friendship and collaboration in the revolutionary project. Both would be among 82 fighters aboard the yacht Granma that, in November 1956, set sail for Cuba from Mexico's Gulf coast. Their voyage, and subsequent guerrilla campaign, would culminate in 1959 in a historic overthrow of Batista and the imposition of a communist government in Havana. Fidel and el Che are long gone, and the book on the Cold War officially closed more than a quarter-century ago. But, as the fiery debate here about an unassuming bench statue illustrates, the ideological fault lines of the Cold War are far from completely obscured, at least not in Latin America. Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
