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Tivoli Castle is a mansion located in the Ljubljana's Tivoli Park. In the early 15th century, a tower stood in the woods above the site; it was owned by Georg Apfalterer, an ally of Duke Frederick (later Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III). The tower was destroyed by Frederick II, Count of Celje in 1440.
The current structure was built in the 17th century atop the ruins of a previous Renaissance-period castle, the mansion was initially owned by the Jesuits, but came into the possession of the Diocese of Ljubljana following the 1773 suppression of the Jesuit order. Used as the bishop's summer residence, it was surrounded with orchards.
In the mid-19th century, it was bought by the Austrian emperor Francis Joseph I, who in 1852 presented it as a gift to the veteran Habsburg marshal Joseph Radetzky. Radetzky renovated the mansion in the Neoclassical style, giving it its present appearance, and spent much of his retirement in it with his wife Francisca von Strassoldo Grafenberg, a local Carniolan noblewoman.
The field marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz (1766–1858) contributed a lot to the arrangement of Tivoli Park. There was a full-size cast iron statue of Radetzky on display in Ljubljana on the steps in front of Tivoli Castle from 1882 till 1918. In 1851, it won a prize at the Great Exhibition in London. Today, it is preserved by the City Museum of Ljubljana. The statue's pedestal, however, remains at its original place.
In 1863, the mansion was bought by the Municipality of Ljubljana, who used it as (among other things) a poorhouse, later subdividing it into condominiums. In 1967, it was again renovated and became the venue for the International Centre of Graphic Arts.
In 1864, the Austrian sculptor Anton Dominik Fernkorn created four cast iron dogs, still on display in Tivoli Park in front of Tivoli Castle. The dogs do not have tongues, and it has been falsely rumoured that Fernkorn committed suicide by shooting himself due to this mistake.
References:The Church of Saint Demetrius, or Hagios Demetrios, is the main sanctuary dedicated to Saint Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki. It is part of the site Palaeochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessaloniki on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO since 1988.
The first church on the spot was constructed in the early 4th century AD, replacing a Roman bath. A century later, a prefect named Leontios replaced the small oratory with a larger, three-aisled basilica. Repeatedly gutted by fires, the church eventually was reconstructed as a five-aisled basilica in 629–634. This was the surviving form of the church much as it is today. The most important shrine in the city, it was probably larger than the local cathedral. The historic location of the latter is now unknown.
The church had an unusual shrine called the ciborium, a hexagonal, roofed structure at one side of the nave. It was made of or covered with silver. The structure had doors and inside was a couch or bed. Unusually, it did not hold any physical relics of the saint. The ciborium seems to have been a symbolic tomb. It was rebuilt at least once.
The basilica is famous for six extant mosaic panels, dated to the period between the latest reconstruction and the inauguration of the Byzantine Iconoclasm in 730. These mosaics depict St. Demetrius with officials responsible for the restoration of the church (called the founders, ktetors) and with children. An inscription below one of the images glorifies heaven for saving the people of Thessalonica from a pagan Slavic raid in 615.
Thessaloniki became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1430. About 60 years later, during the reign of Bayezid II, the church was converted into a mosque, known as the Kasımiye Camii after the local Ottoman mayor, Cezeri Kasım Pasha. The symbolic tomb however was kept open for Christian veneration. Other magnificent mosaics, recorded as covering the church interior, were lost either during the four centuries when it functioned as a mosque (1493–1912) or in the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 that destroyed much of the city. It also destroyed the roof and upper walls of the church. Black-and-white photographs and good watercolour versions give an idea of the early Byzantine craftsmanship lost during the fire.
Following the Great Fire of 1917, it took decades to restore the church. Tombstones from the city"s Jewish cemetery - destroyed by the Greek and Nazi German authorities - were used as building materials in these restoration efforts in the 1940s. Archeological excavations conducted in the 1930s and 1940s revealed interesting artifacts that may be seen in a museum situated inside the church"s crypt. The excavations also uncovered the ruins of a Roman bath, where St. Demetrius was said to have been held prisoner and executed. A Roman well was also discovered. Scholars believe this is where soldiers dropped the body of St. Demetrius after his execution. After restoration, the church was reconsecrated in 1949.