On this day, October 19, 1866, Venice’s occupation by Austria (and France) officially ended. This equestrian monument on Riva degli Schiavoni commemorates that event and Venice subsequently becoming part of Italy. On one side, the Lion of Venice gnaws at its chains of Austrian occupation. On the other side, a liberated Venice celebrates her freedom. Two days later, the Venetian people voted to join Italy. Interestingly, inscribed on the pedestal are the results of that vote: 641,758 voted Yes, and 69 voted No.

The Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, also referred to as the “Basilica of the Holy Family,” is a huge church in the center of the Spanish city of Barcelona. It’s world-famous because of its striking design and the fact that it remains unfinished up until today. On Sundays we post Churches ⛪️

🚨🇮🇹 Hi everybody One of the most beautiful Gothic churches in the world, Milan’s Duomo, is now the backdrop for these devastating scenes They’re nothing but delinquents, rioters and troublemakers! The Trojan horse of something truly evil Outrageous

The story of Noah's Ark is mocked —relegated to children’s books and Sunday school songs. But now, in a remote corner of Turkey, science is telling a different story. And it's one the faithful already knew. 🧵

Even after 600 years, the dome of the Florence Cathedral remains the largest masonry/brick dome in the world today. In 1418 the city held a competition. A goldsmith named Filippo Brunelleschi said he could build the dome with no frame at all. The judges thought he was crazy. The painter and writer Giorgio Vasari tells the most famous story about it. Brunelleschi wouldn’t show anyone his plan. Instead he told the other masters that whoever could make an egg stand up on a marble table should build the dome. They all tried and failed. Brunelleschi tapped the bottom of the egg on the table, cracked it, and it stood. When they complained that anyone could have done that, he said they would say the same thing if they saw his plan. He got the job in 1420. To keep an eye on him, the city made his old rival Lorenzo Ghiberti co-director, on the same salary. Vasari says Brunelleschi then stayed home pretending to be sick, until it was clear that Ghiberti had no idea what to do without him. The secret was in the bricks. He built two domes, one inside the other, and laid the bricks in a herringbone pattern. Every few rows, some bricks stood upright and locked the new layer in place, so the wet mortar didn’t slide down while it dried. Rings of stone and iron around the dome held it together like the hoops on a barrel. Lifting 37,000 tons of material was the next problem. Brunelleschi designed a hoist driven by oxen that could lift or lower loads without turning the animals around. It was one of the first machines with a reverse gear. He even thought about lunch. Climbing down took so long that he set up a place to eat on the dome itself. According to the historian Ross King, the wine served up there was watered down so nobody fell. In 1434, in the middle of the work, Brunelleschi was thrown in jail for not paying his guild membership fees. He was let out after a few days. The dome was finished in 1436. It used more than four million bricks, and it was the largest dome ever built without a frame underneath.

At Nusa Penida, waves and erosion have carved limestone into towering cliffs, a narrow headland, and a secluded beach. The result is so striking that visitors see the shape of a giant dinosaur in the rock. Nature has been creating extraordinary forms long before human beings learned to build.

Take a very short walk around Savannah with me. It is short but it captures a slice of the city.

Hey @grok how much will the $TSLA Roadster cost? How much is a deposit?

The new Roadster will actually do something like this

The craziest car ever made!!! @Tesla Roadster flies and flips! 🤯