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Archaeologists
in Austria have discovered the remains of an unusual school under the
grounds of Vienna: a school for Roman gladiators, where slaves and prisoners
were taught to fight to the death.
LinkOne of the distinctive parts of the ruins is a thick wooden post in the middle of the training area which was used by gladiators as a practice enemy.
The Roemisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum said the three-dimensional images of the school reveal it to have been a mixture of a barracks and a prison.
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Oh, art! My day would certainly be much more dreary without performance art like this: In 2005, Marlene Haring donned a Chewbacca-worthy suit of hair and went crawling around Vienna’s "Second District" (the city’s red light district), much to the delight of passer-bys:
The long-blond-haired creature sleeping on the pavement at the street-corner rendezvous outside the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts did not greet the more-or-less informed audience, but set off at surprising speed on all fours into the park. The assorted audience followed as the creature made its way through the greenery towards the Prater (Vienna’s permanent fun-fair), past Autodrome, Space Shot, Ghost Train and Casino Admiral, emerging on Austellungsstrasse (Exhibition Road) and crossing into the neighbourhood known as the Stuwerviertel, where Marlene Haring lives.
Then it started to get weird: Link
Photo by Peter Korrak
For a hundred years or so, Vienna invested in coal/gas energy, but when the plant was decommissioned there were four large gasometers remaining. The imposing structures sat idly, appearing in the James Bond movie, The Living Daylights and hosting rave parties.
Rather than tear them down, architects designed them to be converted into apartment style housing. First, they gutted the structures.
Each gasometer was divided into several zones for living (apartments in the top), working (offices in the middle floors) and entertainment and shopping (shopping malls in the ground floors). The shopping mall levels in each gasometer are connected to the others by skybridges.
Additional features:
Over 70 restaurants/bars/cafes
A multiplex cinema with 12 screens
4200 person capacity events hall
Daycare center
The Vienna National Archive
11,000 square meters (118,403 sq ft) of office space
615 apartments
230-bed student dorm
Link with many cool photos.
Don’t worry about the guy perched on the fourth-story ledge of a building in Vienna. People stop and wonder, but he won’t jump. That’s just art. With a small A. The building houses investment and real estate offices, and the man is made of plastic. The art installation is scheduled to stay up for a year.
The artist, Austrian Ronald Kodritsch, says the piece — called “Reason to Believe” — is not necessarily about suicide.
“It’s not interesting whether he will jump or not. It’s all about having a different perspective on things and about what might cross his mind,” Kodritsch told Reuters. “Hyperrealism is boring!”
(image credit: Reuters/Heinz-Peter Bader)
