Tag Archives: architecture

Puzzle: Brighton, East Sussex, England


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Big Ben, MB Puzzles
Notes: In the mid 1780s George, Prince of Wales, rented a small farmhouse overlooking a fashionable promenade in Brighton.  Brighton was developing from a decayed fishing town to an established seaside retreat for the rich and famous, being close to London. George IV’s original farmhouse had little land attached to it. As his financial position improved he was able to purchase parcels of land surrounding the palace to create the estate we see today. John Nash transformed Henry Holland’s modest Marine Pavilion into an Indian-style palace. The grand central dome was balanced by the sweeping tent roofs of the Music Room and the Banqueting Room, and a forest of small domes, minarets, pinnacles and chimneystacks. The rendered surfaces of the Royal Pavilion were painted in imitation of stone to match real stone details, creating a unified vision of a building made of Bath stone.

The Royal Pavilion gardens were designed by John Nash as a picturesque pleasure ground for the king. The garden designs reflect the revolution in landscape gardening that had begun in the 1730s. Straight lines and symmetrical shapes were replaced with curving paths, natural groups of trees and shrubs and picturesque views. Planting began in 1816 (at the same time as John Nash’s remodelling of the Marine Pavilion) and was completed by the early 1820s. It provided an attractive, shady sanctuary on a hot summer’s day. [Royal Pavilion, Museums, and Libraries site]

Puzzle: Presumably Venice


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 43.18cm x 48.9cm
Producer: Hasbro, MB Puzzle
Notes: Venice is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon, connected by 409 bridges.[38] In the old centre, the canals serve the function of roads, and almost every form of transport is on water or on foot. In the 19th century a causeway to the mainland brought the Venezia Santa Lucia railway station to Venice, and the Ponte della Liberta road causeway and parking facilities were built during the twentieth century. Beyond the road/rail land entrances at the northern edge of the city, transportation within the city remains (as it was in centuries past) entirely on water or on foot. Venice is Europe’s largest urban car-free area. Venice is unique in Europe, in having remained a sizable functioning city in the twenty-first century entirely without motorcars or trucks.

The classical Venetian boat is the gondola, although it is now mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies. Many gondolas are lushly appointed with crushed velvet seats and Persian rugs. Less well-known is the smaller sandolo. The main transportation means are motorised waterbuses (vaporetti), which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city’s islands, and private boats. The only gondolas still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points without bridges. [Wiki]

Puzzle: European Riverbank


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group, Impressions series
Notes: Hundreds of rivers and their tributaries cross the European continent. WorldAtlas highlights those over 600 miles in length, and a few others of note.

A riverbank or stream-bank: the terrain alongside the bed of a river, creek, or stream. [Wiki]

Click on a name of the river to trace its passage through Europe and see statistical information about it on the EurAtlas site.

Puzzle: Taj Mahal, India


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.69cm x 39.37cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group, images series, #43570-13
Notes: The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia and over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials. The translucent white marble was brought from Makrana, Rajasthan, the jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, twenty eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.

A labour force of twenty thousand workers was recruited across northern India. Sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers from southern India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a specialist in building turrets, another who carved only marble flowers were part of the thirty-seven men who formed the creative unit. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Doors of Dublin, Ireland


Size: 500 pieces
Notes: I brought this puzzle with me from Ireland in 2008. I do not have a record of the producer of the puzzle as I do not have the box anymore. A clarification is welcome – if you have any clue as to the details regarding this puzzle, I would much appreciate that information.

“If you’ve taken an escorted tour of Dublin you might have been told by your guide that the famous writer George Moore lived next to another famous writer, Oliver St John Gogarty, in Ely Place. Both were a bit eccentric and it’s said that Moore painted his door green so that the drunken Gogarty would not come knocking on it, thinking it to be his own door. Gogarty then painted his door red so that the drunken Moore would not come knocking on his door! And that’ supposedly is what started the fashion. The truth is a lot less colourful.

According to the history books, George Moore was generally abstemious, drinking only a little wine with dinner and repelled by displays of public drunkeness. More relevant to our story however, was that George’s home and those of his neghbours were built in the Georgian style and the exteriors had to adhere to strict architectural guidelines. In order to set themselves apart, the former residents of Georgian Dublin painted their front doors whatever color they fancied (“red was more durable”), added ornate knockers, elegant fanlights above the door, and wrought iron boot scrapers, near the the entrance. Decorated iron coal-hole covers were often embedded in the pavement. Today, most of the houses have their original fanlights, some still with box shaped glass recesses in which a lamp would have been placed. There are also examples of a simple security device in the form of a fan-shaped arrangement of spikes set into the wall beside a window to foil burglars. Sometimes a similar device was inserted inside the fanlight.” [Irish culture and customs site]

Puzzle: St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Ireland


Size: 500 pieces
Notes: I brought this puzzle with me from Ireland in 2008. I do not have a record of the producer of the puzzle as I do not have the box anymore. A clarification is welcome – if you have any clue as to the details regarding this puzzle, I would much appreciate that information.

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, or more formally, the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Patrick, is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Dublin, Ireland which was founded in 1191. The Church has designated it as The National Cathedral of Ireland. It is the larger of the Church’s two cathedrals in the city and is the largest church in Ireland with a 43 metre spire. [Wiki]

Built in honour of Ireland’s patron saint, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral stands adjacent to the famous well where tradition has it Saint Patrick baptized converts on his visit to Dublin.

The parish church of Saint Patrick on this site was granted collegiate status in 1191, and raised to cathedral status in 1224. The present building dates from 1220. The Cathedral is today the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland (a church of the Anglican communion). [Saint Patrick’s Cathedral site]

Puzzle: Rock of Cashel, Ireland


Size: 500 pieces
Notes: I brought this puzzle with me from Ireland in 2008. I do not have a record of the producer of the puzzle as I do not have the box anymore. A clarification is welcome – if you have any clue as to the details regarding this puzzle, I would much appreciate that information.

The Rock of Cashel (Irish: Carraig Phádraig), also known as Cashel of the Kings and St. Patrick’s Rock, is a historic site in Ireland’s province of Munster, located at Cashel, South Tipperary.

The Rock of Cashel was the traditional seat of the kings of Munster for several hundred years prior to the Norman invasion. Few remnants of the early structures survive; the majority of buildings on the current site date from the 12th and 13th centuries. Cashel is reputed to be the site of the conversion of the King of Munster by St. Patrick in the 5th century. The picturesque complex has a character of its own and is one of the most remarkable collections of Celtic art and medieval architecture to be found anywhere in Europe.

According to local mythology, the Rock of Cashel originated in the Devil’s Bit, a mountain 20 miles(30 km) north of Cashel when St. Patrick banished Satan from a cave, resulting in the Rock’s landing in Cashel. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Ray of Light by Jim Zuckerman


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.5cm
Producer: Sure-Lox
Artist: Jim Zuckerman – Jim has been a contributing editor to Photographic Magazine for 3 1/2 decades. His images, articles, and photo features have been published in scores of books and magazines including Time-Life books, publications of the National Geographic Society, Outdoor Photographer, Life Magazine, Omni Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Shutterbug, Science Fiction Age, National Wildlife and Opticon, a prestigious photo magazine in Greece. He is the author of 14 books on photography, and he now teaches many on-line courses. [Jim Zuckerman’s site]

Puzzle: San Xavier Mission, Arizona


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26 cm x 35.56 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Impressions series
Notes: Mission San Xavier del Bac is a historic Spanish Catholic mission located about 16 km south of downtown Tucson, Arizona, on the Tohono O’odham San Xavier Indian Reservation. Named for a pioneering Christian missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order), the Mission is also known as the “place where the water appears,” as there were once natural springs in the area. The Santa Cruz River which now runs only part of the year is also nearby. The Mission is situated in the center of a centuries-old Indian settlement of the Tohono O’odham (formerly known as Papago), located along the banks of the Santa Cruz River. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Crash Course in Italian by Thomas Barbèy


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer: TreeToys, 2004, Puzzle Art series
Artist: Thomas Barbèy
Original: print
Notes:  Every single one of my images has to pass what I like to call the “So what?” test. If a combination of two or more negatives put together doesn’t touch me or have any particular meaning, I throw it out. I try to combine images and sometimes the results can be disappointing. A giant clock in the middle of the ocean can be an unusual image but if I look at it and say to myself, “So waht?” This means it isn’t good enough. If instead, an ocean liner is going down a “funnel-type” hole and I entitle it “shortcut to China,” it takes on a whole new meaning. The picture takes you into an imaginary world where you can see the captain telling the passengers to fasten their safety belts to get prepared for the descent.
At times I come up with ideas beforehand, try to materialize them and it works. At other times, it is an accident and the ideas come afterwards, when the image is already finished and the concept has yet to be understood. It is almost as if I am learning constantly through the process of creation. I travel a lot to take photographs of different things and places. Sometimes I use an image several years later, but only when it fits, like the perfect piece in a puzzle, and completes my latest project. Some images are composed of negatives that are separated by a decade in the actual time that I had taken them and only come to life when they found their perfect match. it’s the combination of two or more negatives that they give birth to a completely unsual vision, but most of all, the title I give the final image is the glue and the substance of the piece. [Thomas Barbèy]

Puzzle: The Great Wall, China


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Impressions
Notes:  The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups. Several walls have been built since the 5th century BC that are referred to collectively as the Great Wall, which has been rebuilt and maintained from the 5th century BC through the 16th century. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains; the majority of the existing wall was built during the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The most comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that all the walls measure 8,851.8 km. This is made up of 6,259.6 km sections of actual wall, 359.7 km of trenches and 2,232.5 km of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Santorini, Greece


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Land Marks series
Notes: The traditional architecture of Santorini is similar to that of the other Cyclades, with low-lying cubical houses, made of local stone and whitewashed or limewashed with various volcanic ashes used as colors. The unique characteristic is the common utilisation of the hypóskapha: extensions of houses dug sideways or downwards into the surrounding pumice. These rooms are prized because of the high insulation provided by the air-filled pumice, and are used as living quarters of unique coolness in the summer and warmth in the winter, and also as premium storage space for produce and especially for wine cellaring: the Kánava wineries of Santorini. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Monte Carlo, Monaco


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox
Notes: Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco. Monte Carlo is widely known for its casino and its prominence. The permanent population is about 15,000 in Quarter. Monte Carlo quarter includes not only Monte Carlo proper where the Le Grand Casino is located, it also includes the neighbourhoods of Saint-Michel, Saint-Roman/Tenao, and the beach community of Larvotto. It is also one of Monaco’s 10 wards with a population of 3,500. It borders the French town of Beausoleil (sometimes referred to as Monte-Carlo-Supérieur).

The “Monte Carlo” name is of Italian origin, meaning the “Mount of Charles” named after the Prince Charles III of Monaco during the time of his reign. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Rockefeller Center


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Land Marks series
Notes: Rockefeller Center or Rockefeller Plaza is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.

Paul Manship’s highly recognizable bronze gilded statue of the Greek legend of the Titan Prometheus recumbent, bringing fire to mankind, features prominently in the sunken plaza at the front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The model for Prometheus was Leonardo (Leon) Nole, and the inscription from Aeschylus, on the granite wall behind, reads: “Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends.” [Wiki]

Puzzle: View from the CN Tower


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, City Scapes series
Notes: The CN Tower is a communications and observation tower in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Standing 553.33 metres tall, it was completed in 1976, becoming the world’s tallest free-standing structure and world’s tallest tower at the time. It held both records for 34 years until the completion of the Burj Khalifa and Canton Tower. It remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, a signature icon of Toronto’s skyline, and a symbol of Canada.

Its name “CN” originally referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. Following the railway’s decision to divest non-core freight railway assets, prior to the company’s privatization in 1995, it transferred the tower to the Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation responsible for real estate development. Since the name CN Tower became common in daily usage, the abbreviation was eventually expanded to Canadian National Tower or Canada’s National Tower. However, neither of these names is commonly used. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Belvedere Castle


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 68cm x 48.1cm
Producer:  Mega Brands, Click series
Notes: Belvedere Castle is a building in Central Park in New York, New York, that contains exhibit rooms and an observation deck.

Built as a Victorian folly in 1869, the castle caps Vista Rock, the park’s second-highest natural elevation Constructed of Manhattan schist quarried in the park and dressed with gray granite, it tops the natural-looking woodlands of The Ramble, as seen from the formal Bethesda Terrace. As the plantings matured, the castle has disappeared from its original intended viewpoint. Its turret is the highest point in the park.

Belvedere means ‘beautiful view’ or ‘panoramic view’ in Italian and the castle provides impressive views across Central Park and New York City. It was designed as an additional feature of the Central Park “Greensward” plan by the architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould after they, along with Frederick Law Olmsted, were reappointed to oversee the park’s construction in 1865.

The site, which overlooks the Lower Reservoir, already held a fire tower under the control of the Croton Aqueduct board. In 1867, the board transferred the site to the Park, and the fire tower was demolished. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Loire Valley, France


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 35cm x 48cm
Producer: Canada Games, Windsor
Location: The Loire Valley (French: Vallée de la Loire), spanning 280 kilometres, is located in the middle stretch of the Loire River in central France. It comprises an area of approximately 800 square kilometres. It is referred to as the Cradle of the French Language, and the Garden of France due to the abundance of vineyards, fruit orchards, artichoke, asparagus and cherry fields which line the banks of the river. Notable for its historic towns, architecture and wines, the valley has been inhabited since the Middle Palaeolithic period.

The valley includes historic towns such as Amboise, Angers, Blois, Chinon, Nantes, Orléans, Saumur, and Tours.

The architectural heritage in the valley’s historic towns is notable, especially its castles, such as the Châteaux d’Amboise, Château de Chambord, château d’Ussé, Château de Villandry and Chenonceau. The châteaux, numbering more than three hundred, represent a nation of builders starting with the necessary castle fortifications  in the 10th century to the splendor of those built half a millennium later. When the French kings began constructing their huge châteaux here, the nobility, not wanting or even daring to be far from the seat of power, followed suit. Their presence in the lush, fertile valley began attracting the very best landscape designers. In addition to its many châteaux, the cultural monuments illustrate to an exceptional degree the ideals of the Renaissance and the Age of the Enlightenment on western European thought and design. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Sacré-Coeur Basilica, Paris, France


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Big Ben, MB Puzzles
Notes: Once again the puzzle producer failed to be informative regarding the building depicted on the puzzle, titling it only as “Paris, France”. Thanks to my Parisian friend, the building was identified as the Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Monmartre.

Sacré-Cœur Basilica is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Paris, France. A popular landmark, the basilica is located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city. Sacré-Cœur is a double monument, political and cultural, both a national penance for the supposed excesses of the Second Empire and socialist Paris Commune of 1871 crowning its most rebellious neighborhood, and an embodiment of conservative moral order, publicly dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was an increasingly popular vision of a loving and sympathetic Christ. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Hidden Arbor by Thomas Kinkade


Size: 300 pieces (oversized)
Dimensions: 46cm x 61cm
Producer:  Ceaco
Artist: Thomas Kinkade
Painting: “I often seek out a quiet place to meditate and pray; a special retreat like Hidden Arbor. This marvelous waterfall, with its myriad rivulets and streams; the climbing flowers on a romantic arbor is a little touch of heaven.” [Thomas Kinkade site]

A pergola, arbor or arbour is a garden feature  forming a shaded walkway, passageway or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained. As a type of gazebo, it may also be an extension of a building, or serve as protection for an open terrace or a link between pavilions. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Portland Head Lighthouse


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26 cm x 35.56 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Images, #43270-10
Notes: Portland Head Light is a historic lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine that sits at the entrance of the shipping channel into Casco Bay. The headlight was the first built by the United States government, and is now a part of Fort Williams Park.

Construction began in 1787 at the directive of George Washington, and was completed on January 10, 1791. Whale oil lamps were originally used for illumination. In 1855 a fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed; that was replaced by a second-order Fresnel lens in which was replaced by an aero beacon in 1958 . That lens was replaced with an DCB-224 aero beacon in 1991. [Wiki]