Flossenburg

Flossenburg was founded as a Hohenstaufen stronghold in 948. It is located on the Czech border.

Flossenburg has a large granite quarry, which was used to build the castle.

The castle was destroyed during the 30 Years War by the Swedes.

The town of Flossenburg

Flossenburg Concentration Camp was founded by enterprising SS leaders who wanted to use slave labor to mine the granite and sell it to the Nazi government to build Albert Speer's monumental projects. The SS even had their own business, the German Earth and Stone Works Company (DESt).

The Nazis wanted the German populace to think the stone used in monuments like the Nuremberg Rally site were mined by noble German stonemasons, not slaves.

You can see Flossenburg castle in the background.

SS officials were willing to sell labor assistance to locals in the area for the right price, and the local community was integrated into the fabric of the camp. After WWII a great forgetting occurred about the complicity of the populace with the crimes occurring at their doorstep.

As the Soviets liberated Poland, Flossenburg was flooded with prisoners from other concentration camps. This is when the majority of prisoners died at the camp. The Poles built the first memorials here to remember their dead.

The church at Flossenburg Concentration Camp has stained glass windows of the nations and peoples most effected by the Nazi's disregard for non-German human life.

Parkstein

Parkstein is a volcanically formed hill that dominates the surrounding countryside.

A church sits at the top of the formation. There was once a castle that rested there.

Parkstein is made up of hexagonal and pentagonal basalt outcrops.

The site was originally settled in the 11th century.

There is also a small town built around the hill.

Out of this world!

Innsbruck

Innsbruck is the largest city in Tyrol, Austria and strategically placed along the Brenner Pass between Germany and Italy. We visited the Hofkirche, with a famous cenotaph to Emperor Maximilian I, which is connected to the Tyrolean Museum of Folk Art. This Lucifer costume from the St. Nicholas Play from a Tyrolean valley doesn't disappoint.

Maximilian fought a war against Venice as part of the League of Cambrai.

The Maximilian 4D experience is surprisingly good.

It gets weird.

And spooky.

Andreas Hofer is actually buried in the Hofkirche. This innkeeper led a (temporarily) successful Tyrolean revolt against Bavaria and Napoleon, but was ultimately captured and executed.

The tomb where Maximilian was supposed to be buried. He is still modestly buried in Wiener Neustadt. The tomb is covered with marble reliefs of Maximilian's accomplishments during his life. The room is lined with statues of heroes, relatives, and ancestors related to the Hapsburg.

Apparently Kaiser Rudolf's codpiece is good luck.

Ernest the Iron isn't messing around.

The Silver Chapel

Puti!

Don't mess with Tyrolean mountain men.

Maybe mess with these ones.

Bird of Self-Knowledge

The Golden Roof, where Maximilian spoke to the people of Innsbruck.

Hard Rock Cafe is everywhere...

Bologna

Bologna, the largest city in Emilia-Romagna, was a center of learning and wealth during the first half of the 2nd millennium. Its most iconic site is the Two Towers, built in the 12th century by one of the independent city's powerful noble houses.

An elephant house

The Fountain of Neptune in the city center. The Palazzo Re Enzo behind Neptune is where Emperor Frederick II's last son was imprisoned for life (23 years) after being captured in a battle by Bologna.

The Basilica di San Petronio

The Palazzo d'Accursio

Bologna's Civic Archeology Museum has an excellent collection of Roman and Etruscan artifacts. This torso of Nero had its head removed after he was declared an enemy of state after his death.

The museum had an excellent special exhibit on Etruria. Bologna was originally an Etruscan city called Felsina. This burial urn was found outside the city.

Gold tablets in Etruscan and Phoenician found on the northern Lazio coast. These tablets describe the foundation of the Temple of Pyrgi, where they were found.

Gorgons

Nice wine cooler

Another type of Etruscan tomb

"The journey through the lands of the Rasna naturally has to start from Tarquinia, where the myth located the birth of Tages: a divine child with the wisdom and some physical traits of an old man, like white hair. Tages emerged from a clod of earth turned by a farmer's plow. On hearing the cry of the amazed discoverer, all Etruria is said to have come hurrying up, to learn from his lips the fundamentals of the Etrusca disciplina, the set of rules governing relations between the gods and men, which soon became an identity train of all the populi of Etruria."

Terracotta statues from Etruscan temples

Etruscan burial urns from Perugia

A couple's burial urn

Weapons melted together, found at Populonia

Amber fibulae crafted by the Etruscans

A Bronze Etruscan statue of Hercules, who was popular in their culture as well after being spread to Italy by the Greeks.

Oval shaped Etruscan tombstones

A Roman water pipe from the age of Augustus.

The Archiginnasio of Bologna used to house the University of Bologna, and now houses a library. The walls serve as an enormous heraldic complex. There is also a famous anatomical theater inside.

The Tomb of Rolandino de' Passaggeri, a famous Guelph jurist from Bologna.