If you have a hankering for a good sausage and want an excellent selection of as good matching beers to choose from, stop off at Wurstküche at 625 Lincoln Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90291 where you can have both. Should you prefer to eat whole foods only (vegetarian/vegan) they have that too! It’s a hip place with trendy reclaimed wood and steel tables. During the day it’s a mix of people, families with kids and some hipsters/millenials.
Tonight between 6PM – 9PM is the 5:th annual lighting of the sign, that is the Venice sign on Windward and pacific, organized by the Venice chamber of commerce and advertised as having activities “for the whole family”.
The Pantheon in Rome stands on a site where there was a Roman temple built by Marcus Agrippa during Augustus reign (27 BC – 14 AD). The later, current temple was built by emperor Hadrian and was likely dedicated in about 126 AD, today it serves as a church dedicated to “St Mary and the martyrs” and has done so since the 7:th century. Due in large part to it’s continuous use throughout history, it is one of the best preserved ancient Roman buildings in existence. An interesting fact about the current temple/church is that when it was constructed, Hadrian chose to retain the inscription that Magrippa made over the entrance of the earlier structure. This later caused some confusion as to when the later structure actually was constructed. The Pantheon is to this day the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world, with the interior circle measuring 43.3 m (142 ft) which is the same distance as from the floor to the “oculus”.
The purpose of the “oculus” (size is 8.2 m/27 ft) was to let in light so as to light the interior of the structure the same way as the sun would light earth. It also let’s rain in, which serves to cool the structure during the summer months.
The Diocletian baths sits on one of Rome’s seven hills, Viminal which is the smallest of the hills. The baths were commissioned by Maximian in 298 in honor of his co-emperor Diocletian. The water for the baths came from an aqueduct, Aqua Marcia which had supplied water to Rome since the early parts of the second century. The Diocletian baths were the grandest and most impressive of Rome’s baths
In 1561 Pope Pius IV ordered a basilica built into the ruins of the baths of Diocletian, it was to be dedicated to Christian martyrs, known and unknown. Michelangelo worked during the years 1563 and 1564 to build the basilica into a part of the ruins of the baths. There has also been later additions to the basilica, among them a meridian line (a type of sundial) added in the beginning of the 18:th century. The meridian line was added on the order of Pope Clement XI who wanted to check on the accuracy of the reformation of the Gregorian calendar, predict Easter exactly and least but not last he wanted to give Rome a meridian line as important as the one just built in the cathedral in Bologna. At solar noon (varies in time throughout the year, 10:54 a.m. UTC in late October to 11.24 a.m. UTC in February ) the sun shines through a small hole in the wall and hits a 45m long copper line inlaid in marble on the floor. The sun would hit the meridian line in different locations between the summer and winter solstices allowing the length of the year to be calculated.
The Diocletian baths site is also home to what is nowadays a part of the National Roman museum. The museum is mainly housed in the 16:th century Charterhouse designed by Michelangelo. It was built on the site of the baths (see model previously where in the middle towards the bottom of the model, you can clearly see the large courtyard surrounded by the Charterhouse structure). It was made into an exhibition space in time for the International Exhibition of Art 1911 (a worlds fair held in Rome celebrating the 50:th anniversary of the unification of Italy). The museum holds a large number of artifacts from archeological sites in and around Rome.
