History.

The Kingdom of Italy occupied the port of Vlorë on December 1914, but had to withdraw after the Austrian-Hungarian invasion in late 1915 - early 1916, and the fall of Durrës on 27 February 1916. In May 1916, the Italian XVI Corps, some 100,000 men under the command of General Settimio Piacentini, returned and occupied the region of southern Albania by the autumn 1916, while the French army occupied Korçë and its surrounding areas on November 29, 1916. The Italian (in Gjirokastër) and French forces (in Korçë), according mainly to the development of the Balkan Front, entered the area of former Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus (controlled by the Greek minority) in autumn 1916, after approval of the Triple Entente. The establishment of the Autonomous Albanian Republic of Korçë was done on December 10, 1916 by French authorities with a protocol, according to which an autonomous province would be established on the territories of Korçë, Bilishti, Kolonja, Opar and Gora in eastern Albania. On December 12, 1916, Italy asked for explanations from the Quai d'Orsay, through its ambassador, because the establishment of the Autonomous Albanian Republic of Korçë violated the Treaty of London. Austria-Hungary used French precedent in Korçë to justify the proclamation of independence of Albania under its protectorate on January 3, 1917 in Shkodra.  The Kingdom of Italy did the same when proclaiming independence of Albania under its protectorate on June 23, 1917 in Gjirokastra. General Ferrero proclaimed on that day the Italian Protectorate and the next weeks occupied Ioannina in Epirus. Neither Great Britain nor France had been consulted beforehand, and they did not give any official recognition to the Italian Protectorate.  This Albanian republic under the leadership of Turhan Përmeti, protected by 100,000 soldiers of the Italian Army, adopted officially a red flag with a black eagle in the middle, but raised a storm of protests even in the Italian Parliament In autumn 1918, the Italians expanded their Protectorate (without adding anything officially to Albania) to areas of northern Greece (around Kastoria) and western Macedonia (around Bitola), conquered from the Bulgarians and Ottomans. On September 25 the Italian 35 Division reached and occupied Krusevo deep inside western Macedonia.  In October 1918, the Italian "XVI Corpo d' Armata" (nearly four divisions, with even 2 Albanian volunteers battalions) conquered all north-central Albania from the Austrians: on 10/14 Durres, the next day Tirane and on 10/31 Scutari; finally on November 3 even Ulcinj and Bar in actual coastal Montenegro.  In November 1918, when World War I finished, nearly all what is now contemporary Albania was under the Italian Protectorate, after the French expedition withdrawal from the Korce area (France "officially" put an end to the Autonomous Albanian Republic of Korçë on December 10, 1918).  Since then and for nearly two years until summer 1920 the Italian Protectorate over Albania was administered by the Italian government: in a country that lacked nearly everything after centuries of Ottoman rule, were built 546 km of new roads, 110 km of new railroads, 3000 km of telegraph lines, 9 teleferics, a few hospitals and some modern administrative buildings.

After World War I.

A delegation sent by a postwar "Albanian National Assembly" that met at Durrës in December 1918 defended Albanian interests at the Paris Peace Conference, but the conference denied Albania official representation. The National Assembly, anxious to keep Albania intact, expressed willingness to accept Italian protection and even an Italian prince as a ruler so long as it would mean Albania did not lose territory.  But in January 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference, negotiators from France, Britain, Italy and Greece agreed to divide Albania among Yugoslavia, Italy, and Greece as a diplomatic expedient aimed at finding a compromise solution to the territorial conflict between Italy and Yugoslavia. The deal (with the Valona territory and areas of south-central Albania given to Italy) was done behind the Albanians' backs and in the absence of a United States negotiator.  This deal created huge anti-Italian resentment between many Albanians and in May 1920 the Italians (even because of demobilisation of their troops after World War I ended) withdrew to some important cities (Durazzo, Scutari, Tirane, Valona, Tepelani and Clisura) and their surrounding areas: successively were forced to fight the Vlora war. The revolutionary movements in Italy made the presence of the last 20,000 soldiers of the Italian Army in Albania basically impossible.  On August 2, 1920 the Albanian-Italian protocol was signed, upon which Italy retreated from Albania (maintaining only the island of Saseno). This put an end to Italian claims for Vlora and for a mandate over Albania, rescuing the territory of the Albanian state from further partition.  The desire to compensate for this retreat would be one of Benito Mussolini's main motives in invading Albania in 1939

The Italian protectorate over Albania was established by the Kingdom of Italy during World War I in an effort to secure a "de jure" independent Albania under Italian control. It existed from June 23, 1917 until the summer of 1920.

Le protectorat italien sur l'Albanie fut mis en place par le royaume d'Italie pendant la Première Guerre mondiale afin de placer "de jure" l'Albanie indépendante sous contrôle italien. Il exista du jusqu'à l'été 1920.


Appearance.

The Cimarrón Uruguayo is large in size, compact and muscular. The coat is short and usually brindle but may be a pale yellow ("bayo"), with a black face. Height of males at the withers is from 58 to 61 cm (23 to 24 in) and weight is from 38 to 45 kg (84 to 99 lb). Adult females are slightly smaller.

Temperament.

The breed standard states that the dog should have great courage. As with all large dogs, the Cimarrón Uruguayo must be well socialized when very young if it is to be safely kept as a companion. It is a very friendly dog with children and other animals.  The Cimarrón Uruguayo is sometimes used for guarding, hunting, and all dog sports in its native Uruguay. Being a very smart dog it has been used for all kinds of jobs, such as rescue or herding.  It is a rather calm and stable dog and doesn't usually bark unless a threat is real.

History.

The Cimarrón Uruguayo mainly descends from the Alano Español and other European dogs brought by early colonizers and released or abandoned. The dogs adapted to living in the wild in Uruguay and in time became numerous. In the eighteenth century, attacks on livestock and even humans resulted in the dogs being hunted, with bounties paid by the government for each dog killed. However, many remained, especially in the highlands of Cerro Largo. Ranchers in the area would capture and tame the dogs, using them as guard dogs.  The Cimarrón's survival story and fierceness has made it something of a national symbol in Uruguay and the breed is the mascot of the National Army of Uruguay.  The Kennel Club Uruguayo (Uruguayan national kennel club) recognised the Cimarrón Uruguayo after some twenty years of work by fanciers and breeders in documenting the breed. In addition, genetic studies are being done on the breed by the Universidad de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay college of Veterinary Medicine.  The Cimarrón Uruguayo was provisionally recognised by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale on February 21, 2006, and definitively on November 7, 2017 in Group 2, Section 2 Molossoid breeds-Mastiff type. The breed has been exported to the United States, and is recognised there by the United Kennel Club in the Guardian Dog Group.

Health.

The Cimarrón Uruguayo should be tested for hip and elbow dysplasia before breeding.  Often the ears are cropped short when the dogs are very young. This is alleged to be in homage to the days when they were hunted (the ears were presented for the bounty). Most fighting dog breeds have their ears cropped.

The Cimarrón Uruguayo (Uruguayan Cimarron) is a breed of molosser type dog originating in Uruguay. The word "cimarrón" in Latin America is used to mean "feral", referring to the breed's history.

Le cimarron uruguayen ( en espagnol) est une race de chiens originaire d'Uruguay. Issue des chiens perdus des Conquistadors et retournés à l'état sauvage, le cimarron uruguayen a été domestiqué puis utilisé traditionnellement par les Urugayens comme chien d'utilité polyvalent. Très populaire dans son pays d'origine, la race est rare dans le reste du monde.


Musical career.

Tanja started singing at a very young age, participating in numerous contests and song festivals in Estonia, Russia and Ukraine. In 1998 she won the contest "Utrennaja zvezda" in Jurmala, Latvia and in 2002 she took part of "Fizz superstar 2002" Baltic singing competition.  As a musical actress, she has played the lead roles in "Fame" (Carmen Diaz), "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (Spider Woman) and "Cabaret" (Sally Bowles).

Nightlight Duo.

With the Estonian producer Sven Lõhmus and together with Estonian singer Ly Lumiste, the girls formed the techno duo band Nightlight Duo in 2001. The band released two albums, "Jäljed liival" ("Traces in the sand"), and "Miks ma ei suuda su maailma muuta" ("Why can't I change your world"). The latter album won the award for the best album of the year, ""Aasta uustulnuk 2002"".  Nightlight Duo competed twice in "Eurolaul", Estonia's selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2002, their song "Another Country Song" got second place in Eurolaul and a year later their song "I can b the 1" came fourth. Both songs were produced and written by Sven Lõhmus.  The band disbanded in 2004 due Lumiste's pregnancy and Tanja continued with her musical career.

Jz Belle.

With the producer and composer Timo Vendt, Tanja created the band "Jz Belle" in 2004. The first album (with covered songs only) "Jz Belle" was released in 2004. The second album "Teemant" was released in 2006 and three radio singles were released from this one.

Other bands and shows.

Finished with the Jz Belle project, Tanja also starred in the band "Sunday Mood" with Timo Vendt and the Canadian guitarist Alex Pier Federici, with whom they released an album in English called "Something more" in 2009, with great success in the Baltic countries.  In this period Tanja performed in the show "Queen - The doors of Time" in Theatre Vanemuine in Tartu, together with Broadway artist Tony Vincent and Estonian singer Rolf Roosalu.  She had also participated in a few Estonian television contests (TV3), such as "Laulud tähtedega" (Estonian version of "Just the Two of Us") in 2010/11, obtaining second place, behind Artur Talvik and Lenna Kuurmaa; and in "Laulupealinn" in November 2011, obtaining second place too. In 2013, Tanja came third in the TV show "Su nägu kõlab tuttavalt" (Your Face Sounds Familiar).

Gemini.

In 2012, she released her 6th solo album, Gemini. Three singles were released from the album: "Supernatural", "Sind ootan ikka veel" (feat. Mikk Saar) and "All In My Head".

Eurovision Song Contest 2014.

Tanja competed in the Estonian national final, Eesti Laul 2014, for the chance to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She won the national final by her song, "Amazing" with 53 percent of the votes. On 15 March, the song was officially released (together with the stage-act). She failed to qualify for the final, finishing 12th in the first semi final with 36 points.

After Eurovision.

Tanja shared stage with Andrea Bocelli at his Tallinn concert on 28 June 2014. Tanja will also perform with her biggest concert of her career called "Amazing Lie" at the festival Õllesummer in July 2014 in Tallinn. In June Tanja went to Crete to shoot her new music video for her summer single Forevermore. She is the backup juror for Estonian jury panel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria, and she will be the spokesperson for Estonia then.

Personal life.

In 2016, she married Estonian singer Mikk Saar and has a son with him (born 2018).

Tatjana Mihhailova-Saar (, born 19 June 1983), better known as Tanja or Tanja Mihhailova is a Russian-Estonian pop singer and actress. She was born on 19 June 1983 in Kaliningrad, Russian SFSR, but has lived in Estonia from a very young age. Tanja has been a member of several bands in her professional career and has performed in several stage musicals. She represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Amazing" and she ended up in the 12th place in the semi-final, failing to qualify.

Tatjana Mihhailova-Saar (en russe Татьяна Михайлова), dite Tanja, née le à Kaliningrad en Russie, est une chanteuse et actrice russo-estonienne, ayant toujours vécu en Estonie.


Early years.

Heath was born in McAllen, Texas. He attended Highland Park High School in University Park, Texas (a Dallas suburb), and competed for the Highland Park High School swim team. In 1980, he set a new Texas state high school record in the boys' 200-yard freestyle (1:37.88); he set a second state record in the event in 1982 (1:37.53), breaking his own previous record in the process.

College swimming career.

Heath accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he swam for coach Randy Reese's Florida Gators swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Southeastern Conference (SEC) competition from 1983 to 1986. He was a member of the Gators' 1983 and 1984 NCAA men's championship teams, as well as four consecutive SEC championships teams. As a Gator swimmer, he won NCAA national titles in the 400-yard freestyle relay (1983), 800-yard freestyle relay (1983, 1984), and 200-yard freestyle (1984), and received nineteen All-American honors. His strong finish swimming the anchor leg for the Gators in the 4×100-yard freestyle relay provided the Gators' winning points in their first NCAA national team championship in 1983. He also won seven SEC titles, and was recognized as the SEC male swimmer of the year in 1983 and 1985. Heath graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in exercise and sports science in 1988, and was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1996.

International swimming career.

Heath, who had not previously been a member of the U.S. national team, won the 100- and 200-meter freestyle events at the 1984 U.S. Olympic trials, and thereby qualified to compete in the two Olympic individual events and for the U.S. relay teams. As a newcomer to the U.S. trials, he made a dramatic statement by setting a new American record in the preliminary heats of the 200-meter freestyle. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, he won three gold medals and a silver.  He won his first Olympic gold medal by swimming the lead-off leg in the men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay, and Heath and his American teammates David Larson, Jeff Float and Bruce Hayes set a new world record of 7:15.69, edging the Michael Gross-led West Germans by four one-hundredths (0.04) of a second. He won his second gold medal by helping set another world record of 3:19.03 in the men's 4×100-meter freestyle relay, together with fellow Americans Chris Cavanaugh, Matt Biondi and Rowdy Gaines, finishing sixty-five one-hundredths (0.65) of a second ahead of the second-place Australians. He then earned a third gold medal by swimming for the winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the 4×100-meter medley relay. In a word play on the title of the popular 1984 movie "Ghostbusters", American media dubbed Heath and his 4×200-meter relay teammates the "Gross Busters."  In individual Olympic competition, Heath won a silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle (1:49.10) behind Gross's world record-setting performance (1:47.44). He also placed fourth in the 100-meter freestyle event final (50.41); the outcome was controversial, however, because of a premature starter gun and a quick start by Gaines, the winner. Gaines' coach, Richard Quick, knew of starter Frank Silvestri's propensity to fire the starter gun almost immediately when the swimmers mounted the blocks. Gaines gained about a meter's head start on the competition; video of the event later confirmed that one or more of the swimmers had not been set when the starter gun fired.  After the 1984 Olympics, Heath continued to swim for the U.S. national team, and remained a fixture on the freestyle relay teams. At the 1985 Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo, gold medalists Scott McCadam, Heath, Paul Wallace and Biondi set a new world record of 3:17.08 in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. Together with Biondi, Duffy Dillon and Craig Oppel, he won another gold medal in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay (7:17.63). Individually, Heath won a Pan Pacific Championships gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle (1:49.29) by beating Biondi (1:50.19) and Canadian Sandy Goss (1:50.56). He also won a Pan Pacific silver medal in the 100-meter freestyle (50.78), finishing a fraction of a second behind Biondi (50.44). Heath again swam for the U.S. relay teams at the 1986 World Aquatics Championships in Madrid; Tom Jager, Heath, Paul Wallace and Biondi won the 4×100-meter freestyle (3:19.89); and Eric Boyer, Heath, Dan Jorgensen and Biondi placed third in the 4×200-meter freestyle (7:18.29).

Life after competition swimming.

Heath was an assistant coach for the Florida Gators swim team from 1988 to 1989. After graduating from the University of Florida, Heath first worked as a salesman, before he coached swimming at Fletcher High School in Neptune Beach, Florida, for six years, and thereafter at Episcopal High School in Jacksonville, Florida. He is married to Sherri-Lee Schricker, who was a member of the Florida Gators swim team at the University of Florida from 1984 to 1987, and they have two children. Their son Grady will swim for the Florida Gators beginning in 2015–16.

World records.

Men's 4×100-meter freestyle relay  Men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay

Michael Steward Heath (born April 9, 1964) is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in freestyle events. He is a three-time Olympic gold medalist, and a former world record-holder in two relay swimming events. A native of Texas, he won two national collegiate championship competing for the University of Florida. During his elite swimming career, Heath won ten medals in major international championships, including seven golds, two silvers and a bronze, spanning the Olympic Games, FINA World Championships, and Pan Pacific Championships.

Michael Steward "Mike" Heath (né le à McAllen (Texas)) est un nageur américain. Lors des Jeux olympiques d'été de 1984 disputés à Los Angeles il remporte quatre médaillés dont trois en or, aux relais 4 x nage libre et 4 x nage libre, battant au passage le record du monde puis au relais 4 x quatre nages pour avoir participé aux séries, les États-Unis s'imposant en finale. Il s'illustre également en individuel, obtenant la médaille d'argent au nage libre et terminant quatrième au nage libre. Heath devient ansuite champion du monde au sein du relais 4 x 100 m nage libre à Madrid en 1986.


Location.

Venue.

The event took place in Vienna, Austria, with the venue being the Wiener Stadthalle, after Austria won the right to host this edition of the Eurovision Song Contest for winning its previous 2014 edition with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" performed by Conchita Wurst. The Wiener Stadthalle hosts the annual Erste Bank Open tennis tournament, along with many concerts and events throughout the year and has a capacity of approximately 16,000 attendees.

Bidding phase.

After Austria's victory in the Contest, their delegation revealed the possibility of hosting the contest either in the capital city, Vienna, or in Salzburg. Vienna, Klagenfurt, Innsbruck, Lower Austria, Graz, Upper Austria, Burgenland, and Vorarlberg were all reportedly interested in hosting the contest; Salzburg pulled out of the bidding phase as the city was not able to meet the cost of the venue and promotion.  Vienna, considered the front-runner, had two venues in the phase: Wiener Stadthalle and the trade fair centre, Messe Wien, with capacities of up to 16,000 and 30,000 attendees respectively. Also in the race were Stadthalle Graz and Schwarzl Freizeit Zentrum, both located in the second largest city of Austria, Graz. With a maximum capacity of 30,000, the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt also joined the race; however, it would require the construction of a roof for the contest to be hosted there. Innsbruck also joined the race with Olympiahalle, which hosted ice hockey and figure skating at the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. A fifth city, Linz, joined the race with Brucknerhaus, although the venue would not be big enough for the contest. Being geographically close to Linz, Wels showed desire to host the event as well. Oberwart, with the Exhibition hall, and Vorarlberg, with the Vorarlberger Landestheater, were the latest cities to declare an interest.  On 29 May 2014, Austrian host public broadcaster ORF and the EBU released some requirements and details about the venue. ORF requested interested parties to respond by 13 June 2014.  After the deadline on 13 June 2014, ORF announced 12 venues interested in hosting the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest: ORF announced on 21 June 2014 that 3 cities (Vienna, Innsbruck, and Graz) had been short-listed in the final stage of the bidding process. On 6 August 2014, ORF announced the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna as the host venue. The contest was provisionally set to take place on 12, 14 and 16 May 2015, but the dates were later pushed back a week in order to accommodate the candidate cities.  Key

Inclusive traffic lights in Vienna.

The city of Vienna introduced temporary new traffic signals for pedestrians on some streets, featuring same-sex couples holding hands or hugging. They were introduced as part of events connected to the theme of tolerance and inclusion in the lead-up to the Eurovision Song Contest.  Traffic lights of the same – copyrighted – design of the kind "Ampelpärchen" (couples for traffic lights) followed before Christopher Street Days in June 2015 in Salzburg and Linz. In Salzburg the initiative SoHo and social democrate mayor Schaden promoted the change of the shape of the LED-lamps. The faceplates in Linz has been financed by sponsors driven by a Facebook-based initiative, but have been removed – without consent – by the new traffic minister of Linz of the party FPÖ in early December 2015.

Format.

The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final, a format which has been in use since. The ten countries with the highest scores in each semi-final qualified to the final where they joined the host nation Austria, the five main sponsoring nations (known as the Big Five): France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, and Australia which was invited this year to commemorate the Contest's 60th anniversary.  Each participating country had their own national jury, which consisted of five professional members of the music industry. Each member of a respective nation's jury was required to rank every song, except that of their own country. The voting results from each member of a particular nation's jury were combined to produce an overall ranking from first to last place. Likewise, the televoting results were also interpreted as a full ranking, taking into account the full televoting result rather than just the top ten. The combination of the juries' full ranking and the televote's full ranking produced an overall ranking of all competing entries. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received one point. In the event of a televoting failure (insufficient number of votes/technical issues) or jury failure (technical issue/breach of rules), only one of the methods was used by each country. As of 2019, the 2015 contest was the last time that the modern scoring system introduced in was used, before the format was modified the following year.

National host broadcaster.

During an initial meeting between the host broadcaster ORF and the EBU in late May 2014, the representatives of the core organising team were selected. Edgar Böhm, who is the Head of Entertainment at ORF, was announced as the executive producer.

Semi-final allocation draw.

The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 26 January 2015 at the Vienna Rathaus and hosted by Andi Knoll and Kati Bellowitsch. The participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists (hosts Austria, the Big Five and Australia), were split into five pots, based on voting patterns from the previous ten years. The pots were calculated by the televoting partner Digame and were as follows:

Running order.

The final running order of the competing performances at the semi-finals and the final were decided by the producers of the show and approved by the EBU Executive Supervisor and the Reference Group, as had been done since the 2013 Contest, in contrast to a draw system for the contest's editions up until 2012 (apart from an ongoing draw method for the host country's direct position at the final). Hosts Austria drew their running order position on 16 March 2015 at the heads of delegations meeting, drawing starting position fourteen. The running order of the semi-finals were revealed on 23 March 2015. It was decided that Moldova would open the first semi-final and Lithuania the second. The running order for the grand final was announced shortly after the winners' press conference of the second semi-final, with Slovenia opening the show and Italy performing last.

Graphic design.

On 31 July, the EBU released a new and revamped version of the generic logo as a celebration of the Eurovision Song Contest's 60th anniversary. On 11 September 2014, the slogan for the 2015 Contest was revealed to be ""Building Bridges"". The Director General of ORF, Alexander Wrabetz, commented in reference to the slogan: "With the song contest in Vienna, we want music to build bridges across borders, cultures and languages. In light of the unifying power of this great common European event, we invite all to build bridges and to join hands." One way of realising the slogan was introduced in the beginning of the contest's final, as the competing artists entered the arena via a structure which simulates a "magic bridge" of light. The graphic design of the contest was revealed by the EBU on 25 November 2014. The theme depicts a wave made up of many spheres, meant to symbolise diversity and the bridging of connections and encounters people experience on a constant basis. The colours of the theme intend to highlight individualism whilst simultaneously also representing the building of musical bridges and the diversity and variety of the artists, songs and audience. The theme art was be incorporated in all contest related developments such as crew uniforms, on-air graphics and merchandise.  The postcards of this year's contest also witness the slogan ""Building Bridges"". In the postcards, each of the clips start with a drive by scene of the contestants capital city, it then shows every contestant receiving an invitation to Austria in their home country. (The addresses on the invitations used were the broadcasting headquarters addresses) More specifically, the invitation is to a region in the host country with all nine Austrian states taking part. The story continues with the contestants making their way to one of the states where they have an individual task to fulfil, using the article or articles received back home with their invitation. The tasks on the journeys vary from culture to sports, from economics to science and tradition to modern. For example, the Austrian postcard features The Makemakes participating in a fun run and in the San Marino postcard, Michele Perniola and Anita Simoncini attend an evening at the Vienna Opera Ball. The postcards end with a picture of their activity turned into a big billboard, placed in different locations of Vienna.  In this year's contest, all the hashtags for participating countries incorporated the IOC country codes for them which were displayed on the television screen, preceded by the names of the performing countries. For example, the first country in semi-final 1, Moldova, which would normally have been displayed as "01 Moldova"; became "01 Moldova #MDA" under the new changes. When the hashtags were used on Twitter, they became "hashflags", and appeared by the accompanying of a heart symbol with the flag of the country of the hashtag.

Presenters.

On 19 December 2014, ORF announced that Mirjam Weichselbraun, Alice Tumler and Arabella Kiesbauer were the hosts of the 60th contest; the all-female trio was the first in history to host the contest. The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, Conchita Wurst was also chosen as host of the green room.  Weichselbraun is an actress and presenter known for hosting such productions as the annual Life Ball charity event, the Vienna Opera Ball and the TV show "Dancing Stars" since 2005, which has earned her the Austrian Romy television award in 2006 and 2008. Tumler is of Austrian-French descent and speaks five languages fluently: German, English, French, Italian and Spanish. She began her television career in 2004 with French music channel TraceTV, later working for Arte and France 3, and has hosted The KORA All Africa Music Awards in South Africa. Since 2013, she has hosted the talent show "Die große Chance" alongside Andi Knoll. Kiesbauer is a presenter, writer and actress who started her career at the Austrian public broadcaster in 1989, but is probably most known for presenting her own talk show in Germany from 1994 to 2004 on ProSieben. Since 2008 she has been an ambassador for integration in the team of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration. In 2013, she received the Golden Medal of the Republic of Austria for her commitment to tolerance and the fight against racism.

Opening and interval acts.

As the opening of the final, the "Te Deum" was performed by the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra from the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace, and included a video taking viewers on a journey through Austria's cities and landscapes to the host venue. The overture featured violinist Lidia Baich, winner of the Eurovision Young Musicians 1998, who performed live on stage an excerpt of Austria's winning song "Merci, Chérie" in tribute to Udo Jürgens.  Immediately afterwards The ESC Vienna All-Stars, consisting of Conchita, the Vienna Boys' Choir, multinational Suparar Children's Choir, rapper Left Boy, and the contest’s presenters, jointly performed the official anthem of the 2015 contest, "Building Bridges" accompanied by the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Peter Pejtsik. In total, more than 200 artists were part of the opening act. The song was released as a single in the host country, Germany and Switzerland. The performance notably featured Conchita "flying" from a raised podium over the audience to the main stage. After the presenters welcomed the viewers of the show, representatives of the twenty-seven participating countries also took to the stage during the flag parade using a "magical bridge" created through the audience from the greenroom.  The EBU released details regarding the interval act for the grand final on 18 March. The interval act was provided by percussionist Martin Grubinger and his band The Percussive Planet Ensemble. The nine-minute performance, based on classical themes of major Austrian composers, included forty instrumentalists as well as the Grammy Award winning Arnold Schoenberg Choir. Conchita later performed "You Are Unstoppable" and "Firestorm", both from her self-titled debut studio album.

Participating countries.

On 23 December 2014, it was announced that initially thirty-nine countries would participate in the 2015 Contest. and returned after, the returned after a, while did not enter. Australia made its debut as a guest participant. The deadline to apply for participation was 15 September 2014. Countries that applied had until 10 October 2014 to withdraw from participation without financial consequences.

Invitation of Australia.

On 10 February 2015, the EBU announced that in honour of the 60th anniversary of Eurovision, it had invited to participate in the finals of the contest, represented by Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). SBS had been a long-time broadcaster of the event, which has had a large following in Australia. The Australian entry was placed directly in the grand final. Although it was considered a one-off event, if Australia were to win, SBS would have co-hosted the 2016 contest in a European host city of its choice. The EBU considered the possibility of similarly inviting countries to participate in future editions of the contest. Australia's participation brought the number of the finalists up to 27, the highest number of entries in a final in the contest's history.

Returning artists.

Inga Arshakyan, who was part of Genealogy in 2015, represented Armenia in, collaborating with her sister as part of Inga and Anush. Michele Perniola and Anita Simoncini both previously represented at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Perniola took part in, and Simoncini took part in as part of The Peppermints. Amber, who represented, was a backing vocalist for the Maltese entry in 2012. Uzari, who represented, was a backing vocalist for the Belarusian entry in 2011.Elnur Hüseynov, who was's debut representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, as part of the duo Elnur and Samir, was internally selected to represent the nation for a second time. Raay, who is a part of the Slovene duo Maraaya, was a backing musical performer for the 2014 entry of. Hera Björk, who previously represented Iceland in, returned as a backing singer for Iceland's entry. Nicolas Dorian, part of Witloof Bay, Belgium representatives in 2011, was part of the backing vocalists of Loic Nottet.

Semi-final 1.

16 countries took part in the first semi-final.,, and voted in this semi-final. The ten songs in places 1 to 10 qualified for the final and are marked in orange.

Semi-final 2.

17 countries took part in this semi-final.,, and the voted in this semi-final. The ten songs in places 1 to 10 qualified for the final and are marked in orange.

Final.

As in the 2014 contest, the winner was announced as soon as it was mathematically impossible to catch up. In this case, the winner had been determined by the 36th vote, which came from Cyprus.

Scoreboard.

Semi-final 1.

12 points.

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the first semi-final:

Semi-final 2.

12 points.

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the second semi-final:

Final.

This is the first time since the juries were reintroduced alongside the televoting in that the winner was not placed first in the televoting.

12 points.

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the final:

Other countries.

For a country to be eligible for potential participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, it needs to be an active member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EBU issued an invitation of participation for the 2015 Contest to all 56 active members. Thirty-nine countries confirmed their participation, whilst the following list of countries declined stating their reasons as shown below.

Incidents.

Anti-booing technology.

During the results, loud boos could be heard whenever Russia was mentioned or the country received one of the top three high points. The Russian entrant Polina Gagarina could be seen crying in the green room during the voting procedure, and this was reported by various media to have occurred as a result of the booing. During a break in the countries' reporting of their votes, when the running total showed Russia leading, Eurovision 2014 winner Conchita Wurst announced to Gagarina, "You gave an amazing performance, and you deserve to be in the lead." The Executive Supervisor of ESC, Jon Ola Sand, urged that Eurovision should be a "friendly battlefield...not a political battleground", and presenter Alice Tumler reminded the audience that "Our motto is 'Building Bridges', and music should stand over politics tonight...". The organisers had anticipated such reactions, and had prepared and installed 'anti-booing technology' which was deployed for the first time in Eurovision broadcasting history.

Smoke machine malfunction.

During the performance of Georgia in the grand final, a smoke machine malfunctioned, causing the Georgian entrant Nina Sublatti to disappear temporarily on the stage in a cloud of grey smoke.

Macedonia and Montenegro jury results excluded.

The jury votes from Macedonia and Montenegro in the final were not included, in accordance to the rulebook of the ESC. The rules for voting indicate that votes must be 50% jurors, 50% televoting, but Macedonia's and Montenegro's voting was 100% televoting. The final result of the contest was not affected.

Other awards.

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, the OGAE voting poll and the Barbara Dex Awards are awards that were contested by the entries competing at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, in addition to the main winner's trophy.

Marcel Bezençon Awards.

The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia, honouring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman (Sweden's representative in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest and the current Head of Delegation for Sweden) and Richard Herrey (a member of the Herreys and the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 winner from Sweden), the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards were divided into three categories: Press Award, Artistic Award, and Composer Award. The winners were revealed shortly before the final on 23 May.

OGAE.

Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision (more commonly known as OGAE) is an international organisation that was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen. The organisation consists of a network of over 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profit company. In what has become an annual tradition for the OGAE fan clubs, a voting poll ran from 1 May 2015 and ended on 10 May 2015, allowing members from forty clubs to vote for their favourite songs of the 2015 contest. The table below shows the top five overall results, after votes from forty-one OGAE clubs had been cast.

Barbara Dex Award.

The Barbara Dex Award, annually awarded by the fan website House of Eurovision, is a humorous award given to the worst dressed artist each year in the contest. It is named after the Belgian artist, Barbara Dex, who came last in the 1993 contest, in which she wore a dress she designed herself.

International broadcasts and voting.

It was reported by the EBU that the 2015 Contest was viewed by a worldwide television audience of a record breaking 197 million viewers, beating the 2014 record which was viewed by 195 million.

Voting and spokespersons.

The voting order was revealed the morning of the final, and for the only time in Eurovision history to date, the names of all the spokespersons were displayed onscreen. However, because of technical problems in some countries the final voting order was the following:

Commentators.

Most countries sent commentators to Vienna or commentated from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, the provision of voting information.

Official album.

Eurovision Song Contest: Vienna 2015 is the official compilation album of the 2015 Contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and was released by Universal Music Group on 20 April 2015. The album features all 40 songs that entered in the 2015 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final.

Charts and certifications.

Unsourced tracklist that is redundant against the list of participants

The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following Conchita Wurst's win at the 2014 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix". It was the second time Austria had hosted the contest, having previously done so in. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), the contest was held at the Wiener Stadthalle and consisted of two semi-finals on 19 and 21 May, and the final on 23 May 2015. The three live shows were hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun, Alice Tumler and Arabella Kiesbauer, while Conchita Wurst hosted the green room.

Le Concours Eurovision de la chanson 2015 est la du Concours et a lieu à la Wiener Stadthalle, à Vienne, en Autriche, l'Eurovision 2014 voyant la victoire de Conchita Wurst avec la chanson '. Seconde fois que l'Autriche accueille le Concours après l'édition 1967, les demi-finales se déroulent les 19 et 21 mai 2015, et la finale le 23 mai 2015. Quarante pays participent à cette édition dont le slogan est'(en français "Construire des ponts").


Plot.

Jan Dítě has been released from a Czech prison just before the very end of his 15-year sentence and is settling in a town near the border between Czechoslovakia and Germany. He occupies his time with rebuilding a deserted house, and begins to recall his past, where he says that his main wish in life was to be a millionaire. Jan begins his career as a frankfurter vendor at a railroad station, and quickly learns the power of money and the influence it exerts over people.  At one point during his reminiscences, a young woman, Marcela, and her older traveling companion, a professor, settle in the area. Jan and Marcela develop a mutual attraction, although it remains physically unconsummated. The film continues to alternate between past and present, as the relationship between the older Jan and the new neighbors develops.  In the restaurant, the younger Jan has a number of affairs with various women, including an actress and a prostitute at a brothel. He also gradually moves into more socially prestigious work settings, including a stint at a spa, the Hotel Tichota, where he has an affair with a maid there. Jan eventually finds employment in Prague at the Hotel Paříž, where he falls under the tutelage of the Maître d', Skřivánek, who claims that he once served the King of England. Eventually, Jan serves the Emperor of Ethiopia at one occasion. The Emperor tries to award a medal to Skřivánek, but because he is short in height, cannot place the award around Skřivánek's neck. Jan is short enough for the Emperor to reach, and maneuvers into place to receive the medal in place of Skřivánek.  With the annexation of Czechoslovakia by the Third Reich, Jan falls in love with Liza, a young Sudeten German woman who worships Adolf Hitler. She agrees to marry him only after he proves that he is of pure Aryan descent through medical examination. During the occupation, the other waiters and the hotel manager, Brandejs, express their contempt for the German occupiers by trying to be as unhelpful in their service as possible. Jan is the only member of the waitstaff not to express symbolic resistance in this manner. Brandejs dismisses Jan for this reason, and says that Jan will be blacklisted from employment in any Prague establishment. When Jan and Liza later appear as patrons, and after Jan mocks Skřivánek that serving the King of England has done him no good in life, Skřivánek pours food over Jan in protest. Eventually, Skřivánek is taken away by the occupying authorities and never seen again.  During World War II, Jan works in an institute, formerly the Hotel Tichota, where German women reside to breed a new "master race" with selected soldiers. Because the owner, Mr Tichota, uses a wheelchair, he has been displaced as its owner and is never seen again. In the meantime, Liza serves as a nurse on the Russian front. She returns with valuable stamps taken from the homes of Polish-Jewish families. As the war progresses and the tide turns against the German, the women are displaced from the facility, and wounded and amputee soldiers replace them. Near the end of the war, the facility is attacked, and the soldiers and staff are evacuated. Liza tries to retrieve the stamps to use after the war, but dies when the roof of the hospital collapses. Jan finds Liza's body with her holding the box of stamps, and pries them from her hands. After the war, the stamps' value allows Jan to become a wealthy hotelier, in the same Hotel Tichota premises.  After the Communists take power in Czechoslovakia in 1948, Jan loses his property and wealth when he tells the Communist resistance that he himself is a millionaire. He is sentenced to prison for 15 years: one year for each million of his fortune. In prison, he sees that Brandejs and the other formerly wealthy customers are prisoners. Jan tries to sit among them, but they exclude him from their circle.  Marcela and the professor leave the area. Jan completes the restoration of his home and finally releases the stamps by letting the winds blow them into the valley.

Critical reception.

"I Served the King of England" received generally positive reviews from critics., the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 80% of critics rated the film positively based on 86 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "With charm and an eye for life's bittersweet moments, Czech New Wave master Jiri Menzel paints a picaresque story with whimsy and intellect." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 72 out of 100 based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".  The film appeared on some critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. Peter Rainer of "The Christian Science Monitor" named it the 6th best film of 2008, and Dennis Harvey of "Variety" named it the eighth best film of 2008. It received the Gopo Award for Best European Film in 2009, meaning it was the European film which achieved the best box office success in Romania in 2008.

I Served the King of England () is a 2006 Czech comedy film written and directed by Jiří Menzel, based on the novel "I Served the King of England" by Bohumil Hrabal. It is Menzel's sixth adaptation of the works of Hrabal for film.

Moi qui ai servi le roi d'Angleterre (") est un film tchèque réalisé par Jiří Menzel, sorti en 2006. C'est l'adaptation du roman du même nom de Bohumil Hrabal publié en 1971 ; c'est la sixième adaptation par Jiří Menzel d'un roman de Bohumil Hrabal.


Description.

The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel consists of two 2-lane tubes, one in each direction. They pass underneath the East River, connecting the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan to the neighborhood of Red Hook in Brooklyn. Although the tubes do not pass directly under Governors Island, that island contains a ventilation building for the tunnel. Vehicles over and wider than are prohibited from using the tubes. The tubes stretch from portal to portal, making them the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnels in North America. At the time of its opening, the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel was the longest underwater vehicular tunnel in the United States and the second-longest in the world, behind the Queensway Tunnel under the River Mersey in England.  The tunnel was originally commissioned by the New York City Tunnel Authority, whose chief engineer Ole Singstad created the tunnel's original designs. Halfway through construction, the Tunnel Authority was merged into the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), whose chief engineer Ralph Smillie took over the design process.  The "Battery" in the tunnel's name refers to an artillery battery originally located at that site during New York City's earliest days. The tunnel was officially renamed after former Governor Hugh L. Carey in 2012, since he had lived in Brooklyn.  The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel is owned and operated by the TBTA's successor MTA Bridges and Tunnels, an affiliate agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Until 2017, the agency collected tolls at a tollbooth on the Brooklyn side. The tollbooths have been demolished and replaced with electronic toll gantries on the Manhattan side., the tunnel is used by 54,076 vehicles on an average weekday.

Associated structures.

The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel has a total of four ventilation buildings: two in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn, and one on Governors Island. One of the Manhattan ventilation buildings is granite-faced and designed like a monument, due to objections to the building's design during the construction process. The Governors Island ventilation structure, designed by McKim, Mead & White, is an octagonal building located over the midpoint of the tunnel's route, at its lowest point. According to the MTA, the ventilation

Transportation.

The tunnel carries 28 express bus routes that connect Manhattan with Brooklyn or Staten Island. The MTA Bus Company operates the BM1, BM2, BM3, and BM4 between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

History.

Planning.

A vehicular tunnel under the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn was proposed by the New York Board of Trade and Transportation in 1925, in response to growing truck traffic congestion in Lower Manhattan. The tunnel would have been located between the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge. A tunnel that specifically connected the Battery in Manhattan with Red Hook in Brooklyn, passing underneath the East River and Governors Island south of both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, was first proposed by Brooklyn Borough president J. J. Byrne in 1926. However, this plan initially did not receive support. Albert Goldman, the New York City Commissioner of Plant and Structures, brought up the plan again in January 1929. In February 1930, the city publicized plans for a six-lane vehicular tunnel from West Street, Manhattan, to Hamilton Avenue, Brooklyn. At the time, ferry service along that path was slow and unreliable. Real-estate speculators believed that land prices along Hamilton Avenue would appreciate as a result of the tunnel's construction, and that freight shipments could be delivered to Manhattan faster. The tunnel proposal also entailed widening Hamilton Avenue to and building a large bridge over the Gowanus Canal, south of the proposed tunnel's entrance.  In May 1930, the Terminal Bridge Corporation petitioned the New York City

Bridge proposal.

In January 1939, after the failure to allocate federal funds to the tunnels, Moses (now the chairman of the Triborough Bridge Authority) proposed a Brooklyn-Battery bridge. He stated that constructing a bridge would be cheaper, faster, and more efficient than building a tunnel. The bridge would consist of a six-lane tandem suspension bridge span with two back-to-back suspension bridges, and it could be built in 27 months, compared to 46 months for a tunnel. One of the other benefits, in Moses's opinion, was that the $41 million bridge would not require any federal money. Isaacs stated that a bridge would cause as much congestion as a tunnel would, so he did not favor the bridge plan. The Tunnel Authority also opposed the Brooklyn-Battery bridge because a bridge

Tunnel plans finalized.

In July 1939, after the bridge plan was canceled, the proposal for the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel was revisited. Around this time, Roosevelt's administration was considering loosening PWA requirements and lowering interest rates so that the Battery Tunnel could qualify for these funds. By November, La Guardia was arranging to obtain financing for the tunnel, even if it had to come from private sources. After a meeting with La Guardia, RFC Chairman Jones announced that there were no obstacles to granting a $70 million loan toward the tunnel project. The city was expecting to start construction once the loan was received. The tunnel plans were completed and sent to federal agencies for approval that month.  The New York City Tunnel Authority announced in March 1940 that it would start construction within forty days. Preliminary

Construction starts.

The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel's groundbreaking ceremony was supposed to be held on October 8, 1940, with President Roosevelt in attendance. At the time, the president was in the final weeks of his re-election campaign for the 1940 presidential election, and he was expected to campaign at several places around New York City. The groundbreaking was ultimately pushed back to October 28. At the ceremony, Roosevelt extolled the benefits of a tunnel as opposed to a bridge, while Mayor La Guardia invited the president to return for the opening ceremony in four years. Three days later, the city approved a motion to widen Hamilton Avenue from to make way for the Brooklyn tunnel approach, as well as awarded a contract for the tunnel's lining to

Construction halts and restarts.

The tunnel was originally expected for completion by 1944. La Guardia had promised that during World War II, the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel would be given priority status over other construction projects, due to its importance to the Brooklyn economy. However, the Battery Tunnel project was not deemed a high-importance destination for steel, so the tunnel's priority status for the receipt of steel was revoked in February 1942. Although digging work continued, the tunnel could not be finished until after the war. In October 1942, Moses recommended that tunnel work be halted completely to conserve steel and other metals that were needed for the war. At this time, the federal War Production Board (WPB) released an order to stop work on the Brooklyn end, although digging from the Manhattan side was allowed to continue, because that work consisted solely of digging through solid rock. By the end of the month. the WPB ordered a halt to all construction work on the tunnel's Manhattan end as well. Due to opposition

Opening.

The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel opened to traffic on May 25, 1950, with a ceremony officiated by Mayor William O'Dwyer. Part of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, along Hicks Street from the Battery Tunnel north to Atlantic Avenue, opened the same day. At the time, the "Brooklyn Daily Eagle" described the Battery Tunnel as "the nation's largest, most modern underwater vehicular tunnel", which took three minutes to traverse from end to end. The "Eagle" also estimated that the tunnel cost $736 for every linear inch that was built. With a cost of $80 million, the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel was also dubbed the most expensive tunnel in the United States. It was expensive enough that the TBTA had been forced to look around the world for a company that could cover the tunnel's $33.5 million insurance policy. However, the cost was expected to be counterbalanced, in part, through the 35-cent tolls and the time savings afforded. Truckers at Bush Terminal, located south of the tunnel's portal, predicted that they would save 35 minutes a day and $1 million a year by driving through the

Later years.

The tubes were designed for two lanes in each direction. This was changed in 1956, when the Brooklyn-bound western tube was changed to handle bidirectional traffic during morning rush hours, owing to heavy rush-hour traffic congestion. A northbound high-occupancy vehicle lane was later added during the morning rush hours. It led from Staten Island to Manhattan via the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the Gowanus Expressway, and the Battery Tunnel. A large volume of tunnel drivers also used the garage on the Manhattan side, so in 1965, plans were made to expand the garage. The expanded garage, which was completed in 1968, had 2,126

Tolls.

, drivers pay $9.50 per car or $4.00 per motorcycle for tolls by mail. E‐ZPass users with transponders issued by the New York E‐ZPass Customer Service Center pay $6.12 per car or $2.66 per motorcycle. All E-ZPass users with transponders not issued by the New York E-ZPass CSC will be required to pay Toll-by-mail rates.  Open-road cashless tolling started on January 4, 2017. The tollbooths were dismantled, and drivers were no longer allowed to pay cash at the tunnel. Instead, cameras and E‐ZPass readers are mounted on new overhead gantries are located on the Manhattan side. A vehicle without E-ZPass has a picture taken of its license plate and a bill for the toll is mailed to its owner. For E-ZPass users, sensors detect their transponders wirelessly.

Historical tolls.

!scope="col"| Years!!scope="col"|

The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel (officially the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, commonly referred to as the Battery Tunnel) is a tolled tunnel in New York City that connects Red Hook in Brooklyn with Battery Park in Manhattan. The tunnel consists of twin tubes that each carry two traffic lanes under the mouth of the East River. Although it passes just offshore of Governors Island, the tunnel does not provide vehicular access to the island. With a length of 9,117 feet (2,779 m), the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel is the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in North America.

Le Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (officiellement le Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, communément appelé Battery Tunnel) est un tunnel à péage de la ville de New York qui relie Red Hook à Brooklyn à Battery Park à Manhattan. Le tunnel se compose de deux tubes jumeaux qui comportent chacun deux voies de circulation sous l'embouchure de l'East River. Bien qu'il passe juste au large de Governors Island, le tunnel ne permet pas d'accéder à l'île en voiture. Avec une longueur de, le tunnel Brooklyn-Battery est le plus long tunnel sous-marin continu pour véhicules en Amérique du Nord.


Cast.

Dan Stark (Bradley Whitford) is a former big-shot detective who once saved Governor Sanford Davis' son Andy, but is now all but washed up and spends most of his time reliving his glory days. However his hunches about the "bigger picture" of crimes and odd ways of doing his job still seem to get the job done. He is shown to have a friendly relationship with the criminals he has arrested. Series creator Matt Nix describes Dan Stark as being "actually a fantastic 1981 cop. He just hasn't moved along with the time. "" stuff is like black magic." Stuck in the past, he has a difficult time adjusting to new technologies, such as "computer machines" and "smarty phones," also known to him as "cellular testicle shrinkers." Dan lives in a trailer located "in the shadow of" the Texas Star Ferris Wheel in Fair Park. He often retells stories to Jack of the old days with his former partner Frank Savage (Gary Cole), with whom he had a close buddy-cop relationship. These stories sometimes seep in, and Jack sometimes finds use of them to save lives of victims. He is reckless and unpredictable, and does not hesitate to use his handgun for any trivial matter, such as "using his service revolver to open a mayonnaise jar" and shooting a radio because of the loud noise, or even running through a $300 window to stop a dine and dasher. His overzealousness on a prior case cost him any chance of ever being promoted past detective. He enjoys eating peanuts with the shell on, listening to Foghat, and chewing gum.  Jack Bailey (Colin Hanks) is an ambitious by-the-book detective whose attitude has made him few friends on the police force. He was assigned to "baby-sit" Dan on the Property Crimes desk after correcting the captain's grammar in front of the chief. He still has feelings for his ex-girlfriend Liz Traynor, whom he usually musters up the courage to talk to, and finds useful to obtain stuff such as warrants. Jack is usually calm-headed, preferring not to get his hands dirty at times when it is unnecessary. He admits to having attempted to grow a mustache to look tougher, but, because only the middle part grew, it looked like a "Hitler mustache." He gradually learns from Dan about the importance of a partner.  Liz Traynor (Jenny Wade) is an assistant district attorney and former girlfriend of Jack. She apparently broke up with him because "she didn't want to date a cop", though it is quite obvious that the two of them are not over each other and continue to harbor romantic leanings, leading to rather awkward conversations and situations. After Liz realizes that her boyfriend Kyle was involved in a crime in "The Whistleblower", she breaks up with Kyle and decides to give another shot to a relationship with Jack.  Lieutenant Ana Ruiz (Diana Maria Riva) is Jack and Dan's boss, who sees to it that they keep themselves and the police department out of trouble by investigating seemingly minor crimes. She is Dan's ex-partner and they had a one-time fling. She starts out being somewhat cold to Jack and Dan, but she helps the two out, and starts to rekindle a friendship with the two.  Julius Grant (RonReaco Lee) is a petty criminal who used to run a pawn shop but is now a bartender. He is constantly getting in trouble, which Dan usually takes advantage of with a bribe in order to get him to play the role of a snitch. Dan believes that their relationship as detective and snitch is "a sacred bond", and does not hesitate to call on him when his criminal abilities are needed, whether for information or to act as a human tracking device. Though reluctant to help Jack and Dan with their dangerous and unorthodox plans, he often goes above their expectations to save them in times of need. Overall, he sees Dan as a true friend.  Samantha Evans (Angela Sarafyan) is an offbeat and socially awkward assistant crime scene investigator. Though assigned to lab work, Samantha has a desire to do field work and jumps at the chance to help Jack and Dan with their cases, often without them asking for her assistance and doing some things illegally. Due to not following procedures, the evidence collected by Samantha often cannot be used in court, but it does lead Jack and Dan to the bad guys. Samantha has a romantic interest in Jack which he is completely blind to until a kiss in the Series finale. Jack does not feel the same way towards Samantha, but still considers her a good friend.  Elton Hodges (Joel Spence) is a somewhat inept rival detective who holds a dim opinion of Dan's police methods. He was the first to jump at the chance to name Dan a criminal when he was framed. Despite the fact that he is next in command when Lt. Ruiz is unable to perform, no one seems to respect him. He also has a more "evidence before hunches" personality, which is why he does not like Dan's style of work, and often will insult others the first chance he can when what he believes he is right. He also seems to be a poor judge of character; he openly distrusted Julius despite him being a CI while unable to believe someone like a doctor could be a criminal. Though he often tries to insult Dan and the others, most of the times his insults will make him look stupid.  Frank Savage (Gary Cole) is Dan Stark's partner during their "glory days". He left the force after having a nervous breakdown. In the pilot episode, this breakdown is blamed on Dan, who persuaded Frank to leap from Dan's car when they were in pursuit of a car driven by the people who kidnapped the Governor of Texas's son. This same stunt was the reason Frank and Dan were "famous" compliments of a made-for-TV movie "Savage & Stark", hence Dan's "glory days". Frank now teaches Art at a Special Ed school and married to a domineering wife, Cynthia (Rachael Harris), though he, like Dan, still loves to "bust some punks." He'd named his oversized revolver "Stella."

Production history.

The first season was filmed primarily in Dallas, Texas, and made use of the Fair Park area as much as possible for its diverse shooting locations and so as not to disturb the residents. The show was originally planned to be set in Los Angeles until Dallas city officials convinced creator Matt Nix to set the show in Dallas. Nix said of Dallas, "It's a great city to jump on the hood of a car." Initially, the protagonists' mode of transportation is a mid-nineties Chevrolet Lumina, but during the course of the first episode, Dan Stark acquires a 1980 Pontiac Trans Am and uses it to great dramatic effect during the rescue of a hostage. By the end of the pilot episode, the new car has won the grudging respect of the uptight Bailey, and become the team's new vehicle. After the Lumina gets totaled in "Bait & Switch", it is replaced with a mid-2000s Ford Taurus, but Dan and Jack rarely use it as the team vehicle. Production work on the series began in January 2010 and principal photography of the pilot wrapped in early February 2010. Cast members spent time shadowing their real-life Dallas counterparts to prepare for their roles.  The title sequence uses the song "Slink (A Hymn)" by the group Locksley as the show's theme.  "The Good Guys" was originally known by the working title "Jack and Dan". For several months the series was to be known as "Code 58", the Dallas Police Department code for "routine investigation", and then briefly as "The Five Eight" before producers settled on "The Good Guys" title. During the January 2010 Television Critics Association press tour, Colin Hanks jokingly suggested ""Opposite Buddy Cop Show"".  In May 2010, Fox announced that an additional seven episodes had been ordered for the show's first season, extending the initial run to 20 episodes. The show's summer run on Monday nights at 9:00 PM ET/PT ended on August 2, 2010. "The Good Guys" moved to Friday nights at 9:00 PM ET/PT along with reruns of "House M.D." ("Human Target" was originally planned as the show's lead-in, but was put on Wednesdays after "Lone Star" was canceled), with new episodes resuming starting on September 24, 2010.  The show struggled with low ratings, regularly ranking in fourth place for its timeslot during the summer and then fifth place from October onward; hence, renewal prospects - despite the show's low production costs - were uncertain. Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said that although the network would not be immediately ordering new episodes of the show it had not been cancelled. The final episode was broadcast December 10, 2010 on Fox. On December 15, 2010, Robert Wilonsky of the "Dallas Observer" reported that Fox Television Studios, a production company for the show, informed the Dallas Film Commission that the show would not be renewed for a second season.  Starting on January 1, 2011, the entire series was being rerun on Fox on Saturday nights at 11:00 PM ET/PT. However, the repeats were pulled on January 13, in favor of Fringe.

Critical reception.

"The Good Guys" has an average critic score of 61/100 based on 20 reviews from television critics, yet it possesses an 8.3/10 user score, on the same site (Metacritic). Alessandra Stanley of "The New York Times" called the show "fresh" as well as a "buddy act" that is "silly in a clever and engaging way". John Crook of the "Sudbury Star" found the series "a refreshing blast of laughter and almost nonstop action" that "combines a sharp visual style with a time-jumping narrative". Nancy deWolf Smith of "The Wall Street Journal" enjoyed the show's "Lazarus effect" of an old-school cop in modern policing that successfully does the impossible by referencing "one of the most culturally lame eras in modern memory and making it seem shiny and new." deWolf Smith went on to say "its standout achievement may be originality." Maureen Ryan of the "Chicago Tribune" said, "It's not often that dramatic actors are asked -- no, required -- to ham it up, and Whitford does so with relish (ham and relish? Would it be going too far to call "The Good Guys" cheesy too?)." Ryan went on to say that the show that came to mind when she was watching the first episode was the late night satirical news show "The Colbert Report".  "Deseret News" television critic Scott D. Pierce did not like the series, calling it "Very disappointing. Massively disappointing." Matthew Gilbert of "The Boston Globe" wished the series worked because there is "so much proven talent involved," however he felt "the hour drags." Jim McFarlin of Detroit's "Metro Times" did not find what he was looking for in the show. "With the economy still on the critical list and crime on the upsurge the notion of funny, drunk cops just doesn't play well these days." McFarlin compared the show to the American version of "Life on Mars", an unconventional police drama which was cancelled after one season, and said, "If you're expecting another "Burn Notice" with "The Good Guys", prepare to get burned." Hank Stuever of "The Washington Post" found that, "Like our own society, "The Good Guys" doesn't know "when" it is." Stuever went on to call the show "a throwback to the days when the car chase was more important than the lab analysis" and that it has "the tiniest whiff of satirical potential".

The Good Guys is an American action-comedy series about an old-school cop and a modern-day detective that premiered with a preview episode on Fox on May 19, 2010, and began airing regularly on June 7 of that year. The series stars Bradley Whitford as Dan Stark, a mustachioed, former big-shot detective with the Dallas Police Department, and Colin Hanks as Jack Bailey, a young, ambitious, by-the-book detective who has been assigned as Dan's partner because of his snarky attitude.

Bailey et Stark ("") est une série télévisée américaine en vingt épisodes de 42 minutes créée par Matt Nix et diffusée entre le et le sur le réseau Fox et en simultané au Canada sur le réseau Global.


Équipe des Seychelles féminine de football

Background and development.

The Seychelles Football Federation was founded in 1979, and became a FIFA affiliate in 1986. Women's football is represented in the federation by specific mandate and currently they employ one full-time employee to look after the women's game.  Football is the third most-popular women's sport in the country. In 2006, there were overall 185 registered female players (100 adult players and 85 youth players). There are also a few women's clubs, eight senior women's club as of 2009 and a national competition takes place yearly. Girls' football was not played in school based competitions in 2006, but started in 2009. The first woman's football tournament occurred in the late 1990s, with the first tournaments being seven-a-side football before an eleven-a-side tournament started. The Patron's Cup, the major women's competition in the country that is the final for the national league, was won by Olympia Coast in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005. The cup was won by Dolphins in 2004. The competition and some of the teams underwent a name change with United Sisters becoming the Lioness and the Patron's Cup becoming the Federation Cup. In 2007, 2009 and 2011, the Lioness won the Federation Cup. In 2002, Cynthia Sanders became the first woman from the country to attain an assistant referee international license. Rights to broadcast the 2011 Women's World Cup in the country were bought by the African Union of Broadcasting and Supersport International. In 2011, Sanders became the first woman from the country to referee an international match when she officiated a match between Malawi and Zimbabwe in Harare, Zimbabwe. In 2012, the country had their first woman sign a contract for and coach a men's team.  Early development of the women's game at the time colonial powers brought football to the African continent was limited, as colonial powers in the region tended to make concepts of patriarchy and women's participation in sports was limited as a result. The lack of later development of the national teams on a wider international level is symptomatic of most of African teams and a result of several factors, including limited access to education, poverty amongst women in the wider society, and fundamental inequality present in the society that occasionally allows for female specific human rights abuses. When quality female football players are developed, they tend to leave for greater opportunities abroad. Continent wide, funding is also an issue, with most development money coming from FIFA, not the national football association. Future success for women's football in Africa is dependent on improved facilities and access by women to these facilities. Attempting to commercialise the game and make it commercially viable is not the solution, as demonstrated by the current existence of many youth and women's football camps held throughout the continent.

The team.

In 1985, almost no country in the world had a women's national football team including the Seychelles who did play in a single FIFA sanctioned match between 1950 and June 2012. In 2006, the country did not have an official FIFA recognised senior a team, a situation unchanged by 2009. In 2005, they competed in a three nation tournament hosted by Mauritius, where all games were 80 minutes in length. They lost to Mauritius 1–4. They lost to Réunion 0–9. Overall, they finished last, scoring only one goal in the competition. In 2005, Zambia was supposed to host a regional COSAFA women's football tournament, with ten teams agreeing to send teams including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. Seychelles did not record a match in the event. The country did not have a team competing in the 2010 African Women's Championships, or at the 2011 All Africa Games. In March 2012, the team was not ranked in the world by FIFA.  The country has an official under-17 team, the Seychelle women's national under-17 football team. In 2006, they had two training sessions a week but had yet to record an official FIFA recognised match.

The Seychelles women's national football team is the national team of the Seychelles. It does not officially exist and has not played in a FIFA recognised match. The national team has played in two eighty-minute long games in 2005 in a tournament hosted by Mauritius, with the Seychelles losing both matches. An official under-17 national team exists and had regular training sessions in 2006. The sport faces several development problems inside the country including a lack of popularity for the sport, and few female players and teams. Women have gained football leadership positions in the country with one coaching a men's team and another umpiring international matches. There are other development issues for the sport that are ones facing the whole of Africa.

L'équipe des Seychelles féminine de football est une sélection des meilleures joueuses seychelloises sous l'égide de la Fédération des Seychelles de football. Elle a pour sélectionneur la Seychelloise Elsie Ernesta.


Biography.

He was born at Reval Castle during his parents' visit to Swedish Estonia in 1601. His father, youngest son of King Gustav I who founded Sweden's Vasa dynasty, was Duke of Södermanland and regent of the kingdom at the time, having forced his Catholic nephew, King Sigismund, to restrict his personal rule to his other kingdom, Poland, where most of his subjects were likewise Catholic. But in 1604, Duke Charles deposed Sigismund and donned Sweden's crown himself, assuring the nation that his branch of the Vasas would remain Protestant.  Along with his elder brother, Crown Prince Gustavus Adolphus, Prince Charles Philip was educated to be a staunch Lutheran under the tutelage of Johan Skytte. He was formally made duke by his father in 1609 who, however, died in 1611. His elder brother, the new King Gustavus II Adolphus felt genuine affection for him, as it was said, for his "many excellent qualities and his noble character". He was also a favourite of his mother, now queen dowager, who defended his interests against her elder son: at the coronation of 1617, she insisted his brother confirm the ducal rights in the three provinces Charles Philip held as fiefs in appanage.  In 1611, during the Time of Troubles in Russia, Jacob de la Gardie proposed Charles Philip to Novgorod and northwestern Russia as a candidate for election by the "Zemsky Sobor" as the next tsar. But when his father died shortly afterward, his mother refused to let the ten-year-old boy leave for Russia, nor did his elder brother, the new king, believe the Russians were seriously considering the proposal. In 1613, Charles Philip left for Viborg, where he was to discuss the terms of the tsardom, but after Russia appointed another tsar, Michael Romanov, he returned to Sweden.  As duke of Södermanland, the appanage held by his father before becoming king, Carl Philip was expected to eventually take up residence in its capital town, Nyköping. But during his minority, the duchy was administered by his mother and Carl Philip remained at the royal court in Stockholm. In 1617, he visited Denmark, Germany and France. He later joined the army, and accompanied his brother in 1621 as he waged war on Livonia. He distinguished himself during the siege of Narva in 1622, but succumbed to an illness there and died. It has been shown that his brother deeply mourned him.  At the time of his death in 1622, Charles Philip was the last feudal duke in Sweden. When Gustav III re-introduced the title for a royal prince in 1772, it was a mere honorary title, carrying no provincial authority.

Family.

On 5 May 1620 the nineteen-year-old Charles Philip married, Elizabeth Ribbing (1596–1662). Although a noblewoman (her father, Seved Svensson Ribbing, had been Sweden's first "Riksskattmästare", and her mother, Anna Gyllenstierna, belonged to one of the realm's leading families), she was not of royal birth so the wedding ceremony was conducted in secret. This rendered futile any attempt to forcibly separate the couple, as had been done when the duke's elder brother was compelled to abandon his great love, Ebba Brahe, whose noble birth had likewise been deemed insufficient to allow Gustavus Adolphus to marry her. But it also meant that Elisabet would never share her new husband's royal rank, the marriage being deemed "morgongåvobrev".  The secret was kept until Charles Philip died soon after, fighting by his brother's side on 25 January 1622 at Narva in Livonia. The marriage was revealed when Elizabeth gave birth to her late husband's posthumous daughter, Elisabet, later that year (1622–1682). Queen Dowager Christina took mother and child into her household and acknowledged the marriage.  Although remaining untitled, the girl was accepted into the nobility, and eventually became mistress of the Queen Mother's Household ("Hovmästarinna") as well as her grandmother's companion under the name "Elizabeth Gyllenhielm", that surname having become traditional for children of Vasa kings and princes born outside of dynastic marriage.  Elizabeth Gyllenhielm was heiress to the castle and manor of Tynnelsö in Södermanland and lady-in-waiting of two Swedish queens consort, Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg and Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp.  She was first married at the palace in Stockholm on 13 November 1645 to the nobleman, Axel Turesson Natt och Dag (1621–47), Queen Christina's chamberlain. Their son, Karl Axelsson Natt och Dag, died as a student at the University of Uppsala, having become Baron of Ijo ("Friherre till Ijo").  Secondly, Elizabeth wed Baron Baltasar Marskalk, Master of the Royal Household.

Prince Charles Philip of Sweden, Duke of Södermanland, ("Swedish: Carl Filip"; Alt-Anzen (Vana-Antsla), 22 April 1601 – Narva, 25 January 1622) was a Swedish prince, Duke of Södermanland, Närke and Värmland. Charles Philip was the second surviving son of King Charles IX of Sweden and his second spouse, Duchess Christina of Holstein-Gottorp.

Charles-Philippe de Suède (en suédois : "Hertig Karl Filip av Sverige") né le au château de Narva dans le duché d'Estonie et mort le à Narva dans le duché d'Estonie était un prince suédois fils du roi Charles IX et Christine de Holstein-Gottorp il fut titré duc de Södermanland, Närke et Värmland du à sa mort.


Theology of nonviolence.

Douglass is a noted author on nonviolence and Catholic theology, with many books and essays to his credit. Four of his monographs, published from 1968 to 1991, were reprinted in 2006 by theology publisher Wipf & Stock.  Douglass's 2008 book, "JFK and the Unspeakable", discusses the John F. Kennedy assassination as a conspiracy ordered by unknown parties and carried out by the CIA with help from the Mafia and elements in the FBI to put an end to Kennedy's effort to end the Cold War after the Cuban Missile Crisis.  "JFK and the Unspeakable" was first published by Orbis Books in Maryknoll, New York (2008), and reprinted by Simon & Schuster's Touchstone Books (2010).

Activism.

Douglass was a professor of religion at the University of Hawaii who first engaged in civil disobedience to protest against the Vietnam War.  In 1975 Jim and Shelley Douglass founded Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action to protest against the construction of a Trident missile nuclear submarine base on the Kitsap Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. The Douglasses, joined by other activists seeking to prevent the installation of Trident missiles, formed a small intentional community, the Pacific Life Community, near the submarine base. Their goal was to "seek the truth of a nonviolent way of life," both personally and politically. Personally we tried to confront our racism, sexism, consumerism — all the isms that allowed us to violate others. Politically, we chose to experiment with nonviolent actions resisting Trident, a system that seemed to epitomize all the violence of our society.  This nonviolent protest later extended to protesting against the White Train which carried nuclear missile parts to Bangor Trident Base.  The Douglasses later moved to the Ensley neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama, to establish Mary's House, a "house of hospitality" for homeless or indigent people in need of long-term health care.  Douglass has traveled to the Middle East on several peace missions. In 2003 he joined a Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq and stayed with civilians during the U.S.-led invasion.  Douglass is a member, and co-founder of, Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth, an organization that questions the "official story" about the 9/11 attacks.

James W. "Jim" Douglass (born 1937) is an American author, activist, and Christian theologian. He is a graduate of Santa Clara University. He and his wife, Shelley Douglass, founded the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Washington, and Mary’s House, a Catholic Worker house in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1997 the Douglasses received the Pacem in Terris Award.

James W. « Jim » Douglass, né en 1937, est un écrivain, militant pacifiste et théologien catholique américain. Il est diplômé de l’Université de Santa Clara. Avec son épouse Shelley, il a cofondé le "Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action" à Poulsbo, dans l’État de Washington, ainsi que "Mary's House", un lieu de vie et d’accueil, rattaché à la communauté "Catholic Worker", dans l’Alabama. Les Douglass ont reçu en 1997 le Prix Pacem in Terris.


History.

The Palace was built for Count Jan Klemens Branicki, Great Crown Hetman and patron of art and science, raised in the French milieu of the Polish aristocracy, who transformed a previous house into the suitably magnificent residence of a great Polish noble, a rival to Wilanów Palace, making a start in 1726. He also laid out the central part of the town of Bialystok, not a large place in the 18th century, with its triangular market.  The original wooden manor of the Raczkowicz family that occupied the site was transformed in the 16th century into a brick two-storey castle for Piotr Wiesiołowski the Younger. The architect was Hiob Bretfus, who constructed the a gothic-renaissance structure with a moat and earth ramparts. Shortly after the property was inherited by Stefan Mikołaj Branicki he commissioned the transformation of the castle into a baroque mansion. The structure was thoroughly reconstructed during 1691–1697 by Tylman Gamerski, including one of the towers adapted to a staircase. During the subsequent reconstruction the side outbuildings were enhanced, the Ionic colonnade above the main entrance was erected and the whole structure was adorned with sculptures. Further expansion of the palace was conducted by Jan Klemens Branicki and his wife Izabella Poniatowska. Starting in 1728 the reconstruction of the palace was directed by Johann Sigmund Deybel. Under his supervision, the structure was enhanced, the tympanum and domes on the towers were added. Deybel is also the author of the main façade. The existing pavilions and outbuildings were merged with the main building ("corps de logis") according to French model to form wings surrounding a horseshoe court - the courtyard of honor ("cour d'honneur"), which was closed with a gate built in 1758 by Jan Henryk Klemm. Among notable architects employed in reconstruction was Pierre Ricaud de Tirregaille. After the death of Deybel, in the years 1750–1771, the rebuilding of the palace was supervised by Jakub Fontana, who was an author of the palace's vestibule, rococo interiors and the staircase with statues by Jan Chrysostom Redler (1754). The fence between the initial ("avant cour") and honor courtyard was adorned in 1757 with two monumental sculptures by Redler - "Hercules fighting the dragon" and "Hercules fighting the hydra". Interior decorations were conducted by artists such as Szymon Czechowicz, Ludwik Marteau, Augustyn Mirys, Jean-Baptiste Pillement, fresco painters such as Georg Wilhelm Neunhertz (in 1738) and Antoni Herliczka and stucco decorators Samuel Contesse and Antoni Vogt. The newly created "Versailles de la Pologne" concentrated many great artists, poets including Elżbieta Drużbacka and Franciszek Karpiński and scientists. A theater, orchestra and ballet were established. Among notable guests were King Augustus II the Strong (1726 to 1727 and again in 1729), King Augustus III and his wife and sons Prince Francis Xavier and Prince Charles (1744 and 1752), Prince Charles of Saxony, Duke of Courland (twice in 1759), Bishop Ignacy Krasicki (1760), King Stanisław August Poniatowski (occasionally), Emperor Joseph II Habsburg (1780), Grand Duke Paul, future Tsar Paul I of Russia, with his wife (1782), King Louis XVIII of France (1798), French, English, Turkish and Russian envoys and Italian actress.  With the third Partition of Poland it went to the Prussian Kingdom and, after 1807, to Russia. In the summer of 1920, briefly, the palace was the headquarters of the Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee. Branicki Palace suffered from bombing and fires caused by the Germans, with damage totaling approximately 70%. It was restored after World War II as a matter of national pride. The Medical University is housed in the Palace.

The palace grounds.

A straight avenue centered on the palace passes across the river on a three-arched bridge across the river, which is confined with deep stone embankment walling, to the large enclosed paved forecourt. The central block has two storeys upon a high arcaded basement story, with a pedimented central block displaying Branicki's coat-of-arms and end pavilions that have squared domes in two tiers. The roofline is an Italianate balustrade that masks a low attic story, and the heroic sculptural group of Atlas crowning all.  Surrounding the Palace are the grounds. The garden front has a terrace raised on columns, which forms a podium for viewing the parterre in the French taste with a main central allée and French sphinxes, and a later "English garden," in the naturalistic taste associated with the English park, surrounding the grounds. The central axis continues to a guest pavilion. Other outbuildings include the Arsenal (1755), Orangery and Italian and Tuscan Pavilions.

Branicki Palace () is a historical edifice in Białystok, Poland. It was developed on the site of an earlier building in the first half of the 18th century by Jan Klemens Branicki, a wealthy Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth hetman, into a residence suitable for a man whose ambition was to become king of Poland. The palace complex with gardens, pavilions, sculptures, outbuildings and other structures and the city with churches, city hall and monastery, all built almost at the same time according to French models was the reason why the city was known in the 18th century as "Versailles de la Pologne" (Versailles of Poland) and subsequently "Versailles de la Podlachie" (Versailles of Podlasie).

Le Palais Branicki à Białystok était la résidence de l'hetman, castellan de Cracovie Jan Klemens Branicki de 1689 à 1771. Il fut construit en style baroque au milieu du sur base d'un bâtiment préexistant. Il est considéré comme le «Versailles de Podlachie» ou même le « Versailles de la Pologne». Par son mobilier luxueux et ses finitions il n'est pas inférieur au Palais de Wilanów. Dans le parc paysager, subsistent un arsenal, une orangerie un pavillon pour les hôtes. La ville de Białystok reçut le statut de ville après la construction de ce château.