The Fourth Wall: A Rare View of Famous European Theater Auditoriums Photographed from the Stage

Quimper, Francia

Reduced europolitics to its bare minimun

1945: The bambuneres of Alcoi, the first Valencian post-war strike

The bambuneres were the teenage girls who worked in cigarette paper factories in Alcoi (Valencian Country). Most started working at 14, since the bosses didn't want to hire girls older than 16. Many didn't know how to read or write because they left school at 9 years old to work, and others knew just barely. They were 800 girls in Alcoi, the biggest workers' group in the town.

In the years after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), right after the fascists' victory, there was a generalized poverty and misery and the dictatorship strictly controlled all spheres of life. Trade unions had been banned and trade unionists persecuted.

The bambuneres worked many hours a day and were paid a small piece rate for each cigarette paper produced. They decided to go on strike: on October 25th 1945, in the factory, they crossed their arms and refused to work. They asked for better salaries and an 8-hour-long workday. It was the first strike after the Civil War in the Valencian Country and one of the first ones in Franco's dictatorship.

Thanks to this strike, they obtained a 25% salary increase and the news of their strike reached far, even to Germany, encouraging more women workers fight for better wages.

Source: A Punt, with the testimony of three bambuneres who took part in the event: Pepa Richart, Mercedes Abad and Pepa Soler.

Sea shell and silver gunpowder flask, the Caucasus, 18th century

from The Victoria and Albert Museum

Rybinsk, Yaroslavl oblast

source

St. Nicholas church (est. 1812), Sericu.

> Photos: Alexandru Baboş (2011).

The European Roma institute for arts and culture just released a 253 pages book on the romani resistance during World War II, written by a collective of European historians

It is available for free here

Samoseli Pirveli (meaning “first garment”) is a shop that specializes in traditional Georgian clothes, which differ according to the “strata and regions of Georgia” (source). One style of garment is called a “chokha” and another, “kalakuri kaba” (meaning “city dress”). Each image has a line of English categorizing the clothing style.

Summer Destinations 7

Split, Croatia (by David Curry)

Snowball fight at the Vatican, 1940.

Ok so there’s these tidal islands in Northern Germany that are connected by little tiny trains that you have to drive yourself, which is already delightfully ghibli-esque.

But then I found out UNTIL THE 196OS, THE TRAINS HAD LITTLE SAILS AND WERE WIND-POWERED?

THAT’S THE MOST GHIBLI THING TO EVER EXIST ON THIS PLANET, BRING IT BACK YOU MONSTERS.

Ok clearly, we just need a ghibli movie set in a world inspired by East Frisia, because in addition to the Sail-Wagons, they also have:

Windmills

Lighthouses

The world’s highest per capita tea consumption, with adorably ghibliesque tea ceremonies

Houses that look like this

Farms that look like this

Heart-shaped waffles (ok that’s everywhere in Northern Germany, but our adorable waffles deserve a ghibli cameo).

SEALS

East and North Frisia are absolutely beautiful regions. The rough, deep blue north sea on one side of the islands and the calm, mirror-like wadden sea on the other. The stiff, salty breeze. The rosehip bushes in the morning dew. The viking burial mounds strewn all over the fields. The Frisian Tea Ceremony with giant chunks of rock candy and cream so thick and fat you poor it carefully around the rim so it gathers at the bottom but rises up as cloudy columns. The pictures above are from my trip the the Morsum Cliff and Red Cliff in Sylt.

Jewish youth at a dance event in Amsterdam, 1957-58

Leonard Freed: After The War Was Over (via)

Warsaw makes history tonight as millions of women revolt against the government’s control of female bodies.

Women Converge on Warsaw, Heightening Poland’s Largest Protests in Decades

Tropea (Calabria, Italy)

Photos by @acriativelife on Instagram

I just love Warsaw so much. My family spent so many years there

I wish European countries would be able to showcase their traditional cultures, especially things like outfits or festivals, without the alt right using them as some short of nationalist propaganda every 5 minutes