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Wierzbno, Warsaw

Wierzbno is a neighbourhood, and an area of the City Information System, in the city of Warsaw, Poland, located within the district of Mokotów. It is a residential area, with most of its eastern area consisting of villas and tenements, and its western area, and a portion of its eastern area, consisting of multifamily residential large panel system-buildings.

Wierzbno was established as a small settlement in the 1770s, by Józef Jakubowski, a brigadier in the French Army. In the early 19th century, within the eastern portion of the current area of Wierzbno, Henryk Bonnet, a clerk and a judge, had established the settlement of Henryków, which was originally settled by French people. In 1840, nobleperson Ksawer Pusłowski had built his residence in southern Wierzbno, and a road near it, which forms current Ksawerów Street, and in 1849, he had bought the nearby Królikarnia palace, which was originally built in 1786. Overtime, the area had developed into a separate settlement, forming the modern northern portion of the neighbourhood of Ksawerów. In the 19th century Wierzbno functioned as a holiday village, and from 1840 to 1866, in the village had operated a hydrotherapy facility. In 1916, the area was incorporated into the city of Warsaw. Throughout the 1920s and the 1930s, the eastern portion of the current neighbourhood went through major development, becoming a suburban residential neighbourhood with numerous villas and tenements being built in the area. Between the 1960s and the 1970s, in the neighbourhood were built the residential neighbourhoods of Wierzbno, and Skarpa Puławska. They consisted of the multifamily residential large panel system buildings, which at the time, were the tallest, and one of the first, of their kind, to be built in Poland.

Most of the territory of the City Information System area of Wierzbno is administrated by the municipal neighbourhood of Wierzbno, which is governed by the neighbourhood council.

Name
The name of Wierzbno comes from Polish word wierzba, which means willow. Its founder, Józef Jakubowski, had originally named it in 18th century Pod Wierzbą, which means under the willow, most likely referring to willow trees present in the area.

Housing
Wierzbno mostly consists of a residential area. The eastern portion of the neighbourhood, contained mostly between Independence Avenue and Puławska Street, consists mostly of low-rise buildings of villas and single-family detached homes. In the area around Puławska Street are also located tenements. Between Puławska Street, Bielawska Street, Żywnego Street, and the peaks of Warsaw Escarpment, is located the residential neighbourhood of Skarpa Puławska consisting of eight 13-storey multifamily residential large panel system-buildings.

The eastern portion of the City Information System area of Wierzbno, between Wołoska Street, and Independence Avenue, contains the residential neighbourhood of Wierzbno, which consists of multifamily residential large panel system-buildings.

Public spaces
In Wierzbno are located a few urban parks. Between Ursynowska Street, Puławska Street, Odyńca Street, and Krasickiego Street is located the Dreszer Park, which consists of a main avenue, and adjacent pathways, with trees growing alongside them. In the park is located the Monument of Fighting Mokotów of 1944 (also known as the Monument of Mokotów Insurgents), dedicated to Polish resistance fighters, mainly from the Baszta Regiment Group, who fought in the park in 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising. The monument, designed by Eugeniusz Ajewski, and unvailed in 1985, consists of a glacial erratic rock broken into two parts, with a sculpture of the Kotwica, which, during the Second World War, served as the emblem of the Polish Underground State, and the Home Army. It is a ligature of the letters P and W, symbolizing term Polska Walcząca, which in Polish, means Fighting Poland. In front of the sculpture has placed a plaque with text commemorating the fighters. In front of the monument are held annual commemorative celebrations. Next to the park, between Ursynowska Street, Odyńca Street, Krasickiego Street, and Independence Avenue, is located the Second Jordan Garden, one of the Jordan gardens in the city, which form urban green spaces dedicated as the recreational and play area for children and youth. It is located between Ursynowska Street, Odyńca Street, Krasickiego Street, and Independence Avenue.

In the neighbourhood is also located the eastern portion of the Arcadia Park, known as the Upper Arcadia. The park is located between Puławska Street, Żywnego Street, Piaseczyńska Street, and Idzikowskiego Street, next to the gardens of Królikarnia palace.

There is also the Olga and Andrzej Małkowskis Square, a garden square located between Puławska Street, and Okolska Street.

Public transit
In the neighbourhood are located two stations of the M1 line of the Warsaw Metro rapid transit underground system. They are Wierzbno station, located at the intersection of Woronicza Street, Independence Avenue, and Naruszewicza Street, and Racławicka station, located at the intersection of Racławicka Street, Wiktorska Street, and Independence Avenue.

Media
In Wierzbno, at 77/85 Independence Avenue, are located the headquarters of Polish Radio, a national public-service radio broadcasting organization of Poland.

Sports
In northeast Wierzbno, on Warsaw Escarpment, in the area of Merliniego Street, in located the Warszawianka sports complex. Among its amenities, it includes tennis courts and indoor swimming pool complex. It is the headquarters of KS Warszawianka sports team.

Religion
In Wierzbno are located two parish churches of the Roman Catholic parishes.

The Church of Saint Michael the Archangel is located at 95 Puławska Street, at the intersection of Puławska Street and Dolna Street. It was built between 1950 and 1966, in place of the historical Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was built between 1853 and 1856, and was originally part of the Roman Catholic Parish of St. Alexander. In 1917, it became the parish church, in an area that forms the current parish. The building was destroyed in 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising.

The Church of Madonna of Angels is located at 98A Modzelewskiego Street. Its parish was established in 1983, and is operated by the Order of Friars Minor.

In Wierzbno, at 31 Racławicka Street, is also located the Monastery of St. Joseph of the Catholic mendicant order of Discalced Carmelites. The order occupies the building since 1947. It is the headquarters of the Discalced Carmelites Warsaw Province of the Most Holy Trinity, one of the two border provinces in Poland.

Embassies
In Wierzbno are located embassies of Algeria at 10 Krasickiego Street, Croatia at 25 Krasickiego Street, and Kuwait at 26 Krasickiego Street.

History
In the 1770s, the patch of land was given by king Stanisław August Poniatowski, monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, to Józef Jakubowski, the brigadier of the French Army. On his lands, Jakubowski had established a small folwark-type settlement of Wierzbno near the village of Mokotów (now part of Old Mokotów), which he then called Pod Wierzbą, which in Polish means under the willow tree.

In 1786, in southern Wierzbno was built Królikarnia palace, owned by Carlo Alessandro Tomatis, husband of Caterina Gattai Tomatis. In 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, it was the residence of Tadeusz Kościuszko, the leader of the insurrect forces. In 1816, Tomatis had sold it to the Radziwiłł family.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Henryk Bonnet, a French-born clerk who served as the State Councillor and the judge in the district court of Warsaw, had bought an area around current Malczewskiego Street, establishing there the folwark-type settlement of Henryków. It was originally settled by French people. In there was built a small palace residence of the Bonnet family. In 1824, Louisa Bonnet de Belon (1802-1876), Henryk Bonnet's daughter, had married George Fanshawe (1789-1867; also known as Jerzy Fanshave), English-born chamberlain and colonel in the Imperial Russian Army. The couple had inherited the property around 1830. Around 1850, in place of Bonnet's residence, at current 107A Puławska Street, was built Fanshawe Palace, which became the residence of the Fanshawe family. In 1900, the palace was inherited by nobleman August Potocki, who, while never living there himself, had accommodated there the less wealthy members of his family.

In 1840, Ksawer Pusłowski built his residence in south Wierzbno, now known as Ksawerów Manor, which is located at 13 Ksawerów Street. Near it was also built a road, which forms the current Ksawerów Street. In 1849, he had bought Królikarnia palace. Overtime, the area developed into a separate settlement, which was named, after its founder, Ksawery, and later, Ksawerów.

In 1840, physician Ludwik Sauvan had opened in Wierzbno the hydrotherapy facility, which used the local water spring. It had operated until 1866. At that time, Wierzbno, and Mokotów, had also become popular holiday villages.

In 1856, at the intersection of current Puławska Street and Dolna Street, was built the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which originally belonged to the Roman Catholic Parish of St. Alexander, and in 1917, it had become its own parish church. It was the first church built within current boundaries of the district of Mokotów. The building was destroyed in 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising. In its place, between 1950 and 1966, was built the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel.

In 1881, Wierzbno was connected with Warsaw via a horsebus line. In 1909, it was replaced by a tram line.

In 1892, the Fort M-Che was built near Wierzbno, as part of the inner circle of the series of fortifications of the Warsaw Fortress, build around Warsaw by the Russian Empire. In 1909, it was decided to decommission and demolish the fortifications of the Warsaw Fortress, due to the high costs of their maintenance, and as such the Fort M-Che was demilitarized and abandoned, and was later deconstructed in the 1920s.

From 1867 to 1916, Wierzbno belonged to the gmina (municipality) of Mokotów. On 8 April 1916, Wierzbno, together with the rest of its municipality, were incorporated into the city of Warsaw.

In 1906, was opened Wierzbno railway station, operated by the Grójec Narrow-Gauge Railway. It was part of the railway line between stations of Warszawa Mokotów and Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą. It was located near the current location of Arcadia Park near Puławska Street. The station had operated until 1937.

The major development of Wierzbno begun in the 1920s, and continued throughout the 1930s, mostly in the area between current Independence Avenue and Puławska Street, where were built villas and single-family detached homes. In the area of Puławska Street were also built tenements. The development included only the eastern portion of the current City Information System area of Wierzbno, with the western portion remaining undeveloped until the 1960s.

In 1931, in Wierzbno opened the St. Elizabeth Hospital (originally known as St. Anthony Hospital), operated by the institute of Sisters of Saint Elizabeth, located at 1 Goszczyńskiego Street. The building was destroyed during the Second World War, and rebuilt between 1946 and 1948. In 1949, it was nationalized. In 1993, the legal ownership of the building was returned to the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth, with the agreement that the building would operate until 2003, as the state medical institution, with them ultimately regaining the facility in 2006.

In 1938, in Wierzbno was opened the Dreszer Park, an urban park designed by Zygmunt Hellwig in the modernist style, and located between current Ursynowska Street, Independence Avenue, Odyńca Street, and Krasickiego Street.. In 1944, during the Second World War, the park become a defensive point of the Polish resistance fighters of the Warsaw Uprising, mainly from the Baszta Regiment Group, who defended their position from German forces attacking from the north between 2 and 13 August 1944, and from the south, between 25 and 27 September 1944. During the war the park was used as a provisional cemetery, both for the fallen Polish resistance fighters and the civilian casualties. After the end of the conflict, the bodies were exhumated and relocated to the proper cemmentaries. The park was restored and reopened in 1951. The western portion of the park, located between Ursynowska Street, Odyńca Street, Krasickiego Street, and Independence Avenue, was separated from the rest, forming the Second Jordan Garden, one of the Jordan gardens in the city, which form urban green spaces dedicated as the recreational and play area for children and youth.

Between 1954 and 1962, in the northeast portion of the area of Wierzbno, was built Warszawianka sports complex, located on Warsaw Escarpment, in the area of Merliniego Street. Among its amenities, the object included a football pitch, and tennis courts. Between 1960 and 1973, the complex was expanded with outdoor and indoor swimming pools. The complex was, and remains to the present day, a home field of KS Warszawianka sports team. The complex was designed by architects Jerzy Sołtan, and Zbigniew Ihnatowicz. The complex had degraded over the years, with its sections becoming abandoned and disused. In the 1990s, in the complex was opened new indoor swimming pool complex. The old outdoor swimming pools of the complex were destroyed, and overbuilt with a residential area.

In 1957, at 77/85 Independence Avenue was opened the building of Polish Radio, a national public-service radio broadcasting organization of Poland. Originally, it was used as a broadcasting station of international auditions. In 1958, it became the headquarters and main broadcasting station of Polskie Radio.

Between 1960 and 1975, in the western portion of the current City Information System area of Wierzbno, was built the residential neighbourhood of Wierzbno, consisting of multifamily residential large panel system-buildings. It was one of the first neighbourhoods in Poland built using the large panel system technology. It was built between Wołoska Street, Woronicza Street, Independence Avenue, and Odyńca Street. Its designers were Zofia Fafiusowa, Jerzy Stanisławski, Kazimierz Stasiniewicz, and Andrzej Wochna.

Between 1965 and 1971, in the eastern portion of the current City Information System area of Wierzbno, was built the residential neighbourhood of Skarpa Puławska consisting of eight 13-storey multifamily residential large panel system-buildings, planned to house between 4 and 5 thousand people. It was built between Puławska Street, Bielawska Street, Żywnego Street, and the peaks of Warsaw Escarpment. Skarpa Puławska was one of the first neighbourhoods in Poland built using the large panel system technology, and at the time of their construction, the buildings were the tallest buildings in the country, built in that technology.

Between 1968 and 1970, at the current boundary of Wierzbno and Sielce, was built Arcadia Park, an urban park designed by Longin Majdecki, and located in an area between Puławska Street, Żywnego Street, Piaseczyńska Street, and Idzikowskiego Street. It is located next to the gardens of Królikarnia palace.

On 7 April 1995, in the neighbourhood were opened two stations of the M1 line of the Warsaw Metro rapid transit underground system. They were Wierzbno station, located at the intersection of Woronicza Street, Independence Avenue, and Naruszewicza Street, and Racławicka station, located at the intersection of Racławicka Street, Wiktorska Street, and Independence Avenue.

On 4 October 1996, the district of Mokotów was subdivided into areas of the City Information System, with an area of Wierzbno being one of them.

On 17 July 2014 was established the municipal neighbourhood of Wierzbno, which is governed by the neighbourhood council. It includes most of the territory of the City Information System area.

Location and administrative boundaries
Wierzbno is located in the city of Warsaw, Poland, within the central-western portion of the district of Mokotów, in the subregion of Upper Mokotów. It is a City Information System area. To the north, its border is determined by Racławicka Street, and Dolna Street; to the east, by the peaks of the Warsaw Escarpment, and around the area of the Warszawianka sports complex; to the south, by Woronicza Street, and in the straight line going to the east from the end of the street to the eastern boundary; and to the west, by Wołoska Street.

It borders Old Mokotów to the north, Sielce to the east, Ksawerów to the south, Służewiec to the south-west, and Wyględów to the west.

Municipal neighbourhood
Within the City Information System area of Wierzbno, is located the municipal neighbourhood of Wierzbno, which is governed by the neighbourhood council.

To the north, its border is determined by Racławicka Street, Independence Avenue, and Ursynowska Street; to the east, by Puławska Street; to the south, by Woronicza Street; and to the west, by Wołoska Street.

The neighbourhood government is divided into two organs, the neighbourhood council as the legislative body, and the neighbourhood management as the executive body. Its seat is located at 44A Woronicza Street. The municipal neighbourhood had been established on 17 July 2014.

title: Wierzbno, Warsaw


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Romesh Batra

Romesh C. Batra is a University Distinguished Professor and Clifton C. Garvin Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia. He was born in Village Dherowal (now in Pakistan), Punjab, India. His family migrated from Dherowal to Shahabad Markanda, Haryana, India after India became an independent country. Dr. Batra has authored the book, Elements of Continuum Mechanics, AIAA Educational Series. His research group has published in reputable refereed and widely read journals more than 460 papers of which about 40 are single-authored and nearly 320 have two authors; these are documented on the website: http://www.beam.vt.edu/batra.

Early life and education
He earned his B.Sc. (Mechanical Engineering), M.A. Sc. (Mechanical Engineering) and Ph.D. (Mechanics and Materials Science) degrees, respectively, in 1968, ’69 and ‘72 from Thapar University (India), University of Waterloo (Canada) and the Johns Hopkins University (USA). His Ph.D. degree was under the tutelage of the eminent elastician, Professor J. L. Ericksen. After a year of Post-doctoral experience with Professor Ericksen at the JHU and another year with Professor Mark Levinson at the McMaster University, Canada, he joined the Missouri University of Science and Technology (MUST), Rolla, USA as a visiting assistant professor in 1974 and was promoted to full professor in 1981. He joined Virginia Tech as the Clifton C. Garvin Professor in 1994, and was honored as a University Distinguished Professor in 2019.

Teaching and research
Dr. Batra has been teaching courses on the Finite Element Method, Continuum Mechanics and Nonlinear Elasticity to M.Sc. and Ph.D. students since 1974. His lectures for the 1st graduate level course on Continuum Mechanics are available on youtube.com. Nearly a dozen out of his 40 former Ph.D. students hold faculty positions in India, China, Chile, Taiwan, S. Korea, France, Canada and the USA. Several other former Ph.D. students hold leadership positions in civilian industries and research laboratories.

Graduate Student Mentoring: His Ph.D. students are listed on the website: http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=105522

Research Areas: His research group has worked in several areas of applied mechanics such as adiabatic shear bands (these are narrow regions of intense plastic deformation that form during high strain-rate deformations of most metallic alloys and generally precede fracture), composite structures, functionally graded materials/structures, nanostructures, smart materials/structures, micro-electro-mechanical systems, and computational mechanics including the finite element and meshless methods.

Software Development: Dr. Batra’s group has developed software based on the finite element and meshless methods for analyzing contact problems for rubber-covered rolls, adiabatic shear bands, crack propagation in functionally graded materials, damage evolution in fiber-reinforced laminated composites, and transient deformations of structures made of thermo-elasto-visco-plastic materials and fiber-reinforced composites.

Professional Affiliations: He is an Honorary Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and a Fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics, American Society of Engineering Education, Society of Engineering Science, and the US Association of Computational Mechanics. He is a founder and editor of the journal: Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids

Professional Service: He served for two 5-year terms on the National Research Council Panels to review and advise areas of research in the Warhead Mechanics and the Lethality/Survivability Directorates of the Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen, MD, USA; for one year as President of the Society of Engineering Science; for 3 years as Secretary of the American Academy of Mechanics; and for 5 years as Chair of the ASME Elasticity Committee.

Recognitions: Belytschko Medal (2019) from the US Association of Computational Mechanics for his work on adiabatic shear bands and MSPH/SSPH meshless methods
 * As of 27 June 2021, his works have received more than 21,000 citations with an H-index of 76 on Google Scholar.
 * American Society of Mechanical Engineers Honorary Membership Award (one of 3 so honored in 2015 out of nearly 124,000 members; it’s the highest membership level in the ASME and recognizes recipient’s lifetime accomplishments)
 * Engineering Science Medal from the Society of Engineering Science (2009) (The Medal is awarded in recognition of a singularly important contribution to Engineering Science)
 * Virginia http://www.indiapost.com/two-indian-americans-receive-virginia-science-awards Outstanding Scientist Award (2011) (granted by the Commonwealth of Virginia, 2 scientists honored every year for their outstanding contributions to research)
 * Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award (2010) (generally 2 faculty members from Research I universities are selected for this Award based on their superbly fulfilling the teaching, research and outreach mission of the university)
 * Honorary D.Sc. from Thapar University (2006) [one of the three awarded till 2015)
 * Alexander von Humboldt Award (1992) for senior scientists (The award is granted in recognition of a researcher's entire achievements to date to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future)
 * Virginia Tech Alumni Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Romesh Batra


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Wikipedia:Cleanup Taskforce/Ten Powers

Ten Powers

 * Ten Powers- general copyeditting and wikification. Needs sectioning, check for copyvio, and probably merge to somewhere less specific. --Dmcdevit 06:36, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Referred to RedWordSmith · Katefan0(scribble) 16:12, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * Merged into Rave Master; I'll try to get a copy from Netflix and see what else I can do. - RedWordSmith 17:41, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * Moved to User:Junkyardprince's desk. I won't be able to get the disks this week. - RedWordSmith 19:40, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)
 * Added to User:Evilshoebox/Desk since this hasn't been updated for a month. -- Beland 2 July 2005 03:13 (UTC)
 * Evilshoebox seems to be inactive. Leaving a reminder for Junkyardprice. -- Beland 13:06, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I quit; passing it on to Tim Rhymeless. Junkyard prince 02:34, 17 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Ugh, Rave Master. Well, okay... Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 22:37, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

 * What's happening here? I am tempted to close this task.  Is anyone actively working on this?  Will close unless anybody objects by 4th October. Stewart Adcock 11:06, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I've done all I can for it. Needs to go to someone else; I'm not happy with the article as it is. At least it's been merged into a proper title now. Isn't there an anime wikiproject that could handle it from here? Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 08:01, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
 * There is. I'm leaving a note on Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Anime_and_manga about this article.  I think we(you)'ve done all we can. Stewart Adcock 13:59, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Should this now be closed? Andreww 10:39, 13 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I have now closed this task. Andreww 02:55, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia:Cleanup Taskforce/Ten Powers


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The Androids of Tara

The Androids of Tara is the fourth serial of the 16th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 25 November to 16 December 1978.

The serial is set on the planet Tara, which is made up of a feudal society with electronic weapons and androids. In the serial, Count Grendel of Gracht (Peter Jeffrey) kidnaps Prince Reynart (Neville Jason) and the alien time traveller Romana (Mary Tamm), along with the fourth segment of the powerful Key to Time, as part of his plot to become the legitimate King of Tara.

Plot
The Fourth Doctor and Romana arrive on the planet Tara in search of the fourth segment of the Key to Time. While the Doctor goes fishing, Romana finds the fourth segment. She is attacked by a native Taran bear and saved by Count Grendel, who takes Romana to his castle on the pretext of treating her injured ankle. Once there, it becomes clear that Grendel believes she is an android, because she exactly resembles the captive Princess Strella. When Grendel finds Romana is instead flesh-and-blood organic, she is imprisoned in Grendel's dungeon.

The noble swordsmen Zadek and Farrah recruit the Doctor to assist Prince Reynart, who must reach the throne room of the castle in time to be crowned king or forfeit his crown to Grendel. The Doctor agrees to help repair an android copy of the Prince to be used as a decoy to distract Grendel's men. Grendel strikes first, drugging the Prince and his retinue and kidnapping Reynart. When the Doctor and the swordsmen recover, they decide to crown the android Reynart instead. The Doctor and his party sneak the android Prince into the throne room, and the Prince is crowned King.

Till, Grendel's manservant, arrives at the Reynart estate and offers the Doctor a chance to collect Romana. It turns out to be a trap; the real Romana has been replaced by an android. K9 detects the android Romana and eliminates it. Meanwhile, the real Romana escapes from Castle Gracht and helps the Doctor flee. Grendel, coming under a flag of truce to secretly offer the crown to the Doctor, destroys the Reynart android and recaptures Romana. The evil Count now plots to have Romana pose as Strella and marry the real King Reynart. Once they are married and she is his Queen, Reynart will be killed, leaving Grendel free to marry her and become King of Tara.

The Doctor has K9 assist him to gain access to the castle by means of the moat and tunnels. The Doctor reaches the throne room just in time to stop Reynart's coerced marriage to Romana. He then engages the Count in a deadly duel with electro-swords, eventually defeating him and forcing him to flee. Romana has meanwhile freed Strella who is finally reunited with Reynart. Having retrieved the fourth segment of the Key to Time, the Doctor, Romana and K9 depart.

Production
Mary Tamm designed Romana's distinctive purple outfit after the originally planned costume proved unsuitable. Although Tamm was a skilled horse-rider, she refused to do the horse-riding sequence herself because she could not wear a helmet and felt that the potential of an accident was too great. Location work was performed at Leeds Castle, Kent.

In the opening credits, the episode number appears before the writer's name, contrary to the order in most Doctor Who stories.

Cast notes
Mary Tamm plays four roles in this story: Romana, Princess Strella and their android doubles.

Peter Jeffrey previously played the colony pilot in The Macra Terror (1967). Declan Mulholland previously played Clark in The Sea Devils (1972). This is Cyril Shaps's fourth and final appearance in Doctor Who, the others being The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967), The Ambassadors of Death (1970) and Planet of the Spiders (1974). It is his only appearance in which his character is not killed. Simon Lack had previously appeared as Professor Kettering in The Mind of Evil (1971).

Broadcast and reception
The story was repeated on four consecutive Thursdays on BBC1 from 9–30 August 1979, achieving viewing figures of 6.2, 10.4, 10.4 and 9.6 million, respectively. The rise in figures is attributable to the ITV strike, which would continue into the seventeenth season of Doctor Who.

In their book The Discontinuity Guide (1995), Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping described The Androids of Tara as "Wonderful, Doctor Who as heroic romance, with plenty of swashbuckling, wit and colour." They particularly praised the Doctor's duel at the end and the small stakes. On the other hand, David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker in The Television Companion (1998) felt that the story relied on The Prisoner of Zenda, which made it "rather less engaging than the other stories of the season, coming over more as a gentle run-around than as anything particularly significant". They praised the premise, but wrote that there was a lack of suspense and the characters were bland, with the exception of Grendel. DVD Talk's Justin Felix agreed, writing that "its whimsical nature makes this episode feel more like an excursion than an advancement of the season's storyline" and described the story as "a competent albeit standard runaround". However, he praised Baker and the development of Romana's character. Felix gave the story three out of five stars. In 2011, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times praised the acting and direction, but stated that it "strays too far into the 'adventure serial' territory" and lacked a sense of "real urgency or jeopardy".

In an interview in autumn 2009, Mary Tamm considered this to be her favourite Doctor Who story as she liked the setting of Leeds Castle [in Kent], her costume, her fellow actors, and that she could play "three" parts - Romana, an android, and Princess Strella.

In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in April 1980. An audiobook release of this story was made in 2012, and does not use the Target novelisation by Terrance Dicks, but uses a brand-new novelisation written for audio by David Fisher and narrated by John Leeson. This David Fisher novelisation will be released in paperback 14 July 2022 as part of the Target Collection.

Home media
The Androids of Tara was released on VHS on 1 May 1995. This serial, along with the rest of season sixteen, was released in North America as part of the Key to Time box set. A remastered version was released on region 2 DVD in September 2007, and region 1 in March 2009.

title: The Androids of Tara


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Constantine I of Imereti

Constantine I (კონსტანტინე I, Konstantine I; died 1327), from the Bagrationi dynasty, was king of Western Georgia from 1293 to 1327.

Accession and civil war
A son of the Georgian king David VI Narin and his wife, Tamar Amanelisdze, or a Palaeologian princess. Constantine succeeded to the throne of Western Georgia upon his father's death in 1293. Unlike his eastern Georgian counterparts, Constantine remained independent from the Ilkhanid hegemony, but he faced serious internal unrest as his younger brother Michael opposed his accession and seized control of the regions of Racha, Lechkhumi, and Argveti. In vain did the nobles of Imereti try to reconcile the brothers and internecine conflict continued to upset the country.

The great nobles took advantage of the situation to assert their autonomy. Giorgi I Dadiani, Duke of Mingrelia, subjugated much of the duchy of Tskhumi and expanded his possessions up to Anakopia. The Sharvashidze entrenched in Abkhazia, the Gurieli in Guria, and Vardanidze in Svaneti, showing little subservience to the royal authority. Constantine died amid these disturbances in 1327, having had no children, and his brother Michael succeeded him as king.

Culture
Constantine is known to have restored Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem to the Georgian ownership in 1305. He also had the monastery refurbished and repainted. His contributions are emphasized in a document instituting the Agape feast, in his own lifetime, on 21 May, the feast day of Constantine the Great. Constantine might have been an unidentified royal person depicted on a fresco in Ienashi in Upper Svaneti. His links to that region is also known from a charter issued by Constantine to the Svan Goshkoteliani clan.

title: Constantine I of Imereti


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Flowers on the Wall

"Flowers on the Wall" is a song originally recorded by American country music group The Statler Brothers. Written and composed by Lew DeWitt, the group's original tenor vocalist, the song peaked in popularity in January 1966, spending four weeks at number two on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart, and reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The song won the 1966 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Performance - Group (Vocal or Instrumental).

The Statler Brothers re-recorded the song in 1975 for their first greatest-hits album for Mercury Records, The Best of The Statler Brothers.

Critical reception
In 2024, Rolling Stone ranked the song at #116 on its 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time ranking.

Eric Heatherly version
Eric Heatherly recorded the song in 2000 for his debut album, Swimming in Champagne. Released as his debut single, Heatherly's rendition reached number six on the Hot Country Songs chart and number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In popular culture

 * The song (its 1975 version) is used in the soundtrack to the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. In the film, Bruce Willis's character sings along to the line, "smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo" as he is driving.
 * The song is also referenced in the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance where Bruce Willis's character says he was "working on a nice fat suspension, smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo".
 * Kurt Vonnegut quotes the song's complete lyrics in his 1981 book Palm Sunday, calling the song "yet another great contemporary poem by the Statler Brothers" and using it to describe "the present condition" of an American man who had recently departed his family. "It is not a poem of escape or rebirth. It is a poem about the end of a man's usefulness", he adds.
 * It is the theme song of the radio series Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting.

title: Flowers on the Wall


text:
Tilted Arc

Tilted Arc was a controversial public art installation by Richard Serra, displayed in Foley Federal Plaza in Manhattan from 1981 to 1989. It consisted of a 120-foot-long, 12-foot-high solid, unfinished plate of rust-covered COR-TEN steel. Advocates characterized it as an important work by a well-known artist that transformed the space and advanced the concept of sculpture, whereas critics focused on its perceived ugliness and saw it as ruining the site. Following an acrimonious public debate, the sculpture was removed in 1989 as the result of a federal lawsuit and has never been publicly displayed since, in accordance with the artist's wishes.

Commissioning and design
In 1979, the United States General Services Administration's Art-in-Architecture program decided to commission a work of public art to grace the open space in front of a planned addition to the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in Manhattan, New York City.

Taking the recommendation of a National Endowment for the Arts panel of art experts, the U.S. General Services Administration administrator gave the commission to sculptor Richard Serra, a fine-arts graduate of Yale University who at age 40 was one of the leading minimalist sculptors. The contract for the commission required Serra to give the work to GSA, making it property of the United States.

The post-minimalist artwork was designed and constructed in 1981. Exemplifying Serra's minimalist, conceptual style, Tilted Arc was a solid, unfinished plate of COR-TEN steel, 120 ft long, 12 ft tall, and 2.5 in thick. As its name suggests, it was slightly tilted.

Placed in the Federal Plaza, the work bisected the space, blocking views and paths of those who frequented the plaza. Serra said of the design, "The viewer becomes aware of himself and of his movement through the plaza. As he moves, the sculpture changes. Contraction and expansion of the sculpture result from the viewer's movement. Step by step, the perception not only of the sculpture but of the entire environment changes." The steel is self-oxidizing and is designed to develop a natural rusted appearance over time.

For Serra, an important part of the work's meaning was that it would interact with the commuter passing through the plaza, a location usually passed through quickly on the way to somewhere else. This would subsequently become important as the basis for Serra's designation of the work as site-specific.

Reactions
Commissioned in 1979, Tilted Arc immediately attracted intense negative feedback, prominently from Chief Judge Edward D. Re, as well as fierce defenders. Those who worked in the area found the sculpture extremely disruptive to their daily routines, and within months the work had driven over 1300 government employees in the greater metro area to sign a petition for its removal. Serra, however, wrote, "It is a site-specific work and as such is not to be relocated. To remove the work is to destroy the work."

Serra's side argued that Tilted Arc was designed to be counterintuitive, to "redefine" the space in which it existed, and that due to this intimate relationship between the location and the meaning of the work, it could not exist as a piece of humane art unless it remained in that exact location within the Foley Plaza. Therefore, it was said that by removing the physical steel sculpture, the government would destroy the broader work, regardless of its physical existence.

Opponents countered that, because the sculpture forced the site to function as an extension of the sculpture, it was in effect "holding the site hostage." Calvin Tomkins, an art critic for The New Yorker magazine, was quoted saying, "I think it is perfectly legitimate to question whether public spaces and public funds are the right context for work that appeals to so few people – no matter how far it advances the concept of sculpture." Sociologist Nathan Glazer, writing in The Public Interest, declared that Serra was “attacking the awful by increasing the awfulness. To the misery of working in an ugly and poorly designed building, it was Serra’s thought to add additional misery in the form of a sculpture that was ugly to most people… that obstructed the plaza, that offered no space to sit on, that blocked sun and view, and made the plaza unusable even for those moments of freedom when the weather permitted office workers to eat their lunch outside.” The Storefront for Art and Architecture invited prominent NYC artists and architects to envision the future plaza as a protest in "After Tilted Arc".

A public hearing was held on the subject of the sculpture in March 1985, with 122 people testifying in favor of keeping the piece and 58 in favor of removing it. Notable speakers arguing in favor of the sculpture included Philip Glass, Keith Haring, and Claes Oldenburg. Artists, art historians, and even a psychiatrist testified for the sculpture to remain in its location. Local workers argued for removal, with one person saying: "Every time I pass this so-called sculpture I just can’t believe it ... The General Services Administration, or whoever approved this, this goes beyond the realm of stupidity. This goes into even worse than insanity. I think an insane person would say, ‘How crazy can you be to pay $175,000 for that rusted metal wall?' You would have to be insane— more than insane."

In support of its removal of the sculpture, the government advanced multiple security arguments, claiming that allowing the sculpture to remain in the plaza would "run the risk of deflecting explosions into government buildings opposite and impeded adequate surveillance of the area beyond." A jury of five voted 4–1 to remove the sculpture. In 1986, Serra sued the United States General Services Administration to enjoin the removal of "Tilted Arc," launching the lawsuit considered the most notorious public sculpture controversy in the history of art law.

Trial
Serra's complaint against the United States General Services Office sought to enjoin the office from violating an oral agreement not to remove the sculpture from Federal Plaza. Serra also claimed that the removal of "Tilted Arc" constituted a violation of his First Amendment right to free speech and Fifth Amendment right to due process. The federal district court rejected all three of Serra's claims, and Serra appealed his constitutional claims to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

On the First Amendment claim, the court of appeals ruled that while "Tilted Arc" was first amendment speech, the government's legal ownership of the sculpture made it government speech subject to the government's discretion. Even if Serra did retain a free speech interest in "Tilted Arc," the government's interest in keeping the plaza unobstructed constituted a permissible, content-neutral time, place, and manner restriction on free speech. The court further determined that Serra did not retain a property interest in the sculpture, since it was indeed signed over to the government upon commission, and therefore did not have a Fifth Amendment due process claim.

Aftermath
Tilted Arc was stored in three sections stacked in a government parking lot in Brooklyn upon removal from the plaza. In 1999, they were moved to a storage space in Maryland. Although the physical component of the work is safe in storage, it will likely never again be erected since it is Serra's wish that it will never be displayed anywhere other than its original location. Serra has stated that the case exemplifies the U.S. legal system's preference toward capitalistic property rights over democratic freedom of expression.

Influence
The Tilted Arc controversy may have contributed to the enactment, in 1990, of the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). An amendment to the Copyright Act of 1976, VARA provides "moral rights" to the artist so that they have rights to attribution and integrity when it comes to paintings, drawings, and sculpture. However, a 2006 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals established that VARA does not protect location as a component of site-specific work.

William Gaddis satirized these events in his 1994 novel, A Frolic of His Own.

title: Tilted Arc


text:
Bonne projection

The Bonne projection is a pseudoconical equal-area map projection, sometimes called a dépôt de la guerre,  modified Flamsteed,  or a Sylvanus projection. Although named after Rigobert Bonne (1727–1795), the projection was in use prior to his birth, in 1511 by Sylvanus, Honter in 1561, De l'Isle before 1700 and Coronelli in 1696. Both Sylvanus and Honter's usages were approximate, however, and it is not clear they intended to be the same projection.

The Bonne projection maintains accurate shapes of areas along the central meridian and the standard parallel, but progressively distorts away from those regions. Thus, it best maps "t"-shaped regions. It has been used extensively for maps of Europe and Asia.

The projection is defined as:

 * $$\begin{align} x &= \rho \sin E \\ y &= \cot \varphi_1 - \rho \cos E\end{align}$$

where

 * $$\begin{align}\rho &= \cot \varphi_1 + \varphi_1 - \varphi \\ E &= \frac {(\lambda - \lambda_0) \cos \varphi} {\rho}\end{align}$$

and φ is the latitude, λ is the longitude, λ0 is the longitude of the central meridian, and φ1 is the standard parallel of the projection.

Parallels of latitude are concentric circular arcs, and the scale is true along these arcs. On the central meridian and the standard latitude shapes are not distorted.

The inverse projection is given by:

 * $$\begin{align}\varphi &= \cot \varphi_1 + \varphi_1 - \rho \\

\lambda &= \lambda_0 + \frac{\rho} {\cos \varphi} \arctan \left(\frac {x}{ \cot \varphi_1 - y} \right) \end{align}$$

where

 * $$ \rho = \pm \sqrt{ x^2 + \left( \cot \varphi_1 - y\right)^2 }$$

taking the sign of φ1.

Special cases of the Bonne projection include the sinusoidal projection, when φ1 is zero (i.e. the Equator), and the Werner projection, when φ1 is 90° (i.e. the North or South Pole). The Bonne projection can be seen as an intermediate projection in the unwinding of a Werner projection into a Sinusoidal projection; an alternative intermediate would be a Bottomley projection.

title: Bonne projection


text:
Sol Star

Solomon Star (December 20, 1840 – October 10, 1917) was a Jewish American businessman and politician notable as an early resident of the town of Deadwood, South Dakota.

Life and career
Star was born in Bavaria, Germany, to Jewish parents. When he was 10 years of age, his family moved to Chillicothe, Ohio. He later moved to Helena, Montana, where he served as territorial auditor and personal secretary to the governor. He partnered with Seth Bullock in a hardware store; in August 1876, attracted to Deadwood by the promise of a great deal of business stemming from the gold rush, they purchased a lot there from Al Swearengen and Henry Beaman and opened the Office of Star and Bullock, Auctioneers and Commission Merchants. They later partnered in livestock ranching as the S&B Ranch Company, and with Harris Franklin in the Deadwood Flouring Mill, in 1880, where Star was the general manager. The duo expanded their business interests to the towns of Spearfish, Sturgis, and Custer.

Bullock and Star contributed further to the economic development of the region by convincing the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad to build a track, by offering them 40 acres (162,000 m2) of free right-of-way across their land when a speculator purchased the right of way to Minnesela and demanded a high price from the railroad. The railroad built a station three miles northwest of Minnesela, South Dakota, in 1890, and Bullock and Star were instrumental in founding the town of Belle Fourche there, offering free lots to anyone moving from Minnesela. Belle Fourche became the largest railhead for livestock in the United States and stole the county seat away from a declining Minnesela.

Bullock and Star's hardware store in Deadwood burned down in 1894. Rather than rebuild, they built Deadwood's first hotel on the site, a three-story, 64-room luxury hotel with steam heat and indoor bathrooms on each floor, at a cost of $40,000. The Bullock Hotel continues to operate to this day, now incorporating a 24-hour casino.

Star was elected to the first town council in 1876, became town postmaster in 1877, was elected mayor in 1884, and served ten terms for a total of 14 years. He later served as a Republican legislator after statehood in the South Dakota House of Representatives in 1889–1890 and in the South Dakota State Senate in 1893–1894 serving as President Pro Tempore of the South Dakota Senate, and as Lawrence County Clerk of Courts for 20 years, until his death. He was never married.

After a reportedly lavish funeral in Deadwood, Star was not buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood. Instead, his family had his body transported to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was laid to rest in New Mount Sinai Cemetery.

In popular culture
Star was portrayed by John Hawkes in the television series Deadwood (2004–2006). The show's producers switched the character's birthplace to Vienna instead of Bavaria. Hawkes reprised his role in the television film Deadwood: The Movie (2019), set a decade after the events of season 3.

title: Sol Star


text:
Christopher R. Hill

Christopher Robert Hill (born August 10, 1952) is an American diplomat who is United States Ambassador to Serbia. Previously, he was George W. Ball Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in the City of New York, the Chief Advisor to the Chancellor for Global Engagement and Professor of the Practice in Diplomacy at the University of Denver. Prior to this position, he was the Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the university, a position he held from September 2010 to December 2017.

Education and Peace Corps service
Hill's father was a diplomat in the Foreign Service: Hill was born in Paris, and as a child, he traveled with his family to many countries. After American diplomats were expelled from Haiti, Hill's family moved to Little Compton, Rhode Island where Hill attended Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, graduating in 1970. He then went on to study at Bowdoin College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1974.

Hill was a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon from 1974 to 1976. Hill credits his work with the Peace Corps for teaching him his first lessons in diplomacy. As a volunteer, Hill worked with credit unions and when he discovered that one board of directors had stolen 60 percent of their members' money, he reported on the malfeasance to their members, who promptly re-elected them because the board reflected carefully balanced tribal interests and it really did not matter to the members if the board directors ran a good credit union or not. Hill said the lesson was that "When something's happened, it's happened for a reason and you do your best to understand that reason. But don't necessarily think you can change it." Hill took the Foreign Service exam while he was serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon.

Hill received a master's degree from the Naval War College in 1994. He speaks Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian.

Diplomacy
Hill joined the State Department in 1977. Hill served as Secretary for Economic Affairs at the Embassy of the United States in Seoul from 1983 to 1985. When he returned to Korea in 2004 as Ambassador, he began by saying "I was here for three years in the 1980s, one has to be a little careful about drawing on too much experience from so long ago. So, even though I'll certainly draw on my experience from the 1980s, I think I also need to do an awful lot of listening to people to understand what has been going on lately."

Hill served as the U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia from 1996 to 1999, Special Envoy to Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, Ambassador to Poland from 2000 to 2004, and ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2004 to 2005 before being appointed as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. While on a fellowship with the American Political Science Association, Hill served as a member of the staff of Congressman Stephen Solarz.

In November 2006 President George W. Bush nominated Hill for the grade of career minister, the second-highest rank for career diplomats. The elite title is one step below career ambassador.

Bosnia peace settlement
Hill was part of the team that negotiated the Bosnia peace settlement. While working on Balkan issues, Hill worked closely with Richard Holbrooke, serving as his deputy at the Dayton Peace Talks in 1995. Holbrooke described Hill as "brilliant, fearless and argumentative" in his book on the Dayton negotiations and said that Hill manages to be both "very cool and very passionate." The combination, Holbrooke said, enhances Hill's "extremely good negotiating skills." Hill said the negotiations with the Bosnians, Serbs and Croats were successful because all the parties "were all ready to settle.'

Hill had a diplomatic failure as special envoy to Kosovo "because the Serbs were not ready to relinquish their stranglehold on Kosovo, so we ended up in a NATO bombing campaign." "Like a lot of things in life: you've got to do everything you can do" Hill said, to ensure "that you have left no stone unturned, that you have really tried."

Negotiations with North Korea
On February 14, 2005, Hill was named as the Head of the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis.

In the first visit to North Korea by a senior American official in over five years, Hill flew into Pyongyang on June 21, 2007, for a two-day visit where he was warmly greeted by Ri Gun, the North's deputy nuclear negotiator at the airport. "We want to get the six-party process moving", Mr. Hill said. "We hope that we can make up for some of the time that we lost this spring, and so I'm looking forward to good discussions about that." The visit had been organized in secrecy. Hill had been visiting Tokyo and flew to South Korea and then on to Pyongyang on a small jet. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice informed regional allies Japan and South Korea just before Hill's departure from Tokyo.

On July 14, 2007, North Korea informed Hill that they had shut down the nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and admitted an international inspection team. Hill cautioned that the shutdown was "just the first step." Verifying the declaration will be difficult, because for now the inspectors are limited to the Yongbyon complex.

On September 3, 2007 The New York Times reported that Hill met in Geneva for two days of one-on-one negotiations with Kim Kye-gwan, who heads the North Korean negotiating team, and that North Korea had agreed to disable its main nuclear fuel production plant by the end of 2007 and to account for all of its nuclear programs to international monitors. North Korea had also agreed to turn off its main nuclear reactor this summer. "One thing that we agreed on is that the D.P.R.K. will provide a full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of this year, 2007", Hill told reporters.

On December 20, 2007, the Korea Times reported that Kathleen Stephens, adviser to Hill at the State Department in the office of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, had been appointed as the next ambassador to South Korea. Sources said that Hill had recommended Stephens for the ambassadorial position for her understanding and experiences on Korean affairs. Stephens served as an advisor to Hill during the North Korean nuclear talks, and reportedly was working on a peace treaty for the Korean Peninsula.

On January 8, 2008 The New York Times reported that North Korea had missed a deadline to submit an inventory of its nuclear arms programs and that Hill said that failure to meet a deadline should be confronted with patience and perseverance. "They were prepared to give a declaration which wasn't going to be complete and correct and we felt that it was better for them to give us a complete one even if it's going to be a late one", said Hill.

On February 7, 2008, Hill told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that talks with North Korea are at a "critical, challenging" point. Washington has refused to remove North Korea from its terrorism blacklist until the promised list of its nuclear efforts is provided. "Let me be clear", Hill said. " 'Complete and correct' means complete and correct. This declaration must include all nuclear weapons, programs, materials and facilities, including clarification of any proliferation activities."

On March 2, 2008, Hill said in an interview in Beijing that US diplomatic relations with Korea were possible before the end of the Bush administration if Korea completely dismantled its nuclear program. "We've told them we are not prepared to do that until they give up their nuclear materials", said Hill. "We can begin the process of discussing what we are going to do, whether we are going to open embassies, that sort of thing. But we will not have diplomatic relations with a nuclear North Korea."

On April 11, 2008 The Washington Post reported that a tentative deal has been reached with North Korea concerning a range of nuclear activities and the lifting of sanctions against North Korea. The agreement would include North Korea's disabling of its main nuclear facility and a complete accounting of North Korea's plutonium. "We are trying to focus on the plutonium as we try to resolve our suspicions on uranium enrichment", said chief U.S. negotiator Christopher R. Hill. "That's where the bombs are. We don't have suspicions about plutonium; we have cold, hard facts about plutonium."

US relationship with China
Although Hill is not well known in the United States, he has become a celebrity in China as chief envoy in talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Part of the reason is that during negotiations Hill speaks every morning and evening to the media and has an easygoing manner, while his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye Gwan, gives only occasional media access.

Hill says that the six party talks with North Korea have opened the door for fruitful dealings between the US and China in other areas. "We've worked diplomatically with them shoulder to shoulder. We haven't done this sort of thing before with China", says Hill. "At some point we have to figure out a way to deal with 1.3 billion people, and I think the six-party process has been a good one for that."

Hill said in an interview on April 21, 2008, in the Seattle Times that the United States' relationship with China is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. "I would say the China relationship is the most important bilateral relationship we have in the world", says Hill. "We have some 57 dialogues with Chinese counterparts, ranging from global warming to economic and trade issues. I would say we spend a great deal of time and attention on things Chinese with the understanding that in the long run we have to have a good working relationship with 1.3 billion people."

Hill says that China has been an active participant in the six-party talks. "China is a very active participant. It's an area we have succeeded in working with them very productively and pragmatically on an area of mutual concern", says Hill. "China looks at North Korea in very different ways from how we look at them. You have to recall they were a historical partner and ally. Chinese veterans associations trace their roots to the Korean War. All that said, China is very much convinced that North Korea needs to give up its nuclear ambitions."

Hill says that recent events in China and protests surrounding the torch relay for the Olympics may not result in improved human rights. "The Chinese people are very proud of hosting the Olympics. This sense of pride transcends political views within China", says Hill. "Even people who are extremely critical of their own government, and there are many Chinese who are very critical of their own government, even those people are filled with a sense of pride that China is hosting these Olympics. Many of them have taken the view that those who would somehow boycott the Olympics are doing so out of a desire to keep China down and otherwise humiliate and embarrass China. So it is an issue with great public resonance in China, going well beyond the question of the government."

Reputation in South Korea
Hill set a new precedent by closely approaching South Korea's contemporary culture and society. He was the first U.S. ambassador to pay respects at Gwangju's Mangwoldong May 18 National Cemetery for thousands of civilians who stood up for democracy and the hundreds who were massacred by the then-military government in May 1980. Many South Koreans suspected that the U.S. government allowed the attack, and no senior U.S. official had ever visited Mangwoldong before. According to Tami Overby, a senior official with the American Chamber of Commerce in South Korea, Hill served the shortest term in her 18 years of living in Seoul but had the most impact.

Relations with New Zealand
In May 2006, Hill described the New Zealand's 1985 anti-nuclear legislation as "a relic", and signaled that the US wanted a closer defence relationship with New Zealand. He also praised New Zealand's involvement in Afghanistan and reconstruction in Iraq. "Rather than trying to change each other's minds on the nuclear issue... I think we should focus on things we can make work", Hill said adding that the US would not demand to "put ships back into New Zealand."

Tenure in Iraq
US President Barack Obama nominated Christopher Hill for the post of U.S. Ambassador to Iraq on March 11, 2009. After having faced opposition from Republican Senators such as Sam Brownback, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham, Hill was approved on April 20 to be the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq by the Senate with 73 votes for, and 23 against.

Hill extended his tenure in Iraq, totaling 16 months, postponing his own retirement from a career in diplomacy. While there, he was charged with reaching an agreement about the formation of an Iraqi-run government. Unfortunately, Hill couldn't break the months-long stalemate and called Iraq his most formidable challenge.

Tenure in Serbia
President Joe Biden announced Hill as his nominee to be the U.S. Ambassador to Serbia on October 14, 2021, and his nomination was sent to the Senate on October 28. Hearings on his nomination were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on December 14, 2021. The committee favorably reported his nomination on January 12, 2022. On March 10, 2022, he was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote. He presented his credentials to President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic on March 31, 2022.

Awards and honors
Hill was a recipient of the Robert C. Frasure Award for Peace Negotiations for his work on the Kosovo crisis. The award is named for Hill's friend Bob Frasure, a fellow American diplomat killed in 1995 in Bosnia.

Hill was granted an award from the Macedonian Government to be honorary citizen because of his service as ambassador in Skopje and building up the U.S. - Macedonian relations.

In January 2006, Hill gave a lecture entitled "U.S. Policy in East Asia and the Pacific" at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series.

In 2005, Hill was honored with the Naval War College Distinguished Graduate Leadership Award and in February 2008, Hill was awarded the "Building Bridges" Award by the Pacific Century Institute. The recipients are recognized as people who have enhanced relations between Americans and Asians and who exemplify PCI's commitment to building bridges to a better future.

In 2012, Hill was appointed as an honorary Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2013 New Year Honours.

Controversies
In a September 8, 2016 segment with anchors Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist on MSNBC's Morning Joe that appeared following 2016 Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson's appearance on the news program that same day, Hill criticized Johnson for his lack of knowledge on the location and significance of Aleppo, Syria during the earlier interview with the hosts and Mike Barnicle. He mocked Johnson for his apparent confusion and "blank stare," proclaiming that he would likely be forevermore known as "Aleppo Johnson" and that it would probably be the end of his presidential bid, but himself erroneously referred to Aleppo as "the capital of ISIS" despite having previously served as the US Ambassador to neighboring Iraq. While Scarborough, Brzezinski, and Geist did not correct this verbal mistake on-air, numerous news outlets and commentators noted Hill's own gaffe in their coverage of Johnson, and critiqued him for his hypocrisy.

In March 2018, Hill referred to the passage of the anti-defamation legislation by the Polish parliament as "revenge of the peasants".

Personal life
Hill is married to the former Julie Ann Ryczek, a school teacher and health and nutrition advocate from Treasure Island, Florida. He has three grown children, Nathaniel, Amelia and Clara. Hill speaks Serbo-Croatian, Polish, Macedonian and French.

Publications

 * Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy: a Memoir (Simon and Schuster, 2014).

title: Christopher R. Hill


text:
Digenes Akritas

Digenes Akritas (Latinised as Acritas; Διγενῆς Ἀκρίτας) is a medieval Greek romantic epic that emerged in the 12th-century Byzantine Empire. It is the lengthiest and most famous of the acritic songs; Byzantine folk poems celebrating the lives and exploits of the Akritai, the inhabitants and frontier guards of the empire's eastern Anatolian provinces. The acritic songs represented the remnants of an ancient epic cycle in Byzantium and, due to their long oral transmission throughout the empire, the identification of precise references to historical events may be only conjectural. Set during the Arab-Byzantine wars, the poem reflects the interactions, along with the military and cultural conflicts of the two polities. The epic consists of between 3,000 to 4,000 lines and it has been pieced together following the discovery of several manuscripts. An extensive narrative text, it is often thought of as the only surviving Byzantine work truly qualifying as epic poetry. Written in a form of vernacular Greek, it is regarded as one of its earliest examples, as well as the starting point of Modern Greek literature.

The epic details the life of the eponymous hero, Basil, whose epithet Digenes Akritas ("two-blood border lord") alludes to his mixed Greek and Arab descent. The text is divided into two halves; the first half, epic in tone, details the lives and encounter of Basil's parents; his mother, a Byzantine noblewoman from the Doukas family named Eirene, and his father, an Arab emir named Mousour who, after abducting Eirene in a raid, converted to Christianity and married her. The second half, in a more romantic atmosphere, discusses Basil's early childhood and later, often from a first-person point of view, his struggles and acts of heroism on the Byzantine borders. Allusions to Greek mythological elements, including the Hercules-like childhood of Basil, and his affair with the Amazon warrior Maximo, also appear scarcely throughout the text. Though a legendary figure, it has been suggested that inspiration for the hero may have derived from the 11th century Cappadocian general and emperor Romanos Diogenes.

The epic of Digenes Akritas continued to be read and passed down in the post Byzantine period, with the most recent surviving manuscripts dating to the 17th century. The character became the archetype of the ideal medieval hero featuring in a number of folk-songs popular throughout the Greek-speaking world, most prominently in Crete, Cyprus, and Asia Minor. The epic would go on to have significant impact on the culture of modern Greece, particularly on folk music, the arts, and the literature.

Manuscripts
The epic of Digenes Akritas is most commonly thought to have been first compiled around the 12th century AD building on earlier material which was primarily derived from oral sources. The existence of the epic during this time is referenced at a Ptochoprodromic poem to emperor Manuel I Komnenos under the name "New Akrites". During the 19th and 20th centuries, a total of six manuscripts of the epic became available, with the oldest surviving piece dating back to the late 1200s–early 1300s. Each of the surviving manuscripts constituted a different version of the same medieval story. Comparative evidence suggests that word-for-word precision was a rare instance in the Byzantine period and it was typical for copies of literary works to involve some degree of variation.

 * Trebizond manuscript (3182 lines, Sumela monastery, c. 16th century)
 * Andros manuscript (or Andros–Athens, 4778 lines, 16th century)
 * Grottaferrata manuscript (3749 lines, Greek monastery of Grottaferrata, 13th–14th century)
 * Escorial manuscript (1867 lines, Escorial library, 15th–16th century)
 * Oxford manuscript (3094 lines, Lincoln College, finished in 1670)
 * Andros manuscript (also Andros–Thessaloniki, or Paschales MS, finished in 1632)

The existence of more manuscripts has been attested in the 18th and 19th century, but their location remains unknown. Those include a now lost manuscript once seen at the Xeropotamou monastery of Athos at the 18th century. The oldest two are the 'El Escorial' and 'Grottaferrata' versions, from the names of the libraries in which the respective manuscripts are held. While the form (or forms) in which the text has survived is not the product of oral composition, it has nevertheless retained a considerable number of features of its oral origins. The common core of the two versions preserved in the Esc and Gro manuscripts goes back to the twelfth century. The two manuscripts differ greatly, with the Gro version being more well-organized, while the Esc version is closer to the language of everyday speech with several gaps and metric irregularities. The text of Esc appears to be closer to the original composition, while Gro represents a version that is heavily marked by learned reworking. Both texts give enchanting descriptions of the life of the martial societies of the border regions of the empire, while in the figure of Digenes are concentrated the legends that had accumulated around local heroes. The Esc version is the superior of the two in respect of the power and immediacy of the battle scenes and austerity of style. The epic descriptions of the mounted knights and battles are marked by drama, a swift pace and lively visual detail.

There exists an Old Slavonic version of Digenis Akritas under the title Deeds of the Brave Men of Old (Дѣяніе прежнихъ временъ храбрыхъ человѣкъ), which is adapted from a line in the Grottaferrata manuscript. The Slavonic version is often called the Devgenievo deianie, but this title is not found in manuscripts. It contains both straightforward translation and free retelling of the Greek version in the Grottaferrata manuscript. It was produced in a bilingual Greek–South Slavic milieu, probably in Macedonia under the Serbian Empire (14th century) or its successors. It has features suggestive of oral-formulaic composition.

Discovery and publication
The existence of the epic of Digenes Akritas remained unknown prior to the second half of the 19th century when most of the manuscripts were discovered and published. Until then, the hero –variously referred to as Digenes, Constantine, or Giannis (John)– was only known through the songs and ballads of the Acritic Cycle that had been preserved in the oral tradition of the Greek-speaking world and had been collected and published around the same time. The first manuscript of the epic was discovered in 1868 at the Sumela Monastery of Trebizond and it was first published in 1875. It was soon followed by the Andros manuscript which was discovered in 1878 and published in 1881. A rhymed version from the Lincoln College of Oxford was published in 1880; the version had the advantage of being signed by its writer, a monk from Chios by the name Ignatios Petritzes, in 1670. The oldest surviving manuscript was found in the Greek monastery of Grottaferrata, near Frascati, in 1879 and it was published in 1892. A prose version written by Meletios Vlastos of Chios in 1632 was discovered in Andros in 1898 and it wasn't published until 1928. The incomplete Madrid version, published in 1912, was discovered in the Escorial library of Spain in 1904.

Acritic cycle
The names 'Digenis' or 'Akritas' (rarely found together) have long been widespread throughout the Greek-speaking world representing heroes of folk-songs that are particularly popular in Crete, Cyprus, and Asia Minor. Before the discovery of the manuscripts, the protagonist of the epic was only known through the Acritic songs; narrative vernacular songs or ballads typically in political verse that belonged to the Byzantine period and reflected episodes and characters associated with the epic-romance of Digenes Akritas. Collected primarily from 19th century oral sources, the best of those songs were found on the fringes of Asia Minor, like Pontus, and Cyprus. In the acritic tradition, the warriors are presented as paragons of elegance and nobility (λεβεντιά). They reside in luxurious houses typically on the edges of the Christian world, and sometimes bear names of the Byzantine aristocracy.

The Byzantine acritic songs represented the remnants of an ancient epic tradition that appears to predate the epic of Digenes itself. The songs have been subjected to the transformation of up to a thousand years old oral transmission making the identification of historical events and individuals only presumptive. The similarities between the songs and the epic are likely to have arisen as both drew inspiration from a common pool of folk material. Those songs that appear closer to the surviving versions of the epic are more likely to have been influenced by it. The acritic saga appears to loosely draw on four bodies of Greek myth; Heracles, the Argonauts, Thebes, and Troy. The fusion of folklore with Christian tradition is also a typical motif in the works of the acritic cycle. Some recurrent elements include the exploits of particularly endowed warriors, or a speaking bird usually bringing about the desired closure to a troubling story. Fine examples of the Acritic songs that feature prominent Anatolian elements include The Song of Armouris, The Son of Andronikos, Porphyris, The Bridge of Arta, and more.

The most famous episodes of Digenes' life that appear in the acritic songs include the abduction of his future bride (Η απαγωγή της κόρης του στρατηγού; "The abduction of the general's daughter"), the building of his house (Ο Ακρίτης κάστρον έχτιζεν; "Acritas built a castle"), his encounter with the beast (Ο δράκος; "The dragon"), and his death (Ο χάρος μαύρα εφόρεσεν; "Charon dressed in black"). The hero's dramatic battle with Charon, an element that features prominently in the acritic songs, does not occur earlier in the epic. Politis has interpreted this theme as a symbol of the struggle between the Christian Greek population and its Muslim masters during the Turkish conquests of Byzantines lands.

Imagery
Episodes from the Acritic cycle, as well as the epic of Digenes Akritas appear on more than 100 ceramic plates that have been found in various locations, from Contantinople and Thessalonica, to Athens and Corinth; the oldest of those dating back to the 12th century. A painting on a Corinthian plate depicts Digenes wooing the Amazon Maximo, while a fragment of a plate from the Ancient Agora of Athens depicts the sword-bearing warrior next to the dragon that has been slain with five darts (πέντε κοντάρια, pente kontaria; a popular theme in the acritic ballads with no counterpart in the epic). 35 of the plates depict the hero wearing a pleated kilt, known as the podea, and 26 have him killing the dragon. Some of those iconographic elements, like the outfit of the warrior and the heroic deeds, were also attributed to other lesser known akritai of the folk ballads and, as such, the identification of a depicted hero as Digenes may at times be presumptive. A much more recognizable scene from the epic of Akritas is found at a relief from saint Cathrine's in Thessalonica showing an armoured figure tearing apart the jaws of a lion; a scene reminiscent of Digenes' youth in the epic.

Historical context and composition
The Arab–Byzantine wars, the conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab-Muslim Caliphates that lasted from the 7th century to the early 11th century, provide the historical context for the Byzantine heroic poetry written in Medieval Greek. The Byzantine Akritai of this period were a military class responsible for safeguarding the frontier regions of the imperial territory from external enemies and freebooting adventurers who operated on the fringes of the empire. Each of the surviving versions give an insight into the lives of the wealthy frontier guards of this period. The first half of the epic reflects personalities and events from 9th and 10th century Byzantine history, including references to aristocratic families like Doukas and Kinnamos, while the second half appears to be visually timeless. Asia Minor is regarded as the origin place of the story. Based on details of geography and titulature, the general worldview as presented in the whole text is confirmed to predate the Turkish presence in the peninsula.

The original composition of Digenes Akritas, judging by its themes, including the eventual Arab-Byzantine reconciliation, may date to a later period than the Song of Armouris (11th century), in which the features of oral epic composition also appear more marked. The most possible date of its composition is the 12th century during the revival of interest in ancient Greek romance which, in turn, gave rise to the genre of Byzantine romance. During this time, there seems to have been a deliberate attempt to use classical literary genres as objects of imitation (mimesis), with the most striking revival being that of ancient romance. Though the Byzantines never stopped reading Homer, poetic composition in epic style was interrupted in the 6th century and resumed in the 10th century, though still not comprising epic subject-matter. In the first half of the 12th century, Theodore Prodromos' panygerical hexameters to emperor John II are among the early surviving texts representing medieval attempts to celebrate the exploits of an emperor in truly Homeric style.

Storyline
The work comprises two parts; the first part, the "Lay of the Emir", bears more obviously the characteristics of epic poetry and narrates the story of Digenes' parents. In the historical region of Cappadocia of the Byzantine Empire (Ῥωμανία, Rhomanía), a certain Doukas prince named Andronikos and his wife Anna, who already had five sons, prayed for a daughter. When their daughter Eirene was born, the soothsayers foretold that she would one day be carried away from the empire by an Arabian emir. From a young age Eirene was put in a palace and grew surrounded by a company of guards and nursemaids. One day when her father was away at an expedition, Eirene left the palace with her maids and went for a picnic in the countryside. At the time, a young prince of Syria named Mousour who had invaded Cappadocia found the princess and her companions and carried them away. When her five brothers became aware of the incident, they left the empire in search of their sister. Outfought, the emir surrendered to the brothers and confessed his love for Eirene promising to became a Christian if they allow them to marry. Mousour was eventually baptized and, after their marriage, Eirene gave birth to their son who was named Basil (Βασίλειος, Basileios) Digenes Akritas.

The second part of the work begins with the development of the young hero and his superhuman feats of bravery and strength. As a boy, Digenes goes hunting with his father and, like young Hercules, learns to defeat wild animals unarmed; he kills several animals with his bare hands, including a lion and two bears. As a young man, he takes on the so-called apelatai (ἀπελάται), a group of freebooting bandits –sometimes enemies of the akritai–, and then defeats their three leaders in single combat. Growing up, Digenes falls in love and elopes with Eudocia (Ευδοκία), the daughter of a Byzantine general and, after he manages to defeat his persecutors –Eudocia's brothers and their soldiers– he marries her. Living with his new family on the borders of the empire, he pacifies the region by hunting down bandits. His strength became notorious throughout the empire. The Byzantine emperor himself pays a visit to Digenes in order to witness his accomplishments and physical strength. Digenes narrates in first-person of his previous adventures, including an instance where he rescued his bride from a dragon. In his duel with the amazingly strong Amazon warrior Maximο, Digenes defeats his opponent, but she eventually gets him to engage with her in an extramarital affair. Having defeated all his enemies and brought peace to the borders, Digenes builds a luxurious palace by the Euphrates where he ends his days peacefully.

Local traditions
Historically, the island of Cyprus served the Byzantine Empire as a stronghold during the Islamic expansion and had a key role as a border between Christian and Islamic cultures. Its geographical location turned the island into an important center of production and revision of the Byzantine heroic songs. Cypriot heroic folk songs have had significant impact in preserving the island's Byzantine culture over time and are today a valuable resource for scholars to obtain a better understanding of the Byzantine society and folk beliefs. Digenes, whose strength was often elevated to supernatural status, was recognized in local Cypriot and Cretan traditions as the protector of the islands; legend has it that Digenes would grab hold of the Pentadaktylos mountain range north of Nicosia leaping over to Anatolia and then to Crete in pursuit of Saracen raiders. The peak of the Pentadaktylos ("Five Fingers") mountain range was said to represent the imprint of Digenes' hand, while his footprint was said to be visible on the Psiloritis mountain in Crete. According to another legend, Digenes once threw a large rock across Cyprus in order to keep off the invading Saracen ships. The rock, that was hurled from the Troodos mountains, landed in Paphos at the site of Aphrodite's birthplace, that is known to this day as Petra Tou Romiou ("Rock of the Greek").

Language
The text of Digenes Akritas is one of the earliest examples of Byzantine folk literature and is generally regarded as the starting point of modern Greek literature. It is written in a vernacular form of medieval Greek that is more familiar to modern-day speakers, compared to the more conservative language of the Byzantine ecclesiastical litterateurs and chroniclers. The text includes many features that are in line with developments in the Demotic Greek language and are characteristic of popular speech, including elision, aphaeresis, crasis, and synizesis. From an overall impression, the text appears to be of modern syntax, while by contrast its morphology remains quite traditional, with modern variations observed mainly in verb endings.

Style
Digenes Akritas is an epic poem, although it is not in a pure epic-heroic style. A hybrid of oral epic and literary romance, it comprises two parts; the first one is epic in tone, while the second has the atmosphere of a romance. It is an extensive narrative text composed in fifteen syllable blank verse, henceforth the standard metre of Greek poetry, now with predominantly iambic rhythm. The poem does not diverge from the standard political verse of popular Byzantine literature and rhyming occurs rarely. Each line holds its own and every hemistich is carefully balanced. The poem flows, is cadential, with no cacophonies, and very scarce sound repetitions.

Below is an excerpt from the translation of the Escorial manuscript, lines 32-55, by E. M. Jeffreys (pp. 240–3):

Legacy
The story of Digenes Akritas has left scattered signs of influence outside of the Byzantine world, including in Arabic and Slavic literature, but Its greater impact has been in modern Greek culture. The protagonist, variously known as simply 'Digenis' or 'Akritas', became the archetype of the ideal medieval Greek hero; the character frequently appears in traditional Greek folk-songs, is often represented in art, and is commonly used in modern literature as a symbol of medieval Hellenism and Byzantine heroism. The tale of Digenes continued to be read and enjoyed in later centuries, as the text survives in various versions dating to as late as the 17th century. The epic tale of Digenes corresponds in many ways to the cycle of much shorter acritic songs, particularly from Anatolia, Cyprus and Crete, some of which survive until the present day. In the later tradition, Digenes is eventually defeated only by Death in the figure of Thanatos/Charon, who had reportedly already wrestled with Heracles, after a fierce single combat on "the marble threshing floors". The story of Digenes Akritas defeated by Death personally was used as a basis of a Russian bylina (a folk ballad) about Anika the Warrior.

title: Digenes Akritas


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title: User:Agis III


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Wilson Square

Thomas Woodrow Wilson Square, also simply known as Wilson Square, is an urban square and a roundabout in Warsaw, Poland, within the district of Żoliborz. It forms a roundabout at the intersection of Mickiewicza, Krasińskiego, and Słowackiego Streets. The square was constructed around 1923.

Name
The square is named after Woodrow Wilson, who was the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. The full name of the square is the Thomas Woodrow Wilson Square (Polish: Plac Thomasa Woodrowa Wilsona), although it is usually known simply as the Wilson Square (Polish: Plac Wilsona).

It was originally named around 1923 as the Stefan Żeromski Square (Polish: Plac Stefana Żeromskiego), after Stefan Żeromski, a 19th- and 20th-century novelist and dramatist.

On 27 September 1926, it was renamed to the Thomas Woodrow Wilson Square. The idea for the name originated on 21 February 1924, when, shortly after Wilson's death on 3 February 1926, the city council had decided to name a street, a city square, or an institution, after him.

In May 1940, during the Second World War, while the city was under German occupation, the square was renamed to the Danzig Square (German: Danziger Platz; Polish: Plac Gdański), after the city of Gdańsk (German: Danzig). However the local population refused to use said name. The name was returned to the previous one after the end of the war.

In March 1951, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Paris Commune seizing power in Paris on 18 March 1871, the square was renamed to the Paris Commune Square (Polish: Plac Komuny Paryskiej).

In 1990 it was again renamed to T. W. Wilson Square (Polish: plac. im. T.W. Wilsona). In August 2012 its name was changed to Thomas Woodrow Wilson Square (Polish: Plac Thomasa Woodrowa Wilsona).

History
Between 1849 and 1851, to the southeast from future square, was constructed the Sokolnicki Fort (originally known as the Sergei Fort), which was part of the Warsaw Citadel. It was expanded furtherly between 1864 and 1874, and was mainly used as police building and prison.

The square was designed by Józef Jankowski, Antoni Jawornicki, and Tadeusz Tołwiński, and constructed around 1923.

Between 1926 and 1928, in the northeast corner of the square, were constructed four tenements of thr Warsaw Housing Association, designed by Bruno Zborowski. Between 1928 and 1932, there was also constructed the building of the Fenix Housing Association, designed by Roman Feliński.

Between 1925 and 1932, to the southeast was developed the Stefan Żeromski Park.

On 3 May 1943, at 6 PM, while the city was under German occupation during the Second World War, from the loudspeaker at the square was played the patriotic audition made by Directorate of Civil Resistance. It ended with the recording of the anthem of Poland. The audition was heard by the people gathered at the square, including a group of German soldiers, and the news of the incident quickly spread across the city. A portion of the buildings around the square were destroyed in 1944, including entirety of the Warsaw Housing Association complex.

The square was remodeled around 1955, with changes to the shape of streets and tram tracks, and addition of the lawns to it.

On 8 April 2005, there was opened the Plac Wilsona (Wilson Square) station of the M1 line of the Warsaw Metro underground rapid transit system.

Characteristics
The Wilson Square is located in the district of Żoliborz, within the neighbourhood of Old Żoliborz. It is surrounded by road, forming a roundabout at the intersection of Mickiewicza, Krasińskiego, and Słowackiego Streets. It is also crossed by tram tracks, and a road directly connecting Mickiewicza and Słowackiego Streets.

The square is covered with the lawn and greenery. Around it are placed tenements. At its southeast cornet is located the main entrance to the Stefan Żeromski Park, which also includes the 19th-century Sokolnicki Fort.

It is also the location of the Plac Wilsona (Wilson Square) station of the M1 line of the Warsaw Metro underground rapid transit system.

title: Wilson Square