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In March of this year, the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia will be connected. This will become possible after the commissioning of the Astara (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan) railway line, which is one of the links in the North-South transport project.

This information was officially announced during the visit to Baku of the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, headed by Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development of Iran, President of Iranian Railways Said Magomedzade.

The delegation held a number of meetings in Baku, as well as negotiations with the leadership of the Azerbaijan Railways (AR). It was in the course of negotiations with Javid Gurbanov, Chairman of the Board of ZAOAZZhZ, that his Iranian colleague announced that the Astara (Iran) – Astara (Azerbaijan) railway line would be put into operation in March. At the same time, he added that in Iranian Astara, final preparations to this event.

In turn, Javid Gurbanov said that Azerbaijan had completed the construction on its territory of a single-line railway from Astara station to the state border, 8.3 km long, a railway bridge connecting the two countries and tested this section. Meanwhile, as NG was informed by the Azerbaijan Railways, the meeting also discussed the expansion of the cargo terminal in Iranian Astara, where industrial goods and metals, as well as grain crops will be loaded and unloaded on an area of ​​10 hectares.

The special attention of the parties to this issue is not accidental. The fact is that Azerbaijan expressed its readiness to invest in the construction of the terminal. According to some reports, the volume of these funds will amount to almost 500 million dollars.

By the way, Moscow also promises financial assistance to Tehran. And this indicates that both Russia and Azerbaijan are very interested in accelerating the process of implementing the North-South railway project.

It should be noted that many countries in Europe and Asia are waiting for the commissioning of a new transport route. This project will ensure the uninterrupted transshipment of millions of tons of cargo coming from India, Pakistan and Iran through the territory of Azerbaijan to Russia, Northern Europe and back.

It should be reminded that on September 12, 2000 in St. Petersburg Russia, Iran and India signed an agreement on the North-South international transport corridor. It entered into force on May 21, 2002. Azerbaijan joined the agreement in September 2005.

As NG has already written, the implementation of the project to build a railway line within the framework of the North-South project promises greater economic benefits in comparison with other alternative international transport routes. Unlike the current sea route through the Suez Canal, the North-South corridor is twice as short - the cargo will be in transit not for 1.5 months, but for about two weeks.

According to preliminary estimates, the capacity of the railway at the first stage will be 1.4 million passengers and from five to seven million tons of cargo per year, and in the future - 15-20 million tons.

It should also be noted that Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia even before the completion of the unification of the Iranian-Azerbaijani railways tested this route. As NG already wrote, last summer a train was sent by ferry from the Indian city of Mumbai to the Iranian Bandar Abbas, from there railway he reached the Iranian city of Rasht. Due to the lack of a section of the railway to the northern border of Iran, the cargo was delivered by road to the Azerbaijani border town of Astara, where it was again sent by rail to Moscow. Thus, for the first time, the route was tested, which actually forms the basis of the North-South project.

Having been in the beautiful Czech city of Prague, we, of course, could not ignore such a historical landmark as Klementinum. And the Clementinum attracted us, first of all, one of the most beautiful libraries in the world.

While sitting at home and preparing for the trip, we looked at photographs of this baroque library hall, admired it, and we so wanted to see the most beautiful library in the world with our own eyes.

In this article we will talk about Clementinum, our tour of the majestic building, its library hall, meridian hall and the Astronomical Tower. And we will also share with you photos, some of which were taken furtively, since it is forbidden to shoot in some halls of the Clementinum.

So,

Clementinum

The Clementinum is a large complex of baroque buildings, most of which were built by the order of Jesuit monks who appeared in Bohemia in 1556 and had the Dominican monastic order located in this complex.

The Clementinum originally housed the Jesuit Collegium and the University. For many years of its existence, the complex was built and expanded by many famous architects, painters and sculptors, until it acquired its current late baroque appearance.

They upset the complex to such an extent that at present the Clementinum is the second largest historical complex in Prague, after. AT Prague Castle we also visited, and it’s very difficult to say for sure which of the complex we liked more. They are so different and each is beautiful in its own way, so visit the two largest historical complexes We recommend Prague to every tourist who decides to visit Prague.

Clementinum is located in the Prague quarter of Stare Mesto, at. One of the most beautiful buildings Clementinum - Jesuit Church of the Savior - Church of St. Salvator / Kostel Nejsvetejsiho Salvatora, the facade goes directly to the square near Charles Bridge.

The Clementinum complex includes several churches and churches, the most beautiful of which, in our opinion, are the church of St. Salvator itself and the Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary / Nanebevzeti Panny Marie, which is on Karlova / Karlova street.

Along the same Karlova street, you can get to the courtyards of the Clementinum, and from there on an excursion to see the library and climb the astronomical tower, which offers magical views of the old town of Prague.

In addition to the main attractions today, the Clementinum buildings house a large number of offices and reading rooms, the entrance to which is strictly by permission and reader / student tickets. But this, of course, was of little interest to us.

Entering the courtyards of the Clementinum, we briskly headed straight for our main goal - the astronomical tower. It is here that the baroque library hall is located.

We approach the astronomical tower. The building is very large, so what to do good photo among narrow streets and the courts of Clementinum were not possible.

Here, below, at the entrance to the tower is the ticket office. You can get into the library only with a guided tour, which takes place every half an hour, starting at 10:00.

Near the entrance and cashier

A ticket for the tour costs 220 kroons for adults and 140 for students and children. At least that's what it said on the checkout counter.

220 CZK per person, too expensive for us. But we have already got used to "survive" in Prague. Since in Prague the entrance is paid everywhere, even to churches and temples, we approached the ticket office and said that we had two students. Practically nowhere they demanded to show student cards, so it rolled. In any case, it's worth a try. So we did here too, they came up and said two students, for some reason they took only 240 kroons from us for two tickets. Well, okay, ours is better.

Our tour starts in 10 minutes. Together with us, who wanted to go on an excursion, there were 10 more people, among whom more than 50%, as it turned out, were Russian-speaking tourists. The tour took place on English language, so we, with our poor knowledge of English, naturally did not understand everything, but the main essence was clear.

Clementinum tour begins

Entering the hall, we see an exhibition copy. We didn’t understand what it was)) But outwardly it resembles the mechanism of some kind of clock or something like that.

hall pride, "Visegrad Code" representing the cathedral collection of gospels and religious texts. The codex is written in Latin and is considered the most famous and valuable manuscript in the Czech Republic. The Visegrad Codex was supposedly compiled on the occasion of the coronation of the first Czech king Vratislav II in 1085 in Prague Castle, where it was presented to the king. Just imagine what historical value this huge book represents, and the codex is indeed of considerable size.

In the foyer hall we see a beautiful door. This door leads to the hall of one of the most beautiful libraries in the world - the baroque library hall / library of Clementinum. This room is part of the National Library.

The guide opens the door and appears before us hall of one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. It is forbidden to shoot in the hall, the guide and the camera on the ceiling are watching for this. We shot secretly, from under the arm, on the phone, so it’s not worth talking about the quality of the pictures.

On the photo on the Internet, the hall looked quite impressive, but in reality it turned out to be not so big and rather narrow, but this does not in the least infringe on its wonderful atmosphere. The hall smells of old books and twilight reigns.

You cannot enter the library hall itself and walk around it. You can only stand and inspect the hall by the fence outside the door. As we were explained, everyone is forbidden to enter the hall, except for scientists and students with special passes. The fact is that the books collected in this room are very old and require special careful care. In total, about 20,000 volumes of books are collected in the hall, all of them are placed on high racks from floor to ceiling on both sides of the hall.

On the ceiling of the book hall you can see an amazing fresco, which is divided into three parts. The first part of the fresco depicts Apollo seated on Mount Parnassus. On the middle part are the imaginary domes of the temple of wisdom. On the third - the culminating part of the fresco, the one closer to the entrance, an angel with a torch of knowledge is depicted, hovering over Christ and calling "IPSUM AUDITE" (which translates as "Obey Him, listen to Him!").

In the main place of the library hall there is a portrait of Emperor Joseph II, presumably made in 1783. And in the middle of the hall you can see several exposed globes. These globes are of two types - geographical and astronomical. The largest and most famous, as well as the most beautiful, globe is the one at the entrance. In addition, constellations are depicted on it. It is a pity that all these charms are not visible in the photographs. Yes, even if it was visible, still the photos will not convey what you experience and see when you are in place.

We leave the baroque book hall and again move up the spiral staircase. Yes, by the way, you can not go up the stairs, but take the elevator, but we didn’t use the elevator, the stairs are more interesting))

Climbing higher, we get into Meridian Hall of Clementinum

The name of the hall comes from the phrase "Prague Meridian". This room is in darkness.

The string, protected by a wooden cabinet, is on the floor. There is a small hole in the left wall, a camera obscura (from Latin word camera obscura, which translates as a dark room). Through this hole in the wall, a beam of sunlight enters the room. This beam gradually moves around the hall, and at the moment when it turns out to be cut by the meridian string, which is on the floor, strictly in half, it means that noon has come.

In past centuries, for a long time, only in this way a signal was given from Clementinum, indicating the onset of noon. From 1842 the signal was given with the help of flags. The given signal in the form of a flag was most often followed by a shot from a cannon from the bastion of St. Magdalene. Thus the noon signal was given until 1928. The job of looking after the beam at that time was responsible and demanding. special attention and perseverance. From this it was considered respected, because only in this way, many townspeople could know for sure whether it was noon.

In addition, there are two original wall quadrants in the meridian hall, presumably by Jan Klein. A quadrant is a device that was used to determine the zenith distances of the luminaries.

Behind the meridian hall we go up the wooden stairs

And we get into a dark round room, to the very top Astronomical tower of Clementinum. The astronomy tower was built in 1722. Its height from the base to the observation deck is 52 meters. And the total height of the tower is 68 meters. When climbing to this very top, we overcame a total of 172 steps. At the very top, the tower is decorated with a sculpture of Atlas carrying the celestial sphere.

There are also several exhibits in this hall.

The guide opens the door and we find ourselves on observation deck of the Astronomical Tower. The views of Prague from a bird's eye view are simply magical, red tiled roofs everywhere and narrow streets of old Prague. We plunge into these views with our heads, walk around the site and look, look ...

From above, the complex and courtyards of Clementinum are clearly visible.

A couple of panoramic shots from the observation deck of the Astronomy Tower in Clementinum

On this our tour came to an end, we went down. The entire tour takes 30 minutes, but our group was delayed by 45. Going down, another group was already eagerly waiting for our exit, ready to go on an excursion.

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