Before we start our tour of the Griffin capital, and your host city for the 205th Nation Song Contest, we have to make a little reminder that application period for your participation is still ongoing! The deadline for applications has changed and now it is: Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 20:00 Central European Time. We have several new countries that have decided to join us, and they are listed below.
A VERY THOROUGH WALK THROUGH KRALINGSLÆTING
"See Kralingslæting and die!" are the words of a famous saying. In other words, whoever knows Kralingslaeting knows the world. The metropolis on Jalina offers much more than most other cities: history and modernity in harmonious coexistence and refined enjoyment of life.
Even for the largely decentralized Griffin Empire, Kralingslæting is the absolute centre. The most important roads go star-shaped towards the capital with several airports, railway stations and various international organisations. Kralingslæting determines not only its principality and its country, but also the whole of Natia - politically, economically and culturally. Jalina passes Kralingslæting in an east-west direction and divides the city in half. On the island of Katedraaliisl on Jalina, there is one of the symbols of the city - Bitnitska Cathedral, the seat of the Griffin religion.
The city makes all these expectations of a special Griffin feeling for complexity, elegance and relaxation true without any problems. With its squares and avenues, museums and galleries and temples for gourmets, it is simply unique.
Gimgildahe Tere & Avenue Saint Belviederhee. Probably the most luxurious street in the world, Avenue Saint Belviederhee, about six kilometers long, leads, straight like a rope, through the city centre. In its part around Kapii ot võitjating there are cafes and restaurants with elegant hotels and expensive shops. At the other end of the boulevard is Gimgildahe Tere Square where a more than three thousand year old obelisk from Solentoya rises. During the NSC week, there will be a Natiavision village here.
Royal Palace of Brobdingngang. Griffin rulers have lived in this imperial palace since the birth of the empire. The original fort has been rebuilt and expanded throughout history until the transfer of the official residence to the castle of Saint Belviederhee. Since then, most of the palace has been open to the public as a museum, which houses one of the largest and most important art collections in the world. Try your luck, maybe you will meet one of the members of the royal family in one of the corridors.
Bitniska Katedraal. Even in the earliest history of Griffin, there was probably a temple related to Griffin's unusual religion, and before that maybe a temple from pre-Griffin times. The Bitnitska Katedraal, dedicated to humanity, dates back to the reign of the first Griffin Empress Hermione, when the construction of the central part began under the leadership of the high priest. The five-nave basilica, which is 35 meters high in the interior, was completed in the middle of the thirteenth century. The Griffin Gothic is characterized, above all, by a western façade with 68-meter-high towers and three richly artistically decorated portals. The technique of external supporting pillars and arches, typical of Gothic cathedrals, is still considered an invention of the builders of this wonder of the world. The temple and the square in front of it are considered the center of the Griffin World. From there, the distance between the capital and all other points in the country is measured.
Bitniska Õepra. In the architectural competition for the project of building a new national opera in 1861, the builder Karrl Kölmaöl won with the neo-baroque concept of a new house for the main ("bitniska") opera house. Shortly after its opening in 1875, the Main Opera House became a great gathering place for the Kralingslatingian Social Elite. With its sumptuous façade and no less extravagant interior, the building impressively symbolizes the bustling life of the Second Griffin Renaissance period. The white marble staircase and the luxurious five-storey auditorium that can accommodate more than 2,000 people stand out. It is dominated by a chandelier made of pure diamonds that weighs several tons.
Rögzönpolg district & Avenue Jörman ätt Týbalteva. This city district is one of the oldest, and on its main boulevard - Avenue Jörman ätt Týbalteva you can wander past shops, restaurants, bookstores and cinemas, and discover many sights in the quieter side streets. There are museums like the Mnjrtlttä Museum, a former mint in a beautiful 18th-century building, or the Ilzeh Museumi in a lavish former station building, built for a large exibition of Western Natian cultures. In Kirkja Jörmaniskaja, for which it is not known whether she named the street or the street after her, there is the tomb of the philosopher Jörman, originally from Tybalteva, and in the magical Tereferhafurföhöldtingtrbspspalaitsc, one of the last covered markets in the city, you can find delicacies from around the world. Numerous cafes on Jörman's Avenue are the center of Kralingslæting's intellectual life. In Ülõõtkaffsz, the oldest tavern in Kralingslæting, writers met as early as the 17th century. In the 20th century, the popularity of that quarter reached a new peak. The cafes were visited by artists, writers and philosophers. Jon Pavl Zeldtlä and Zanim ätt Pöeöföal, for example, used to visit Flõsz-körötshmöi café, and not far from here Karl Bagezi had his "monument to the Sun" erected in 1959.
Rögzönpolg Palace and its gardens. Only nobles were allowed to enter the park belonging to one of the imperial residences, the Rögzönpolg Palace, until the Lætingmaa Spring Uprising. Originally, there was a baroque garden for walking in the Bigician style, planted in the first half of the 19th century. In the 19th century the complex got a new face. The middle part with its strict symmetry has been rearranged according to the rules of classical Griffin horticultural art, while the model of the Moisantian Landscape Garden has been accepted in the outer areas. Today, the park is a green oasis for both city residents and tourists.
Noueveliska Presör. Relying on 12 stone arches, the 238-meter-long Noueveliska Presör connects the two banks of the Jalina River on both sides of the Katedraaliisl island. The name, however, indicates that the bridge is "new" (noueveliska), but it is still the oldest of the more than 67 Kralingslæting's bridges that today connect the banks of the Jalina. Its construction was started by Emperor Frëdrýk XV in 1578, and in 1600 it was opened by Emperor Güśąv XVII. The New Bridge experienced perhaps the most spectacular event in its history in 2011 when eccentric artist Edd Wais of Pyreica had it wrapped in 42,000 square meters of fabric made from industrial garbage from highly developed Natian countries in protest of "fast fashion".
Scirq District. Parts of this systemically built new city district on the western edge of the city were created in the late 1950s. In the early 1980s, the complex was embedded in a broadly conceived modernisation program of the entire city
"Ajtlnýshjaningsfertuur" initiated by the then president -
Pavl Altlý, Fihfitsleht ätt Centralerne Eestimadnait (Duke of Central Westersund). The center of the
Scirq district (literally "circle") forms a huge elevated pedestrian zone surrounded by exactly 300 glass and steel skyscrapers. Below this car-free area are access roads and parking lots. In addition to huge office space, supermodern buildings also include apartments, shops, shopping malls, restaurants, cafes, hotels and museums. Spectacular huge works of art by famous contemporary artists, decorate the surfaces between buildings. A symbol of the Scirq District visible from a distance, the 110-meter-high triumphal arch of
Noueveliska Kapii, better known as
Nýtkapii in the shape of an open cube, is considered by many to be the new trademark of Kralingslæting. The square marble is dedicated in 1989 on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the proclamation of the empire. Other buildings are also worth mentioning, such as the
Halito Motors tower, which is one of the tallest skyscrapers in Natia, and the
Nýtscirqdvorec with a conspicuous round roof.
Kirkja ot tärte & Fuudtisk District. As early as the beginning of the 19th century, this part of the city, located on a hill in the northern part of Kralingslæting, attracted painters and writers. Many world-renowned artists in the Fuudtisk district have lived and worked, turning it into an art district. The lively seat of the neighborhood is Tere ot Nar Darum Square with charming restaurants and street artists who are always ready to work and painters who offer their paintings there. Above the picturesque square, at the top of the hill rises a white Griffin temple dedicated to the heart - the Basilica of Kirkja ot tärte. The main tower houses a system of bells that play various melodies during Griffin national holidays, and the largest bell weighing 18.5 tons is among the heaviest in the world. Above the main portal is an imposing statue of an anatomically correct heart, and the reliefs on the bronze doors represent scenes of the bravest feats of heroes from the classics of world literature..