The Iberian Peninsula, also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of Peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprising most of the region, as well as the tiny adjuncts of Andorra, the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, and, pursuant to the traditional definition of the Pyrenees as the peninsula's northeastern boundary, a small part of France. With an area of approximately 583,254 square kilometres (225,196 sq mi), and a population of roughly 53 million, it is the second-largest European peninsula by area, after the Scandinavian Peninsula.
Kołobrzeg is a port and spa city in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in north-western Poland with about 47,000 inhabitants. Kołobrzeg is located on the Parsęta River on the south coast of the Baltic Sea. It is the capital of Kołobrzeg County.
Syldavia is a fictional country in The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. It is located in the Balkans and has a rivalry with the fictional neighbouring country of Borduria. Syldavia is depicted in King Ottokar's Sceptre (1938–1939), Destination Moon (1950), Explorers on the Moon, The Calculus Affair (1954–1956), and Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (1972), and is mentioned in Tintin and the Picaros (1975–1976).
Crown jewels are the objects of metalwork and jewellery in the regalia of a current or former monarchy. They are often used for the coronation of a monarch and a few other ceremonial occasions. A monarch may often be shown wearing them in portraits, as they symbolize the power and continuity of the monarchy. Additions to them may be made, but, since medieval times, the existing items have been typically passed down unchanged, symbolizing the continuity of a monarchy.
A number of symbols of Europe have emerged since antiquity, notably the mythological figure of Europa.
The Holy Crown of Hungary, also known as the Crown of Saint Stephen, named in honour of Saint Stephen I of Hungary, was the coronation crown used by the Kingdom of Hungary for most of its existence; kings were crowned with it since the twelfth century. The Crown symbolized the King's authority over the Lands of the Hungarian Crown, and it was a key mark of legitimacy. Through the history of Hungary, more than fifty kings were crowned with it, with the last being Charles IV in 1916. The only kings not so crowned were Wladyslaw I, John Sigismund Zápolya, and Joseph II.
The Austrian Crown Jewels are the regalia and vestments worn by the Holy Roman Emperor, and later by the Emperor of Austria, during the coronation ceremony and other state functions. The term refers to the following objects: the crowns, sceptres, orbs, swords, rings, crosses, holy relics and royal robes, as well as several other objects connected with the ceremony. The collection dates from the 10th to the 19th centuries, and it reflects more than a thousand years of European history. It is kept in the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria.
The Imperial Crown of Austria is a crown formerly in use by the monarchs of the Habsburg monarchy. The crown was originally made in 1602 in Prague by Jan Vermeyen as the personal crown of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, and therefore is also known as the Crown of Emperor Rudolf II. The crown was used as a private crown of the Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Hungary and Bohemia from the House of Habsburg. In 1804 it became the official crown of the newly constituted Austrian Empire. After 1867 it remained the imperial crown of the Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918.
Sweden's regalia are kept deep in the vaults of the Royal Treasury, underneath the Royal Palace in Stockholm, in a museum that is open to the public. The crowns and coronets have not been worn by Swedish royalty since 1907, but they are still displayed at weddings, christenings and funerals.
The Pan-European Picnic was a peace demonstration held on the Austrian-Hungarian border near Sopron, Hungary on 19 August 1989. The opening of the border gate between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic was an event in the chain reaction, at the end of which Germany reunified, the Iron Curtain fell apart, and the Eastern Bloc disintegrated. The communist governments and the Warsaw Pact subsequently dissolved, ending the Cold War.
Werewolf witch trials were witch trials combined with werewolf trials. Belief in werewolves developed parallel to the belief in European witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland during the Valais witch trials in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century. The persecution of werewolves and the associated folklore is an integral part of the "witch-hunt" phenomenon, albeit a marginal one, accusations of lycanthropy involved in only a small fraction of witchcraft trials.
Historical behaviour studies is a field of research in cultural history and cultural anthropology and a particular methodological approach to the study of human behaviour.
The Royal Porcelain Factory in Berlin, also known as the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin and whose products are generally called Berlin porcelain, was founded in 1763 by King Frederick II of Prussia. Its actual origins, however, lie in three private enterprises which, under crown patronage, were trying to establish the production of "white gold" in Berlin from the mid-18th century onwards.
Ostsiedlung is the term for the Early Medieval and High Medieval migration of ethnic Germans and Germanization of the areas populated by Slavic, Baltic and Uralic peoples; the most settled area was known as Germania Slavica. Germanization efforts included eastern parts of Francia, East Francia, and the Holy Roman Empire and beyond; and the consequences for settlement development and social structures in the areas of settlement. Other regions were also settled, though not as heavily. The Ostsiedlung encompassed multiple modern and historical regions, primarily Germany east of the Saale and Elbe rivers, the states of Lower Austria and Styria in Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic, but also in other parts of Central and Eastern Europe.
The Order of Saint John was organised in a system of commanderies during the high medieval to early modern periods, to some extent surviving as the organisational structure of the several descended orders that formed after the Reformation.
Rudolf Vierhaus was a German historian who mainly researched the Early modern period. He had been a professor at the newly founded Ruhr University Bochum since 1964. From 1971, he was director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte in Göttingen. He became known for his research on the Age of Enlightenment.
Gerd Althoff is a German historian of the Early and High Middle Ages. He presents himself as a researcher into the "political rules of the game" in the Middle Ages. He has held professorships at Münster, Gießen (1990–1995) and Bonn (1995–1997).
The Codex Falkensteinensis is an important medieval manuscript. It was written in 1166 as a feud directory and urbarium by Canons of the Herrenchiemsee monastery, commissioned by the Counts of Neuburg-Falkenstein. Composed at the Neuburg castle near Vagen it is considered the only preserved secular codex from the Hohenstaufen era, the oldest extant book of conveyances from a secular lordship and the oldest European family archive. The original Latin version is preserved in the archives of the Bavarian state, a second Middle High German edition is lost.
Ruedi Hagen Keller is a German historian specializing in the history of the early and high Middle Ages. He works mainly on the Ottonian period, the Italian communes, and the culture of writing in the Middle Ages. Keller taught as Professor of Medieval History at the University of Münster from 1982 until his retirement in 2002. His collaboration with his colleague Gerd Althoff was particularly fruitful. With their work, Keller and Althoff made a decisive contribution to Münster's reputation in international medieval studies. Keller's research has had a considerable influence on German and international medieval studies since the 1980s and has led to a reassessment of early and high medieval kingship.
Mistislaw, also known as Mstislav, was an Elbe Slavic prince of the Nakonid lineage and ruled over the Obotrites in what is now Mecklenburg and eastern Holstein from 990/995 to 1018.
