Faculdade de Letras Photo

Photographer’s Note

Again in Coimbra, this is the old campus of the university. On the right stands the faculty of letters (or literature, I am not sure if the literal translation of letras (letters) makes sense in English), and on the back are the older buildings of the university, now only used by the rectory, the faculty of law and the old library.

The old part was successively a Roman forum, a Moorish palace or fort, a royal palace of the first Portuguese kings and then on the 16th century it was definitely given to the university. Most of what can be seen today is the result of the reconstruction made then.

On the 1950's the university was much expanded, by building a series of new buildings, one of them being the faculty seen here at right. On the 1990's there was another major expansion, but this time they choose to build away from the city centre.

The university is the oldest in Portugal and it is still one of the more prestigious ones, both in and out of the country. It is also one of the oldest of the world; most sources state that it was founded in 1290, but considering that it was originally founded in Lisbon, I wonder if it isn't a century older, because the in the rectory of the main university of Lisboa there is a bronze inscription some 50 years old that claims that the foundation occurred in 1186.

Much of the life of the town comes from the university and lately from other superior schools. I am not sure of the exact numbers, but taking into account the thousands of students, teachers and other employees of the university, I think that much more than half the population works, study or both in the university. For someone like me that didn't study there, but had some familiarity with the town (and ended up marrying someone that was born, raised and educated there), the university and some of its students and teachers, it is charming to notice the prevalence of a certain mentality that is a mix of intellectual and scientific excellence with a touch of small town way of life and thinking.

The tower with the flag on the top has been popularly known among generations of students as Cabra (female goat, which in Portuguese has much the same connotation of "bitch" in English) and its bell, that was used to wake up the students and call them for classes, was known as the Cabrão (male goat, which is more commonly used as an obscene word to designate either a husband betrayed by his wife or a villain).

Links to Wikipedia: Coimbra, University of Coimbra, List of oldest universities in continuous operation

Link to all my TE posts of Coimbra: http://www.trekearth.com/members/stego/photos/Europe/Portugal/North/Coimbra/

Location (latitude, longitude): 40.20793,-8.42531

japiey, siolaw, snuggleaphagus, Julian_K, Floydian, wautersw, jhm, riclopes, feather, danos, rigoletto, lucasgalodoido, xuaxo, pboehringer ha puntuado esta nota como útil.

Critiques | Translate

siolaw (25794) 2007-06-08 20:52

Hi Jose,
Good compo of the statue which seems to talk to the lamp post! Vivid colors, good sharpness and framing; with strong lines giving nice depth and perspective.
All the best
Laurent

jmcl (14007) 2007-06-08 21:19

Hi Jose

Great depth .. stunning contrast against the blue sky .. love your composition ... love the relationship of the lights and statues in the composition ..

take care,

John

snuggleaphagus (4140) 2007-06-08 22:25

Que lindo ceu! O ponto de vista esta otimo, dando a oportunidade the explorar as estatuas e edificios. A combinacao dos elmentos modernos com os edicios mais antigos fica bem.
Quando era miuda o meu grande sonho era ser estudante na faculdade de letras. Gosto das cores.

Julian_K (1055) 2007-06-08 22:28

Hello Jose,
Fantastic colours and details add to the excellent composition of the photo. It looks lie a very beautiful place, your note is very useful also. Thanks for sharing,
Jules

Stepan (27175) 2007-06-09 3:30

You've got an amazing light again ! Pure and dense, producing a strong mood. Perfect sharpness too.
That's simply a great post !
Stéphane

japiey (9493) 2007-06-09 3:48

Hi JOSE.

Visions are perfect, with the right tones, selected angles and the composition.

Bye, dear friend, and see you tomorrow.

jean paul

:))

vincz (19043) 2007-06-09 4:13

Te compsotion is very good, giving lots of sapce to the beautiful deep blue sky. The statue is also looking at the sky which gives lots of depth. The street light gives the final touch - a very modern one :) - to enhance the feeling of depth in this wide space.

Floydian (30970) 2007-06-09 4:33

Hi Jose,
A very deep blue sky, looks almost like a blue hour photo. I like deep saturated photo's, so also this one is a real pleasure to look at. Extreme good contrast between sky and building, strong and very powerful composition...really good.
Have a nice weekend, Henk

wautersw (3603) 2007-06-09 5:08

Hi Jose,

Great sky and excellent composition that gives depth to the picture. Great colors and sharpness. TFS

Wolf

jhm (82909) 2007-06-09 5:27

Hi Jose,

You chose a excellent angle we see the different statues in one row, this gives nice depth and perspective, together with the lanterns making a very attractive picture. TFS.

Have a nice weekend,
John.

riclopes (33055) 2007-06-09 5:49

Está fantástica, José. O PDV baixo apontando para cima terá sido para evitar os carros, mas ainda assim conseguiste uma excelente perspectiva da arquitectura e estátuas e um bom equilíbrio do candeeiro do outro lado. A cor do céu está perfeita para contrastar com tudo isto. Muito bonita.
Bom fim de semana,
ricardo

feather (49872) 2007-06-09 6:01

I bet you can guess what I will say about the composition.- Plenty of space in front of the statues. Very satisfying to me eye. What makes this even better is we can somehow imagine the nearer statue peering through the gap between the lamps. I love the light and the dark blue sky. I can't see all the left side on my monitor as it is overlapped by the TE bars because your links have made the post too wide. I don't know if that is just my monitor or not. Anyway a good work
Kath

UnTrained (0) 2007-06-09 6:59

Olá José,
great colours and contrasts, really enhanced by your POV. Statue and lantern give a good balance and the textures on all the stone are great.
Lieben Gruss, Ulf

rigoletto (26468) 2007-06-10 1:11

Ola Jose!
This is an awesome compo with a perfect blue sky filtered through the polarizer. Your side POV is very interesting and create an impressive depth, while your selection of square format results in an interesting and nice result. Balancing the vertical figures with the lamp is a nice idea. Cheers :)
Deniz

danos (32852) 2007-06-10 3:40

Ola Jose,
nice your shot but i'll tell you honestly,that this deep blue sky is very 'heavy'' for my aesthetics.At the other,the statue from the one and the lamp-post from the other balance perfect your composition.The buildings shape a perfect optical corner and stop the perspective creation of the right building.Well done.
Have a good weekend,Danos

[2] [workshop] [compare] +

lucasgalodoido (16615) 2007-06-10 18:24

Olá José!
Bonita foto, o efeito do polarizador ficou bem evidente nela! Um ótimo POV desse local e boa nitidez!
Parabéns e Abraço!

adores (15671) 2007-06-10 19:46

Olá José!
Sem dúvida um aperspectiva original da Universidade. Gosto da forma como colocaste as estátuas em linha diagonal e as cores também ficaram muito boas!
Anabela

batalay (21086) 2007-06-11 4:17

Hello José,

This image and accompanying note appeal to me very much, as I knew very little about the history of universities in Portugal. 1290, would indeed take Colmbra back to the dawn of the founding of universities, and if the 1186 is to be taken seriously, it would make it "seriously old." In reality, even Bologna, the oldest, came a couple of hundred years after the University of Fez. Did your wanderings around Moroco ever take you there?

In your photo, the average exposure, effected by the very bright buildings and ground, have caused the aperture to close up to the point where the sky is a dark cobalt blue. Perhaps a little bit of selective lightening of the sky would give it more fidelity. It is, nonetheless, an image that I am very happy to see here.

Warm regards,
Bulent

xuaxo (5771) 2007-06-11 11:03

Olá José
Quanto à tradução/título neste caso eu deixaria ficar o título em português, explicando em inglês na nota. Como a língua mais usada aqui é o inglês mas há membros de muitas nacionalidades e quase todos se interessam por viagens e outros povos, acho que umas palavrinhas noutras línguas enriquecem o conteúdo dos posts.
A foto está curiosa, pois parece que a estátua está em frente de um microfone gigante.
Se fosse possível talvez ficasse bem com um pouco de chão e menos céu.
Tal como a outra, parece-me que o céu está um pouco escuro demais.
F

jackart (5566) 2007-06-13 15:28

Hi Jose!

Very good shot. I very like sky contrasting with lamp buildings and sculpture. The way You showed perspective is interesting too. Statue looks magnificent and distinguished. Well done!

Regards

Jacek

danyy (69147) 2007-06-16 17:14

Bonjour Jose,
ca, c'est du bleu qui en jette, il permet à tout le reste et notamment aux pierres grises, de bien ressortir.
Un cadrage et un POV bien choisis, des couleurs superbes.
Regards.
Daniel.

pboehringer (770) 2007-06-19 10:35

Jose, a very strong composition with those statues placed in the far right, framed by the building around and facing the lamp in the far left. Very geometric! I like that a lot! The colors are brilliant and extremely powerful, mainly the blue. I love such skies! Great shot!

ekinokswest (2974) 2008-01-13 7:52

excellent view of the sky very well composition. you probably waited at least 2 minutes to chose the best angle best option well done