title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Autosomal recessive inheritance patterns of RP have been identified in at least 45 genes. This means that two unaffected individuals who are carriers of the same RP-inducing gene mutation in diallelic form can produce offspring with the RP phenotype. A mutation on the USH2A gene is known to cause 10-15% of a syndromic form of RP known as Usher's Syndrome when inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Mutations in four pre-mRNA splicing factors are known to cause autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa. These are PRPF3 (human PRPF3 is HPRPF3; also PRP3), PRPF8, PRPF31 and PAP1. These factors are ubiquitously expressed and it is proposed that defects in a ubiquitous factor (a protein expressed everywhere) should only cause disease in the retina because the retinal photoreceptor cells have a far greater requirement for protein processing (rhodopsin) than any other cell type.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: The somatic, or X-linked inheritance patterns of RP are currently identified with the mutations of six genes, the most common occurring at specific loci in the RPGR and RP2 genes.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: A variety of retinal molecular pathway defects have been matched to multiple known RP gene mutations. Mutations in the rhodopsin gene (RHO), which is responsible for the majority of autosomal-dominantly inherited RP cases, disrupts the rhodopsin protein essential for translating light into decipherable electrical signals within the phototransduction cascade of the central nervous system. Defects in the activity of this G-protein-coupled receptor are classified into distinct classes that depend on the specific folding abnormality and the resulting molecular pathway defects. The Class I mutant protein's activity is compromised as specific point mutations in the protein-coding amino acid sequence affect the pigment protein's transport to the outer segment of the eye, where the phototransduction cascade is localized. Additionally, the misfolding of Class II rhodopsin gene mutations disrupts the protein's conjunction with 11-cis-retinal to induce proper chromophore formation. Additional mutants in this pigment-encoding gene affect protein stability, disrupt mRNA integrity post-translationally, and affect the activation rates of transducin and opsin optical proteins.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Additionally, animal models suggest that the retinal pigment epithelium fails to phagocytose the outer rod segment discs that have been shed, leading to an accumulation of outer rod segment debris. In mice that are homozygous recessive for retinal degeneration mutation, rod photoreceptors stop developing and undergo degeneration before cellular maturation completes. A defect in cGMP-phosphodiesterase has also been documented; this leads to toxic levels of cGMP.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: An accurate diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa relies on the documentation of the progressive loss of photoreceptor cell function, confirmed by a combination of visual field and visual acuity tests, fundus and optical coherence imagery, and electroretinography (ERG).


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Visual field and acuity tests measure and compare the size of the patient's field of vision and the clarity of their visual perception with the standard visual measurements associated with healthy 20/20 vision. Clinical diagnostic features indicative of retinitis pigmentosa include a substantially small and progressively decreasing visual area in the visual field test, and compromised levels of clarity measured during the visual acuity test. Additionally, optical tomography such as fundus and retinal (optical coherence) imagery provide further diagnostic tools when determining an RP diagnosis. Photographing the back of the dilated eye allows the confirmation of bone spicule accumulation in the fundus, which presents during the later stages of RP retinal degeneration. Combined with cross-sectional imagery of optical coherence tomography, which provides clues into photoreceptor thickness, retinal layer morphology, and retinal pigment epithelium physiology, fundus imagery can help determine the state of RP progression.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: While visual field and acuity test results combined with retinal imagery support the diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa, additional testing is necessary to confirm other pathological features of this disease. Electroretinography (ERG) confirms the RP diagnosis by evaluating functional aspects associated with photoreceptor degeneration, and can detect physiological abnormalities before the initial manifestation of symptoms. An electrode lens is applied to the eye as photoreceptor response to varying degrees of quick light pulses is measured. Patients exhibiting the retinitis pigmentosa phenotype would show decreased or delayed electrical response in the rod photoreceptors, as well as possibly compromised cone photoreceptor cell response.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: The patient's family history is also considered when determining a diagnosis due to the genetic mode of inheritance of retinitis pigmentosa. At least 35 different genes or loci are known to cause "nonsyndromic RP" (RP that is not the result of another disease or part of a wider syndrome). Indications of the RP mutation type can be determine through DNA testing, which is available on a clinical basis for:


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: RP can be inherited in an autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, X-linked or Y-linked manner. X-linked RP can be either recessive, affecting primarily only males, or dominant, affecting both males and females, although males are usually more mildly affected. Some digenic (controlled by two genes) and mitochondrial forms have also been described.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Genetic counseling depends on an accurate diagnosis, determination of the mode of inheritance in each family, and results of molecular genetic testing.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: There is currently no cure for retinitis pigmentosa, but the efficacy and safety of various prospective treatments are currently being evaluated. The efficiency of various supplements, such as vitamin A, DHA, NAC, and lutein, in delaying disease progression remains an unresolved, yet prospective treatment option. Clinical trials investigating optic prosthetic devices, gene therapy mechanisms, and retinal sheet transplantations are active areas of study in the partial restoration of vision in retinitis pigmentosa patients.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Studies have demonstrated the delay of rod photoreceptor degeneration by the daily intake of 15000 IU (equivalent to 4.5 mg) of vitamin A palmitate; thus, stalling disease progression in some patients. Recent investigations have shown that proper vitamin A supplementation can postpone blindness by up to 10 years (by reducing the 10% loss pa to 8.3% pa) in some patients in certain stages of the disease.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: MD Stem Cells, a clinical research company using autologous bone marrow derived stem cells (BMSC) in the treatment of retinal and optic nerve disease, published results from the Retinitis Pigmentosa cohort within their ongoing NIH registered Stem Cell Ophthalmology Study II (SCOTS2) clinical trial (NCT 03011541). Outcomes were encouraging with 45.5% of eyes showing an average of 7.9 lines of improvement (40.9% LogMAR improvement over baseline) and 45.5% of eyes showing stable acuity over the follow up. Results were statistically significant(p=0.016). Retinitis Pigmentosa continues to be treated and evaluated in the study.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: The Argus retinal prosthesis became the first approved treatment for the disease in February 2011, and is currently available in Germany, France, Italy, and the UK. Interim results on 30 patients long term trials were published in 2012. The Argus II retinal implant has also received market approval in the US. The device may help adults with RP who have lost the ability to perceive shapes and movement to be more mobile and to perform day-to-day activities. In June 2013, twelve hospitals in the US announced they would soon accept consultation for patients with RP in preparation for the launch of Argus II later that year. The Alpha-IMS is a subretinal implant involving the surgical implantation of a small image-recording chip beneath the optic fovea. Measures of visual improvements from Alpha-IMS studies require the demonstration of the device's safety before proceeding with clinical trials and granting market approval.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: The goal of gene therapy studies is to virally supplement retinal cells expressing mutant genes associated with the retinitis pigmentosa phenotype with healthy forms of the gene; thus, allowing the repair and proper functioning of retinal photoreceptor cells in response to the instructions associated with the inserted healthy gene. Clinical trials investigating the insertion of the healthy RPE65 gene in retinas expressing the LCA2 retinitis pigmentosa phenotype measured modest improvements in vision; however, the degradation of retinal photoreceptors continued at the disease-related rate. Likely, gene therapy may preserve remaining healthy retinal cells while failing to repair the earlier accumulation of damage in already diseased photoreceptor cells. Response to gene therapy would theoretically benefit young patients exhibiting the shortest progression of photoreceptor decline; thus, correlating to a higher possibility of cell rescue via the healthy inserted gene.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: The progressive nature of and lack of a definitive cure for retinitis pigmentosa contribute to the inevitably discouraging outlook for patients with this disease. While complete blindness is rare, the person's visual acuity and visual field will continue to decline as initial rod photoreceptor and later cone photoreceptor degradation proceeds.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Studies indicate that children carrying the disease genotype benefit from presymptomatic counseling in order to prepare for the physical and social implications associated with progressive vision loss. While the psychological prognosis can be slightly alleviated with active counseling the physical implications and progression of the disease depend largely on the age of initial symptom manifestation and the rate of photoreceptor degradation, rather than access to prospective treatments. Corrective visual aids and personalized vision therapy provided by Low Vision Specialists may help patients correct slight disturbances in visual acuity and optimize their remaining visual field. Support groups, vision insurance, and lifestyle therapy are additional useful tools for those managing progressive visual decline.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Retinitis pigmentosa is the leading cause of inherited blindness, with approximately 1/4,000 individuals experiencing the non-syndromic form of their disease within their lifetime. It is estimated that 1.5 million people worldwide are currently affected. Early onset RP occurs within the first few years of life and is typically associated with syndromic disease forms, while late onset RP emerges from early to mid-adulthood.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Autosomal dominant and recessive forms of retinitis pigmentosa affect both male and female populations equally; however, the less frequent X-linked form of the disease affects male recipients of the X-linked mutation, while females usually remain unaffected carriers of the RP trait. The X-linked forms of the disease are considered severe, and typically lead to complete blindness during later stages. In rare occasions, a dominant form of the X-linked gene mutation will affect both males and females equally.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Due to the genetic inheritance patterns of RP, many isolate populations exhibit higher disease frequencies or increased prevalence of a specific RP mutation. Pre-existing or emerging mutations that contribute to rod photoreceptor degeneration in retinitis pigmentosa are passed down through familial lines; thus, allowing certain RP cases to be concentrated to specific geographical regions with an ancestral history of the disease. Several hereditary studies have been performed to determine the varying prevalence rates in Maine (USA), Birmingham (England), Switzerland (affects 1/7000), Denmark (affects 1/2500), and Norway. Navajo Indians display an elevated rate of RP inheritance as well, which is estimated as affecting 1 in 1878 individuals. Despite the increased frequency of RP within specific familial lines, the disease is considered non-discriminatory and tends to equally affect all world populations.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: Future treatments may involve retinal transplants, artificial retinal implants, gene therapy, stem cells, nutritional supplements, and/or drug therapies.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: 2012: Scientists at the University of Miami Bascom Palmer Eye Institute presented data showing protection of photoreceptors in an animal model when eyes were injected with mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF). Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley were able to restore vision to blind mice by exploiting a "photoswitch" that activates retinal ganglion cells in animals with damaged rod and cone cells.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: 2015: A study by Bakondi et al. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center showed that CRISPR/Cas9 can be used to treat rats with the autosomal dominant form of retinitis pigmentosa. Researchers find that two molecules, rod-derived cone viability factor (RdCVF) and Nrf2, can protect cone photoreceptors in mouse models of retinitis pigmentosa.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: 2016: RetroSense Therapeutics aimed to inject viruses with DNA from light-sensitive algae into the eyes of several blind people (who have retinitis pigmentosa). If successful, they will be able to see in black and white.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: In 2017 the FDA approved the gene therapy voretigene neparvovec to treat people with biallelic RPE65 mutation-associated retinal dystrophy.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: In 2020, a literature review estimated the experimental therapeutic technique called transcorneal electrical stimulation as "probably effective" (level B) in retinitis pigmentosa, based on the evidence available at that time.


title: Retinitis pigmentosa

text: In 2021 an optogenetics application of the protein Channelrhodopsin in a human patient was reported with partial recovery of non-functional vision in a series of one patient only. They did not use standard protocol to measure visual improvement, but created their own criteria. The serendipitous discovery of the novel algal channelrhodopsin used came out of the 1000 Plant Genomes Project.


title: Devdas Gandhi

text: Devdas Mohandas Gandhi (22 May 1900 – 3 August 1957) was the fourth and youngest son of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born in the Colony of Natal and came to India with his parents as a grown man. He became active in his father's movement, spending many terms in jail. He also became a prominent journalist, serving as editor of Hindustan Times. He was also the first "pracharak" of the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (DBHPS), established by Mohandas Gandhi in Tamil Nadu in 1918. The purpose of the Sabha was to propagate Hindi in southern India"."


title: Devdas Gandhi

text: Devdas fell in love with Lakshmi, the daughter of C. Rajagopalachari, Devdas's father's associate in the Indian independence struggle. Due to Lakshmi's age at that time – she was only 15 and Devdas was 28 – both Devdas's father and Rajaji asked the couple to wait for five years without seeing each other. After five years had passed, they were married with their fathers' permissions in 1933.


title: Devdas Gandhi

text: Devdas and Lakshmi had four children, Rajmohan Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Ramchandra Gandhi and Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee (born 24 April 1934, New Delhi).


title: Devdas Gandhi

text: When Mahatma Gandhi started seeking help for establishment of Jamia Millia Islamia, Devdas also came forward on the call of Gandhi. He started teaching Hindi there and also cotton spinning.


title: Jeremy Swift

text: Jeremy Paul Swift (born 27 June 1960) is an English actor. He studied drama at Guildford School of Acting from 1978 to 1981 and worked almost exclusively in theatre throughout the 1980s, working with companies such as Deborah Warner's Kick Theatre company and comedy performance-art group The People Show. During this period Swift also worked on numerous television commercials. In the 1990s, he acted at the National Theatre working alongside David Tennant and Richard Wilson in Phyllida Lloyd's production of "What the Butler Saw".


title: Jeremy Swift

text: Swift acted in films such as Robert Altman's murder mystery "Gosford Park" (2001), Michael Apted's historical drama "Amazing Grace" (2006), and the family adventure film "Mary Poppins Returns" (2018). He also appeared in "Vanity Fair" (1998), "Foyle's War" (2013-2015), "Downton Abbey" (2013-2015), "The Durrells" (2016), and "National Treasure" (2016). In 2021, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance in "Ted Lasso".


title: Jeremy Swift

text: Swift was born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham. In the 2000s, Swift appeared in "Gosford Park" playing the footman Arthur, and Roman Polanski's "Oliver Twist" as Mr. Bumble. For BBC3, he played Barry in the cult hit "The Smoking Room" and had a theatrical hit with "Abigail's Party", the last production at the old Hampstead Theatre and their longest running West End transfer.


title: Jeremy Swift

text: In 2009, he played the lead in the true story of art forger Shaun Greenhalgh in "The Antiques' Rogue Show" for BBC2 with Liz Smith and Peter Vaughn, The Deacon in a film adaptation of Anton Chekhov's short story "The Duel" and featured in "Canoe Man", a 2010 TV drama based on the John Darwin disappearance case.


title: Jeremy Swift

text: He starred in the independent British feature film "Downhill", which is a comedy about four men attempting Alfred Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk which was released in 2014 and co-stars Ned Dennehy, Karl Theobald and Richard Lumsden. The film was directed by James Rouse and the screenplay was written by Torben Betts.


title: Jeremy Swift

text: Swift is also a composer and his work includes the score for "Werewolves: The Dark Survivors" (Wide-eyed Entertainment) for the Discovery channel and ITV global.


title: Jeremy Swift

text: On ITV, Swift played Septimus Spratt, the butler of the Dowager Countess, in "Downton Abbey" for three seasons and has been seen as Dennis, manservant to Countess Mavrodaki (Leslie Caron) in Episodes 3-6 of "The Durrells". He also played election agent Glenvil Harris in the last two series of "Foyle's War". He played Gooding in "Mary Poppins Returns", which was released in 2018.


title: Jeremy Swift

text: In 2020, he played the role of Leslie Higgins in Apple TV+'s show, "Ted Lasso", for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2021.


title: Jeremy Swift

text: Swift is married to actress Mary Roscoe (who plays his wife, Julie Higgins, on "Ted Lasso"), whom he met while working on a play, and together they have two children who were both adopted.


title: Crème fraîche

text: Crème fraîche (English pronunciation: , , lit. "fresh cream") is a dairy product, a soured cream containing 10–45% butterfat, with a pH of approximately 4.5. It is soured with a bacterial culture. European labeling regulations specify the two ingredients must be cream and bacterial culture. It is served over fruit and baked goods, as well as being added to soups and sauces. It is used in a variety of other recipes. Sour cream is a similar foodstuff, except that crème fraîche is less sour and has a higher fat content. Sour cream may contain thickening agents not permitted in crème fraîche in many jurisdictions .


title: Crème fraîche

text: The name is French, but similar soured creams are found in much of northern Europe, and a traditional soured cream ( in Spanish) used in Central America resembles it.


title: Crème fraîche

text: A literal translation of "crème fraîche" is "fresh cream." However, in French-speaking countries, "crème fraîche" may refer to either: (A) the thick fermented product, "crème fraîche épaisse" or "fermentée", or (B) a liquid cream, "crème fraîche liquide" or "fleurette". In these countries, "crème fraîche" without qualification, normally refers to liquid cream, with the thick form usually called, "crème épaisse" (thick cream). In other countries, however, "crème fraîche" without qualification usually refers to the thick, fermented product.


title: Crème fraîche

text: Crème fraîche is produced by adding a starter culture to heavy cream and allowing it to stand at an appropriate temperature until it thickens. The culture is made up of a mix of bacteria including, "Lactococcus" species "L. cremoris", "L. lactis", and "L. lactis" biovar "diacetylactis". These bacteria give it the taste that distinguishes it from similar dairy products such as sour cream. Recipes for cooks making crème fraîche at home may substitute cultured buttermilk with active cultures for the starter culture.


title: Crème fraîche

text: In some places in Europe, the fat content of crème fraîche is regulated, and it may not contain ingredients other than cream and starter culture.


title: Crème fraîche

text: In North America and the UK, products labeled "low-fat crème fraîche" with approximately 15% butterfat and with added stabilizers such as xanthan gum or starch from maize or corn, are commercialized. This product is less stable than crème fraîche when heated.


title: Crème fraîche

text: Crème fraîche consists of heavy cream and a starter culture. In most places in Europe, strict regulation is placed on the production of crème fraîche, prohibiting the addition of any stabilizers, bulking agents, or emulsifiers. Standard crème fraîche contains around 30–45% milkfat while low-fat crème fraîche contains closer to 15% milkfat. During processing, the acidification of the casein micelle begins at around a pH of 6.7; however, the pH of the cream must drop to below 4.6, the isoelectric point of milk, for the casein micelles to fully precipitate out of solution.


title: Crème fraîche

text: The structure of crème fraîche consists of an acid gel composed of milk protein-covered fat globules that tend to agglomerate. This gives the crème fraîche its stability as a highly viscous thixotropic fluid. This gel is only stable in higher fat cultured creams, around 30%, and therefore is not stable nor ubiquitous in low-fat crème fraîche. This is partly the reason why it is impossible to make a low-fat crème fraîche without the addition of stabilizers and bulking agents to generate the same texture as found in regular crème fraîche. Around 50% of the triglycerides in milk fat are long-chain triglycerides (LCT), which at refrigerator temperatures are solid. These triglycerides will tend to crystallize inside the fat globule adding to the gel's stiffness.


title: Crème fraîche

text: The crème fraîche from Normandy is famous, and the crème fraîche from a defined area around the town of Isigny-sur-Mer in the Calvados department of Normandy is highly regarded. It is the only cream to have an appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), which was awarded in 1986. It also is produced in many other parts of France, with large quantities coming from the major dairy regions of Brittany, Poitou-Charentes, Lorraine, and Champagne-Ardenne.


title: Crème fraîche

text: Crème fraîche is used both hot and cold in French cuisine. It often is used to finish hot savory sauces, and with its fat content greater than 30%, curdling is not a problem. It is also the basis of many desserts and dessert sauces.


title: Crème fraîche

text: "Crema Mexicana" is a somewhat similar cultured sour cream that may contain several other ingredients.


title: Crème fraîche

text: "Smetana" from Eastern Europe and Russia is very similar also. In Romania and Moldova, the product is called smântână.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The Place de la Concorde () is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: It was the site of many notable public executions, including the executions of King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre in the course of the French Revolution, during which the square was temporarily renamed Place de la Révolution.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The place was originally designed to be the site of an equestrian statue of King Louis XV, commissioned in 1748 by the merchants of Paris, to celebrate the recovery of King Louis XV from a serious illness. The site chosen for the statue was the large esplanade or space between the revolving gate the Tuileries Gardens and the Cour-la-Reine, a popular lane for horseback riding at the edge of the city. At the time the Concorde bridge and the Rue de Rivoli did not exist, and the Rue Royale was a muddy lane that descended down to a marsh beside the Seine.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel made a plan for the site, and the square was finished by 1772. It was in the form of an octagon, bordered by a sort of moat twenty meters wide, crossed by stone bridges, and surrounded by a stone balustrade. At the eight corners Gabriel placed stone stairways to descend into the place, which was divided into flowerbeds. In the center of the gardens was the pedestal on which the statue stood. The statue, by Bouchardon, depicted the King on horseback as the victor of the Battle of Fontenoy, dressed as a Roman general, with a laurel wreath on his head. On the four corners of the pedestal, designed by Jean Chalgrin, are bronze statues by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, depicting the virtues of great monarchs; Force, Justice, Prudence, and Peace.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The statue was dedicated on 20 June 1763, but by this time the King had lost much of his popularity. A few days after its dedication, someone hung a placard on the statue, proclaiming: "Oh, the beautiful statue! Oh, the fine pedestal! The Virtues are under the feet, and Vice is in the saddle!"


title: Place de la Concorde

text: On the north side of the square, between 1760 and 1775, Gabriel planned and built two palatial buildings with identical facades. The classical facades were inspired by those created by Charles Perrault, the royal architect, for the facade of the Louvre. They were originally intended to be occupied by embassies, but in the end the east building became a depot for the Royal furnishings, then the headquarters of the French Navy, the Hôtel de la Marine. The west building was divided into individual properties for the nobility.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: Beginning in 1789, the Place was a central stage for the events of the French Revolution. On 13 July 1789, a mob came to the Hotel de la Marine and seized a store of weapons, including two old cannon, gifts from the King of Siam, which fired the first shots during the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. On 11 August 1792, the statue of Louis XV was pulled down and taken to a foundry, where it was melted down. A few months later, a new statue, "Liberty", by the sculptor François-Frédéric Lemot, took its place; it was figure wearing a red liberty cap and holding a lance. The Place Louis XV became Place de la Revolution.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: In October 1792, the first executions by guillotine in the square took place. The two people who were executed were thieves who had stolen the royal crown diamonds from the Hotel de la Marine. On 21 January 1793, King Louis XVI was executed there. As the Reign of Terror commenced, it was set up again on 11 May 1793, midway between the Statue of Liberty and the turning bridge at the entrance to the Tuileries Gardens, and remained there for thirteen months. Of the 2,498 persons executed by the guillotine in Paris during the Revolution, 1,119 were executed on the Place de la Concorde, 73 on Place de la Bastille and 1,306 on Place de la Nation. Beside Louis XVI, other executed there included Charlotte Corday, Marie-Antoinette, and Madame du Barry. During the later days of the Reign of Terror in 1794, Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Antoine Lavosier, Maximilien Robespierre, Louis de Saint-Just were executed there. The last executions, those of the Prairial riot participants, were carried out there in May 1795.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: In 1795, under the Directory, the square was renamed "Place de la Concorde" as a gesture of reconciliation after the turmoil of the revolution. After the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, the name was changed back to "Place Louis XV", and in 1826 the square was renamed "Place Louis XVI". After the July Revolution of 1830 the name was returned to "Place de la Concorde".


title: Place de la Concorde

text: In 1790, early in the French Revolution, the Concorde bridge was constructed, and, at the suggestion of Jacques-Louis David, the statues of the "Horses of Marly" by G. Cousteau, were placed on the north side, at the entrance of the Champs-Élysées. In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte began to construct the Rue de Rivoli along the edge of the square.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: Under King Louis-Philippe, and his prefect of the Seine, Rambuteau, the square was remade. IN 1832, Jacques Ignace Hittorff was named chief architect of the project. In October 1835 Hittorff installed the new centrepiece of the square, the Luxor Obelisk, a gift to the King from the vice-pasha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali. It was hoisted into place, before a huge crowd, on 25 October 1836. Hittorff commissioned celebrated sculptors, including James Pradier and Jean-Pierre Cortot to make eight statues representing the major cities of France, which were placed in 1838 on columns which had earlier been put in place around the square by Gabriel. a ring of twenty columns with lanterns were put in place at the same time.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: Between 1836 and 1840, Hittorff erected two monumental fountains, the Fontaine Maritime on the side of the Seine, and the Fontaine Fluviale on the side of the Rue Royale. The design, with two fountains each nine meters high, was modelled after that of the fountains of Saint-Peters Square in Rome. In 1853, under Napoleon III, the deep moats around the square, which had turned into rendezvous-points for prostitutes, were filled in.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The Place was the entry point of two major international expositions: the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900, which left behind the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais; and the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, which gave its name to Art Deco. It was also the site of great national celebrations, including the victory celebrations of the end of the First World War and the Liberation of Paris in the Second World War. It experienced violent confrontations. A demonstration against parliamentary corruption in 1934 turned violent, with eleven deaths and two hundred injured. It also hosted triumphant celebrations of sports events such as France winning the FIFA Soccer World Cup in 1998.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The centrepiece of the place is an ancient Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II. It is one of two which the Egyptian government gave to the French in the 19th century. The other one stayed in Egypt, too difficult and heavy to move to France with the technology at that time. On 26 September 1981, President François Mitterrand formally returned the title of the second obelisk to Egypt.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The obelisk once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple. The Khedive of Egypt, or royal constitutional monarch, Muhammad Ali Pasha, offered the 3,300-year-old Luxor Obelisk as a diplomatic gift to France in 1829. It arrived in Paris on 21 December 1833. Three years later, it was hoisted into place, on top of the pedestal which originally supported the statue of Louis XV, destroyed during the Revolution. The raising of the column was a major feat of engineering, depicted by illustrations on the base of the monument. King Louis Philippe dedicated the obelisk on 25 October 1836.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The obelisk, a yellow granite column, rises high, including the base, and weighs over . Given the technical limitations of the day, transporting it was no easy feat – on the pedestal are drawn diagrams explaining the machinery that was used for the transportation. The government of France added a gold-leafed pyramidal cap to the top of the obelisk in 1998, replacing the missing original, believed stolen in the 6th century BC.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: When he had completed the installation of the Luxor Obelisk, in 1836, Jacques-Ignace Hittorff, chief architect of the square, moved ahead with two new fountains to complement the obelisk. Hittorff had been a student of the Neoclassical designer Charles Percier at the École des Beaux-Arts. The had spent had spent two years studying the architecture and fountains of Rome, particularly the Piazza Navona and Piazza San Pietro, each of which had obelisks aligned with fountains.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: Hittorff's fountains were each nine meters high, matching the height of the earlier columns and statues around the Place representing great French cities. The Maritime Fountain was on the south, between the obelisk and Seine, and illustrated the seas bordering France, while the Fluvial Fountains or river fountain, on the north, between the Obelisk and the Rue Rue Royale, illustrated the great rivers of France. It is located in the same place where the guillotine which executed Louis XVI had been placed.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: Both fountains had the same form: a stone basin; six figures of tritons or naiads holding fish spouting water; six seated allegorical figures, their feet on the prows of ships, supporting the pedestal, of the circular "vasque"; four statues of different forms of genius in arts or crafts supporting the upper inverted upper vasque; whose water shot up and then cascaded down to the lower vasque and then the basin.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The north fountain was devoted to the Rivers, with allegorical figures representing the Rhone and the Rhine, the arts of the harvesting of flowers and fruits, harvesting and grape growing; and the geniuses of river navigation, industry, and agriculture.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The south fountain, closer to the Seine, represented the seas, with figures representing the Atlantic and the Mediterranean; harvesting coral; harvesting fish; collecting shellfish; collecting pearls; and the geniuses of astronomy, navigation, and commerce.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The north side of the square, along the Rue de Rivoli, is occupied by two palatial buildings, whose matching facades were designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. They are separated by the Rue Royale, which enters the square from the north and was also designed by Gabriel. He planned the harmonious facades of the buildings along Rue Royale, including the facade and interior of his own residence at Number eight.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The Neo-classical facades of the two major buildings on the Place de la Concorde are nearly identical. Their design was inspired by the east front of the Louvre, begun in 1667 by Louis Le Vau, architect of Louis XIV, Charles Le Brun, and Charles Perrault. The front is decorated with sculpted medallions and guerlands, another feature borrowed from the Louvre east front. The long front of colonnades is balanced at either end two sections with triangular frontons and Corinthian columnns.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The building on the east, the Hôtel de la Marine, was originally the royal Garde-Meuble, the depot for all the royal furnishings. Marie-Antoinette also had a small apartment there. In 1792, during the Revolution, it became the headquarters of the French Navy. The Navy departed in 2015, and the building is now a national monument and museum. The ceremonial rooms of the Navy and the apartments of the original intendants before the Revolution have been restored. Since 2021 the building is also home to the Al Thani Collection, a collection of ancient art from early civilisations brought together by It is owned by Sheik Hamad bin Abdullah Khalifa Al Thani, first cousin of the Emir of Qatar.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The building on the east is divided into four separate buildings, which were originally occupied by members of the French Nobility.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: On the east the Place is bordered by the two terraces of the Tuileries Garden, the park of the royal palace. The palace was burned by the Paris Commune in 1871, and few vestiges remain. The highly-ornate gilded gateway to the garden was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the architect to the Place, and leads to the grand promenade of the garden which extends east as far as the Louvre. The gateway is flanked by two monumental equestrian sculptures by Antoine Coysevox, "Fame Riding Pegasus" and "Mercury Riding Pegasus", made for the Chateau of Marly of Louis XIV, and installed at the Tuileries in 1719. They are copies; the originals are now in the Louvre.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The early west gateway of Paris, the Port de la Conference, was located at the south end of the Place, next to the Seine. It was built by Henry III of France, and as the city grew was demolished in 1730. A revolving bridge originally gave entry to the gardens; it was located where the ornamental is today.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The terraces of the Garden overlooking the Place de la Concorde are the home of two museums. At the north end, near the Rue de Rivoli, is the National Gallery of the Jeu de Paume. It was built under Emperor Louis Napoleon as the imperial tennis court in 1861 and was enlarged in 1878. During the Second World War it was used by the Germans as a depot for storing looted art. From 1947 until 1986 it displayed the Impressionist paintings of the Louvre. In 1997, it was entirely rebuilt, and now displays temporary exhibitions of contemporary art.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: Closer to the Seine is the Orangerie Museum, which was built in 1852 by architect Firmin Bourgeois as a winter shelter for the Tuilerie citrus trees, also under Napoleon III. It was later converted into an art exhibition hall, and since 1927 it has been the home of one of the most famous groups of works of Impressionism, the eight paintings of the "Water Lilies" series by Claude Monet. It also displays the Walter Guillaume collection of impressionist and paintings and works from the school of Paris.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The terrace overlooking the Place also displays a number of important works of sculpture. These include, since 1998, four works by Auguste Rodin; "The Kiss" (1881-1888); a bronze copy of the marble original, cast in 1934; "Eve" (1881); The "Grand Shadow" (1881); and "Meditation, with arms" (1881-1905). It also displays more modern works, including "Le Belle Costumé" (1973) by Jean Dubuffet, and "Le Grand Commandement Blanc" by Alain Kirili (1986). Two marble statues of lions are also displayed on the terrace, dating from 18th century, and made by Giuseppe Franchi.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: In January 2021, Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, announced that the city would undertake an ambitious €250 million redesign of the Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées. Work on the Place de la Concorde will be the first to be undertaken in advance of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.


title: Place de la Concorde

text: The redesign is intended to increase pedestrian space, reduce car traffic, and add more trees for improved air quality along the Champs-Élysées. Traffic will be directed around the outside edges of the Place. The number of traffic lanes will be greatly reduced. Four large areas of trees and greenery will be created in the corners of the square around the obelisk and monuments and open space in the center. A walkway will connect over 200 acres of green space between the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysées, the Place de la Concorde, and the Tuileries Gardens.


title: Alaric I

text: Alaric I (; , , "ruler of all"; c. 370 – 410 AD) was the first king of the Visigoths, from 395 to 410. He rose to leadership of the Goths who came to occupy Moesia—territory acquired a couple of decades earlier by a combined force of Goths and Alans after the Battle of Adrianople.


title: Alaric I

text: Alaric began his career under the Gothic soldier Gainas and later joined the Roman army. Once an ally of Rome under the Roman emperor Theodosius, Alaric helped defeat the Franks and other allies of a would-be Roman usurper. Despite losing many thousands of his men, he received little recognition from Rome and left the Roman army disappointed. After the death of Theodosius and the disintegration of the Roman armies in 395, he is described as king of the Visigoths. As the leader of the only effective field force remaining in the Balkans, he sought Roman legitimacy, never quite achieving a position acceptable to himself or to the Roman authorities.


title: Alaric I

text: He operated mainly against the successive Western Roman regimes, and marched into Italy, where he died. He is responsible for the sack of Rome in 410, one of several notable events in the Western Roman Empire's eventual decline.


title: Alaric I

text: According to Jordanes, a 6th-century Roman bureaucrat of Gothic origin—who later turned his hand to history—Alaric was born on Peuce Island at the mouth of the Danube Delta in present-day Romania and belonged to the noble Balti dynasty of the Thervingian Goths. There is no way to verify this claim. Historian Douglas Boin does not make such an unequivocal assessment about Alaric's Gothic heritage and instead claims he came from either the Thervingi or the Greuthung tribes. When the Goths suffered setbacks against the Huns, they made a mass migration across the Danube, and fought a war with Rome. Alaric was probably a child during this period who grew up along Rome's periphery. Alaric's upbringing was shaped by living along the border of Roman territory in a region that the Romans viewed as a veritable "backwater"; some four centuries before, the Roman poet Ovid regarded the area along the Danube and Black Sea where Alaric was reared as a land of "barbarians", among "the most remote in the vast world."


title: Alaric I

text: Alaric's childhood in the Balkans, where the Goths had settled by way of an agreement with Theodosius, was spent in the company of veterans who had fought at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, during which they had annihilated much of the Eastern army and killed Emperor Valens. Imperial campaigns against the Visigoths were conducted until a treaty was reached in 382. This treaty was the first "foedus" on imperial Roman soil and required these semi-autonomous Germanic tribes—among whom Alaric was raised—to supply troops for the Roman army in exchange for peace, control of cultivatable land, and freedom from Roman direct administrative control. Correspondingly, there was hardly a region along the Roman frontier during Alaric's day without Gothic slaves and servants of one form or another. For several subsequent decades, many Goths like Alaric were "called up into regular units of the eastern field army" while others served as auxiliaries in campaigns led by Theodosius against the western usurpers Magnus Maximus and Eugenius.


title: Alaric I

text: A new phase in the relationship between the Goths and the empire resulted from the treaty signed in 382, as more and more Goths attained aristocratic rank from their service in the imperial army. Alaric began his military career under the Gothic soldier Gainas, and later joined the Roman army. He first appeared as leader of a mixed band of Goths and allied peoples, who invaded Thrace in 391 but were stopped by the half-Vandal Roman General Stilicho. While the Roman poet Claudian belittled Alaric as "a little-known menace" terrorizing southern Thrace during this time, Alaric's abilities and forces were formidable enough to prevent the Roman emperor Theodosius from crossing the Maritsa River.


title: Alaric I

text: By 392, Alaric had entered Roman military service, which coincided with a reduction of hostilities between Goths and Romans. In 394, he led a Gothic force that helped Emperor Theodosius defeat the Frankish usurper Arbogast—fighting at the behest of Eugenius—at the Battle of Frigidus. Despite sacrificing around 10,000 of his men, who had been victims of Theodosius' callous tactical decision to overwhelm the enemies front lines using Gothic "foederati", Alaric received little recognition from the emperor. Alaric was among the few who survived the protracted and bloody affair. Many Romans considered it their "gain" and a victory that so many Goths had died during the Battle of Frigidus River. Recent biographer, Douglas Boin, posits that seeing ten thousand of his (Alaric's) dead kinsmen likely elicited questions about what kind of ruler Theodosius actually had been and whether remaining in direct Roman service was best for men like him. Refused the reward he expected, which included a promotion to the position of magister militum and command of regular Roman units, Alaric mutinied and began to march against Constantinople.


title: Alaric I

text: On 17 January 395, Theodosius died of an illness, leaving his two young and incapable sons Arcadius and Honorius in Stilicho's guardianship. Modern writers regard Alaric as king of the Visigoths from 395. According to historian Peter Heather, it is not entirely clear in the sources if Alaric rose to prominence at the time the Goths revolted following Theodosius's death, or if he had already risen within his tribe as early as the war against Eugenius. Whatever the circumstances, Jordanes recorded that the new king persuaded his people to "seek a kingdom by their own exertions rather than serve others in idleness."


title: Alaric I

text: Whether or not Alaric was a member of an ancient Germanic royal clan—as claimed by Jordanes and debated by historians—is less important than his emergence as a leader, the first of his kind since Fritigern. Theodosius's death left the Roman field armies collapsing and the Empire divided again between his two sons, one taking the eastern and the other the western portion of the Empire. Stilicho made himself master of the West and attempted to establish control in the East as well, and led an army into Greece. Alaric rebelled again. Historian Roger Collins points out that while the rivalries created by the two halves of the Empire vying for power worked to Alaric's advantage and that of his people, simply being called to authority by the Gothic people did not solve the practicalities of their needs for survival. He needed Roman authority in order to be supplied by Roman cities.


title: Alaric I

text: Alaric took his Gothic army on what Stilicho's propagandist Claudian described as a "pillaging campaign" that began first in the East. Historian Thomas Burns's interpretation is that Alaric and his men were recruited by Rufinus's Eastern regime in Constantinople, and sent to Thessaly to stave off Stilicho's threat. No battle took place. Alaric's forces made their way down to Athens and along the coast, where he sought to force a new peace upon the Romans. His march in 396 included passing through Thermopylae. Stilicho's propagandist Claudian accuses his troops of plundering for the next year or so as far south as the mountainous Peloponnese peninsula, and reports that only Stilicho's surprise attack with his western field army (having sailed from Italy) stemmed the plundering as he pushed Alaric's forces north into Epirus. Zosimus adds that Stilicho's troops destroyed and pillaged too, and let Alaric's men escape with their plunder.


title: Alaric I

text: Stilicho was forced to send some of his Eastern forces home. They went to Constantinople under the command of one Gainas, a Goth with a large Gothic following. On arrival, Gainas murdered Rufinus, and was appointed magister militum for Thrace by Eutropius, the new supreme minister and the only eunuch consul of Rome, who, Zosimus claims, controlled Arcadius "as if he were a sheep". A poem by Synesius advises Arcadius to display manliness and remove a "skin-clad savage" (probably referring to Alaric) from the councils of power and his barbarians from the Roman army. We do not know if Arcadius ever became aware of this advice, but it had no recorded effect.


title: Alaric I

text: Stilicho obtained a few more troops from the German frontier and continued to campaign indecisively against the Eastern empire; again he was opposed by Alaric and his men. During the next year, 397, Eutropius personally led his troops to victory over some Huns who were marauding in Asia Minor. With his position thus strengthened he declared Stilicho a public enemy, and he established Alaric as "magister militum per Illyricum" Alaric thus acquired entitlement to gold and grain for his followers and negotiations were underway for a more permanent settlement. Stilicho's supporters in Milan were outraged at this seeming betrayal; meanwhile, Eutropius was celebrated in 398 by a parade through Constantinople for having achieved victory over the "wolves of the North". Alaric's people were relatively quiet for the next couple of years. In 399, Eutropius fell from power. The new Eastern regime now felt that they could dispense with Alaric's services and they nominally transferred Alaric's province to the West. This administrative change removed Alaric's Roman rank and his entitlement to legal provisioning for his men, leaving his army—the only significant force in the ravaged Balkans—as a problem for Stilicho.


title: Alaric I

text: According to historian Michael Kulikowski, sometime in the spring of 402 Alaric decided to invade Italy, but no sources from antiquity indicate to what purpose. Burns suggests that Alaric was probably desperate for provisions. Using Claudian as his source, historian Guy Halsall reports that Alaric's attack actually began in late 401, but since Stilicho was in "Raetia" "dealing with frontier issues" the two did not first confront one another in Italy until 402. Alaric's entry into Italy followed the route identified in the poetry of Claudian, as he crossed the peninsula's Alpine frontier near the city of Aquileia. For a period of six to nine months, there were reports of Gothic attacks along the northern Italian roads, where Alaric was spotted by Roman townspeople. Along the route on "Via Postumia", Alaric first encountered Stilicho.


title: Alaric I

text: Two battles were fought. The first was at Pollentia on Easter Sunday, where Stilicho (according to Claudian) achieved an impressive victory, taking Alaric's wife and children prisoner, and more significantly, seizing much of the treasure that Alaric had amassed over the previous five years' worth of plundering. Pursuing the retreating forces of Alaric, Stilicho offered to return the prisoners but was refused. The second battle was at Verona, where Alaric was defeated for a second time. Stilicho once again offered Alaric a truce and allowed him to withdraw from Italy. Kulikowski explains this confusing, if not outright conciliatory behavior by stating, "given Stilicho's cold war with Constantinople, it would have been foolish to destroy as biddable and violent a potential weapon as Alaric might well prove to be". Halsall's observations are similar, as he contends that the Roman general's "decision to permit Alaric's withdrawal into "Pannonia" makes sense if we see Alaric's force entering Stilicho's service, and Stilicho's victory being less total than Claudian would have us believe". Perhaps more revealing is a report from the Greek historian Zosimus—writing a half a century later—that indicates an agreement was concluded between Stilicho and Alaric in 405, which suggests Alaric being in "western service at that point", likely stemming from arrangements made back in 402. Between 404 and 405, Alaric remained in one of the four "Pannonian" provinces, from where he could "play East off against West while potentially threatening both".


title: Alaric I

text: Historian A.D. Lee observes, "Alaric's return to the north-west Balkans brought only temporary respite to Italy, for in 405 another substantial body of Goths and other barbarians, this time from outside the empire, crossed the middle Danube and advanced into northern Italy, where they plundered the countryside and besieged cities and towns" under their leader Radagaisus. Although the imperial government was struggling to muster enough troops to contain these barbarian invasions, Stilicho managed to stifle the threat posed by the tribes under Radagaisus, when the latter split his forces into three separate groups. Stilicho cornered Radagaisus near Florence and starved the invaders into submission. Meanwhile, Alaric—bestowed with codicils of "magister militum" by Stilicho and now supplied by the West—awaited for one side or the other to incite him to action as Stilicho faced further difficulties from more barbarians.


title: Alaric I

text: Sometime in 406 and into 407, more large groups of barbarians, consisting primarily of Vandals, Sueves and Alans, crossed the Rhine into Gaul while about the same time a rebellion occurred in Britain. Under a common soldier named Constantine it spread to Gaul. Burdened by so many enemies, Stilicho's position was strained. During this crisis in 407, Alaric again marched on Italy, taking a position in Noricum (modern Austria), where he demanded a sum of 4,000 pounds of gold to buy off another full-scale invasion. The Roman Senate loathed the idea of supporting Alaric; Zosimus observed that one senator famously declaimed "Non est ista pax, sed pactio servitutis" ("This is not peace, but a pact of servitude"). Stilicho paid Alaric the 4,000 pounds of gold nevertheless. This agreement, sensible in view of the military situation, fatally weakened Stilicho's standing at Honorius's court. Twice Stilicho had allowed Alaric to escape his grasp, and Radagaisus had advanced all the way to the outskirts of Florence.


title: Alaric I

text: In the East, Arcadius died on 1 May 408 and was replaced by his son Theodosius II; Stilicho seems to have planned to march to Constantinople, and to install there a regime loyal to himself. He may also have intended to give Alaric a senior official position and send him against the rebels in Gaul. Before Stilicho could do so, while he was away at Ticinum at the head of a small detachment, a bloody coup against his supporters took place at Honorius's court. It was led by Honorius's minister, Olympius. Stilicho's small escort of Goths and Huns was commanded by a Goth, Sarus, whose Gothic troops massacred the Hun contingent in their sleep, and then withdrew towards the cities in which their own families were billeted. Stilicho ordered that Sarus's Goths should not be admitted, but, now without an army, he was forced to flee for sanctuary. Agents of Olympius promised Stilicho his life, but instead betrayed and killed him.


title: Alaric I

text: Alaric was again declared an enemy of the emperor. Olympius's men then massacred the families of the federate troops (as presumed supporters of Stilicho, although they had probably rebelled against him), and the troops defected "en masse" to Alaric. Many thousands of barbarian auxiliaries, along with their wives and children, joined Alaric in Noricum. The conspirators seem to have let their main army disintegrate, and had no policy except hunting down supporters of Stilicho. Italy was left without effective indigenous defence forces thereafter.


title: Alaric I

text: As a declared 'enemy of the emperor', Alaric was denied the legitimacy that he needed to collect taxes and hold cities without large garrisons, which he could not afford to detach. He again offered to move his men, this time to Pannonia, in exchange for a modest sum of money and the modest title of Comes, but he was refused because Olympius's regime regarded him as a supporter of Stilicho.


title: Alaric I

text: When Alaric was rebuffed, he led his force of around 30,000 men—many newly enlisted and understandably motivated—on a march toward Rome to avenge their murdered families. He moved across the Julian Alps into Italy, probably using the route and supplies arranged for him by Stilicho, bypassing the imperial court in Ravenna which was protected by widespread marshland and had a port, and in September 408 he menaced the city of Rome, imposing a strict blockade. No blood was shed this time; Alaric relied on hunger as his most powerful weapon. When the ambassadors of the Senate, entreating for peace, tried to intimidate him with hints of what the despairing citizens might accomplish, he laughed and gave his celebrated answer: "The thicker the hay, the easier mowed!" After much bargaining, the famine-stricken citizens agreed to pay a ransom of 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000 hides dyed scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper. Alaric also recruited some 40,000 freed Gothic slaves. Thus ended Alaric's first siege of Rome.


title: Alaric I

text: After having provisionally agreed to the terms offered by Alaric for lifting the blockade, Honorius recanted; historian A.D. Lee highlights that one of the points of contention for the emperor was Alaric's expectation of being named head of the Roman Army, a post Honorius was not prepared to grant to Alaric. When this title was not bestowed onto Alaric, he proceeded to not only "besiege Rome again in late 409, but also to proclaim a leading senator, Priscus Attalus, as a rival emperor, from whom Alaric then received the appointment" he desired. Meanwhile, Alaric's newly appointed "emperor" Attalus, who seems not to have understood the limits of his power or his dependence on Alaric, failed to take Alaric's advice and lost the grain supply in Africa to a pro-Honorian "comes Africae", Heraclian. Then, sometime in 409, Attalus—accompanied by Alaric—marched on Ravenna and after receiving unprecedented terms and concessions from the legitimate emperor Honorius, refused him and instead demanded that Honorius be deposed and exiled. Fearing for his safety, Honorius made preparations to flee to Ravenna when ships carrying 4,000 troops arrived from Constantinople, restoring his resolve. Now that Honorius no longer felt the need to negotiate, Alaric (regretting his choice of puppet emperor) deposed Attalus, perhaps to re-open negotiations with Ravenna.


title: Alaric I

text: Negotiations with Honorius might have succeeded had it not been for another intervention by Sarus, of the Amal family, and therefore a hereditary enemy of Alaric and his house. He attacked Alaric's men. Why Sarus, who had been in imperial service for years under Stilicho, acted at this moment remains a mystery, but Alaric interpreted this attack as directed by Ravenna and as bad faith from Honorius. No longer would negotiations suffice for Alaric, as his patience had reached its end, which led him to march on Rome for a third and final time.


title: Alaric I

text: On 24 August 410, Alaric and his forces began the sack of Rome, an assault that lasted three days. After hearing reports that Alaric had entered the city—possibly aided by Gothic slaves inside—there were reports that Emperor Honorius (safe in Ravenna) broke into "wailing and lamentation" but quickly calmed once "it was explained to him that it was the city of Rome that had met its end and not 'Roma'," his pet fowl. Writing from Bethlehem, St. Jerome (Letter 127.12, to the lady "Principia") lamented: "A dreadful rumour reached us from the West. We heard that Rome was besieged, that the citizens were buying their safety with gold . . . The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken; nay, it fell by famine before it fell to the sword." Nonetheless, Christian apologists also cited how Alaric ordered that anyone who took shelter in a Church was to be spared. When liturgical vessels were taken from the basilica of St. Peter and Alaric heard of this, he ordered them returned and had them ceremoniously restored in the church. If the account from the historian Orosius can be seen as accurate, there was even a celebratory recognition of Christian unity by way of a procession through the streets where Romans and barbarians alike "raised a hymn to God in public"; historian Edward James concludes that such stories are likely more political rhetoric of the "noble" barbarians than a reflection of historical reality.


title: Alaric I

text: According to historian Patrick Geary, Roman booty was not the focus of Alaric's sack of Rome; he came for needed food supplies. Historian Stephen Mitchell asserts that Alaric's followers seemed incapable of feeding themselves and relied on provisions "supplied by the Roman authorities." Whatever Alaric's intentions were cannot be known entirely, but Kulikowski certainly sees the issue of available treasure in a different light, writing that "For three days, Alaric's Goths sacked the city, stripping it of the wealth of centuries." The barbarian invaders were not gentle in their treatment of property as substantial damage was still evident into the sixth century. Certainly the Roman world was shaken by the fall of the Eternal City to barbarian invaders, but as Guy Halsall emphasizes, "Rome's fall had less striking political effects. Alaric, unable to treat with Honorius, remained in the political cold." Kulikowski sees the situation similarly, commenting:


title: Alaric I

text: But for Alaric the sack of Rome was an admission of defeat, a catastrophic failure. Everything he had hoped for, had fought for over the course of a decade and a half, went up in flames with the capital of the ancient world. Imperial office, a legitimate place for himself and his followers inside the empire, these were now forever out of reach. He might seize what he wanted, as he had seized Rome, but he would never be given it by right. The sack of Rome solved nothing and when the looting was over Alaric's men still had nowhere to live and fewer future prospects than ever before.


title: Alaric I

text: Still, the importance of Alaric cannot be "overestimated" according to Halsall, since he had desired and obtained a Roman command even though he was a barbarian; his real misfortune was being caught between the rivalry of the Eastern and Western empires and their court intrigue. According to historian Peter Brown, when one compares Alaric with other barbarians, "he was almost an Elder Statesman." Nonetheless, Alaric's respect for Roman institutions as a former servant to its highest office did not stay his hand in violently sacking the city that had for centuries exemplified Roman glory, leaving behind physical destruction and social disruption, while Alaric took clerics and even the emperor's sister, Galla Placidia, with him when he left the city. Many other Italian communities beyond the city of Rome itself fell victim to the forces under Alaric, as Procopius ("Wars" 3.2.11–13) writing in the sixth century later relates:


title: Alaric I

text: For they destroyed all the cities which they captured, especially those south of the Ionian Gulf, so completely that nothing has been left to my time to know them by, unless, indeed, it might be one tower or gate or some such thing which chanced to remain. And they killed all the people, as many as came in their way, both old and young alike, sparing neither women nor children. Wherefore even up to the present time Italy is sparsely populated.


title: Alaric I

text: Whether Alaric's forces wrought the level of destruction described by Procopius or not cannot be known, but evidence speaks to a significant population decrease, as the number of people on the food dole dropped from 800,000 in 408 to 500,000 by 419. Rome's fall to the barbarians was as much a psychological blow to the empire as anything else, since some Romans citizens saw the collapse as resulting from the conversion to Christianity, while Christian apologists like Augustine (writing "City of God") responded in turn. Lamenting Rome's capture, famed Christian theologian Jerome, wrote how "day and night" he could not stop thinking of everyone's safety, and moreover, how Alaric had extinguished "the bright light of all the world." Some contemporary Christian observers even saw Alaric—a professed Christian—as God's wrath upon a still pagan Rome.


title: Alaric I

text: Not only had Rome's sack been a significant blow to the Roman people's morale, they had also endured two years' worth of trauma brought about by fear, hunger (due to blockades), and illness. However, the Goths were not long in the city of Rome, as only three days after the sack, Alaric marched his men south to Campania, from where he intended to sail to Sicily—probably to obtain grain and other supplies—when a storm destroyed his fleet. During the early months of 411, while on his northward return journey through Italy, Alaric took ill and died at Consentia in Bruttium. His cause of death was likely fever, and his body was, according to legend, buried under the riverbed of the Busento in accordance with the pagan practices of the Visigothic people. The stream was temporarily turned aside from its course while the grave was dug, wherein the Gothic chief and some of his most precious spoils were interred. When the work was finished, the river was turned back into its usual channel and the captives by whose hands the labor had been accomplished were put to death that none might learn their secret.


title: Alaric I

text: Alaric was succeeded in the command of the Gothic army by his brother-in-law, Ataulf, who married Honorius' sister Galla Placidia three years later. Following in the wake of Alaric's leadership, which Kulikowski claims, had given his people "a sense of community that survived his own death...Alaric's Goths remained together inside the empire, going on to settle in Gaul. There, in the province of Aquitaine, they put down roots and created the first autonomous barbarian kingdom inside the frontiers of the Roman empire." The Goths were able to settle in Aquitaine only after Honorius granted the once Roman province to them, sometime in 418 or 419. Not long after Alaric's exploits in Rome and Athaulf's settlement in Aquitaine, there is a "rapid emergence of Germanic barbarian groups in the West" who begin controlling many western provinces. These barbarian peoples included: Vandals in Spain and Africa, Visigoths in Spain and Aquitaine, Burgundians along the upper Rhine and southern Gaul, and Franks on the lower Rhine and in northern and central Gaul.


title: Alaric I

text: The chief authorities on the career of Alaric are: the historian Orosius and the poet Claudian, both contemporary, neither disinterested; Zosimus, a historian who lived probably about half a century after Alaric's death; and Jordanes, a Goth who wrote the history of his nation in 551, basing his work on Cassiodorus's "Gothic History".


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk ( ; ; Buryat and , "Erhüü", ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is the 25th-largest city in Russia by population, the fifth-largest in the Siberian Federal District, and one of the largest cities in Siberia.


title: Irkutsk

text: Located in the south of the eponymous oblast, the city proper lies on the Angara River, a tributary of the Yenisei, about 850 kilometres (530 mi) to the south-east of Krasnoyarsk and about 520 kilometres (320 mi) north of Ulaanbaatar. The Trans-Siberian Highway (Federal M53 and M55 Highways) and Trans-Siberian Railway connect Irkutsk to other regions in Russia and Mongolia.


title: Irkutsk

text: Many distinguished Russians were sent into exile in Irkutsk for their part in the Decembrist revolt of 1825, and the city became an exile-post for the rest of the century. Some historic wooden houses still survive. When the railway reached Irkutsk, it had earned the nickname of "The Paris of Siberia." The city was the center of bitter fighting in the Russian Civil War of 1918–20. Afterward, in the Soviet period, its architecture was dominated by the mandatory squared-up style. The city became a major centre of aircraft manufacture. The historic centre of Irkutsk is located on UNESCO's tentative list of World Heritage Sites.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk was named after the Irkut River. Its name was derived from the Buryat word for "spinning," and was used as an ethnonym among local tribes, who were known as "Yrkhu", "Irkit", "Irgit", and "Irgyt". The city was formerly known as "Yandashsky" after the local Tuvan chief Yandasha Gorogi.


title: Irkutsk

text: The old spelling of the name of the city was «Иркуцкъ». Before the revolution, the city was called "East Paris", "Siberian Petersburg", "Siberian Athens".


title: Irkutsk

text: In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a "zimovye" (winter quarters) near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for collecting fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov built an "ostrog" (a small fort) nearby. The "ostrog" gained official town rights from the government in 1686.


title: Irkutsk

text: The Irkutsk prison, founded in 1661 as an outpost for the advancement of Russian explorers in the Angara region, soon ceased to be only a defensive structure due to the advantage of its geographical position. According to historical documents, 10 years later, in 1671, here, in addition to servicemen and yasak people, lived "plowed peasants with their wives and children." A posad appeared, which gave rise to residential quarters of the future city. As for the prison itself, as its influence in the region grew, it was completely rebuilt twice (in 1669 and 1693), expanding in size.


title: Irkutsk

text: The fate of the prison was such that its military-defensive significance was less noticeable than other previously erected forts near the Angars, for example, Bratsk (1631) or Verkholensk (1644). However, its location at the crossroads of colonization, trade and industrial routes predetermined the role of Irkutsk in the history of Eastern Siberia. In 1682 it became the center of an independent region, and in 1686 it received the status of a city. Irkutsk at the beginning of the 18th century was divided into two parts: "small town", or the prison itself, and "big city". The first one started from the bank of the Angara and was a wooden fortress with adjacent buildings. These included the stone building of the provincial chancellery, the house of the vice-governor (former voivodship) with barns and cellars, the Church of the Savior. "Small town" was the administrative center of the vast Irkutsk province since 1731.


title: Irkutsk

text: In the "big city", as the posad was called, the commercial and economic life of Irkutsk was concentrated. It was inhabited mainly by people from the northern regions of Russia: Veliky Ustyug, Yarensk, Pinega, Solvychegodsk, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, who brought their traditions, customs, and culture to Siberia.


title: Irkutsk

text: The first road connection between Moscow and Irkutsk, the Siberian Route, was built in 1760, and benefited the town economy. Many new products, often imported from China via Kyakhta, became widely available in Irkutsk for the first time, including gold, diamonds, fur, wood, silk, and tea. In 1821, as part of the Mikhail Speransky's reforms, Siberia was administratively divided at the Yenisei River. Irkutsk became the seat of the Governor-General of East Siberia.


title: Irkutsk

text: In the early 19th century, many Russian artists, officers, and nobles were sent into exile in Siberia for their part in the Decembrist revolt against Tsar Nicholas I. Irkutsk became the major center of intellectual and social life for these exiles, and they developed much of the city's cultural heritage. They had wooden houses built that were adorned with ornate, hand-carved decorations. Many still survive today, in stark contrast with the standard Soviet apartment blocks that surround them.


title: Irkutsk

text: By the end of the 19th century, the population consisted of one exiled man for every two locals. People of varying backgrounds, from members of the Decembrist uprising to Bolsheviks, had been in Irkutsk for many years and had greatly influenced the culture and development of the city. As a result, Irkutsk became a prosperous cultural and educational center in Eastern Siberia.


title: Irkutsk

text: From 1848 to 1861 Count Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky was the Governor-General. He annexed the Amur Territory to Russia, however, on the spot he showed unbridled despotism and extreme cruelty. Since the opening of communication along the Amur in 1854, on the way from St. Petersburg to the Pacific Ocean, the old Yakutsk tract began to decline. The population of the city is 28,000, of them there were 3,768 exiles.


title: Irkutsk

text: In 1879, on July 4 and 6, a fire burned out of control, destroying the palace of the Governor General, and the principal administrative and municipal offices. Many of the other public buildings, including the government archives, the library, and the museum of the Siberian section of the Russian Geographical Society, were completely ruined. Three-quarters of the city was destroyed, including approximately 4,000 houses. The city quickly rebounded, installing electricity in 1896. The first theater was built in 1897 and a major train station opened in 1898. The first train arrived in Irkutsk on August 16 of that year. By 1900, the city had earned the nickname of "The Paris of Siberia."


title: Irkutsk

text: During the Russian Civil War, which broke out after the October Revolution, Irkutsk became the site of many furious, bloody clashes between the "White movement" and the "Bolsheviks", known as the "Reds". In 1920, Aleksandr Kolchak, the once-feared commander of the largest contingent of anti-Bolshevik forces, was executed in Irkutsk. This effectively destroyed the anti-Bolshevik resistance.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk was the administrative center of the short-lived East Siberian Oblast, from 1936 to 1937. The city subsequently became the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, after East Siberian Oblast was divided into Chita Oblast and Irkutsk Oblast.


title: Irkutsk

text: During the communist years, the industrialization of Irkutsk and Siberia in general was strongly encouraged. The large Irkutsk Reservoir was built on the Angara River between 1950 and 1959 in order to generate hydroelectric power and facilitate industrial development.


title: Irkutsk

text: The Epiphany Cathedral, the governor's palace, a school of medicine, a museum, a military hospital and the crown factories are among the public institutions and buildings. The Aleksandr Kolchak monument, designed by Vyacheslav Klykov, was unveiled in 2004. On July 27, 2004, the Irkutsk Synagogue (1881) was gutted by a fire.


title: Irkutsk

text: In December 2016, 74 people in Irkutsk died in a mass methanol poisoning, after drinking this toxic alcohol substitute.


title: Irkutsk

text: In 2018, the BBC reported that men in Irkutsk had an average life span of only 63. The society had declined and their health had suffered markedly


title: Irkutsk

text: In October 2021, it was reported that armed Russian OMON (Special Purpose Mobile Unit of the Russian National Guard) officers physically assaulted and tortured two Jehovah’s Witness couples as part of a round up of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the city. Despite the persecution, the Jehovah's Witnesses continue their neutral stand on politics.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk is located about to the south-east of Krasnoyarsk, and about north of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. The city proper lies on the Angara River, a tributary of the Yenisei, below its outflow from Lake Baikal and on the bank opposite the suburb of Glaskovsk. The river, wide, is crossed by the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Dam and three other bridges downstream.


title: Irkutsk

text: The Irkut River, from which the town takes its name, is a smaller river that joins the Angara directly opposite the city. The main portion of the city is separated from several landmarks—the monastery, the fort and the port, as well as its suburbs—by another tributary, the Ida (or Ushakovka) River. The two main parts of Irkutsk are customarily referred to as the "left bank" and the "right bank", with respect to the flow of the Angara River.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk is situated in a landscape of rolling hills within the thick taiga that is typical in Eastern Siberia.


title: Irkutsk

text: The population has been shrinking since the late 1980s: . According to the regional plan, Irkutsk city will be combined with its neighboring industrial towns of Shelekhov and Angarsk to form a metropolitan area with a total population of over a million.


title: Irkutsk

text: The center of the historical part of the city is Kirov Square. In that place on July 6, 1661, Yakov Pokhabov laid a prison for collecting Yasak, a tax collected from the local population with fur. The architectural appearance of present-day Irkutsk has been born since the days of the wooden prison. The historic center of the city is now concentrated in its place. By the beginning of the 18th century, it had turned into a massive and developed wooden fortress, which protected the inhabitants from the raids of nomads. A major fire of 1716 almost completely destroyed the fortifications, but in just a year new ones were built, already made of stone. Of the buildings on the territory of the Irkutsk Kremlin of that time, the Savior Church has survived, the stone building of which was laid in 1706 in the north-western corner of the fort. Along with the Epiphany Cathedral, erected behind the eastern wall of the fortress and also preserved to this day, this is one of the oldest stone building in Siberia. The protective palisade and the moat, which once defended the Irkutsk fortress from the south, from the Angara bank to the Ushakovka River, existed until the middle of the 18th century. Arising in such a place, in the absence of administrative regulation, early Irkutsk was built up only for reasons of expediency determined by the homeowners. The courtyards were located in convenient areas, initially there were no streets at all, the buildings approached the driveways with random turns and only with subsequent alterations were turned around with front facades. The first settlers did not orientate their houses in relation to neighboring buildings either. When building a new house, the owners usually adhered only to the orientation of the windows to the south side. This is how the layout of the oldest part of the city took shape—from Angara to modern Karl Marx Street: the main directions of the streets repeat the outlines of the coastline, which, in turn, are crossed by transverse passages connecting the outskirts of the city with the center and overlooking the Angara bank. Until now, in the location of the central streets, the curvature, the disparity of the quarters formed by them, the semi-spontaneous process of their formation that once took place can be seen. This is especially noticeable in the example of Basninskaya Street (now Sverdlova Street), which they tried to straighten with each new attempt to streamline the development. And it simply repeated the outlines of the log that once was here, formed, possibly, by the old lady of the Gryaznushka river, which connected Ushakovka and Angara.


title: Irkutsk

text: In 1726, defensive fortifications (palisade) were built in Irkutsk, behind which the barracks of the local garrison were taken out. The construction of the palisade changed the process of the spontaneous evolution of buildings and influenced the formation of the city's layout in the most significant way. After the fortification was dismantled in 1790, a complete mismatch of street directions in the old and new parts of the city was revealed.


title: Irkutsk

text: The state of development of the "pre-palisade" period is reflected in the first of the known plans of Irkutsk in 1729. Its main advantage is the fixation of the city's borders, which ran along the line of the modern Karl Marx Street. Between 1729 and 1768 in the space between Angara and Ushakovka, the first "zapalisadny" row of blocks is formed. A spontaneous settlement appears near the soldiers' barracks, first along the roads that approached the Mill and Overseas gates, and then between them. The development proceeded unevenly, the closest to the current state at that time were the fragments of buildings located in the area of Zamorskaya (Lenin st.) And Institutskaya (Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsii st.) Streets. Now it is, roughly, quarters No. 90, 91, 92.


title: Irkutsk

text: The last third of the 18th century was extremely significant both for the history of the city as a whole and for the formation of its buildings. With the formation of the Irkutsk province in 1764, Irkutsk became the center of the largest region in Russia—Eastern Siberia, which included Transbaikalia, Yakutia, the entire northeast to the Pacific Ocean. Irkutsk needed to expand, and by that time there were no enemies ready to lay claim to the city. The palisade was dismantled, and in its place appeared Bolshaya Preshpektnaya Street, now Karla Marxa Street, the only straight street in modern Irkutsk. The devastating fire of 1879 made its own adjustments to the construction laws as it was from here that the border began, beyond which it was forbidden to build from wood. This in fact has divided the old Irkutsk into two parts: closer to the Angara river, mainly stone buildings remained, and on the other side, where there were once outskirts, the wooden Irkutsk grew.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk originally had a borderline subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification "Dwc"). Since 2000, the temperatures have resembled a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification "Dwb"). Snow cover has disappeared earlier, from late April in the 1930s to late March in the 1980s. Discontinuous permafrost depth had decreased from 200 m to 100 m during the same period.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk is characterized by an extreme variation of temperatures between seasons. It can be very warm in the summer, and very cold in the winter. However, Lake Baikal has a tempering effect, giving Irkutsk temperatures that are less extreme than elsewhere in Siberia. The warmest month of the year is July, when the average temperature is ; the highest temperature recorded being . The coldest month of the year is January, when the average temperature is , and record low of . Precipitation varies widely throughout the year, with July being the wettest month, when precipitation averages . The driest month is February, when precipitation averages only . Almost all precipitation during the Siberian winter falls as fluffy, dry snow.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk is the administrative center of the oblast and, within the framework of administrative divisions, it also serves as the administrative center of Irkutsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the City of Irkutsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the City of Irkutsk is incorporated as Irkutsk Urban Okrug.


title: Irkutsk

text: The coat of arms of Irkutsk features an old symbol of Dauria: a Siberian tiger with a sable in his mouth. When the coat of arms was devised in 1690, the animal was described as a tiger ("babr", a bookish word of Persian derivation) with a sable in his mouth. This image had been used by the Yakutsk customs office from about 1642. It has its origin in a seal of the Siberia Khanate representing a sable and showcasing the fact that Siberia (or rather Yugra) was the main source of sable fur throughout the Middle Ages. (Actually, the English word "sable" is derived from the Russian "sobol").


title: Irkutsk

text: By the mid-19th century, the word "babr" had fallen out of common usage, but it was still recorded in the Armorial of the Russian Empire. Furthermore, the tigers became extinct in this part of Siberia. In the 1870s, a high-placed French heraldist with a limited command of Russian assumed that "babr" was a misspelling of "bobr", the Russian word for "beaver", and changed the wording accordingly. This modification engendered a long dispute between the local authorities, who were so confused by the revised description that they started to depict the "babr" as a fabulous animal, half-tiger and half-beaver.


title: Irkutsk

text: The Soviets abolished the image altogether, but it was restored following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.


title: Irkutsk

text: The 662.4 MW Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station was the first cascade hydroelectric power station in the Irkutsk region. The construction of the dam started in 1950 and finished in 1958.


title: Irkutsk

text: The largest industry in Irkutsk is Irkut, the Irkutsk Aviation Industrial Association, which was set up in 1932 in the Transbaykal region of the Soviet Union. It is best known as being the manufacturer of the Su-30 family of interceptor/ground-attack aircraft. The Russian government has merged Irkut with Ilyushin, Mikoyan, Sukhoi, Tupolev, and Yakovlev into a new company named United Aircraft Building Corporation.


title: Irkutsk

text: Important roads and railways like the Trans-Siberian Highway (Federal M53 and M55 Highways) and Trans-Siberian Railway connect Irkutsk to other regions in Russia and Mongolia. The city is also served by the Irkutsk International Airport and the smaller Irkutsk Northwest Airport.


title: Irkutsk

text: The Federal road and railway to Moscow and Vladivostok pass through the other side of the Angara River from central Irkutsk.


title: Irkutsk

text: Trams are one major mode of public transit in Irkutsk. Other modes are trolleybus, bus, fixed-route taxi (marshrutka) and cycling.


title: Irkutsk

text: Despite its remoteness, Irkutsk was reported in 2004 to have the highest HIV infection rate in Russia. Tens of thousands of drug addicts, mostly ethnic Russians in their mid to late teens are infected. The number of reported AIDS cases increased by more than 10,000% during the 1999–2000 period. Although the epidemic, which started in 1999, is reported to have slowed down, Irkutsk will lose tens of thousands of its working age population from 2010 onwards. This is one of the reasons Irkutsk's male life expectancy, at 53 years, is one of the lowest in all of Russia. Preventive measures are in place to prevent the spread of the epidemic to the generation which was born after the breakup of the USSR.


title: Irkutsk

text: There are many state-owned and privately owned television stations in Irkutsk, including state company IGTRK and private ones, such as AS Baikal TV, TV company AIST, TV company Gorod, and also other media outlets, like the VSP Newspaper Agency. There is also a live webcam broadcasting from the city center.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk is home to the East Siberian Education Academy (since 1909), Irkutsk State University (1918), Irkutsk State Medical University (1918), Baykalsky State University of Economics and Law (since 1932), Irkutsk State Technical University (since 1939), Irkutsk State Academy of Agriculture, Irkutsk State Linguistic University (1948), Irkutsk State Railway Transport University (since 1975), and a number of private colleges: Siberian Institute of Law, Economics and Management (since 1993), Institute of Economics of ISTU (since 1996), and others.


title: Irkutsk

text: As Irkutsk is within the influence of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, there are nine research institutes located in the Irkutsk Academgorodok suburb: the Institute of Geography, the Energy System Institute, the Institute of Geochemistry, the Institute of System Dynamics and Control Theory, the Earth's Crust Institute, the Solar-Terrestrial Physics Institute, the Institute of Chemistry, the Limnological Institute (formerly located on Lake Baikal's shore), the Institute of Plant Physics, Laser Physics Institute (a Branch of the Institute of Laser Physics in Novosibirsk).


title: Irkutsk

text: A number of institutes conduct research within Irkutsk State University: the Institute of Biology, the Institute of Oil and Coal Chemistry and Synthesis, the Laboratory of Quantum Chemistry, the Institute of Applied Physics, the Interregional Institute of Social Studies, the Astronomical Observatory, and the Botanical Gardens.


title: Irkutsk

text: The East-Siberian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences is also located in Irkutsk and is represented by the following research organizations: the Scientific Center for Medical Ecology, the Institute for Paediatrics and Human Reproduction, the Institute for Microbiology and Epidemiology, the Institute for Medicine of the Workplace and Human Ecology, the Institute of Reconstructive and Restorative Surgery, the Institute of Surgery, and the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedics. Also, the Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Scientific and Technical Center has a branch in Irkutsk. Additionally, there are R&D institutes including GAZPROM R&D Institute (a Branch of a Moscow-based institute), the Irkutsk Institute of Rare and Precious Metals and Diamonds (Irgiredmet), part of the Petropavlovsk Group of Companies., and the Vostoksibacademcenter of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences that publishes the Project Baikal journal.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk was home to the well-known Russian writer Valentin Rasputin; many of his novels and stories take place in the Angara Valley. An essay on the cultural history of Irkutsk (and another one about the nearby Lake Baikal) is included in Rasputin's non-fiction collection Siberia, Siberia, which is also available in an English translation. Irkutsk also figures prominently in descriptions by foreign travelers, including the so-called British "Blind Traveler" James Holman, who was suspected of spying and conducted back forcibly to the frontiers of Poland.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk is a point of interest for tourists with its numerous museums and old architecture. The Taltsy Museum (), located on the Angara South of Irkutsk, is an open-air museum of Siberian traditional architecture. Numerous old wooden buildings from villages in the Angara valley, which have been flooded after the construction of the Bratsk Dam and Ust-Ilimsk Dam, have been transported to the museum and reassembled there. One of the centerpieces of the collection is a partial recreation of the 17th-century "ostrog" (fortress) of Ilimsk, which consists of the original Spasskaya Tower and the Church of Our Lady of Kazan transported from the flooded "ostrog" in the mid-1970s, to which an exact modern copy of another tower of the "ostrog" and the Southern wall of the fortress were added in the early 2000s.


title: Irkutsk

text: The Botanic Garden of the Irkutsk State University known as the "Irkutsk Botanic Garden" is the only botanic garden as a living museum in Irkutsk Oblast and Baikalian Siberia. Its mission is "to protect and enrich the flora of the Lake Baikal area and the world for people through public education, collection, propagation, research, and conservation of plants". The garden is mainly an educational and scientific tool for the Irkutsk State University and maintains the largest plant collection of living plants in Eastern Siberia (more than 5,000 plant taxa), a herbarium, and a seed bank. It occupies within Irkutsk city, West of Lake Baikal. It has a federal status of especially protected land and a nature memorial of Irkutsk.


title: Irkutsk

text: Irkutsk is also home to several theaters, including the Okhlopkov Drama Theater, one of Russia's oldest.


title: Irkutsk

text: Bandy is popular in the city. There are several clubs, most notably Baykal-Energiya of the Russian Bandy Super League, which can draw spectator crowds of 30,000. It is also the centre of women's bandy in Russia with the club Rekord, which provides most players to the national team. In the national championship 2019, four teams were from Irkutsk and only two from the rest of the country.


title: Irkutsk

text: In Irkutsk, there are 384 sports facilities, of which 200 are municipal ones. Among them there are 23 swimming pools, 14 ski bases, a sports palace, 154 courts, 165 gyms, an athletics arena, a racetrack, 7 stadiums—Trud, Rekord, Dynamo, Zenit, Aviator, Lokomotiv-2, sports complex of Irktusk and the main football arena—Lokomotiv.


title: Irkutsk

text: 2012 Women's Bandy World Championship was hosted in Irkutsk and received praise from Federation of International Bandy. 2014 Bandy World Championship was played in the city. The final of Russian Bandy Super League 2016 was played at Rekord Stadium. The 2019 Bandy World Championship was scheduled to also be hosted in Irkutsk. The decision was reconsidered, though. Then it was thought that Irkutsk might get the right to host the 2020 tournament instead, if FIB was given guarantees that the planned indoor arena would be ready for use in time. It will also be an indoor speed skating arena. Its construction started in October 2018 and is expected to be ready for use by March 2020, just in time for the Bandy World Championship.


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: In discrete mathematics, and more specifically in graph theory, a graph is a structure amounting to a set of objects in which some pairs of the objects are in some sense "related". The objects correspond to mathematical abstractions called "vertices" (also called "nodes" or "points") and each of the related pairs of vertices is called an "edge" (also called "link" or "line"). Typically, a graph is depicted in diagrammatic form as a set of dots or circles for the vertices, joined by lines or curves for the edges. Graphs are one of the objects of study in discrete mathematics.


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: The edges may be directed or undirected. For example, if the vertices represent people at a party, and there is an edge between two people if they shake hands, then this graph is undirected because any person "A" can shake hands with a person "B" only if "B" also shakes hands with "A". In contrast, if an edge from a person "A" to a person "B" means that "A" owes money to "B", then this graph is directed, because owing money is not necessarily reciprocated.


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: Graphs are the basic subject studied by graph theory. The word "graph" was first used in this sense by J. J. Sylvester in 1878 due to a direct relation between mathematics and chemical structure (what he called a chemico-graphical image).


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: Definitions in graph theory vary. The following are some of the more basic ways of defining graphs and related mathematical structures.


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: A graph (sometimes called an "undirected graph" to distinguish it from a directed graph, or a "simple graph" to distinguish it from a multigraph) is a pair , where is a set whose elements are called "vertices" (singular: vertex), and is a set of paired vertices, whose elements are called "edges" (sometimes "links" or "lines").


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: The vertices and of an edge are called the "endpoints" of the edge. The edge is said to "join" and and to be "incident" on and . A vertex may belong to no edge, in which case it is not joined to any other vertex.


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: A multigraph is a generalization that allows multiple edges to have the same pair of endpoints. In some texts, multigraphs are simply called graphs.


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: Sometimes, graphs are allowed to contain "loops", which are edges that join a vertex to itself. To allow loops, the above definition must be changed by defining edges as multisets of two vertices instead of sets. Such generalized graphs are called "graphs with loops" or simply "graphs" when it is clear from the context that loops are allowed.


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: Generally, the set of vertices is supposed to be finite; this implies that the set of edges is also finite. Infinite graphs are sometimes considered, but are more often viewed as a special kind of binary relation, as most results on finite graphs do not extend to the infinite case, or need a rather different proof.


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: An empty graph is a graph that has an empty set of vertices (and thus an empty set of edges). The "order" of a graph is its number of vertices . The "size" of a graph is its number of edges . However, in some contexts, such as for expressing the computational complexity of algorithms, the size is (otherwise, a non-empty graph could have size 0). The "degree" or "valency" of a vertex is the number of edges that are incident to it; for graphs with loops, a loop is counted twice.


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: In a graph of order , the maximum degree of each vertex is (or if loops are allowed, because a loop contributes 2 to the degree), and the maximum number of edges is (or if loops are allowed).


title: Graph (discrete mathematics)

text: The edges of a graph define a symmetric relation on the vertices, called the "adjacency relation". Specifically, two vertices and are "adjacent" if is an edge. A graph may be fully specified by its adjacency matrix , which is an square matrix, with specifying the number of connections from vertex to vertex . For a simple graph, is either 0, indicating disconnection, or 1, indicating connection; moreover because an edge in a simple graph cannot start and end at the same vertex. Graphs with self-loops will be characterized by some or all being equal to a positive integer, and multigraphs (with multiple edges between vertices) will be characterized by some or all being equal to a positive integer. Undirected graphs will have a symmetric adjacency matrix (meaning ).