Viewpoints – Placecloud (English)

Braddock, United States. Braddock, Pennsylvania is a deflated old steel town which became known for a recent and unusual redevelopment effort. From a peak population of 18,000 after World War II, there are now just over...

Diocese of London United Kingdom Holding the North Sea at bay to protect London from flooding, the Thames Barrier is an extraordinary feat of engineering. It is also constantly under threat, in a world where time and...

Diocese of London United Kingdom Standing at the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, this short audio viewpoint explores the line from which global time and longitude are measured. It explains how and why this point was fixed...

The Hague The Netherlands The Gevangenenpoort, Prisoner’s Gate, here in The Hague, from 1420 until 1828, was used for housing people who had committed serious crimes while they awaited sentencing. It has since then been...

Terme T rkiye We find ourselves a few kilometers outside of the small town of Terme, on the southern shores of the Black Sea, in Turkey. Just ahead, we can see a statue of an Amazonian warrior, raising a bow and arrow.

Fortaleza Brazil The Brazilian state of Ceará is one of the poorer regions of Brazil. The GDP per capita is just a third of that of the people in the state of Sao Paulo, and not even a fifth of those in the district...

Vera Cruz Brazil Standing on Itaparica Island today, with the sea breeze brushing past the ramparts of the old fort of São Lourenço, it’s easy to be lulled by the slow rhythms of Bahia. But beneath these waters and...

The Hague The Netherlands You are standing in the Binnenhof, the heart of the Dutch Republic. Imagine this is the winter of 1642; narrow windows filter the pale northern light into the vaulted chambers. Stone floors...

Amsterdam The Netherlands It was the spring of 1642, and the corridors of the Dutch West India Company headquarters were quiet, dimly lit by daylight slanting through small windows, the air heavy with the scent of...

Teot nio Vilela Brazil Stand on the windswept grounds of Fort Maurits today, near the banks of the São Francisco River in northeastern Brazil, and it’s hard to imagine the colonial drama that once unfolded here, where...

Jaboat o dos Guararapes Brazil We are at Praça do Córrego da Batalha, in the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes. A córrego is a brook, or stream. The square marks the beginning of an avenue also called Córrego da...

Cidade Velha Cabo Verde We’re at the pelourinho in Cidade Velha, in the south of the island of Santiago, in Cape Verde. The historic centre of Cidade Velha is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town of Ribeira Grande...

Livorno Italy We’re standing in front of the new synagogue of Livorno. It was completed in 1962, just around the corner from where the old synagogue used to stand, which was destroyed during World War 2. That synagogue...

Bergen The Netherlands We’re at the former offices of the Noorderkwartier, one of the chambers of the Dutch West India Company, in Hoorn. In the 17th century, its officers were swayed by anonymous pamphlets attempting...

Pedro R gis Brazil It's true that the Paraíba coast is one of the most popular destinations for tourism in Brazil. There are many beautiful beaches along the coast of Paraíba, one of which is where we are now, the beach...