The Atocha station is really a railway complex, formed by the Madrid Atocha Cercanías and Madrid Puerta de Atocha stations of the Spanish national railways and the Atocha Renfe station of the Madrid underground.
After the building was largely destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt and reopened in 1892. The architect for the replacement, in a wrought iron renewal style was Alberto de Palacio Elissagne, who collaborated with Gustave Eiffel. Engineer Henry Saint James also took part in the project. The name Atocha has become attached to the station because of the nearby basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Atocha. The train platforms were partly covered by a roof in the form of inverted hull with a height of approximately 27 meters and length of 157 meters. The steel and glass roof spreads between two brick flanking buildings.
This complex of railway tracks expanded through the years. In 1985, a project of complete remodeling began, based on designs by Rafael Moneo. In 1992, the original building was taken out of service as a terminal, and converted into a concourse with shops, cafés, and a nightclub. Like the Orsay Museum in Paris, the concourse has been given a new function, this time a stunning 4,000 m² covered tropical garden.
A modern terminal was also designed by Moneo, and built in adjacent land to serve both the new AVE trains and local commuter lines. The main lines end in the new terminal; commuter train platforms are located underground, at the ingress to a rail tunnel extending northward under the Paseo de la Castellana. The station is served by two Madrid Metro stations, Atocha and Atocha Renfe. The latter was added when the new terminal building was constructed and is directly linked to the railway station.
Category:Railway stations in Spain Category:Transport in Madrid Category:Railway stations in the Commmunity of Madrid Category:Buildings and structures in Madrid Category:Railway stations opened in 1851 Category:Madrid Metro stations Category:Rafael Moneo buildings
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Mel Fisher |
|---|---|
| Birth date | August 21, 1922 |
| Death date | December 19, 1998 |
| Known for | Treasure Hunting |
Mel Fisher (August 21, 1922 – December 19, 1998) was an American treasure hunter best known for finding the 1622 wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha named after a shrine in Madrid for protection. He discovered the wreck July 20, 1985. The estimated $450 million cache recovered, known as "The Atocha Motherlode," included 40 tons of gold and silver; there were some 114,000 of the Spanish silver coins known as "pieces of eight", gold coins, Colombian emeralds, gold and silver artifacts, and 1000 silver bars. Still missing are 300 silver bars and 8 bronze cannons, among other things. In addition to the Atocha, Fisher's company, Salvors Inc., found remains of several shipwrecks in Florida waters, including the Atocha's sister galleon the Santa Margarita, lost in the same year, and the remains of a slave ship known as the Henrietta Marie.
The site of the wreckage of the Atocha, called "The Bank of Spain", (a sandy area 22 feet deep and within 200 yards of the anchor location), is still being worked on and treasures are slowly being recovered. The emeralds from the Atocha are some of the finest emeralds in the world. They come from the Muzo Mine in Columbia. The emeralds of Muzo are renowned for their color and are the world standard by which all emeralds are judged.
Fisher was an Indiana-born former chicken farmer who eventually moved to California and opened the first diving shop in the state. He attended Purdue University and was a member of The Delta Chi Fraternity. In 1953, he married Dolores (Deo) Horton who became his business partner. She was one of the first women to learn how to dive and set a women's record by staying underwater for 50 hours. Mel and Deo had four children: sons Dirk, Kim and Kane, and daughter Taffi. Tragically, on July 13, 1975 Mel's oldest son Dirk, his wife Angel, and diver Rick Gage died after their boat capsized during their quest for treasure. Mel struggled through decades of hard times treasure hunting in the Florida Keys with the motto Today's the Day.
Mel Fisher hired Duncan Mathewson as chief archaeologist during the Atocha period, and Salvors, Inc. became experts in recovery and conservation of underwater artifacts, remaining active as of 2009. Fisher blended private and public interests when it came to underwater cultural resources. The Supreme Court of the United States confirmed Fisher's ownership to recovered treasure with a provision that Mel's company donates 20% of the artifacts to the state. Concern in the U.S., and Florida specifically, for protection of submerged archaeological sites contributed to the 2001 adoption of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
Category:1922 births Category:1998 deaths Category:People from Monroe County, Florida Category:Treasure hunters
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Spanish constructions of his design include the renovation of the Villahermosa Palace (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum) in Madrid, the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, an expansion of the Madrid Atocha railway station, the Diestre Factory in Zaragoza, Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation in Majorca the headquarters of the Bankinter (again, in Madrid), Town Hall in Logroño. He also designed the annex to the Murcia Town Hall, which was completed in 1998. His latest works are the enlargement of the Prado Museum and the extension of the Bank of Spain, an almost totally mimetic reproduction of the existing building.
Some of Moneo's prominent works in the US include the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and the Audrey Jones Beck Building (an expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston). Moneo also designed the Chace Center, a new building for the Rhode Island School of Design. Moneo's most recent work is the Northwest Corner Building (formerly the Interdepartmental Science Building) at Columbia University in New York City, which first opened in December 2010.
Category:Spanish architects Category:1937 births Category:Living people Category:Navarrese people Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Polytechnic University of Madrid alumni Category:Pritzker Prize winners Category:Rolf Schock Prize laureates Category:Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
