Ilya Burlak Profile
I only started prioritizing visiting World Heritage sites a few years ago and with my limited US-based corporate-warrior time-off allocation and family obligations I can only add a handful to a dozen in any given year. Looking forward to visiting them all after I am able to retire...
Recent Reviews Ilya Burlak
Minoan Palatial Centres (Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zakros, Kydonia) (T)
Ilya Burlak USA - 17-Jan-19
During a stay on Crete in the summer of 2018 I visited two of the properties of this serial site. One of them, Knossos Palace is the most visited tourist attraction on all of Crete.
Although British archaeologist Arthur Evans, who excavated Knossos in [...]
Read OnThe city of Bergamo (T)
Ilya Burlak USA - 15-Jan-19
Bergamo is a kind of town that invariably leaves a positive impression on any visitor without tipping the scales on the exceptional side. I visited it in November of 2018. Città Alta, the historic core of Bergamo, is a classic, if larger than many, hilltop town. There are several eye-catching sights in its confines, largely clustering at or around the focal point of the town, Piazza Vecchia. The 17th-century Palazzo Nuovo, nowadays a public library, and the 12th-century Palazzo della Ragione, a former town hall, bookend the attractive square. Also here is Palazzo del Podestà housing a very interesting museum of the Venetian era (whose main shortcoming is that most of its interactive exhibits are in Italian only)
Read OnResidences of the Royal House of Savoy
Ilya Burlak USA - 14-Jan-19
While in Turin for a single day in November of 2018, I managed to see Palazzo Madama, walked around Zona di Commando, and stopped by Palazzo Reale and Palazzo Carignano without stepping inside. My initial plan was actually to visit all three of these palaces that are located very close to each other, but other priorities and a desire to remain outside on a reasonably sunny day took precedence.
Palazzo Madama is so called because its 17-18th-century decorations and enhancements were ordered by two queens of the house of Savoy
Read OnVenetian Works of Defence
Ilya Burlak USA - 07-Jan-19
I visited Bergamo in November of 2018, focusing on the city as a whole, which afforded me the opportunity to take a look at the fortifications that are part of this serial site. I frequently profess my admiration for the feats of human ingenuity, but walls around a sizable city are hard to get really excited about. In the back of my head I can acknowledge their scale and impact in the context of the times that they were built in. Visually, it’s just really thick and old walls, with an occasional portal livening up the scene.
Read OnSanta Maria delle Grazie
Ilya Burlak USA - 03-Jan-19
The church of Santa Maria delle Grazie is a curious specimen on the World Heritage list. It is not altogether unremarkable, but also not in any sense surpassing to warrant special recognition. And although its name is fully spelled out in the WH property title, the inscription is entirely devoted to the famous painting that adorns one of the walls of the adjoining convent’s refectory. I first stopped by the church more than five years ago but that visit did not include viewing of Leonardo’s The Last Supper. That was too significant an omission to be able to count the site as visited. In November of 2018 I made an extra effort to see the painting.
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Ilya Burlak
- Country
- USA
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 21.11.18
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Visited WHS
Brugge 5Budapest 5Cordoba 5Florence 5Granada 5Prague 5Ravenna 5Rome 5Segovia 5Siena 5Vienna 5Acropolis 4.5Assisi 4.5Bryggen 4.5Cracow 4.5Pompei 4.5Potsdam 4.5San Gimignano 4.5Seville 4.5Stonehenge 4.5Toledo 4.5Vatican City 4.5Versailles 4.5Albi 4Avignon 4Delos 4Kiev 4L'viv 4Urbino 4Verona 4Vicenza 4Arles 3.5City of Bath 3.5El Escurial 3.5Ferrara 3.5Graz 3.5Kronborg Castle 3.5La Fortaleza 3.5Pienza 3.5Pont du Gard 3.5Québec 3.5Tarraco 3.5Villa d'Este 3.5Belfries 3Modena 3Reims 3Beemster Polder 2.5Forth Bridge 2.5New Lanark 2.5Poblet Monastery 2.5Schokland 2.5Skogskyrkogarden 2.5Wadden Sea 2.5Stoclet House 1.5Reviewed WHS
- Residences of the Royal House of Savoy
- Venetian Works of Defence
- Santa Maria delle Grazie
- Kiev
- Assisi
- Mycenae and Tiryns
- Archaeological Site of Delphi
- Monasteries of Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios
- Acropolis
- Delos
- The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier
- Vézère Valley
- Works of Antoni Gaudí
- Canal du Midi
- Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France
- Albi
- Rock-Art of the Mediterranean Basin
- Fortifications of Vauban
Visited TWHS
- Amalienborg and its district (T)
- Ancient Greek Theatres (T)
- Brooklyn Bridge (T)
- Central Park (T)
- Centre ancien de Sarlat (T)
- Cité de Carcassonne et ses châteaux sentinelles de montagne (T)
- Dreams in Stone - the palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee (T)
- Early Chicago Skyscrapers (T)
- Ellis Island (T)
- Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings (T)
- Great Spas of Europe (UK) (T)
- Historic Center of the Port City of Odessa (T)
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece (T)
- Les villes antiques de la Narbonnaise et leur territoire: Nimes, Arles, Glanum, aqueducs, via Domitia (T)
- Mamayev Kurgan Memorial Complex "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" (T)
- Minoan Palatial Centres (Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zakros, Kydonia) (T)
- Nice, la ville neuve née du tourisme, ou l’invention de la Riviera (T)
- Orvieto (T)
- Site of the Retiro and the Prado in Madrid (T)
- The archeological site of Tanais (T)
- The city of Bergamo (T)
- The Historic City of Dublin (T)
- The Karlstejn Castle (T)
- The Porticoes of Bologna (T)
- Volterra: Historical City and Cultural Landscape (T)
Reviewed TWHS
Top 50 Missing Sites
Top 200 WHS