The massive success of movies like Troy and 30 has led to a resurgence of interest in Greek mythology and history.

Lime mortar is one of the oldest and most durable building materials. Great Wall, China, had sections built 520-615AD, by ramming earth/lime/sand&small stones. Romans used lime to build complex forms such as The Colosseum and Pantheon; the latter ready in 125 AD is one of the best-preserved marvels from that era. It survived 2000 y of corrosion and natural disasters. Around 4000BC Egyptians used lime for plastering the pyramids.

The bond between Portugal and Canada goes way back in history and involves exploration, cultural sharing, and friendship.
From the early explorations of Portuguese navigators to the vibrant Portuguese communities thriving in Canadian cities today, the story of this relationship is both fascinating and enduring.

Afonso, the first duke of Bragança, began life as the illegitimate son of João, master of the knightly order of Aviz, who was himself the illegitimate son of D Pedro I, king of Portugal (1357 – 1367). In a sense, Afonso was then a double bastard.  But after 1640, his descendants would supply fifteen monarchs to Portugal.

Portugal had a pavilion at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris in 1937. A participant in the decoration of the Portuguese pavilion with azulejos was the Algarvian Maria Keil.  She went on to design the azulejo decoration for the Lisbon metro in the 1950s and 60s.

Pacheco is most notable for his work as Minister for Public Works and Communications, the post he occupied from July 1932 in Salazar´s first government to January 1936, when Salazar sacked him.  The reason for his dismissal was that in Lisbon there were too many powerful opponents of Pacheco´s changes. 

Engenheiro Duarte Pacheco is the only senior figure from the dictatorship of the Estado Novo who continues in widespread national esteem. He is perhaps the most engaging of the half dozen figures of early twentieth century Portugal whose names are used nationwide as toponyms. Following his tragically early death, a national subscription fund was opened for a monument to his memory in Loulé, the town of his birth.

On May 6^th, for the first time in nearly seventy years, a new monarch will be crowned in London.  The style of the new king is Charles the Third, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of his other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.