The Random Image Thread

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Château de Beaufort - Goudet - Chemin de Stevenson-2018-D2-16 by Andrew Priest, on Flickr

The Château de Beaufort is a ruined castle located along the upper reaches of the Loire River in France. It is near the village of Goudet in the département of Haute-Loire, in the Auvergne region. It was built in the 13th century and modified in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Built for surveillance and domination of the Loire valley, the castle provides an interesting example of how a 13th-century feudal castle could be adapted to the evolution of military construction, notable with the development of artillery. During the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion it was of historical importance but after the French Revolution it fell victim to a gradual abandonment which reduced it to the state of ruin.

Robert Louis Stevenson stopped here on his trip documented in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879).

"In this pleasant humour I came down the hill to where Goudet stands in a green end of a valley, with Château Beaufort opposite upon a rocky steep, and the stream, as clear as crystal, lying in a deep pool between them."

Day 2 of 12 - Le Monastier-sur-Gazeille to Le Bouchet-Saint-Nicolas: Walking the Chemin de Stevenson (GR 70 Robert Louis Stevenson Trail) in the south of France.
 
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Pietro Sputore 1934 – 1975 – Fremantle Cemetery by Andrew Priest, on Flickr

The inscription on the gravestone which is in Roman Catholic Lawn B is all in Italian so no translation. What caught my eye, besides the angel which was my focus of this visit to the cemetery, is that the gravestone is for two people, yet only Pietro is on it. No one has been added to the stone since 1975 but the grave is attended and cared for. That is both beautiful and sad at the same time.

A little searching brings up a Freo StreetWise Facebook post from 2016 about a Pietro Sputore who went fishing in 1975 off Garden Island. The boat capsized, Petro hit his head and drowned along with his friend Orazio Serra, founder of European Ceramics. A third friend survived. This may well be Pietro's grave and reason his wife has not yet joined him.

I also believe this tragic event occured only 11 years after Pietro was naturalised as an Australian.
 
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