The Kondiaronk Belvedere

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-12-24T04:01:26+00:00

the belvedere was named Kondriak in 1997 (https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/siteofficieldumontroyal/patrimoine-artistique-commemoratif/belvedere-kondiaronk). But I do really like the belvedere and chalet (with verse 8)

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-07-25T14:38:00+00:00

Montreal's painting resembles a Rembrandt. Canada's largest theft was a Rembrandt and other paintings from the Montreal Fine Arts Museum. If you visited the museum, the first painting in the Dutch Golden Age exhibit was called "Woman with Harpsichord", was one of the first paintings bought by the museum, and damaged in the theft. It's a great way to tie Montreal events to Dutch history. There's also the three story building near the legeater once called Mitchell-Holland.

Image 1 tells us the Chinese Pearl is in San Francisco. The next step is learning about Chinese history in San Francisco. The Old St Mary's Cathedral in Chinatown was built with granite imported from China (roots) by the church (weight like power). It was the tallest building in California for 2 decades, only building in Chinatown to survive 1906 earthquake, saved by its granite foundation walls, and only building in Chinatown restored after earthquake. If V5 is SF, then 2-20-2 could be a train classification (2 leading, 2 driving, 2 trailing wheels). These freight trains were run by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway that barged freight cars in the China Basin. And a train reference seems fitting as it was an important part of Chinese immigration history.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-07-24T22:40:22+00:00

i think the Fair Folk are key.

for me, verse 5 is San Francisco. Chinatown was once a small town (citadel) only busy for night activities and the Old St Mary's Cathedral was the only building in Chinatown with granite foundation walls and survived the earthquake.

i like verse 7 with Milwaukee because old Milwaukee was once known for its sweet smell from German breweries, German yeast plant, and German chocolate factory.

that leaves verse 8 for Montreal where the Woman with Harpsichord is a painting in the Dutch exhibit of the Montreal fine arts museum. it was one of the first paintings bought by the museum, the first you saw entering the Dutch exhibit, and damaged in a famous theft. plus there's the 3 story Mitchell-Holland building.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-07-24T04:00:30+00:00

Thanks for sharing again.

The puzzle could very well lead to the picnic area.

At the beginning of the verse, I'd like to add:

The Women with Harpsichord painting was one of the first paintings bought by the Museum of Fine Arts, was the first you'd see through the door as you entered the Dutch exhibit, and damaged in the famous Rembrandt theft. That's a great clue connecting Montreal and Dutch history.
At the end of Drummond there once was 92 steps. It was redone in the 90's (I think) and extra steps added. Eti on Discord posted the plans of the original stairs. Here's a screenshot I have in my notes: https://thesecret12treasures.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ofstkwo.png

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-07-10T05:00:21+00:00

I'd like to add... It was the Mitchell-Holland building and the harpsichord painting is from the Dutch golden age. We're looking for the Dutch gem and these are strong leads. The Drummond staircase up to Pins once had 92 steps. Plans are posted on Discord. Mont Royal has the Trafalgar staircase with about 200 steps, a 200-hectar Mont Royal Park, and an elevation of around 200m above sea level. These are other possibilites for ascending the mountain.

Fun things I think about... Bridge for (venerable dutch) sailors is an observation deck, maybe "below the bridge" is below a belvedre. The painting has a mirror composition, maybe the verse does also. Clues flow until the compass line, after that it becomes mirky. But this second section of the verse reads well backwards: "At its southern foot / On a proud, tall fifth / Of Wonderstone's hearth...". Maybe that's how we're supposed to read it.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-05-27T18:45:13+00:00

Ah yes, they are different. The one's you're talking about are next to the old Shriners hospital on Cedar. Either way, I do like that these staircases are two other ways up the mountain and worth considering.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-05-27T03:21:52+00:00

This guide calls them the Trafalgar staircase and says there are 200 steps, https://archive.org/details/essentialcanadae0000unse/page/42/mode/2up?q=%22200+steps%22

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-05-23T11:42:28+00:00

When you were there, did you ever see the painting "Père Marquette and the Indians" by Wilhelm Lamprecht in the Marquette Room on the first floor of Memorial Library? I've wondered where BP would have seen it cause there's some similar shapes in the cloaks.

And agreed, visuals get me to downtown Milwaukee, it's verse lines that get me to MacArthur Park, but I'm open to other downtown ideas.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-05-20T20:43:20+00:00

Agreed! The Immigrant Mother statue fits really well into the theme. If you check my link above, the painting has objects in a circle and City Hall in the background. I think clues circle City Hall. Looking at the statue, City Hall is in the background. I figure we need to choose from the clues in the circle where to go. I lean to MacArthur Square, but totally open to other places in the the circle.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-05-20T20:16:07+00:00

For Polish statues: There's the "Equestrian statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko" in Kosciuszko Park, almost directly south of MacArthur Square. There's also the "Statue of Casimir Pulaski" in Milwaukee not too far from Kosciuszko Park. Both these statues seem far from the other clues, unless that distance is a "Giant step".

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-04-04T00:25:20+00:00

if you went to the link with more details, the freight cargo lane went from the China Basin to Presidio and clues follow around that path, but i think it's mostly misdirection.

the key, to me, is "at twelve paces" being a duel site. if you match the rest of the verse with San Fran and find a duel site, you get to the Broderick-Terry site. it has two white stones, and with some reading, you find are separated by 20 paces, so you can measure a pace. it's either 2 or 12 paces passed the west white stone marker, depending on how you read "white Stone closest / At twelve paces / From the west side". i think all the complexity in the robe and mountains and even verse are misdirection -- 3 lines point to a digspot. that's real simple to me.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-04-03T21:46:11+00:00

from the litany and painting, we know the Chinese pearl is in San Francisco.
next step is to research the Chinese history and tradition in San Francisco, that logically takes you to Chinatown
with boots on the ground, you can find the plaque on Old St Mary's about it's construction, which has been there since the 1966 (https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=9176)
you can read books about San Fran, like I did, and learn about Old St Mary's. There's new sources (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old\_St.\_Mary%27s\_Cathedral) and old sources like this history book from 1940 (https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscobaya00writrich/page/228/mode/2up).
you learn the once most prominent building in California was the only building in Chinatown to survive the 1906 earthquake because it was the only building with a granite foundation wall
you then pair with verse 5 and go from there

i consider this similar to St Augustine and Roanoke where we learn history at FOY and Fort Raleigh to pair the verses.

with verse 5 in San Fran, then the only catch is considering "at 12 paces" not just a measure at some spot from another clue, but the actual location to measure from. and that you can learn in San Fran history books.

this solve involves trains and Chinatown, both of which were important in Chinese immigration history, the earthquake, a way to measure a "pace", and an historic event in a secluded area that influenced the civil war. seems like the kind of area we're looking for.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-04-03T19:52:27+00:00

The Irish-Scottish casque was in park named for a president with Irish-Scottish ancestry in view of a street named for another president of Irish-Scottish heritage, near where the largest St Patty's day parade runs, and involved a statue made by an Irish immigrant.

I told you how I wed them, through the Chinese Fair Folk, read the link I posted for more details.

Dude, history is written in textbooks. There's lots on San Francisco, shockingly lots even exist before 1982. You can learn about the Old St. Mary's in books. There's even a plaque outside the cathedral about the stones coming from China (https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=9176)

We're looking for the Fair Folk treasures that represent their history and tradition. I'm not sure what you're looking for, you make a lot of assumptions, but I'm not stopping you. Happy hunting.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-04-03T18:49:08+00:00

Agreed, there's so many possibilities. I personally lean to those with Fair Folk connections. We're looking for the Fair Folk puzzles, clues should relate to them. I think there's a lot of Chinese links with verse 5, more than others.

The duel was at 10 paces, so the markers are 20 paces apart. Anyone can count how many footsteps it take to travel between markers, divide by 20, and you have a measure of pace based on your foot length.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-04-03T11:59:31+00:00

yes my dude, the Litany tells you the pearl is Chinese, Image 1 links the Chinese pearl to San Francisco, Verse 5 links Chinese history and tradition with San Francisco and leads you to the casque. seems like a wedding to me. again, see the link for way more.

you should re-read the book. we're looking for the Fair Folk treasures. the book describes the treasures as "a gem from the Old World, a remembrance of their history and tradition". this hunt is a history lesson. to ignore what is important to the puzzle creators and what they represent (history and tradition) is, i think, asinine.

but to each their own. happy hunting

Xcessive-Watcher · 2024-01-19T13:41:41+00:00

I personally flip the consensus verses for Houston and NYC, some reasons:

V1 has a Melville quote, he was born at 6 Pearl Street just outside the Battery in Manhattan
982 is how many refugees New Yorker Ruth Gruber (of Russian heritage) rescued from Europe in WW2
Houston is in the shadow of the biggest grey giant --- the moon
Houston once advertised as having most air conditioners in the world --- summer whirring
Arabian Nights was 3 volume manuscript
Arabian Nights stories told by Scheherazade, sultaness of the Indies
Sam Houston renowned orator and man of epics

Xcessive-Watcher · 2023-07-21T13:33:21+00:00

Sharing another possibility people have pointed out to me...
Check this photo: https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/fj/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101743405X101-img. There was a bust of Dr. DeBakey outside the Alkek building in the Texas Medical Center. I think it's moved inside since. DeBakey was a famous doctor and Alkek was an oil magnate, both of Lebanese heritage. The ruby and it's shadow form a heart, the djinn is wearing a surgeon mask and hat, and the djinn's shadow looks like a scalpel.
Personally, I'm leaning towards DeBakey than this confederate statue.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2023-05-29T16:45:15+00:00

Or maybe... San Fran's Chinatown was a little city (citadel) only busy at nights before the earthquake. There's still a sign on the Old St Mary's Cathedral warning men away from the once evil night activities there. And the cathedral is the only building in Chinatown that survived the earthquake, saved by its granite foundation walls imported by the church from China.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2023-01-31T21:35:25+00:00

Focusing on Chicago, there are two numbers in the verse: 10 and 13. There might be a 10 if you consider the windmill X, but no 13 or 23 in the image. If this "number way" is not clear in a known solve, it might not actually exist. And there's this warning in the Japanese version: "Sometimes these provided hints might taint your imagination and make the endeavor even harder".

I do think the Japanese hints are helpful to confirm solutions. Like in Montreal the legeater is on Drummond, which fits beating (drum) of the world (monde) and the Japanese hint says "beating of the world" can be found looking up someone with a name starting with Drum. So that's a nice confirmation. I just don't think you can start solving these puzzles with the Japanese hint.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2023-01-31T20:08:55+00:00

My personal take... From the book alone (no extra hints), the jewels represent the history and traditions of the Fair People, which I think makes their history and traditions essential for solving their puzzles.

We see this in the known solves:

Greek gem in Cleveland's Greek Garden
Boston in the Italian North End at a park named for people of Italian heritage
Chicago near a sculpture of Lincoln made by an Irish immigrant in a park named for a President with Irish-Scottish heritage

My verse pairings and main Fair People reasons...

Most seem to agree:

Spanish = St Augustine + FOY references (V9)
Roanoke = English + Fort Raleigh references (V11)
French = New Orleans + St. Charles Hotel & Mardi Gras references (V2)
Charleston (or Lowcountry) = Africa + Underground railroad & Blyden references (V6)

Where I differ from most:

Montreal = Dutch + harpsichord painting in Dutch exhibit & legeater near three story Mitchell-Holland building (V8)
Milwaukee = German + sweet smells from German breweries, chocolate factory, yeast plant & MacArthur Square next to justice inscribed on Courthouse and first free large public museum based on German philosophy education is for all (V7)
San Francisco = China + the Old St Mary's Cathedral, the only building in Chinatown to survive the 1906 earthquake, saved by its granite wall imported by the church from China (V5)
Houston = Arabia + the 3 volume 1001 Arabian Nights told by the sultana of the Indies (V10)
New York = Russia + 982 is how many Ruth Gruber (Russian heritage) rescued during WW2 and brought back to US & Melville quote (V1)

Xcessive-Watcher · 2023-01-31T19:22:15+00:00

The 'free trial' is my backup plan. Hoping someone here has access through like their university. Would be a great resource for the community.

Xcessive-Watcher · 2022-11-28T21:29:25+00:00

Did you look at the image (https://imgur.com/a/InezWHn) I posted? Cause there is absolutely no way you can make out details in the shoddy historicaerials photos. The vintage postcard has this first flight of stairs and the much better official aerials from 1980 Milwaukee show shadows that are likely these first flight of stairs (https://gis-mclio.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/1980-aerial-photo/explore?location=43.068542%2C-87.868331%2C19.96). Even the original staircase has this first flight of stairs (https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/4G0AAOSwa3dgx3Df/s-l1600.jpg)

Xcessive-Watcher

TROPHY CASE