Viganella
Viganella in 2005. Viganella is a ''frazione'' of Borgomezzavalle, a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Verbania. It was a separate ''comune'' until 2016, when it was merged with Seppiana into the municipality of Borgomezzavalle. Winter lighting Due to the high ridge to the south, the town remains shadowed for 83 days per year, between November and January. A giant mirror was set up in November 2006 with controlled orientation above the mountainside, consisting of 14 sheets of steel which together are wide and high. The mirror functions as a heliostat, tracking the Sun so that sunlight always reflects onto the town square. The mirror cost €100,000, or approximately €540 per resident. The town was featured in a 2009 Italian/Canadian film called ''Lo Specchio'' (''The Mirror''). According to a former mayor: "The idea behind the project doesn't have a sc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Borgomezzavalle
Borgomezzavalle is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Valle Antrona, Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Italian region Piedmont. As of 2019 the population was 320. It was established on 1 January 2016 by the merger of the municipalities of Seppiana and Viganella. Borgomezzavalle borders the following municipalities: Antrona Schieranco, Calasca-Castiglione, Montescheno, Pallanzeno, Villadossola. In January 2019, in order to reverse the declining population in the village, Alberto Preioni, mayor of Borgomezzavalle, announced a plan to sell abandoned mountain cottages for just €1, (about US$1.20). With the purchase comes the obligation to renovate the building, there is no residency requirement. He also offered to pay families €1,000 for each new baby born in the village and €2,000 to someone starting a new business and who registers for VAT A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levie ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Seppiana
Seppiana is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' (municipality) of Borgomezzavalle in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Verbania. On 1 January 2016, it was merged with Viganella merged into the municipality of Borgomezzavalle Borgomezzavalle is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Valle Antrona, Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Italian region Piedmont. As of 2019 the population was 320. It was established on 1 January 2016 by the merger of the municipalities of .... Frazioni of Borgomezzavalle Former municipalities of the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Cities and towns in Piedmont {{Verbania-geo-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mirror
A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror forms an image of whatever is in front of it, which is then focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the direction of light at an angle equal to its incidence. This allows the viewer to see themselves or objects behind them, or even objects that are at an angle from them but out of their field of view, such as around a corner. Natural mirrors have existed since Prehistory, prehistoric times, such as the surface of water, but people have been manufacturing mirrors out of a variety of materials for thousands of years, like stone, metals, and glass. In modern mirrors, metals like silver or aluminium are often used due to their high reflectivity, applied as a thin coating on glass because of its naturally smooth and very Hardness (materials science), hard surface. A mirror is a Wave (physics), wave reflector. Light consists ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Frazioni Of Borgomezzavalle
A ''frazione'' (: ''frazioni'') is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' ('municipality') in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territorial subdivisions in the country. In the autonomous region of the Aosta Valley, a ''frazione'' is officially called ''hameau'' in French. In South Tyrol, a ''frazione'' is called ''Fraktion'' in German and ''frazion'' in Ladin. Description The term ''frazioni'' refers to the villages or hamlets that often make up a ''comune'' in rural Italian areas. Subdivision of a ''comune'' is optional; some ''comuni'' have no ''frazioni'', but others have several dozen. The ''comune'' usually has the same name of the ''capoluogo'', but not always, in which case it is called a ''comune sparso''. In practice, most ''frazioni'' are small villages or hamlets, occasionally just a clump of houses. Not every hamlet is classified as a ''frazione''; ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rjukan
Rjukan () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Tinn Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The town is also the administrative centre of Tinn Municipality. The town is located in the Vestfjorddalen valley, between the lakes Møsvatn and Tinnsjå. The municipal council of Tinn declared List of towns and cities in Norway, town status for Rjukan in 1996. The town is located about to the west of the village of Miland and about to the northwest of the village of Tuddal (in Hjartdal Municipality). The town has a population (2021) of 3,003 and a population density of . The town was essentially "built from scratch" due to the industrial developments by Norsk Hydro in the 1910s and 1920s. It got its name from the Rjukan Falls west of the town. At its peak, Rjukan was a significant industrial center in Telemark. It became a World Heritage Site under the name Rjukan–Notodden Industrial Heritage Site on 5 July 2015. The town is perhaps best known for the Norwegian heavy wa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Town Square
A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Related concepts are the civic center, the market square and the village green. Most squares are hardscapes suitable for open market (place), markets, concerts, political rallies, and other events that require firm ground. They are not necessarily a true square, geometric square. Being centrally located, town squares are usually surrounded by small shops such as Bakery, bakeries, meat markets, cheese stores, and clothing stores. At their center is often a well, monument, statue or other feature. Those with fountains are sometimes called fountain squares. The term "town square" (especially via the term "public square") is synonymous with the politics of many cultures, and the names of a certain town squares, such as the Euromaidan or Red Squar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sunlight
Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible spectrum, visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrared (typically perceived by humans as warmth) and ultraviolet (which can have physiological effects such as sunburn) lights. However, according to the American Meteorological Society, there are "conflicting conventions as to whether all three [...] are referred to as light, or whether that term should only be applied to the visible portion of the spectrum." Upon reaching the Earth, sunlight is light scattering by particles, scattered and attenuation, filtered through the atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon. When direct solar radiation is not blocked by clouds, it is experienced as sunshine, a combination of bright light and radiant heat (atmospheric). When cloud cover, blocked by clouds or dif ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heliostat
A heliostat () is a device that reflects sunlight toward a target, turning to compensate for the Sun's apparent motion. The reflector is usually a plane mirror. The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a direction in space. To do this, the reflective surface of the mirror is kept perpendicular to the bisector of the angle between the directions of the Sun and the target as seen from the mirror. In almost every case, the target is stationary relative to the heliostat, so the light is reflected in a fixed direction. According to contemporary sources the heliostata, as it was called at first, was invented by Willem 's Gravesande (1688–1742). Other contenders are Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608–1679) and Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). A heliostat designed by George Johnstone Storey is in the Science Museum Group collection. Currently, most heliostats are used for daylighting or for the production of concentrated solar power, us ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Verbania
Verbania (, , ) is the most populous ''comune'' (municipality) and the capital city of the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. It is situated on the shore of Lake Maggiore, about north-west of Milan and about from Locarno in Switzerland. It had a population of 30,827 on 1 January 2017. History The area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The oldest known people living in the area were the Lepontii. The area was added to the Roman Empire by Emperor Augustus in the first century AD. In the eleventh century the area was controlled by the diocese of Novara, bishops of Novara, then by the counts of Pombia. In 1152 Federico Barbarossa gave the area to the Castello family. After the death of Frederick Barbarossa, the territory was again controlled by Novara. By the fourteenth century, the area had become part of the Duchy of Milan. In 1714, following the Treaty of Rastatt most of the lake areas came under the control of the Habsburgs. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Frazione
A ''frazione'' (: ''frazioni'') is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' ('municipality') in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territorial subdivisions in the country. In the autonomous region of the Aosta Valley, a ''frazione'' is officially called ''hameau'' in French. In South Tyrol, a ''frazione'' is called ''Fraktion'' in German and ''frazion'' in Ladin. Description The term ''frazioni'' refers to the villages or hamlets that often make up a ''comune'' in rural Italian areas. Subdivision of a ''comune'' is optional; some ''comuni'' have no ''frazioni'', but others have several dozen. The ''comune'' usually has the same name of the '' capoluogo'', but not always, in which case it is called a ''comune sparso''. In practice, most ''frazioni'' are small villages or hamlets, occasionally just a clump of houses. Not every hamlet is classified as a ''frazione ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is mainly on the western bank of the Po (river), River Po, below its Susa Valley, and is surrounded by the western Alpine arch and Superga hill. The population of the city proper is 856,745 as of 2025, while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million. The city was historically a major European political centre. From 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the House of Savoy, and the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1865. Turin is sometimes called "the cradle of Italian liberty" for having been the politi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |