Thirteenth anniversary of this blog

picture of a sculpture by Fernand Châtelain

courtesy of Marcello 13 (Flickr)

Bonjour aux promeneurs, Hello walkers,

With above picture of a sculpture by Fernand Châtelain this blog started on November 11th, 2008. 

Existing today, November 11th, 2021 for thirteen years, it now includes reviews of some 540 art environments in Europe. 

As in previous years I will relate here data about numbers/origin of visitors and about most viewed art environments.

Number of visitors

On November 10th, 2021 the all time number of visitors was 983.870. On November 10th, 2020 it was 890.062, so there is an increase of 93.008 visitors, or on the average 257 visitors a day. 

Over the period 2019-2020 the average was 193 visitors a day, so the number of daily visitors has increased. Thank you for your interest !

All time page views by country

As in previous years here is the all time rank of top ten countries as regards page-views (as on November 8)

  1. United States 312.000

  2  France 98.700

  3. Netherlands 70.300

  5. Germany 66.900 

  6. Italy 38.000

  7. Russia 34.900 

  8. Ukraine 23.900

  9. Spain 17.200

10. Sweden 9.700

In general the top ten list includes the same countries as in 2020, almost in the same order, except that France and Netherlands and the United Kingdom and/Germany changed places. and that Sweden ousted Poland from the tenth place.

Most viewed sites all time

 

Here is an overview of the top ten most viewed sites all time (as on November 8):

  1.  Bill and Elisabeth Charge, UK, Watford shell garden, 6413

  2.  Robert Garcet, Belgium, Eben-Ezer Tower, 5853

  3.  Joseph Ferdinand Cheval, France, Palais Idéal, 5767 

  4.  Jose Maria Garrido, Spain, El Museo del Mar, 4999

  5.  Robert Tatin, France, Maison des champs, 4649

  6.  Roy McCormack, UK, Beach flint sculpture garden, 4462

  7.  Bodan Litnianski, France, Garden of shells, 4531

  8.  Chomo, France, Préludian art, 4160 

  9.  Karl Junker, Germany, Junker's House, 4075

10.  Abbé Fouré, France, Sculpted rocks, 3760  

The top ten above includes almost the same names as in 2020, except that two sites are newcomers, namely Roy McCormack's sculpture garden in Bristol, UK, and Karl Junker's decorated house in Lemgo, Germany.

The large number of visitors to the article about Bill and Elisabeth Charge's decorated garden has to do with a message on Facebook from a granddaughter of the couple. See the relevant post on my blog.

One might wonder where the famous French mosaic-decorated Maison Picassiette created by Raymond Isidore appears. It turns out that the site is 18th in the list of 11-20, which follows below:

11. Oreste Fernando Nannetti, Italy, Wall inscriptions, 3899

12. Joseph Pujiula i Vila, Spain, Labyrinth, 3827

13. José Garcia Martin, Canaries, Spain, Sculpture garden, 3895

14. Francisco González Grajera, Spain, Decorated house 3850

15. Stephen Wright, UK, House of dream museum, 3748

16. Erich Bödeker, Germany, Sculpture garden, 3661

17. Willem van Genk, Netherlands, Arnhem Bus Station, 3617

18. Raymond Isidore (aka Picassiette), France, Mosaic decorated house, 3593

19. Julius Klingebiel, Germany, Decorated room, 3500

20. Bonaria Manca, Italy, Decorated house, 3456

A closer look reveals that the two lists presented above mainly mention art environments located in Western Europe. That is not to say that Eastern European and Russian creations are missing from the inventory. They've attracted fewer visitors so far, in part because I didn't start looking systematically for these sites until 2014.

Here are data about the number of visitors of art environments in Russia (number of visitors +1000):

 

 1. Alexander Emelyanov, Decorated garden, 2614

 2. Alexander Ladogina, Church, 2061

 3. Sergey Kirillov, Decorated house, 2024

 4. Yevgeny Malakhin (artist name Bukashkin), Paint the garbage, 1748

 5. Petr Zhurilenko, Sculpture garden, 1703

 6. Egor Utrobin, Sculpture garden, 1318

 7. Collective of conscripts, Scattered sculptures, 1308

 8. Lyudmila Kneller, Mosaic decorations, 1110

And to conclude here are data about Czechia, Poland and Ukraine (number of visitors +1500)

  1. František Rint, Czechia, Ossuary, 2836

  2. Vàclav Levy, Czechia, Rock sculptures, 2777

  3. Bogdan Ziętek, Poland, Interior with sculptures, 2527 

  4. Stanislav Sartsevich, Ukraine, Sculpture garden, 2187

  5..Nicholas Golovan, Ukraine, Decorated house, 2164

  6. Felicja Curylova, Poland, Decorated house, 1868

  7. Boguslawa Iwanowskiego, Poland, Sculpture garden,,1742

  8. Polina Rayko, Ukraine, Decorated house, 1624

  9. Vojtech Kopic, Czechia, Sculpted rocks, 1596

10. Vladimir Chaika, Ukraine, Decorated stairwell, 1517

Of course, above listings are just meant to give an idea of the focus of the visitors of this blog.

So much for this overview of data regarding the thirteenth anniversary of my weblog Outsider Environments Europe. Let's see what the coming time brings us all.