At the northwest end of the platform is the impossible-to-miss, black-and-white, sumptuous Palacio de la Cultura Rafael Uribe Uribe (Palace of Culture), famous for hosting concerts, art expositions and other events.

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Built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics (for which Tallinn hosted the sailing events) and originally christened the Lenin Palace of Culture and Sport, the Linnahall contains within its crumbling, much-graffitied hulk a vast concert hall.

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"But it was when he visited Genoa and he actually saw the kind of properties that merchants were living in and he thought, I am the richest man in Wales I need something better than a ramshackle of pile, and when he was in Rome he commissioned another architect to design, what is in effect, a palace of culture, " Mr Gammond said.

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Many Afghan observers argue this culture of impunity runs directly to the presidential palace.

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