Mary Trivia Quiz

Answer: Maryland

Places named after Mary? Well, Maryland in the USA is of course the first place many of you would think of. Maryland is a state on the northeast coast of the USA, bordering the Chesapeake Bay. Its capital is Annapolis (which houses the famous naval academy) and the most important city is Baltimore.
Maryland was named after Henrietta-Marie of France, the wife of British King Charles I, when Lord Baltimore obtained a royal permit to found a colony over there (in 1632). The first town in this new colony was Saint Mary City, which remained Maryland's capital until 1695.

Answer: Marylebone

Marylebone is a fancy district in the British capital city. The district has its boundaries at Marylebone Road, Great Portland Street, Oxford Street and Edgware Road. The eponymous church was previously known in French as dedicated to "Marie la Bonne" ("Good Mary").
Some of the touristic highlights in Marylebone are Marble Arch and the museums Madame Tussaud's, Sherlock Holmes Museum and Wallace Collection.

Answer: Mount Mary

Despite the name, Mount Mary is essentially a flat town, about 145 km to the northeast of the harbour city Adelaide. Mount Mary was at first named Hundred of Krichauff, a place with the capacity of feeding about 100 families. After the First World War, the name was changed to Hundred of Beatty (because Krichauff sounded too German).

In 1940, the town was renamed once again, now to match the name of the railway station Mount Mary. Mount Mary is a very small town - some would rather call it a tiny hamlet.

There are only a dozen houses, but there still is a hotel for the curious quizzers who'd like to spend their holiday far away from the touristic hotspots. True Aussies would probably say Mount Mary is "woop-woop".

Answer: Marie-Galante

The Caribbean Sea surrounds this exquisite destination. The island of Marie-Galante, with a surface of about 170 kmē, is situated between the main island Guadeloupe (an overseas territory of France) and the island republic Dominica. Marie-Galante has three villages, with a population of just over 12,000 (according to the 1999 census). Remarkably this rather scarcely populated island counts over one hundred wind mills, which were once in use to refine sugar - one of the main crops harvested in Marie-Galante.

Answer: Marienbad

Marienbad is the German name for the town that now carries the name Marianske Lazne (with a few diacritic marks which I prefer not to reproduce here, for your computer might translate these to some gibberish).
The town was founded near mineral springs and is situated near the frontier with Germany. One of the highlights is the "Singing Fountain": a fountain which adapts its rhythm to the music performed on regular intervals. At night there is also a light show synchronous with the music and the water spouts.

Answer: Sault-Sainte-Marie

Sault-Sainte-Marie in Ontario is the Canadian part of what used to be a single town stretching over the border. Nowadays the Canadian part and the American counterpart (Sault-Ste-Marie in the state Michigan) are administratively separated. The Sault-Sainte-Marie River forms the Canadian-American border, and the International Bridge crosses the river. The name derives from the ancient French word sault (archaic spelling for saut), which corresponds to a river rapid or cataract. Jesuits founded the city (then only the south bank, thus what's now the American town) in 1668, and on both sides of the river the city expanded.

Answer: Mariazell

Mariazell is a small town in Austria, just under 150 km north of Graz, the Styrian capital. Mariazell has a long history, debuting with Roman exploitation of the local salt mines. Mariazell obtained town rights in 1344.
One of the must-see attractions in Mariazell is the Basilica. Named Maria - Geburt (birth of Mary), this church was built during the Gothic architecture era, but fully renewed in Baroque style. The wooden image of Saint Mary is the subject of many pilgrimages.
Most visitors to Mariazell choose the winter period, as the surroundings have splendid ski facilities.

Answer: Ponte Santa Maria Nova

Because the city of Venice was built on over one hundred islands and islets, there are of course many bridges in the city.
One of these bridges is called the Ponte Santa Maria Nova, which I would translate as the New Bridge of Saint Mary. It leads up to the Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli (Church of Saint Mary of the Miracles), a nice church in coloured marble. A painting representing Saint Mary was said to cause several miracles, which attracted many pilgrims.

Answer: Maria Hoop

The Dutch province of Limburg is partly enclosed by Belgium and Germany. It was thus made into a Euroregion, a trans-border cooperation between economic planning agencies in multiple neighbouring countries. In the centre of this Euroregion, we find the Dutch village Echt-Susteren, composed of over twenty population nuclei. One of these hamlets is Maria Hoop, named after the parish church dedicated to Mary Mother of Hope.

Originally the hamlet was called Diergaarde (Animal Garden), but it took the present name in 1953. Maria Hoop has about 1,400 inhabitants (according to the 2008 census), but not a single shop.

Answer: Maria

The Philippines consist of over 7,000 islands, and probably you've never heard the name of most of them. One of those rather obscure islands is the island of Siquijor, centrally situated between Cebu (in the north), Bohol (in the northeast) and Mindanao (south).

The island and province of Siquijor is divided into six communities, the most important one bearing the same name as the island. But what is more interesting with regards to this quiz, is that the other five villages bear Spanish names. After the village of Siquijor itself, there are the villages of Lazi, San Juan, Larena, Maria and Enrique Villanueva. The village of Maria sits on a surface of about 53 kmē and houses just under 14,000 inhabitants (according to the 2015 census). If you would care to visit this village, there is the Buco Beach Resort next to the Bohol Sea.

But there are not many tourists in this village, for there are no internationally known points of interest.