Architecture · Observations · Heritage · Paris · Humour

Statues of the Molière Fountain in Paris taped up three years after its restoration

Wherever cultural monuments are restored, the monuments themselves somehow rarely come out as the winners. Take, for instance, the statues by the Molière fountain in Paris, restored three years ago for half a million euros. They are now in rather a strange state, patched up with masking tape in several

Art · Museums · Pop Culture

In November Sotheby’s and Christie’s Will Put Major Private and Museum Collections Under the Hammer

Sotheby’s will offer for sale the collection of the Ertegun family, founders of the record label Atlantic Records. The principal lot is Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait of 1940, estimated at $40 million. Also on offer will be works from the collection of the billionaire Leonard Lauder, founder of

NB! · Architecture · Faith · The East · Society

In Tehran, the Saint Mary Metro Station Has Opened, Adorned with Images of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God and a Christian Church

Listings · Moscow · Coming Up · Art · Museums

Regular feature: where to go — exhibitions worth visiting in Moscow this week

📌 Closing soon: “Alexander Deyneka. A Hymn to Life” at the Tretyakov Gallery, until 26 October 📌 Closing soon: “Ilya Mashkov. Avant-Garde. Kitsch. Classic” at the Tretyakov Gallery, until 26 October 📌 Closing soon: the exhibition of non-figurative painting and graphic art “Dialogues Without Words” at the Belyaevo Gallery, until 26

An elderly man with a long white beard, glasses and a dark patterned coat walks along a sandy beach.

Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Waiting for the Harry Potter series and a joke about the Protego Maxima protective spell

It looks as though the new Dumbledore's Aguamenti charm has got out of hand. Let us hope that at least Protego Maxima SPF 100 held up. With tears in our eyes, we await the release of the Harry Potter series

Black-and-white photograph of a religious procession with banners, icons and a cross among construction debris and scaffolding near a church.

Archive · Faith · Society

Poem by Hieromonk Roman Matyushin, 1990, on the crowd and turning to God

Without God a nation is a mob, United by vice, Either blind, or foolish, Or, what is more terrible still, cruel. And let any man ascend the throne, Speaking in lofty phrase, The mob will remain a mob, Until it turns to God! Literal translation Hieromonk Roman Matyushin, 8 August

A blue tunic, black trousers with red stripes, white gloves and gold tassels displayed in a museum case.

Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Museums

Franz Ferdinand's Uniform and Other Assassination Relics in Vienna and Konopiště Castle

The uniform in which Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed, the bullet that killed him, the bullet hole in the glass, and the car in which he was travelling. Exhibits of the Museum of Military History in Vienna. His wife's dress and the bullet that killed her are displayed

Clay figurine of a woman with raised arms on a swing between two tall posts with red patterns, each topped with a dove.

NB! · Archaeology · Faith · Museums · Ethnography

Clay figurine of a woman on a swing from a household shrine of the Late Minoan period

A clay female figurine with a swing, from a household shrine of the Late Minoan period. The uprights of the swing are decorated with a red pattern and surmounted by doves perched upon them. Enigmatic artefacts of bygone ages, whose true meaning one can only guess at

NB! · Aristocracy · Architecture · Faith · Art

Magnificent sculptures above the tomb of Louis de Brézé, husband of Diane de Poitiers, who died in 1531, in Rouen Cathedral

Faith · Observations · Heritage · Society · Rome

The author on parishioners' inaction during the desecration of a Christian altar in a church

What happened today in St Peter's Basilica in Rome: I think everyone has already heard of the desecration of the altar, and I shall not repeat in what base manner it was done. A terrible abscess of a neglected disease of modern society. If one tries not to

Archaeology · Faith · The East

1,300-year-old Byzantine bread found during excavations at ancient Irenopolis in Turkey

The Bread That Outlived the Byzantine Empire. Scarcely credible, but excavations at the ancient city of Irenopolis in Turkey have turned up a 1,300-year-old loaf of bread that has survived to this day. The Byzantine loaves have come down to us with a stamp and a Greek

An old icon of the face of Christ in a golden halo, set in a carved gilded iconostasis.

Faith · Books

Valentin Gaft's poem about the invisible fire of an icon

Fire has its own laws. The fire of war instils fear in people. It breathes peace in hearths and bonfires. But there is an invisible fire: the icon's. Oh, how blissfully your rays burn, Burn me, icon, I shall not flinch, I know you will burn away my

Alexandr Radayev