Archive · Books · London

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Heritage

The City of Dreams: Athens in the Second Century

NB! · Architecture · Art · Observations

Two Eras Meet: A Cosmic Bas-Relief on the Wall of a Shopping Centre in Kaluga, Tsiolkovsky's Hometown

Map of Europe with most of the territory in yellow for butter, the south in green for olive oil, and a mixed band between them.

NB! · Geography · Observations · Mores

Map of Butter and Olive Oil Consumption Across European Regions

Olive or butter? Which fat is mainly used in the different countries of Europe? As you can see, butter wins, though neither palm oil nor sunflower oil took part in the sample

NB! · Faith · Art · Museums

The Tuscan town of Empoli is famous not only for its football club, but also for a quattrocento sculpture of Saint Sebastian by the Florentine Antonio Rossellino, regarded as one of the benchmark depictions of the nude male body of the fifteenth century

Archive · London · People

One of Winston Churchill's last public appearances was at the open window of his own home on his ninetieth birthday

One of Winston Churchill's last public appearances was at the open window of his own home on his ninetieth birthday. That was the gift he chose to make to the public: a lion, by then gravely unwell and enfeebled, showing himself one last time. Barely a couple of

Engraving “Plan et Élévation d'une Salle de Bain”: an alcove with drapery and two side doors above, a room plan with an oval bath below.

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Mores

Engraving with plan and elevation of an eighteenth-century bathroom with side portals

Plan of an eighteenth-century bathroom. An interesting solution with side portals through which one may enter and leave

Aristocracy · Archive · London · Monarchies

Christian IX of Denmark's Daughters Alexandra and Maria Feodorovna and Their Sons George V and Nicholas II

The Dowager Queen Alexandra and her sister, the Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna, also a dowager, on their way to the coronation of George V, 22 June 1911. The daughters of King Christian IX of Denmark, the eldest, Alexandra of Denmark, and the middle one, Maria Feodorovna, were born three years

NB! · Archive · Observations · Rome

Rome in 1950 as a reminder of how beautiful the world was before globalisation

Vault mosaic of Orpheus with a lyre and Eurydice in a green robe on a gold ground, framed by ornament and masks.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Paris

Mosaic of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Palais Garnier in Paris

Orpheus and Eurydice. Mosaic in the Palais Garnier, Paris

NB! · Moscow · Heritage · Society

🕯️On the eve of 22 June, a memorial to the Great Patriotic War was opened on the Moskva River embankment in Muzeon Park

🕯️On the eve of 22 June, a memorial to the Great Patriotic War was opened on the Moskva River embankment in Muzeon Park. Set into the granite parapet are perpetual lamps, one for each day of the war: from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945.

A row of lit candles along the embankment parapet, with passersby on the right. Far off over the river, a monument shaped like a sailing ship stands against the evening sky.

NB!

Alexandr Radayev