Art · Museums · Heritage

Downpour in Florence causes leak in the Uffizi, Caravaggio’s “Bacchus” unharmed

Caravaggio's "Bacchus" taken off the wall at the Uffizi Gallery after a leak. On the afternoon of 17 September a sudden downpour struck Florence, with almost five centimetres of rain falling in a single hour. Water made its way into the Uffizi Gallery and dripped onto

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Moscow · Heritage

Restoration of the Great Cathedral of the Don Icon of the Mother of God, dating from the late seventeenth century, in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow is in full swing

Restoration of the Great Cathedral of the Don Icon of the Mother of God, dating from the late seventeenth century, in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow is in full swing. The entire interior of the cathedral is under scaffolding, including the unique seven-tier carved iconostasis of the time of

Archaeology · Science · Nature

DNA analysis of seeds shows cultivated grapes reached Spain with the Phoenicians

A group of scholars from Spanish universities has studied the origins of Iberian viticulture through DNA from archaeological seeds and suggests that it appeared long before the arrival of the Romans. For a long time it was believed that the wine industry of Spain traces its descent to the Roman

Low-angle view of a portico with tall pale columns, Corinthian capitals, a relief frieze and a coffered ceiling under a blue, cloudy sky.

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Columns with Corinthian capitals and a sculpted frieze against the sky

Books · Mores · Humour

You must have decent, well-dressed children, and your children must in their turn have a good flat and children, and their children too must have children and good flats, and what it is all for, the devil only knows

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

A white-stone cathedral with golden domes against a deep blue sky with clouds. In the foreground, a dense crowd, some women in headscarves, stands by metal barriers and street lamps.

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Crowd of people near the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour under a cloudy sky

Faith · Moscow · Observations · Society

Thousands upon thousands of people come to venerate the right hand of Saint Spyridon of Trimythous in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Patience to all who are waiting! Congratulations to all who have stood out their turn in the queue! I cannot help rejoicing that Orthodox Rus' is awakening! They might have put on a train and carried the relic across the whole country, so that people in different cities could

Faith · Society · People

The Permanent Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, under the chairmanship of Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, has unanimously revoked the award presented to Metropolitan Ambrosios, former head of the Metropolis of Kalavryta, just two weeks af

The open letter of Metropolitan Ambrosios was deemed insulting to the Permanent Synod and to the entire episcopate of the Church of Greece. In the letter, addressed to Archbishop Ieronymos and his fellow hierarchs, Metropolitan Ambrosios accuses the church leadership of silence while Greek society sinks into a moral and

Archaeology · Geography · Science · Rome

Tom Brughmans and his team test the saying that all roads lead to Rome

Not All Roads Lead to Rome. In 20 BC the Emperor Augustus set up the Golden Milestone in the Roman Forum, from which distances along all the roads of the empire were symbolically measured. A team of researchers led by Tom Brughmans has analysed this network, which covers some 300,

Coming Up · Art · Paris · Pop Culture

Sotheby's to hold private sale worth nearly $150 million in Paris during Art Basel

During Art Basel this year, Sotheby's will open an exhibition apartment on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, overlooking the Tuileries Garden, with works worth nearly $150 million on display. None of them will go under the hammer: all are offered for private sale, that is, a transaction

Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Heritage

Two versions of why a brick pillar is called the petition pillar or the clock pillar

There are two versions of the historical significance of this brick pillar in Kolomenskoye. Some call it the petition pillar, to which petitions, that is, requests to the Tsar, were brought, and on which royal decrees were posted. I do not care for this version. Firstly, the Tsardom of Muscovy

Archive · Geography · Art · Observations · Ethnography

Drawing of the 1845 clash at Sherburne sheep station in Victoria

I got lost in reading about Australia today and came across a drawing entitled "Conflict witnessed in 1845 at the Sherburn sheep station, at the confluence of the Goulburn River". The author is tentatively identified as a certain J. Phillips. The piece belongs to the collection of the

Alexandr Radayev