Coming Up · Moscow · Museums

Prokofiev Museum accepts entries for the fifth composers’ competition until 1 November

The Prokofiev Museum invites registrations for the 5th Open Composers' Competition "Prokofiev's Time", which this year is presented in the category "Composition for Balalaika, Bayan and Saxophone, 'In the Folk Spirit'". Musicians may submit their applications until 1 November. The jury

Architecture · Faith · Geography · Observations · Heritage · Nature

Having visited Kolomna, it would be foolish not to see the place where the Moskva flows into the Oka, all the more so as it lies practically within the town limits

Having visited Kolomna, it would be foolish not to see the place where the Moskva flows into the Oka, all the more so as it lies practically within the town limits. The surroundings are very picturesque. If you go, the road will take you past the Old Golutvin Monastery, founded

A tall red-brick wall with crenellations and an arched recess runs toward a tower with a pointed roof. A grassy moat lies along its base under a clear blue sky.

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Brick fortress wall with a corner tower above a grassy moat

Architecture · Heritage

Kolomna Kremlin, the height of its walls, its defence and the surviving towers

The Kolomna Kremlin is one of the foremost Russian fortresses, beautiful, vast, and impressive in its scale and grandeur. It is no accident that it won the competition when Russia-1 chose the country's principal kremlin. In appearance it somewhat resembles the Moscow one, hence the legend of

NB! · Architecture · Art · Observations

Kolomna's Streets in Faces and Fables: A Most Agreeable Piece of Street Art in the Historic Centre of Kolomna

Kolomna's Streets in Faces and Fables: a most agreeable piece of street art in the historic centre of Kolomna. A note for the negligent devotees of Sobyanin

Aristocracy · Archive · Moscow · Museums

A unique piece from the furnishings of the Ostankino Palace, commissioned by Count Nikolay Petrovich Sheremetev in 1794: a gilded incense burner of copper, brass, marble and wood from the workshop of Paul Spoll

A unique piece from the furnishings of the Ostankino Palace, commissioned by Count Nikolay Petrovich Sheremetev in 1794: a gilded incense burner of copper, brass, marble and wood from the workshop of Paul Spoll. The advertising description in the newspapers of the late 18th century sets out at length the

Painting of a giant crowned female figure in a green robe inscribed ERDE; in front, a man in a dark suit and a woman in folk costume shake hands.

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Allegory of Earth, labelled ERDE, above a man and woman shaking hands

NB! · Art · People

Allegorical paintings by the German artist Hans Thoma (1839–1924) depicting celestial bodies and cosmic objects in images drawn from ancient myths, European legends and Norse sagas: Mercury, Venus, the Sun, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter…

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Observations · Humour

A Gallo-Roman statue depicting me with a piglet from IKEA belongs to a small group of sculptures in which children are shown holding a puppy

Science · Mores · Paris · People

The French Pantheon once saw a joint burial, connected with the first woman admitted to that mausoleum, Sophie Berthelot, who in the scale of French history was remarkable only for being the faithful wife of the outstanding French physicist and chemist…

The French Pantheon once saw a joint burial, connected with the first woman admitted to that mausoleum, Sophie Berthelot, who in the scale of French history was remarkable only for being the faithful wife of the outstanding French physicist and chemist Pierre Marcellin Berthelot, familiar to us at least from

Books · Observations · Heritage · Society · Paris

While in Russia they timidly wind down discussion of moving the long-suffering body of Lenin from Red Square, and all but ignore the dismantling of the necropolis at Novodevichy Convent, in France the subject of famous graves is at the centre of attention

A petition is being put to the President for re-interment in the national Pantheon; it has already been signed by 10 former ministers of culture and various eminent figures of the intelligentsia. The subject is two notable nineteenth-century poets, Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. The romance of Rimbaud

NB! · Art · Books · People · Pop Culture

Arthur Rimbaud in his bed after Paul Verlaine shot him with a revolver

Arthur Rimbaud in his bed after Paul Verlaine shot him with a revolver. A painting by Jef Rosman. And the very revolver with which Verlaine tried to shoot his lover was sold in 2016 for €430,000.

Alexandr Radayev