Would you like to watch another cultural heritage site in the centre of Moscow fall to ruin?

Would you like to watch another cultural heritage site in the centre of Moscow fall to ruin? Pavel Ogorodnikov has published on Twitter a photo report from one of the most epic buildings in the city: alas, now abandoned and dilapidated, the old Moscow Main Post Office, which in one form or another has stood on Myasnitskaya Street since the 18th century.

In 1912 the new post office was solemnly opened, to a design by Munts, with a dome of Bohemian glass to a design by the architect Shukhov. Today the glass panes of this Shukhov dome, one of the few that survive, are in a lamentable state. The photographer made his way into the deserted building precisely through the roof, and strolled through the foyer of astonishing beauty, the corridors and the spiral staircases of the Moscow post office. A building that might well have become a tourist attraction, a unique monument to its time and history, has, alas, suffered the sad fate of oblivion and decay. Will the post office be preserved for the city and its memory, or will the whole complex be brought to total ruin and then quietly demolished, to make way for an elite new development?

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Signs of violent death found on skulls from burials beside the royal tombs at Abydos

An American archaeologist has carried out a forensic analysis of skulls of people who were buried beside the tombs of Egypt's first kings at Abydos, and has found on many of them traces of violent death. Abydos in Upper Egypt served as the burial place of the kings

Black-and-white group photograph of people in masquerade costumes with fans and headdresses, some seated on a floor covered with confetti.

Guests at a costume party in a Moscow theatre in the early 20th century

A costume evening at one of the Moscow theatres in the early twentieth century

Professor Mie Oba proposes Japan as ASEAN's third partner alongside the US and China

Professor Oba Mie of Kanagawa University writes that Japan could become a third partner for the ASEAN countries alongside the USA and China. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations preserves its independence under the slogan of "centrality": the bloc's members seek to remain the principal forum

Blessing of Animals on 4 October, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi

On 4 October, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, who is regarded as the patron of animals and of nature, animals are blessed in churches all over the world. Stories of his sermon to the birds and of the wolf of Gubbio are associated with the name of Francis,

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Signs of violent death found on skulls from burials beside the royal tombs at Abydos

Guests at a costume party in a Moscow theatre in the early 20th century

Professor Mie Oba proposes Japan as ASEAN's third partner alongside the US and China

Blessing of Animals on 4 October, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi