Saturday, 24 October 2026

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This angular, ungainly concrete building, propped up by a single massive pier, is the Chapel of Saint Hildegard in Düsseldorf, built in 1962-1970 to a design by Gottfried Böhm

Architecture · Faith

This angular, ungainly concrete building, propped up by a single massive pier, is the Chapel of Saint Hildegard in Düsseldorf, built in 1962-1970 to a design by Gottfried Böhm

No decoration, no refinements, just bare concrete. Only a barely protruding bell tower slightly disturbs the Brutalist gloom of the concrete pile. The design echoes a number of other works by the famous architect, whose arsenal includes many churches that would serve perfectly well in the universe of "Mad

By Alexandr Radayev
Having breakfast at my beloved KM20 and delighting that a copy of unloved Prince Harry's book was a gift 🥰🥰 And wishing everyone a good morning 🌞 I set about reading at once, and so far these are not the worst memoirs I have come across

Books · Monarchies · Moscow · Observations · Humour

Having breakfast at my beloved KM20 and delighting that a copy of unloved Prince Harry's book was a gift 🥰🥰 And wishing everyone a good morning 🌞 I set about reading at once, and so far these are not the worst memoirs I have come across

Not without oddities, though. On the very first page I opened there turned up an original passage in which Harry supposes that his DNA holds a rudimentary memory of the terrorist attack of 1979 in which Lord Mountbatten, his great-great-uncle, was killed

By Alexandr Radayev
Three portraits of Marie Antoinette by a single artist, the Swedish painter Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller

Coming Up · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Observations · Paris

Three portraits of Marie Antoinette by a single artist, the Swedish painter Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller

Marie Antoinette sat for Wertmüller in 1785-88. He worked on commission from the Swedish king Gustav III. Besides the portrait of the queen with her children, Antoinette appeared on several other canvases. The most intimate proved to be precisely the first version. This one, by all appearances, was never

By Alexandr Radayev
The marble staircase of the main building of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is called the pink staircase, after the colour of the marble with which it is faced

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Museums

The marble staircase of the main building of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is called the pink staircase, after the colour of the marble with which it is faced

The marble staircase of the main building of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is called the pink staircase, after the colour of the marble with which it is faced. The variegated marbles used to finish the staircase were brought from Hungary, and the stone was purchased by the

By Alexandr Radayev
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