A white crenellated wall with arched niches; before it a black cross on a grey boulder, piles of rubble and a blue pipe. At right, a low green-roofed building and a red tower.

NB!

Black cross on a boulder by a white crenellated wall amid construction debris

Architecture · Faith · Moscow · Observations · Heritage · Society

I am simply horrified: under the guise of "restoration", the necropolis of the Novodevichy Convent has been literally destroyed

I am simply horrified: under the guise of "restoration", the necropolis of the Novodevichy Convent has been literally destroyed. See for yourselves. Levelling hundreds of burials to the ground and dismantling monuments, gravestones and the remains of crypts is now what passes for restoring a cemetery. If any

Fresco fragment in a wooden frame: a red brick tower with an arched doorway, surrounded by ochre hills where figures in light robes lie or fall, one bowed at the top.

NB!

Ancient fresco of a brick tower with falling figures in a museum frame

Architecture · Faith · Moscow · Museums · Heritage

At the Shchusev Museum of Architecture an exhibition has opened that will become a new part of the permanent display: three halls have been given over to the restored frescoes of the 15th-century Trinity-Makaryev Monastery at Kalyazin, blown up and floode

At the Shchusev Museum of Architecture an exhibition has opened that will become a new part of the permanent display: three halls have been given over to the restored frescoes of the 15th-century Trinity-Makaryev Monastery at Kalyazin, blown up and flooded in 1940 during the construction of the

Aristocracy · Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums

The Museum of the Defence of Moscow holds a Group Portrait of the Descendants of A.S. Pushkin Who Took Part in the Great Patriotic War, 1957, by the retired lieutenant colonel Vladimir Pereyaslavets

The Museum of the Defence of Moscow holds a Group Portrait of the Descendants of A.S. Pushkin Who Took Part in the Great Patriotic War, 1957, by the retired lieutenant colonel Vladimir Pereyaslavets. Not all of Pushkin's descendants who served in the war are gathered in the

Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

Exhibition “Masterpieces from Kazan” for Tatarstan’s centenary at the Tretyakov Gallery until 1 November

I suggest a visit to the exhibition marking the centenary of the Republic of Tatarstan, "Masterpieces from Kazan. From Roerich to Kandinsky", at the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val, which runs until 1 November and presents works by artists of the Silver Age and the Russian avant-garde

London · Mores · Humour

18th-century palanquin offered on eBay for £9,500, known in England as a sedan chair

eBay delights us with an authentic eighteenth-century sedan chair for £9,500. It is perhaps the closest historical analogue to Uber Black. In England such conveyances became popular from the 1630s and were called sedans, after the French town of Sedan, which specialised in the manufacture of covered litters.

Books · Monarchies · Observations · Mores

In light of the note on Leo Tolstoy, I recalled a passage from Daniil Granin's book "Evenings with Peter the Great", which unambiguously points to an intimate relationship between Peter Alexeyevich and Alexander Menshikov

In light of the note on Leo Tolstoy, I recalled a passage from Daniil Granin's book "Evenings with Peter the Great", which unambiguously points to an intimate relationship between Peter Alexeyevich and Alexander Menshikov. I remember well the strong impression this episode made on me, all

Geography · Art · Nature · Ethnography

The Susitna mountain image was made by a digital artist, and Nancy Lash invented its legend

An image of the "Sleeping Lady" mountain, photographed by drone in Canada, 30 km north-west of Anchorage, is gaining popularity online. The story of Mount Susitna is bound up with an Indian legend about a girl who suffered from unhappy love: her beloved did not return from

Archaeology · The East · Museums · Observations

I propose a comparison of expensive footwear from two different eras: a pair of velvet men's shoes with gold trim from Italy in the 1730s, in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and a woman's boot from a Scythian burial in the Altai, 2

I propose a comparison of expensive footwear from two different eras: a pair of velvet men's shoes with gold trim from Italy in the 1730s, in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and a woman's boot from a Scythian burial in the

Aristocracy · Art · Books · Observations

The most interesting thing about this child's portrait, in my view, is that the child is reading a primer, and he is three years old

The most interesting thing about this child's portrait, in my view, is that the child is reading a primer, and he is three years old. The count's son Ivan Alexeyevich Musin-Pushkin was painted by an unknown artist of the Yaroslavl school around 1786. The boy&

Archive · Books · Mores · People

There are two interesting and fairly popular texts on Leo Tolstoy's attitude to men, often read as proof of Lev Nikolayevich's homosexuality in his boyhood and youth

The first text is a diary entry of 29 November 1851, when Tolstoy was 23: “I have never been in love with women. <…> With men I have very often fallen in love: my first love was the two Pushkins, then the second, Saburov (?), then the third, Zybin and

Latest