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Archaeology · Museums · Heritage
Golden wreath of 315 BC found during construction of the Thessaloniki metro
A golden wreath tied with a Heraclean knot, which is rather unreliable at home and at sea. Found in a Macedonian tomb. The diadem is in splendid condition, and although it dates from 315 BC, it is one of 300,000 finds from 5,000 burials excavated during the construction
Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Mores
The Prague Restaurant in Moscow from a Tavern in 1872 to Its Closure, with a 1901 Photograph
@sncmag, it is a great pity that these interiors are now closed to visitors. For if we speak of the truly iconic establishments of Moscow, then it is, of course, the "Praga", opened as long ago as 1872. True, at that time it was rather a tavern, and
Art · Observations · Mores · People · Humour
Portrait of the Reverend Thomas Gisborne and His Wife Mary
Portrait of the Reverend Thomas Gisborne and his wife Mary. A splendid umbrella, a cool dog and a remarkable likeness: do you not think so? He and his wife might be twins. People used to murmur that Gisborne had married for money: the girl from the wealthy Babington family was
NB! · Faith · Art · Observations
The Execution of Saint George in a Window Relief at the Stiftskirche in Tübingen
Today, on Saint George's Day, many recall his rich iconography. To my mind, more impressive than the scene of the dragon being slain is the execution of George, for instance this relief on a window of the Stiftskirche in Tübingen
Books · Observations · Mores
Patchouli in Gaev's line in Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard” and its possible meaning
GAYEV. Once, sister, you and I slept in this very room, and now I am fifty-one years old, strange as it may seem... LOPAKHIN. Yes, time goes on. GAYEV. What? LOPAKHIN. Time, I say, goes on. GAYEV. And it smells of patchouli here. As for this «patchouli» in The
Aristocracy · Faith · Monarchies · Rome
Archduke Eduard and the priest Paul of Habsburg-Lorraine, descendants of Franz Joseph I
A man in formal dress and a priest, photographed after a solemn liturgy, might well be heirs to the Austrian crown. Before us are the brothers of Habsburg-Lorraine, great-great-great-grandsons of Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria-Hungary. No great surprise, really, since the Habsburgs are today
NB! · Art · Observations · Humour
Jacob Cuyp paints a four-year-old girl holding a fish, with a cat beside her
You ask what is going on here? I shall tell you: three hundred and seventy years have passed and nothing has changed. Four-year-old children still torment animals, and the grown-ups still find it amusing. The girl also holds a fish in her right hand. All in all,
NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith · Heritage
The Old Synagogue of San Francisco on Sutter Street, before and after its destruction
Archive · Architecture · Faith
Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco, destroyed in 1906 and rebuilt elsewhere 20 years later
Temple Emanu-El, the grand synagogue of San Francisco, for which funds were raised over 11 years, built in 1864, was the heart of the city's Jewish community. It was here, for example, that Levi Strauss, the very inventor of jeans, came to worship. In 1906 the synagogue
Cinema · Books · Mores
Golden Globe winning 1991 film about escaping the city, based on Elizabeth von Arnim's novel
Gender of the Day: Enchanted April. Strange as it may seem, gloom, private misfortunes and dramas retreat into the background with the coming of the sun. Whoever you may be, a disenchanted madonna or an elderly prude, a deserted society beauty or an ecstatic little ingénue, April is always a
Books · Moscow · Observations · Mores · Saint Petersburg
Kofemania on Bolshaya Nikitskaya and the place of coffee in old Russia and Russian literature
The much-discussed “Kofemania” and its clientele are not merely a portrait of our times. Whenever I visit one of my favourite branches, the one on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, I find myself, for some reason, transported into the atmosphere of the celebrated nineteenth-century Petersburg coffee house of “Wolff and Béranger”