Eugène Hénard's Palace of Electricity at the 1900 Paris World's Fair

The heart of the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris was the magnificent Palace of Electricity, designed by Eugène Hénard: behind its elegant 130-metre façade lay a vast power station supplying energy to all the pavilions of the exhibition. The façade, 70 metres high, was crowned by a chariot bearing the Fairy of Electricity, drawn by hippogriffs with streams of multicoloured flame. The whole building was decked with coloured lamps, and the fountain by Edmond Paulin was lit as well. The existence of the power station was betrayed only by the two chimneys at either side of the building and the railway line running up to it, along which the coal was brought

Report a translation error

September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Eugène Hénard's Palace of Electricity at the 1900 Paris World's Fair

Read more

September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s