French cannonball of 1849 in the staircase of Cardinal Colonna's palace in Rome

A trace of the brief days of the Roman Republic in 1849: a cannonball lodged in the staircase of the Great Salon of Cardinal Girolamo Colonna's Baroque palace. The shots were fired at random from the Janiculum Hill into the centre of Rome, which the republicans had held for several months. What is more, this ball came from a French gun: Pope Pius XI had summoned French troops under General Oudinot to his aid. The projectile was left where it lay, as a treasured reminder: to some of the return of the republic, to others of defiance of the papal will, to others still of the struggle for civil rights, and to others of France's meddling in internal affairs.

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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

French cannonball of 1849 in the staircase of Cardinal Colonna's palace in Rome

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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