John of God, a former soldier who founded a free hospital in Seville

Saint John of God carrying a sick man. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. 1672. Seville, the church of San Jorge at the Hospital de la Caridad

John of God is a real historical figure of the sixteenth century: in his youth he was a soldier, and in maturity he went through a profound spiritual crisis. He quite literally went out of his mind with compassion for the destitute: he ran about the streets of Seville, begged passers-by to beat him in atonement for his sins, and then founded one of the first free hospitals for the poor. John made his own rounds of the dens and the gutters, seeking out those whom the whole world had rejected, and carried them in his arms into the warmth

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Alexander I as King of Poland and the Incorporation of the Duchy of Warsaw into the Russian Empire in 1815

Alexander I, King of Poland, Tsar and Autocrat of All the Russias Just a reminder of Russia's borders before 1918: in 1815 the greater part of the Duchy of Warsaw became part of the Russian Empire as the Kingdom of Poland, or the Vistula Land, until everything fell

A 1930 photograph showing the eviction of a kulak and his family during dekulakisation.

How Many Suffered in Dekulakisation: Estimates by Zemskov, Ivnitsky and Conquest

A photograph of 1930 showing the deportation of a kulak and his family The number of victims of dekulakisation has still not been established and can hardly be stated unambiguously, since the figure includes both those directly repressed (stripped of their property, evicted, exiled, arrested) and, on occasion, the victims

Félix Bonfils, photographs of a dragoman and guide for travellers in Syria

From a guidebook to Syria. Photographs by Félix Bonfils (1831-1885)

Fire at Miller House in Saint Petersburg and bans on building after fires in the laws of several countries

On the evening of 1 October the Miller mansion at 3 St Isaac's Square in Saint Petersburg burned down. A house of the second half of the eighteenth century, rebuilt in 1879-1880 in eclectic forms by the architect Ferdinand Miller, it was granted the status of a

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Alexander I as King of Poland and the Incorporation of the Duchy of Warsaw into the Russian Empire in 1815

How Many Suffered in Dekulakisation: Estimates by Zemskov, Ivnitsky and Conquest

Félix Bonfils, photographs of a dragoman and guide for travellers in Syria

Fire at Miller House in Saint Petersburg and bans on building after fires in the laws of several countries