Archive · Architecture · Books · Education · Society · Saint Petersburg

From City Museum to Children's Palace, the Building's History and a Kostyor Story of Kirov

In February 1937 the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers opened in the Anichkov Palace, today the Saint Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity. Before that, after the Revolution, the city museum had existed here for a short time; it was closed in 1925, and until 1927 the same premises also housed

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Art

Wrestlers

Wrestlers. Fragment of the decoration of the church at Anzy-le-Duc, department of Saône-et-Loire, and fragment of the decoration of the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius in Vladimir

Engraving of the Earl of Strafford's bedroom, with a bed between two columns, a fireplace, an armchair and a man reading at a candlelit table.

NB! · Aristocracy · Architecture · Observations · Mores

The Earl of Strafford's bedroom at Wentworth Woodhouse, with a bed set between two marble columns

In my opinion, it is a very strange architectural decision to place two marble columns at the foot of a bed. Or, more precisely, to set the bed between marble columns. But that is how the Earl of Strafford's bedchamber at Wentworth Woodhouse was arranged.

Aerial rendering of a large building with a light facade on a riverbank at dusk, surrounded by roads and autumn trees.

Architecture · Moscow · Society · Humour

Trump's surname added to the name of the Kennedy Center in Washington in late 2025

Trump Unveils Renderings of the Trump-Kennedy Center, and It Looks Most of All Like the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington itself, I remind you, was renamed, with the surname Trump appended, in late 2025 by decision of the

Architecture · Faith · The East · Heritage

The Turkish minaret of Kamianets-Podilskyi, crowned with a statue of the Madonna in 1756

The ensemble of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Kamianets-Podilskyi comprises the Cathedral itself, a bell tower, a triumphal gate and a Turkish minaret. Moreover, the Turkish minaret standing beside the Cathedral is crowned with a statue of the Virgin Mary. In 1672 the vast army of

Aerial view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower and the project's spiral ramps joining its second level.

Archive · Architecture · Paris

Engineer André Badouin's 1936 project for car ramps to the second level of the Eiffel Tower

Spiral concrete ramps for reaching the second level of the Eiffel Tower by car. So as to get to the restaurant without bothering with the lift. This is how the symbol of France might look today, had the project proposed in 1936 by the engineer André Badvan been carried out.

Archaeology · Architecture · Faith · The East · Heritage · Society

In Armenia, a monumental complex with a statue of Jesus Christ, planned to be one of the tallest in the world, is due to rise on the summit of Mount Ates by the end of 2026

In Armenia, a monumental complex with a statue of Jesus Christ, planned to be one of the tallest in the world, is due to rise on the summit of Mount Ates, some 30 km from Yerevan, by the end of 2026. The statue itself will stand 33 metres high, and

Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Society · Paris

In Paris, a cornice has collapsed at the Church of Saint-Roch

In Paris, a cornice has collapsed at the Church of Saint-Roch. Thank God, no one was hurt City activists had been raising the alarm about the church's precarious condition, and the town hall's inaction, for more than ten years

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Mores · Humour

"High-Rise Building" cake, made for 8 March 1954 by the architect-draughtsmen designing the "Stalin skyscrapers"

NB! · Archive · Architecture

Children having a snowball fight near Changgyeonggung Palace in Seoul in 1956

Archive · Architecture · Books · Saint Petersburg

Gogol on the variety of architectural forms in a city and Nevsky Prospect in 1985

A city should be composed of varied masses, if we want it to delight the eye… Let there be seen in it the gently convex milky dome, and the religious, endless spire, and the Eastern mitre, and the flat Italian roof, and the tall, ornamented Flemish one, and the four-

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Observations

I don't know about you, but to me this 1967 photograph, showing the "book" towers going up on Novy Arbat, taken from the Church of the Saviour on Spasopeskovskaya Square, is a very sad sight

I don't know about you, but to me this 1967 photograph, showing the "book" towers going up on Novy Arbat, taken from the Church of the Saviour on Spasopeskovskaya Square, is a very sad sight. They have no business being here; they ought to have been