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EKONIKA has produced a genuinely stylish stand with very handsome details; I at once had an immersive experience of wielding a silver hammer, but alas, this art object proved to be an integral part of the installation "Through the Looking-Glass of the Sho

EKONIKA has produced a genuinely stylish stand with very handsome details; I at once had an immersive experience of wielding a silver hammer, but alas, this art object proved to be an integral part of the installation "Through the Looking-Glass of the Shoemaker's Craft", created

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture

An Ancient Roman Icehouse on the Minus-First Level of Turin's Central Market

Architecture · Observations · Heritage · Education

Baron von Derwies's izba at Valrose in Nice to be restored for 700,000 euros

150 years ago Baron von Derviz, the creator of the Trans-Siberian Railway, bought a plot of land of 10 hectares in Nice, built the Château de Valrose and lived there with his wife and three children. The grounds of the villa were laid out with grottoes, cascades, a great

Architecture · Faith · The East · Heritage · Society

Authorities confirm Armenian cathedral in Ani will become a mosque after restoration

It is reported that the Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Virgin in Ani, the capital of medieval Bagratid Armenia, in present-day eastern Turkey on the border with Armenia, is to be turned into a mosque. The cathedral has enormous historical and symbolic significance for Armenians. The thousand-year-old

Gilded carved altar with columns decorated with grapevines beneath the white vaults of the cathedral, photographed from below.

Architecture · Faith · Art

Carved and gilded altar in the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Malmö

Behind the most sumptuous Baroque carving lie the most ordinary painted boards. The altarpiece of St Peter's Church in Malmö

NB! · Architecture · Observations · People · Humour

You ask why I don't care for Le Corbusier?

You ask why I don't care for Le Corbusier? Because he led us from the first to the second

NB! · Architecture · Books · Heritage

Masonic Gates with a Secret, from the Book An English Arcadia 1600-1990

Archaeology · Architecture · Heritage

History of Staraya Ladoga and its fortress, from wooden walls to stone fortifications

During excavations in Staraya Ladoga, archaeologists have uncovered stonework dating from the reign of Oleg the Wise, who ruled in the Novgorod land in the 880s. Originally the Ladoga fortress was protected by wooden walls, built after an enemy raid around 860-870, and only in the 10th century was

Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Rome

Bernini's Project for a Church in the Colosseum and the Memory of Martyrs

One of the creators of Roman Baroque, the great sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), builder of Saint Peter's Square, contemplated the decline of another landmark of Rome: since the fourteenth century the Colosseum had been in a pitiable state, crumbling ever further. Despite its worldwide fame since

Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage

Château of Philip the Bold in Burgundy and its roof of multicoloured tiles

Built in Burgundy at the end of the fourteenth century for Philip the Bold, the Château Philippe le Hardi is known for its remarkable tiled roof with a distinctive colourful pattern. Over the centuries it has been rebuilt several times, but it remains a significant historical and architectural landmark of

Architecture · Art · Books · Observations

Gilded statue of Jupiter by Johann Jakob Vogelhund (1723) at Rastatt Palace

It was no accident that I recalled La Fontaine's fable of the statue of Jupiter last night. In an illustrated edition of La Fontaine, the figure of Jupiter was depicted as a sculpture resembling the one installed in the hall of the former residence of the Margraves of

Architecture · Faith · Art · Heritage

The frescoes of the Saviour-Transfiguration Cathedral of the Saviour-Euthymius Monastery in Suzdal, executed in the late seventeenth century by an artel of nine painters under the direction of Gury Nikitin, were the last work of the great master, known ab

Almost 600 square metres of frescoes are called the most accomplished creation of Gury Nikitin. The subject of the main volume glorifies Our Lord Jesus Christ, telling the whole story of his life. On the piers are depicted the venerated saints, the pillars of the Church, together with representatives of