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Architecture · Faith · Art · Heritage
Head of Christ, a fragment of the crucifix from the Basilica of San Bernardino in L'Aquila, Abruzzo: the only surviving wooden sculpture, or rather fragment, by the architect and sculptor Lando di Pietro
In 1944, as the Allied forces were advancing towards the north of Italy, a bomb destroyed the basilica, including the crucifix that stood on the high altar. Of the sculpture only the head, parts of the knee and the left hand survive. In one of the knees and in the
NB! · Architecture · Madrid · Moscow · Observations
Modernism Everywhere, Each to His Own: A Petrol Station in Madrid on San Lorenzo de El Escorial and a Petrol Station Opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow
NB! · Architecture · Humour
If Fred Flintstone is hiding in this house, just nod
Architecture · Art · Heritage · Paris
Restored Grenelle Fountain of 1745 in Paris with allegories of the city and the seasons
Let us stroll to the recently restored Fontaine de Grenelle of 1745, from which the water has already been switched off. For all the monumentality of its architecture, the fountain's decoration is rather modest, but what interests us are the allegories of the seasons concealed in the bas-
NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Faith · Paris
Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, the city's oldest church, which gave its name to the district
The oldest church in Paris, the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which gave its name to the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Parts of the church preserve elements of the building of the 11th and 12th centuries. To the left of the altar stands a statue of the Madonna of the
NB! · Architecture · Observations · Heritage · Paris
Notre-Dame, beloved, still in its scaffolding frock
Architecture · The East · Art · Heritage
The Parthenon in Jacques Carrey's 1674 painting and its destruction in the 1687 siege of Athens
As of 1674, when this painting was made, the Parthenon in Athens was intact. More or less in its original form, if one sets aside the Ottoman decorative transformation. Jacques Carrey, the French artist famed for his Athenian sketches, who belonged to the retinue of the French ambassador to the
Architecture · Faith · Cinema · Moscow · Observations
Kofemania founder Igor Zhuravlev and the Church of St Blaise in Old Konyushennaya Sloboda
From a new film about Kofemania I learned that its founder, Igor Zhuravlev, who attended the Church of the Hieromartyr Blaise in the Old Stable Settlement, considers the rector of that church, Archpriest Alexei Novikov, the man who determined his fate. Hence the actual icons that hang in all of
Architecture · Faith · Monarchies · Observations · Heritage
History of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery near Moscow from its founding in 1398 to today
Not far from Moscow stands one of the foremost Orthodox monasteries, Savvino-Storozhevsky, founded in 1398 by the Venerable Sabbas, the Wonderworker of Zvenigorod. Sabbas was one of the first disciples of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh. Prince Yury Dmitrievich revered the Venerable Sabbas and extended his patronage to the
Architecture · Heritage · Paris · Humour
Gilded bulls temporarily vanish from old butcher's facade on Paris's Rue Mouffetard
An amusing story. In Paris, on the Rue Mouffetard, the "golden" bulls that were the trademark of an old butcher's shop, which operated from the 18th century until the 1970s, vanished from its historic façade, a listed monument of architecture, in the course of restoration work.
Architecture · Books
How Tolkien Described the Home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in Hobbiton
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and