Architecture · Art · Moscow · Heritage

Not exactly a treasure, one might say, but still a fairly rare mosaic of a longship and the Kremlin on an ordinary prefab block in Moscow at 22 Yablochkova Street

Not exactly a treasure, one might say, but still a fairly rare mosaic of a longship and the Kremlin on an ordinary prefab block in Moscow at 22 Yablochkova Street. The building is being demolished under the renovation programme, while activists from among the residents of the Butyrsky district are

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Heritage

A splendid cast-iron post of the mid-nineteenth century in Bryusov Lane, all that remains of the old estate that once stood on this spot

A splendid cast-iron post of the mid-nineteenth century in Bryusov Lane, all that remains of the old estate that once stood on this spot. Only recently the post was carefully restored by the lads from “Vspomnit Vse”, for which they have our gratitude and respect

Architecture · Observations · Heritage

Restoration of the Parthenon's west frieze and the threat of acid rain to marble

Once again the question hangs in the air: should monuments of ancient history be refreshed, and to what degree? The west frieze of the Parthenon has been restored. This is how it looks now. What is the difficulty with marble antiquities? Marble is destroyed by acid, and acid rain, the

Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Heritage

Pertsova apartment house on Prechistenskaya Embankment, its present condition and fate

A fairy-tale terem on the Prechistenskaya Embankment, the Pertsova tenement house for gifted artists, is now in the use of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As you can see, one of the landmark buildings of early twentieth-century Moscow is not in the best of states: tiles keep dropping

Architecture · Art · Heritage · Society

History of the Stalin Monument in Prague from the 1950s Competition to Demolition

In the 1950s it was decided to erect a monument to Stalin in Letná Park, on a viewing platform overlooking Prague, timed to mark the tenth anniversary of the city's liberation from the fascists by Soviet troops. But the sculptors were in no hurry to take part in

NB! · Architecture · Heritage · Society

Speaking of the history of destroyed monuments, one cannot fail to recall the colossal multi-figure composition in Prague, in which Stalin leads Czechoslovak and Soviet builders of a bright future, and which survived for only 7 years

Architecture · In the Press · Faith · Heritage

BBC shows a reconstruction of 15th-century Wells Cathedral with painted colour and niches for music

The BBC shows how Wells Cathedral looked in the 1400s. Most Gothic buildings, in Britain at least, were once brightly painted, like many of the structures and monuments of the ancient world, which we too are more accustomed to seeing in monochrome, their many colours lost over the years. Besides

Architecture · Geography · Cinema · Museums

Orava Castle: a medieval fortress in Slovakia on a 112-metre rock above the River Orava

Orava Castle is a medieval fortress in Slovakia, perched on a 112-metre rock above the little River Orava. It was here that the 1922 film "Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror" was shot. True, in the plot the castle stands in Romania. In 2015 the castle, which had

Architecture · Art · Paris

Christo Javacheff's project to wrap the Arc de Triomphe in Paris postponed to 2021

In 2021 Christo Planned to Wrap the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. https://theparnassian.com/stalo-izvestno-chto-grandioznyi-proekt-khudozhnika-khristo-iavasheva-po-upakovke-triumfalnoi-arki-v-parizhe-perenositsia-s-oseni-etogo-goda-na-2021/?single

Architecture · Moscow

Moscow's flat houses and the irregular shape of building plots

Flat-fronted houses in Moscow owe their existence to the way building plots were cut and the price of land. With an irregularly shaped plot, the landowner faced a choice: lose floor area or find an ingenious solution by means of a cunning layout. The houses on Taganskaya Street (1/

Architecture · London · Observations

William Douglas's triangular house in South Kensington, once seven artists' studios

The celebrated "flat house" in South Kensington, built in the late nineteenth century by William Douglas on a tiny wedge-shaped scrap of land, is in fact triangular in plan, with its narrowest part just 180 cm wide and its broadest 10 metres. Originally the house contained seven

Dark wooden doors with carved panels in a marble frame beneath a brick arch.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Rome

The wooden doors of the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine in Rome are over 1,500 years old

Another ancient door of Rome, more than 1,500 years old. The wooden doors of the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine have preserved 18 of their original carved panels; the only thing that has changed is the doorway in which they are set.