Architecture · Books · Society · People

Victor Hugo's exile after the 1851 coup and his house Hauteville House on Guernsey

On 2 December 1851, after the coup d'état, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte banished Victor Hugo from France. The writer fled to Belgium, passing himself off as a printing-house worker, Jacques Firmin Lanvin, and from there he was expelled in 1852. In 1854 he finally settled on Guernsey, an

Architecture · Monarchies · Mores · Rome · Humour

A cannonball in the Villa Medici fountain and two legends about Christina of Sweden

At the entrance to the main building of the Villa Medici, which today houses the French Academy in Rome, stands a fountain of imposing size. The round basin was acquired by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, who bought it in 1587 for 200 scudi from the monastery of San Salvatore

Architecture · Monarchies · Mores · Humour

Louis-Philippe installed a lift at Fontainebleau for his sister Maria Adelaide in 1840

If you too fell for the gossip that Louis-Philippe was a nasty piece of work and a scoundrel, perhaps this charming lift, which he devised and installed at the Château de Fontainebleau in 1840 for his elderly sister, will make you think again. Then again, even scoundrels love their

Architecture · Observations · Rome

Rome's first public lift was installed on the Aurelian Wall in the Pincio Gardens in 1929

If you look closely, on the façade of this neglected sixteenth-century Tuscan-style building in the northern part of the Pincio gardens, directly above Piazza del Popolo, you can make out an inscription: ASCENSORI. Yes, it really is a lift. More precisely, it is the first public lift in

Architecture · Art · Observations · Rome

Variants of the myth of Leda and Zeus and the Dioscuri statues on Rome's Capitoline Hill

In the myths of the union of Leda and Zeus-the-swan there are several versions of the outcome: Leda bore two eggs and two children, Helen and Clytemnestra; Leda bore four eggs, plus various versions of paternity: some name Zeus as the father of the eggs and Tyndareus as

Marble tomb with a statue of the pope in a niche and a red stone drapery from beneath which Death emerges holding an hourglass.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Art · Rome

Tomb of Pope Alexander VII by Bernini with a skeleton and an hourglass

The tomb of Pope Alexander VII, Bernini. From beneath the drapery that stands for the flesh, Death peers out with an hourglass.

Interior of Saint Peter's Basilica with the dome, a Latin inscription running around it and a dark baldachin in the centre.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Art · Observations · Rome

Michelangelo's dome and Bernini's baldachin in Saint Peter's Basilica

St Peter's Basilica: the dome by Michelangelo, the baldachin by Bernini. I would like to congratulate everyone on the creative power of Christian culture

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Rome · Humour

The Marble Lion in Santa Maria del Popolo Awaits His Appointment with the Dentist

Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Mores

The Prague Restaurant in Moscow from a Tavern in 1872 to Its Closure, with a 1901 Photograph

@sncmag, it is a great pity that these interiors are now closed to visitors. For if we speak of the truly iconic establishments of Moscow, then it is, of course, the "Praga", opened as long ago as 1872. True, at that time it was rather a tavern, and

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith · Heritage

The Old Synagogue of San Francisco on Sutter Street, before and after its destruction

Archive · Architecture · Faith

Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco, destroyed in 1906 and rebuilt elsewhere 20 years later

Temple Emanu-El, the grand synagogue of San Francisco, for which funds were raised over 11 years, built in 1864, was the heart of the city's Jewish community. It was here, for example, that Levi Strauss, the very inventor of jeans, came to worship. In 1906 the synagogue

Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Paris

Relics, artworks, bells and rose windows of Notre-Dame during the fire

The fate of many of Notre-Dame's treasures remains unknown. A piece of the Holy Cross and the holy nails A fragment of the Cross on which Jesus was crucified, and one of the nails from the Crucifixion. A painting of Thomas Aquinas A canvas of the seventeenth