Aristocracy · Architecture · The East · Observations · Humour

The Mukhranbatoni House in Tbilisi, completed in 1899, and the legend of Pushkin's parquet

The Tbilisi house of the Mukhranbatoni on Loris-Melikov Street, renamed Gudiashvili Street, is now partly residential. It was built to the commission of Prince Ivan Bagration-Mukhransky in the style of the French Renaissance, to a design by Kornely Tatishchev, a celebrated architect of his day. When I visited

Aristocracy · Architecture · The East · Observations

The Bagration-Mukhransky princes' house in Tbilisi and the aristocratic club on Golovinsky Prospect

I once told of the house of the Princes Bagration-Mukhransky in Tbilisi, which stood not far from the aristocratic club, also owned by the Mukhranbatoni, on Golovinsky Prospect, now Rustaveli Avenue. I have long been meaning to tell one story that connects me with this building

Aristocracy · Architecture · Books · London · Monarchies · Mores

Charles II's glass sundial at Whitehall and its destruction by the Earl of Rochester

In a book on Whitehall, one of the loveliest palaces in Europe and, in its day, the largest in the world, I came upon a description of a whimsical toy belonging to the merry King Charles II. In the centre of the Privy Garden at Whitehall stood a unique sundial.

Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Society

Demolition of the Church of Saint Martin in Sablé-sur-Sarthe for a car park began on 17 July

My Street. France On 17 July, demolition began of the church of Saint Martin in the French commune of Sablé-sur-Sarthe, built in 1880-86. The deconstruction is due to be completed by the end of July. For several years now the church building has been in a state

NB! · Architecture · Cinema · Books · Observations · Humour

Episode 1 of Game of Thrones recalled Chetham's Library in Manchester: the same little gates as in the Citadel, though here they went further and chained the books down, and in place of Samwell Tarly it was Karl Marx who sat up late

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Art

Carving of Sea Creatures in a Twelfth-Century English Church

NB! · Architecture · Observations · Humour

I shall not go into the biography of Bishop Konrad von Hochstaden, whose figure on Cologne's town hall tramples a sculpture of self-fellation; I shall say only this: other people get monkeys and flowers

Aristocracy · Architecture · Monarchies · Observations

The Bagration-Mukhransky family, its marriages with the Romanovs and its Tbilisi mansion

With talk in Georgia of putting the restoration of the monarchy to a referendum, I have decided to continue my account of the Bagration-Mukhransky dynasty. The Georgian noble house of Bagration-Mukhransky is linked with the House of Romanov by several dynastic marriages. The most significant of them, of

NB! · Architecture · Art · Heritage · Paris

The Statue of Napoleon from the Toppled Vendôme Column

NB! · Architecture · Heritage · Society · Paris

The Demolition of the Vendôme Column on 18 May 1871

Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage · Paris

The Vendôme Column in Paris, from the statue of Napoleon to its destruction in 1871

The original turns out not to differ greatly from its prototype, save for a somewhat enlarged viewing platform on the, er... summit of the column, and a statue of Napoleon set at the very top. Originally the place on the Place Vendôme was occupied by a monument to Louis XIV,

Archive drawing “Colonne de la Grande Armée”, Place Vendôme, original layout: elevation, plan sections and a cross-section showing the inner staircase.

NB! · Architecture · Observations · Paris · Humour

Original design of the Vendôme Column, erected by Napoleon in honour of the victory at Austerlitz

This is how the Vendôme Column might have looked, erected by Napoleon in 1807 in honour of the victory at Austerlitz. As they say, the associations are no accident: the form does indeed match the message