Archive · Architecture · Heritage
On 14 July 1902 a dreadful thing happened in Venice: the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica collapsed in Piazza San Marco, with repair work under way on its roof. The main causes of the collapse were said to be wear and tear, the effects of earthquakes and
Archive · Faith · Society
In the eighteenth century a number of crimes carried ecclesiastical penalties alongside civil sanctions. One such measure was penance, imposed by a church court. In 1716, for instance, the Military Statute obliged offenders to repent of idolatry, sorcery, the charming of firearms, fornication, perjury and manslaughter. Practice, however, could differ
NB! · Archive · Moscow · Museums · Heritage
Archive · Faith · Society
On 1 July 1949 Pope Pius XII excommunicated all Communists from the Catholic Church, calling Marxism an "implacable enemy" of Christianity. Excommunication was imposed for embracing the Communist doctrine and propagating it, for membership of the Communist Party and collaboration with it, and for reading and distributing its
Archive · Mores · Paris · Humour
Tasty, and That's Full Stop: A Hundred Years Ago. A man awaiting his chips in Paris in 1920
NB! · Archive · In the Press · Society · Paris
An illustration from the German satirical magazine Kladderadatsch, 1932, foreseeing the image of France a hundred years on: "The last white Frenchmen, the chief attraction of the Paris Zoo". Eight years remain until 2032
Archive · Faith · Geography · Maps · Books
The Abbess set me a task – To make her map of Paradise more precise. I told her – I am no Swedenborg. She said to me: be humbler and more meek. All night I toiled in vain and wilted, Until my Angel-Wolf flew in, He took pencils, paper, compasses And
Archive · Society · Humour
Soviet people warmly approve the patriotic initiative of the labour collectives of the gas-pipeline builders, who have pledged their word to bring all the gas pipelines, the export pipeline included, into operation on schedule and ahead of it, notwithstanding the discriminatory sanctions undertaken by the US administration Yu. Galkin
Archive · Architecture · Paris
In 1937 a design was submitted to the architectural competition of the International Exhibition in Paris that bears a suspicious resemblance to the 58-metre Söyembikä Tower in Kazan. Since no information about the authorship of the Parisian competition drawing has survived to our day, one is left to guess
Archive · Architecture · Heritage
Spectators at Sophocles' "Antigone" in the ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus in 1956. The theatre at Epidaurus is the best preserved of all the theatres of Ancient Greece. The amphitheatre, built to seat fifteen thousand spectators in the 340s BC close to the Asclepieion, not far from
NB! · Archive · Observations
Two mountaineers in 1900. Every time I see photos like this, I am struck by how much the world has changed in a mere hundred years.
Archive · Books · Observations
Any thoughts as to why? This kind of letter was widespread in the early days of the postal service: crossed writing was used to reduce the number of sheets and to lighten the envelopes