Faith · Moscow · Heritage · Society
Hard to imagine, but concentration camps were scattered all over Moscow. The young Soviet state needed as many prisons as it could get, so concentration camps took over the buildings of former monasteries and churches, from the Novospassky to the Ivanovsky in the very centre of the capital, where barbed
Faith · Society · People · Saint Petersburg
The widow intended to have the funeral service for Alexander Sergeyevich held in Saint Isaac's Cathedral, but was refused: the priest regarded the duel as a suicide and declined to bury the poet. Other churches refused too. Far too many believed that Pushkin had in effect quit this
NB! · Architecture · Faith · People · Saint Petersburg
Archive · Faith · Art
"The extract of our deacons, those lions of the clergy, in whom not one iota of anything spiritual is to be found: he is all flesh and blood, goggle eyes, maw and senseless roar" - so Repin wrote to Kramskoy of his "Protodeacon" in 1878. Well, these
NB! · Faith · Art · Ethnography
Faith · Art · Books
Ilya Repin has several paintings titled “Get thee behind me, Satan”. In them, a hideous figure of the devil stands behind Jesus. The words are a disputed quotation from chapter 4 of the Gospel of Matthew: some maintain that the Greek and Church Slavonic texts say “go (follow) behind me”
Aristocracy · Architecture · Faith · Observations · People
Monsignor Vincenzo Giustiniani, a Genoese patrician turned diplomat, in his 64 years gave Apulia, the region where he served as bishop, several churches and public buildings. Among them is the unique church of Madonna della Grazia in Gravina. Have you ever seen so majestic an eagle on the façade of
Architecture · Faith · Observations
Everything you need to know about this church in the Italian town of Gravina is written on its face. Madonna della Grazia above the entrance is the name of the church. The eagle spreading its wings over a castle with three towers comes from the family coat of arms of
Aristocracy · Faith · Art · Heritage
Perhaps one of the most extravagant monuments of the French Renaissance: the tomb of René de Chalon, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, who died in 1544. It is not entirely clear whether the 25-year-old René himself left instructions for a rotting tomb to be
Faith · Art · Museums · Mores · Rome
Caravaggio painted the Virgin Mary from Rome's most famous prostitute, Maddalena Antognetti, known as Lena, yet her child is the very embodiment of holy simplicity, for he is not to blame for his mother's transgressions, and he even tramples the symbol of sin. The canvas even
NB! · Architecture · Faith · Art · Rome
The tomb of Pope Alexander VII, Bernini. From beneath the drapery that stands for the flesh, Death peers out with an hourglass.
NB! · Architecture · Faith · Art · Observations · Rome
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