Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Heritage
The silliest thing about this renaming is its poor timing. For when the Pushkin Museum was offered, as a gift, the greatest collection of contemporary art of the second half of the twentieth century, the collection of Peter Ludwig, the very reason for the refusal was the condition that the
Faith · Heritage · Society
By 10 November, thirty parishes and monastic communities of the Lithuanian Orthodox Church, which belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate, had sent appeals to the leadership and deputies of the Lithuanian parliament. The communities object to bills that alter the legal status of the church, curtail its rights and transfer a
Books · Heritage · Society · People · Nature
And, incidentally, having gained experience and taken a closer look, I withdrew from the Society for the Protection of Nature, which had put me on its central council. I also stood aside from the work of the Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, in whose organisation and
The East · Architecture · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage
The facade of the Mshatta Umayyad Palace, located in Jordan, presented in 1903 by Sultan Abdul Hamid II to the German Emperor Wilhelm II as a personal gift. The palace dates from the first half of the 8th century and is believed to have been built before the fall of
The Golden Age · Faith · The East · Art · Heritage
Two priceless fourteenth-century Byzantine icons, stolen more than 50 years ago, have returned to Cyprus The icons of the Evangelists Matthew and Mark, created under the Palaiologan dynasty, were stolen from the Metropolis of Kyrenia in 1974, after the Turkish invasion of the island. Half a century later, the
Archaeology · Museums · Heritage · Science · Society · Paris
In Pushkin's “Autumn” the grove sheds its last leaves; in France this October it was rather shop windows and town halls that were being shaken, and since this coincided with my customary Parisian holiday, a good part of the month in the channel passed to the sound of
The East · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Society
A visit to the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has turned into a rather melancholy affair. In 1934, by decree of Atatürk, the cathedral became a museum open to all, and in July 2020 the Turkish government restored the building's status as a working mosque, yet for
Heritage · Society · Reportage · Rome
On 24 October, at about 17:40, a crowd of demonstrators forced its way into the Colosseum in Rome. According to the Italian Ministry of Culture, the monument was not damaged and nobody was injured. That day Rome saw an authorised march, "Fuori l'Italia dalla guerra"
Faith · Art · Museums · Heritage
The "Moulins Triptych" by Jean Hey, created between 1498 and 1502. A masterpiece of the French Renaissance, held in the collection of the Cathedral of Moulins, it was restored between 2022 and 2025, after which it was shown at the Louvre in the Richelieu Gallery; the triptych is
Geography · Heritage · Society
The staff of US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have broken a globe that Dwight Eisenhower used during the Second World War. Hegseth was taken with the story of the globe, and his staff asked for it to be moved to the Secretary's office. Historic objects in the
NB! · Architecture · Observations · Heritage
A wooden escalator of the 1930s in the Saint Anne's pedestrian tunnel in Antwerp
Archaeology · Monarchies · Heritage
A local resident of the Gharbia Governorate in the Nile Delta discovered an inscribed granite block on his land and reported it to the authorities. Archaeologists began work at the site and found fragments of two colossal statues. The first statue survives in the form of a head about one