The East · Interviews · Museums · Heritage · Saint Petersburg

The most important thing I managed to discuss with Mikhail Piotrovsky was not the perpetual succession of museum directors in Moscow, nor the robbery of the Louvre, nor even the hysterics around "colonial museums", but a very specific and direct question:

What lamps? Lamps of the 14th century, a fine example of Islamic applied art, once presented by Timur to the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi and kept there until the early 20th century. There were six such lamps in all. The Hermitage, it turned out, has two and a half,

The East · Interviews · Books · Museums · Heritage · People · Saint Petersburg

My long interview with Mikhail Piotrovsky has been published, timed to the release of his new book "I Am an Arabist" but focused mainly on the modern museum and the cultural environment around it

I met Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky after the presentation of his book at the Peredelkino House of Creativity. After several hours with the public, an autograph session and filming, the legendary Piotrovsky nonetheless received me with energy and good humour. I tried not to ask the questions that every journalist has

Architecture · Faith · Art · Observations · Heritage

UNESCO-listed Sucevița Monastery and its frescoes in the late Byzantine tradition

The Ladder to Paradise on the north façade of the medieval Suceviţa Monastery in Romania. The monastery, naturally, is a UNESCO monument. Inside and out it is covered entirely, with the exception of the western wall, in paintings of scenes from the Old and New Testaments, the intercession of all

Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Paris

Paris to restore the church of Saint-Eustache, one of the city's main churches

At last, some good news. Pity it is not ours. Still, the Parisian church of Saint-Eustache is to be restored. For a long time now one of the city's principal churches has been in less than perfect condition, and the announcement of repair and restoration work is

Art · Moscow · Heritage · Society

Artists dressed “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” to draw attention to the dilapidated monument

Worker and Kolkhoz Woman in overalls and a sarafan in the colours of the Russian tricolour, sewn by the Monolit textile association in 1998. The decision to dress the sculpture was taken to draw attention to the preservation of a monument that in the 1990s had fallen into an extremely

Archaeology · Architecture · Heritage · Rome

Restoration of the Colosseum's entrance area, with the sites of its lost gallery columns, completed in Rome

The large-scale restoration of the Colosseum has been completed, or, to be precise, of the area beneath the lost part of the colonnade and the semicircular piazza before the arena, where Roman spectators once crowded under two galleries of marble columns up to 50 metres high. In these galleries

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Heritage

The orchestra of the Odeon in Athens is still paved with the same chequerboard marble as in AD 161

Faith · The East · Heritage · Society

For the first time in the history of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is closed indefinitely

For the first time in the history of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is closed indefinitely. The closure was ordered by the Israeli authorities. Holy Week and Easter services in the Church are forbidden, and Sunday masses and divine services have been cancelled. In the coming weeks the

Architecture · Faith · The East · Heritage

The Turkish minaret of Kamianets-Podilskyi, crowned with a statue of the Madonna in 1756

The ensemble of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Kamianets-Podilskyi comprises the Cathedral itself, a bell tower, a triumphal gate and a Turkish minaret. Moreover, the Turkish minaret standing beside the Cathedral is crowned with a statue of the Virgin Mary. In 1672 the vast army of

Archive · Cinema · Books · Heritage

In 2013 the Library of Congress published a report with the eloquent title “The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912–1929”, from which it follows that we have lost for ever 75% of the creative legacy of the era that raised…

Between 1912 and 1929 some 11,000 silent feature films were released in the United States. Only a small part of them has survived to the present day. The chief cause of the losses was deliberate destruction. Before home cinema and television, films were considered useless once their run was

Archaeology · Architecture · Faith · The East · Heritage · Society

In Armenia, a monumental complex with a statue of Jesus Christ, planned to be one of the tallest in the world, is due to rise on the summit of Mount Ates by the end of 2026

In Armenia, a monumental complex with a statue of Jesus Christ, planned to be one of the tallest in the world, is due to rise on the summit of Mount Ates, some 30 km from Yerevan, by the end of 2026. The statue itself will stand 33 metres high, and

Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Society · Paris

In Paris, a cornice has collapsed at the Church of Saint-Roch

In Paris, a cornice has collapsed at the Church of Saint-Roch. Thank God, no one was hurt City activists had been raising the alarm about the church's precarious condition, and the town hall's inaction, for more than ten years