Architecture · Faith · Heritage

Cathedral fire damage from last May now estimated at $10 million, not $1 million

A year has passed since the devastating fire at the Cathedral of St Theodosius of Chernigov in Cleveland, built in 1912 on the initiative of the Society of St Nicholas. The fire at the end of last May inflicted colossal damage on the cathedral: the flames destroyed the roof and

NB! · Architecture · Art · Heritage · Paris

American artist Brian Mark Taylor captured the 2019 fire at Notre-Dame de Paris in oils

Art · Observations · Heritage · Paris

Good Lord, what a nightmare

Good Lord, what a nightmare. Vandals in Paris have climbed onto the statue of Joan of Arc. The footage from the city streets almost repeats the scenes of the sack of Rome by Joseph-Noël Sylvestre

Archive · Books · Heritage · Rome

Library digitises over 18,000 of its 82,000 manuscripts, available on DigiVatLib

The Vatican Apostolic Library Embarks on a Large-Scale Project to Restore and Digitise More Than 80,000 Ancient Manuscripts. The library's collection comprises more than 82,000 manuscripts and 1.6 million printed books, among them more than 8,000 incunabula, books printed before 1501. Its holdings

Vaulted underground hall with massive pillars, a silt-covered floor and scattered debris.

Archaeology · Architecture · The East · Heritage

Derbent is over 2,000 years old and ranks among the oldest cities in Russia

Underground reservoir of the 10th to 11th centuries to open to visitors in Derbent. Derbent, with a history of more than 2,000 years, is one of the oldest cities in Russia

NB! · London · Museums · Observations · Heritage

The British Museum is simply a whole mountain of random things that were carried off from other countries and cultures

The British Museum is simply a whole mountain of random things that were carried off from other countries and cultures. It only strengthens the view that being British is nothing to be proud of. The only thing that was British was the enormous queue at the entrance

Architecture · Art · Moscow · Observations · Heritage

The metro station Dobryninskaya (formerly Serpukhovskaya) is adorned with 16 refined bas-reliefs by Elena Janson-Manizer, wife of the author of the bronze sculptures at Ploshchad Revolyutsii station

The marble reliefs depict, for the most part, agricultural workers. This is presumably meant to allude to the chief farming trade of each Soviet republic. Why 16 republics? The Union republics, the RSFSR included, numbered 15 from 1956 onwards; in 1950, when the station opened, there was still the Karelo-

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Paris

A magnificent twin-spiral oak staircase, twenty-one metres high and weighing twenty tonnes, has been installed in the south tower of Notre-Dame de Paris

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage

Interior of the house in Ajaccio, Corsica, where Napoleon was born

Archaeology · Observations · Heritage · Rome · Humour

Rome police detain a tourist with an ancient piece of marble from an archaeological site

A 20 kg Fridge Magnet Turns Out to Be the Base of an Ancient Column. The Rome police have detained a tourist who was carrying off an ancient chunk of marble from one of the city's archaeological sites. I am not sure what in this news item provokes

Books · Moscow · Observations · Heritage · Society

It is sad to see the dusty window of the Writers' Bookshop on Kuznetsky Most, closed for a year now

It is sad to see the dusty window of the Writers' Bookshop on Kuznetsky Most, closed for a year now. It is, it turns out, the oldest surviving bookshop in Moscow. One feels moved to appeal to the city authorities. In the capitalist race, not every cultural institution can

Archaeology · Archive · Architecture · Heritage

Stonehenge, a photograph of 1944

The monument owes its present appearance to repeated interventions in its structure. In 1901 the first major restoration was carried out, with the participation of the archaeologist William Gowland, who straightened and secured one of the stones, which was in danger of falling. In the process the stone was moved