Aristocracy · Architecture · Books · Heritage · People

A memorial marker at Yasnaya Polyana on the site of the house laid down by Prince Volkonsky, in which his grandson, Leo Tolstoy, would be born

A memorial marker at Yasnaya Polyana on the site of the house laid down by Prince Volkonsky, in which his grandson, Leo Tolstoy, would be born. Like the rebuilt estate of Bald Hills in «War and Peace», the house was built after the prince's death, and somewhat more

Archaeology · The East · Museums · Heritage · Paris · Humour

Sarcophagus of King Ahiram found in Paris, buried under junk: it serves as a storeroom for brooms and mops in a littered utility room of an administrative building

The sarcophagus discovered in a Franco-Lebanese house is a cast of the original kept in the National Museum of Beirut, incidentally one of its chief treasures. The magnificent sarcophagus of Ahiram, found by the French archaeologist Pierre Montet in 1923, is considered a symbol of Franco-Lebanese friendship: that,

Art · Moscow · Heritage · People · Nature

Artist Sofya Matveyeva and her dried-plant panels at the Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden

In the Stock Greenhouse of the Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden, the decorative treatment of the doors has been touchingly preserved: panels of dried plants assembled by the Soviet artist Sofya Vasilyevna Matveyeva (1904-1986). Sofya Matveyeva worked in the Main Botanical Garden almost from its founding, under Nikolai Tsitsin himself,

Faith · London · Heritage · People

Relics of Saint John Southworth, executed in 1654, in Westminster Cathedral

The reliquary with the body of Saint John Southworth, one of the 40 martyrs of England and Ireland, is kept in the principal Catholic church of England, Westminster Cathedral. The priest John Southworth was executed in 1654 essentially for no more than being a Catholic and carrying on with his

Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Heritage · Education

Russian Eclectic Pseudo-Baroque Strikes Straight to the Heart

Russian eclectic pseudo-Baroque strikes straight to the heart. Look at these cheerful and severe features of the Petrovskaya Agricultural Academy on the grounds of the old Petrovsko-Razumovskoye estate! The convex Finnish glass ordered to the design of the architect Benois has survived to this day. One is tempted,

Architecture · Faith · Monarchies · Heritage · Paris

Model of the Basilica of Saint-Denis with the north tower dismantled in 1869

Model of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, built in 1144 on the site of an older building dating back to the mid-fifth century. The construction of this church marks the birth of Gothic architecture. The model shows Saint-Denis with its reconstructed north tower, which was taken down for

Interviews · Art · Heritage · Paris · People

Zinaida Serebryakova's Youngest Daughter Recalls Childhood and Flight from Russia

The youngest daughter of the artist Zinaida Serebriakova, Ekaterina (1913-2014), speaks of her childhood, her mother, her family, the flight from Bolshevik Russia, and how she too became an artist and resolved to devote her life to her mother. It is curious that Ekaterina Borisovna recalls the years when

Faith · Art · Heritage · Rome

There Are Two Risen Christs by Michelangelo

There are two Risen Christs by Michelangelo. The better known statue stands to the left of the high altar of the Roman church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The frenzied churchmen of the Baroque age fitted this sculpture with a hideous bronze loincloth, so as not to be embarrassed by

Coming Up · Books · Museums · Heritage

Ekaterina Tolstaya, at the presentation of the “Tolstoy” theatre festival, which will run from 24 to 27 June, said that for the centenary of the museum at Yasnaya Polyana, besides the restoration of the early eighteenth-century mirrors, the balcony, the b

Ekaterina Tolstaya, at the presentation of the “Tolstoy” theatre festival, which will run from 24 to 27 June, said that for the centenary of the museum at Yasnaya Polyana, besides the restoration of the early eighteenth-century mirrors, the balcony, the blind areas and the threshing barn, two new venues

Archive · Books · Heritage · People

First of all, the inscription cut into the cornelian of Pushkin's ring seemed a riddle

First of all, the inscription cut into the cornelian of Pushkin's ring seemed a riddle. The poet, according to numerous accounts, was convinced of a special, almost magical significance in the incomprehensible words, now referring them to the Kabbalah, now to other mystical formulae, and even assuring his

Art · Books · Museums · Heritage · People

Tropinin's Portrait of Pushkin and the Posthumous Portrait by Karl Masur

Tropinin's portrait of Pushkin and the posthumous portrait by Karl Masur. In both, the poet wears a ring with a red stone on his thumb. Around this ring, one of Pushkin's favourite, a great many legends have clustered ever since it first appeared. They begin with

Two photos of a bas-relief showing a woman with a violin and a small nude figure in her hand, before restoration on the left and after on the right.

NB! · Architecture · Heritage · Saint Petersburg

Bas-relief on the facade of 19 Vosstaniya Street in Saint Petersburg before and after restoration

Before and after restoration. A favourite genre. A bas-relief on the façade of the apartment building at 19 Vosstaniya Street in Saint Petersburg