Architecture · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Society
You will probably remember that I wrote about Khmelita and that I know its revival's architect, Viktor Kulakov. Hardly any time has passed since the death of the creator of the Griboyedov museum, and the Ministry of Culture has decided to dispose of the museum's fate
Museums · Observations · Heritage
The Smolensk State Museum-Reserve as it already stands today includes the Art Gallery, the "Smolensk Flax" Museum, the S.T. Konenkov Sculpture Museum, the Historical Museum, the "Smolensk Region in the Years of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" Museum, the "In the
Architecture · Observations · Heritage
The Riviera Palace is not in the best of states at present, of course. The century of its grandeur has passed, when expensive motor cars crowded before the main entrance, celebrities lounged within and fountains of iced water bubbled. Now part of the building has been remodelled and the public
NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Paris
The roof of Notre-Dame, July 2019. As you can see, most of the structures are now made of reinforcing steel
Architecture · Museums · Heritage · People
An empty desk in the director's study of the A.S. Griboyedov "Khmelita" State Historical, Cultural and Natural Museum-Reserve, at which Viktor Kulakov worked. Today Viktor Evgenyevich Kulakov passed away. He was a unique man who will remain in our memory and in the history
NB! · Museums · Observations · Heritage
How enchanting Russia is! The Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve
Heritage · Mores · Society · Rome
In the last two years alone, 40 cases of vandalism at the Colosseum have been recorded in Rome. And now, at last, the city authorities have updated the legislation governing public order in the capital, which has stood since 1946. The new rules cover both the assistance rendered by police
Books · London · Heritage · Education · Society
Not long ago a plaque was put up in Oxford to commemorate those who worked in slave conditions on the Codrington plantations in the West Indies. It is the work of a group that seeks to publicise Oxford's colonial past. In 2017 its activists demanded that the statues
Faith · Art · Observations · Heritage
It must be said that this is a very strange fourteenth-century tomb, in the village church of Ampleforth in North Yorkshire. And if it struck you that this double monument depicts a married couple, then why is the woman wearing a wimple? Were these people buried in one grave,
Architecture · In the Press · Heritage · Pop Culture · Humour
Russian Vogue writes rapturously about the Dolce&Gabbana Alta Moda show in Sicily. Only the authors, it seems, see no difference between the Pantheon and the Parthenon, which did not prevent them from titling one of their themed pieces "A Lesson in Art History"! Alas, it is
Heritage · Society
This curious object at the centre of the table was to be found in every government office of the Russian Empire. It is the zertsalo ("mirror"), a special prism of wood or metal, surmounted by the double-headed imperial eagle, on which were displayed the decrees of Peter
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