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Coco Chanel as Abwehr agent F-7124 and her 1941 attempt to seize Parfums Chanel

Everyone remembers that Coco Chanel was a collaborator and worked for the Abwehr, that is, for German military intelligence? This is not conjecture or gossip but a well-documented part of her biography. So, she not only tried, with the help of her fascist patrons, to wrest a perfume company

Art · Madrid · Museums

"Venus and Cupid" by Peter Paul Rubens, painted in 1606-1611 under the impression of the same subject as executed by Titian

Collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid

Faith · Madrid · Monarchies · Society

Leo XIV arrives in Madrid for a visit to Spain and speaks of the war in Iran

Leo XIV has flown into Madrid at the start of a six-day visit to Spain, to be held under the motto "raise your gaze". The country is passing through difficult times, especially as regards the unity of its people: society is quite literally split over migration, abortion

Art · Madrid · Museums

Ribera's Euclid astonishes with depth of character

Jusepe de Ribera's Euclid astonishes with depth of character. Before us is no abstract sage of antiquity but a living man, immersed in the world of thought. The wrinkles on his face, the heavy gaze, the strong hands and, incidentally, a shirt that is rather more in the

Coat of arms of Madrid under a golden crown: a bear at a tree with red fruit, a blue border with white stars, captioned 1967 and 1982.

NB! · Madrid · Observations

Coat of arms of Madrid used from 1967 to 1982 and the current version

The arms of Madrid, then and now. But why?

Art · Madrid · Museums

In all likelihood, a depiction of a theatrical staging of Euripides' play "Heracles", which tells the myth of Heracles gone mad

On the stage of a theatre we see Heracles, driven to despair by the spirits of madness. The hero is ready to destroy his own family: he is about to throw his son, whom he holds in his arms, into a fire in which all his possessions are already burning.

Archaeology · Art · Madrid · Museums · Heritage · Paris

One of the most famous sculptures of the ancient world and arguably the greatest monument of Iberian art, the Lady of Elche, found in 1897, was soon after its discovery acquired by the Louvre for 4,000 francs

The masterpiece of Spanish antiquity remained in France until 1941, when Spain exchanged it, under a special programme, for several dozen other works of art and items of jewellery. The sculpture dates from the 4th century BC. Franco ordered the Lady of Elche to be displayed in the Prado National

Faith · Madrid · Society · Nature · Ethnography

Las Luminarias ritual, in which horses are led through bonfires in a village near Madrid

Last Saturday Spain held festivities marking the feast of Saint Anthony the Great, patron saint of domestic animals. Near Madrid, in the village of San Bartolomé de Pinares, which has a population of about 500, the rite of Las Luminarias has been held every year for centuries. Riders lead their

NB! · Art · Books · Madrid · People

Savva Brodsky's illustrations for the 1976 edition of Don Quixote earned him the status of corresponding academician of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Spain

Architecture · Faith · Madrid · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Crystal chandelier with an eagle, made in Milan in 1676, in the Escorial basilica

The Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is one of the great creations of the Spanish Renaissance, built under Philip II as a royal residence, monastery and mausoleum of monarchs. In its basilica, beneath the vaults of the choir, an eagle crowns a crystal chandelier, spreading its wings over

Colour lithograph of Visigothic votive crowns and crosses from Guarrazar, with a large suspended crown with lettered pendants at the centre.

NB! · Archaeology · Madrid · Museums · Heritage

Theft of the Guarrazar treasure from the Royal Armoury in Madrid on 4 April 1921

On 4 April 1921 the legendary Guarrazar treasures of the Visigothic hoard, including the crown of Suintila presented to Queen Isabella II, were stolen from the Royal Armoury of the Royal Palace in Madrid. The jewels were never found

Faith · Madrid · Observations · Society · Paris

Removal of crosses from posters, emblems and images of churches in Europe and Russia

Crosses vanish from Montmartre on Paris Olympics posters, crosses are removed from the badges of European football clubs, and in Spain a proposal has been made to pull down the monumental cross above the Valley of the Fallen. In Western Europe the wave of “de-crossing”, fuelled by embittered anticlericalism,