Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Science
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has acquired a newly discovered painting by Diego Velázquez. The work is the first piece by the seventeenth-century Spanish master in the museum's collection. Velázquez painted the bust-length portrait around 1626; it depicts Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares.
Art · NB! · Monarchies
A painting by Mikhail Klodt
Archive · Architecture · Faith · Monarchies · Heritage · People
On 28 June 1899, the Tsarevich and Heir Apparent, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, third son of Alexander III and younger brother of Nicholas II, set out from Abastumani towards the Zekari Pass on a petrol-engined tricycle. He had been taking treatment here for tuberculosis for many years. The newspaper
Coming Up · London · Monarchies · Mores · New York · People · Pop Culture
On 9 June 1994 the British channel ITV broadcast a documentary by the journalist Jonathan Dimbleby in which Prince Charles, now King Charles III, admitted to adultery. By then Charles and Diana had already been living apart for a year and a half. That same evening Princess Diana arrived at
NB! · London · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
It is proposed to name an airport after Queen Camilla. I suggest we confine ourselves to the baggage reclaim hall
The East · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage
Two men bought tickets to the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, walked up to a display case and smashed the protective glass with a hammer. They pulled out a diamond necklace and vanished in an unknown direction. They made no attempt to hide their faces, so the surveillance cameras
Geography · Monarchies · Observations · Society
A reminder that, purely hypothetically, had Catherine II's plans for "armed neutrality" and war against Great Britain been realised, Russia could have bought or leased the Faroe Islands from Denmark, then an ally, as a year-round base for the Russian fleet. What prevented it was
Archive · Faith · Monarchies · Society
In the 23 years of his reign Nicholas II did not travel much about Russia, Crimea, Finland and the hunting at Spała excepted. His meetings with the people were few. The celebration of the tercentenary of the ruling house was the exception. But what was planned for 1913 was not
Archive · Architecture · Monarchies · Observations · Society · Saint Petersburg
The project was devised by the architect Ivan Fomin, author of the concept of proletarian classicism, known for the NKVD building on Lubyanka and the interiors of the Moscow Metro stations Krasnye Vorota and Teatralnaya. Alexander III sat behind these bars for ten years, until he was transferred to the
The East · Monarchies · Mores · People
Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary was born in 1932 to an Iranian diplomat and a German aristocrat. She spoke several languages fluently, received a European education and from her youth stood out for her extraordinary beauty. In 1951 Soraya married Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran. Theirs would have been an ideal
London · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
Cam and Di in the very same earrings. Though, judging by the fact that Camilla's ears are not pierced, there are two possibilities: either they were glued on for her, or remade as clip-ons. The original pair was presented to Alexandra of Denmark by the City of
NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Humour