Archaeology · Monarchies · Heritage
In truth, the place had been discovered by chance as early as the end of the sixteenth century by the architect Domenico Fontana, while digging the Sarno canal beneath the hill of Civita. Some years later, in 1713, it was the turn of the Prince d'Elbeuf, a French
NB! · Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
Geography · Monarchies · Society
After 125 years, the Royal Train is being decommissioned as part of the need to cut costs. Not that the British royal family is gradually bidding farewell to its old spendthrift habits; it is simply that the train matters less to Charles than it did to Elizabeth II and Prince
Aristocracy · Faith · Monarchies · Paris · People
In 2013, at the Monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God in Bussy-en-Othe, some hundred kilometres from Paris, the nun Elizabeth of Leuchtenberg peacefully departed to the Lord. She was one of the last Russian nuns of the first wave of emigration and, at the same
Archive · Faith · Monarchies
"I, the undersigned, promise and swear by Almighty God, before His Holy Gospel, that I desire and am bound to serve faithfully and without hypocrisy, and to obey in all things, His Imperial Majesty, my true and natural, Most Gracious Great Sovereign Emperor NICHOLAS PAVLOVICH, Autocrat of All the
Art · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage
In February of this year the auction house Christie’s withdrew from sale El Greco’s “Saint Sebastian” after the Romanian authorities declared that the painting had been unlawfully taken out of the country. The canvas was acquired by King Carol I at the end of the nineteenth century and
Books · Monarchies · Observations · Paris · Nature
The British novelist Barbara Pym, in her ironic novel Crampton Hodnet, written in the 1930s and 1940s, remarks that the fish in the ponds of the Petit Trianon are so old that they must surely have seen Marie Antoinette. In principle, some freshwater fish really do live for more than
Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Mores
Jacob Ulfeldt described Russian court etiquette with great astonishment and displeasure. Ivan the Terrible he characterises as an arrogant, swaggering, vain and abrupt man, surrounded by dull-witted boyars and streltsy. The prince, moreover, was wholly inattentive and simply did not listen as the embassy's letters and addresses
London · Monarchies · Society · Humour
No, Charles III was not born on the same day as Donald Trump. But it so happens that both of them celebrated a birthday today. Only Donald Fredovich does so by right of birth, whereas Charles Philipovich does so by right of the crown. The point is that all English
NB! · London · Monarchies · Observations
Books · Monarchies · Moscow · People
The People's Artist of Russia will appear on the dramatic stage for the first time, playing Louis XIV, King of France, in Yury Kvyatkovsky's production of Mikhail Bulgakov's play A Cabal of Hypocrites.
NB! · Art · Monarchies