NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies

The daughters of Emperor Nicholas II out walking with Anna Vyrubova, the closest and most devoted friend of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

NB! · Books · Observations

This photograph could grace the cover of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's «The Shadow of the Wind»

NB! · Humour

The Main Thing Is Not to Mix Anything Up

NB! · Humour

So Franklin, Apparently, Is Our Venya!

NB! · Observations

People Managed Perfectly Well Before, and Without Computers

NB! · Monarchies · Science · Pop Culture · Humour

Woman sees face of Princess Diana in slice of tinned ham

A woman has seen the face of Princess Diana in a slice of tinned ham. Though it looks rather more like Margaret Thatcher, my dear, or like pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon whereby people see faces in all manner of everyday objects, surfaces, abstract textures and details of the landscape

NB! · Humour

Admins Every Morning, While You Sleep

NB! · Archive · Faith · Monarchies · Heritage · Saint Petersburg

Arrival of Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna at the site of the foundation of the church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky (Nikolo-Bargradsky) at the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society

Arrival of Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna at the site of the foundation of the church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky (Nikolo-Bargradsky) at the Imperial Palestine Society. The church was blown up in 1932

NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Saint Petersburg · Humour

Grand Dukes Vladimir Alexandrovich and Alexander Alexandrovich, Duke Nikolai Maximilianovich of Leuchtenberg and Duke Albert of Saxe-Altenburg amuse themselves with a camera in Saint Petersburg of the 1860s as best they can

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Society

The sorry state of the medieval and Renaissance stained glass in one of the oldest churches of France, the church of Saint-Pierre in Chartres, dating from the thirteenth century, is a sad testimony to the French Republic's authorities drifting ever furthe

NB! · Archive · Art · Paris · People

Gustave Caillebotte walks his dog in Paris in 1892

Hand-coloured engraving of French drummers and horsemen entering the fortress gate of Moscow, with flames rising above the walls and towers.

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Art · Moscow · Observations

Anonymous French engraving of the French entry into Moscow in 1812

Note the appearance of Moscow's fortress walls, more reminiscent of the Western European Middle Ages, in the anonymous French engraving "The French Entering Moscow". I am especially fond of the drawbridge beside the Kremlin