NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Heritage

Bronze plaques telling the stories of houses and lanes have been installed on Prechistenka

Bronze plaques telling the stories of houses and lanes have been installed on Prechistenka. At least some use has been found for all that paving

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

When Everyone Must Urgently Learn What a Well-Read Young Lady You Are

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations · Humour

Quite a splendid helmet on Saint Maurice, I have been looking for one like it for ages

NB! · Observations · Humour

My to You, Gentlemen

A darkened metal object with a relief scene of soldiers and a wooden part at one edge lies on a light surface.

NB! · Archaeology · Observations

Object found in a field with a relief depiction of soldiers

Sent in by a subscriber: her friend found it in a field. What do you think it is?

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Armpit hair is rather unusual in sixteenth-century sculpture

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations

A relief of 1500-1504 by Tullio Lombardo from the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua

A relief of 1500-1504 by Tullio Lombardo from the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua. An interesting detail on the figure of the repentant son: hairy armpits. Note how the curls have been worked.

NB! · Observations · Society

All I Can Say to Roskomnadzor

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations

An altarpiece group in a small church on the border of Saxony and Bohemia strongly recalled Grant Wood's American Gothic, only with a crucifix in place of the pitchfork

Faith · Observations · Rome · Humour

The right forearm of Saint Francis Xavier will travel from Rome on a tour of Canada in 2019

It is interesting that in 2019 a particularly venerated relic, the right forearm of Saint Francis Xavier, will set out from Rome on a grand tour of Canada. Servants of the Church explain that the arm, of course, will not fly in the hold or the hand luggage, but will

A staircase down to a basement, beside a column with a black vase, a tray of glass decanters and a glazed display cabinet.

NB! · Observations · Humour

A walk through a basement with a vase on a column, glass decanters and a display cabinet

Nothing special, just a stroll round the cellar. Routine

Books · Moscow · Observations · Mores · Humour

Ilf and Petrov on the closed doors of Moscow circuses, theatres and cinemas

Muscovites love to lock their doors. Thousands of grand front entrances are boarded up from the inside, and hundreds of thousands of citizens creep into their flats by the back stairs. The year 1918 is long past, the very notion of a "raid on a flat" has grown