Archaeology · The East · Art · Museums · Observations
It is incredible that these objects were made in the 1300s BC and earlier. I can quite easily picture the golden couches in the form of lions and buffaloes, the busts of the celestial cow, the chests, the statues and the Nile barges sailing into the interior of my flat
Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Heritage · Society
Most of the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve now looks like this. A continuous fence with pinpoint access to the architectural ensemble, while the protected park itself has been effectively sealed off and dug up. I did not go to the trouble of finding out why the work is being done, or
Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Society
The Destruction of Churches in France: A Standard Procedure in the Package of Measures for Changing a Civilisational Substrate. Several churches a year in every département. The reasons may be purely formal, in this case administrative reforms that turn Christian places of worship into an expensive burden on the books
Faith · Books · Observations · Rome
Hundreds of young German Catholics in the square shouted "Heil!", stretching out their right arms. Shortly after noon I found myself in St Peter's Square, among several thousand people. From the balcony of the loggia the Supreme Pontiff (Pius XI, Pope from 1922 to 1939) blessed
NB! · Observations
Observations · Society · Humour
And why, pray, forty-eight hours? It might at least have been two years, with twelve strokes of a willow switch on the *forbidden word thrown in. And make her scrub the canals for a couple of weeks besides
Books · Observations
Modern man has abolished symbolism, and meaning along with it. Joseph de Maistre, St Petersburg Dialogues
Faith · Art · Observations · Nature · Ethnography
“The Walnut Tree of Benevento” is a picture of 1826 by Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti, created for a series of images of the mystical and miraculous phenomena of Italy, in which the artist documented not real events but folk legends, traditions and marvels that existed within Italian culture. The subject is
Observations · Science · Pop Culture · Humour
Guys, this can't possibly be true, it's obvious at once. The astrophysicist Avi Loeb, known as the author of theories about interstellar objects, joked that Kim Kardashian had been "invited" to join the research team studying the comet 3I/Atlas, after she dared to
NB! · Art · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
NB! · Observations
Faith · Books · Observations · People
In 1915 Anna Akhmatova wrote this "Prayer":. Give me the bitter years of illness, Breathlessness, sleeplessness, fever, Take away both my child and my friend, And the mysterious gift of song - Thus I pray at Your liturgy, After so many wearisome days, That the cloud over dark Russia