Archive · London · Monarchies · Society · People
Sixty years ago, from 11 to 15 July 1961, Yury Gagarin visited Great Britain. As part of his world tour, Major Gagarin arrived in Manchester at the invitation of the local foundrymen, and not at all as an official state guest. Nevertheless, soon after his arrival he received an invitation
Aristocracy · Architecture · Books · Heritage · People
A memorial marker at Yasnaya Polyana on the site of the house laid down by Prince Volkonsky, in which his grandson, Leo Tolstoy, would be born. Like the rebuilt estate of Bald Hills in «War and Peace», the house was built after the prince's death, and somewhat more
Art · Society · Paris · People
Ugliness, a shapeless mass, a monster: this is how the patrons described Auguste Rodin's monument to Balzac. The statue at the intersection of the boulevards Raspail and Montparnasse still provokes controversy today. After a scandal that all France followed, Rodin kept the sculpture for himself and returned the
NB! · Archive · Mores · People
Do you know who is in the middle of this photograph, flanked by her sisters and brother? Seventeen-year-old Frida Kahlo, in a man's suit. The year was 1925, European fashionable ladies were only just beginning to work trousers into their wardrobes, and Frida already felt perfectly
Archive · Books · People · Rome
Byron visited the Roman Colosseum in 1817, when the ruins were still wholly overgrown with thick vegetation and a veritable carpet of flowers. He wrote of it: "I have passed some days in wondrous Rome, and am delighted with Rome. As a whole, Rome, both ancient and modern, is
Faith · People · Rome
Pope Francis has been admitted to hospital shortly after the traditional Sunday prayer in Saint Peter's Square. The Holy See's press office reports that the Pope is to undergo a scheduled operation on the intestine. Let us pray that all goes well, and that the 84-
Faith · Observations · People · Rome
Yesterday the 85-year-old Pope Francis I congratulated his predecessor and good friend, His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus, on the 70th anniversary of his priestly ordination. Benedict is now 94; he lives in a monastery on the territory of the Vatican and prays unceasingly for the Holy Church.
Monarchies · Society · People
Alexander I Kisses Napoleon on a Raft in the Middle of the Niemen during the Conclusion of the Peace of Tilsit in June 1807. Napoleon would later describe Alexander I as "a true Byzantine, cunning, feigning, subtle". Indeed, only shortly before the meeting on the Niemen and the
Art · Moscow · Heritage · People · Nature
In the Stock Greenhouse of the Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden, the decorative treatment of the doors has been touchingly preserved: panels of dried plants assembled by the Soviet artist Sofya Vasilyevna Matveyeva (1904-1986). Sofya Matveyeva worked in the Main Botanical Garden almost from its founding, under Nikolai Tsitsin himself,
NB! · Cinema · People
Faith · London · Heritage · People
The reliquary with the body of Saint John Southworth, one of the 40 martyrs of England and Ireland, is kept in the principal Catholic church of England, Westminster Cathedral. The priest John Southworth was executed in 1654 essentially for no more than being a Catholic and carrying on with his
Archive · Art · Moscow · People
“Autumn came in sixty-three, November. One day I came out of the TYuZ (I worked there as a lighting technician), walked up Gorky Street and saw fresh posters for an exhibition of American graphic art. I thumped the hoarding in delight and noticed two men eyeing me; I heard