Faith · Observations · Society · Rome
Leo XIV invites the reader to choose: are people building the Tower of Babel, or restoring Jerusalem under Nehemiah? The main thing the Pope draws attention to in the encyclical is the passage of technological power from the public sector to the private, as though this had only just happened.
Archive · Faith · Books · Science · Rome · Saint Petersburg
Now let us praise the all-ruling keeper of heaven, the Lord's almighty power, his good and wise counsel and the creation of the giver of glory, how he, the eternal sovereign, gave a beginning to every wonder. He made a lofty roof for the children of earth,
Faith · Cinema · Society · Rome
Martin Scorsese has made a film about Pope Francis, "Aldeas, Pope Francis's Last Dream". The premiere took place in the Vatican itself, some time after the pontiff's death. The promotional materials describe the project as "a powerful fusion of the visions of Scorsese
NB! · Mores · Pop Culture · Rome · Humour
Syncretism imperceptibly shades into idiocy: Katy Perry tossed a credit card into the Trevi Fountain because she couldn't find any small change. She might as well have gone for bitcoin
Archaeology · Faith · The East · Monarchies · Rome
In AD 217 the Praetorians murdered the Emperor Caracalla at Edessa. The Praetorian Guard were the emperors' personal bodyguard, elite troops stationed in Rome itself. Over two centuries they had dispatched more than one ruler and had grown used to deciding who would come next. Power passed to the
Archaeology · Architecture · Heritage · Rome
The large-scale restoration of the Colosseum has been completed, or, to be precise, of the area beneath the lost part of the colonnade and the semicircular piazza before the arena, where Roman spectators once crowded under two galleries of marble columns up to 50 metres high. In these galleries
Archive · Faith · Art · Science · Rome
Every few years, news of yet another newly discovered work by Michelangelo sweeps the world's press. Headlines shriek of sensation, specialists wince, time passes, and nobody remembers what all the fuss was about. William Wallace, the foremost living authority on the great Florentine, has calculated that since 2000
Art · Heritage · Society · Rome
Bernini's celebrated Roman sculpture "The Elephant and Obelisk" has been damaged again. The marble elephant, created in 1667 to a design by Bernini and executed by his pupil Ercole Ferrata, stands in the Piazza della Minerva beside the Pantheon. The elephant, bearing an ancient Egyptian obelisk
Faith · Art · Books · Museums · Rome
This is the last picture the artist worked on before his death in 1520. It is kept in the Vatican Pinacoteca. A reminder that the beauty of Christ's sacrifice will save the world. This is what Vasari writes about the work on this painting: And for Giulio de&
Archive · Books · Heritage · Rome
It was with a heavy heart that I learned that Rome had been bombed. Yet this was news I had been expecting for several months. Can there really be so many military objectives in Rome? I did not remember it so. Perhaps the railway station is of the utmost importance
Faith · Art · Heritage · Society · Rome
Urgent restoration was carried out on the orders of the church authorities. On Wednesday morning, visitors to the Roman basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina were greeted by an empty space where the "Meloni angel" had so lately basked in bliss, a decisive end to a saga that
Architecture · Observations · Society · Rome
From Monday, a close-up view of Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain will cost money. The price for tourists and non-residents of Rome is 2 euros. The system will operate daily from 09:00 to 22:00, except on Mondays and Fridays, when public access will open at