Books · Moscow · Observations · Mores · Saint Petersburg
The much-discussed “Kofemania” and its clientele are not merely a portrait of our times. Whenever I visit one of my favourite branches, the one on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, I find myself, for some reason, transported into the atmosphere of the celebrated nineteenth-century Petersburg coffee house of “Wolff and Béranger”
Archive · Faith · Monarchies · Saint Petersburg · Humour
One day Paul I was receiving the Governor-General of Saint Petersburg, Count Pahlen, and the Catholic bishop Stanisław Siestrzeńcewicz, who enjoyed the Emperor's particular favour. How far the Emperor favoured the metropolitan may be judged from the fact that he did not express the slightest indignation at
NB! · Art · Museums · Saint Petersburg · Humour
Knaves of Diamonds in their drawers: Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov (with violin) and Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky (with sheet music). 1910, Mashkov. Painting from the collection of the Russian Museum
NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage · Saint Petersburg
Russia's first interior finished in artificial marble: the rooms of the Chinese Palace at Oranienbaum. Of genuine marble here there are only the fireplace surrounds. The idea of such a scheme of decoration belonged to Catherine the Great
Art · Monarchies · Museums · Saint Petersburg
The "Cabinet for Diamond Items" from the Picture House at Oranienbaum is made in the form of an intricate architectural structure with a mirrored finish. Inside the display case itself are all manner of little mirrored drawers with bronze handles, platforms, balconies and arches, which turn the space
Faith · Museums · Heritage · Saint Petersburg
At Kutuzov's tomb in the Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg hang the keys to fortresses and cities liberated by the Russian army in the war of 1812. In the left niche are the keys to Geertruidenberg, Bremen and Avesnes. In the right are those of Lübeck, Mons and
Monarchies · Mores · Paris · Pop Culture · Saint Petersburg
In late 1782 Catherine the Great issued two "fashion" decrees at once, banning French toilettes at court. The decrees of 23 October and 6 November 1782 limited the width of skirts and the height of the ornaments on gowns, which could no longer exceed two vershoks. Despite its
NB! · Archive · Art · Museums · Heritage · Saint Petersburg
Monarchies · Observations · Society · Saint Petersburg
In June 1831, popular riots broke out in Saint Petersburg. Terrified by the cholera epidemic, people supposed that the physicians were sprinkling some poison into the water and the wells, and that this was what made the disease spread. Nicholas I himself undertook to quell the riot, addressing the crowd
NB! · Architecture · Saint Petersburg · Ethnography
There is an old Finnish legend about a tsar who could not build a city on a marsh, because the stones kept sinking. And what did he do then? He built the city in the heavens and lowered it onto that boggy ground
Monarchies · Mores · Saint Petersburg · Humour
When Catherine II was giving birth to her bastard Alexei Bobrinsky, her valet Vasily Shkurin set fire to his own house to distract Peter III, who loved to run to fires. Now that is devotion!
Museums · Society · Saint Petersburg · Humour
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