Matisse: Les Danseurs

St Petersburg: Downpipes, Art Nouveau, The Hermitage and Blood Spilt.

---

August 19th 2016
I'm intrigued by the over-specified gauge of tube for the St Petersburg down pipes, or as we like to call them: 'spoots'. I haven't measured them, but I reckon they must be 250mm in diameter, standard, on pretty much every building in the centre of town. They're made of light galvanised tin. Many are characteristically 'bashed in' on the bottom two metres...... I suppose their substantial size ... read more

Europe » Russia » Northwest » Saint Petersburg

---

Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynas... ... read more