The Vatican is as fascinating for conspiracy theorists as it is for the Catholic believers. The statues of deities from all sorts of beliefs, which early Christians would have regarded as idols, are now displayed in numerous chambers of the Vatican Palace. The Greek and Roman mythology is best represented, including a hall reuniting much […]
Palazzo Braschi was built in the 18 century by the duke Luigi Braschi Onesti. Under the Napoleonic occupation of Rome, duke Braschi was declared mayor of the city. Donated to the Italian state, the palace was used by Benito Mussolini as his headquarters. The most important architectural piece of the palace is the monumental marble […]
In antiquity, Galatia was populated by migrant Celtic tribes from Gaul and was situated in Anatolia, where today is Turkey. Long before the Ottomans or even the Romans to arrive, the region was under the cultural influence of the Greek world. Alexander the Great conquered the entire known world as far as the knowledge of […]
For Ancient Rome, the separations we mentally make between Europe and Orient was not a definite border. The Romans rather thought of their empire as surrounding the Mediterranean See, thus including parts of North Africa, Middle East, Greek islands or Anatolian plateau. The lively exchanges between these regions and cultures added to Rome’s treasury more […]
The conquest of Dacia by the Romans was such an important event for the empire, that Trajan payed for a nonstop party of 123 days at the Colosseum. Following the Latin motto „bread and circus”, the show was on a grandiose scale: 10.000 gladiators fought 11.000 wild animals during it. To put it in today’s […]
Along with Piazza di Spagna, the Colosseum, the Vatican or Victor Emmanuel Palace, Fontana di Trevi is a major tourist attraction that is not to be missed when in the eternal city of Rome. The name of Fontana di Trevi does not come from a specific character as one might think, but from two Italian […]
Strolling through the galleries of the Archeology Museum in Thessaloníki one can but wonder what happened with the art of carving in the period between Antiquity and Renaissance, when brilliant artists rediscovered the lines of the human body and the techniques necessary to reproduce movement and emotion in stone and marble. The level at which […]
Constantin Brancusi is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, marking a revolution in modern sculpture. In fact, his works were so much ahead of his time that when he traveled to America for an exhibition they were confiscated by the customs authorities who could not conceive that sculptures could look that […]
The Hungarian National Gallery is found inside Buda Castle and holds a large collection of paintings and sculptures spanning from the medieval religious art, Gothic, Renaissance to modern experiments and contemporary art. The building that hosts this exhibition, the former royal palace, is even more impressive than the collection itself. Outside there is an equestrian […]