icon

The cross of Záviš

One of Bohemia’s greatest artistic treasures was donated to the Cistercian monastery of Vyšší Brod around 1285 by Záviš of Falkenstein. Who was this nobleman who rebelled against a king and made kings, seduced princesses, and was ultimately beheaded by a king?

The “All-Savior” khachar of Haghpat, 1273

The cosmopolitan Artsrunis—equally versed in Armenian, Georgian, Mongol, and Catholic cultures—adopted the newest iconographic trend, that of Western Catholic art, which at the time also represented the elite artistic language of both the Cilician Armenian royal court and the Mongol khan’s court

The Good Shepherd of Nicaea

What could the Good Shepherd motif have meant to early Christians, if they so frequently chose it as a single or prominent image above their final resting place?

Vera, Nadezhda, Lyubov

The most widespread Russian type of Hagia Sophia stems from a pious misunderstanding, depicting Hagia Sophia as “Saint Sophia” accompanied by her three daughters, Vera, Nadezhda, and Lyubov

The Great Church of Nicaea

It is equally remarkable that at least this one Byzantine church has survived more or less in its original form out of the twenty that once stood in Nicaea, and out of the many thousands across the country

Continue reading through the back door!