Post

More from @culturaltutor

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

May 18

It sounds like a boring topic, but concrete is one of the most revolutionary inventions in history.

For example, concrete now weighs more than everything else humans have ever made combined.

So here's the story of how it has changed the world, for better and for worse...

What is concrete?

Put simply, it's cement (the magic ingredient) mixed with aggregates, like gravel and sand, plus water — the cement acts as a binder which reacts and sticks the aggregate together.

Your pour it into a mould and what was a liquid soon becomes hard as rock.

And it has been around for thousands of years.

The Egyptians, Mycenaeans, and Nabataeans all used some form of concrete.

But it was the Romans who were the first real masters of concrete — the things they built with it, like the Aqua Alexandrina, are astonishing even now.

Read 24 tweets

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

May 16

126 years ago today the most stylish painter in history was born.

She was called Tamara de Lempicka and everything about her life and art embodied the spirit of the 1920s.

If you like Art Deco, you'll love Tamara de Lempicka...

Tamara Gurwik-Górska was born on 16th May 1898 in Warsaw, Poland. Her father was a lawyer and her mother a socialite.

Her rebelliousness was clear from the start — at the age of ten, dissatisified with the work of a family portraitist, she redid it herself.

As she later said:

After dropping out of her Swiss boarding school she travelled to St Petersburg and married a lawyer, Tadeusz Łempicki.

But everything changed with the Russian Revolution of 1917.

She managed to get Tadeusz, who had been arrested, out of prison — the family then fled to Paris.

Read 24 tweets

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

May 15

In 1872 the first international football match was held at a cricket ground with 4,000 fans.

78 years later, during the 1950 World Cup, nearly 200,000 people watched Brazil play Uruguay at the Maracanã.

This is the story of how football stadiums have evolved...

The first sports stadiums were built by the Ancient Greeks.

But it was the Romans who perfected the art of building arenas.

The Colosseum is their most famous, built at the end of the 1st century AD, with an impressive capacity of over 60,000.

There were other arenas all around the Roman Empire, from Arles in France to Verona in Italy and Pula in Croatia.

They were built with concrete and bricks but faced with marble and decorated with rows of arcades and carved capitals.

Functionality and aesthetics united.

Read 24 tweets

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

May 13

The Buzludzha Monument in Bulgaria is one of the world's strangest buildings.

It's a sort of concrete UFO in the mountains which has been totally abandoned since 1989.

And it also represents one of the strangest architectural movements in history...

The Buzludzha Monument was built as the ceremonial headquarters of the Bulgarian Communist Party.

Designed by Georgi Stoilov, construction started in 1974 and it was completed in 1981.

The monument is supposed to represent a laurel wreath next to a flagpole.

Its location is of huge importance in Bulgarian history.

In 1868 a rebel called Hadzhi Dimitar fought his final battle against the Ottoman Empire there.

And nearby, in 1877-78, the Battle of Shipka Pass took place — a crucial moment during the Liberation of Bulgaria.

Read 25 tweets

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

May 12

You can learn a lot about history just by looking at the words we use.

Like algorithm, which is descended from the name of a 9th century Persian polymath called al-Khwarizmi.

So, from romantic to cynical, here are the strange stories behind 12 incredibly normal words...

1. Left Wing and Right Wing

In the French Assembly, after the revolution of 1789, supporters of the monarchy (i.e. conservatives) sat to the right of President and supporters of the new regime (i.e. progressives) sat to his left.

A literal meaning that became ideological.

2. Romance/Romantic

During the Middle Ages Latin was the language of the church, but not of regular people.

In France they spoke Old French, which originated in Latin but had changed a lot.

So it was called a "Romance" language because it wad descended from the Romans.

Read 25 tweets

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

May 10

This is the Chapel del Rosario in Puebla, Mexico.

When it was finished 334 years ago they called it the Eighth Wonder of the World.

See, people usually associate Baroque Architecture with Europe, but some of the best Baroque is in Latin America...

Baroque is one of the most distinctive styles of architecture — you know it when you see it.

Extravagant, opulent, maximalist, and full of movement.

It is defined by curved rather than straight lines, lavish decorations, and large, open spaces.

If one motif sums up the Baroque it is probably the "Solomonic Column", a type of twisted column that became popular during the rise of Baroque Architecture.

They were used by Gianlorenzo Bernini for his colossal bronze baldachin at St Peter's Basilica, Rome:

Read 24 tweets

Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

The Cultural Tutor

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @culturaltutor

The Cultural Tutor

The Cultural Tutor

The Cultural Tutor

The Cultural Tutor

The Cultural Tutor

The Cultural Tutor

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Send Email!