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Sep 16, 2024 21 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Wow, they actually made it better!

Here are 20 remarkable revivals proving that breathtaking architectural restoration is possible. 🧵 Frauenkirche Dresden - 1957 and 2024
1. Dresden (1983 and 2019) Image
2. Boston before and after the "Big Dig." They took the freeway and buried it underground. Credit: ©u/StrategyOdd7170 / Via reddit.com
3. In 2010, a new Beaux Arts building in New York City replaced a 1950s shop building. Credit: ©u/NewYorkvolunteer / Via reddit.com
4. Hereford Square, London (Before and After) Credit: @Culture_Crit
5. A mall in Budapest, Hungary (Before and After the fall of communist regime) Image
6. Warsaw, Poland (1945 and Now) Credit: @Dr_TheHistories
7. Chróstnik Palace 2009 vs. now. Chróstnik, Lubin County, Poland Credit: @tradingMaxiSL
8. Sometimes nature takes over the beauty that existed. Revealing it is a net positive.

Chichen Itza 1892 and 2020 Image
9. Sas-Bahu Temple, Gwalior, India (1869 vs 2019) Image
10. Warsaw, Poland (Then and Now) Image
11. Harlem, New York (Then and Now) Image
12. Berlin Kreuzberg (1985 and 2018) Credit: @ThenvsNowPic1
13. Kossuth square, Budapest (Then and Now) Credit: @Arch_Revival_
14. Dubai (1990 and 2021) Image
15. Ziggaurat of Ur (Before and after excavation) Image
16. Mahabulipuram (Then and Now) Credit: @GemsOfINDOLOGY ·
17. Remodeled health clinic in Csenger (before and after) Credit: @Michael_Diamant
18. Hiroshima (1945 to 2020) Credit: ©u/Adamstowellll / Via reddit.com
19. Walkways at Ohio State University were paved based on the student's desired paths. Image
20. Tsaritsyno Palace, Moscow, Russia (Before and after 2005) Credit: @Culture_Crit

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More from @CultureExploreX

Apr 1
The Minnesota State Capitol has something no other in America can match:

The second-largest unsupported marble dome in the world.

Only the Pantheon in Rome is bigger. 🧵👇 Minnesota State Capitol, Saint Paul, MN Credit: The Beauty of St. Paul, MN on flickr
That’s not a coincidence.

Architect Cass Gilbert studied in Europe and came back with a bold goal—build a temple of democracy to rival the ancients. Interior Minnesota State Capitol
Completed in 1905, the Capitol is pure Beaux-Arts elegance.

Its dome, supported by hidden iron trusses, feels weightless.

Its marble was sourced from Georgia, Italy, and around the world. Image
Read 19 tweets
Mar 31
The Roman Empire didn’t just conquer lands—it built the world we live in today.

By 100 A.D., its citizens enjoyed running water, heated floors, and public libraries—while much of the world lived in huts.

Here’s how ancient Rome shaped our modern civilization 🧵⤵️ The Colosseum
Roads that made an empire move.

Over 250,000 miles of stone-paved roads connected the farthest provinces.

So well-built that many are still visible today—and their design inspired modern highways. Appian Way (312 BC) - The Appian Way, one of the earliest and most important Roman roads, was known as the "Queen of Roads" and originally connected Rome to the southern Italian city of Brindisi. Credit: @mamboitaliano__ on X
Roman concrete was practically immortal.

They didn’t invent it—but they perfected it.

Their secret mix of lime and volcanic ash made structures like the Pantheon last 2,000 years.

Modern engineers are still trying to match it.
Read 20 tweets
Mar 30
The Birth of Venus is a painting of beauty, grace, and myth.

But behind it was a bold act of defiance — Botticelli painted pagan gods in a Christian city ruled by fear.

It nearly got him erased from history for 300 years.

Here’s the story no one tells. 🧵 Detail from Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli
Botticelli painted gods. But behind the canvas was a man tangled in power, politics, and faith.

To understand why he painted the way he did—you need to see what he lived through.

He started with nothing.

Born around 1445 in Florence as Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, Botticelli was the son of a tanner.Magnificat Madonna, c. 1483
No fancy lineage. No early fame.

His first job? Apprentice to a goldsmith.

But he didn’t want metal—he wanted color. Lamentation of Christ, early 1490s, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
Read 18 tweets
Mar 28
Italy’s beauty isn’t just in Rome, Florence, or Venice.

It’s in the quiet towns where time slows down.

Which of these hidden gems made you fall in love with Italy all over again? 🧵 Portofino, Italy Credit: @DreamerViews
1. Orvieto

A fortress in the sky—Etruscan caves below, a Gothic masterpiece above. Credit: Saturdays In Rome | The Food, Culture and Sites of Rome, Italy pinterest pin/853080354455451110/
2. Pienza

A dream built by a pope—designed as the ideal Renaissance town, surrounded by golden Tuscan hills. Credit: @collapsed24
Read 22 tweets
Mar 27
Most people think the Renaissance was about art.

But it was a revolution in how people viewed the world—reliance shifting from religious authorities to seeking knowledge by observation and inquiry.

And we’re living through something eerily similar right now. 🧵 Portrait of a Young Woman (c. 1480–85) (Simonetta Vespucci) by Sandro Botticelli
The timing wasn’t random.

The Renaissance’s rise was driven by a confluence of five factors far more intricate than it appears on the surface.

And those same forces are reshaping our world today. Duomo di Siena, Siena, Italy
Those five forces?

Plague, money, migration, technology, and belief.

Each cracked the old world open—and let a new one in. Official portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici as Grand Duke of Tuscany by Giovanni Battista Naldini
Read 24 tweets
Mar 25
This cathedral looks like a fantasy.

But it wasn't built for beauty — it was built to intimidate.

Its design was meant to mirror Heaven itself — and send a divine warning to Russia’s enemies. 🧵 Saint Basil's Cathedral, Moscow, Russia
Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of Saint Basil's Cathedral after conquering Kazan in 1552 — a major victory against the Tatars.

It was completed on the same day as the Feast of the Intercession of the Virgin.

The original name? The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin by the Moat.Image
The moat in question once surrounded the Kremlin.

The cathedral was the first structure built on it — and redefined Red Square’s skyline.

Before that, the Kremlin towers didn’t even have pyramidal roofs. Image
Read 19 tweets

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