Historical Archive Found in Russian Birds' Nest

Restoration work on a 15th century Russian cathedral has brought to light one of the most unusual archives: a pile of historic scraps of papers collected by nest-building birds.

Found in the attic of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Zvenigorod, an old town 40 miles west of Moscow, the collection consists of beak-selected fragments of letters, banknotes, books, cigarette packs, candy wrappers, bus tickets, and even church documents.

“For several centuries swifts and jackdaws built their nests under the roof of the cathedral,” Dmitriy Sedov, deputy research director at Zvenigorod’s Historical and Architectural Museum, said in a statement. Read more.

Selfie Time at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dec. of 1920 .

via reddit

Abbeville.

D. Roberts, from The gallery of modern British artists, London, 1834.

(Source: archive.org)

Notre-Dame Archaeological Crypt

The crypt is located on the square of Notre-Dame Cathedral on the Ile de la Cité in Paris.

Architectural vestiges dating back to the Gallo-Roman and medieval times were uncovered during the construction of an underground car park during the 1960s.

This discovery opened the door to a whole new world, and when you enter the Crypte Notre-Dame you travel back in time.

Your journey begins 20 centuries ago, during the Gallo-Roman era when the level of the island was 7m below the current level.

It continues through the Middle-Ages when the square was covered with houses and it finishes in the modern era when we rediscover a past forgotten in the dust of ages.

The Crypte du Parvis Notre-Dame is a museum in situ of the archaeological excavations.

You can discover several sections of the rampart built in haste in 285AD with the stones of various monuments from the left bank.

Read more on http://www.travelfranceonline.com/archaeological-crypt-notre-dame/

“War-torn Cologne Cathedral stands out of the devastated area on the west bank of the Rhine, in Cologne, Germany, April 24, 1945. The railroad station and the Hohenzollern Bridge, at right, are completely destroyed after three years of Allied air raids.” (Source)