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German Literature to 1945, by William Grange, 2011.
Neoclassical Art and Architecture, by Allison Lee Palmer, 2011.
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English Music: ca. 1400–1958, by Charles Edward McGuire and Steven E.
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Historical Dictionary of Architecture

Second Edition

Allison Lee Palmer

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com

Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB

Copyright © 2016 by Allison Lee Palmer

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Name: Palmer, Allison Lee, 1963–, author.

Title: Historical dictionary of architecture / Allison Lee Palmer.
Description: Second Edition. | Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. | Series: Historical
dictionaries of literature and the arts | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016002133 | ISBN 9781442263086 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Architecture—History—Dictionaries.
Classification: LCC NA200 .P35 2016 | DDC 720.3—dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2016002133

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To my family
 A

AALTO, ALVAR HUGO HENRIK (1898–1976)

Alvar Aalto is credited with establishing modern architecture in his
native Finland. After completing his studies at Helsinki Polytechnic in
1921 and an initial foray in the Neo-Classical architecture that was
prevalent in Finland at the time, Aalto began to employ natural
materials of wood and brick rather than concrete to develop a more
modern style that can be characterized as simple and functional yet
elegant. It is this style that has come to be described as a
quintessentially Scandinavian form of modernism. The post-war
economic boom allowed Aalto to establish his first architectural firm
in his hometown, which was now Jyväskylä, a larger and more
industrial city in western Finland, and where he married architect
Aino Mandelin. Together they traveled to Italy and moved their office
to Turku in 1927, then to Helsinki in 1933, where they worked
together in a form of northern Neo-Classicism sometimes called
Nordic Classicism that blended the classical style of architecture with
a modern aesthetic.
Aalto was also inspired by Le Corbusier and the International
style, as seen initially in his commission for the Viipuri Library, now
called the Municipal Aalto Library of the City of Vyborg, completed in
1935. This beautiful spare, white building with rows of unadorned
windows was groundbreaking in design. Inside, round wooden chairs
and plain round tables echoed the rows of round windows built into
the ceiling to emit a diffused light into the central reading room. After
World War II, parts of eastern Finland, including the city of Viipuri,
were ceded to Russia. Although the city had been bombed during the
war, the library suffered little damage. However, years of neglect
followed. The building was exposed to the elements through breaks in
the roof, and it lost all of its original furnishings. By 1991, a full
restoration project was begun, organized by both the Finnish and
Russian governments, and this project has become a model in modern
architectural restoration.
 The Villa Mairea, built in 1938–1939 in Noormarkku, Finland, is
another example of Aalto’s soft, more expressive form of modernism;
the simple white exterior achieves warmth through the use of
beautiful stained-wood window and door frames. A year later, Aalto
came to the United States to teach at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Boston, and in 1947–1949, he built the Baker House on
the MIT campus. This six-story brick dormitory facing the Charles River
rests on a white stone basement level and features a distinctive
undulating exterior façade that results in wedge-shaped interior
rooms unique to campus architectural design. This expressive organic
shape is echoed in Aalto’s designs for furniture and glass arts as well,
and in these multiple venues his modernist aesthetic came to be
found across Europe and in the United States. See also ; .
ABOMEY ROYAL PALACE COMPLEX, BENIN
The Abomey Royal Palace Complex in Benin exemplifies traditional
West African cob-wall architecture, which is similar to adobe. The
Kingdom of Abomey (Dahomey) was founded around 1625 by the Fon
tribe, and the complex was built, added to, and continuously
inhabited for the next 300 years. Today the complex is a UNESCO
World Heritage Site as well as a tourist site and museum. The complex
consists of 12 palaces in the town of Abomey, the capital city of the
Fon people, who developed a powerful empire funded in part by the
selling of their prisoners of war to European slave traders. They used
this wealth to construct a powerful royal complex with palaces
enclosed behind walls that could accommodate up to 8,000 people.
The entire town of Abomey is surrounded by a mud wall about
six miles long, lined on the outside with a deep ditch planted with
acacia, which is known for its thick, long thorns. The city layout
consists of clusters of neighborhood homes, fields, a market area, and
the royal palace complex interspersed with open courtyards and
shade trees. Twelve kings ruled from here, and each ruler built his
own palace next to the previous palace within the complex, which is
arranged in a rough north–south axis. The palace of King Gbehanzin,
called Dowomè, was the last palace built for this king, who fought
against French occupation, but it was never completed due to the
conquest. The palace walls were first made by kneading mud like
 dough and forming it into balls, then building the walls up with these
balls to a uniform height. Inside the walls are five rectangular huts
made of unbaked earth bricks, each with a courtyard, and then a
temple and a tomb. Both the temple and tomb are round structures
set up on wood piers and covered by thatching that comes to a point
in the middle of the structures. The largest structure is the palace,
which is a long, rectangular structure with a continuous porch arcade
and door openings across the front, covered by a porch made of the
low overhang of the heavily sloped roof. The entire palace is elevated
a few feet by a mud platform. The exterior palace walls are then
covered with a series of 67 polychrome bas-relief panels sunk into the
walls that narrate, in a blend of symbolic and representative forms,
the history of King Gbehanzin’s rule. For example, one image shows
the king’s throne set on the decapitated heads of his enemies. The
palace doorways are then fitted with thick wooden doors with similar
carvings.
Current restoration projects are helping to bring this site back to
its original splendor, since it was first burned in 1892 to defy French
occupation, then further damage occurred over time by weather and
neglect. Today two of the restored palaces are used for a historical
museum, and they reveal a series of interior rooms framed by private
courtyards and accented with beautiful bamboo and mahogany
woodwork. See also .
ABU SIMBEL, EGYPT
The sacred site of Abu Simbel, located in the southern part of Egypt
called Nubia along the border with Sudan, consists of a pair of
massive rock-cut temples on the bank of the man-made Lake Nasser,
where in 1968 the entire site was relocated to protect it from the
Aswan High Dam reservoir. The temple complex was originally carved
out of a mountain along the southern portion of the Nile River in the
13th century BC by Rameses II to commemorate his victory at the
Battle of Kadesh near modern-day Syria, fought against the Hittite
emperor Muwatalli. Rameses ordered the construction of this and five
other rock temples in Nubia to reinforce his power in the
southernmost reaches of his empire. All six of these sites, cataloged as
the Nubian Monuments by UNESCO, were built along the Nile down
to Philae, a trade town established at the first cataract of the Nile
River near the frontier town of Swenett, now the modern-day Aswan.
Aswan was the first town of Ancient Egypt, important for its extensive
stone quarries that provided building materials across Ancient Egypt.
Abu Simbel was a name given this northernmost Nubian site by
European scholars in the early 19th century. The modern-day site is
about 200 meters back from the original site and set up higher to
protect it from the reservoir. The larger temple was dedicated to the
sun god Ra-Harakhty and to Ptah, the god of artisans, in addition to
Amun, the king of all gods. Ptah was also the god of creation,
construction, the arts, architects, and craftsmen, and the instructor of
the first known Ancient Egyptian architect, Imhotep. Rock-cut
buildings are usually carved out from top to bottom, and the loose
stone is carried out during the process to be used for other
construction projects. These structures are therefore created in a
subtractive rather than additive process, which lends a unique
sculptural quality to the buildings.
This temple has four colossal seated figures of Rameses carved
into the front, two on either side of a rectangular door that leads into
the inner shrine. The figures wear the conical crown that unites Upper
and Lower Egypt. Next to the colossal figures are smaller carvings of
the king’s family members. Above the central doorway is a niche
figure of Re-Horakhty, and the top of the façade is carved with a row
of 22 baboons worshipping the sun. Inside the temple, a large
hypostyle hall is lined with colossal pillars that represent Rameses as
Osiris, the god of the underworld, while the sculptures on the left
wear the crown of Upper Egypt and the figures on the right wear the
double crown of Egypt united. Low-relief wall carvings detail various
military battles, focused on the Battle of Kadesh. The temple then
follows the traditional manner of decreasing in size as the visitor
walks toward the inner sanctuary, so the second hall is lined with four
colossal pillars with offering scenes, and then a hallway leads to the
sanctuary, the walls of which are also carved with figures of Rameses
and the three dedicatory gods.
A smaller temple located north of the Temple of Rameses is
dedicated to the goddess Hathor, patron goddess of one of Rameses’s
 wives, Nefertari. This rock-cut temple features carvings of the pharaoh
and his wife Nefertari, shown equal in size, which is unique in Ancient
Egyptian history. This temple also features a hypostyle hall with large
pillars showing scenes of the queen and images of the god Hathor. A
vestibule leads to the sanctuary that was beautifully carved with
reliefs of the pharaoh and his queen making offerings to Hathor. On
either side of the sanctuary is a side room used by high priests to
guard the sacred temple.
These two temples of Abu Simbel represent an outstanding
example of Ancient Nubian architecture carved at the very edge of
Ancient Egyptian territory along the Nile River. In this work Rameses
seats himself next to the gods, 70 feet tall, in order to remind the
Nubian peoples of his divine power. Although rock-cut tombs were
found in the Valley of the Gods in Ancient Egypt, rock-cut temples
were unique in antiquity, and these temples rivaled those from India
and Jordan. See also ; ; .
ACROPOLIS, ATHENS
The city of Athens was home to some of the most aesthetically
sophisticated architecture of the ancient world. In particular, the
Acropolis, a sanctuary of religious structures, has been extensively
excavated to reveal the superior place its wonders occupy in classical
architectural history. Located on a hill in the center of Athens, these
buildings celebrate the origins of Athenian culture through the
veneration of the goddess Athena. After the first Acropolis complex
was destroyed by Persian troops in 480 BC, a new complex was
commissioned by the Athenian ruler Pericles and directed by the
architectural sculptor Pheidias. This new complex was much criticized
by surrounding communities because their payments to the Delian
League’s treasury, kept in Athens to provide military support across
the region, was instead used for Pericles’s reconstruction of the
Acropolis. In Athens, however, the Acropolis became a symbol of
Athenian supremacy across the region, demonstrative of Athenian
pride and cultural values.
Marble was brought from quarries outside the city to construct a
complex of seven major buildings, including the Propylaia, or grand
portico entrance into the walled complex accessible by the “Sacred
Way”; the Pinakotheke, or picture gallery on the left of the Propylaia;
the little Temple of Athena Nike on the edge of the hill to the right of
the entrance; the courtyard sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia (protector
of animals); and the armory, called the Chalkotheke, which finally
directs the visitor to the Erechtheion on the left, and on its right, to
the famous Parthenon, located on the most elevated site of the
Acropolis. Many votive statues, such as the colossal bronze of Athena
the Defender located just through the Propylaia, filled the rooms,
courtyards, and open areas.
The Parthenon, dedicated to Athena Parthenos, to whom votive
offerings were brought, housed a monumental statue of Athena made
of ivory and gold. Construction began in 480 BC by the architect
Kallikrates but was halted for about 30 years and then expanded upon
by the architect Iktinos. This white marble rectangular temple is
elevated by several marble steps, called the stereobate, that surround
the entire building and lead up to a continuous portico lined in a
peristyle on all four sides with a single row of columns. Additionally,
because the temple has a single peristyle rather than double columns,
it is called a peripteral temple. At the Parthenon, a pronaos, or smaller
porch, provides an entrance from the eastern platform, or stylobate,
into the internal sanctuary, called the cella. A separate, unconnected
portico then faces west, providing symmetry to the building. The
columns that surround the building are of the most austere order, the
Doric. Above the Doric capitals is a smooth architrave, and above this
begins the frieze of triglyphs, or three-part glyph patterns, and
metopes, or square panels carved with relief sculptures of various
battle scenes. Rising above this frieze is a triangular pediment
surrounded by a cornice filled with sculptures of gods and goddesses.
Triangular pediments occupy the west and east façades of the slightly
gabled roof, which is made of marble and not the usual wood or terra-
cotta. Although most of the building remains today, the roof was
destroyed and most of the architectural sculpture was placed in the
British Museum in London.
Greek architects are best known for their graceful columns, and
here the Doric columns are fluted, or carved with vertical lines, and
calculated mathematically to rise to an increasingly more slender
 width from the drum, through the shaft, and to the necking right
beneath the capital. It is this attention to mathematical detail, focused
on symmetry, harmony, and proportionality, that provides the
Parthenon with an enduring beauty called the “classical” aesthetic.
Many Renaissance and later Neo-Classical buildings found across the
Western world have been modeled on the Parthenon, not only for its
aesthetics, but also because its architecture came to symbolize
general prosperity, democratic principles, and honest leadership. See
also .
ADAM, ROBERT (1728–1792)
Robert Adam, perhaps the best-known 18th-century Scottish
architect, developed an opulent form of Neo-Classical architectural
and interior design. Coming from a prominent family of builders,
Adam trained with his father and brothers and studied in Italy, where
he focused on the examination of Ancient Roman domestic interiors.
He then settled in London in 1758, where he became instrumental in
leading the classical revival in England.
Kedelston Hall, located in Derbyshire, England, was one of
Adam’s first architectural commissions. Originally hired to help design
the gardens, Adam was commissioned in 1759 to build the country
estate begun by Matthew Brettingham. Adam designed the main
façade of the villa with a dramatic, protruding classical portico of six
Corinthian columns set in the center of a tripartite façade, while he
designed the garden façade with an arched central bay and a shallow
dome in emulation of Andrea Palladio’s Renaissance villa designs.
The Syon House, built outside London, is an elegant country
estate renovated by Adam in 1762–1769 for the Duke of
Northumberland. This building displays Adam’s more ornate interiors
of colored marble, gilded reliefs, and intricate moldings, which are
clearly inherited from the Rococo style but are tempered by a strong
classicizing organizational design. Adam’s interiors for the estate of
Osterley Park, Middlesex, England, from 1761 to 1780, are perhaps his
most innovative interior designs. Here, the Etruscan dressing room
displays an arrangement of motifs that reveal not just a fanciful
rendition of the Etruscan style but a creative use of carefully studied
examples from antiquity that Adam would have seen outside Rome.
 These are the commissions that sealed Adam’s fame as an architect
known for his unique blend of classical models embellished with his
own creative interpretations.
In 1761, Adam was appointed by King George III to the position
of Architect of the King’s Works. Although classical purists never
approved of Adam’s style and therefore never elected him to the
Royal Academy, he remained very popular with the English
aristocracy, who preferred his more opulent version of classicism to
the spare examples prevalent during this time.
ADEYEMI, KUNLÉ (1976–)
See .
ADJAYE, DAVID (1966–)
See .
AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE
Traditional architecture in Africa built prior to the 20th century
demonstrates distinct regional characteristics that take into account
both geography and the culture specific to each tribe. Nonetheless,
broad characteristics can be discerned from North to South and East
to West Africa.
The best-known and most thoroughly studied architecture of
North Africa is Ancient Egyptian architecture. South of Ancient Egypt
was Ancient Nubia, located along the Nile River in what are parts of
modern-day Egypt and northern Sudan, which was one of the earliest
civilizations on the African continent and has architectural remains
dating as early as 6,000 BC. The earliest written references to Nubia
call it Kush, and the people are thought to be from the nomadic Noba
tribe. Permanent villages have been found that date to 6,000 BC,
contemporary to ancient Jericho, with structures made of wattle and
daub, mud brick, and animal hides, which is consistent with materials
used by other Prehistoric cultures. Unique to this region, however,
were the carved rock structures used as burial tombs, temples, and
housing that were influenced by the carved stone temples found in
the southern part of Ancient Egypt as it extended into Nubia. By 2,400
BC, wall cities such as that of the Kingdom of Kerma were built in the
Nile Valley and for a time rivaled Ancient Egypt in scale and
importance.
 This capital city, still called Kerma, Sudan, has been unearthed to
reveal an organized system of roads, temples, and dwellings of varying
levels of articulation that suggests a stratified society with kingship
and codified religious beliefs. Further excavations of this city, the
largest archaeological site in Nubia, have revealed thousands of graves
and separate neighborhoods throughout the city. Eventually the city
was centered on an elevated mud-brick temple called the Western
Deffufa. This elevated shrine is similar to the Ancient Egyptian stepped
pyramids but is surrounded by a wall and has internal rooms
connected by passageways. The deffufa is sometimes entered via a
columned hall laid with stones and painted with earth-tone images of
animals and human figures. Eventually the city housed over 10,000
people. Sculptures from the area show a strong stylistic influence
from Ancient Egypt, and by 1,500 BC, Nubia was conquered by the
Egyptians, but the Kingdom of Kush, as the culture came to be called,
then conquered Egypt for a time, at which point the city of Napata, in
northern Sudan, rose in importance. Although Napata has not yet
been fully studied, its architectural remains reveal a strong Egyptian
influence, primarily in its pyramid and temple construction, which
were smaller than those in Egypt but were far more numerous. Today,
Sudan is home to over 223 pyramids.
Moving further southeast, the archaeological site of Meroë on
the banks of the Nile River is one of the largest archaeological sites in
the world and was at one point the capital city of the Kingdom of Kush
until the kingdom fell to the Ethiopian kings of Aksum in c. 350 AD.
Architecture surviving from the earliest years of the Aksumite
Kingdom reflects the religious beliefs of these rulers, who converted
to Christianity in 356. Thus, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church did much
to shape architectural developments in Aksumite history, where the
legendary Queen of Sheba began her journey to visit King Solomon in
Jerusalem, from where she is thought to have brought the Ark of the
Covenant back to Aksum. The Ark is supposedly housed in the Chapel
of the Tablet, a small, three-bay square stone building constructed in
Aksum in 1665 that is venerated today. The ancient city of Aksum is
also unique in the way it is covered with tall stone obelisks that mark
early gravesites throughout the city. South of Aksum along an ancient
road that leads further south into northern Ethiopia is the capital of
the later Zagwe dynasty that ruled in the 1100s, and where the rock-
cut churches of Lalibela are located. This famous sacred UNESCO site
features a series of about 11 monolithic churches cut into the living
rock that were built over time, some perhaps designed to create a
new Jerusalem in response to the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in
1187, while others were carved out as dynastic funerary monuments,
one of which was likely commissioned by the wife of Lalibela at his
death.
The diversity of African architecture resulted from a blending of
native cultures with outside influences that were both religious and
political, and include the Ancient Roman influences found in North
Africa, where the northern regions of Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria were
taken over by the Romans after the Third Punic War of 146 BC, where
they built military outposts all along the north coast. Timgad in Algeria
is the best-known example of an Ancient Roman castrum, built in AD
100 by Emperor Trajan. North African cities were later conquered by
Islamic rulers beginning in the 600s, and the Great Mosque of
Kairouan in Tunisia is an excellent example of early Islamic
architecture in this region of Africa, and is not only one of the largest
buildings in North Africa but was also one of the most important
intellectual centers in the world for the next several centuries.
In West Africa, the Soninke people, who ruled ancient Ghana
from c. 750 to 1240, were also some of the earliest peoples on the
African continent to convert to Islam, which occurred when members
of the native ruling family established a trade relationship with
Muslim Almoravid traders, who were Berbers from Morocco, in the
mid-1000s. The largest ancient settlement known from this region of
Africa is Dhar Tichitt-Walata, located in Mauritania, which includes
about 500 small settlements that date as early as 2,000 BC and that
are characterized by stone fortifications and buildings situated in a
well-organized layout of streets. The site was likely abandoned c. 500
BC, when it is thought the climate became too dry for farming.
Contemporary to this site is the Nok archaeological site of Samun
Dukiya, located in Nigeria between the Niger and Benue Rivers. With
the establishment of Islamic rule, architectural influences arrived from
Arabia and Persia. The Great Mosque of Djenné, built in Mali in the
13th century, is an excellent example of large-scale mosque
construction and is considered to be the largest clay building in the
world. Timbuktu, Mali, was also a flourishing trade center on the edge
of the Sahara Desert, and this city also features a similar mosque and
school, renowned as an intellectual center in Africa.
South of Mali, the architecture of the Asante, or Ashanti, peoples
is known today through the reconstruction of a group of domestic
dwellings in the southern town of Kumasi. These traditional Asante
buildings are the only such buildings that survive and today are
located in a region to the northeast of the southern Ghana city of
Kumasi. Most Asante villages were burned throughout the 19th
century in the war against British colonization. This site, which
reached its high point in the 18th century, includes a group of over ten
buildings used as shrines. The buildings are all one-story constructions
made of timber, bamboo, and plaster made of mud, with thatched,
gable roofs. They were first framed with wooden posts that were
lashed together with bamboo slats. The floor was made of smooth,
hardened clay, the roof was thatched, and, finally, the walls were filled
in with mud plaster. The external mud plaster was then molded into
bas-relief designs on the outside walls that show abstract motifs,
animals, and plants; the lower portion of the buildings are a deep red
clay color while the upper walls are whitewashed in lime powder.
Sacred rituals have been held in the shrines since the 1700s, but the
symbolism of the external bas-relief designs remains little studied.
Some of the buildings are more elaborate and have geometric
patterns carved out of the wall to create latticework windows. Each
building has a covered porch elevated three steps off the ground, and
the buildings are clustered in groups around central courtyards. In
1960, the site was bought by the national Ghana Museums and
Monuments Board and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so although
the roofs are now corrugated iron, the buildings are maintained.
In Nigeria, traditional Yoruba homes were built similar to the
Asante homes, but Yoruba villages were often also enclosed with tall
mud walls. The best-known example are the walls located around
Eredo in southwestern Nigeria that form a 100-mile-long fortification
built in the 800s to enclose a 25-mile-wide region of villages and a
three-story royal palace. These mud walls are 70 feet tall in places and
are flanked by ditches, while the walls are covered by moss in some
places as they curve into the rain forest. It is thought that construction
was overseen by a wealthy royal woman named Bilikisu Sungbo, and
they are considered to be the largest fortifications in Africa.
Along the trans-Sahara trade routes in the northern part of
Central Africa, nomadic tribes eventually settled and began
architectural construction, such as the Kanembu, who established a
capital city in the 700s with the Duguwa dynasty and adopted Islamic
beliefs. Architectural materials varied with changes in climate, ranging
from the arid savannah to the semi-arid Sahelian grasslands to the
thick forests of the Congo Basin. Important archaeological sites in the
southern part of central and west coast Africa include the Kingdom of
Kongo, the Kuba Kingdom, the Luba peoples, and the Lunda Empire,
and their history was first textually documented by European traders
who established the slave routes to Europe in the late 1400s. The
“Gold Coast” castles and fortifications built along the coast of Ghana
reveal the dark history of colonial rule that began with the
establishment of Portuguese trade routes that were gradually given
over for the slave trade. Here we find a series of monumental stone
trade buildings that were enlarged and expanded into about 40 large
castle-like fortifications that were adapted for use as holding stations
for the millions of slaves awaiting transport to Europe and the
Americas. These massive whitewashed stone buildings, constructed in
the Spanish Colonial style also found in the colonized cities of North
and South America, document the history of the slave trade from the
late 1400s until 1786, when this route was ended. The earliest trading
post is Elmina Castle, built by the Portuguese in 1482 in the Gulf of
Guinea in an area governed by the Fante people, who were pushed
away from the coastal areas by the Portuguese so they could
construct what is today the oldest European building below the
Sahara.
Southeastern Africa is dotted with the remains of ancient stone
villages terraced into the surrounding mountains and hills of Tanzania,
Rwanda, and Uganda, with a number of ancient earthwork
settlements that have for the most part not been well studied. With
the arrival of Islamic traders and the conversion of the native people
to Islam, Swahili architecture was introduced, which is a regional
variant on Arabic or Persian architecture that can be found at the
Great Mosque of Kilwa on the island of Kilwa Kisiwani in Tanzania. In
Southern Africa, the Great Zimbabwe is the largest ancient city south
of the Sahara Desert, built by the Shona peoples. Other stone
settlements can be found in the Zimbabwean plateau, but this
settlement is the largest one, with curved walls and flowing, organic
lines that characterize the architecture of native peoples rather than
the straight-line construction of the ancient Roman, Christian, Islamic,
and later European settlers. Zulu architecture follows this similar
organic form, with rounded thatched huts and domed buildings
surrounded by encircling walls. East coastal dwellings, such as those
on the island of Madagascar, reveal thatched, stilt homes similar to
many found on the islands of Borneo and Indonesia across the Indian
Sea from Madagascar.
Modern architecture was introduced into Africa from Europe in
the early 20th century, and it was utilized by African rulers seeking to
“modernize” their cities. French architect Le Corbusier’s city designs
for Algeria and Italian Futurist architectural plans for Libya made
during the first part of the century show the effects of more recent
cultural appropriation in this part of North Africa, while during the
second half of the century, buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer,
Kenzo Tange, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill can be found on the
continent. More recent examples of European-influenced Post-
Modern architecture, as well as Neo-Vernacular architecture that
celebrates native African aesthetics, have been introduced by African
architects of international stature, including David Adjaye from
Tanzania and Mokena Makeka from South Africa. David Adjaye grew
up in London and keeps offices in Accra, New York, and London, and
has expressed a desire to elevate African architecture to an
international level. Accordingly, Adjaye’s designs for the Smithsonian
National Museum of African American History and Culture in
Washington, D.C., blends a global modern appearance with subtle
African design elements and materials such as bronze and Yoruba
 craftsmanship. South African architect Mokena Makeka grew up in
post-apartheid Cape Town, and he has shaped his career around the
idea that a new South Africa must be one shared by all citizens.
Makeka’s early commissions therefore were focused on remodeling
buildings constructed in the era of segregation to have more open
entrances and more cohesive, uniform spaces available to all visitors.
Makeka’s best-known commission is the renovation of the Cape Town
railway station in preparation for the 2010 World Cup, which seeks to
desegregate the space and open up the platform area, making it airy
and inviting with large open entrances that contrast with the
controlled entries used during apartheid. The shiny white stone floors
and tall white ceilings symbolize a new beginning for the country.
South African architect Mphethi Morojele of MMA Architects, one of
the first black-owned architectural firms in the world, was born in
Lesotho and has also focused his career to date on developing an
architectural language for post-apartheid South Africa, with his
housing projects in Cape Town and his design for the South African
embassy in Berlin that includes a native African central courtyard and
traditional African decoration of geometric wall patterns in red ochre
and white chalk, yet with a proliferation of glass and a modern,
European-style overall design.
Other contemporary architects include the Spanish architect
Urko Sanchez, who is based on the Kenyan island of Lamu and is
spending his career seeking to integrate native Swahili designs with
open courtyards, natural light, and local materials such as thatch
roofing into a modern-context building. Both Kunlé Adeyemi, born in
Nigeria, and Francis Kéré from Burkina Faso are dedicating their
careers to crafting a native response to modern architectural solutions
rather than looking to Western models of construction, and they are
seeking local solutions to the native climate, with the use of native
materials and resources different from those used in European
architecture. See also .
AKSUMITE ARCHITECTURE
See .
ALBERTI, LEON BATTISTA (1404–1472)
Leon Battista Alberti, the leading theorist in Renaissance Italy, was
born into a noble Florentine family expelled to Venice. It was in Padua
that Alberti first studied classical humanism, and in Bologna that he
received a law degree in 1428. Able to return to Florence the
following year, he began his career as an author, writing books on
upper-middle-class family life, painting, sculpture, and architecture.
His architectural treatise, finished in 1452 and titled De re
aedificatura, is dedicated to his patron in Rome, Pope Nicholas V. This
treatise was the first since antiquity and was modeled on the Roman
treatise by Vitruvius. Like Vitruvius, Alberti defined ideal architecture
as that which demonstrates strength, utility, and beauty. He also
updated Vitruvius’s classical orders by canonizing the Composite order
of columns, which Vitruvius considered merely a late variant of the
Corinthian. Alberti’s treatise is less of a practical manual, however,
and more of a theoretical discussion of the aesthetics of classical
architecture, considered the ideal style in the Renaissance.
Alberti put his ideals into practice with his Tempio Malatestiano,
built in the 1450s as a funerary church for the ruler of Rimini,
Sigismondo Malatesta. Despite the fact that it lacks its originally
planned dome over the crossing of the nave, this stone building
recalls a classical temple in its façade, which is made to recall the
design of a Roman triumphal arch, and in its basilica interior, which
has piers lightly carved with Roman motifs. His later church of
Sant’Andrea in Mantua, from 1472, is Alberti’s most fully formed
classical building. Here, a colossal arch rises up over the central door,
flanked by side wings with separate entrances. Thus, the façade is
divided into three parts separated by smooth colossal Corinthian
pilasters that rise up to the entablature, creating an elevated porch
entrance into the church. The façade is further divided into three
parts vertically, by the placement of two arches over each side
entrance to create three stories. Finally, a frieze separates the lower
levels from the triangular pediment that caps the sloping, unfinished
roofline. Entering the building under the coffered portico, the visitor
immediately recognizes that the interior of the church matches the
exterior in height, proportion, and design. The vast coffered barrel
vault provides an expansive Latin-cross plan, with a nave flanked by
 side aisles. It was the Latin-cross church plan that Alberti used here,
which was the most practical in organization and size. Thus, with
these churches one can see how Alberti sought to infuse a rational
approach to his ideal architecture by providing not only overt classical
references but also a visual harmony and order that suited
Renaissance aesthetics.
ALEN, WILLIAM VAN (1883–1954)
See .
ALHAMBRA, GRANADA
While the Great Mosque of Cordoba, begun in 785, signals the advent
of Muslim power on the Iberian Peninsula, the Alhambra Palace
complex, built in Granada from 1354 to 1391, was the seat of the last
great Moorish dynasty in Spain. Muslim traders had settled in
southern Spain in the early 700s, after the Berber ruler Tarik
conquered the Visigoths on the Iberian Peninsula. A few years later, in
750, the early Umayyad dynasty, centered in Damascus, Syria, was
overthrown by the Abbasids, and the last remaining members of the
Umayyad royal family fled their capital and found refuge among Syrian
expatriates living in southern Spain, which they had named Al-
Andalus. While the Abbasid caliphs went on to establish their empire
in Baghdad and Samarra and extended Islamic authority across the
Eastern world, the Umayyad family created a Western empire, where
Abd-al-Rahman I ruled as a local emir beginning in 756. This shift in
dynastic power ultimately resulted in the dramatic expansion of Islam
in western Europe, where the powerful Umayyad dynasty of Cordoba
ruled most of the Iberian Peninsula until 1031.
Afterward, internal conflicts abetted Christian advances so that
the Moors had to enlist the aid of the Almoravids from Marrakesh,
who sailed across the Strait of Gibraltar and helped to stabilize Islamic
rule for the next several hundred years. Despite this external aid, the
Moors’ economic power never fully recovered and was dealt a severe
blow in 1063 when they lost control of the trade routes of the
Mediterranean Sea to the Pisans of Italy. The definitive battle,
incidentally, was celebrated in Pisa with the construction of the Pisa
Cathedral Complex begun the following year. Nonetheless, the final
Moorish dynasty, the Nasrids, who governed from their capital in
Granada from 1232 to 1492, carved out a rich culture that is seen
today in the Alhambra, a palace complex built in Granada beginning in
1238 and adapted through the next several hundred years. The
complex as it appears today is the result of a construction campaign
that dates to the mid-1300s, and although subsequent Christian rulers
either altered or destroyed several of the buildings, much of the
complex was left intact, probably as a symbol of the vanquished
Islamic rule.
The Alhambra is a fortified complex of buildings surrounded by
walls and towers. Located on a hilltop outside of Granada, it was
largely self-sufficient. It included a fortified royal complex of six
palaces, government buildings, mosques, barracks, servants’ quarters,
a mint, workshops, stables, bathhouses, and fountains, all set amid
beautiful enclosed gardens that were meant to look like paradise on
earth. The Palace of the Lions was the royal retreat of Muhammad V,
who ruled from 1362 to 1391. It reveals a spectacular courtyard with a
central fountain that has a basin elevated on the backs of a cluster of
lions, all of whom face outward around the courtyard. The courtyard
would originally have been used as a garden and planted with citrus
trees and flowers. Above the courtyard, projecting balconies, called
miradors, have open windows that overlook both the gardens and the
valley below. Large rooms with pavilions that open onto the courtyard
at the ground floor were used for entertainment, with music and
selected poetry. One of the two-storied rooms, the Hall of the
Abencerrajes, has a richly carved, star-shaped vaulted ceiling set on
squinches rather than pendentives, which is Byzantine in origin. The
entire dome is made up of a series of tiny niche arches called
muqarnas that give the effect of a cave ceiling covered with
stalactites, yet the ceiling appears to float up above the square room,
weightless in appearance. The original Moorish walls reveal a complex
surface decoration of richly colored stone intarsia and wood in
arabesque patterns of densely interlinked geometric shapes and
organic lines. The Palacio de Generalife has been altered, but its
garden setting is thought to resemble its original Moorish format. The
large pool in the Court of the Myrtles provided a sparkling reflective
surface as well as a cool respite from the intense summer heat. The
 site featured a sophisticated irrigation system that allowed for
incredibly lush gardens, repeatedly described by visitors with a
mixture of admiration and wonder.
The Moorish empire ended in 1492 when Isabella of Castile and
Fernando II of Aragon unified much of the Iberian Peninsula with the
Christian world. That same year, Christopher Columbus visited the
king and queen in Granada and was received personally in the throne
room at the Alhambra, where the queen agreed to fund his
exploration. Subsequent Christian rulers continued to use the
Alhambra, although some destroyed parts of the Moorish complex.
Charles V in the 1500s tore down the winter palace to build his own
Renaissance structure, while in the 1700s, Philip V updated many of
the interiors and built his own palace in the complex. It was saved
from Napoleon’s attempted destruction in the early 1800s and has
subsequently received the protection so long deserved as one of the
most important travel destinations in all of Spain. See also .
AMATERASU SHRINE, ISE, JAPAN
The Amaterasu Shrine, located in the city of Ise in Mie Prefecture in
southern Japan, is a temple dedicated to the goddess of the sun and
universe sacred to the Shinto religion that is part of a larger shrine
complex in and around Ise. This shrine, also called the Inner Shrine, or
Naikū, is one of the holiest Shinto sites in Japan because it houses a
sacred royal mirror, and the main priest who oversees the shrine,
which is not open to the public, must come from the royal family.
Although the area housed a shrine dedicated to Amaterasu as early as
the first century BC, the earliest records of the shrine date to the late
600s, when a female member of the royal family oversaw the shrine.
The temple is also rebuilt every 20 years to the same design and
measurement, so in this way the materials used for these temples
never degrade but are always eternally new. The current shrine, made
of cypress, is the 62nd rebuilding in the original form. The shrine is
raised on wood piers so it looks like a stilt house with storage rooms
beneath, and an elevated porch surrounds all four sides of the
rectangular structure. A staircase leads up to the single central
doorway, and windows are spaced evenly apart across the long sides
of the shrine, with no molding or decorative framing.
 The style of architecture used is called Shinmei-zukuri, and the
type of building, a main hall, is called a honden, which houses the holy
relic, or kami, which in this case is the mirror. In this type of layout, an
oratory, called the haiden, is often located in front of the honden and
is connected together with a hall of offerings, all surrounded by an
open space made of smooth pebbles. This style mimics the style of
domestic architecture with gabled roofs, elevated floors, wood walls,
and thatched or reed-covered roofs. Shinto shrines are extremely
simple, with no decorative detailing, but the simple beauty of the
unfinished wood planks and logs, the roof billets that project off the
gable, and the forked finials that run along the bottom of the roof
form the architectural aesthetic.
Shinto beliefs inform the simple style of architecture that uses
natural materials and setting. In addition, the grounds are considered
sacred and are therefore surrounded by a fence with gate openings
called torii. Rocks, mountains, and other natural formations could
attract the kami, or sacred spirits, and therefore these natural
elements are worshipped. Originally, these sacred streams or other
natural places were marked with a simple fence or entrance but with
no other architectural structure, but with the advent of Buddhism in
Japan, shrines began to be built as well, although in a much more
spare style than the Buddhist temples found in China. The simple
fenced enclosure is typically surrounded by a forest from which the
wood came that is used for the shrine construction, and a sacred
walkway leads to the shrine, where visitors first pass a fountain for
washing. The walkway may be lined with stone lanterns, and other
buildings could form part of the complex that might include an
administrative office or other smaller shrines, all arranged at 90-
degree angles to the main shrine. The Amaterasu Shrine is one of the
best-known shrines of this type. See also ; .
AMERICAN FOURSQUARE
American Foursquare houses date from 1895 to the 1930s and are so
named for their boxy shape and four-part floor plan. These houses
were typically simpler and more economical than the Victorian homes
of previous years. They were normally of a wood frame and clapboard
construction, but brick foursquare homes were also sometimes built,
 and more elegant versions were constructed with rich interior
woodwork and other Arts and Crafts features. By the early 1900s, for
the first time in history, cheaper land and construction materials
offered most Americans the opportunity to own their own home. The
square houses had two and a half stories, a hipped roof with a central
dormer, and a front porch. Inside, the floor plan was divided into four
smaller squares; the typical ground floor consisted of an entrance
foyer and stairwell, which moves clockwise to a living room, then the
dining room, separated by an arched entry, and a kitchen behind the
entrance foyer. The second story was similarly divided to include three
bedrooms and a bathroom.
The most interesting feature of the foursquare homes is the fact
that they could be purchased through mail-order catalogs such as
Sears Roebuck or the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, and all
pre-cut parts and an instruction booklet would arrive on a boxcar to
be assembled by local carpenters. Foursquare homes were therefore
popular in suburban settings that featured small, square lots and were
located near railways. The Aladdin “Built in a Day” House Catalog
from 1917 features over 60 homes costing from $300 to around
$2,000, each named and detailed with floor plans, drawings, and
interior and exterior photographs. The simple “Herford” foursquare
house cost $836.00, while the “Suburban,” which cost $1,075.40, was
four feet wider than the Herford and featured a more sharply gabled,
shingled roof, exposed rafters, and cornice brackets. The mass
production of these popular homes ultimately transformed the urban
landscape of the United States in the first two decades of the 20th
century.
ANCIENT AEGEAN ARCHITECTURE
Before the dawn of Ancient Greece, a vibrant Neolithic and then
Bronze Age society thrived in several different cultures found along
the Aegean Sea. The Aegean is home to many clusters of islands, and
the earliest known Aegean culture, established around 6000 BC, was
centered on several of the Cycladic Islands off the southeast coast of
Greece. Today these islands appear to be quite barren, rocky outposts
with few trees, but by around 3000 BC they were home to a thriving
culture of farmers and seafaring traders, and their inhabitants began
to use local stone to create not only the famous Cycladic figurines of
musicians, but also fortified towns and burial mounds. Several of
these islands have quarries of the beautiful white marble that later
became the preferred building material in Ancient Greece. To date,
however, no habitations have been excavated on these islands.
Also from around 3000 BC, another Bronze Age culture thrived
on the much larger island of Crete, located in the southern area of the
Aegean, and this island culture developed into what was later called
the Minoan civilization. Minoan peoples are named after their
legendary ruler, King Minos, who is described in Homer’s epic tales as
ruling from his labyrinth-like palace in the ancient city of Knossos. This
palace, dating from 1900 BC to around 1100 BC, was discovered by
the archaeologists Heinrich Schliemann, who located the site, and
then Arthur Evans, who subsequently discovered and excavated the
area. Both scholars argued that Homer’s tales were not entirely
fictional but could be used to unearth pre-Homeric cities such as the
ancient site of Troy in Turkey and the Peloponnesian city of the
ancient ruling family of Atreus, known as Mycenae.
Minoan peoples farmed and maintained herds of animals, but
they also fished for food and established vast trade routes across the
Aegean and the Mediterranean. This thriving culture is also known for
its own system of writing, which was needed in order to keep
sophisticated trade account books, while music, dance, and other high
levels of aesthetic culture appear in murals painted on the walls of
vast palace complexes. The most famous palace, the Palace of
Knossos, had beautiful walls made of mud brick and rubble shaped
within a wooden framework that was then covered in a veneer of
local stone. Certainly the marble constructions of the Cycladic peoples
or the alabaster walls of the Mesopotamians must have inspired the
use of this new material, called dressed stone. After an earthquake
destroyed several parts of the palace around 1700 BC, it was rebuilt
and extensively enlarged. This newer palace was multi-storied, which
was a newer architectural feature made possible by the relatively light
materials of wood framing and stone veneer used in construction. Not
only did many windowed openings allow light and air into the internal
courtyards, but many stairs, open porticoes, and columned rooms set
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Title: The diary of a Russian lady

reminiscences of Barbara Doukhovskoy (née princesse
Galitzine)

Author: Varvara Dukhovskaia

Release date: June 30, 2024 [eBook #73953]

Language: English

Original publication: United Kingdom: John Long, Limited, 1917

Credits: Peter Becker and the Online Distributed Proofreading

Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIARY OF A

RUSSIAN LADY ***
 The Diary of
a Russian Lady
 yours faithfully

Barbara Doukhovskoy

THE DIARY OF A
RUSSIAN LADY
REMINISCENCES OF
BARBARA DOUKHOVSKOY
(née Princesse Galitzine)

“Lived through but not forgotten”

WITH TWO PORTRAITS

LONDON
JOHN LONG, LIMITED
12, 13 & 14 NORRIS STREET, HAYMARKET
MCMXVII
 Preface
This book was not intended to be published, and it is to accident
that we owe its appearance.
The author, from her childhood, followed affectionate advices and
good examples, and noted every day her impressions of everything
she saw and heard about her. She puts in these pages all the
freshness and sincerity of her woman’s heart.
Circumstances placed the author in the centre of remarkable
events. Remaining faithful to the principle of not interfering with her
husband’s business, she becomes, however, unwillingly, the
spectatrix of particularly interesting facts: the outside of war, of
different centres of Russian society, of exotic life in foreign colonies
and on our remote frontiers, including the regions of the river Amour
in Eastern Siberia.
Our author does not pretend to give a thorough and complete
study of political events and society customs. But here we have vivid
pictures of different impressions which, linked together, give us a
living picture of places, events, and persons; real life in fact is
delineated in this book, which has thus become a considerable work.
The author’s innate talent, her education, her faculty of
observation, and her deep study of the best Russian and foreign
writers, are the cause of the vivid impression produced by her light
and clear style. Some portions of these studies entitled “Fragments
of the Diary of a Russian woman in Erzeroum,” were printed in one
of the most famous Russian periodicals. The welcome they received
showed the author to what use she could turn her book for her
works of charity, and it is her desire to assist the poor which gave to
Barbara Doukhovskoy the idea of publishing her “Memories,” though
the great realism of them did not permit of their publication as a
whole.
Profiting by the right of having been a friend and a playmate of
the author’s husband, I insisted on the necessity of publishing this
work.
Not only by the truth and the spontaneity of her impressions, but
by the profoundness of her observations and the artistic conception
of the whole, the author of this book now embellishes our literature
by a work of an exceptional and original character.
C. Sloutchevsky

Constantin Sloutchevsky, Russian poet, one of the most famous of the end of
the nineteenth century.
 Contents
CHAP. PAGE
I. Early Recollections 13
II. My First Trip Abroad 19
III. My First Appearance in Society 33
IV. My Second Trip Abroad 39
V. My Second Season in St. Petersburg 42
VI. Dolgik 48
VII. In St. Petersburg Again 50
VIII. The Crimea 52
IX. Winter in St. Petersburg 56
X. The Caucasus 60
XI. Marriage 69
XII. Tiflis 73
XIII. Alexandropol 76
XIV. The Turco-Russian War 79
XV. Kars 90
XVI. On my way to Erzeroum 94
XVII. Erzeroum 98
XVIII. St. Petersburg 133
XIX. Moscow 135
XX. Our Journey Abroad 156
XXI. Boulogne-sur-mer 159
XXII. London 161
XXIII. Paris 167
XXIV. On our way to Lucerne 171
XXV. Lucerne 172
XXVI. Interlaken 179
XXVII. Montreux 182
 XXVIII. Geneva 189
XXIX. Milan 192
XXX. Villa D’Este 196
XXXI. Cernobbio 199
XXXII. Venice 215
XXXIII. Florence 217
XXXIV. Rome 221
XXXV. Naples 224
XXXVI. Peissenberg 232
XXXVII. On the Rhine 236
XXXVIII. Rotterdam 238
XXXIX. London 240
XL. Moscow 248
XLI. Biarritz 250
XLII. Madrid 255
XLIII. Saragossa 257
XLIV. Barcelona 263
XLV. San Remo 265
XLVI. Paris 267
XLVII. Moscow 268
XLVIII. Copenhagen 271
XLIX. Moscow 274
L. Paris 277
LI. Trouville 282
LII. Moscow 284
LIII. A Trip to Egypt 290
LIV. Constantinople 291
LV. Athens 298
LVI. In Pharaoh Land 299
LVII. Our way Back to Russia 309
LVIII. Promotion of my Husband to the Post of Governor-
General
of the Amour Province in Siberia 313
 LIX. Across the Atlantic 316
LX. New York 320
LXI. Niagara Falls 329
LXII. Chicago 332
LXIII. San Francisco 338
LXIV. Across the Pacific 340
LXV. Yokohama 347
LXVI. Tokio 352
LXVII. Kobe 356
LXVIII. Across the Inland Sea 357
LXIX. Nagasaki 359
LXX. Across the Japanese Sea 361
LXXI. Siberia—Vladivostock 362
LXXII. Our Journey to Khabarovsk 363
LXXIII. Khabarovsk 375
LXXIV. Our Voyage around the World 393
LXXV. On our way to Japan 397
LXXVI. Nagasaki 399
LXXVII. From Nagasaki to Shanghai 400
LXXVIII. Shanghai 401
LXXIX. Hong-Kong 405
LXXX. Saigon 410
LXXXI. Singapore 413
LXXXII. Java Batavia 416
LXXXIII. Singapore 421
LXXXIV. Colombo 423
LXXXV. Aden 425
LXXXVI. Suez 428
LXXXVII. Port Saïd 429
LXXXVIII. On the Mediterranean 430
LXXXIX. Marseilles 431
XC. Monte Carlo 432
XCI. Nice 433
 XCII. Paris 434
XCIII. St. Petersburg—Coronation of Nicolas II 435
XCIV. Our way Back to Khabarovsk via Odessa 438
XCV. Port Saïd 440
XCVI. Suez 441
XCVII. Aden 442
XCVIII. Colombo 444
XCIX. Singapore 449
C.From Singapore to Nagasaki 450
CI.Nagasaki 452
CII.Vladivostock 453
CIII.Khabarovsk 454
CIV.Back to Russia 458
CV.Vladivostock 459
CVI. Nagasaki 460
CVII. Shanghai 462
CVIII. Hong Kong 463
CIX. Canton 465
CX. Macao 468
CXI. Hong Kong 472
CXII. Saigon 474
CXIII. Singapore 475
CXIV. From Singapore to Suez 478
CXV. Suez 482
CXVI. Cairo 482
CXVII. Port Saïd 485
CXVIII. St. Petersburg 487
CXIX. Our Journey to Tashkend 489
CXX. Tashkend 495
CXXI. St. Petersburg 505
CXXII. A Short Peep at St. Petersburg and Back to
Tashkend 518
CXXIII. Paris World’s Fair 524
CXXIV. Kissingen 532
CXXV. Back to Tashkend 535
CXXVI. Definite Departure for St. Petersburg 537
Index 539
The Diary of a Russian Lady
BOOK I
 CHAPTER I
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS
My father, Prince Theodore Galitzine, married my mother being a
widower with five children, three of whom died before my birth. My
earliest vivid recollections begin when I was two years old. I
distinctly remember feeling a terrible pain in parting with my wet-
nurse, to whom I was passionately attached. I got hold of her skirt
and wouldn’t let her go, weeping wildly. It was my first bitter
affliction. I could not put up with the new nurse, whom I hated from
the depths of my little heart, and I would not call her otherwise than
Wild Cat, with baby petulance, having already at that early age
pronounced likes and dislikes. We were in perpetual state of warfare.
When I was about three years old that nurse was succeeded by a
pretty Belgian girl named Melle. Henriette. The tutor of my two step-
brothers, Mr. Liziar, made love to her and finished by marrying her
some time after. He seemed somewhat half-witted; by night he went
to chime the bells at the belfry of our village church in Dolgik, a fine
estate belonging to my father, in the government of Kharkoff, and
also amused himself by breaking, in the conservatory, the panes of
glass with big stones. One day he frightened his sweetheart nearly
to death by throwing a snake under her feet. After all these pranks it
is no way astonishing that Mr. Liziar finished his days in a lunatic
asylum. The tutor who succeeded him, asked my parents to bring
his wife with him. He hastened to pocket the hundred roubles taken
beforehand on account of his salary, and departed suddenly to
Kharkoff to fetch her. Meanwhile my father received a letter from this
tutor’s legitimate wife dated from St. Petersburg, in which she
entreated papa to send her the half of her husband’s monthly salary,
telling him he spent all his money on his mistress, whilst his wife and
children had not a morsel of bread to put into their mouths. Of
course, this too Don Juanesque tutor was instantly dismissed.
 My parents at that time kept an open house. On great occasions
my smart nurse would appear in the dining-room carrying me in her
arms, attired like a little fairy, all ribbons and lace, to be admired by
our guests. She put me down on the table, and I promenaded quite
at my ease between the flowers and fruits.
I was born under fortunate auspices, there could not be a happier
little girl; good things were thrown down upon me: presents,
petting, admiration. At an early age I chose as my motto: “Fais ce
que voudras.” Whatever I wished for, I very certainly had, and I
didn’t see how anybody could want to refuse me in anything.
I was often sent down to the drawing-room to be admired by the
afternoon callers, and mamma ordered me to let myself be kissed by
unkissable grown-ups, who paid me those compliments shown to
children, who are precious to their parents, and which made me
intolerably conceited. I stood in great danger of being completely
spoilt, and mamma, who was afraid that I received a good deal
more flattery than she thought good for me, ordered me to answer
what I was told: “Comme Vava[1] est jolie!”—“Vava n’est pas jolie,
elle est seulement gentille.” But, nevertheless, I knew that I was
pretty, my glass told me so.

[1] Vava: diminutive of Barbara.

At the age of four I could read and write fairly well, and chatted
freely in French. I was immensely proud when my nurse ended
putting me to bed in the daytime, and when I was old enough to sit
at table, able to handle my knife and fork properly. My greatest
delight was to ride on my brothers’ backs and to be swung by them
in a sheet, that they held by the four corners and lifted me as high
as they could, whilst I crowed gleefully, my bare legs waving happily
in the air. Mamma hastened with my nurse to my rescue, and carried
me off, paying but little attention to the wild shrieks with which I
requested to be tossed higher and higher. There was a speedy end
to all this fun; destiny itself interfered to stop these aerial
gymnastics: I had a bad fall one day, tumbling out of the sheet, and
my infatuation for this sport disappeared completely.
It was a source of infinite delight to me to creep on the knees of
Mr Vremeff, an intimate friend of my parents, a charming old
gentleman with snowy white hair, and hear him relate entrancing
fairy tales for which I had an insatiable appetite. As soon as he had
finished one story, I asked for another and another.
At that time my father was marshal of nobility of the district of
Kharkoff. One day he was suddenly called to St. Petersburg, and,
during his absence, we received the news that he was appointed
chamberlain to His Majesty the Emperor. I wept bitterly when I was
told that papa must wear the chamberlain’s key, persuaded that he
would be obliged to adorn even his robe de chambre with that ugly
ornament, which must completely transform my dear old dad.
 Princess Vava Galitzine

Aged 4 years.

My parents, going to St. Petersburg, generally paid flying visits to

my aunt Galitzine, who lived in Moscow. I made my first journey
with them at the mature age of four. If the faults of children develop
as they grow older, I was to become a pickpocket, for I had the bad
habit of hiding in my pockets all sorts of broken toys belonging to
the Karamzins,—two little pupils of my aunt! When I went to bed my
nurse emptied my pockets, crying out at the enormity of my dreadful
conduct.
My birthday was a great day for festivities. I received lots of lovely
presents and sweets. On the eve of my birthday I went to bed with
expectations of a pleasant awaking, and the first thing when I woke
up in the morning was to put my hand under my pillow and pull out
the presents, laid there by my parents during my sleep.
On my seventh birthday my grandmother presented me with a
beautiful watch with diamond settings. From the very first moment I
harboured a guilty determination to get the diamonds out, just as I
broke my dolls’ heads in order to see what there was in them, a
resolve, alas! very soon put into practice. Mamma entering my
nursery one day saw me perched on the top of my high stool,
occupied in drawing out the diamonds with a long pin. Moral: “It is
superfluous to give such rich presents to small persons of my age.”
The object of my first love was a simple servant-girl who lived in
the next house. Every day I watched for her, and rushing to the
window I flattened my tiny nose against the glass, and devoured her
with eager eyes.
We used to live in Kharkoff in winter and passed the summer
months in Doljik, our beautiful estate which claims to be counted
amongst the stately homes of Russia, situated forty miles distance
from town. Our removal to Doljik was a regular treat for us children,
our joy and the servants’ nuisance, for when they began to pack up,
we were only in their way, under pretence of help, poking about
among the straw, scattered in the yard, throwing it over one another
whilst playing hide-and-seek.
Doljik is a delightful place. The castle, a stately white mansion of
commanding appearance, is very grand with its suite of lofty rooms;
portraits of ancestors, the former Galitzines, very good-looking all of
them, adorn the walls. The park is beautiful, with long alleys of elm
and oak and vast lawns with skilfully sorted flower-borders, I had a
doll’s house in the park, furnished with every convenience, with a
garden of my own in which I spent happy hours gardening eagerly,
weeding and watering, I also bestowed a great part of my affection
on pet animals: dogs, cats, squirrels and tame rabbits. My brothers
and I were fond of all kinds of fun; early in the morning we used to
start for the meadows with baskets to gather mushrooms for our
breakfast, and went for rambles in the woods. We also did a lot of
fishing and bathing. My parents presented me with a prefect dream
of a pony. How proud I felt when I was lifted on my “Scotchy’s” back
for my first ride!
Dolls took no leading part in my childhood, and I had often wished
I had been a boy. I climbed trees and tore my frocks and engaged in
all sorts of wild pranks.
There was much excitement on my father’s birthday. The house
was full of guests, and an orchestra came down from town. At
dinner when papa’s health was drunk, two large cannons, placed at
the principal entrance, were fired, which made me crawl on my
hands and knees, shamefully, under the table. We had in the
evening grand illuminations in the park, with fireworks which did not
enrapture me, for at every burst of rockets I had to put my hands
over my ears.
On the day of our village festival there was a fair on the square
opposite the church. I threw sugar-candy and handfuls of pennies to
the peasant children.
I had now passed my eighth year and the time for lessons had
come. I was given over to the care of a French governess, Melle.
Rose, who was very badly named, for she was a horrid lemon-
coloured old creature, wearing a hideous curled wig, and always
looking as though she had just swallowed a spoonful of vinegar. I
hated plain people about me and could not bare the sight of Melle.
Rose, disliking her from the first. What a life I led her! Plaguing her
was a charmingly pretty sport for me. My governess was always
scolding and faultfinding; she forced me to make her every morning
and evening a low curtsey, which made me long to kick her. Melle.
Rose held up as an example to me a little friend of mine, the
Princess Mimi Troubetzkoy, who was a well-behaved child, doing
credit to her governess’s bringing up, and never giving her any
trouble. But I despised sheep-like docility and was weary of hearing
of all the beautiful things Mimi did and said.
Being deprived of the bump of respect, I did exactly what my
governess told me not to do, refusing to be put into harness. When
the fighting-blood stirred in me and made me too horribly naughty, I
was sent for punishment to bed, but I would rather be cut to pieces
before I would deign to apologise to Melle. Rose. That disagreeable
person was succeeded by Melle. Allamand, a French lady educated
in England, the most delightful of old maids, whom I loved fondly,
for she was never cross, and since she came to me, I began to
understand that it was possible for a governess to be nice, and that
the term is not necessarily synonymous to frighten and bore.
We got on very well for Melle. Allamand bore with my caprices,
which were many, I must confess. But though she was always in a
good temper we had little quarrels sometimes, which we soon made
up. I studied my piano with Melle. Allamand and learned English,
which soon became a second mother-tongue to me. When we went
out walking, my governess’s soft heart was full of pity for the poor
starving homeless dogs which she picked up in the streets and
brought home to be fed; the ugliest and shabbiest had her tenderest
care. Melle. Allamand was called back to England and my parents
had to get another governess. An English young lady was engaged,
named Miss Emily Puddan. My brothers made her rage awfully in
calling her Miss Pudding. She had no authority over me whatever,
being in fact rather silly, but she was a very pleasant companion—so
well up in all games. We were enthusiastic croquet-players and had
sometimes desperate quarrels, being very near scratching each
other’s eyes out. “I tell you I hit your ball!”—“You didn’t!”—“I did!”
etc., our arguments becoming very hot and uncivil; soon we dropped
our mallets and ran and complained to mamma, both governess and
pupil.
When I was past my twelfth year I grew very fond of reading the
books of the “Bibliothèque Rose.” I pitied mamma because she read
deadly uninteresting English Tauchnitz novels, when there existed
such enrapturing books as Les petites filles modéles, les malheurs de
Sophie, etc. But this childish literature did not hinder me from
flirtation. I used to long for adventures; and here I was having one,
notwithstanding that I had only just grown out of pinafores. My
parents took me sometimes to the Italian opera and I conceived a
romantic admiration for the tenor of the troop, who was, as I
thought adorable beyond words. I raved about him. When out
walking with my governess, I dragged her in the direction I knew
the tenor would take, in the hope of meeting him. I began to knit a
prosaic cache-nez for the object of my dreams, which mamma
confiscated, happily, in time.
From my earliest years I had a great love for acting; we gave,
from time to time, little theatrical entertainments; we dressed up
and played fragments of Shakespeare’s dramas, and I was the
leading-lady in these rehearsals. When I took up the high tragic part
of “Desdemona,” Nicolas, the brother of my little friend Sophy
Annenkoff, was the personator of “Othello,” he sacrificed his
appearance so far as to blacken his face. During the murder scene,
when the situation grew particularly tragic, Nicolas displayed such a
realism of the Shakespearian meaning, that I began to fear being
choked in reality.
I was a half-grown girl now, arrived at the age of fourteen, envied
awfully my friends, the countess Sievers and Mary Podgoritchany
who were grown-ups and wore long frocks. Some day, I said, it will
be my turn to be introduced to society. I looked forward to the day
when I should reach the age of seventeen and appear at my first
ball with a long train, and be able to flirt to my heart’s content.
I felt now that I had enough of governesses. My last one, Melle.
Annaguy, bored me awfully, being extremely particular about my
manners; it was preach, preach all day long. Melle. Anna gave me
continually a string of instructions consisting chiefly of “don’ts,”
which I listened to impatiently. I couldn’t go here, I couldn’t go
there, I couldn’t eat this, I couldn’t eat that! My governess was
indeed too exasperating, and I had a furious inclination to consign
her to very warm quarters. Melle. Anna was besides intensely
devout; being very anxious about the welfare of my soul, she
crammed me with pious lectures, but books of this sort were not in
my line, and I read everything I could lay hand on. Papa’s library
was full of interesting books, and I spent whole nights greedily
devouring in bed works written by Paul de Kock, a jolly author, but
rather improper. In the morning I hid these books under my
mattress. My childhood days had passed by. Poor “Bibliothèque
Rose,” thy time was well and duly over!
 CHAPTER II
MY FIRST TRIP ABROAD

When I was fifteen, mamma decided to take me abroad to be

“finished.” Stuttgart was chosen for our winter residence; we were to
get there towards the end of October, after having visited Paris and
made a water-cure at Spa.
I was intensely interested in all my surroundings; it was all new to
me. We spent a fortnight in Paris, visiting the curiosities of that
splendid city from morning till night.
I delighted to walk on the boulevards. Though a minx of fifteen I
had already an insatiable thirst for admiration, and loved to attract
attention, I did not look a “bread and butter Miss” and men stared at
me in the streets. One day a passer-by, giving me a glance of
approval, said to his companion: “Look at this little girl, she promises
much!” I need not say that I was much flattered and laughed
outright, but mamma didn’t.
From Paris we went to Spa, a bright watering place, lying in a high
valley of the Belgian Ardennes, three hours by rail from Brussels.
We took an apartment in the house of a coach-maker; his
daughter waited on us. Insignificant in her work-a-day clothes, she
looked quite a lady on Sundays, dressed in her smartest frock; but
her work was badly done that day.
Our programme was as follows: we rose at six, swallowed hastily
a glass of mineral water and went to take a walk on the broad
avenue named Allée de sept heures. In the afternoon we listened to
the band playing in the principal square bearing the name of Pierre
le Grand. (Spa’s iron waters had saved the life of our Tzar, Peter the
Great, nearly two hundred years before).
 Profiting by the occasion of being in the neighbourhood of
Brussels, we went to visit the famous lace factory. I remarked that
the poor workwomen all had sore, inflamed eyes.
On our return to Spa, we took a wrong train and arriving at the
humble little station of Pepinster, which stood in the open country,
we were very much disconcerted on being told to get out, for our
train took an opposite direction to Spa, and there was no other train
that day. And thus we had the cheery prospect of spending the night
in this solitary station with no dwelling in sight. It was too bad! We
quitted the train rather out of sorts, and looked round about in
helpless bewilderment. The station consisted of a bare hall only,
giving one the impression of being all windows, with a telegraphic
office at one end. As there was no lock on the outer door, the porter
advised us to barricade it with a large table. But we were not left
alone, however, someone put his long nose through the small ticket-
window, which troubled us somewhat; nevertheless we laid
ourselves down on the hard benches to sleep, which was easier said
than done, for we had just begun to doze, when the table, which
being weak on its legs performed very badly the function of safety-
lock, gave way with a bang and six tipsy porters, arrayed in blue
cotton blouses, precipitated themselves in the hall, disposed to pass
the night in our company. What was to be done to turn them out of
doors? The situation was becoming critical, but mamma did not lose
her presence of mind, and spreading a shawl over me, she
whispered into my ear not to give the slightest sign that I was
awake, and approaching bravely these rascals, she ordered them
out, telling them that the station-master had promised that no one
should disturb us. After many debates five men went out, but the
sixth declared that he had the settled resolution to sleep there. My
poor mamma half dead with fright, sat down on the bench by my
side, and holding up a warning finger, she entreated the man, in an
anxious whisper, not to wake her poor invalid child. Feigning sleep, I
had much ado to stifle the laughter which bubbled in my throat.
Then our night-mate drew nearer to mamma and said: “I see,
madam, that you are not a bit sleepy, nor am I either, so let us chat
together.” To cut him short mamma began to tell him all sorts of fibs;
she announced that she was the wife of the Russian Ambassador in
Brussels, and invited him to come and pay her a visit at Spa, giving
him a false address. Flattered and stunned by all this magnificence,
her interlocutor removed to the opposite end of the hall, and very
soon we heard him snoring in Wagnerian volume; and in the
morning how astonished he was to see the wonderful transformation
of the poor invalid child into a tall, rosy-cheeked maiden, looking the
very picture of health. As I was getting into the train I heard the
porters saying, pointing me out: “Tiens, la petite moribonde d’hier,
est-elle tout plein gentille!”
From Spa the doctor sent us to Boulogne-sur-mer. From the top of
the belfry of the cathedral of “Notre Dame de Boulogne,” one
discerns the shores of England in fine weather. I burned with
impatience to cross the channel, and one bright morning my desire
was accomplished; we embarked on a ship going to Dover. It was
the first experience I ever had of the sea, and nevertheless I proved
a very good sailor, though the passage of the “Pas-de-Calais” was
not at all pleasant; there was a heavy swell and the sea-breeze was
so sharp, that I had to hold my hat all the time. There was a curate
on board with his son, an Eton boy, who fell in love with me on the
spot, but I did not take much notice of him, for he looked such a
baby that one would be positively ashamed to bother with him.
When we reached Dover we caught the special train waiting to
take us to London. When it drew up at Charing-Cross station, a
porter took possession of us and our luggage, and conveyed us
across to the Charing-Cross Hotel. I was somewhat abashed when
we were invited to enter a small cage, which shut upon us with a
vicious snap and then tossed us up, and before I had time to do
more than gasp, we were on the sixth storey. It was my first
acquaintance with the lift, a means of conveyance which substitutes
so advantageously the legs of fatigued travellers. A new surprise
awaited us: when we rang for the maid, ordering her to bring us
some sandwiches, she whispered something into a pipe-tube in the
wall, and in a moment a shutter was set open and the sandwiches,
appeared like magic, served automatically on a tray.
I was delighted with London. In this great city life is full and
stirring; but the English Sunday is rather a trying affair, for there are
no theatres, no entertainments whatever. We wanted to explore the
British Museum that day, and it was with great difficulty that we
caught a drowsy porter who turned on his heel and went away after
having declared, very rudely, that we were troubling him in vain, the
Museum being closed, considering that the day of Sabbath was for
rest and peace, and that all good Christians kept it holy. We turned
sorrowfully away and went to our Russian church. When the service
was over our priest, a charming old gentleman, invited us for a cup
of tea. My patriotic sentiment was agreeably flattered when I saw
the works of Tourgeneff, our great writer, translated into English, in
his drawing-room.
From London we went straight to Stuttgart, where we settled
down to a peaceful winter. We looked about for furnished
apartments and took one in König-Strasse, the principal street.
Mamma devoted herself to give me the best finish in her power.
Our Grand-Duchess, Olga Nikolaevna, queen of Würtenberg, was at
that time educating her niece, the Grand-Duchess Vera, and I had
the benefit of her masters. I worked terribly hard, remaining at my
studies till dinner-time. Trying to stimulate my zeal, mamma resolved
to give me two marks for my weekly reports if they were all fives,
permitting me to spend my pocket-money on theatre tickets.
A singing mistress was sought for me, who rejoiced in the poetical
name of “Fräulein Rosa.” When I was presented to her I gave way to
a fit of most indecent laughter, for this Rose looked such a guy—a
veritable old caricature. Outraged she left the room and never after
returned. I was very glad to be rid of that fright, and clapped my
hands in naughty glee.
I took a great liking to a young compatriot of mine, Mary
Vietinghoff, who lived abroad with her mother, by reason of her
delicate health. She was one year younger that I, but for good
senses she was ten years my senior. I used also to see a great deal
of the Rydes. Mrs. Ryde was the widow of a Scotch curate and the
mother of twelve children. I liked the Ryde family tutti quanti,
especially Ettie, a girl of my own age, a most jolly lassie. Her
brother, Willie, a youngster of fourteen, took a fancy to me. This
shrewd young Scot glided one day on tiptoe behind me and stroked
my cheek, exclaiming: “How smooth it is.” He wanted to repeat this
manipulation with his lips, but received a smart slap across the face
in recompense; a very rude demonstration, indeed, but I was an
awfully quick-tempered young lady and hated to be touched. The
Rydes were astonished at what they termed my “colossal good
English,” which I had got from my childhood. To complete my
education, Willie offered to teach me some of his best slang.
Though I was still in short frocks, I was already a dreadful flirt and
had all sorts of love affairs, but all the stock of my affection was
exclusively bestowed upon Robert Jeffrey, a pupil of the English
school in Cannstadt, a small town in the neighbourhood of Stuttgart.
He was a Scotch lad of eighteen summers, blue-eyed, brown-haired
and white-toothed. I was drawn to him from the beginning, for
Bobbie was a real darling, and I considered him the sweetest boy in
the world. I had other admirers, but Jeffrey was by far the
handsomest and the dearest; I was quite silly about him and had
eyes and ears only for him alone. He was my “Prince Charming;” my
imagination adorned him with the attributes of all possible and
impossible heroes. It was my first serious affair, the first love of my
girlhood. The passion was reciprocal and Jeffrey said I was the first
girl who had yet disturbed his peace. Mamma went to Paris for a few
days, leaving me under the care of the Baroness Vietinghoff. She
hoped that Mary, who considered herself a sort of guardian of mine,
would prevent me doing anything rash while she was away. Part of
her duty was to keep off boys, (other boys, not Jeffrey.) Mary
promised mamma to play a mother’s part to me; she wouldn’t let me
commit any eccentricity. But I did an enormous one. Jeffrey was a
somewhat green and inexperienced youth, too timid for my taste,
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