On a frigid December day in 1857, the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg (now the site of the Hermitage museum) caught fire; in less than two days, the building was completely gutted. As with Notre-Dame, a renovation project helped the fire's spread, and as with Notre-Dame, the nation's leader (Tsar Nicholas I) vowed that the […]
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 08:02AM on April 18, 2019