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James Lucas

@JamesLucasIT • 820,806 subscribers

Beauty is truth, truth beauty; that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

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This is real footage of New York in the 40s

This is real footage of New York in the 40s

297,871 views

The most famous keyhole in Rome Through the Aventine Keyhole, you’ll see a perfectly framed view of St. Peter’s Basilica, aligned through the beautiful gardens of the Priory of the Knights of Malta.

The most famous keyhole in Rome Through the Aventine Keyhole, you’ll see a perfectly framed view of St. Peter’s Basilica, aligned through the beautiful gardens of the Priory of the Knights of Malta.

25,758,726 views

This is real footage from 81 years ago Palestine in 1945

This is real footage from 81 years ago Palestine in 1945

195,800 views

Penguin leaps to safety as ice breaks

Penguin leaps to safety as ice breaks

9,634,599 views

Thread of the most surreal sky phenomena ever caught on camera 🧵 1. The coolest meteor video ever

Thread of the most surreal sky phenomena ever caught on camera 🧵 1. The coolest meteor video ever

22,551,812 views

The most surreal beaches on Earth 🧵 1. Navagio beach in Zakynthos, Greece

The most surreal beaches on Earth 🧵 1. Navagio beach in Zakynthos, Greece

6,320,113 views

This is the Devil’s footprint It is one of Germany's most famous legends: when Munich’s Frauenkirche was being built in the 15th century, the architect made a deal with the Devil. The church would be funded... but only on one condition: it could have no windows. When construction was finished, the Devil stood at a precise spot near the entrance and saw nothing but bare walls. Convinced he had won, he stomped his foot into the floor so hard that it left the dark imprint visitors still see today. But when he stepped forward, he discovered the truth. The "windowless" church was an illusion, created by perfectly positioned columns that hid the stained glass windows from his view. Realizing he had been tricked, the Devil fled in fury, leaving only his scorched footprint behind. Some ghost tours in Munich add even more to the myth. Guides claim the air near the entrance is strangely cold, as if the Devil still circles the church, searching for a way back in. In winter, they say, the snow at the doorway is always last to melt. History tells us it's just a legend... but the footprint is real, the illusion is real, and the story continues to haunt the cathedral to this day.

This is the Devil’s footprint It is one of Germany's most famous legends: when Munich’s Frauenkirche was being built in the 15th century, the architect made a deal with the Devil. The church would be funded... but only on one condition: it could have no windows. When construction was finished, the Devil stood at a precise spot near the entrance and saw nothing but bare walls. Convinced he had won, he stomped his foot into the floor so hard that it left the dark imprint visitors still see today. But when he stepped forward, he discovered the truth. The "windowless" church was an illusion, created by perfectly positioned columns that hid the stained glass windows from his view. Realizing he had been tricked, the Devil fled in fury, leaving only his scorched footprint behind. Some ghost tours in Munich add even more to the myth. Guides claim the air near the entrance is strangely cold, as if the Devil still circles the church, searching for a way back in. In winter, they say, the snow at the doorway is always last to melt. History tells us it's just a legend... but the footprint is real, the illusion is real, and the story continues to haunt the cathedral to this day.

3,161,587 views

15 streets that don’t look real 🧵 1. Hanoi Train Street, Vietnam

15 streets that don’t look real 🧵 1. Hanoi Train Street, Vietnam

6,392,577 views

In South America, there is a place where 275 waterfalls cascade together. It is called Iguazu Falls, and it is the largest waterfall system in the world.

In South America, there is a place where 275 waterfalls cascade together. It is called Iguazu Falls, and it is the largest waterfall system in the world.

3,078,588 views

The castles of Europe are some of the most amazing things we’ve inherited from history Between 75,000 and 100,000 castles were built in Western Europe during the medieval period, with around 1,700 in England and Wales alone, and roughly 14,000 in German-speaking areas... Most of them rose between the 9th and 15th centuries after the collapse of centralized Roman authority and the rise of fragmented feudal power. As attacking armies grew more sophisticated, so did the walls meant to stop them. The cost was staggering: from 1179 to 1188, King Henry II of England spent over £6,500 on Dover Castle alone — an enormous sum given that his entire annual revenue was around £10,000. That figure was more than three times what he spent on any other building project in his reign, and more than four times what went into grand royal residences like Windsor. And then there is Malbork... Built by the Teutonic Knights in what is now Poland, Malbork is the largest castle in the world measured by land area. It covers 52 acres and once housed approximately 3,000 knights. A medieval visitor reportedly noted it seemed "more a city enclosed by walls than a single castle." In 950, Provence was home to just 12 castles. By 1000, the number had risen to 30. By 1030, it was over 100. The pace was not driven by a single empire with a plan, but by thousands of individual decisions made by lords, bishops, and kings who each decided, in their own time and place, that stone was the only reliable answer to an uncertain world... The word castle is derived from the Latin word castellum, which is a diminutive of the word castrum, meaning "fortified place". Between seventy-five thousand and a hundred thousand of these fortresses were built over six centuries as a reminder that every civilization eventually decides what it will leave behind. Europe decided on this. And the castles are still here.

The castles of Europe are some of the most amazing things we’ve inherited from history Between 75,000 and 100,000 castles were built in Western Europe during the medieval period, with around 1,700 in England and Wales alone, and roughly 14,000 in German-speaking areas... Most of them rose between the 9th and 15th centuries after the collapse of centralized Roman authority and the rise of fragmented feudal power. As attacking armies grew more sophisticated, so did the walls meant to stop them. The cost was staggering: from 1179 to 1188, King Henry II of England spent over £6,500 on Dover Castle alone — an enormous sum given that his entire annual revenue was around £10,000. That figure was more than three times what he spent on any other building project in his reign, and more than four times what went into grand royal residences like Windsor. And then there is Malbork... Built by the Teutonic Knights in what is now Poland, Malbork is the largest castle in the world measured by land area. It covers 52 acres and once housed approximately 3,000 knights. A medieval visitor reportedly noted it seemed "more a city enclosed by walls than a single castle." In 950, Provence was home to just 12 castles. By 1000, the number had risen to 30. By 1030, it was over 100. The pace was not driven by a single empire with a plan, but by thousands of individual decisions made by lords, bishops, and kings who each decided, in their own time and place, that stone was the only reliable answer to an uncertain world... The word castle is derived from the Latin word castellum, which is a diminutive of the word castrum, meaning "fortified place". Between seventy-five thousand and a hundred thousand of these fortresses were built over six centuries as a reminder that every civilization eventually decides what it will leave behind. Europe decided on this. And the castles are still here.

1,922,389 views

This is what Canada looked like in the 1920s Real footage of people presenting their passes to a ticket inspector before boarding a train at Windsor Street Station in Montreal

This is what Canada looked like in the 1920s Real footage of people presenting their passes to a ticket inspector before boarding a train at Windsor Street Station in Montreal

523,321 views

This is what San Francisco looked like in 1940

This is what San Francisco looked like in 1940

71,632 views

This ancient Greek gold earring depicts Nike, the goddess of victory, driving a chariot. It’s over 2300 years old.

This ancient Greek gold earring depicts Nike, the goddess of victory, driving a chariot. It’s over 2300 years old.

265,589 views

15 castles that look too magical to be real🧵 1. Neuschwanstein Castle

15 castles that look too magical to be real🧵 1. Neuschwanstein Castle

2,980,875 views

This is a statue of the only man in Troy who saw the trap. He tried to warn everyone, and this is what the gods did to him because of it... His name was Laocoön, a Trojan priest. When the Greek army vanished and left a giant wooden horse outside the city gates, all of Troy celebrated. Only Laocoön refused to believe it. He warned his people the horse was a trick and, to prove it was hollow, hurled his spear into its side. In Virgil's telling, he spoke a line that has outlasted almost everything else about Troy: "I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts." He was right. The horse was packed with soldiers, and Troy was hours from destruction. This sculpture shows what he got for it. Two enormous sea serpents rise out of the sea and coil around him and his young sons, dragging all three down together. The father's whole body is knotted in the struggle, every muscle straining, his face locked in a scream. The gods wanted Troy to fall, and Laocoön was in the way. The Trojans watched him die in agony and drew exactly the wrong conclusion: they decided the gods were punishing him for attacking a holy gift. So they pulled the horse inside their own walls, and that night, Troy burned... The statue is called Laocoön and His Sons. It is the work of three Greek sculptors from the island of Rhodes, Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus, and dates to the Hellenistic period, making it well over two thousand years old. Buried for more than a thousand years, it was dug out of a Roman vineyard in 1506, and Michelangelo rushed across Rome to see it the day it was found. It has been called the single greatest depiction of human suffering in the history of art, but it endures because of what it is really about: the man who sees the truth, says it out loud, and is destroyed for being right while the crowd watches... It is one of the oldest patterns there is, and it has never stopped repeating. There is nothing new under the sun.

This is a statue of the only man in Troy who saw the trap. He tried to warn everyone, and this is what the gods did to him because of it... His name was Laocoön, a Trojan priest. When the Greek army vanished and left a giant wooden horse outside the city gates, all of Troy celebrated. Only Laocoön refused to believe it. He warned his people the horse was a trick and, to prove it was hollow, hurled his spear into its side. In Virgil's telling, he spoke a line that has outlasted almost everything else about Troy: "I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts." He was right. The horse was packed with soldiers, and Troy was hours from destruction. This sculpture shows what he got for it. Two enormous sea serpents rise out of the sea and coil around him and his young sons, dragging all three down together. The father's whole body is knotted in the struggle, every muscle straining, his face locked in a scream. The gods wanted Troy to fall, and Laocoön was in the way. The Trojans watched him die in agony and drew exactly the wrong conclusion: they decided the gods were punishing him for attacking a holy gift. So they pulled the horse inside their own walls, and that night, Troy burned... The statue is called Laocoön and His Sons. It is the work of three Greek sculptors from the island of Rhodes, Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus, and dates to the Hellenistic period, making it well over two thousand years old. Buried for more than a thousand years, it was dug out of a Roman vineyard in 1506, and Michelangelo rushed across Rome to see it the day it was found. It has been called the single greatest depiction of human suffering in the history of art, but it endures because of what it is really about: the man who sees the truth, says it out loud, and is destroyed for being right while the crowd watches... It is one of the oldest patterns there is, and it has never stopped repeating. There is nothing new under the sun.

500,416 views

The moment you arrive in Florence and see the cathedral for the very first time

The moment you arrive in Florence and see the cathedral for the very first time

5,502,142 views

Why does Mary look younger than Jesus in Michelangelo's Pietà? The answer is one of the most beautiful in art history... Mary is holding the body of her 33 year old son, but she looks 20. Critics noticed it the moment the sculpture was unveiled in 1499. The mother of a man who has just been crucified would have been in her late forties or early fifties. Michelangelo had carved her as a girl. His own biographer, Ascanio Condivi, was the one who finally asked him why. The answer Michelangelo gave is preserved in Condivi's Life of Michelangelo and has been repeated for centuries: "Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste? How much more in the case of the Virgin, who had never experienced the least lascivious desire that might change her body?" Most modern critics treat this answer as a half-serious deflection. Michelangelo was famous for his sharp tongue and refused to explain himself to people he considered beneath his intellect. The deeper answer is older, and it lies inside one of the greatest poems ever written. In the final canto of Dante's Paradiso, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux begins his prayer to the Virgin with one of the most extraordinary lines in Italian literature: "Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio." "Virgin mother, daughter of your own son." Michelangelo, who knew Dante by heart, was carving that line into stone. Mary is younger than Jesus because Jesus is older than the universe... because she gave birth to her own creator. But there is another reading, simpler than either of those, and it is the one I find myself thinking of today. Every mother who has held her child has held them at every age at once. The infant is still inside the toddler. The toddler is still inside the teenager. The young man on her lap, even dead, is also the boy she nursed and the baby she first carried home. And maybe that's why Michelangelo did not carve Mary as the years had aged her. He carved her as love had kept her: outside of time, outside of grief, holding her son the way she had always held him... Happy Mother's Day. -- -- -- If you enjoyed this, I write a weekly newsletter read by over 50,000 people who love rediscovering the beauty of the past. You can join us here: I write about beauty in all its forms. If you'd like to support my work, a paid subscription is what makes it possible.

Why does Mary look younger than Jesus in Michelangelo's Pietà? The answer is one of the most beautiful in art history... Mary is holding the body of her 33 year old son, but she looks 20. Critics noticed it the moment the sculpture was unveiled in 1499. The mother of a man who has just been crucified would have been in her late forties or early fifties. Michelangelo had carved her as a girl. His own biographer, Ascanio Condivi, was the one who finally asked him why. The answer Michelangelo gave is preserved in Condivi's Life of Michelangelo and has been repeated for centuries: "Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste? How much more in the case of the Virgin, who had never experienced the least lascivious desire that might change her body?" Most modern critics treat this answer as a half-serious deflection. Michelangelo was famous for his sharp tongue and refused to explain himself to people he considered beneath his intellect. The deeper answer is older, and it lies inside one of the greatest poems ever written. In the final canto of Dante's Paradiso, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux begins his prayer to the Virgin with one of the most extraordinary lines in Italian literature: "Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio." "Virgin mother, daughter of your own son." Michelangelo, who knew Dante by heart, was carving that line into stone. Mary is younger than Jesus because Jesus is older than the universe... because she gave birth to her own creator. But there is another reading, simpler than either of those, and it is the one I find myself thinking of today. Every mother who has held her child has held them at every age at once. The infant is still inside the toddler. The toddler is still inside the teenager. The young man on her lap, even dead, is also the boy she nursed and the baby she first carried home. And maybe that's why Michelangelo did not carve Mary as the years had aged her. He carved her as love had kept her: outside of time, outside of grief, holding her son the way she had always held him... Happy Mother's Day. -- -- -- If you enjoyed this, I write a weekly newsletter read by over 50,000 people who love rediscovering the beauty of the past. You can join us here: I write about beauty in all its forms. If you'd like to support my work, a paid subscription is what makes it possible.

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This is real footage from 127 years ago Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in 1899
2:07
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This is real footage from 127 years ago Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in 1899

James Lucas

3,074,583 views • 13 days ago

This is real combat footage from WW2
2:10
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This is real combat footage from WW2

James Lucas

1,792,246 views • 10 days ago

Constantinople in 1897 This is real footage from 129 years ago
0:39
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Constantinople in 1897 This is real footage from 129 years ago

James Lucas

386,869 views • 3 days ago

This is real footage from 81 years ago Berlin in July 1945 after WW2
0:47
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This is real footage from 81 years ago Berlin in July 1945 after WW2

James Lucas

817,434 views • 8 days ago

This is real footage of Paris from 100 years ago
0:53
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This is real footage of Paris from 100 years ago

James Lucas

17,557,493 views • 3 months ago

Today at noon thousands of red rose petals will flutter down through the oculus of the Pantheon in Rome. This spectacular tradition is held each year on the feast of Pentecost.
0:27
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Today at noon thousands of red rose petals will flutter down through the oculus of the Pantheon in Rome. This spectacular tradition is held each year on the feast of Pentecost.

James Lucas

10,578,765 views • 4 months ago

A glimpse into a vanished world The people of London in the 1930s
0:58
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A glimpse into a vanished world The people of London in the 1930s

James Lucas

268,122 views • 6 days ago

This is real footage from 81 years ago Penn Station in 1945
0:59
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This is real footage from 81 years ago Penn Station in 1945

James Lucas

3,065,139 views • 2 months ago

Leonardo da Vinci invented the self supporting bridge in the 1400s. Here’s how it works:
0:38
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Leonardo da Vinci invented the self supporting bridge in the 1400s. Here’s how it works:

James Lucas

6,870,527 views • 4 months ago

This is real footage of Brazil from 117 years ago Rio De Janeiro in 1909
1:15
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This is real footage of Brazil from 117 years ago Rio De Janeiro in 1909

James Lucas

4,088,873 views • 3 months ago

Life in America 40 to 100+ years ago 🧵 1. This was Los Angeles in the 1950s
0:33
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Life in America 40 to 100+ years ago 🧵 1. This was Los Angeles in the 1950s

James Lucas

17,806,622 views • 1 year ago

This is real WWII footage of a young German soldier surrendering to the US Army in 1945.
0:27
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This is real WWII footage of a young German soldier surrendering to the US Army in 1945.

James Lucas

4,306,183 views • 4 months ago

Colorized historical photos and videos that will make you feel like you're in a time machine 🧵 1. Jerusalem, April 1897
0:48
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Colorized historical photos and videos that will make you feel like you're in a time machine 🧵 1. Jerusalem, April 1897

James Lucas

25,548,564 views • 1 year ago

This is real footage from 120 years ago. None of the people in it knew that the city around them had four days left... What you are watching is a cable car gliding down Market Street in San Francisco, filmed on the 14th of April, 1906. The camera was mounted on the front of the car, so you see the city exactly as it was: the crowds, the horse-drawn carriages, the early automobiles weaving through traffic, the men in hats, the great buildings rising on either side. An ordinary spring afternoon in a thriving American city. Four days later, on the morning of the 18th of April, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck. The shaking lasted under a minute, but it ignited fires that burned through the city for days... By the time it was over, more than 3,000 people were dead and roughly 80 percent of San Francisco had been destroyed. Almost every building you see in this footage was gone. And the film itself nearly went with it. The negative was placed on a train bound for New York on the 17th of April, the day before the earthquake. Had it left a single day later, it would have burned in the fire along with the studio that made it. This entire moving record of a lost city survives because of one day...
3:02
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This is real footage from 120 years ago. None of the people in it knew that the city around them had four days left... What you are watching is a cable car gliding down Market Street in San Francisco, filmed on the 14th of April, 1906. The camera was mounted on the front of the car, so you see the city exactly as it was: the crowds, the horse-drawn carriages, the early automobiles weaving through traffic, the men in hats, the great buildings rising on either side. An ordinary spring afternoon in a thriving American city. Four days later, on the morning of the 18th of April, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck. The shaking lasted under a minute, but it ignited fires that burned through the city for days... By the time it was over, more than 3,000 people were dead and roughly 80 percent of San Francisco had been destroyed. Almost every building you see in this footage was gone. And the film itself nearly went with it. The negative was placed on a train bound for New York on the 17th of April, the day before the earthquake. Had it left a single day later, it would have burned in the fire along with the studio that made it. This entire moving record of a lost city survives because of one day...

James Lucas

2,762,016 views • 3 months ago

This is what the people of NYC looked like in 1911 That year, New York was home to about 4.8 million people, and four in ten of them had been born in another country, many in the Russian Empire, Italy, Germany and Ireland. They spoke different languages and kept different traditions, but they had all come to build a life in the same city, and you can see it in how they carried themselves. People took real pride in how they looked in public, and for men, a hat wasn’t optional: the hard felt bowler, or derby, was worn by bankers and laborers alike, swapped for a flat straw boater in the warmer months, while wealthier men still wore top hats. Most wore a loose, long jacket called a sack suit, with a collar and tie, even on an ordinary weekday. For women, it was long skirts that brushed the ankles and enormous wide-brimmed hats piled with feathers, ribbons and veils. The everyday uniform was a skirt and a shirtwaist, a crisp blouse cut like a man’s shirt. And 1911 was the year a new fashion arrived from Paris: the hobble skirt, so narrow at the hem that women could barely take a full step in it. Looking at these people, you can’t help but wonder when we stopped dressing for the world outside our door...
0:58
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This is what the people of NYC looked like in 1911 That year, New York was home to about 4.8 million people, and four in ten of them had been born in another country, many in the Russian Empire, Italy, Germany and Ireland. They spoke different languages and kept different traditions, but they had all come to build a life in the same city, and you can see it in how they carried themselves. People took real pride in how they looked in public, and for men, a hat wasn’t optional: the hard felt bowler, or derby, was worn by bankers and laborers alike, swapped for a flat straw boater in the warmer months, while wealthier men still wore top hats. Most wore a loose, long jacket called a sack suit, with a collar and tie, even on an ordinary weekday. For women, it was long skirts that brushed the ankles and enormous wide-brimmed hats piled with feathers, ribbons and veils. The everyday uniform was a skirt and a shirtwaist, a crisp blouse cut like a man’s shirt. And 1911 was the year a new fashion arrived from Paris: the hobble skirt, so narrow at the hem that women could barely take a full step in it. Looking at these people, you can’t help but wonder when we stopped dressing for the world outside our door...

James Lucas

119,899 views • 7 days ago

This Robin Williams thread will brighten up your day 🧵 1. His improvised scene in Good Will Hunting made the cameraman laugh so hard the camera started shaking. Matt Damon's reaction is authentic.
1:24
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This Robin Williams thread will brighten up your day 🧵 1. His improvised scene in Good Will Hunting made the cameraman laugh so hard the camera started shaking. Matt Damon's reaction is authentic.

James Lucas

19,995,412 views • 2 years ago

This is what the people of London looked like in the 1940s
0:26
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This is what the people of London looked like in the 1940s

James Lucas

170,858 views • 12 days ago

Robin Williams would’ve turned 74 today This thread will brighten up your day 🧵 1. His improvised scene in Good Will Hunting made the cameraman laugh so hard the camera started shaking. Matt Damon's reaction is authentic.
1:24
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Robin Williams would’ve turned 74 today This thread will brighten up your day 🧵 1. His improvised scene in Good Will Hunting made the cameraman laugh so hard the camera started shaking. Matt Damon's reaction is authentic.

James Lucas

8,834,557 views • 1 year ago

Atomic veterans describe what nukes feel like “When the flash hit you, you could see the X-rays of your hand through your closed eyes.” “If I was looking at you now I would see all your bones, the blood vessels and everything.”
4:09
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Atomic veterans describe what nukes feel like “When the flash hit you, you could see the X-rays of your hand through your closed eyes.” “If I was looking at you now I would see all your bones, the blood vessels and everything.”

James Lucas

3,415,543 views • 6 months ago