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Early Russian entertainment was often intertwined with religious, communal, or courtly life rather than housed in dedicated entertainment buildings as understood in later periods.
The first public theater in Russia was founded in Moscow in 1672. This theater, established during the reign of Tsar Alexis of Russia, marks a significant development in the cultural history of Russia, reflecting the early stages of Western influence on Russian arts and entertainment. [1] [1]: Erik Amburger, “Die Mitwirkenden Bei Der Moskauer Aufführung Des „Artaxerxes“ Am 17. Oktober 1672,” Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie 25, no. 2 (1956): 304–309. Zotero link: 36KQ3PC7 |
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Cafes; clubs; restaurants; theatres; swimming pools. “Other organizations brought new local and regional newspapers into being, newspapers that for the first time reported local events along with international or court news. And more often than not, the middle classes were reading and discussing the contents of those newspapers not simply in their own Biedermeier parlors or drawing rooms, but also in a growing numbers of public sites (clubs, cafés, and restaurants) where social and civic life increasingly took place. Each of these diverse institutions— the museum, the library, the newspaper, the club, the café— had its roots in the seventeenth or eighteenth century, but only in the first half of the nineteenth century did their numbers proliferate significantly, and not simply in the few large cities of the empire like Vienna, Prague, or Milan. As smaller towns grew in size, the character of public life there gradually changed as well. In the late eighteenth century the Austrian Freemason Johann Pezzl had already observed that cafés not only were associated with urban life, but ‘as everyone knows, are considered nowadays to be one of the indispensable requirements of every large town.’ “
[1]
“What is more important to understand, however, is the dizzying array of imperial projects undertaken by small and medium- sized towns in the two decades from 1895 to 1914— projects ranging from new school buildings and hospitals to libraries and theaters, from electric lights to public swimming pools, from new railway stations to tramway systems.”
[2]
“In the first half of the eighteenth century a theater devoted mainly to the performance of Italian operas and another one for German plays were established under the sponsorship of Count Franz A. Sporck. In 1783 the German National Theater was opened under the sponsorship of Count Francis Nostitz. Here in 1787 Don Giovanni was performed for the first time with Mozart himself conducting. A few years later this theater was dubbed the Theater of the Bohemian Estates or the Estates National Theater. As in Vienna, Punch and Judy shows were performed until the 1770’s. An official, though still only interim Czech National Theater, was opened in 1862.”
[3]
[1]: (Judson 2016: 141) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW [2]: (Judson 2016: 356-357) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW [3]: (Kann 1974: 386) Kann, Robert A. 1974. A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526-1918. Los Angeles: University of California Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/RP3JD4UV |
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Several notable examples of entertainment buildings spanned the duration of the Soviet era:
Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow: One of the most famous historical theatres in Russia, it was a premier venue for opera and ballet. The Bolshoi Theatre, especially after its renovation post-World War II, remained a cultural landmark throughout the Soviet period. [1] Mosfilm Studios, Moscow: Established in the 1920s, Mosfilm was the largest and most prominent film studio in the Soviet Union. It produced many significant Soviet films and served as a hub of the Soviet film industry. [2] Lenfilm Studio, Saint Petersburg: Founded in 1918, Lenfilm was another major Soviet film studio, contributing significantly to the development of Soviet cinema. [3] [1]: Bolshoi Theatre • History. https://bolshoi.ru/en/about/history. Accessed 23 Nov. 2023 Zotero link: MZJQBCMK [2]: “Mosfilm History,” accessed November 23, 2023, https://en.mosfilm.ru/concern/hystory/ Zotero link: 9VR7EUE9 [3]: “История,” accessed November 23, 2023, https://www.lenfilm.ru/studio/history/ Zotero link: 3XXVW89U |
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In larger settlements, ball courts were constructed which would have been used for games and ceremonies, and possibly public dance and performance spaces.
[1]
More than 200 ball courts have been found in southern and central Arizona.
[2]
[1]: Barnhart 2018: 140. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VPVHH2HJ [2]: “The Ancestral Sonoran Desert People - Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (U.S. National Park Service),”. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HZ95455H |
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"[T]he city of Polonnaruva as well as the civilisation of which it had become the centre had suffered severe adversities. [...] Vijayabahu, however, applied himself energetically to recreate even partially the lost splendour of the former capital. [...] We are told that the city was adorned with viharas which were provided with their characteristic complements such as parks, bathing ponds, mandapas and pasadas." 395-396
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Theatres. "The emerging interest in exotic cultures also trickled down into the Amsterdam theatre, which showed a surprising interest in the current affairs of oriental empires. This was mainly applied to spectacular, grandscale ‘revolutions’ (omwentelingen) – a concept that contemporaries immediately associated with conquest in Asia and not yet with regime change in the West. Hence, we find the tragedies of Vondel, Zungchin, of ondergang der Sineesche heerschappye (1667), and Joannes Antonides van der Goes, Trazil, of overrompelt Sina (1685), about the Manchu conquest of China and later that of Frans van Steenwyk, Thamas Koelikan of de verovering van het Mogolsche Ryk (1745), about the Iranian conquest of northern India."
[1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 82) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection. |
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The following suggests that the only identified buildings were houses, and that houses fulfilled multiple purposes ("economically generalized”). ”The community [of Kirikongo] was founded by a single house (Mound 4) c. ad 100 (Yellow I), as part of a regional expansion of farming peoples in small homesteads in western Burkina Faso. A true village emerged with the establishment of a second house (Mound 1) c. ad 450, and by the end of the first millennium ad the community had expanded to six houses. At first, these were economically generalized houses (potting, iron metallurgy, farming and herding) settled distantly apart with direct access to farming land that appear to have exercised some autonomy."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2015: 21-22) |
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"The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31) |
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Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31) |
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"The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31) |
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The near-absence of archaeologically identified settlements makes it particularly challenging to infer most building types. "While the historical sources provide a vague picture of the events of the first 500 years of the Kanem-Borno empire, archaeologically almost nothing is known. [...] Summing up, very little is known about the capitals or towns of the early Kanem- Borno empire. The locations of the earliest sites have been obscured under the southwardly protruding sands of the Sahara, and none of the later locations can be identified with certainty."
[1]
[1]: (Gronenborn 2002: 104-110) |
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"Contexts that could shed light on the dynamics of social structure and hierarchies in the metropolis, such as the royal burial site of Oyo monarchs and the residences of the elite population, have not been investigated. The mapping of the palace structures has not been followed by systematic excavations (Soper, 1992); and questions of the economy, military system, and ideology of the empire have not been addressed archaeologically, although their general patterns are known from historical studies (e.g, Johnson, 1921; Law, 1977)."
[1]
Regarding this period, however, one of the historical studies mentioned in this quote also notes: "Of the earliestperiod of Oyo history, before the sixteenth century, very little is known."
[2]
Law does not then go on to provide specific information directly relevant to this variable.
[1]: (Ogundiran 2005: 151-152) [2]: (Law 1977: 33) |
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Bathhouses. “Finally they reached Attila’s base, which Priscus describes as a ’very large village’… The only stone building was a bath-house, constructed on the orders of one of Attila’s leading supporters, Onegesius. He had had the stone imported from the Roman province of Pannonia across the Danube. It was built by a Roman prisoner of war who had hoped to secure his release after the job was done. Unhappily for him, he had made himself indispensable and was kept on to manage the bath-house.”
[1]
[1]: (Kennedy 2002: 44) Kennedy, Hugh. 2002. Mongols, Huns and Vikings: Nomads at War. London: Cassell. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZN9N624X |
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Jousting arenas, tennis and other sporting events.
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Cafes; clubs; restaurants; “Other organizations brought new local and regional newspapers into being, newspapers that for the first time reported local events along with international or court news. And more often than not, the middle classes were reading and discussing the contents of those newspapers not simply in their own Biedermeier parlors or drawing rooms, but also in a growing numbers of public sites (clubs, cafés, and restaurants) where social and civic life increasingly took place. Each of these diverse institutions— the museum, the library, the newspaper, the club, the café— had its roots in the seventeenth or eighteenth century, but only in the first half of the nineteenth century did their numbers proliferate significantly, and not simply in the few large cities of the empire like Vienna, Prague, or Milan. As smaller towns grew in size, the character of public life there gradually changed as well. In the late eighteenth century the Austrian Freemason Johann Pezzl had already observed that cafés not only were associated with urban life, but ‘as everyone knows, are considered nowadays to be one of the indispensable requirements of every large town.’ “
[1]
[1]: (Judson 2016: 141) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW |
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Taverns, playhouses
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The capital city of Artaxiasata had public baths.
[1]
There was a theatre built in Tigranakert at which a troupe of Greek actors performed the first play.
[2]
[1]: Hovannisian 2004: 49. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8B4DBDFU [2]: Hovannisian 2004: 57. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8B4DBDFU |
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Theatres, gambling halls, coffee-houses, pubs.
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Theatres, gambling halls, coffee-houses, cinemas, music halls, pubs etc.
[1]
[1]: (Porter 1999: 276-77) Porter, Andrew, ed. 1999. The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, vol. 3, 5 vols. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GTF9V4CG |
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Pubs; inns; taverns; theatres; fairs; ballrooms. “This explains why the earliest theaters were built outside of the city walls, beyond Guildhall jurisdiction. The first was the Red Lion, established north and east of the city in Whitechapel in 1567. In 1576 James Burbage (ca. 1531–97) founded a public playhouse called, appropriately enough, “the Theatre” in the London suburb of Shoreditch. In 1577 a large open-air public theater entitled “the Rose” was established in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames. This was followed in 1598 by the Globe. Here, all London could come together in the afternoon to see the latest play. But even here, hierarchy obtained: the wealthy sat in upper boxes, the middling orders sat below them, and relatively common people stood in the large open area on the ground level – hence their designation as “groundlings”.”
[1]
Coffee-houses opened in the seventeenth century. There were sporting events from the beginning of the polity period such as horse-racing and cock fighting. Gambling houses were especially popular among the elite.
[2]
“Alehouses were associated not only with drinking, but also with other, even more dubious activities such as music-making, dancing, gambling, and, in some cases, prostitution and the fencing of goods, not to mention the violence and disorder that always accompanied such pursuits.”
[3]
“Inns provided not only accommodation but food, drink, entertainment, postal services, stabling, and a place where businessmen, such as drovers who brought cattle to market or corn factors who transported grain, could make deals. Wares could also be displayed and deals made at fairs and in the great market towns.”
[4]
“By the Jacobean period there developed a London “season” from the late autumn to early spring, during which the landed aristocracy resided in the capital, attended plays, balls, and parties, and kept an eye on promising marriage prospects for their children.”
[5]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 208) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [2]: ( Bucholz et al 2013: 370-71) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [3]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 190) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [4]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 362) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [5]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 171) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U |
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The Hermitage Theatre was one of the earliest theatres in Saint Petersburg. Established in the mid-18th century, it became a central venue for dramatic and musical performances, serving the Russian elite and general public alike.
Early Cultural Hub: The theatre was an important venue for entertainment and cultural events in Saint Petersburg, one of the empire’s most significant cities. Architectural and Historical Value: Although less grand than later theatres like the Bolshoi or Alexandrinsky, the Winter Theatre was architecturally significant for its time and played a key role in the cultural life of the city. Continued Use for Entertainment: Throughout its existence, the theatre hosted numerous performances, including plays, operas, and concerts, reflecting the entertainment practices and preferences of the era. [1] [1]: “Hermitage Theater Now | Hermitage Theater | St.Petersburg, Russia.” Accessed December 13, 2023. https://hermitagetheater.com/theater. Zotero link: DAIHPNKW |
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"With their liking for ostentation at court, it was also natural that several of the Jalayirids should distinguish themselves as builders, but many of the architectural achievements for which they were renowned have been destroyed. One of the buildings of Khwaja Mirjan, who was the Jalayirid governor of Baghdad on more than one occasion, has survived, however. It is the Islamic university (madrasd) in Baghdad, which was later named Jami'-i Mirjan. The Spanish ambassador Clavijo, usually a reliable observer, records having seen a palace of gigantic proportions in 804/1401 in Tabriz which was called Daulat- khana and had been erected by Uvais. His observations could well be based on fact. Lastly, Sultan Ahmad's repeated efforts to improve or restore the architecture of Baghdad are emphasised in many sources."
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i.e. restaurant; cafés; clubs; bathhouses; spas; theatres; casinos; gardens, amusement parks; department stores. “In Mexico City, a fashionable shopping district demarcated by Plateros (today Madero), Tlapaleros (presently 16 de Septiembre), and Capuchinas (today’s Venustiano Carranza) emerged by the early twentieth century, in which 25% of all the country’s commercial transactions took place (Johns 1997)… there developed in major cities a plethora of private or semi-private spaces of commercialized leisure. Restaurants, cafés, expatriate clubs (le Cercle Français, el Casino Español, l’Orfeó Català, the Casino Alemán), bathhouses, spas, theatres, and the beer gardens and amusement parks known as tívolis (that served as grounds for events ranging from French independence celebrations to charity bazaars known as Kermesses) provided the illusion of liberal equality of access yet restricted access through financial and social barriers or physical distance. To keep up with the growing numbers of foreign tourists and investors, new hospitality services developed, such as catering, bars, and hotels, which also served government clientele, making available new spaces, new experiences, and new practices.”
[1]
“Although the Parisian “Palaces of Consumption” such as Aristide Boucicault’s Bon Marché had only appeared in the late1860s, by 1891, Mexico City’s first purpose-built department store, Las Fábricas de Francia provided the capital with an icon of nineteenth-century bourgeois culture’s “identification with appearances and material possessions” (Miller 1981). Legend holds that onlookers dubbed it El Palacio de Hierro for its iron framework and great height. Its 25,000 square feet of floor space (doubled by 1900) distributed over 5 stories that towered over neighboring structures, accommodated a large clientele, and created a vast, light, and airy expanse that exhibited large quantities of goods using enormous plate glass windows, display cases, and electric lighting. Other features, such as indoor plumbing, pneumatic tube systems, ladies’ rest areas, and elevators, heightened its appeal and representation of modernity.”
[2]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 71) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7 [2]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 72) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7 |
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I have not found any evidence of dedicated public entertainment buildings (theatres, sports arenas, racetracks etc.) in this period. "Most scholars now agree that pure theater - a scripted performance played in front of an audience for the purpose of entertainment - never took place in ancient Egypt ... a play requires a site for staging. Yet no such building or area has been identified from ancient Egypt that could be interpreted as a location where a play could have been staged". [Leprohon_Csapo_Miller 2008, p. 259] As for sports facilities, from Late Predynastic times onwards, the Sed (jubilee) festival involved the king performing a run; a track built for this purpose survives from Djoser’s pyramid precinct. However, this race was a ritual demonstration of the king's athleticism and fitness to rule, and the track could not be described as an "entertainment" structure in a simple sense. [Decker_Scanlon_Futrell 2021, p. 33]
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“Ballcourts occur at most large Maya centers. Many of them consisted of parallel structures with sloping sides facing inwards, but those at Uxmal and Chichen Itza had vertical walls. All were important foci of public and elite ceremonies. Some of them had round, carved ballcourt markers in the playing alley. Differences in the sizes and forms of ballcourts point to diversity and flexibility in the game, with size reaching its maximum in the ballcourt of Chichen Itza, measuring 166 by 68 metres.”
[1]
[1]: (Houston and Inomata 2009: 116) Houston, Stephen D. and Inomata, Takeshi. 2009. The Classic Maya, Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZXA5U53G |
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