The sunset tonight

The sunset over Danish Zealand tonight.

A Swedish manor in 1897

The Bjärka Säby manor in Sweden photographed in 1897, when a major renovation was about to be finished.

The original building was built in 1799 for the Swedish diplomat and nobleman Louis Cederhielm, based on a plan by the prominent landscape architect F.M. Piper.

From 1872 on, the new owner, consul Oscar Ekman (and later his son) turned the manor into a model farm. New housing, a cottage hospital, a school and a retirement home were built
for the farm workers and their families.

The renovation, based on plans by court architect Agi Lindegren, gave the manor main building a clear baroque look.

The original photo (here shown with my colorization) by Johan Emanuel Thorin is in the Swedish Digital Museum (Östergötlands museum) archive.

A Swedish stallion (1907)

J.E. Öholm´s stallion Tricot photographed in 1907 by Samuel Lindskog in Norrbyås, Örebro. My colorization of a photo in the Swedish Digital Museum (Örebro läns museum) archive.

Dressed for a sleigh ride in Lapland (1920s)

Dressed for a sleigh ride in Finnish Lapland in the early 1920s. 

Juhani Ahola´s photo - here shown with my editing and colorization - is in the

 Board of Antiquities of Finland archive.

King Christian X of Denmark on one of his morning rides (c. 1940-1941)

King Christian X of Denmark on one of his morning rides through Copenhagen during the German occupation. The photo - here shown with my editing and colorization - is in the National Museum of Denmark archive.

"During the first two years of the German occupation, in spite of his age and the precarious situation, he nonetheless took a daily ride on his horse, Jubilee, through Copenhagen, unaccompanied by a groom, let alone by a guard. A popular way for Danes to display patriotism and silent resistance to the German occupation was wearing a small square button with the Danish flag and the crowned insignia of the king." (Wikipedia)

Grand Duke Nichalas Nikolaevich of Russia dressed as an 17th century infantry officer (1903)

Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia dressed as a 17th century Streletz infantry regiment  officer for the Imperial costume ball in the Winter Palace in February 1903. The original photo - here shown with my colorization - is in the National Museum of Denmark archive. 

"Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (Russian: Николай Николаевич Романов (младший – the younger); 18 November 1856 – 5 January 1929) was a Russian general in World War I (1914–1918). A grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, he was commander in chief of the Russian Imperial Army units on the main front in the first year of the war. He proved incompetent in strategy, tactics, logistics and coordination with the government.^[3] The tsar took over his commands, He later was a successful commander-in-chief in the Caucasus region. --

On 8 August 1922, Nicholas was proclaimed as the emperor of all the Russias by the Zemsky Sobor of the Amur krai /Priamursk region in the Far East by White Army general Mikhail Diterikhs. Nicholas was already living abroad and consequently was not present. Two months later the Priamursk region fell to the Bolsheviks. --

After a stay in Genoa as a guest of his brother-in-law, Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy, Nicholas and his wife took up residence in a small chateau at Choigny, 20 miles outside of Paris. He was under the protection of the French secret police as well as by a small number of faithful Cossack retainers.

He became the symbolic figurehead of an anti-Soviet Russian monarchist movement, after assuming on 16 November 1924 the supreme command of all Russian forces in exile and thus of the Russian All-Military Union, which had been founded in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by Gen Pyotr Wrangel two months prior.^[16] The monarchists made plans to send agents into Russia. Conversely a top priority of the Soviet secret police was to penetrate this monarchist organization and to kidnap Nicholas. They were successful in the former, infiltrating the group with spies. (OGPU later lured the anti-Bolshevik British master spy Sidney Reilly back to the Soviet Union (1925) where he was killed.) They did not succeed however, in kidnapping Nicholas. As late as June 1927, the monarchists were able to set off a bomb at the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow.

Grand Duke Nicholas died on 5 January 1929 of natural causes on the French Riviera, where he had gone to escape the rigors of winter. He was originally buried in the church of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Cannes, France. In 2014 Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia (1922–2014) and Prince Dimitri Romanov (1926-2016) requested the transfer of his remains. The bodies of Nicholas Nikolaevich and his wife were re-buried in Moscow at the World War I memorial military cemetery in May 2015. (Wikipedia)

The Erkylä manor in Finland in winter (ca.1900 - 1911)

The Erkylä manor in Hausjärvi, Finland, in an early 20th century photo. The main manor building, designed by Finnish architect A.E. Granstedt, was built in 1847. My colorization of a picture in the Board of Antiquities of Finland archive at Finna.fi. The photographer is unknown.