Memorials & famous biographies

Chief mistress of King Louis XV of France and influential court favourite, remembered for her roles as politician, lady-in-waiting, and salonnière

Swiss physicist and Nobel laureate recognized for his pioneering work in high-temperature superconductivity

Belgian Symbolist poet, writer, and playwright who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times

German politician, last crown prince of Austria-Hungary, and long-serving head of the House of Habsburg, known for advocating European unity

Spanish diplomat and sports official who served as the seventh president of the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001

Italian architect and engineer, a founding father of Renaissance architecture, famous for the Florence Cathedral dome and linear perspective

Irish actor, singer, film director, and writer known for his roles in British New Wave cinema and international blockbusters, an icon of stage and screen

Irish-born British figurative painter known for raw, unsettling imagery focusing on the human form and figures isolated in geometrical structures

British astronomer, astrophysicist, and writer known for co-formulating the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis, explaining the formation of elements within stars

Fifth King of the Belgians who reigned for 42 years and was the last Belgian sovereign of the Congo before its 1960 independence

Bulgarian communist politician and statesperson who served as General Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party and de facto leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1956 to 1989, holding the record as the longest-serving non-royal ruler in Bulgarian history

English neurophysiologist who coined 'synapse' and won the Nobel Prize for his discoveries on neuron functions

Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic who developed the theory of reification and contributed to Western Marxism

British condensed-matter physicist who won the 2016 Nobel Prize for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and quantum matter

Bulgarian writer and poet, known as "the Patriarch of Bulgarian literature," whose works chronicled the Bulgarian Renaissance and Post-Liberation epochs, and who also served as Education Minister

Canadian-American actress and screenwriter known for her versatile performances in comedy and drama, and for receiving multiple prestigious awards

First Valois King of France, reigning from 1328 to 1350, whose rule began with a significant succession dispute

French-Swiss politician, writer on politics and religion, philosopher, and diarist known for his contributions to liberal thought and constitutional theory

Nobel laureate and British-American theoretical physicist known for his pioneering work in low-temperature physics and superfluidity

New Zealand author, poet, and critic, an important figure in the modernist movement whose works are celebrated worldwide and published in 25 languages

King of Sweden from 1907 to 1950, holding the record as the oldest monarch and the third-longest reign in Swedish history, also known as a tennis player

King of France from 1559 to 1560 and King of Scotland as consort to Mary, Queen of Scots, from 1558 until his death

British rock musician, composer, singer, and bassist, best known as the founder, lead vocalist, and primary songwriter of the iconic heavy metal band Motörhead

Belgian Nobel Prize-winning immunologist and microbiologist who made fundamental discoveries about immunity and bacterial infections