<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> Generalising Newton's law of gravitation, general relativity is one of the pillars of modern physics. On the occasion of general relativity's centennial, leading scientists in the different branches of gravitational research review the history and recent advances in the main fields of applications of the theory, which was referred to by Lev Landau as “the most beautiful of the existing physical theories”.