Italy - Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia

AQUILEIA

Interior of the Basilica

Sent by Gabriele who is living in Germany.

Located at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea on the Natissa (Natiso) River, the property includes the Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia. The Roman city dates to 181 BCE and became one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the early Roman Empire until it was sacked and destroyed in 452 by the Huns led by Attila.

The city was a major trading centre connecting the Mediterranean to Central Europe. Aquileia’s wealth and status within the empire was reflected in its magnificent public buildings and private residences many of which survive as archaeological remains. The archaeological area, covering 155 hectares, includes part of the forum and its Roman basilica (courthouse), the late antique horrea, one of the sets of baths, and two luxurious residential complexes. Outside the late Roman city walls, the entire course of which has been located and part of which stills survives, excavations have also revealed a cemetery with some impressive funerary monuments. Below ground archaeological remains of the amphitheatre and the circus have also been preserved (read more).

South Korea - Changdeokgung Palace Complex

UNESCO World Heritage of Rep. of KOREA
In the early 15th century, the King Taejong ordered the construction of a new palace at an auspicious site. A Bureau of Palace  Construction was set up to create the complex, consisting of a number of official and residential buildings set in a garden that was cleverly adapted to the uneven topography of a 58-ha site. The result is an exceptional example of Far Eastern palace architecture and design, blending harmoniously with its surrounding landscape.

Sent by Seokyoung from Ulsan, South Korea.

Constructed in the 15th century during the Joseon Dynasty, the Changdeokgung Palace Complex occupies a 57.9 ha site in Jongno-gu, in northern Seoul at the foot of Ungbong Peak of Mount Baegaksan, the main geomantic guardian mountain.

Changdeokgung is an exceptional example of official and residential buildings that were integrated into and harmonized with their natural setting. The complex was originally built as a secondary palace to the main palace of Gyeongbokgung, differentiated from it in its purpose and spatial layout within the capital. Situated at the foot of a mountain range, it was designed to embrace the topography in accordance with pungsu principles, by placing the palace structures to the south and incorporating an extensive rear garden to the north called Biwon, the Secret Garden. Adaptation to the natural terrain distinguished Changdeokgung from conventional palace architecture (read more).

South Korea - Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes

Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes (2007)
Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes together comprises three sites that make up 18,846 ha. It includes Geomunoreum, regarded as the finest lava tube system of caves anywhere, with its multicoloured carbonate roofs and floors, and dark-coloured lava walls; the fortress-like Seongsan Ilchulbong tuff cone, rising out of the ocean, a dramatic landscape; and Mount Haila, the highest in Korea, with its waterfalls, multi-shaped rock formations, and lake-filled crater. The site, is outstanding aesthetic beauty, also bears testimony to the history of the planet, it features and processes.

Sent by Soyoung from Incheon, South Korea.

Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes is a coherent serial property comprising three components.  The unequalled quality of the Geomunoreum lava tube system and the exhibition of diverse and accessible volcanic features in the other two components demonstrate a distinctive and important contribution to the understanding of global volcanism (read more).

Belarus - Struve Geodetic Arc

UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Belarus.
Struve Geodetic Arc.

Sent by Alena from Minsk, Belarus.

The Struve Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through 10 countries (Belarus, Finland, Lithuania, Moldova, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Russia, and Ukraine) and over 2,820 km. These are points of a survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, which represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian. This helped to establish the exact size and shape of the planet and marked an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping. It is an extraordinary example of scientific collaboration among scientists from different countries, and of collaboration between monarchs for a scientific cause. The original arc consisted of 258 main triangles with 265 main station points. The listed site includes 34 of the original station points, with different markings, i.e. a drilled hole in rock, iron cross, cairns, or built obelisks (read more).

Czechia - Tugendhat Villa in Brno

BRNO - Tugendhat Villa.

Sent by Věra from Brno in Czechia. 

The Tugendhat Villa is situated in Brno, in the district of Černá Pole, in the south of South Moravia in the Czech Republic. The villa was designed by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and built on a commission from Grete and Frits Tugendhat, members of rich industrial families of Brno, in 1929–1930.The prominent German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed not only the villa but also its furniture and the adjacent garden. Moreover, Mies van der Rohe closely supervised the execution of the building project to achieve perfection (read more).

Germany - Bavaria - Würzburg Residence with the Court Gardens and Residence Square

Greetings From Würzburg
Cherry blossom in front of the Residenz.

Sent by Tom from Plauen in Saxony, Germany. 

Located in Southern Germany, the sumptuous Würzburg Residence was built and decorated in the 18th century by an international corps of architects, painters, sculptors, and stucco workers under the patronage of two successive Prince-Bishops, Johann Philipp Franz and Friedrich Karl von Schönborn.

The Residence was essentially constructed between 1720 and 1744, decorated on the interior from 1740 to 1770 and landscaped with magnificent gardens from 1765 to 1780. It testifies to the ostentation of the two Prince-Bishops, and as such illustrates the historical situation of one of the most brilliant courts of Europe during the 18th century. The most renowned architects of the period - the Viennese, Lukas von Hildebrandt, and the Parisians Robert de Cotte and Germain Boffrand - drew up the plans. They were supervised by the official architect of the Prince Bishop, Balthasar Neumann, who was assisted by Maximilian von Welsch, the architect of the Elector of Mainz. Sculptors and stucco-workers came from Italy, Flanders, and Munich. The Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo frescoed the staircase and the walls of the Imperial Hall.

United Kingdom - England - Maritime Mercantile City (4)

The Royal Albert Dock Liverpool was opened in 1846.

Sent by myself during my trip to Liverpool in 2019.

This is my fourth postcard of the same UNESCO World Heritage Site. My other three are here, here, and here.

Russia - Yaroslavl Oblast - Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl

Yaroslavl. Church of Elijah the Prophet.

Sent by Marina from Yaroslavl, Russia.

Situated at the confluence of the Volga and Kotorosl Rivers some 250 km north-east of Moscow, the historic city of Yaroslavl developed into a major commercial centre from the 11th century. It is renowned for its numerous 17th-century churches and is an outstanding example of the urban planning reform Empress Catherine the Great ordered for the whole of Russia in 1763. While keeping some of its significant historic structures, the town was renovated in the neoclassical style on a radial urban master plan. It has also kept elements from the 16th century in the Spassky Monastery, one of the oldest in the Upper Volga region, built on the site of a pagan temple in the late 12th century but reconstructed over time (read more).

Germany - Brandenburg - Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin

New Palace

Sanssouci Palace and Park, Potsdam.

Sent by Elke from Berlin, Germany

With 500 ha of parks and 150 buildings constructed between 1730 and 1916, Potsdam's complex of palaces and parks forms an artistic whole, whose eclectic nature reinforces its sense of uniqueness. It extends into the district of Berlin-Zehlendorf, with the palaces and parks lining the banks of the River Havel and Lake Glienicke. Voltaire stayed at the Sans-Souci Palace, built under Frederick II between 1745 and 1747 (read more).

Peru - City of Cuzco

PERU 

Cusco Main Square

Sent by Hotel Novotel Cusco, Cusco, Peru. Thank you very much.

Tripadvisor Reviews :  Hotel Novotel Cusco.

The City of Cuzco, at 3,400 m above sea level, is located in a fertile alluvial valley fed by several rivers in the heart of the Central Peruvian Andes of South America. Under the rule of Inca Pachacuteq (Tito Cusi Inca Yupanqui), in the 15th century, the city was redesigned and remodelled after a pre-Inca occupation process of over 3,000 years, and became the capital of the Tawantinsuyu Inca Empire, which covered much of the South American Andes between the 15th and 16th centuries AD.

The Imperial city of the Incas was developed as a complex urban centre with distinct religious and administrative functions which were perfectly defined, distributed and organized. The religious and government buildings were accompanied by the exclusive abodes for royal families, forming an unprecedented symbolic urban compound, which shows a stone construction technology with exceptional aesthetic and structural properties, such as the Temple of the Sun or Qoricancha, the Aqllahuasi, the Sunturcancha, the Kusicancha and a series of very finely finished buildings that shape the Inca compound as an indivisible unity of Inca urbanism. The noble city was clearly isolated from the clearly delineated areas for agricultural, artisan and industrial production as well as from the surrounding neighbourhoods. The pre-Hispanic patterns and buildings that shaped the Imperial city of the Incas are visible today (read more).

Vatican City - Saint Peter's Basilica (3)

Saint Peter's Basilica.

My friend Roberto sent the same postcard as in the previous, but this time with different stamps. Thanks Roberto.

Russia - Saint Petersburg - Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments

THE CATHERINE PALACE INTERIORS

A bird's-eye view of the Catherine Palace.

Sent by Kate from Cherepovets in Vologda Oblast, Russia.

The 'Venice of the North', with its numerous canals and more than 400 bridges, is the result of a vast urban project begun in 1703 under Peter the Great. Later known as Leningrad (in the former USSR), the city is closely associated with the October Revolution. Its architectural heritage reconciles the very different Baroque and pure neoclassical styles, as can be seen in the Admiralty, the Winter Palace, the Marble Palace and the Hermitage (read more).

Germany - Bavaria - Town of Bamberg

Bamberg Little Venice.

Sent by Kerstin from Bavaria, Germany.

From the 10th century onwards, this town became an important link with the Slav peoples, especially those of Poland and Pomerania. During its period of greatest prosperity, from the 12th century onwards, the architecture of Bamberg strongly influenced northern Germany and Hungary. In the late 18th century it was the centre of the Enlightenment in southern Germany, with eminent philosophers and writers such as Hegel and Hoffmann living there (read more).

Spain - Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí

ROMANESQUE OF THE VALLEY DE BOI

WORLD HERITAGE SITE

Sent by Montse from Lleida, Spain.

The narrow Vall de Boí is situated in the high Pyrénées, in the Alta Ribagorça region and is surrounded by steep mountains. Each village in the valley contains a Romanesque church, and is surrounded by a pattern of enclosed fields. There are extensive seasonally-used grazing lands on the higher slopes (read more).

Belgium - Brussels - La Grand-Place

BRUSSELS : Grand-Place - Listed by UNESCO world patrimony.

Sent by Cristy from Brussels, Belgium 

My other two of the same subject-matter are here and here.

La Grand-Place in Brussels is a remarkably homogeneous body of public and private buildings, dating mainly from the late 17th century. The architecture provides a vivid illustration of the level of social and cultural life of the period in this important political and commercial centre (read more).

Germany - Hamburg - Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus

Greetings from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

Historic Speicherstadt

Sent by Muriel from Hamburg, Germany.

Speicherstadt and the adjacent Kontorhaus district are two densely built central urban areas in the German port city of Hamburg. Speicherstadt, originally developed on a 1.1-km-long group of narrow islands in the Elbe River between 1885 and 1927 (and partly rebuilt from 1949 to 1967), is one of the largest unified historic port warehouse complexes in the world. The adjacent Kontorhaus district is a cohesive, densely built area featuring eight mainly very large office complexes that were built from the 1920s to the 1950s to house businesses engaged in port-related activities. Together, these neighbouring districts represent an outstanding example of a combined warehouse-office district associated with a port city. Speicherstadt, the “city of warehouses,” includes 15 very large warehouse blocks that are inventively historicist in appearance but advanced in their technical installations and equipment, as well as six ancillary buildings and a connecting network of streets, canals and bridges. Anchored by the iconic Chilehaus, the Kontorhaus district’s massive office buildings stand out for their early Modernist brick-clad architecture and their unity of function. The Chilehaus, Messberghof, Sprinkenhof, Mohlenhof, Montanhof, former Post Office Building at Niedernstrasse 10, Kontorhaus Burchardstrasse 19-21 and Miramar-Haus attest to architectural and city-planning concepts that were emerging in the early 20th century. The effects engendered by the rapid growth of international trade at the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century are illustrated by the outstanding examples of buildings and ensembles that are found in these two functionally complementary districts (read more).

Japan - Mount Fuji

A view of Mount Fuji from Lake Motosu
National Park Mt. Fuji

Sent by Sumiko from Imari, Japan.

My other postcard of Mount Fuji is here.

Mali - Timbuktu

Timbuktu (Tombouctou), Mali.

Sent by Jean-Joseph Diarra from Bamako, Mali,

Home of the prestigious Koranic Sankore University and other madrasas, Timbuktu was an intellectual and spiritual capital and a centre for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its three great mosques, Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia, recall Timbuktu's golden age. Although continuously restored, these monuments are today under threat from desertification. 

Located at the gateway to the Sahara desert, within the confines of the fertile zone of the Sudan  and in an exceptionally  propitious site near to the river, Timbuktu is one of the cities of Africa whose name is the most heavily charged with history.

Founded in the 5th century, the economic and cultural apogee of Timbuktu came about during the15th and 16th centuries. It was an important centre for the diffusion of Islamic culture with the University of Sankore, with 180 Koranic schools and 25,000 students. It was also a crossroads and an important market place where the trading of manuscripts was negotiated,  and salt from Teghaza in the north, gold was sold, and cattle and grain from the south.

The Djingareyber Mosque, the initial construction of which dates back to Sultan Kankan Moussa, returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, was rebuilt and enlarged between 1570 and 1583 by the Imam Al Aqib, the Qadi of Timbuktu, who added all the southern part and the wall surrounding the cemetery located to the west. The central minaret dominates the city and is one of the most visible landmarks of the urban landscape of Timbuktu (read more).

Finland - Old Rauma (3)

Sent by Outi from Helsinki, Finland.

Situated on the Gulf of Botnia, Rauma is one of the oldest harbours in Finland. Built around a Franciscan monastery, where the mid-15th-century Holy Cross Church still stands, it is an outstanding example of an old Nordic city constructed in wood. Although ravaged by fire in the late 17th century, it has preserved its ancient vernacular architectural heritage (read more).

My other two postcards of Old Rauma are here and here.

Italy - Dolomiti (The Dolomites)

The  Dolomites - World Heritage Site

The Three Peaks 2,999m - Sassolungo Group 3.181m - Catinaccio 2,981m - Carezza Lake 1,534m with Latemar 2,864m - Geisler Group 3,025m.

Sent by Claudia from Erlangen, Germany.

The site of the Dolomites comprises a mountain range in the northern Italian Alps, numbering 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 metres and cover 141,903 ha. It features some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes anywhere, with vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. A serial property of nine areas that present a diversity of spectacular landscapes of international significance for geomorphology marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems. It is characterized by dynamic processes with frequent landslides, floods and avalanches. The property also features one of the best examples of the preservation of Mesozoic carbonate platform systems, with fossil records (read more).