A Moomin postcard with a matching Moomin stamp.
Sent by Anu, a postcrosser from Finland.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Finland - North Samis
North Samis at Utsjoki Parish Cabin - Sápmi - Finnish Lapland
Sent by Soili, a postcrosser from Hartola in Finland.
Estonia - Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn (2)
View of Talinn (top) and view of Talinn from the sea (bottom).
Sent by Kristel, a postcrosser from Estonia.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Romania - Churches of Moldavia (1)
Monasteries in Bukovina, Romania; Humor, Suceviţa, Moldoviţa, Putna, and Voroneţ.
Sent by Mircea from Romania.
In the European art of the period, the exterior mural painting of the northern Moldavian churches is a unique phenomenon in Byzantine art and a masterpiece of mural art. In terms of the art of Romania, this group of churches constitutes a specific phenomenon, from the point of view of architecture as well as painting. Their exterior painted walls constitute an exceptional aesthetic value, forming a perfect symbiosis between colour, architecture, and surrounding landscape.
Moldavia became an independent state in the 14th century, achieving its apogee during the anti-Ottoman crusades of princes Stephen the Great and Peter Rares. This also produced a cultural flowering, and the most remarkable series of churches. A general Christian tradition of decorating the exteriors of churches was adopted and extended in Moldavia. This had its own specific iconography, dominated by certain obligatory themes: the Church Hierarchy, the Last Judgement, and the Tree of Jesse. These monuments form a compact and coherent group in chronological terms, all being built in the 1530s and 1540s, during the reign of Peter Rares. They are all within a 60 km radius of Suceava, the residence of the Moldavian princes.
The Church of the Holy Rood, Patrauti, built in 1487 by Stephen the Great, was pillaged in 1653 and 1684 and restored by Prince Nicolas Mavrocordat in the early 18th century. It is a small three-apsed building consisting of a sanctuary, a naos crowned with a high drum, and a narthex. The monumental interior mural painting represents the Passion Cycle.
At the Church of St George of the former Voronet Monastery, also founded by Stephen the Great, the naos and sanctuary were painted between 1488 and 1496 and the narthex in 1552. It is a three-apse structure, with an exonarthex added in 1546. The interior murals represent the Passion Cycle. The walls and the vault of the exonarthex are covered by the 365 scenes of the Calendar of Saints. The exterior murals depict traditional scenes, and the famous Last Judgement, on the western wall.
The Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist was built as the residence of the Governor of Suceava, Luca Arbore. It was decorated at the order of his granddaughter in 1541 and became the village church when the family died out. The Arbore family is represented in a votive tablet on the wall of the naos and by funerary portraits in the narthex. The high quality of the interior paintings continues on the exterior.
The three-apsed Church of St George, formerly the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia until the late 17th century, is now the catholicon of the Monastery of St John of Suceava. The interior paintings, although somewhat darkened, have exceptional plastic qualities. The exterior paintings of 1534 only survive on the west and south facades, and depict the four traditional themes. They are exceptional by virtue of their monumental composition, elegant silhouettes, harmonious colours and perfect Cyrillic inscriptions.
The Church of St Nicholas and the Catholicon of the Monastery of Probota was built by Prince Peter Rares in 1531 as a family mausoleum. All the paintings are contemporary with the church with the exception of those in the sanctuary, repainted in the 19th century. The exterior mural paintings, in poor condition, show evidence of the hand of a master in their outstanding composition and remarkable use of colours.
The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin of the former Monastery of Humor dates back to before 1415, but the present structure was built in 1530 by the great Logothete Theodore Bulberg and the wife, Anastasia, of Peter Rares. It exhibits certain architectural variations from the traditional three-apsed monastery church, such as the lack of a drum over the narthex.
The Church of the Annunciation of the Monastery of Moldovita was rebuilt by Alexander the Good, but the present structure is earlier. It is very similar in form and decoration to the Humor church, and is believed that the same master may have been responsible for both churches. (Source)
USA - Alaska - White Pass & Yukon Route
Steam Engine 73 pulls a special charter train to the White Pass Summit. This narrow gauge railroad was built in 1898-1899 during the Klondike Gold Rush.
Sent by Mary Ellen from Illinois, USA.
This is from Wikipedia : The White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&Y, WP&YR) (reporting mark WPY) is a Canadian and U.S. Class II narrow gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon, Canada. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railroad. Equipment, freight and passengers are ferried by ship through the Port of Skagway, and via road through a few of the stops along its route. The railroad is a subsidiary of Clublink Enterprises Limited, which is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:TWH) and operated by the Pacific and Arctic Railway and Navigation Company (in Alaska), the British Columbia Yukon Railway Company (in British Columbia) and the British Yukon Railway Company, originally known as the British Yukon Mining, Trading and Transportation Company (in Yukon), which use the trade name White Pass and Yukon Route.
USA - Virginia - Mapcard (1)
VIRGINIA was named after England's Queen ELIZABETH I, the virgin queen. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in 1607. Nicknamed : Mother of Presidents and The Old Dominion. State Song : Carry Me Back to Old Virginia. Statehood : June 25, 1788. Area : 40,815 square miles.
Sent by Micky from Arlington in Virginia, USA.
Japan - Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (3) - Nijō Castle
Nijō Castle in Kyoto, Japan. A part of world heritage site by UNESCO.
Sent by Yoko, a postcrosser from Sendai in the north east part of Japan.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Bulgaria - Stara Zagora
Stara Zagora (Bulgarian: Стара Загора) is the sixth largest city in Bulgaria, and a nationally important economic center. Stara Zagora is known as the city of straight streets, linden trees, and poets. Its population is c. 159,000. (Read more)
Sent by Bilyana from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
Bulgaria
Multiviews of Bulgaria; among them are old church of St. George, some ruins of Roman Empire, National Assembly Square, Monument of Alexander II Emperor of Russia, and Radissou SAS Grand Hotel. At the bottom left is one of the Bulgarian national costumes.
Sent by Bilyana from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
Australia - Flag of Australia
THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL FLAG
On the top left-hand corner is the Union Jack, below is the seven-pointed Federation Star, and on the right is the Southern Cross.
Sent by Emma, a Swap-Bot partner from Australia.
Chile - Santiago
A view of Santiago with the majestic Andes Mountains as a backdrop.
Sent by my great friend Hernán from Santiago in Chile.
Chile - Puerto Natales
Port Natales is provincial capital of the region of Last Hope. The city has 16,000 inhabitants and sits alongside the Patagonian stretch of the Andes mountains, seen on the horizon together with the hanging glaciers of the Southern Ice Fields.
Sent bt my great friend Hernán from Santiago in Chile.
This is from Wikipedia : Puerto Natales is a city in Chilean Patagonia, located 247 km (153 mi) northwest of Punta Arenas and is the final passenger port of call for the Navimag ferry sailing from Puerto Montt into the Señoret Channel as well as the primary transit point for travelers to Torres del Paine National Park, Chile. It is the capital of both the commune of the same name and the Última Esperanza Province of Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region.
Última Esperanza Sound, originally inhabited by the Kawésqar tribe or Alacaluf and the Aoniken or Tehuelche, was sailed in 1557 by Juan Ladrilleros, a sailor who was looking for the Strait of Magellan. The city was settled by Germans, British, Croats, and later by Chilean people, with a substantial number coming from the Island of Chiloé, all attracted by the sheep-raising industry. The city was formally founded under the government of Ramón Barros Luco on May 31, 1911. Nowadays, one of the most important activities is tourism although cattle production and the fishery industries are also significant.
Austria - Grüsse aus Österreich
Greetings from Austria.
Sent by Claudia, a postcrosser who lives near Vienna, Austria.
Taiwan - Shei-Pa Leisure Farm
Shei-Pa Leisure Farm, a private farm closest to the Shei-Pa National Park in Taiwan.
Sent by Yen-Liang, a postcrosser from Taiwan.
This is from Wikipedia : Shei-Pa National Park (traditional Chinese: 雪霸國家公園) is a national park located in the central part of Taiwan around the peaks of Hsuehshan and Dabajian Mountain, with an area of 768.5 km². High mountain ecology, geology, topography, rivers, creek valleys, rare animals and plants and plentiful variety of forest types are some important resources for conservation.
The park's headquarters was set up on July 1, 1992. The current headquarters director is Lin Ching (林青). The address to Shei-Pa National Park is 100 Xueweiping, Fuxing Village, Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan.
Poland - Cracow's Historic Centre (1)
Multiviews of Kraków.
Sent by Weronika, a postcrosser from Poland.
The urban layout of Cracow, an outstanding example of medieval architecture, is based on four core areas: the centre, around the market square; the Wawel, the hill inhabited since the Palaeolithic and the site of the imperial palace; the urban district of Kazimierz; and the Stradom quarter.
The historic centre of Cracow, the former capital of Poland, is situated at the foot of the Royal Wawel Castle. The 13th-century merchants' town has Europe's largest market square and numerous historical houses, palaces and churches with magnificent interiors. Further evidence of the town's fascinating history is provided by the remnants of the 14th-century fortifications and the medieval site of Kazimierz with its ancient synagogues in the southern part of town, the Jagellonian University, and the Gothic cathedral where the kings of Poland were buried.
Stare Miasto is the old city, characterized by the rigid grid of perfectly orthogonal streets, the layout ordered by Boloslaw the Chaste in 1257 when he decided to unify the various peoples scattered around the hill of the Wawel. All that remains now of the medieval enclosure walls is the gate and the little wall that was built in 1499 near the main city gate.
The old city is separated from the old district of Kazimierz. Until the 1880 Diet Kazimierz was an island, forming the Jewish quarter of Cracow. As in every city, Jewish culture enriched Cracow, until in the Second World War the entire Jewish community of 64,000 individuals was deported to the nearby concentration camps at Auschwitz; only 6,000 returning at the end of the war.
The university quarter is the oldest in Poland and among the oldest in Europe. Students here have included Copernicus and Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II). Within the historic centre there are many churches and monasteries. The limestone hill of the Wawel is the site of a complex that houses some of the most important buildings. These include the Royal Palace, seat of the king in the period when the boundaries of Poland extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Today the palace accommodates a museum that displays splendid tapestries, the Royal Treasury (unfortunately depleted in periods of difficulty), royal standards, and antique furniture. Within the Wawel is the Gothic cathedral of St Wenceslas. Its exterior illustrates the complex history of this building. The cathedral was for centuries the scene of the main events of the Polish royal families - coronations, weddings, and funerals.
In the part of the castle accessible on the Wisla, there is a small park at the base of the hill with the cave of the legendary Krak, prince and head of a Slav tribe. At the entrance to the Wawel the ancient Royal Way of monuments and remarkable historical buildings begins. Then comes the heart of the old city: the Market Square (Rynek Głowny). This is one of the largest medieval public squares in Europe, 200 m on each side. The building in the centre of the square is the Skiennice, the ancient cloth market. One side is dominated by the Gothic church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. (Source)
Flowers
Sent by The_Antipodes, a family postcrosser (Tanja F, adult; Menno, M, adult; Colwin, M, child; Lejla, F, child) from Tilburg, the Netherlands.
Former Japanese Consulate
Former Japanese Consulate
No. 26, Lujiao Road, Xiamen, China.
Sent by Maxine, a postcrosser from Xiamen (Amoy) in China.
USA - Connecticut
Vermilion, orange, russet and golden hues flood the Connecticut landscape every fall.
Sent by June-Ann, a postcrosser from Connecticut, USA.
Note : This is the first postcard received from Connecticut, USA.
Dominican Republic - Sosúa
Sosúa Beach in Dominican Republic.
Sent by Gomez from Puerto Rico.
This is from Wikipedia : Sosúa is a small town in the Puerto Plata province of the Dominican Republic. Located approximately 4 miles from the Puerto Plata International Airport (POP), the town is accessed primarily by Camino Cinco, or Highway 5, which runs much of the length of the country's North coastline. The town is divided into three sectors: El Batey, which is the main section where most tourists visit, Sosúa Abajo, and Los Charamicos.
Puerto Rico - La Coca Fall at El Yunque National Forest
La Coca Fall, in El Yunque, Tropical Rain Forest.
Sent by Gomez from Puerto Rico.
This is from Wikipedia : El Yunque National Forest, formerly known as the Luquillo National Forest and the Caribbean National Forest, is located on the United States island of Puerto Rico. It is commonly known as only El Yunque, a Spanish approximation of the aboriginal Taino word "Yu-ke," thought by scholars to mean "White Lands." However the lightning storms that occur there were to the Spaniards the sound of a giant hammer hitting an anvil (yunque in Spanish).
It is also the name of the second highest mountain peak in the Forest (see El Yunque, Puerto Rico).
El Yunque is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Forest System.
Puerto Rico - The Arecibo Observatory
Radar dish, Arecibo Observatory.
Sent by Gomez from Puerto Rico.
This is from Wikipedia : The Arecibo Observatory is a radio telescope located close to the city of Arecibo in Puerto Rico. It is operated by Cornell University under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The observatory works as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) although both names are officially used to refer to it. NAIC more properly refers to the organization that runs both the observatory and associated offices at Cornell University.
The observatory's 305 m (1,001 ft) radio telescope is the largest single-aperture telescope (cf. multiple aperture telescope) ever constructed. It carries out three major areas of research: radio astronomy, aeronomy (using both the 305 m telescope and the observatory's lidar facility), and radar astronomy observations of solar system objects. Usage of the telescope is gained by submitting proposals to the observatory, which are evaluated by an independent board of referees.
The telescope is visually distinctive and has been used in the filming of notable motion picture and television productions: as the villain's antenna in the James Bond movie GoldenEye, and Contact. The telescope received additional international recognition in 1999 when it began to collect data for the SETI@home project.
The center was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2008. The listing was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service's weekly list of October 16, 2009.
Puerto Rico - La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico
"El Morro" fotress walls (or Fort San Felipe del Morro or Castillo San Felipe del Morro) in Old San Juan. Part of La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Sent by Gomez from Puerto Rico.
The entire historic site of San Juan with its different monumental components maintains, at the present, a balance between constructed and non-constructed zones. The Fortaleza is tangibly associated with the history of the New World and its explorers and colonists.
For the explorers and the colonists of the New World who came from the east, Puerto Rico was an obligatory stopping-place in the Caribbean. From this evolved its primordial strategic role at the beginning of the Spanish colonization. The island was for centuries a stake disputed by the Spanish, French, English and Dutch. The fortifications of the bay of San Juan, the magnificent port to which Puerto Rico owes its name, bear witness to its long military history.
San Juan had the first municipal government in the New World outside Santo Domingo, as well as the first military presidios in Spanish America. By the 19th century, the old city had become a charming residential and commercial district. The city itself, with its institutional buildings, museums, houses, churches, plazas and commercial buildings, is part of the San Juan Historic Zone which is administered by municipal, State and Federal agencies.
La Fortaleza is one among several, of the fortresses which protect it. Over the centuries, San Juan in fact protected Spain's empire against Carib Indians, pirates and the warships of other countries. This vast, coherent defensive system with ramparts, fortlets and fortresses, attesting formerly to its effectiveness and today to its historic significance. The principal components of this defensive system are, starting in the south:
- La Fortaleza, founded in 1530-40, enlarged at various periods, and heavily modified after 1846, is an exemplary monument of Hispano-American colonial architecture. It served at once as an arsenal, prison, and residence for the Governor-General of the island;
- El Morro, built to protect San Juan Bay, is situated on a rocky peak of land on the western extremity of the island. The fort is a triangular bastion perfectly conceived according to the strategy of the second half of the 18th century, when it was entirely remodelled. It eventually developed into a masterpiece of military engineering with stout walls, carefully planned steps and ramps for moving men and artillery. By the end of the 18th century, more than 400 cannon defended the fort, making it almost impregnable.
- San Cristóbal, with its dependencies, is another accomplished example of the military architecture of the second half of the 18th century.
- San Juan National Historic Site includes forts, bastions, powder houses, wall and El Cañuelo Fort, also called San Juan de la Cruz - defensive fortifications that once surrounded the old colonial portion of San Juan, Puerto Rico. El Cañuelo Fort is located at the Isla de Cabras at the western end of the entrance to San Juan Bay. (Source)
Trinidad & Tobago - Maracas Bay (2)
Panoramic view of Maracas Bay on Trinidad's north coast.
Sent by Mark from Trinidad & Tobago. This is the second postcard of Maracas Bay received.
Trinidad & Tobago - Stollmeyer's Castle
Stollmeyer's Castle, one of the Colonial Style Buildings around the Savannah, Port of Spain. This is the most outstanding of the Magnificent Seven.
Sent by Mark from Trinidad & Tobago.
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