Public Access

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for public buildings starts with...

Stadhuis, Grote Markt, Antwerp

Antwerp's magnificent Town Hall, built in the 16th Century when the city was one of the most prosperous cities in Northern Europe. The interior and exterior have recently been renovated so the exterior looks a little different in colour to this postcard as can be seen here.

Belgium of course is famous for its beer

and like the Belgians we enjoy our beer too in the UK, other drinks available. The artist, Bernie Carroll, invites you to a 'heritage pub crawl' to the public houses of Lancaster.  The oldest pub is The Three Mariners dating back to the 15th Century.  Pubs have had a tough time since Covid with many closing but I think all these are still trading maybe because Lancaster is a university town and you know how thirsty students are.

Bernie provides you with tick boxes on the postcard's reverse to add to any messages.

The Art of Venice

The sea has protected Venice since the 5th Century when the first settlers arrived, but no longer, for in November 1966 after two days of heavy rain, high tides and the Sirocco wind blowing, six feet of water flooded into the floating city.  The international community went into action to raise money and try to save some of the treasures under threat.  

In 1971 Burundi issued these UNESCO 'Save Venice' Campaign stamps.  From left to right is an icon in St Mark's Basilica of the Archangel Michael (I can't help thinking of the spirituals song 'Michael row the boat ashore' in this context). Next are paintings which can be seen in the Venice Museum of the 18th Century by Alessandro Longhi who portrayed the Venetian society around him - La Polenta (Preparing the polenta) and Il Ciarlatano (The Charlatan).

 No stamp set would be complete without the wonderful architecture of Venice (where there will be paintings inside!) The 15th Century Casa d'Oro (golden house) on the Grand Canal and the Doge's Palace.  The painting in the middle is by Giambattista Pittoni who rarely left Venice and indeed is buried there.  Burundi Post have called it Diana's Bath and there she is with all her nymphs around the stream but in fact it is from the painting 'Diana and Acteon' and in the actual painting Acteon is on the other side of the stream.  A popular mythical subject with renaissance and 18th century painters, Diana the huntress is disturbed by Acteon as she bathes in a forest stream and she turns him into a stag when he is killed by his own hounds. 

Many of the Doges and important characters of Venice have been buried, the St John and St Paul Basilica shown on the stamp.  Of course no collection of paintings about Venice would be complete without the most famous Venetian painter of all, Canaletto, and here is a detail from 'The Doge's Palace with the Piazza di San Marco'

The acqua alta (high water) still threatens Venice and now it regularly floods.  It is hoped that the major engineering works consisting of 78 gates which will separate the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea will, when it is finished, protect the city.  The project is called MOSE (the Italian word for Moses) an acronym of (MOdulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, Experimental Electromechanical Module).

An entry to Sunday Stamps II theme - Paintings - browse the galleries at See It On A Postcard 

Hot and Cold

2007 Endangered Species. Royal Penguins

The only place Royal Penguins breed is on Macquarie Island (which lies halfway between Australia and Antarctica) and nobody knows where they all go for the rest of the year but here is an all action group paddling up an island stream. I like collective nouns so technically this group of penguins being on land is called a waddle, in the water a group would be a raft and young chicks together are a crèche.

Journey through stamps to a radically different environment, the Australian rainforest 

This is the vast wet tropical rainforests of North Queensland on the north-east of Australia. The Post have chosen an important habitat for flora and fauna, Daintree National Park, where some of the species here are found nowhere else on the earth.

The fauna chosen are top - Orange-thighed tree frog which dwells in the rain forest canopy and the fast flying Green-spotted triangle butterfly
Bottom - the rare nocturnal Striped possum and the small nectar-feeding Yellow-bellied sunbird

An entry to Sunday Stamps II theme - "Animals in the Wild" - to see more roam over here

Earth View

1961: 2nd Manned Space Flight

Gherman Titov was the first person to take a photograph of Earth from space but I can't find any quotes from him about his experience of seeing this fragile blue planet floating in space but then he was suffering from space sickness for a great deal of his day in space. He did write on his photograph so maybe that is just as good.  Famously he did say or, I imagine, shout with the excitement of someone just one month short of his 25th birthday "I am eagle, I am eagle"

Crested Serpent Eagle (1996: Birds of Prey)

But lets gently swoop lower down upon Earth and

another Russian stamp which was issued for the UNESCO "Man and Biosphere Programme" in 1986. This is an intergovernmental program aiming to "set a scientific basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their environment globally" which was launched early in the 1970s. How to create sustainable developmental solutions for biodiversity loss in the world is a great conundrum and UNESCO has introduced programmes to address this for the various types of eco-systems across the world.  One initiative is the concept of a world network of biosphere reserves with international protection, one of which is the German  

2004: Wattenmeer National Park

Wattenmeer or as we know it in English, the Wadden Sea. This is an intertidal zone and wetland of the southern North Sea, parts of which are on the UNESCO World Heritage list.  I live by an intertidal bay, it is an endlessly fascinating environment which changes from day to day yet remains the same mysterious and beautiful expanse. 

1989: Nature Conservation

Next journey north to the Arctic, I always like stamps with an attached label and even better this one has a map.  The theme is the preservation of the Arctic which since this stamp was issued has been put under more threat both to its pristine nature and its inhabitants

c1972 definitive

who find the ice melting beneath them. This atmospheric stamp shows polar bears making their way across the ice floes. The polar bear is the largest land carnivore

1987: Polar Bears

so I suppose its preferred snack,  the seal,  may not take the same view of ice melting as it escapes into the water

 1978: Antarctic Fauna

 Although this one is laughing because it lives at the other pole.  I'm sure I've got a stamp with one of the many varieties of beautiful seal species  living in the Arctic but it is appearing as elusive as one hiding from a polar bear.  The stamp shown is the Southern Elephant Seal, the larger, bigger nosed cousin of the Northern Elephant Seal. They nearly became extinct in the 19th Century through hunting and after a recovery numbers are declining again, it is thought because of reduced levels of food in the sea. Most of their breeding areas are protected by international treaty and are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.   

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme of - Earth Day

A Garden of a 100 Views

Unbelievably there have been ONE HUNDRED weeks of Sunday Stamps, how did that time go so fast.  We have almost been through the seasons twice so in celebration here is the passing of years in the stamps showing the

Quxi Tower in the Spring

Li Yuan Gardens of Suzhou, which are designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city of Suzhou is most famous for two things, its many canals and the gardens.  The gardens history can be traced back to the 6th Century BC but the real growth was from the 11th to 19th Century and the city's rise to  prosperity from the 16th to 18th century resulted in as many as 200 gardens being created.  The plum blossom festival in February and early March is considered one of the most beautiful times to visit.

This is the largest of the gardens covering about 6 or 10 acres (depending which description you read) and was first commissioned in 1593 during the Ming Dynasty but when it was bought by Liu Su in 1798 he added many elements of trees, bamboo groves, stones  and rock constructions.  For this reason the garden acquired a nickname of the Lingering Gardens, Liu Yuan -  a play on Liu Su's name.

Yuancui Pavilion in the Summer

Chinese gardens like this are known for their delicate design of hills, ponds, terraces, towers and represent a microcosm of the world, a landscape in miniature. The gardens of Suzhou have been called an earthly paradise.

Hanbi Shanfung in the Autumn

 The Lingering Gardens have the most building of all the gardens in Suzhou and the western area is considered most beautiful in autumn with the artificial hills covered with maple trees which shade the pavilions in summer and turn a rosy red in autumn.

Guanyun Peak in the Winter

It rarely snows in Suzhou and its winters tend to the damp but the stamp designer shows it under snow which always makes a winter garden's structure look beautiful. The town is famous for making a winter wine of osmanthus which sells out quickly in December so even if it does not snow perhaps you can listen to the rain dripping on the leaves while sipping your glass in the pavilion.

The designer of this set of stamps is Sun Chusnzhe who was born in 1915  and has created 150 sets of stamps, his first issued in 1947  so an appropriate record breaker for number 100 of Sunday Stamps.    

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps celebration of reaching 100

 

Public Works

2012: UK A-Z Part 2

 I'll start off this week in the north west of England with Alfred Waterhouse's Victorian Gothic town hall which inside has murals by Ford Madox Brown showing the important events of the city.  There are a lot of Madox Brown paintings in the north west but I saw even more of them this year in Belgium, they were on loan for a special exhibition of his work. Fancy travelling to Ghent and finding paintings from my own patch but a visit was irresistible, and see them all together.

Journey across the Irish Sea and a stamp celebrates the completion of the Shannon Hydro-Electric project in 1930 which was the beginning of the electrification of the national grid and  also brought power to rural areas.

And so to bridges here is the opening of the Wakato Narrows long span bridge on Dokai Bay in 1962.  It is only for motor transport, the ferry, which apparently is the cheapest in Japan, takes pedestrians and cyclists across the water.  From the islands of Japan travel to

1994: Prefecture Capitals (4th series)

 the city of Heraklion on Crete to a building that was constructed in Paladian style when the island was a colony of Venice where the great and the good met but used also as a Loggia where people met to pass the time. With the coming of the Turks the building was used for financial administration, and a place to store guns.  In 1900 with liberation from the Turks and an independent Crete the state proposed it be turned into a archaeological museum unfortunately  an earthquake in 1904 mad it unsafe. After a gap of  some decades it was eventually restored and in 1934 started to be used for municipal services. Today the first floor has been restored furnished and decorated being used for ceremonial purposes and meetings of the council.  This gained it the Europa Nostra award in 1987 for the restoration of a historic building for a modern use. 

2012: UK A-Z Part 2

Lastly the ultimate builders of public works, the Romans.  The early morning mist rising from the water in the city the Romans founded as a thermal spa - Bath. (UNESCO heritage site).

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme of "Civic or Public Architecture and other public works"

Where Music Dwells

1969: "Paintings and Music"

I was going to cover the continents with Viridian Postcard's  Sunday Stamps theme of 'Art, Music and Dance' but alas too many gaps so I'll go to the other end of the spectrum and feature just one country - Rwanda.  The first stamp is the Van Eyck's "Musical Angels",  which could covers all three themes if  including the medieval theological question of how many angels could dance on a pin head. This painting is only a fraction of the whole Ghent Altarpiece also known as 'Adoration of the Mystic Lamb' considered one of the world's greatest paintings. If only I had known that it still resides in Ghent when I visited briefly earlier this year, doh.  Happily during recent restoration of the work the Getty Foundation photographed every inch and  turned it into a "100 billion pixels" and launched its own website to the world.

1973: "Musical Instruments"

The wonders of the internet did not however lead me to any description, or sound, of this arched harp which is described as a Longombe but Africa possesses an amazing variety of of stringed instruments. 

1970: African National Costumes

Here I think are griots (praise singers, storytellers, poets and musicians) from Niger, one playing a flute.

1967 World Fair (Africa Place)

 At last here are some dancers on their way to the Montreal Expo of 1967 the site of which remained open as a theme park until 1981.    

166 UNESCO 20th Anniversary (Cultural Emblems)

Rwanda jointed UNESCO in 1962 and this year was awarded a prize for its adult literacy programme. The  Intore "Dance of Heroes" is I think the one portrayed on the Expo stamp and is traditionally a dance that all three ethnic groups, Hutu, Tutsi and Twa danced together.  The UNESCO constitution says "Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defence of peace must be constructed".  So lets dance...

 

Wroclaw

One of the hosts of next month's Euro 2012 Football Championships is Wroclaw in Poland.  What a beautiful place to stay. Sitting by the River Oder Wroclaw is the historic capital of Silesia and can trace its history back to the 10th Century.  The British historian Norman Davies, noted for his histories of Europe and Poland called Wraclaw "the flower of Europe".  Not only is it culturally and architecturally interesting but it has had a turbulent and action packed history, over the centuries being part of Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia and Germany. As part of Germany it was known as Breslau, changing its name after World War Two back to Wroclaw in 1945 when it once again became part of Poland.

The card shows top row L to R - 1)  The Town Hall (Ratusz) built and developed from the 13th-16th Century; 2)  Centennial Hall (formally the People's Hall) constructed in 1911-13 when Wroclaw was part of the German Empire it is an early example of reinforced concrete architecture and listed as a UNESCO Heritage Site;  3) Town-houses from the 16th and 18th Century much photographed and called  Hansel and Gretel because of the archway linking them is like a couple holding hands.

Bottom row L to R - 1) The Market Place;  2) The Raclawice Panorama contains a cycloramic painting of the battle of Raclawice. Stand in the middle and apparently you will experience many optical illusions;  3) The Japanese Garden designed by Mankichi Arai in 1909-1912 and located in Szczytnicki Park.  It was restored in 1996/7 but soon after it was under water after flooding, despite 70% of the planting having to be replaced it reopened again in 1999.       

The card came with some

Polish Cities stamps. The first two showing the facade of the All Saints Collegiate Church in Sieradz, the other stamp shows the coffin of St Adalberg in the cathedral in Gnienzno.

Thank you Monitorka for showing me your city in this card.

Struve's Arc

I think this must be my favourite miniature sheet; it portrays scientific endeavour but in the stunning setting of the forests and lakes of Finland. I love all the activity going on, including sitting down.   The sheet contains 2 se-tenant stamps with the marvellous Finnish philatelic imagination of one consisting of the large circle surrounding the map and the other the map itself. (the circle does not show up too well on this scan but you can see the two denominations)   But back to the scene and the horizon curving in the distance which is appropriate for this is a commemoration of the measuring of the Struve Geodic Arc. An internationally organised meridian arc survey which influenced the future development of science and helped establish the precise shape and size of the Earth.  The 2,822 kilometre arc stretches from the Arctic coast in Norway to the mouth of the River Danube at the Black Sea.  The measurements were carried out from 1816-1855 under the leadership of the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve from the Dorpat (Tartu) University in present day Estonia.  Today the line passes through 10 countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine).  Just imagine all that triangulation measurement, there were 258 main triangles with 265 main station points.

Latvia's miniature sheet features the measuring instrument as well as a portrait of Struve, part of the large endeavour can be imagined by the tower on the left of the sheet. The other stamp is a concrete marker post which I think must be a nod to 2005 when the measurement chain was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site with 34 commemorative plaques or built obelisks out of the original 265 main station points which are marked by drilled holes in rocks, iron crosses, cairns etc. 

When Eeva sent me the Finnish miniature sheet she also enclosed a postcard of one of the

Struve points with the Finland map stamp. Start walking now?


 An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps

Peanuts

Snoopy and Woodstock being flying aces. I think Woodstock might have a slight advantage here. Charles Shutltz's Peanut cartoons are one of my favourites, the cartoon strip appeared for 50 years and at its peak ran in 75 countries and 2,600 newspapers. As he is no longer with us no more will appear but the ones we have will never loose their charm.  How about a word from Snoopy:

"I spend a lot of my time lying here on the doghouse. That's because the round-headed kid and his friends spend a lot of their days in school. I often wonder what they do there all day "

Peanuts international appeal is confirmed with this postcard for it came from Germany with

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one of this year's "World Heritage Sites of UNESCO".  I think this set may be a joint issue with Japan because they both have Japanese writing on them and the other one of this set features a Japanese temple in Nara.  The one I received features the town of Regensburg in Bavaria which "has unique Romanesque and Gothic buildings representing an authentic image of a single European trading city of the Middle Ages".  The building that dominates this stamp is the Cathedral of St Peter surrounded by medieval buildings.

Thank you Klaus for this fun postcard.

Kraków

Main Market Square, Kraków

Kraków is one of the oldest cities in Poland and from 1038-1596 was the capital. The scene shows the carriages waiting in the Market Square for passengers, it is a popular tourist destination.  The centre of Kraków has been designated a world heritage site by UNESCO. The beautiful renaissance building on the postcard is the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) which is, and was, a centre of trade. Nowadays apart from shops it also houses galleries of 19th century Polish art.  On the left is St Mary's Basilica, a brick built Gothic church rebuilt in the 14th Century. Every hour a trumpet signal is played from the taller tower. This commemorates the 13th Century trumpeter shot in the throat while sounding an alarm before the Mongol Golden Horde attacked the city. The midday trumpet is played on Polish radio every day.

My sender, Mateusz, ambition is to study at the university of Science and Technology here, he was visiting Kraków when he bought this card, and is studying hard.  The university is a nice link to the card's stamp

 Graphic Designer:- Anna Niemierko

one of the 2010 'Minerals' set. What a beautiful colour. This is chrysoprase, a word from the Greek, chrysos (gold) and prasinos (greenish).  The largest deposit of this mineral in Europe is in Lower Silesia, Poland, it is also possibly the largest amount in the world. The green in chrysoprase varies from apple to dark green depending on the amount of nickel in the rock. I think it would make very pretty jewellery.

Thank you Mateusz, good luck with the exams.

Potsdam

Potsdam sounds like a wonderful place, described as a town of palaces, castles and parks, with a series of interconnecting lakes around the city. In the 17th and 18th Centuries it was the summer residence of Prusian kings and German emperors.  It is my senders ex home town and she likes to send British postcrossers the ones with some English looking buildings. Spot which two they are.

You couldn't get more english than the top left Shloß Cecilienhof which was actually built to look like an English Tudor house and is based on a house I have actually seen, Bidston Court on the Wirral (a peninsular near Liverpool). Cecilienhof was the last palace built by the Hohenzollen family and Emperor Wilhelm II erected it for his son. Like many of the palaces in Postsdam it is part of the UNESCO world heritage site of palaces and parks.

The fairy tale house top right is the Teehaus, or Chinese Tea-house and was built for Frederick the Great in the 18th Century to adorn his flower and vegetable garden, it reflects the love of chinoiserie that swept Europe at that time. This building mixes oriental and rococo, I'd love to have a look inside.

Middle left:- Russische Kirche, the oldest Russian Orthodox church in western Europe, called the Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church.

Bottom left - Hollandisches Viertel, the Dutch Quarter is in the heart of Potsdam with many cafes, pubs, arts and crafts shops. 134 houses were build of red brick on 4 squares by Jan Bourman in the 18th Century.

Middle right - Schloß Babelsberg was built in 1835-1849 as the summer residence for Emperor William I in the English Gothic style. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens and is also part of the UNESCO site.

Bottom left - Brandenburger Tor, the gate commissioned by Frederich II in 1770, the side passages added later in 1843.

A marvellous mixture of styles and shapes in all the buildings and, as my sender says, the city has a quite an international face.  The card, alongside the German definitive flower stamps had a nicely themed

October 2010 commemorative stamp of a 1582 town-house in Epingen located in the Baden-Wuerttemberg region. 

Thank you Denise I can see why your heart still lives in beautiful Potsdam

Chinese Dwellings, Xidi

Xidi Dwellings (Qing Dynasty), Yi County

The Xidi village in China was originally called Xichuan (west river) because of the streams that pass through it from the surrounding mountains. In 2000 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its "graphic illustration of a type of human settlement created during a feudal period and based on a prosperous trading economy".  The prosperity of this village peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries when there were 600 residences. Most of these types of villages disappeared in the 20th century so the 124 residences that survive in Xidi from the Ming and Quing dynasty are important historic remnants, many are open to the public.

My sender likes these type of ancient dwellings their detail and figures on the wall and eaves. They remind me of the ones that sometimes provide the background in wushu films, but without the flying martial arts. The story of the growth of Xidi could probably come from one of those films.
"The Hu family from Wuyuan (Xinan), adopted a son of the Tang Emperor Zhaozong (888-904) after the Emperor was forced from his throne in 904, naming him Hu Changyi. One of his descendants moved his family from Wuyuan to Xidi in 1047. The construction of a number of important private and public buildings began at around that time. From the mid-17th century until around 1850, the Hu family was influential in both commerce and politics. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, members of the family became imperial officials, while many also became graduates of the Imperial College".

Thank you Xu for this unique card.

Colorado

The card description says "This is one of ten commemorative stamps created to commemorate National Park Year. Mesa Verde, a World Heritage Site, is the first archaeological park in the US. Cliff Palace is the most famous cliff dwelling. Established June 29, 1906".

Mesa Verde is in Montezuma county, Colorado and has at least 4000 archaeological sites. Cliff Palace, originally the home of the Pueblo people centuries ago, has about 150 rooms and 23 kivas (rooms used for religious purposes).  Must be an amazing sight, the sepia card completes its ancient origin. 

My sender was at Mesa Verde last year and saw a framed version of the actual stamp and was tempted to buy it to send on a card to herself.  The only thing to stop her putting this plan into action was a ridiculously large price tag, and the alternative view of the idea from her significant other.

This great stamp card of course came with its own stamps

Clockwise, one of this years Animal Rescue stamps, all the animals featured had been placed with homes, such a cute cat.

The amazing Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) the 16th person to be featured in the Legends of Hollywood commemorative stamp series. She made a huge number of films over a long career. African Queen with Humphrey Bogart, who won an Oscar for his performance.  One of  her own four Oscar was for, Lion in Winter when she played Eleanor of Aquitaine, a women as long lived and feisty as Hepburn herself.  

Lastly another great stamp, the artist John Falter's gauche of  'Chautauqua 1874-1974' Tent and Buggies. This was a adult education  movement with travelling tent shows, taking entertainment, education and religion to rural America. Theodore Roosevelt called it "the most American thing in America".  To link back to the state of the postcard, one of the longest unbroken Chautauqua is based in Colorado.

Thank you Bonnie Jeanne for this fascinating card.

Moscow Kremlin

A wonderful card of the iconic Cupolas of the Kremlin glittering in the sunshine.  On the left is the Cathedral of Basil the Blessed with its cupcake swirls and on the right the Spassakaya tower topped with a star.

The Kremlin which means citadel or castle was built between the 14th and 17th century and has been a political, ceremonial and religious centre for many centuries.  I visited many years ago but would love to visit again, there is so much to see.

It came appropriately with two 10р Moscow Kremlin stamps on the back, so here are the cupolas from a different angle and a black and white outline on the card itself. A triple Kremlin.

The 1 rouble stamps are of the of the Astrakhan Kremlin, part of the definitive stamps issued in 2009, the little hare is one of the  August 2008 definitives. 

This card travelled for 22 days and 1,606 miles (2,585km).  

Thank you Irina