Echoes of History

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - in search of UNECO sites

The Grand Palace of Knossos was built around 1900 BC, rebuilt after an earthquake in about 1700 BC and finally destroyed around 1375-1400 BC.  It was the cultural and political centre of the Minoan civilization on Crete. The site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list of 'Minoan Palatial Centres' in 2005.

The card shows the watch room or guardhouse of the Palace, an entry area to the west wing complex. 

Roman Wall at Housesteads Mile Castle. (Northumberland)

 Hadrian's Wall stretches across the narrowest part of northern Britain, spanning 73 modern miles (80 Roman miles). Built on the orders of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD122 as the northernmost limit of the Roman Empire and to control border crossings. The guard posts or mile castles were about 55 square feet and garrisoned by 50 men. They were built at mile intervals, with larger forts for 1000 infantrymen occurring at intervals of 3 to 7 miles.

Inscribed by UNESCO in 1987 as a standalone site and then extended in 2005 and 2008 into the transnational 'Frontiers of the Roman Empire' (which includes the Antonine Wall in Scotland and the German Limes (Limes Germanicus) fortifications.

Invention

 

2007: Swedish Innovations (Illustrations - Sara Lund)

Two very useful inventions probably in your tool box. The always useful adjustable spanner,  A wall plug, usually referred to as a rawlplug in the UK, a brand name that became a generic term. The Swedes call them a Thorsmanpluggen, invented in Sweden in 1964 by Oswald Thorsman together with their colour coding, red being a medium size general purpose plug.

2007: World of Invention (Illustrations - Peter Till)

Bridge Building in Thomas Telford's imagination.                        Railway locomotion

Communications.                 Television

 E Mail, Internet and the World Wide Web.            Still to come - Space Tourism to the moon 

Sunday Stamps theme - Celebrating Inventions - See It On A Postcard 

Moveable Bridges

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is watching moveable bridges

opening up in Saint Petersburg 

Closed down in Oudewater.The town has both a rope and a witch weighing house museum. Witches were supposed to be very light to be able to fly, they wouldn't have needed to use bridges unless they were travelling incognito.

One of my snaps showing a Dutch bridge open, the traffic lights are at green.

 

Island History

 

1981: Discovery of Madeira

Portuguese explorers were blown off course while sailing along the West African coast, after many days adrift they found a small island harbour which they named Porto Santo. Much later the sailors noticed a heavy dark bank of clouds to the south west of this small isle and sailed towards it in 1419 and found a densely forested island they named Madeira (meaning 'wood' in Portuguese).

1993: The Red Cross and Scout Movement

70 years of the Red Cross in 1992. The stamp shows the Greenland flag, a rising sun. Also 50 Years of the Scout Movement in 1993 with two scouts gazing out of their tent. Musk Ox also make an appearance on this sheet, perfectly clothed for the Greenlandic climate, they are known there as Umimmak - the long-bearded one.

1986: Bicentenary of Reykjavik

The first official seal of Reykjavik, introduced in 1815, featured a fisherman, a boat and a flatfish. It was replaced in 1957 by the current logo, a blue shield design

Sunday Stamp theme - Historical Events - See It On A Postcard 

Railway Bridges

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is in search of railway bridges

Knaresborough, Yorkshire. Railway Poster by Jack Merriot (1954)

A train crosses Knaresborough Viaduct over the River Nidd. The artist, Jack Merriot (1901-68) created both railway and GPO posters, today highly collectable (ie expensive). Painter, illustrator, writer and teacher, his style was described as being "characterised by a breezy freshness, crisp with well-controlled colour". His posters certainly suggest that one was about to arrive by train to a rarefied idyll. 

Settle-Carlisle Line Postcard No 64

The Duchess of Sutherland hauling a chartered passenger train travelling from Carlisle to York crossing the small Bongate Bridge near Appleby. The railway station at Appleby has a water tower where steam trains have the opportunity to take on water.

As a contrast to countryside scenery here was an opportunity to view the docks of Liverpool  as well as the ocean liners and shipping traffic on the River Mersey. The railway opened in 1893 and closed in 1956 when it was demolished.

Bridges Over Water

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Bridges spanning water

Japanaiserie - Bridge Under Rain (after Hiroshige) by Vincent van Gogh (Paris 1887)

 Copied from a woodcut by Utagawa Hiroshige Vincent van Gogh's 'Bridge in the Rain' added more colour than the original and because the shape of woodcuts would not fit directly on square canvases he added a colourful border. Vincent and his brother Theo had had collected many Japanese prints and woodcuts in their time together in Paris. Hiroshige's original, called 'Sudden Evening Shower on the Great Bridge near Atake', was part of his series - One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

Under clear skies at the mouth of the River Morar, on the road to the Isles, near Mallaig.  The river is the shortest in Scotland, it drain from Loch Morar so is really more of an estuary among rocks. There are a series of waterfalls known as the Falls of Morar on its short run to the sea.

Calm waters on the Leicestershire Ring, also known as the East Midlands Ring. There are many bridges over its 154 miles which consists of a mixture of rivers (Soar and Trent) and canals. The bridge top middle is at Hartshill Basin, bottom left Hawkesbury Junction, both are over he Coventry Canal. Bottom right - Braunston where the Grand Union and Oxford Canals meet, the cast iron bridge is the Horesley Iron Works Bridge. I think that is the marina seen through the arch.

Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and Piglet

For pure bucolic bridge delight what could pass the time better on a sunny day than a game of  Poohsticks with friends.

 “Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Learning

 

1983: 150th Anniversary of the University of Zurich

Established in 1883 the University of Zurich was the first European university founded by a democratic state rather than a monarch or the church. There have been 12 Nobel Prize winners (primarily in physics and chemistry) educated here. Three famous names stand out - Rontgen, Schrodinger and Einstein.

1997: Universities 

   Padua University was founded in 1222, the second oldest university in Italy. The stamp shows the Bo Palace (Palazzo de Bo) built in 1594 and is the oldest surviving anatomical theatre in the world. An inscription as old as the theatre says "This is a place where the dead are pleased to teach those who live". 

Two famous astronomers who were temporary residents are Galileo, who taught at the university, and Copernicus, who was a student, Another alumni of Padua for those interested in the English Tudor era and its machinations was Sir Francis Walsingham, who would become spymaster for Queen Elizabeth I.

1998: 750th Anniversary of St Marienstern Abbey, Panschwitz-Kuckan

Founded in 1248 St Marienstern Abbey is one of the few Central European monasteries that has maintained a uninterrupted history and during that long time survived the Hussite Wars, the Reformation, world wars and the old GDR. The Abbey as well as being home to the Cistercian nuns of the order of St Benedict functions as a educational and cultural learning centre which includes a 6000 square metre Educational Garden

For the Sunday Stamps theme of - Places of Learning - See It On A Postcard