Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the Carpathian Mountain Area

This site consists in 8 wooden churches and one belfry. I have four postcards but two are of the same church

Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Hervartov

This postcard was sent by Ania

The Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area inscribed on the World Heritage List consist of two Roman Catholic, three Protestant and three Greek Orthodox churches built between the 16th and 18th centuries. The property presents good examples of a rich local tradition of religious architecture, marked by the meeting of Latin and Byzantine cultures. The edifices exhibit some typological variations in their floor plans, interior spaces and external appearance due to their respective religious practices. They bear testimony to the development of major architectural and artistic trends during the period of construction and to their interpretation and adaptation to a specific geographical and cultural context. Interiors are decorated with paintings on the walls and ceilings and other works of art that enrich the cultural significance of the properties. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1273/

Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Hervartov

This postcard was sent by Malgosia

Roman Catholic wooden church of St. Francis of Assisi in Hervartov has a Gothic character as represented by its tall but narrow structure unusual for a wooden church. It was built in the second half of the 15th century and thus represents the oldest of its type in Slovakia. The floor is made of stones again unlike in most of wooden churches where it is usually made of wood. Rare wall paintings were added in 1665 during the reformation period and they depict, among others, Adam and Eve in the Eden or the struggle of St. George with the dragon. The main altar of Virgin Mary, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Barbara was made between 1460 and 1470 and restored in the second half of the 20th century. - in: wikipedia

Wooden Articular Church in Kezmarok

This postcard was sent by Javier

The Wooden articular church in Kežmarok (Slovak: Drevený artikulárny kostol v Kežmarku) is a wooden church in Kežmarok, Slovakia. The local Lutherans built it during a period of religious persecution, when they were allowed to erect only wooden churches. That is why even nails were made exclusively of wood. The construction was financially supported by Protestants from various countries, including Sweden and Denmark.

The only stone part of the church is its sacristy, originally built in 1593 as a pub outside the city walls. In the 17th century, the Roman Catholic dynasty of Habsburgs persecuted Protestantism in the Habsburg Monarchy, which included territory of present Slovakia at that time. The number of churches was limited to one in each free royal town, Kežmarok being one of them. The construction material had to be the cheapest possible (wood at that time) and a church had to be completed in 365 days. - in: wikipedia

Wooden articular church of Hronsek

This postcard was sent by Marco

Wooden articular church of Hronsek is a Lutheran church situated in the village of Hronsek, in Slovakia.

The church is in the form of cross with the longer arm measuring 23 m and the shorter arm measuring 18 m. The height of the church is 8 m.

Construction of the church started on October 23, 1725 and finished in the autumn of 1726. - in: wikipedia

The 9 wooden religious buildings (in red what I have):

• Hervartov
• Tvrdosin
• Kezmarok
• Lestiny
• Hronsek (church)
• Hronsek (belfry)
• Bodruzal
• Ladomirová
• Ruská Bystrá

Historic Town of Banská Štiavnica and the Technical Monuments in its Vicinity

This was the first UNESCO site in Slovakia from where I received a postcard.

Banská Štiavnica

This postcard was sent by Marco

Banská Štiavnica is a town in central Slovakia, in the middle of an immense caldera created by the collapse of an ancient volcano. 

The heart of the town is the historical Trinity Square (Slovak: Trojičné námestie) dominated by a monumental plague column. The square is used for frequent cultural events and there is also a mineralogical museum. Two castles, the so-called “old” one (Slovak: Starý zámok) and “new” one (Slovak: Nový zámok), have been transformed into museums. - in: wikipedia

Calvary Banská Štiavnica

This postcard was sent by Lubomir

Calvary Banská Štiavnica (Slovak: Banskoštiavnická Kalvária) is a late-Baroque calvary, architectural and landscape unit in Slovakia, unique in extent and content, formed in the years 1744–1751.

Calvary Banská Štiavnica is the most important Baroque calvary in Slovakia and in the whole former Kingdom of Hungary – probably even in the whole of Europe. This calvary is a complex of 3 churches and 22 chapels with precious painting decorations, furnished by wooden and blacksmith movables and wooden painted reliefs. All buildings of churches and chapels are set into the western side of a solid lava column in the middle of an ancient volcano – a hill named Scharffenberg (Slovak: Ostrý vrch). The work was initiated by Jesuits in the 18th century as a part of their large programme implemented across the country. - in: wikipedia

Levoča, Spišský Hrad and the Associated Cultural Monuments

Levoča looks exactly the kind of place I like: not too big, not too small and with wonderful monuments to see

Renaissance Town Hall

This postcard arrived from Poland sent by Ania

Levoča is a town in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,600. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Renaissance church with the highest wooden altar in the world, carved by Master Paul of Levoča, and many other Renaissance buildings. - in: wikipedia

Basilica of St. James and Old Town Hall

This postcard was sent by Marco

The Basilica of St. James (Slovak: Bazilika svätého Jakuba) is a Gothic church in Levoča, Prešovský kraj, Slovakia. Building began in the 14th century. It is a Catholic parish church, dedicated to James the Apostle. 

The interior features several Gothic altars, including as the main altar the world's tallest wooden altar at 18.62 metres (61.1 ft) by the workshop of Master Paul of Levoča, completed in 1517. The church, the second largest in Slovakia, also houses well-preserved furniture and art work. - in: wikipedia

Spiš Castle

This postcard was sent by Lubomir

The ruins of Spiš Castle (Slovak: Spišský hrad) in eastern Slovakia form one of the largest castle sites in Central Europe. 

Spiš Castle was built in the 12th century on the site of an earlier castle. It was the political, administrative, economic and cultural centre of Szepes County of the Kingdom of Hungary. Before 1464, it was owned by the kings of Hungary, afterwards (until 1528) by the Zápolya family, the Thurzó family (1531–1635), the Csáky family (1638–1945), аnd (since 1945) by the state of Czechoslovakia then Slovakia.

Spiš Castle

This postcard was sent by Marco

Originally a Romanesque stone castle with fortifications, a two-story Romanesque palace and a three-nave Romanesque-Gothic basilica were constructed by the second half of the 13th century. A second extramural settlement was built in the 14th century, by which the castle area was doubled. The castle was completely rebuilt in the 15th century; the castle walls were heightened and a third extramural settlement was constructed. A late Gothic chapel was added around 1470. The Zápolya clan performed late Gothic transformations, which made the upper castle into a comfortable family residence, typical of late Renaissance residences of the 16th and 17th centuries. The last owners of the Spiš Castle, the Csáky family, abandoned the castle in the early 18th century because they considered it too uncomfortable to live in. - in: wikipedia

Žehra Church

This postcard was sent by Marco

Žehra is a village and municipality in the Spišská Nová Ves District in the Košice Region of central-eastern Slovakia.
The Church of the Holy Spirit was completed in 1275. It is noted both for its picturesque appearance, perched on a mound above the village, and for its remarkable series of wall paintings. These have survived despite much damage to the building, including a fire in the 15th century which burnt down its original ceiling. The remaining building is a single nave structure, topped with onion-shaped domes of the 17th century. - in: wikipedia

Vlkolínec

This picturesque village looks a wonderful place for a summer vacation!

Vlkolínec

This postcard was sent by Lubomir

Vlkolínec, Slovakia, is a picturesque village under the administration of the town of Ružomberok. Historically, however, it was a separate village. The first written mention of the village came from 1376 and after 1882 it became part of Ružomberok. Its name is probably derived from the Slovak word "vlk", i. e. wolf.

Vlkolínec has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1993, and is one of ten Slovak villages that have been given the status of a folk architecture reservations. This status was granted because the village is an untouched and complex example of folk countryside architecture of the region of the Northern Carpathians.

Vlkolínec

This postcard was sent by Hebert

Vlkolínec, situated in the centre of Slovakia, is a remarkably intact settlement with the traditional features of a central European village. It is the region’s most complete group of these kinds of traditional log houses, often found in mountainous areas. The village consists of more than 45 log houses each of them made up of two or three rooms. A wooden belfry from the 18th century as well as the baroque chapel has also been preserved. Houses No. 16 and 17 are turned into the folk museum with all the instruments of daily life and work. - in: wikipedia

Vlkolínec

This postcard was sent by Marco

Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst

So far, as I remember, I only visited caves in Majorca, Spain

Rákóczi Cave - Aggtelek Karst National Park

This postcard was sent by Rita

Rákóczi Cave is located in the spur of Esztramos Hill which is part of the Szalonna Karst, this is about 20km east of Jósvafo in north eastern Hungary, in the village of Bódvarákó, near the town of Tornaszentandras. Here, iron mining operations opened up dozens of caves and a few years ago this cave was incorporated into the Aggtelek National Park and was renamed Rákóczi Cave.

Rákóczi Cave contains peculiar dissolution pockets, rock pendants and avens ending in spherical niches. This demonstrates that this cave has been dissolved below the karst water table and that warm waters ascending here in the past have also dissolved part of the speleothems. Today, most of the cave is located well above the water table but Rákóczi Cave still has considerable portions underwater. The mineralisation is characteristic of a hydrothermal cave most of the formations are coralloids, resembling grapes or popcorn. Many scalenohedral calcite crystals, some aragonite crystals and moonmilk abound. One broken speleothem shows alternating bands of calcite and aragonite. The cave also contains deep pools of water which are extremely clear with a slightly greenish colour. - in: http://www.showcaves.com/english/hu/showcaves/Rakoczi.html

Ochtinská Aragonite Cave

This postcard arrived from Poland sent by Malgosia

Ochtinská Aragonite Cave (Slovak: Ochtinská aragonitová jaskyňa) is a unique aragonite cave situated in southern Slovakia, near Rožňava. Although only 300 m long, it is famous for its rare aragonite filling.

There are only three aragonite caves discovered in the world so far. In the so-called Milky Way Hall, the main attraction of the cave, white branches and clusters of aragonite shine like stars in the Milky Way. The cave was discovered by Martin Cangár and Jiri Prosek in 1954 and opened to the public in 1972. Along with other caves of the Slovak Karst, it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage list as a component of Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst site. - in: wikipedia

Dobšiná Ice Cave

This postcard was sent by Marco

Dobšiná Ice Cave (Slovak: Dobšinská ľadová jaskyňa) is an ice cave in Slovakia, near the mining town of Dobšiná in the Slovak Paradise. Since 2000 it has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list as a part of the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst site, because of its unique cave formations and its natural beauty.

With the entrance at 920 m a.s.l, it is one of the lowest ice caves in the world. - in: wikipedia

Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe

This site used to be shared by three countries but recently UNESCO extended it to a total of 18 countries! As if it wasn't already hard enough to get postcards of the previous three...

Kalkalpen National Park

This postcard was sent by Marco

Kalkalpen National Park (in English literally Limestone Alps National Park) is a national park within the Northern Limestone Alps mountain range, located in the state of Upper Austria, Austria. The park was established in 1997. The ancient beech forests within the national park were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, because of their undisturbed nature and testimony to the ecological history of Europe since the Last Glacial Period. - in : wikipedia

Sonian Forest

This postcard was sent by Javier

The Sonian Forest or Sonian Wood (Dutch: Zoniënwoud, French: Forêt de Soignes) is a 4,421-hectare (10,920-acre) forest at the southeast edge of Brussels, Belgium.

Today the forest consists mainly of European beeches and oaks. Several trees are more than 200 years old, dating from the Austrian period. - in: wikipedia

Velebit National Park

This postcard was sent by Antonella

The Northern Velebit National Park (Croatian: Nacionalni park Sjeverni Velebit) is a national park in Croatia that covers 109 km² of the northern section of the Velebit mountains, the largest mountain range in Croatia. Because of the abundant variety of this part of the Velebit range, the area was upgraded from a nature reserve in 1999, and opened as a national park in September the same year. - in: wikipedia

Paklenica National Park

This postcard was sent by Steffi

The Paklenica karst river canyon is a national park in Croatia. It is near Starigrad, northern Dalmatia, on the southern slopes of Velebit mountain, not far from Zadar. It contains two canyons, Mala (Small) and Velika (Big) Paklenica. Today there is no water flowing through Mala Paklenica.

The wealth of flora is reflected in the list of 1,000 plant species and subspecies recorded to date, 79 of them endemic. The great diversity, the presence of relict, endemic, rare, statutorily protected species make the Park a very valuable floristic area, not just in Croatia, but in Europe and the world as well.

The forest phenomenon is one of the main reasons why the South Velebit area was proclaimed a national park. Areas of oak and oriental hornbeam forests, beech forest, black pine forests, and fern forest, can all be found in the park. In 2017, the beech forests within the national park were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe because of their testimony to the ecological history of forest dynamics within Europe since the last Ice Age. - in: wikipedia

Jasmund National Park

This postcard was sent by Gerald

The Jasmund National Park (German: Nationalpark Jasmund) is a nature reserve on the Jasmund peninsula, in the northeast of Rügen island in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is famous for containing the largest chalk cliffs in Germany, the Königsstuhl (German = "king's chair").

Jasmund National Park

This postcard was sent by Shoni

These cliffs are up to 161 m (528 ft) above the Baltic Sea. The beech forests behind the cliffs are also part of the national park.

Wissower Klinken in Jasmund National Park

This postcard was sent by Michèle

The chalk cliffs face constant erosion. With every storm, parts of the cliffs fall, including rocks and fossils of sponges, oysters and sea urchins.

The most majestic part of the cliffs is the Königsstuhl (English: king's chair) which stands at 118 m (387 ft). One of the most scenic and best known of the chalk outcrops, the Wissower Klinken, collapsed into the Baltic Sea on February 24, 2005, in a landslide caused by spring-thaw weather conditions. - in: wikipedia

Grumsin Forest

This postcard was sent by Carola

Buchenwald Grumsin World Heritage Natural Site - the largest nature development area of the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve. What is special about the 670-hectare nature reserve between the A 11 motorway Berlin-Prenzlau and the city of Angermünde is not only that there are old beech trees, but also a typical landscape shaped by glaciers dating back to the last glacial period (about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago) with deep valleys and rugged heights, resembling mountains with numerous lakes and marshlands. - in: http://www.brandenburg-tourism.com/detail/id/17724/theme/a-z.html

Parco Nazionale delle Casentinesi

This postcard was sent by Sini

The Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona, Campigna is a national park in Italy. Created in 1993, it covers an area of about 368 square kilometres (142 sq mi), on the two sides of the Apennine watershed between Romagna and Tuscany, and is divided between the provinces of Forlì Cesena, Arezzo and Florence.

A large part of the park is woodland. In the park are areas the mountain vegetation, all types of woodland of the lower sub-mountain belt vegetation. In the forest dominated by hornbeams, turkey oaks and sessile oaks, chestnut woods (especially in the Camaldoli area and at Castagno d’Andrea on the Florentine side). In rocky places there are some of remaining rare cork oaks . - in: wikipedia

Połonina Wetlińska, Bieszczady Mountains

This postcard was sent by Sebastian

Bieszczady National Park (Polish: Bieszczadzki Park Narodowy) is the third-largest national park in Poland, located in Subcarpathian Voivodeship in the extreme southeast corner of the country. In 2021, the national park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The park was created in 1973. At the time it covered only 59.55 square kilometres (22.99 sq mi), but over the years it was enlarged four times. - in: wikipedia

Carpathians in Slovakia

This postcard was sent by Javier

The Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians include ten separate massifs located along the 185 km (115 mi) long axis from the Rakhiv mountains and Chornohora ridge in Ukraine over the Poloniny Ridge (Slovakia) to the Vihorlat Mountains in Slovakia. - in: wikipedia

Carpathians in Slovakia

This postcard was sent by Marco

Spain's Beech Forests

This postcard was sent by Javier

Beech forest of Castilla – La Mancha: the Tejera Negra beech forest is 150 kilometres from Madrid, and you will need to reserve a parking space in advance. There are two circular walking routes and a visitors’ centre.Beech forest of the Community of Madrid: the Montejo beech forest, about 100 kilometres from Madrid, includes part of the Sierra del Rincón Biosphere Reserve. Booking is essential, and you can do it up to three months in advance.Beech forests of Navarre: the Lizardoia beech forest is part of the popular Irati Forest, and close to its visitors’ centre (Casa de Irati, in Ochagavía), which organises guided tours and offers information on mountain bike routes. The Aztaparreta beech forest is part of the Roncal Valley and very close to the Larra-Belagua ski resort, in the heart of the Pyrenees.Beech forests of Castilla y León: the beech forests of Cuesta Fría and Canal de Asotín are in León’s share of the Picos de Europa National Park. The park hiking route “Through the villages of Sajambre” covers the beech forest area and is an easy walk. It is about 125 kilometres from the cities of Oviedo and León. - in: https://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/naturaleza/espacios-naturales/hayedos-patrimonio-mundial-espana.html#

Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine

This postcard was sent by Balyna

The Carpathian Mountains are a mountain range system forming an arc roughly 1,500 km (932 mi) long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe.

Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine 

This postcard was sent by Marco

They provide the habitat for the largest European populations of brown bears, wolves, chamois and lynxes. in: wikipedia

I'm still missing postcards from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia and Switzerland