Saturday 15 December 2018

Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long - Hanoi

The Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long is situated at the heart of Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam

Imperial Citadel of Thang Long
This postcard was sent by Australia by Helen

The Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long is located in the centre of Hanoi, Vietnam. It is also known as Hanoi Citadel.
The royal palaces and most of the structures in Thăng Long were in varying states of disrepair by the late 19th century with the upheaval of the French conquest of Hanoi. By the 20th century many of the remaining structures were torn down. Only in the 21st century are the ruin foundations of Thăng Long Imperial City systematically excavated. - in: wikipedia

Monday 10 December 2018

Archaeological Site of Mystras

The site of Mystras includes a fortress, a palace, churches and monasteries, like this one in the postcard. 

Pantanassa Monastery in Mystras
This postcard arrived from Germany sent by Svenja

Mystras, the ‘wonder of the Morea’, lies in the southeast of the Peloponnese. The town developed down the hillside from the fortress built in 1249 by the prince of Achaia, William II of Villehardouin, at the top of a 620 m high hill overlooking Sparta. The Franks surrendered the castle to the Byzantines in 1262, it was the centre of Byzantine power in southern Greece (...)
Mystras, as the centre of Byzantine power, quickly attracted inhabitants and institutions; the bishopric was transferred there from Sparta, with its cathedral, the Metropolis or church of Hagios Demetrios, built after 1264. Many monasteries were founded there, including those of the Brontochion and the monastery of Christos Zoodotes (Christ the Giver of Life). Under the Despots, Mystras reached its zenith with the building of churches, outstanding examples of Late Byzantine church architecture, such as Hagioi Theodoroi (1290-1295), the Hodegetria (c. 1310), the Hagia Sophia (1350-1365), the Peribleptos (3rd quarter of the 14th century), the Evangelistria (late 14th – early 15th century) and the Pantanassa (c. 1430).  - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/511/

Monday 3 December 2018

Canaima National Park

The Canaima National Park includes the world's highest waterfall 

Angel Falls
This postcard was sent from Denmark by Genek

Angel Falls is a waterfall in Venezuela. It is the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall, with a height of 979 metres (3,211 feet) and a plunge of 807 metres (2,368 feet). The waterfall drops over the edge of the Auyán-tepui mountain in the Canaima National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Canaima), a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Gran Sabana region of Bolívar State. The height figure 979 metres (3,211 feet) mostly consists of the main plunge but also includes about 400 metres (1,300 ft) of sloped cascade and rapids below the drop and a 30-metre (98 ft) high plunge downstream of the talus rapids. - in: wikipedia

Hanseatic Town of Visby

Visby is a former Viking site and is the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia. A place I'd love to visit

Visby City Wall
This postcard was sent by Merja

The Visby city wall (SwedishVisby ringmur, sometimes Visby stadsmur) is a medieval defensive wall surrounding the Swedish town of Visby on the island of Gotland. As the strongest, most extensive and best preserved medieval city wall in Scandinavia, the wall forms an important and integral part of Visby World Heritage Site.
Built in two stages during the 13th and 14th century, approximately 3.44 km (2.14 mi) of its original 3.6 km (2.2 mi) still stands. Of the 29 large and 22 smaller towers, 27 large and 9 small remain. A number of houses that predate the wall were incorporated within it during one of the two phases of construction. During the 18th century, fortifications were added to the wall in several places and some of the towers rebuilt to accommodate cannons. - in: wikipedia

Visby Cathedral
This postcard was sent by Doris

Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor. - in: https://www.spottinghistory.com/view/970/visby-cathedral/

Friday 23 November 2018

Skogskyrkogården

The natural landscape was used in this cemetery to create an environment of tranquil beauty. It was an influence on cemetery design throughout the world.

Skogskyrkogården

Skogskyrkogården (Swedish for "The Woodland Cemetery") is a cemetery located in the Enskededalen district south of central StockholmSweden. Its design, by Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz, reflects the development of architecture from Nordic Classicism to mature functionalism.

Resurrection sculpture by John Lundqvist
This postcard was sent by Doris

The architects designed the entire complex, from the landscape to the smallest lamp, though there are also integrated sculptures by Carl Milles. Lewerentz's contribution mainly concerned the landscape but also the main entrance and the classical "Uppståndelsekapellet" or Resurrection Chapel, which was built in 1925. Asplund devoted himself mainly to the buildings, and the small Woodland Crematorium — built in 1935–40 — has been regarded as a central work in his oeuvre as well as the Nordic Classicism style of that period. The small chapel, set on a Tuscan peristyle and featuring a gold statue on the roof by Carl Milles, was in fact derived from a "primitive hut" that Asplund had happened to see in a garden at Liselund. The crematorium, with its Faith, Hope, and Holy Cross Chapels, was Asplund's final work of architecture, designed in a rational modernist style typical for his later work, opened shortly before his death in 1940. - in: wikipedia

Thursday 22 November 2018

Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th and 17th Centuries: Stato da Terra – Western Stato da Mar

My wife and I were recently in Bergamo with a couple of friends that don't collect postcards. It's not easy for non collectors to understand the sacrifices of collectors, but it was fun and we hope to repeat the experience in new destinations and maybe they become collectors


Porta S. Giacomo

Bergamo wouldn’t be the same without its impressive Venetian Walls. This spectacular circuit is over six km long.
They were built starting from 1561 by the Republic of Venice in order to face enemies attacks.
The Walls consist of 14 bastions, 2 platforms, 100 embrasures for cannons, 2 armouries, four gates, not to mention the underground structures featuring sallies, passages and tunnels. - in: http://www.visitbergamo.net/en/object-details/2979-venetian-walls-and-unesco/

Colleoni Chapel and Santa Maria Maggiore
The Cappella Colleoni (Italian: "Colleoni Chapel") is a church and mausoleum in Bergamo in northern Italy.
Dedicated to the saints BartholomewMark and John the Baptist, it was built between 1472 and 1476 as the personal shrine for the condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni, a member of one of the most outstanding families of the city, and his beloved daughter Medea. The site chosen was that of the sacristy of the nearby church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which was demolished by Colleoni's soldiers.

The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is a major church in the upper town of BergamoNorthern Italy.
The church was founded in 1137 on the site of another church from the 8th century dedicated to St Mary, which had been in turn erected over a Roman temple of the Clemence. The high altar was consecrated in 1185 and in 1187 the presbytery and the transept wings were completed. Due to financial troubles, the works dragged for the whole 13th–14th centuries. The bell tower was built from 1436 (being completed around the end of the century), while in 1481–1491 a new sacristy added after the old one had been destroyed by Bartolomeo Colleoni to erect his personal mausoleum, the Colleoni Chapel.
In 1521, Pietro Isabello finished the south-western portal, also known as Porta della Fontana. The edifice was restored and modified in the 17th century. - in: wikipedia

Peschiera del Garda
This postcard was sent by Kerstin

Peschiera del Garda is a town and comune in the province of Verona, in VenetoItaly. When Lombardy-Venetia was under Austrian rule, Peschiera was the northwest anchor of the four fortified towns constituting the Quadrilatero. The fortress is on an island in the river Mincio at its outlet from Lake Garda.
The fortress at Peschiera played a prominent part in most military campaigns conducted in northern Italy after 1400, especially during the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. - in: wikipedia

Palmanova
This postcard was sent by Cristina

Palmanova is a town and comune in Northeast Italy. The town is an example of star fort of the late Renaissance, built up by the Venetian Republic in 1593.
Palmanova was built following the ideals of a utopia. It is a concentric city with the form of a star, with three nine-sided ring roads intersecting in the main military radiating streets. It was built at the end of the 16th century by the Venetian Republic which was, at the time, a major center of trade. It is actually considered to be a fort, or citadel, because the military architect Giulio Savorgnan designed it to be a Venetian military station on the eastern frontier as protection from the Ottoman Empire. - in: wikipedia


Roman Forum of Zadar and St. Donatus Church
This postcard was sent by Steffi

Zadar is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region.


Zadar
This postcard was sent by Antonella

In 1409, king Ladislaus I sold Zadar to the Venetians. The 16th and 17th centuries were noted in Zadar for Ottoman attacks. Ottomans captured the continental part of Zadar at the beginning of the 16th century and the city itself was all the time in the range of Turkish artillery. Due to that threat, the construction of a new system of castles and walls began. These defense systems changed the way the city looked. To make place for the pentagon castles many houses and churches were taken down, along with an entire suburb: Varoš of St. Martin. After the 40-year-long construction Zadar became the biggest fortified city in Dalmatia, empowered by a system of castles, bastions and canals filled with seawater. - in: wikipedia


St. Nicholas' Fortress
This postcard was sent by Agata

St. Nicholas' Fortress (CroatianTvrđava Sv. Nikole) is a fortress located in the town of Šibenik, one of the oldest native Croatian towns on the eastern shores of the Adriatic, in central DalmatiaCroatia.
St. Nicholas' Fortress was built on the left side at the entrance to St. Anthony Channel(kanal sv. Ante), on the island called Ljuljevac.
The fortress is one of the most valuable and best preserved examples of defense architecture in Dalmatia. It is made of brick because that material was considered to be most resistant to cannonballs, while the foundations are made of stone. - in: wikipedia


Kotor
This postcard was sent by Christina


The fortifications of Kotor are an integrated historical fortification system that protected the medieval town of Kotor containing ramparts, towers, citadels, gates, bastions, forts, cisterns, a castle, and ancillary buildings and structures. They incorporate military architecture of Illyria, Byzantium, Venice, and Austria
The medieval part of the town of Kotor is located on a triangular piece of land that is bordered by the most inner extension of the Bay of Kotor at its south-western side, the river Skurda toward the North, and the mountain of St. John (San Giovanni) towards the East. City walls protect the city on its northern and south-western side, towards the waters. - in: wikipedia


The six components  (in red what I have):


  • Fortified city of Bergamo
  • Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
  • City Fortress of Palmanova
  • Defensive System of Zadar
  • Fort of St. Nikola, Šibenik-Knin County
  • Fortified city of Kotor

Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and Church

This site symbolizes the transition from paganism to Christianity in Denmark 

Jelling Church
This postcard was sent by Dorthe

Jelling Church dates back to around 1100 and is the fourth church on the site. The first was a wooden church erected in the eighth century by Harald Bluetooth as a mausoleum to his father, Gorm the Old, whose tomb was discovered under the church in 1978.
The first church was razed by fire and was later replaced by a church in Romanesque style constructed using travertine stone.
Jelling is home to some of Europe’s finest Viking-Age monuments: Denmark’s two largest grave mounds and two rune stones erected in the eighth century by the kings Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth. - in: http://www.visitvejle.com/ln-int/jelling-church-gdk607969

Jelling Stones
This postcard was sent from Germany by Doris

The Jelling stones (DanishJellingstenene) are massive carved runestones from the 10th century, found at the town of Jelling in Denmark. The older of the two Jelling stones was raised by King Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra. The larger of the two stones was raised by King Gorm's son, Harald Bluetooth, in memory of his parents, celebrating his conquest of Denmark and Norway, and his conversion of the Danes to Christianity. The runic inscriptions on these stones are considered the best known in Denmark.
The stones are strongly identified with the creation of Denmark as a nation state. Both inscriptions mention the name "Danmark" (in the form of accusative "tanmaurk" ([danmɒrk]) on the large stone, and genitive "tanmarkar" (pronounced [danmarkaɽ]) on the small stone). - in: wikipedia

Sunday 4 November 2018

The par force hunting landscape in North Zealand

This site is a collection of hunting grounds and three forests, all located in the North Zealand peninsula to the north of Copenhagen.

Hermitage Hunting Lodge
This postcard was sent from Germany by Doris

The Hermitage Hunting Lodge (DanishEremitageslottet or Eremitagen) is located in Dyrehaven north of CopenhagenDenmark. The hunting lodge was built by architect Lauritz de Thurah in Baroque style from 1734 to 1736 for Christian VI of Denmark in order to host royal banquets during royal hunts in Dyrehaven.
The area surrounding the building was fenced as Jægersborg Dyrehave on the initiative of Frederick III, beginning in 1699. The project was not completed in his lifetime, and Christian V, who was influenced by the time he had spent at the court of Louis XIV in France, changed the plans for the fencing to include a much larger area in order to facilitate a new style of driven hunt. - in: wikipedia

Friday 2 November 2018

Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai

This site  is a collection of 19th century Victorian Neo Gothic public buildings and 20th century Art Deco buildings in the area of Mumbai

Rajabai Clock Tower
This postcard was sent by K R Bhat

The Rajabai Clock Tower is a clock tower in South Mumbai India. It is located in the confines of the Fort campus of the University of Mumbai. It stands at a height of 85 m (280 ft or 25 storeys).
The Rajabai Clock Tower was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, an English architect.[1] He modeled it on Big Ben in London.The foundation stone was laid on 1 March 1869 and construction was completed in November 1878.
The tower was built in a fusion of Venetian and Gothic styles. - in: wikipedia


Thursday 1 November 2018

Engelsberg Ironworks

This site is the best-preserved and most complete example of this type of Swedish ironworks

Forge at Engelsberg Ironworks
This postcard was sent by Doris

Engelsberg Ironworks (SwedishEngelsbergs bruk) is an ironworks in Ängelsberg, a village in Fagersta Municipality in VästmanlandSweden. It was built in 1681 by Per Larsson Gyllenhöök (1645-1706) and developed into one of the world's most modern ironworks in the period 1700-1800.
The history of iron production in the region dates back to at least 13th century. The local peasants both mined the ore and produced the iron using primitive furnaces.
In the end of the 16th century more modern production methods were introduced in Engelsberg and production volumes increased substantially in the following decades. - in: wikipedia

Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining

This site encompasses a series 23 historic parts that played an important part in the industrialization of Japan in the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods

Former Kagoshima Spinning Engineers Residence
This postcard was sent by Phoebe

The Kyu-Kagoshima Bosekisho Gishikan (Old Kagoshima Spinning Engineers House) in Kagoshima is, like its many counterparts in other Japanese towns such as the foreigners' houses in Kobe, simply known as Ijinkan, Foreigners Residence.
The Ijinkan was constructed at the end of the Edo Period in 1866 to house seven British engineers.
Following the military engagement between the Royal Navy and the Satsuma shore batteries in 1863, known rather grandiosely as the Anglo Satsuma War, Satsuma (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture) and Britain enjoyed a close relationship. As part of their drive to modernize their domain, a group of students were sent to study in England, even though this was still illegal according to shogunate law. - in: http://www.japanvisitor.com/japan-museums-art-galleries/foreigners-mansion-ijinkan-kagoshima

Hashima Island
This postcard was sent by Akiko

Hashima Island, commonly called Gunkanjima (meaning Battleship Island), is an abandoned island lying about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the city of Nagasaki, in southern Japan. It is one of 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture. The island's most notable features are its abandoned concrete buildings, undisturbed except by nature, and the surrounding sea wall. While the island is a symbol of the rapid industrialization of Japan, it is also a reminder of its history as a site of forced labor prior to and during the Second World War.
The 6.3-hectare (16-acre) island was known for its undersea coal mines, established in 1887, which operated during the industrialization of Japan. The island reached a peak population of 5,259 in 1959. In 1974, with the coal reserves nearing depletion, the mine was closed and all of the residents departed soon after, leaving the island effectively abandoned for the following three decades. - in: wikipedia