San Antonio Missions

This World Heritage site consists of five mission sites, a historic ranch, and related properties.

San Antonio Missions

This postcard was sent by Marco

The site encompasses a group of five frontier mission complexes situated along a stretch of the San Antonio River basin in southern Texas, as well as a ranch located 37 kilometres to the south. It includes architectural and archaeological structures, farmlands, residencies, churches and granaries, as well as water distribution systems. The complexes were built by Franciscan missionaries in the 18th century and illustrate the Spanish Crown’s efforts to colonize, evangelize and defend the northern frontier of New Spain. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1466/

Mission Espada

Mission San Francisco de la Espada (also Mission Espada) is a Roman Rite Catholic mission established in 1690 by Spain and relocated in 1731 to present-day San Antonio, Texas, in what was then known as northern New Spain. The mission was built in order to convert local Native Americans to Christianity and solidify Spanish territorial claims in the New World against encroachment from France. - in: wikipedia

Mission San Juan

Mission San Juan Capistrano (originally christened in 1716 as La Misión San José de los Nazonis and located in East Texas) was founded in 1731 by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order, on the eastern banks of the San Antonio River in present-day San Antonio, Texas. The new settlement (part of a chain of Spanish missions) was named for a 15th-century theologian and warrior priest who resided in the Abruzzo region of Italy. 

Mission San Juan

This postcard was sent by Elizabeth

The mission San Juan was named after Saint John of Capestrano. - in: wikipedia

Mission San José

This postcard was sent by Susan

 Founded in 1720, the mission was named for Saint Joseph and the Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo, the governor of the Province of Coahuila and Texas at the time. It was built on the banks of the San Antonio river several miles to the south of the earlier mission, San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo).

Mission San José

San José, as it became known, was the largest of the missions in the area. At its height, the community contained about 350 Indian neophytes, sustained by extensive fields and herds of livestock. Viewed as the model among the Texas missions, San José gained a reputation as a major social and cultural center. It became known as the "Queen of the Missions." Its imposing complex of stone walls, bastions, granary, and magnificent church was completed by 1782. - in: https://www.nps.gov/saan/learn/historyculture/sanjosehistory1.htm

Mission Concepcion

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Franciscan friars established Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña (also Mission Concepcion) in 1716 as Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais in East Texas.

Mission Concepcion

Mission Concepcion consists of a sanctuary, nave, convento, and granary. When originally built, brightly painted frescos decorated both the exterior and interior of the building. Traces of the frescoes still exist on the weathered facade of the building. Experts restored some of the artwork on the interior ceilings and walls of the convento in 1988. The Archdiocese of San Antonio completed another restoration of the mission's interior in 2010 which exposed more frescoes in the sanctuary and nave. - in: wikipedia

Mission Valero

This postcard was sent by Susan

The Alamo Mission in San Antonio, commonly called the Alamo and originally known as Misión San Antonio de Valero, is part of the San Antonio Missions World Heritage Site in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Founded in the 18th century as a Roman Catholic mission and fortress compound, it was the site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.

Mission Valero

 The Alamo is now a museum in the Alamo Plaza Historic District.

Mission Valero

This postcard was sent by Georgia

The compound was one of the early Spanish missions in Texas, built for the education of area Native Americans after their conversion to Christianity. In 1793, the mission was secularized and then abandoned. Ten years later, it became a fortress housing a military unit, the Second Flying Company of San Carlos de Parras, who likely gave the mission the name Alamo. During the Texas Revolution, Mexican General Martin Perfecto de Cos surrendered the fort to the Texian Army in December 1835, following the Siege of Béxar. A relatively small number of Texian soldiers then occupied the compound for several months. They were wiped out at the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. When the Mexican army retreated from Texas several months later, they tore down many of the Alamo walls and burned some of the buildings. - in: wikipedia

The missions (in red what I already have):

• Mission Espada
• Mission San Juan
• Mission San José
• Mission Concepcion
• Mission Valero
• Rancho de las Cabras

Nice, Winter Resort Town of the Riviera

Nice must be indeed a nice place for me to spend the winter

Nice

This postcard was sent by Serge

Nice is the seventh most populous urban area in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes department. 

Located in the French Riviera, on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Alps, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast and the second-largest city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region after Marseille.

The natural environment of the Nice area and its mild Mediterranean climate came to the attention of the English upper classes in the second half of the 18th century, when an increasing number of aristocratic families took to spending their winters there.

Nice's appeal extended to the Russian upper classes, Prince Nicholas Alexandrovich, heir apparent to Imperial Russia died in Nice and was a patron of the Russian Orthodox Cemetery, Nice where Princess Catherine Dolgorukova, morganatic wife of the Tsar Alexander II of Russia, is buried. - in: wikipedia

Russian Cathedral, Nice

This postcard was sent by Eliette

The St Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral, Nice is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral located in the French city of Nice. Property of the Russian Federation, it is recognized as a national monument of France, and it currently belongs to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. It is the second largest Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Western Europe after Helsinki's Uspenski Cathedral.

The cathedral was opened in 1912, with the assistance of Russia's Tsar Nicholas II. - in: wikipedia

Venice and its Lagoon

I'm pretty sure that Venice is very beautiful and romantic but I have this impression that everybody goes to Venice and that the city is always crowded with tourists and that makes me don't want to go there... I prefer places more unexplored , but who knows someday

Basilica della Salute

This postcard was sent by Edoardo

Santa Maria della Salute (English: Saint Mary of Health), commonly known simply as the Salute, is a Roman Catholic church andminor basilica located at Punta della Dogana in the Dorsoduro sestiere of the city of Venice, Italy.

In 1630, Venice experienced an unusually devastating outbreak of the plague. As a votive offering for the city's deliverance from the pestilence, the Republic of Venice vowed to build and dedicate a church to Our Lady of Health (or of Deliverance, Italian: Salute). The church was designed in the then fashionable baroque style by Baldassare Longhena, who studied under the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi. Construction began in 1631. Most of the objects of art housed in the church bear references to the Black Death. - in: wikipedia

Basilica di San Marco

This postcard was sent by Edoardo

The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (officially known in Italian as the Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco and commonly known as Saint Mark's Basilica) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, northern Italy. It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture. It lies at the eastern end of the Piazza San Marco, adjacent and connected to the Doge's Palace. Originally it was the chapel of the Doge, and has only been the city's cathedral since 1807, when it became the seat of the Patriarch of Venice, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, formerly at San Pietro di Castello. - in: wikipedia

Ponte di Rialto

This postcard arrived from Portugal sent by Zé "Pombal"

The Rialto Bridge (Italian: Ponte di Rialto) is one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It is the oldest bridge across the canal, and was the dividing line for the districts of San Marco and San Polo. - in: wikipedia

Gondolas and San Giorgio Maggiore Island

This postcard was sent by Edoardo

San Giorgio Maggiore is one of the islands of Venice, northern Italy, lying east of the Giudecca and south of the main island group.

San Giorgio Maggiore was probably occupied in the Roman period; after the foundation of Venice it was called Insula Memmia after the Memmo family who owned it. By 829 it had a church consecrated to St George; thus it was designated as San Giorgio Maggioreto be distinguished from San Giorgio in Alga. - in: wikipedia

Doge's Palace

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A masterpiece of Gothic architecture, the Doge’s Palace is an impressive structure composed of layers of building elements and ornamentation, from its 14th and 15th century original foundations to the significant Renaissance and opulent Mannerist adjunctions. The structure is made up of three large blocks, incorporating previous constructions. The wing towards the St. Mark’s Basin is the oldest, rebuilt from 1340 onwards. The wing towards St. Mark’s Square was built in its present form from 1424 onwards. The canal-side wing, housing the Doge’s apartments and many government offices, dates from the Renaissance and was built between 1483 and 1565. - in: https://palazzoducale.visitmuve.it/en/the-museum/doges-palace/the-palace/

Burano

This postcard was sent by Martinha

Burano is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy, near Torcello at the northern end of the lagoon, known for its lace work and brightly coloured homes. The primary economy is tourism.

Burano is also known for its small, brightly painted houses, which are popular with artists. The colours of the houses follow a specific system, originating from the golden age of its development. If someone wishes to paint their home, one must send a request to the government, who will respond by making notice of the certain colours permitted for that lot. The island is considered among the ten most colorful places in the world. - in: wikipedia

Teide National Park

Teide is the main symbol of Tenerife and it's where this national park is centered

Teide

This postcard was sent by Patricia

Teide National Park is a national park located in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain).

The most dominant plant species in the Teide National Park are the Teide white broom (Spartocytisus supranubius), which has a white and pink flower; the Canary Island wallflower (Erysimum scoparium), which has white and violet flowers; and the Teide bugloss (Echium wildpretii), whose red flowers form a pyramid up to 3m in height.

The Teide National Park contains a huge range of invertebrate fauna, over 40% of which are endemic species, with 70 species only being found in the national park. The invertebrate fauna include spiders, beetles, dipterans, hemipterans, and hymenopterae.

In contrast, Teide national park has only a limited variety of vertebrate fauna. Ten species of bird nest in the park.

Three endemic reptile species are also found in the park – the Canary Island lizard (Gallotia galloti galloti), the Canary Island wall gecko (Tarentola delalandii), and the Canary Island skink (Chalcides viridanus viridanus).

The only mammals native to the park are bats, the most common species of which is Leisler's bat (Nyctalus leisleri). - in: wikipedia

Teide

This postcard was sent by Adolf

Mount Teide is a volcano on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. Its 3,718-metre (12,198 ft) summit is the highest point in Spain and the highest point above sea level in the islands of the Atlantic. It remains active: its most recent eruption occurred in 1909 from the El Chinyero vent on the northwestern Santiago rift. Teide, Pico Viejo and Montaña Blanca form the Central Volcanic Complex of Tenerife.

Teide

My friend Paulo brough me this postcard from Tenerife

Teide is the most visited natural wonder of Spain, the most visited national park in Spain and Europe and – by 2015 – the eighth most visited in the world. - in: wikipedia