Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt

 This is one of the sites recently inscribed and it's a recently received postcard

Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt

This postcard was sent by Gabi

The Darmstadt Artists’ Colony on Mathildenhöhe, the highest elevation above the city of Darmstadt in west-central Germany, was established in 1897 by Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse, as a centre for emerging reform movements in architecture, arts and crafts. The buildings of the colony were created by its artist members as experimental early modernist living and working environments. The colony was expanded during successive international exhibitions in 1901, 1904, 1908 and 1914. Today, it offers a testimony to early modern architecture, urban planning and landscape design, all of which were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and the Vienna Secession. The serial property consists of two component parts including 23 elements, such as the Wedding Tower (1908), the Exhibition Hall (1908), the Plane Tree Grove (1833, 1904-14), the Russian Chapel of St. Maria Magdalena (1897-99), the Lily Basin, the Gottfried Schwab Memorial (1905), the Pergola and Garden (1914), the “Swan Temple” Garden Pavilion (1914), the Ernst Ludwig Fountain, and the 13 houses and artists’ studios that were built for the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony and for the international exhibitions. A Three House Group, built for the 1904 exhibition is an additional component. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1614/

Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro, a landscape of Arts and Sciences

I've only been to the Madrid aeroport but one of these days maybe I'll just take a train and go see the city

Retiro Pond

The Buen Retiro Park (Spanish: Parque del Buen Retiro, literally "Park of the Pleasant Retreat"), Retiro Park or simply El Retiro is one of the largest parks of the city of Madrid, Spain. The park belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19th century, when it became a public park.

Close to the northern entrance of the park is the Estanque del Retiro ("Retiro Pond"), a large artificial pond. Next to it is the monument to King Alfonso XII, featuring a semicircular colonnade and an equestrian statue of the monarch on the top of a tall central core. - in: wikipedia

Palacio de Cristal

The Palacio de Cristal ("Glass Palace") is a conservatory located in Madrid's Buen Retiro Park. It was built in 1887 on the occasion of the Exposition of the Philippines, held in the same year, then a Spanish colonial possession. The architect was Ricardo Velázquez Bosco.

The Palacio de Cristal, in the shape of a Greek cross, is made almost entirely of glass set in an iron framework on a brick base, which is decorated with ceramics. Its cupola makes the structure over 22 metres high. - in: wikipedia

Prado Museum

The Prado Museum, officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to have one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection, and the single best collection of Spanish art. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture in 1819, it also contains important collections of other types of works. The Prado Museum is one of the most visited sites in the world, and it is considered one of the greatest art museums in the world. - in: wikipedia

La Maja Desnuda

This postcard was sent by Marco

The Naked Maja or The Nude Maja (Spanish: La maja desnuda) is an oil on canvas painting made around 1797–1800 by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya, and is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. It portrays a nude woman reclining on a bed of pillows, and was probably commissioned by Manuel de Godoy, to hang in his private collection in a separate cabinet reserved for nude paintings. Goya created a pendant of the same woman identically posed, but clothed, known today as La maja vestida (The Clothed Maja), also in the Prado, and usually hung next to La maja desnuda. The subject is identified as a maja or fashionable lower-class Madrid woman, based on her costume in La maja vestida.

The painting is renowned for the straightforward and unashamed gaze of the model towards the viewer. It has also been cited as among the earliest Western artwork to depict a nude woman's pubic hair without obvious negative connotations (such as in images of prostitutes). With this work Goya not only upset the ecclesiastical authorities, but also titillated the public and extended the artistic horizon of the day. It has been in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1901. - in: wikipedia

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

Amami-Oshima Island, Tokunoshima Island, Northern part of Okinawa Island, and Iriomote Island

This site is entirely uninhabited by humans

Amami Mangrove

This postcard was sent by Akiko

Amami Ōshima, also known as Amami, is the largest island in the Amami archipelago between Kyūshū and Okinawa.  Much of the island is within the borders of the Amami Guntō National

This national park features coral reefs, mangrove forests and tidal flats. A unique ecosystem has developed with endemic species such as the Amami rabbit, Ryukyu spiny rat, birds: Amami's jay, Ryukyu robin. There are also snakes such as Habu and reptiles such as: Ishikawa's frog, Japanese warty new and the Ryūkyū scops owl. - in: wikipedia

Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China

Quanzhou was the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road 

Kaiyuan Temple

This postcard was sent by Wey

Kaiyuan Temple is a Buddhist temple in West Street, Quanzhou, China, the largest in Fujian province with an area of 78,000 square metres (840,000 sq ft).

It was originally built in 685 or 686 during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The temple situated in the Mulberry garden of landlord Huang Shougong who was said to dream of a monk begging land from him for building a temple. He donated his garden and changed it into a temple with the name of "Lotus Temple". In 738 in the Tang dynasty, it was renamed "Kaiyuan Temple", which is still in use now.

Zhenguo Pagoda is a five-storey wooden pagoda first built in 865 in the Tang dynasty (618–907). But it was destroyed and rebuilt into stone pagoda in 1238 in the Song dynasty (960–1276). The 48.24-metre (158.3 ft) pagoda was octagonal with five storeys. Every storey is carved with sixteen reliefs with a total of 80 vivid human figures.

The Renshou Pagoda was built in 917 in the Later Liang dynasty (907–923). In 1114 in the Song dynasty, it was renamed "Renshou Pagoda" by the Emperor Huizong. It is 44.06-metre (144.6 ft) high and has the similar with the Zhenguo Pagoda. - in: wikipedia

Frontiers of the Roman Empire – The Lower German Limes

This first postcard was one of the first postcards that I received through Postcrossing and I had no idea that was on the UNESCO list until I saw a postcard of Colonia Ulpia Traina (the same thing that says in my postcard) in the SL Liew's UNESCO Postcard blog. After confirmation of Marcel, another postcrosser who already sent me a few postcards and knows the site, voilá, new UNESCO in my collection! The others arrived to my mailbox after the inscription.

Hafentempel, Xanten

This postcard was sent by Carsta

Xanten is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. 

Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open air museums in the world, built at the site of the Roman settlements Colonia Ulpia Traiana.

The Archäologischer Park Xanten is built on the site of the Roman town, and it is one of the most frequently visited parks in Germany. In 2012, the Archaeological Park was expanded to nearly the whole area of the Roman colonia after Bundesstraße 57 was moved away from the area. - in: wikipedia

Castra Herculis - Arnhem

This postcard was sent by Javier

The Lower Germanic Limes (Latin: limes ad Germaniam inferiorem, Dutch: Neder-Germaanse Limes, German: Niedergermanischer Limes) is the former frontier between the Roman province of Germania inferior and Germania Magna. The Lower Germanic Limes separated that part of the Rhineland left of the Rhine as well as the Netherlands, which was part of the Roman Empire, from the less tightly controlled regions east of the Rhine.

The Lower Germanic Limes was not a fortified limes with ramparts, ditches, palisades or walls and watchtowers, but a river border (Lat.: ripa), similarly to the limites on the Danube and Euphrates. The Rhine Line was guarded by a chain of castra for auxiliary troops. It was laid out partly by Augustus and his stepson and military commander, Drusus, who began to strengthen the natural boundary of the Rhine from the year 15 A. D. The decision not to conquer the regions east of the Rhine in 16 A. D. made the Rhine into a fixed frontier of the Roman Empire. For its protection, many estates (villae rusticae) and settlements (vici) were established. - in: wikipedia

Silver Helmet Strap found in Utrecht

This postcard was sent by Jeroen

Traiectum was a Roman fort, on the frontier of the Roman Empire in Germania Inferior. The remains of the fort are in the center of Utrecht, Netherlands, which takes its name from the fort.

In the Roman Empire Traiectum was one of the forts in the lower Limes Germanicus defensive lines. The Emperor Claudius defined the Rhine downstream from Bonn as the western part of the frontier. He ordered the legions further north to withdraw to this line, which was fortified in AD 47. The Rhine divides into several branches in the Netherlands. The army chose the branch on which modern Utrecht lies as the frontier. - in: wikipedia