Sítio Roberto Burle Marx

Roberto Burle Marx was a Brazilian landscape architect  whose designs of parks and gardens made him world-famous.

Sítio Roberto Burle Marx

This postcard was sent by Mey

Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, located in the west zone of the City of Rio de Janeiro, comprises extensive landscape gardens and buildings set between mangroves and native Atlantic forest in a mountainous area of the district of Barra de Guaratiba. The property was a ‘landscape laboratory’ for landscape architect and artist Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994). Over a period of more than forty years, he experimented with fusing artistic Modernist ideas and native tropical plants to create garden designs as living works of art. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1620/

Okavango Delta

The Okavango Delta is both a permanent and seasonal home to a wide variety of wildlife which is now a popular tourist attraction. All of the big five game animals—the lion, leopard, African buffalo, African bush elephant and rhinoceros (both black rhinoceros and white rhinoceros)—are present.

Lion in the Okavango Delta

This postcard was sent from the USA by Nancy

This delta in north-west Botswana comprises permanent marshlands and seasonally flooded plains. It is one of the very few major interior delta systems that do not flow into a sea or ocean, with a wetland system that is almost intact. One of the unique characteristics of the site is that the annual flooding from the River Okavango occurs during the dry season, with the result that the native plants and animals have synchronized their biological cycles with these seasonal rains and floods. It is an exceptional example of the interaction between climatic, hydrological and biological processes. The Okavango Delta is home to some of the world’s most endangered species of large mammal, such as the cheetah, white rhinoceros, black rhinoceros, African wild dog and lion. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1432/

The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes

So far I only have postcards of three of the many outstanding castles along the Loire Valley. I hope to get more and maybe one day I'll visit some of them

Château de Cheverny

This postcard was sent by Nadia

The castle of Cheverny, is located between Blois and Chambord and a few kilometres below Cheverny village, and is one of the best preserved castles in all of France - and well worth visiting to admire the highly original works of antique kept there and for its architecture, in both classical and Renaissance styles.

The castle of Cheverny, begun around 1500, was concluded in a few years between 1604 and about 1634 by the Hurault Family and it welcomes visitors with a road 6 kilometres long, wide and lush gardens and a stream. It has a rectangular base, at the corners of which stand four pavilions, and, apparently, the overall design of the building was the work of Jacques Bougier (the architect of Blois) and Jean Mosnier (1600-1656), who respectively headed the construction and decoration of the castle. - in: http://www.loirevalleyfrance.net/castles/chateau-cheverny.html

Château de Chenonceau

This postcard was sent by Marion

The Château de Chenonceau is a French château spanning the River Cher, near the small village of Chenonceaux in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France. It is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire valley.

Château de Chenonceau

This postcard was sent by Pasquale

The estate of Chenonceau is first mentioned in writing in the 11th century. The current château was built in 1514–1522 on the foundations of an old mill and was later extended to span the river. The bridge over the river was built (1556-1559) to designs by the French Renaissance architect Philibert de l'Orme, and the gallery on the bridge (1570–1576) to designs by Jean Bullant. - in: wikipedia

Château de Chambord

This postcard was sent from The Netherlands by Gerry

The Château de Chambord at Chambord, Loir-et-Cher, France, is one of the most recognisable châteaux in the world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture which blends traditional French medieval forms with classical Renaissance structures. The building, which was never completed, was constructed by King Francis I of France.

Chambord is the largest château in the Loire Valley; it was built to serve as a hunting lodge for Francis I, who maintained his royal residences at the châteaux of Blois and Amboise.

Chambord was altered considerably during the twenty-eight years of its construction (1519–1547), during which it was overseen on-site by Pierre Nepveu. With the château nearing completion, Francis showed off his enormous symbol of wealth and power by hosting his old archrival, Emperor Charles V, at Chambord. - in: wikipedia

The works of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana – Human Centred Urban Design

I already had some postcards from Ljubljana but none of them showed the works of Jože Plečnik. Now I finally have one.

Triple Bridge

This postcard was sent from Croatia by Anja

The Triple Bridge is a group of three bridges across the Ljubljanica River. It connects Ljubljana's historical medieval town on one bank and the modern city of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, on the other.

There is mention of a wooden bridge in this location from 1280. It was at first called the Old Bridge (Stari most) and later the Lower Bridge (Spodnji most), in contrast to the Upper Bridge that was built in the location of the nowadays Cobblers' Bridge in the same century.

In 1842, the Lower Bridge was replaced by a new bridge designed by Giovanni Picco, an Italian architect from Villach, and named Franz's Bridge, (Frančev most) in honor of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria. (...) The essentials of the bridge have been preserved until today, which is evidenced by the inscribed dedication to the archduke above its central pier, reading in Latin "ARCHIDVCI. FRANCISCO. CAROLO. MDCCCXLII. CIVITAS.", which means "To Archduke Franz Karl in 1842 by the Town."

In order to prevent the 1842 stone arch bridge from being a bottleneck, the architect Jože Plečnik designed in 1929 the extension of the bridge with two footbridges at a slight angle on each side of it. In collaboration with his student Ciril Tavčar, who drew the plans, he published the proposal in the same year in the journal Ljubljanski zvon. Construction started in 1931 and continued until spring 1932. The bridge was opened for traffic in April 1932. - in: wikipedia

Blaenavon Industrial Landscape

Blaenavon is evidence of the pre-eminence of South Wales as the world's major producer of iron and coal in the 19th century.

Blaenavon

This postcard was sent by Stella

Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, in and around Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales, was inscribed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The Blaenavon Ironworks, now a museum, was a major centre of iron production using locally mined or quarried iron ore, coal and limestone. Raw materials and products were transported via horse-drawn tramroads, canals and steam railways. 

The Industrial Revolution in Britain was based on iron and coal, the main products of the South Wales valleys. Production of pig iron in the region grew from 39,600 tons in 1796 to 666,000 tons in 1852, and the iron was used to build railways, factories and engines around the world. Blaenavon was an important centre of coal mining and iron making in South Wales during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Blaenavon Ironworks was opened around 1789 and caused development of the mines, quarries and housing. - in: wikipedia

The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales

The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales illustrates the transformation that industrial slate quarrying and mining brought about in the traditional rural environment of the mountains and valleys of the Snowdon massif.

Dinorwig

This postcard was sent by Adam

Dinorwig sometimes spelled Dinorwic, is a village located high above Llyn Padarn, near Llanberis, in Wales.

The village has a long history of slate quarrying. The Romans used local slate for the construction of Segontium, and slates from the valley were used in the construction of Caernarfon Castle. The main local quarry was the Dinorwic Quarry, which was worked from the late 1770s until 1969. After the First World War, cheaper alternative roofing materials became available and production at the quarry declined. - in: wikipedia