February 19, 2015

1463 ROMANIA (Braşov) - The city of Braşov presented in the 1960s style


Euphemistically speaking, my knowledge regarding visual arts are very sketchy, but however I have, like any man, a certain visual memory, especially in terms of things I like. As a result, it wasn't hard to me to recognize in the illustration of this postcard the style used in the 1960s in many areas, from cartoons to advertising and book illustration. I don't know if it has a name, if it is a school or something like that, but I know that I always liked, maybe because of my technical formation. The principles which underpin them are very eclectic, because here we find the lack of perspective of the naive painting, the accuracy of the technical drawing, and the wish of representativeness and of functionality of the communication design.

Now located in the central part of Romania, the city of Brașov was in the Middle Age close to the border between Transylvania and Wallachia, on the mainly road which crossed the Carpathians and linked the two regions (and by extension, the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe). German colonists known as the Transylvanian Saxons played a decisive role in Brașov's development, named Corona (the latin word for Crown) at the beginning, în the 13th century, and then Kronstadt (the german for Crown City), after the fortress with the same name built by the Teutonic Knights. It was one of the seven fortified towns which gave the german name of Transylvania, Siebenbürgen (Seven Towns). It is worth mentioning that during the communist period, between 1950 and 1960, it was named Orașul Stalin (Stalin City).

Because Victor Moldoveanu (Every Day is a Mail Day), who sent me this postcard, challenged me, I will list the landmarks depicted in the postcard. In center is Biserica Neagră (Black Church), built by Transylvanian Saxons between 1383 and 1477, and named so because a great fire partially destroyed it and smoked its walls in 1689. In its right is the statue of Johannes Honterus, renaissance humanist and theologian, best known for his geographic and cartographic publishing activity, as well as for implementing the Lutheran reform in Transylvania. In right bottom is Casa Honterus (Honterus House), where the scholar was born in 1498. Above is Poarta Schei (Şchei Gate), built between 1827 and 1828 right next to Catherine's Gate in order to let through heightened traffic. In the left, further back, is the House Klosius-Hiemesch-Giesel, built in 1566, and rebuilt in 1720, 1800 and 1836. In the background you can see Tâmpa Mountain (960m), which is almost entirely surrounded by the city of Brasov,  and the cable car which ascends from Poiana Brașov to Postăvaru (1,799m).

About the stamp, which was issued in 2014 to celebrate Christmas, I wrote here.

References
Braşov - Wikipedia

Sender: VIctor Moldoveanu (Every Day is a Mail Day)
Sent from Brașov (Brașov / Romania), on 18.01.2015

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