2858 GERMANY (Bavaria) - Münsterschwarzach Abbey

Münsterschwarzach Abbey is a Benedictine monastery located near Kitzingen, at the confluence of the rivers Schwarzach and Main in Bavaria. Dedicated to the Holy Saviour, the Virgin Mary and Saint Felicity, it was founded before 788 as a nunnery. It was a private foundation of the Carolingian ruling house: the abbesses were daughters of the imperial family, for example Theodrada (d. 853), a daughter of Charlemagne. After the death of the last Carolingian abbess, Bertha, in 877, the nuns left the abbey and it was taken over by Benedictines from Megingaudshausen.

1269, 2750 FRANCE (Île-de-France) - Basilica of Sacré-Cœur in Paris

1269 The Basilica of Sacré-Cœur

Posted on 05.10.2014, 13.09.2016
Located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the highest point in  Paris, The Basilica of Sacré-Cœur is a double monument, political and cultural, both a national penance for the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War and the socialist Paris Commune of 1871, and an embodiment of conservative moral order, publicly dedicated to the  Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was an increasingly popular vision of a loving and sympathetic Christ. Architect Paul Abadie designed the basilica after winning a competition over 77 other architects, and the foundation stone was finally laid 16 June 1875.

2750 The Basilica of Sacré-Cœur and the Place du Tertre

The overall style of the structure shows a free interpretation of Romano-Byzantine features, an unusual architectural vocabulary at the time. Many design elements of the basilica symbolise nationalist themes: the portico, with its three arches, is adorned by two equestrian statues of French national saints Joan of Arc (1927) and King Saint Louis IX, both executed in bronze by Hippolyte Lefebvre; and the nineteen-ton Savoyarde bell (one of the world's heaviest), cast in 1895 in Annecy, alludes to the annexation of Savoy in 1860.

2413, 2700 NETHERLANDS (Netherlands / South Holland) - A hollow post mill in Kaag

2413 A hollow post mill in Kaag

Posted on 27.03.2016, 21.08.2016
The post mill is probably the earliest type of European windmill, and it was invented because in Europe the wind has no prevailing direction. The defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. The design and usage of these windmills peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries and then declined after the introduction of high-speed steam-driven milling machinery.

2700 A hollow post mill

Among the many variants of post mills are the hollow post mills. In these mills the main post is bored to take a driveshaft, similar to an Upright Shaft in a smock or tower mill. This enables the mill to drive machinery in the base or roundhouse. In the Netherlands, they are called wipmolen and were mostly used for drainage (poldermolen). This type of windmill was used mainly in the polder areas of central and western Netherlands.

1959 RUSSIA (Krasnodar Krai) - Sochi

Located on the Black Sea coast, near the Caucasus Mountains, not far from the border with Georgia / Abkhazia, Greater Sochi area sprawls for 145 kilometers and is Federation's largest resort city, and also one of the very few places in Russia with a subtropical climate. Anyway, Russia conquered this coastline only in 1829, and since 1866, after the Circassian Genocide, the area was actively colonized by Russians, Armenians, Ukrainians, and other people from inner Russia. Sochi was established as a fashionable resort area under Stalin, and following the loss of the popular resorts of the Crimean peninsula in favor of Ukraine, it emerged as the unofficial summer capital of the country.

1698 ROMANIA (Hunedoara) - Magna Curia in Deva

Magna Curia (Latin for The Great Court) or The Bethlen Castle is a palace located in Deva (the capital of Hunedoara County), toward the southeast, near the city park. In 1582, the captain Ferenc Geszty, in charge with the Deva Castle's garrison, erected a house at the foot of the citadel hill. In the following decades, the house became the residence of  Sigismund Báthory, general Giorgio Basta, Stephen Bocskay, and Gabriel Báthory. The current look of the building is due to Gabriel Bethlen, commander of the princely army, who received the domain from Gabriel Báthory in 1608, as a reward for services made during his election.

0199 UKRAINE (City of Kiev) - Paton Bridge

I have at least four reasons to consider this postcard a special one. The first is that the sender (many thanks, Tamila) is born in the same day as me, so she is the sixth added to my special topic, Received from those born on August 8. The second is that it was sent on February 29, a date which exist only an every four years. The third is that it shows a bridge from Kiev, from an area that will be radically transformed in the next 15 years according to the plans made by five Romanian architects. The fourth is that the stamp depicting Taras Shevchenko is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

0219 NETHERLANDS (Netherlands / South Holland) - Rijksscholen Gemeenschap

Behold a new postcard for the topic Received from those born on August 8, beautiful and nostalgic, coming from a very friendly lady from the Netherlands. Dankzij veel, Ado. Thus, this "club" has now seven members (from seven different countries). With me, eight.

As Ado says, in the image is a Rijksscholen Gemeenscha (Kingdom Community Schools), a secondary school, which she graduated, in South of Rotterdam. As far as I understand, this is (or was) a network of secondary schools (about which I couldn't learn more) who benefit from such buildings, built after the plans of the same architect. Today the building in the image no longer serves as school, but was turned into a residential complex.

0143 GERMANY (Hesse) - The cathedral and the castle from Limburg

The fifth who joined "those born on August 8" (ie in the same day as me) is called Benedikt Binder (danken Ihnen, Benedikt) and is the first male (even if is only 12 years old) from this category, what calmed me a little. Not that I wouldn't like the ladies company, God forbid, but I strongly believe in balance and I was, though, too isolated.

0115 AUSTRIA (Styria) - A friendly alien

Kunsthaus Graz, or Graz Art Museum, was completed in 2003 (the year when Graz held the prestigious title of a Cultural Capital of Europe), and has since become an architectural landmark for the city, even if its innovative form differs radically from the surrounding baroque roof landscape. Its creators, the london-based architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, prominent figures of the blob architecture movement, have called the building "Friendly Alien", a very appropriate name for this organic-looking structure, with amoeba or blister-shaped, which almost seems alive when the 930 fluorescent rings, embedded in the 900 m2 outer acrylic glass skin, start to change their illumination level following the schemes coordinated by a central computer. Spectacular, no doubt.

0110 LUXEMBOURG - A short tour of Grand Duchy

According to the census of 2011, Luxembourg has 439,539 inhabitants, as a district of a city like Shanghai, Moscow and New York City, to give three examples at random. But the country has a highly developed economy, with the world's highest GDP (nominal) per capita according to the IMF. The recorded history of Luxembourg begins in 963 with the acquisition of Lucilinburhuc (today Luxembourg Castle), around which a town gradually developed. In the 14th and early 15th centuries three members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors. In 1437 Duchess Elisabeth sold the territory to Philip the Good of Burgundy.

0078 TAIWAN (Fujian) – Tunnels for ships and cleavers made from bomb shells

Whatever you say, is quite unusual that of the first 50 collectors with whom I swapped, two to be born on the same day as me. That means 4%. A huge percentage. When I found that the 13th postcrosser assigned to me (Mia, from Taiwan) has as the date of birth August 8, I was wincing. After a few days, wanting to thank Sigga, from Iceland, from the postcards send it to me, my eyes have fallen upon her date of birth: August 8. "The owls are not what they seem", I said to myself, and I created a new label on the blog: "Received from those born on August 8". Until now the label contains four postcards (of 103 received, ie about ... 4%), but I'm sure that their number will increase quickly.

0070 ICELAND - The Turf House Tradition - Árbær farm (UNESCO WHS)

After two postcards with more or less active volcanoes, behold I received from Iceland a totally different picture, more earthly and more friendly (thanks a lot, Sigga). On the back writes this: "The turf church at Árbær farm dates from 1842. It is situated among many other refurbished houses to re-create the flavor of a small icelandic village. This living museum features staff that dress in period clothing and demonstrate various old-time craft and farming practices."

0046 ICELAND - Young and restless islands

If here I shared with you a postcard illustrating a little more quiet area of Iceland, behold now I come with a volcano that erupted in 1973. Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) is an archipelago off the south coast of Iceland, consisting of 15-18 islands and about 30 skerries sandrock pillars, located off the mainland’s south coast. The largest island, Heimaey, has 13.4 km2 and 4,135 inhabitants, living from fishing, hunting and some agriculture. The rest of the islands have steep sea cliffs, and are well vegetated, but are uninhabited.

0034 ICELAND - A geothermal Hell

Volcanoes, glaciers and geysers, Vikings, Njáls saga, Irish monks, Althing, Björk and Sigur Rós, but also its rapid transformation from a nation of fishermen, the poorest in Europe, to a highly developed country with an enviable productivity, are just as many reasons to appreciate Iceland and its just 318,000 inhabitants. Permanently living between fire and ice, never sure neither of unstable land, nor of capricious sea, Icelanders (those who have survived the epidemics, disasters and hunger and haven't wanted to go to the other horizons) made from the one of the most inhospitable parts of Europe a prosperous country with a living standard above the European average, which places it not only in the top half but even on the first third (17th most developed country in the world).