0588 LITHUANIA (Klaipėda) - Curonian Spit (UNESCO WHS)

The Curonian Spit (Kuršių nerija) is a 98 km long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea coast. Its southern portion lies within Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia) and its northern within southwestern Lithuania. The width of the spit varies from a minimum of 400m in Russia to a maximum of 3,800 m in Lithuania. In 2000 Curonian Spit was included in UNESCO World Heritage Sites list, shared by the two countries, because it is considered "an outstanding example of a landscape of sand dunes that is under constant threat from natural forces", and also a cultural heritage due to its old fishing settlements and the buildings erected at the end of the 19th century.

 

The Curonian Spit is home to the highest moving (drifting) sand dunes in Europe, with an average height of 35m. Its location means it's frequently visited by migratory waterfowl. In 19th century it became a recreational centre: Juodkrante became famous as a health resort as early as 1840 and Nida, Preila and Pervalka were given official recognition in this category in 1933. In the centre, Nida, the largest settlement on the Spit, has a linear plan based on a single main street that runs parallel to the lagoon. Its main building it's the cottage of Thomas Mann (in both postcards). The german writter (1875-1955), 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, best known for the novel Doctor Faustus and the novella Death in Venice, came to Nida (then Nidden) on holiday and so liked the area that he built a summer house there to which his family came every year in the early 1930s. The house is superbly positioned among pine trees above the Curonian Lagoon. It is now a museum with information about the writer's work, and also a venue for conferences and music recitals.

0586 NORTH CYPRUS - A gothic mosque in Nicosia

Shortly after they conquered Cyprus, the Crusaders began construction of a cathedral in Nicosia in a pure Gothic style, but lack of money has slowed much the work, so the building was inaugurated only in 1326 and never really finished. With Nicosia's occupation by the Ottomans (1570), the cathedral of Agia Sofia was turned into a mosque and two minarets were added onto the building’s west part. The cathedral’s rich sculptural decoration was destroyed and so were the frescoes, the sculptures and the stained glass decoration depicting scenes from the Old and New Testament. Funerary tombstones of various Lusignan kings and princes were also destroyed. In August 1954 the monument was renamed to Selimye mosque in honor of sultan Selim II who ruled at the time of Cyprus’ conquest by the Ottomans.

0585 GREECE (South Aegean) - Medieval City of Rhodes (UNESCO WHS)

When you say Rhodes, you're thinking to Colossus of Rhodes (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and to Knights Hospitaller, but its history was much longer and more complex. Having the shape of a spearhead targeted to Asia Minor coast, found at just 18 km, Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands. Even if it passed through many hands, from Persians and Romans to Byzantines, Arabs, Genoese, Knights Hospitaller, Ottomans and Italians, the island has always been inhabited mainly by Greeks, in 1947 uniting it with Greece.

0320, 0584 MAURITIUS - Le Morne Cultural Landscape (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 12.09.2012 and completed on 02.04.2013
Star and Key of the Indian Ocean, as says its official motto, Mauritius is an island off the southeast coast of the African continent, in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 870km east of Madagascar. It's part of the Mascarene Islands, along with Réunion, Rodrigues, Cargados Carajos shoals, plus the former islands of the Saya de Malha, Nazareth and Soudan Banks. When the Arab sailors visited the island, during the Middle Ages, it was uninhabited, and so remained until the arrival of the Dutch, although meanwhile it has been accessed several times by Portuguese.

In 1598 the Admiral Wybrand Van Warwyck named the island Mauritius, in honour of Prince Maurits van Nassau, but the first settlement was founded only in 1638, and abandoned in 1710. France, which already controlled neighbouring Île Bourbon (now Réunion), took control of Mauritius in 1715, keeping it until 1810, when the island entered under British administration. Mauritius has proclaimed independent (as a Commonwealth realm) in 1968, becoming a republic within the Commonwealth on 1992.

0583 JAPAN (Chūbu) - A morning market in Takayama

Located in the heart of the Japanese Alps, Takayama developed its own culture in the last 300 years, because the high altitude and separation from other areas of Japan kept the area fairly isolated. The city and its culture, as they exist today, took shape at the end of the 16th century, when the Kanamori clan built Takayama Castle. In 1936 it merged with Onada, and in 2005 with other nine towns and villages, becoming the largest city in Japan by surface area.

0582 BELARUS (Brest) - The ruins of the Ruzhany Palace

0582 The ruins of the Ruzhany Palace

The ruins of this palace is situated beside the little town of Ruzhany, on the river Ruzhanka, in Western Belarus. Between the 16th and 19th centuries Ruzhany (then called Różany) was the main seat of the senior line of the Sapieha family, a Polish-Lithuanian princely family of Ruthenian origin, descending from the medieval boyars of Smolensk, who acquired great influence in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th century.

0581 ITALY (Veneto) - Burano - part of Venice and its Lagoon (UNESCO WHS)

Situated at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon, near Torcello, Burano it isn't in fact an island, but an archipelago of four islands, linked by bridges. Although it was inhabited since Romans time, it rose in importance only in the 16th century, when women on the island began making lace with needles, which was soon exported across Europe. Trade began to decline in the 18th century and the industry didn't revive until 1872, when a school of lacemaking was opened.

0580 SPAIN (Castile and León) - Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct (UNESCO WHS)

As many other cities in Iberian Peninsula, Segovia, located at about 90km north of Madrid, was founded by Celts, to become then a Roman possession. It is believed that the city was abandoned after the Islamic invasion of Spain, but after the Reconquista was restocked with Christians. Its position on trading routes made it an important center of trade in wool and textiles, its golden age being at the end of the Middle Ages. There followed a period of decline, but, in a strange way, the economical decadence favoured the preservation of its monumental patrimony built between the 12th and 17th centuries.

0579 DENMARK (Sjælland) - Roskilde Cathedral (UNESCO WHS)

After uniting the Danes and Norwegians, around the year 960, King Harald Bluetooth moved his capital closer to the new kingdom's centre of power, to Roskilde, on the island of Zealand, where it remained until 1443. Around 1160 the bishop Absalon decided the building of a Romanesque cathedral on the site of the old one, on the top of a hill, with a great view over the fjords. Absalon's successor embraced the new French Gothic style, so he made significant changes to the plans. With the exception of the two towers on the west facade, finished in 1405, the cathedral was completed in 1280, several chapels being added afterwards. The city's importance is evident from the fact that the Roskilde Domkirke (Roskilde Cathedral) was the only cathedral in Zealand until the 20th century.

0578 CHINA (Tibet) - An old Tibetan man with a Mani wheel

Tibet lies on the plateau located north-east of the Himalayas (the highest on earth, with an average elevation of 4,900m) and emerged in the 7th century as a unified empire, divided afterwards into a variety of territories. In the next millennium, its western and central regions were often unified by local rulers, under Mongol or Chinese overlordship, while the eastern regions maintained more decentralized structures, often fallen more directly under Chinese rule. Since the mid 19th century, the Qing Dynasty authority over Tibet became more formale, and in 1913, after its collapse, the region declared its independence. Shortly after the comunists took control over the most part of mainland China and established the PRC, Tibet was occupied by the chinese army and in 1959 the Tibetan government was abolished. Even though most countries have recognized (formal or tacit) the annexation, there isn't the slightest doubt that it was done and is maintained against the wishes of Tibetans.

0577 SLOVAKIA (Banská Bystrica) - Historic Town of Banská Štiavnica and the Technical Monuments in its Vicinity (UNESCO WHS)

Located in the middle of an immense caldera created by the collapse of an ancient volcano, Banská Štiavnica was a mining settlement since the time of the Celts (3rd century BC), being occupied afterwards by Romans, and then by the early Slavs, in 1156 the site being called terra banensium (the land of miners). Starting with 13th century skilled German settlers were joined the Slavic population, adopting for settlement the name Schemnitz.

0576 POLAND (Lesser Poland) - Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland (UNESCO WHS)

As I wrote when I presented the Wooden Churches of Maramureş, in a wide area in Carpathians, which transcends the countries borders, the ethnic affiliation and religious beliefs, the locals have developed the craft of building wooden churches. Now is the time to write about Wooden Churches of Southern Lesser Poland, included in 2003 among UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This site contain six churches, located in Binarowa, Blizne, Dębno, Haczów, Lipnica Murowana, and Sękowa, representing "outstanding examples of the different aspects of medieval church-building traditions in Roman Catholic culture."

0575 OMAN - Bedouin women in desert

As even their name says, the traditional homeland of Bedouin ("those in the desert" in Arabic) is Arabian Desert, but some groups have migrated north into the Negev Desert region. Mainly nomadic herdsmen divided into tribes or clans, Arabic-speaking and Muslims as religion, in the late 19th century they began transition to a semi-nomadic life, forced by the Ottoman Empire authorities. As a result, today there are two basic groups, the "true" Bedouin, who are nomadic shepherds, and Fellahin, who embraced farming. The "true" Bedouin have been known for raiding any caravans that cross their paths while journeying across barren deserts. They move into the desert during the rainy winter seasons and back to the desert's edge during the hot, dry summers. They speak Badawi, or as it is more commonly called, Bedouin Arabic.

0574 JORDAN - Um er-Rasas (Kastrom Mefa'a) (UNESCO WHS)

Located south-east of Madaba, on the edge of the semi-arid steppe, Um er-Rasas is an archeological site, largely unexcavated, which started as a Roman military camp and grew to become a town from the 5th century. It contains remains from the Roman, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods (end of 3rd to 9th centuries AD) including a fortified Roman military camp and sixteen churches, some with well-preserved mosaic floors, the best known being the one of the Church of St Stephen, made in 785 and illustrating the most important cities of the region.

0569 GERMANY (Bavaria) - Hitler’s nest

The Kehlsteinhaus (also known as Eagle's Nest) is a chalet-style structure erected on a subpeak of the Hoher Göll known as the Kehlstein. It was built as an extension of the Obersalzberg complex (formerly Hitler's home and southern headquarters) erected in the mountains above Berchtesgaden. Commissioned by Reichsleiter Martin Bormann for Hitler, it was formal presented to the Nazi leader on his 50th birthday on April 20, 1939. The road leading from Obersalzberg to the Eagle's Nest parking lot is considered to be a feat of engineering. It remained unscathed from the bombing of the Allied Forces during WWII, and since 1952 it has been open to the public as a mountain top restaurant with a spectacular view and is accessed only by special mountain buses from Obersalzberg.

0567 EGYPT (Cairo) - Cairo

About Cairo I wrote here, I will focus exclusively on the images depicted in the postcard, which I like it, because presents the all three main components that created the Egypt of today: Ancient Egypt, the Copts, and the Muslims.

0566 SWITZERLAND (Zurich) - The Grossmünster

On the northwestern shore of the Lake Zurich, where today is Zurich, there were human settlements since 6,400 years ago, and 2,000 years ago the Romans founded Turicum. During the Middle Ages Zurich gained the independent and privileged status of imperial immediacy and, in 1519, was the place of origin and centre of the Protestant Reformation in German-speaking Switzerland. The church from the postcard, the Grossmünster (Great Minster) is one of the three major churches in the city.

0565 GREECE (Peloponnese) - Corinth Canal

Thought since antiquity, but become a reality only at the end of the 19th century (1881-1893), the Corinth Canal, which connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea, cutting the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separating the Peloponnesian peninsula from the Greek mainland, is now used mainly for tourist traffic, although it saves the 700km journey around the Peloponnese. Dug at sea level , without locks, it has 6.4km in length and only 21.3m width at the base, it's unpassable for most modern ships. Actually it never attracted  the level of traffic anticipated, because of its narrowness, of navigational problems and of periodic closures required to repair landslips from its steep walls. It was seriously damaged during the WWII, when it was the scene of fighting due to its strategic importance.

0564 MOROCCO - A Berber village on the M'Goun Mountain

The High Atlas, the greatest mountain range of North Africa, is perhaps the most beautiful and intriguing part of Morocco, with its high plateaux, its gorges and box canyons, and its peaks sometimes splintered by erosion. Several peaks exceed 4,000m, Jbel Mgoun (M'Goun Mountain) being the highest (4,068 m). The area is populated by Berbers (about who I wrote a little here and here), and it has retained a remoteness which until recent decades was virtually complete and contains villages where the way of life has changed little for centuries. Unfortunately, lately "civilization" gets also here, and an conclusive example is the road from Azilal to Ait Bougmez, tarmacked a few years ago, which led to the disappearance of traditional villages. The revenue from tourism has given villagers the means to put to one side the traditional building materials such as adobe and stone, and to instead embrace unsightly and ecologically-unfriendly alternatives such as concrete, following the false perception that modern materials and methods are always superior.

0563 BAHRAIN - Coffee pot maker

0563 Coffee pot maker in Bahrain

It is believed that the coffee comes from Ethiopia, from where he arrived in the Arab world and then, through Ottoman Empire, in Europe. The earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the middle of the 15th century, in Yemen. By the 16th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa, then in Italy and in the rest of Europe, in Indonesia, and in Americas. In fact in English and other European languages the word coffee derives from the Ottoman Turkish kahve (via the Italian caffè), borrowed from the Arabic qahwah.