3446 RUSSIA (Saint Petersburg) - Postcrossing Meetup, Saint Petersburg, 19 February 2020

This postcard was made on the occasion of the postcrossing meeting that took place on February 19, 2020 in Saint Petersburg. The organizers chose as image the Water Supply Tower, one of the oldest constructions on the SPbPU (Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University), built in 1905, three years after the opening of Polytechnic Institute. Its bizarre architectural look with fragmented forms and lines clearly contrasts with the other buildings on the campus; it is a kind of a hi-rise dominant of the entire complex of the two- and four-storey buildings.

3408, 3417, 3445 SPAIN (Community of Madrid) - Royal Palace of Madrid

3408 Royal Palace of Madrid and Almudena Cathedral

Located on Bailén Street, in the western part of downtown Madrid, east of the Manzanares River, the Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish royal family, although now only used for state ceremonies. The palace has 135,000 square metres of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms, being the largest functioning royal palace and the largest by floor area in Europe. The last monarch who lived continuously in the palace was King Alfonso XIII, although Manuel Azaña, president of the Second Republic, also inhabited it.

3417 Royal Palace of Madrid - Gasparini Room (18th-19th centuries)

The interior of the palace is notable for its wealth of art and the use of many types of fine materials in the construction and the decoration of its rooms. It includes paintings by artists such as Caravaggio, Juan de Flandes, Francisco de Goya, and Velázquez, and frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Corrado Giaquinto, and Anton Raphael Mengs. Other collections of great historical and artistic importance preserved in the building include the Royal Armoury of Madrid, porcelain, watches, furniture, silverware, and the world's only complete Stradivarius string quintet.

3445 Royal Palace of Madrid - The kitchen of Ramillete 

The palace is located on the site of a 9th-century Alcázar (Muslim-era fortress), near the town of Magerit, constructed as an outpost by Muhammad I of Córdoba and inherited after 1036 by the independent Moorish Taifa of Toledo. After Madrid fell to King Alfonso VI of Castile in 1083, the edifice was only rarely used by the kings of Castile. In 1329, King Alfonso XI of Castile convened the cortes of Madrid for the first time. King Felipe II moved his court to Madrid in 1561.

3444 UNITED STATES (California) - Big Sur Coast Highway

Big Sur Coast Highway is a section of California State Route 1 that is widely considered to be one of the most scenic driving routes in the United States, if not the world. It was the first California Scenic Highway and the first federal All American Road. It is generally considered to include the 114 km segment adjoining the region of Big Sur between Malpaso Creek near Carmel Highlands in the north and San Carpóforo Creek near San Simeon in the south.

2221, 3388, 3411, 3428, 3443 FRANCE (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) - Chartreuse Mountains

2221 Chartreuse Mountains (1)

Located in southeastern France, the Chartreuse Mountains rises between Grenoble (south), Chambéry (north), Voiron and Saint-Laurent-du-Pont (west) and Grésivaudan Valley. It is the southernmost range in the Jura Mountains and belongs to the French Prealps. The monastic Carthusian Order takes its name from these mountains, where its first hermitage, Grande Chartreuse, was founded in 1084.

3428 The desert road in Chartreuse

Also derived from the mountain range's name is that of the alcoholic cordial Chartreuse produced by the monks since the 1740s, and of the chartreuse colour, named after the drink. The east flank falls abruptly almost 2,000m to the Isère valley, while to the west, the high ground falls away towards the Rhône valley. It is separated from the Vercors upland area to the south also by the Isère river, which swings round to the west at Grenoble on its way towards the Rhône.

3388 Chartreuse Mountains (2)

Above the meadows in the valleys, wooded ridges rise up steeply towards steep limestone cliffs. Above these, may be found a hidden world of high altitude plateaus and valleys, vegetated with grassland and dwarf forest. The highest summit in the Chartreuse Mountains is Chamechaude (2,082 m), the third most prominent mountain (1,769m) in metropolitan France. Other important summits include Dent de Crolles (2,062m), Grand Som (2026m) and Mont Granier (1,933m).

3443 Chartreuse Mountains (4)

These are limestone mountains with rather large precipices. Mont Granier is known because in the year 1248, a mass of limestone resting on marls slid into the valley, causing a massive landslide that destroyed many villages and caused over a thousand casualties. This event created the sheer 700 m north face of the mountain.

3411 Chartreuse Mountains (3)

3442 ROMANIA (Maramureş) - Life in the countryside

In recent years, I have met more and more people, both in social networks and in reality, who claim to envy those living in the country, in the bosom of nature. For the overwhelming majority of them, this is either hypocrisy or simply a lie, because I am convinced that lacking the comfort of the city would leave life in the countryside in a few days. In these isolated villages, where the water does not come from the tap and the heat from a button, where autumn you swim in the mud and winter in the snow, where you have to grow vegetables and animals if you want to eat, life is not at all bucolic.

3440 GERMANY (Saxony-Anhalt) - The Old Mint in Stolberg

One of the most beautiful half-timbered houses of Stolberg, built in 1535 as a mint workshop, is now the home of the city's Old Mint Museum. Unique in the German-speaking countries of Europe is the almost fully preserved workshop, complete with equipment from the 18th century. The core exhibition is rounded out with recreated functional models as well a look into the history of coins and coinage in Stolberg and Central Germany. The third floor is dedicated to the town history, particularly of the 18th century, as well as to the theologian and peasant leader Thomas Müntzer, who was born in Stolberg in 1489.

0134, 3439 SPAIN (Catalonia) - Casa Batlló - part of Works of Antoni Gaudí (UNESCO WHS)

0134

Part of the Manzana de la Discordia (Block of Discord, but also Apple of Discord), located at 43, Passeig de Gràcia,  in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Casa Batlló is a building restored in the years 1904-1906 by Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol (with the contribution of Gaudí's assistants, Domènec Sugrañes i Gras, Josep Canaleta and Joan Rubió). Like all the buildings designed by the brilliant Catalan architect, it looks stunning and very modern, even for today's viewer, so it's hard to imagine how strange it may seem, with its organic, even visceral forms, for the early 20th century Barcelonians.

3439

The building consists of a ground floor, a main floor with a courtyard, four further self-contained floors, a loft and a roof terrace. There is private access to the noble floor (the main floor), and a communal stairwell set within the building well, which has been expanded and artistically tiled as though it were part of the exterior facade. The entire building is astonishing, but stand out in the first place the ground floor (with its tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work) and the arched roof like a back of a dragon or dinosaur, plated with tiles in the form of scales.

3438 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Village market in Padna

The Istrian hinterland has always been very important to supply fresh and high quality food for all coastal towns. The small village Padna, located not far for Piran, and first mentioned in sources dating to 1186, has been doing this for hundreds of years. The village is surrounded by olive groves where some trees are more than 300 years old. It has been known for its large quantities of olive oil products for a long time.

1333, 3437 CANADA (Ontario) / UNITED STATES (New York) - Niagara Falls

1333

Located on the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, on the border between Canada and the United States, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York, Niagara Falls is in fact an assembly of three waterfalls: the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. The Horseshoe Falls (furthest on the postcard 1333) lie mostly on the Canadian side and the American Falls (closest on the postcard 1333) entirely on the American side, separated by Goat Island.

3437

The smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also located on the American side, separated from the other waterfalls by Luna Island. The boundary line was drawn through Horseshoe Falls in 1819, but it has long been in dispute due to natural erosion and construction. The combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 50m. Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.

3436 LITHUANIA - A red fox cub

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) it is not only the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere, but also one of the world's 100 worst invasive species, due to its ability to adapt quickly to new environments. Despite its name, the species often produces individuals with other colourings. Too small to pose a threat to humans, it has extensively benefited from the presence of human habitation, and has successfully colonised many suburban and urban areas.

3435 GERMANY (Lower Saxony) - A traditional farm in Lüneburg Heath

Named after the town of Lüneburg, Lüneburg Heath is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony. It has typical of those that covered most of the North German countryside until about 1800, but which have almost completely disappeared in other areas. Most of the area is a nature reserve, and also a historic cultural landscape, created by the intervention of man.

3434 ETHIOPIA (Harari) - Harar Jugol, the Fortified Historic Town (UNESCO WHS)

3434 Duke's Gate in Harar Jugol

The walled city Harar functioned as the capital of the Harari Kingdom from 1520 to 1568, became an independent emirate in the 17th century and was integrated into Ethiopian Empire in 1887. From the late 16th century to the 19th century Harar was an important trade centre between the coast and the interior highlands and a location for Islamic learning. The impact of African and Islamic traditions on the development of the town's building types and urban layout make for its particular character and uniqueness.

3433 SINGAPORE (Central Region) - Sri Mariamman Temple

The Sri Mariamman Temple is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple. It is an agamic temple, built in the Dravidian style. Mariamman is a rural South Indian mother goddess who is especially worshipped for protection against diseases. Located in the downtown Chinatown district, the temple serves the majority Hindu Singaporeans, Tamilians, in the city-state. It was founded in 1827 by Naraina Pillai, eight years after the East India Company established a trading settlement in Singapore.

1397-1400, 3432 UNITED STATES (Illinois) - Chicago Skyscrapers

3432 Chicago skyline dominated by John Hancock Center

In the 1770s, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable established a fur trading post in the area which later became known as Fort Dearborn, along the bank of the Chicago River. In 1837, the settlement had a little more than 3,500 inhabitants and was incorporated as a city. Located near a portage between the Great Lakes and the  Mississippi River watershed, Chicago emerged as an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States, becoming the fastest growing city in the world for several decades. 

1397 Downtown Chicago with Northwestern Train Station,
Presidential Towers and Willis Tower

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the American economy was transformed by the industrial revolution, in which the city of Chicago was its leader, becoming America's second largest city and a leading industrial center. The Great Chicago Fire, which destroyed most buildings within the downtown area, led to the largest building boom in the history of the nation. In 1885, the first steel-framed high-rise building, the Home Insurance Building, rose in the city as Chicago ushered in the skyscraper era.

1397 Chicago skyline seen from the Chicago River

Moreover, the city gave its name to the Chicago School and was home to the Prairie School, two movements in architecture, being able to say that the architecture of Chicago has influenced and reflected the history of American architecture. Numerous architects have constructed landmark buildings of varying styles in city. Some of these are the so-called "Chicago seven":  James Ingo Freed, Tom Beeby, Larry Booth, Stuart Cohen, James Nagle, Stanley Tigerman, and Ben Weese. Today, the city's skyline is among the world's tallest and most dense.

1399 Willis Tower

Willis Tower (known also as Sears Tower) is a 108-story, 442m skyscraper completed in 1973. It surpassed the World Trade Center towers in New York to become the tallest building in the world, a title held for nearly 25 years. Its innovative design, structurally efficient and economic, inspired by an advertisement for a package of cigarettes, was realised by the architect Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan, who used for the first time bundled tube structure. The tower's observation deck (the Skydeck), located on the 103rd floor, is 412m high and is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Chicago.

1400 Willis Tower and Wacker Drive

Presidential Towers is a series of four nearly identical towers with 49 storeys (141m), each a step back from the leader, and spanning two city blocks. Designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates and built between 1985 and 1986, it was one of the pioneering residential projects in the River West neighborhood, an area that was once seen as nothing more than a ramshackle collection of old brick warehouses. 333 West Wacker Drive is an office building with a height of 149m, designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates and completed in 1983. On the side facing the Chicago River, the building features a curved green glass façade, while on the other side the building adheres to the usual rectangular street grid.