0234, 0458 FRANCE (Île-de-France) - Eiffel Tower - part of Paris, Banks of the Seine (UNESCO WHS)

0234 Eiffel Tower (1)

The Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel) was built in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, on the  Champ de Mars in Paris, and it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. It's named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower, which has 320m and was the tallest man-made structure in the world for 41 years. Is know very well all these things. Is less known that it would have to recover the cost of construction in 20 years, and after this it had to be dismantled. But the cost was recovered in a year, and the tower wasn't removed even today.

0458 Eiffel Tower (2)

If it wasn't dismantled, instead was sold in 1925 by Victor Lustig, a con artist born in Hostinné, today a town in Czech Republic. How did this? Very simple. Lustig invited six scrap metal dealers to a meeting at the one of the most prestigious hotels of the Paris, to discuss a possible business deal. There, Lustig introduced himself as the deputy director-general of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, and told the group that the upkeep on the Eiffel Tower wanted to sell it for scrap. Finally he collected the money (plus a large bribe) from one dealer, Andre Poisson, who wanted to enter in the inner circles of the Parisian business community. After that, the con took a train for Vienna with a suitcase full of cash. A month later, Lustig returned to Paris and tried to sell the Tower once more, but this time hasn't succeeded.

0309, 0457 UNITED STATES (California) - Yosemite National Park (UNESCO WHS)

0309 King Arthur Tree in Yosemite National Park

Like Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park, the Yosemite Valley, part of the park with the same name, famous for its glacially carved domes, are embraced by the Sierra Nevada (Spanish for "snow-covered mountain range"), which runs 640 km north-to-south, between the California Central Valley and the Basin and Range Province. Yosemite National Park is recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls (Yosemite Falls is the highest in North America), clear streams, glaciers, Giant Sequoia groves, and biological diversity.

0457 Yosemite Valley in 1944

"It is by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter", wrote John Muir, "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity", with more then a century ago. As is written on the first postcard, "the California Tree [now called King Arthur]  is located in the Mariposa Grove, about a hundred yards beyond the Grizzly Giant, The tunnel was cut through in 1895 to serve as a substitute when heavy snows made the Wawona Tree inaccessible."

0288, 0456 BELARUS (Grodno) - Mir Castle Complex (UNESCO WHS)

0288 Mir Castle Complex (1)

"This is a fertile region in the geographical centre of Europe, at the crossroads of the most important trade routes, and at the same time at the epicentre of crucial European and global military conflicts between neighbouring powers with different religious and cultural traditions", write on the official UNESCO site, in the description of Mir Castle Complex, included in the list of World Heritage Sites in 2000. A phrase which states, concise and exact, the causes of the turbulent history of the castle in the image, situated 90km south-west of Minsk, in the urban settlement with the same name, which has now only 2,500 inhabitants.

0456 Mir Castle Complex (2)

Built as a fortress at the end of the 15th century, by the order of prince Yuri Ilyinich, in Gothic style, the castle became in 1569 the property of the powerful Radziwill family, which held it until 1813. It was besieged in 1655, 1706, 1794, and 1812, being several times destroyed and pillaged, but each time reconstructed and extended, first in the Renaissance and then in the Baroque style. As says Oleg Trusov, "earth walls were made around the castle with bastions at the corners; a water moat surround them. To the north of the walls an Italian garden was laid, to the south - an artificial lake."

0455 MOROCCO - A knife sharpener

Eid al-Adha, that means the Feast of the Sacrifice, named also in Yemen, Syria, and North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt) Eid al-Kabir (the Greater Eid) is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims to honour the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his first-born son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of submission to God's command, before God intervened to provide Abraham with a lamb to sacrifice instead. This happening is narrated also in the Bible in the same way.

0316, 0452 & 0453 CHILE - Pablo Neruda

I read the first poem by Pablo Neruda in 1986, in an anthology called Poetry and Humanity, which includes all the 20 poets who had received until then the Golden Wreath, the great award of the Struga Poetry Evenings, an international festival which takes place since 1966 in this little town located on the lakeside Ohrid, then in Yugoslavia, now in Macedonia. Honestly, I bought the volume for the poem of Nichita Stănescu, my illustrious concitadin, but I noted Pablo Neruda and Eugenio Montale even after first reading. And I noticed also a sad coincidence: both Pablo Neruda and Nichita Stănescu died one year after receiving the prize from Struga, at an interval of a decade, in 1972, respectively 1982.

On his real name Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, Chilean poet who chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda had a very hectic life, occuping during his lifetime many diplomatic positions in Asia, Europe and Latin America, and being married three times. Acquiring the communist beliefs during the Spanish Civil War (at that time he was consul in Madrid), he served a stint as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party, but also lived many years in exile.

Although widely recognized as a great poet by his peers, he was often criticized for his admiration for Lenin, Stalin and Castro (In 1953 he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize) and his political involvement too pronounced. Thus Gabriel García Márquez called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language", but Jorge Luis Borges stated "I don't admire him as a man, I think of him as a very mean man", and Octavio Paz commented that he "became more and more Stalinist".

0062, 0451 ANDORRA - Romanesque churches of Andorra (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

0062 Sant Miquel d'Engolasters Church

It is known, the buffer zones located between the great powers were constantly exposed to invasions and excesses of all kinds. Principality of Andorra is a rare and happy exception, its borders remaining virtually unchanged since 1278, when the conflict between Count of Foix and the Bishop of La Seu d'Urgell was resolved by the signing of a paréage, which provided that its sovereignty will be shared between these two. The period which preceded this agreement (between 9th and 13th centuries) was one intense from political point of view, but also artistic. Among the major achievements of this period are several Romanesque churches, eight of them being included on the Tentative List of UNESCO WHS.

0451  Sant Joan de Caselles Church

Sant Miquel d'Engolasters Church, built before the 12th century in a strategic spot with a fabulous panoramic view out over the capital Andorra la Vella, the church invites visitors to head to Engolasters Lake or the valley of Madriu-Perafita-Claror, a UNESCO WHS since 2004. The rectangular design houses a nave, a semi-circular apse, a gable roof, a belfry and a later arcade porch. The building is characterised by the disproportion between the nave and the 17m high belfry. The top floor of the belfry preserves one of the few Romanesque sculptural pieces in Andorra - carved heads in the centre of the double window arches - and the interior houses reproductions of the Romanesque mural paintings by the master artist of Santa Coloma (12th century), now held by the National Art Museum of Catalonia.

0450 FRANCE (Occitania) - The Yellow Train / Le Chemin de fer de Cerdagne (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List))

The Ligne de Cerdagne, often called the Yellow Train (in French: Train Jaune, in Catalan: Tren Groc), after its yellow and red colours, derived from the Catalan flag, is a metre gauge railway that runs from Villefranche-de-Conflent through to Mont-Louis, in Roussillon (French Catalonia). This spectacular feat of civil engineering was started in 1903 and the section to Mont-Louis was completed in 1910, followed by an extension to Latour-de-Carol in 1927. It's 63km long and climbs to 1,593m at Bolquère-Eyne, the highest railway station in France, then drops down to a high Pyrenean valley, to its terminus at Latour de Carol, near the Spanish town of Puigcerda.

0449 INDONESIA (Sulawesi) - Tana Toraja Traditional Settlement (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

As the name implies, Tana Toraja Regency (Land of the Toraja) is a regency (kabupaten) of South Sulawesi in which live the Toraja ethnic group people (people of the uplands), renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. According to the Torajan myth, the first tongkonan house was built in heaven by Puang Matua, the Creator. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the heavenly house and held a big ceremony. An alternative legend, describes the Toraja arriving from the north by boats, but caught in a fierce storm, their boats were so badly damaged that they used them as roofs for their new houses.

0448 HUNGARY (Budapest) - The Fishermen's Bastion - part of Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue (UNESCO WHS)

0448 The Fishermen's Bastion in Budapest

Located in Budapest, on the Castle hill, behind the sanctuary of the Matthias Church, on the Buda bank of the Danube, the Fishermen's Bastion (Halászbástya) is a terrace which offers a splendid view of the Danube and Pest. It was named after the guild of fishermen, which lived nearby in Watertown (Vízívaros), at the foot of the hill, and was responsible for defending this stretch of the city walls in the Middle Ages. An old fish market also sat at this location during medieval times.

0447 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (Trinidad) - President's House

Located next to the Botanical Gardens in Port of Spain, the President's House was built between 1873 and 1876 and was used as the residence of the Governor of Trinidad and Tobago until 1958, when it became the residence of the Governor-General of the West Indies Federation. In 1962, when Trinidad and Tobago attained independence, the house became a museum and Art Gallery, and then once again the residence of the Governors-General. In 1976, after the proclamation of the republic, the building was designated the residence of the President.

0446 NETHERLANDS (Netherlands / Flevoland) - Schokland and Surroundings (UNESCO WHS)

The former island Schokland, in Zuiderzee, in the northwest of the Netherlands, is a symbol of the traditional Dutch struggle against the water. Traces of this battle can be seen everywhere on and around the island. This area has alternated between being sea and dry land, peninsula and island, peat and polder. The former island, which lost this status in 1942, still stands out as an elongated gently sloping back against the flat surrounding landscape of the Northeast polder.

0445 CZECH REPUBLIC (Central Bohemia) - Veltrusy mansion

Located near the banks of the Vltava River, at about 20 km North of Prague, Veltrusy mansion (Zámek Veltrusy) is a baroque chateau initially built in 1716 by architect František Maxmilián Kaňka for Václav Antonín Chotek, count of Chotkov and Vojnín, then governor of Bohemia, and extended in 1764 by architect Giovanni Battista Alliprandi on orders of count Rudolf Chotek of Chotkov and Vojnín. Further extensions and the annexes of the mansion were constructed in 1804.

0444 JAPAN - Yabusame

 

A mounted archer is a cavalryman armed with a bow, able to shoot while riding from horseback. This technique was developed by the natives of large grassland areas, for hunting, but also for war. Mounted archery was a defining characteristic of the Eurasian nomads during antiquity and the medieval period, but the practice also spread to Europe and to East Asia. It developed separately among the peoples of the South American pampas and the North American prairies.

0041, 0443 SLOVAKIA (Prešov) - Levoča, Spišský Hrad and the Associated Cultural Monuments (UNESCO WHS)

0443 Roman Catholic Church of St. James in Levoča

Located in the historical region of Spiš, Levoča was an military training ground during the Great Moravia period (9th century), but its development was linked with the German colonisation, which increased considerably in the mid-13th century following the Mongol devastations of 1241. In fact colonization with Saxons took place at that time in all border areas of the Kingdom of Hungary, there are many similarities between Levoča and some cities from Transylvania as Braşov (Kronstadt), Sibiu (Hermannstadt), Sighişoara (Schässburg) or other settlements placed along the strategic road of Ţara Bârsei (Burzenland).

0041 Old Town Hall in Levoča

Levoča was the main centre of the Saxon presence, and the fact that it was placed on a major inter-regional route between Poland, Silesia, Moravia, and Hungary, as well as its status of Free City helped it to develop and prosper. The Roman Catholic Church of St. James was built in the 14th century and is very well preserved, despite the ten alters of the 15th and 16th centuries. It houses a wonderful collection of polychrome works in the Late Gothic style, including a magnificently carved and painted wooden altar, the largest in Europe (18.62 m in height), created by Master Paul of Levoča around 1520.

0442 ROMANIA (Suceava) - Pietrele Doamnei in Rarău Mountains

Located in the Oriental Carpathians, Rarău Mountains are among the most picturesque in the region. The main attraction of these mountains is the impressive ensemble of cliffs Pietrele Doamnei (Lady's Rocks – in image), which provides a ruiniform relief consisting of a series of Mesozoic limestone towers, encrusted with corals and ammonites, with heights betwen 10m and 70m, surrounded by a mass of scree with variable sizes. They are derived from the fragmentation (freeze - thaw) of a limestone peak.

0441 UNITED STATES (Arizona) - Kokopelli

I think that a postcard with Kokopelli, who brings good luck and prosperity, is very appropriate for the last day of the year, so here it is. Usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player (often with feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head), Kokopelli (named also Kokopele, Kokopilau, Neopkwai'i, Ololowishkya or La Kokopel) is a fertility deity, but also a trickster god, who represents the spirit of music, venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States, like Navajo, Ho-Chunk, Hopi, Pueblo, or Zuni.

0440 CROATIA (Zadar) - The Collegiate Church from Pag

Pag Island is a Croatian island,  with 60 km long and between 2 and 10 km wide, belonging to the north Dalmatian archipelago, located in the northern Adriatic Sea. The island is best known for its pungent Pag cheese (Paski Sir), and the delicious Pag lamb naturally flavoured with the salty grass that feeds the sheep, but also for its salt production, for the Pag lace. It is linked to the mainland by bridge as well as by ferry lines.

0439 CAMBODIA - A Buddhist monk with its traditional kasava

Buddhism is one of the oldest religion still practiced, so the Buddhist Monasticism is also one of the earliest surviving forms of organized monasticism, the order of Buddhist monks and nuns being founded by Gautama Buddha himself, over 2500 years ago. The Buddhist monastic order is theoretically divided into two assemblies, the male Bhikkhu, and the female Bhikkhuni. Monks and nuns are expected to fulfill a variety of roles in the community, to preserve the doctrine and discipline, to provide a living example for the laity, to live an austere life focused on the study of Buddhist doctrine, the practice of meditation, and the observance of good moral character. Unlike Christian monastics, the Buddhist ones aren't required to be obedient to a superior, but it's expected that they will offer respect to senior members of the Sangha (community). In generally, the groups of monastics make decisions collectively, and individual relationships of teacher/student, senior/junior, and preceptor/trainee are no formal positions.