0604 NORTH CYPRUS - Famagusta, the Ghost Town

Located on the east coast of Cyprus, in a bay between Cape Eloea and Cape Greco, and home to the deepest harbour on the island, Famagusta is de jure the capital of Famagusta District of the Republic of Cyprus, and de facto capital of Gazimağusa District of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey. Founded in 300 BC by Greeks settlers, it remained for a long time a fishing village, then a small port. The things have changed radically with the downfall of Acre (1291), the last major stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, followed by an influx of Christian refugees and the passing under the rule of the French Lusignan dynasty. Thus the village became one of the richest cities in Christendom.

0603 POLAND (Lower Silesia) - Książ Castle

Located on a rock cliff on the bank of the Pelcznica River,  Książ Castle (Zamek Książ), often called "the Pearl of Lower Silesia", is surrounded by the forest, within a protected area called Książ Landscape Park. The original fortification was destroyed in 1263 by Ottokar II of Bohemia, but 25 years later Bolko I, Duke of Świdnica and Jawor, built a new castle. It passed through several hands (including of the Hussites) until 1482, when it was destroyed again. In 1509 it became the property of Hoberg family (from 1714: Hochberg), who owned it until 1941, when was taken by German State partly to pay taxes, partly as punishment for the "treason" of Hans Heinrich’s eldest children: one served in the British army, the other in the Polish one. During WWII was part of the Project Riese, which consisted in the building of seven underground military complexes of the Nazi Germany. In 1945 the castle was occupied by the Red Army, and all artifacts were lost or destroyed.

0600 GEORGIA (Tbilisi) - Tbilisi Historic District (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

0600 Tbilisi - Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue

Founded in the 5th century in the heart of the Caucasus by Vakhtang Gorgasali (the monarch of Georgia's precursor Kingdom of Iberia), Tbilisi has served as Georgia's capital for nearly 1500 years, and its proximity to east-west trade routes made the city a point of contention between various rival empires. Located on the both banks of the Kura River (Mt'k'vari in Georgian) and dominated by Mount Mtatsminda, Narikala fortress and the Kartlis Deda monument, Tbilisi Historic District is the center of the Old Tbilisi.

0599 POLAND (West Pomerania) - Ducal Castle in Szczecin

The castle in the postcard was the seat of the dukes of Pomerania-Stettin of the House of Pomerania (Griffins), who ruled the Duchy of Pomerania from 1121 to 1637.  Actually the Duchy of Pomerania and House of Pomerania are one and the same thing, because the duchy originated from the realm of Wartislaw I, a Slavic Pomeranian duke, the founder of the House of Pomerania, and ceased to exist in 1637, with the death of Bogislaw XIV, the last member of the house, when it was partitioned between Brandenburg-Prussia and Sweden. Located on the south shore of the Baltic Sea, between the rivers Recknitz in the west and Vistula in the east, after the WWII Pomerania was partitioned between East Germany and Poland.

0597 ROMANIA (Iaşi) - Church of the Three Hierarchs in Iaşi (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Erected between 1637 and 1639 in the heart of Iaşi, the then capital of Principality of Moldavia, Biserica Trei Ierarhi (Church of the Three Hierarchs) reflects the aspiration of the founder, the Voivode Vasile Lupu, towards the Byzantine world. The edifice was dedicated to the saints Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom, that places it in a world that was why of the Church Fathers, defenders of Nicene Dogma and of the unity of the Church. Built of limestone blocks carved and shaped, glued together with molten lead, the church complies the typical plan of the contemporary Moldovan churches, with three apses polygonal to outside and semicircular to inside, with three windows each. The uniqueness of the monument comes from the continuous network of ornamentation carved in stone that covers the exterior walls with mainly Armenian, Georgian, Persian, Arabic and Turkish models, but also with Russian, Baroque or indigenous inspired elements. Paul of Aleppo, the Syrian who passed by Moldova in 1653, wrote that the church "amazes the mind of the one who sees it", and the Turk Evlia Celebi, in 1659, that "there's no way to describe it with language or with feather." The original painting was done by Russian masters Sidor Pospeev, Iakov Gavrilov, Deico Iakovliev şi Pronka Nikitin, the best painters in the court of the Tsar, aided by Moldovans Nicolae Zugravul and Ştefan Zugravul (zugrav means dauber).

0596 GREECE (Attica) - Evzones at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Athens

The word evzōnos (meaning the "well-girt" men) was first attested in Homer's Iliad, being used in the following centuries to describe a type of light infantry with elite status. The military tradition of Greeks reborn after obtaining the independence, more accurate from 1833, when Otto, the first king of Greece, organized the Greek Army along new lines. The Bavarians that had come with him formed the majority of the "European" Line Infantry battalions, among these units being one rifle company, named Skirmisher or Evzone. In addition, ten light Skirmisher battalions were formed from Greeks, dressed in a uniform based on the garb of the klephts of the War of Independence. The first four elite Evzone light battalions were formed in 1867, with the task of guarding the frontier.

0595 UKRAINE (Odessa Oblast) - Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater - part of Historic Center of the Port City of Odessa (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Opera and Ballet Theater is one of the most famous edifices in Odessa, together with Potemkin Stairs. The first opera house, designed by the Saint Petersburg architect Thomas de Thomon, was opened in 1810 and destroyed by fire in 1873, and the modern building was constructed by two Viennese architects, Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer in neo-baroque style and opened in 1887. The theatre was the first building in Odessa to employ the Edison Company with electric illumination.

UKRAINE (Odessa Oblast) - Historic Center of the Port City of Odessa (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

On terraced hills that descends to a small harbor on the Black Sea, located at 30km north of the estuary of the Dniester river, there were settlements from ancient times, firstly a Greek colony, and then a Tatar village, fallen under Ottoman rule in 1529, but the city of Odessa was founded only in 1794, by a decree of the Empress Catherine the Great, after the Ottomans, defeated in the Russo-Turkish War, ceded the region to Russian Empire. The city grew rapidly, and in the 19th century Odessa was the center of the General Government of Novorossiya (New Russia).

0594 UKRAINE (Odessa Oblast) - Vorontsov Lighthouse in Odessa

0594 Vorontsovsky Lighthouse in Odessa

The Vorontsov Lighthouse is a famous red-and-white, 27.2m landmark in the Black Sea port of Odessa, named after Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, one of the governors-general of the Odessa region. The present lighthouse, a white cylindrical concrete tower (80m heigh) with a red lantern, was reconstructed in the postwar period, the old one being exploded in WWII. Before the foundation of Odessa, there existed a "seamen’s lantern", represented by a stone tower with a metallic brazier on the top, in which the fire was kept up from time to time.

0592 GERMANY (Saxony) - A steam locomotive in Neudorf, on the Fichtelberg Railway

This is one of the postcards that gave me trouble in terms of documentation, but in the end I managed to clarify things. I received it from Russia, and on the back writes "Printed in Russia, 2012". Okay, but where in (huge) Russia and what kind of locomotive is it? I started with the number, 99 786, but I found nothing. So I searched on the Internet the image and I found it on many websites, with the specification "Oberwiesenthal - Cranzhal (Fichtelbergbahn), Germany". Well, Fichtelbergbahn (Fichtelberg Railway) is a narrow gauge railway that leads from the standard gauge international line at Cranzahl (not Cranzhal) to the ski resort of Oberwiesenthal (the highest town in Germany) in the Erzgebirge mountains (Ore Mountains), today the border between Germany and the Czech Republic, but from centuries the natural border between Saxony and Bohemia.

0591 PHILIPPINES (Southwestern Tagalog Region) - Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park (UNESCO WHS)

Located on the northern coast of the island of Palawan, this park offers a spectacular limestone karst landscape, the main attraction being St. Pauls Underground River Cave - a more than 24km long cave, which contains an 8.2-km-long underground section of Cabayugan River, which was the world's longest underground river until 2007, when was discovered another one longest in Yucatán Peninsula. The river winds through the cave before flowing directly into the South China Sea, and is navigable with a boat up to 4km in from the sea.

0589 FINLAND (Kymenlaakso) - Hamina and its star-shaped fortress

Located in Southern Finland, Hamina is one of the most important harbours of the country, specialises in forest products and transit cargo to Russia. The settlement named Vehkalahti, known since 1336, got the city status in 1653 as Vehkalahden Uusikaupunki (New City of Vehkalahti). During Great Northern War it was ruined by the Russian troops, and after Treaty of Nystadt (1721), when Old Finland become part of Russian Empire, Vehkalahti become the important border Swedish fortress. The fortress Fredrikshamn (name shortened by Finns in Hamina) was founded above the city ruins. During the Russo-Swedish War of 1741-1743 it was yielded to Russia, which strengthened and expanded it, but after that Finland was included entirely to Russian Empire (1809) it has lost its military value. There were no significant events in Hamina history in 20th century, apart from dissolution of Russian Empire and birth of independent Finland state in 1918.

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.