Monthly Fav. Surprise RR * June' 22

Marei, Tanya, Julia and Heli did a great job choosing these cards for me.

 

Aschau is a village in Bavaria. 

Hohenaschau Castle is one of the largest castles in Bavaria, built in the XII century by brothers von Hirnsberg. After having been built,  it passed from hand to hand for seven centuries, belonged to different dynasties until it fell into disrepair. In the twentieth century, the castle housed a hospital, then a building of fleet control, and nowadays it comprises a rest house, a falconry center and a museum telling about the history of the castle owners. - in: https://tourism.restexpert.com

Smolny Cathedral's stunning blue-and-white building is undoubtedly one of the architectural masterpieces of the Italian architect Rastrelli, who also created the Winter Palace, the Grand Catherine (Yekaterininsky) Palace in Pushkin, the Grand Palace in Peterhof and many other major St. Petersburg landmarks. The cathedral is the centerpiece of the convent, built by Rastrelli between 1748 and 1764.
Today Smolny Cathedral is used primarily as a concert hall and the surrounding convent houses various offices and government institutions. - in: http://www.saint-petersburg.com

 

The Church of the Holy Spirit is one of the 50 buildings of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius in the town of Sergiev Posad about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow. 

This church, built in 1476, combines unique features of early Muscovite and Pskovian architecture. A remarkable feature of this church is a bell tower under its dome without internal interconnection between the belfry and the cathedral itself. - in: https://whc.unesco.org

 

 

Photo: Vastavalo

St. John's Church (Johanneksenkirkko) stands in Punavuori on the hill where midsummer bonfires took place. Representing the neogothic style, it is the largest stone church in Finland. The church was designed by architect Adolf Emil Melander from Stockholm in 1891. - in:https://www.myhelsinki.fi