Victoria Citadel - Malta

Last month I traveled to Malta with a friend. Beautiful towns, landscapes and cheap stamps, the cheapest stamps I've ever bought. I'd be an even happier postcrosser in Malta. The cards are also cheap and this is the one I sent to mysfelf. 

Victoria Citadel on Gozo island is not a UNESCO site but it might be one day as it is on the tentative list.

All roads in Gozo lead to Rabat, also known as Victoria. The Citadel is visible from almost all the Island, rising steeply above the surrounding countryside. 

© Photo: Maurizio Urso

The Citadel in Gozo owes its roots to the late medieval era, but the hill has been settled since Neolithic times. For centuries, the Citadel served as a sanctuary from attack by Barbary corsairs and Saracens. At several times during Gozo's history, these raiders took its population into slavery.

After the Great Siege of 1565, the Knights set about re-fortifying the Citadel to provide refuge and defence against further attack. Until 1637, the Gozitan population was required by law to spend their nights within the Citadel for their own safety. In later, more peaceful times, this restriction was lifted and people settled below its walls, creating the prosperous town of Rabat, now known as Victoria. - in: https://www.visitmalta.com/en/victoria-and-cittadella

Christiansfeld - Denmark

Here comes a card from another new UNESCO site in my collection. Christiansfeld in Denmark was added to the World Heritage Site list in 2015. 

Tack Doris.

Founded in 1773 in South Jutland, the site is an example of a planned settlement of the Moravian Church, a Lutheran free congregation centred in Herrnhut, Saxony. The town was planned to represent the Protestant urban ideal, constructed around a central Church square. The architecture is homogenous and unadorned, with one and two-storey buildings in yellow brick with red tile roofs. The democratic organization of the Moravian Church, with its pioneering egalitarian philosophy, is expressed in its humanistic town planning. The settlement’s plan opens onto agricultural land and includes important buildings for the common welfare such as large communal houses for the congregation’s widows and unmarried men and women. The buildings are still in use and many are still owned by the local Moravian Church community. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1468

Villa « Le Lac » - Switzerland

In 2016, the Villa « Le Lac », near Vevey, Switzerland, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its outstanding contribution to the Modern Movement, alongside 16 other architectural works in seven countries.

Thanks to Óscar, now I only need cards from Belgium and Argentina, to have at least one of the Le Corbusiers works in these seven countries. 

Photo: Olivier Martin-Gambier 2006

A gem of ingenuity and functionalism, the Villa « Le Lac » (1923) is among Le Corbusier’s most inventive and most personal creations. This masterpiece of modern architecture, built for the architect’s parents, embodies three of what would become his five points for a new architecture: the roof garden, the open plan design and the long, horizontal window. A real “machine for living”, it illustrates the ideas that Le Corbusier had already espoused in his earlier works and that would ensure the success of the villas that he built from the 1920s onwards. - in: https://www.region-du-leman.ch/en/P494/villa-le-lac-le-corbusier

Naumburg Cathedral - Germany

A few days ago 19 new sites and 1 significant modifications to the boundaries, were added to the UNESCO WHS list. Of those 19 sites I only had 2 and now with this card sent by Ina, I've 3 of the new sites. Notice that Ina used 2 matching stamps. 

Naumburg Cathedral is one of the two sites that Germany inscribed this year. 

© 2016, Foto: Verlag Janos Stekovics

Located in the eastern part of the Thuringian Basin, the Cathedral of Naumburg, whose construction began in 1028, is an outstanding testimony to medieval art and architecture. Its Romanesque structure, flanked by two Gothic choirs, demonstrates the stylistic transition from late Romanesque to early Gothic. The west choir, dating to the first half of the 13th century reflects changes in religious practice and the appearance of science and nature in the figurative arts. The choir and life-size sculptures of the founders of the Cathedral are masterpieces of the workshop known as the “Naumburg Master”. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1470

DE-7261031

Official from Mönchengladbach in Germany.

© Kunsthaus Krichel 

DE-7261031, sent by Michael. 

The only thing I knew about this german city before getting this card, was that the city is home to football team, Borussia Mönchengladbach, one of the country's most well-known teams. Now I know that the city is located in North Rhine-Westphalia, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border. 

In the city we can visit the Basilica of St. Vitus, the Municipal Abteiberg Museum for contemporary art and Museum im Wasserturm Rheindahlen for relics of the stone age. 

Limousin septennial ostensions - France

I'm crazy about UNESCO WHS, love to get cards of the heritage sites, to visit the sites and learn about them. However, UNESCO also protects intangible cultural heritages and it also has a list with the aim of ensuring better protection of these cultural heritages worldwide and the awareness of their significance. I've to confess that I've never paid much attention to these and I believe this is the 1st time I'm posting a card of a tradition classified as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. 

This card was sent by Damien. 

The Limousin septennial ostensions are grand ceremonies and processions organized every seventh year for the exhibition and worship of relics of Catholic saints kept in Limousin churches.

Widely supported by local towns and villages, the festivities are attended by great numbers of people who gather to see the reliquaries as they process through town, accompanied by flags, banners, decorations and costumed historical figures. The septennial ostensions belong to the whole population of Limousin, and the inhabitants – Christian and non-Christian alike – think of themselves as the keepers of the tradition. Confraternities and committees are actively involved in the transmission of knowledge (both oral and written), as well as the artefacts linked with this practice. Preparing the ostensions is a communal, year-long undertaking that mobilizes the knowledge and skills of many craftspeople, local clergy, councillors, charities and volunteers, as well as choirs, bands and musical groups, in organizing the festivities and renewing the memory of the ostensions. The preparations also help to strengthen social bonds, while the festivities play an important role in helping recently arrived or former inhabitants to integrate and in reuniting families as relatives return to join in the celebrations. - in: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/limousin-septennial-ostensions-00885

Meeting in Bordeaux - France

Last month 18 postcrossers got together in Bordeaux for another postcrossing meeting. It seems quite normal these days to create special cards for meetings. Joana created 4 different ones for this one and sent me 2 of them. 

This large blue lion conceived by the French artist Xavier Veilhan is the most striking feature in Place Stalingrad.  It has become one of the symbols of the renewal of this district, which was for many years regarded as the black sheep of the Bordeaux neighbourhoods.

The Miroir d'eau (Water Mirror), built in 2006,  is the largest water mirror in the world, covering 3,450 square metres (37,100 sq ft). Located opposite the Place de la Bourse, between the Quai de la Douane and the Louis XVIII quay, the mirror of water alternates extraordinary effects of mirror and fog.