Monthly Fav. Surprise RR * July '24

 One card from June is still missing but July's cards have safely arrived to my mailbox. These are from Belarus, Russia, Aland Islands and Madagascar.

 

A unique monument of neo-gothic architecture of the 19th century is situated in the Belarusian town of Kossovo. The Palace of the Puslovskys, or Kossovo Castle, consists of the central two-storied building and two wings. Because of the rectangular merlons at the top of the towers the palace is often called a mini-castle. Each tower symbolizes one month of the year, with four highest towers in the center standing for May, June, July and August when harvest is reaped. It's construction started in 1838.

The palace boasts over 100 rooms with no walk-through rooms. Thanks to a system of corridors and a special location of the windows every year one of the palace’s rooms was flooded with sunlight for two and a half days. This was the time when the owners of the palace celebrated the Day of the Room adorning it and spending there most of the time.
During the Second World War the palace suffered the worst damage. For many days a fire blazed through its rooms in 1944 and destroyed the decoration of the chambers and left only the magnificent walls.
Despite the destruction, Kossovo Palace still impresses and attracts tourists. It had been restored to it's former glory and beauty and it is now a social, cultural and tourism center. 

Card sent by Kate.

Trinity-Sergius Lavra is probably one of the places / monuments in Russia that I've the most cards from. 

The card was sent by Nadezhda.

An Åland card, with an Åland flag stamp, sent from the Åland by Zaara. 

The Jan Karlsgården open-air museum shows the visitors how life may have been at a farm on Åland in the late 1800s – how people lived and worked there. Various activities are also arranged here all the year round.
The museum was founded in the 1930s and got its name from the farm Jan Karls in Finström, from where the main building was also moved. All buildings at Jan Karlsgården have been brought here from various parts of the Åland islands. Jan Karlsgården provides the visitor with a comprehensive view of the life and building traditions that once existed here. - in: https://book.visitaland.com

 

I've tagged and swapped with Nancy in the past and in July I "met" her again on this RR. We always sent UNESCO cards to each other and this time was no different. She sent me this UNESCO card from Madagascar, still missing in my collection.Tsingy de Bemaraha is one Madagascar’s Andrefana Dry Forests classified as UNESCO WHS in 1990.

Tsingy de Bemaraha Reserve is located in the drier eastern side of Madagascar and supports a quite distinct fauna and flora in a dramatic karst landscape.  The limestone plateau has been carved into an impressive forest of pinnacles (tsingys) and caves, with deep gorges filled with forest. The undisturbed forests are the habitat of many rare and endangered species with highly restricted ranges including lemurs, chamealeons, and other taxa. - in: https://www.africanworldheritagesites.org