St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - Estonia

I've a lot of places that I want to visit, the list is quite long and for many years Tallinn was on the top of that list. If someone asked me about a city I'd like to visit, Tallinn would always be my answer. I finally visited it last month, actually, I was there one month ago and loving every minute in this lovely city. I'll definitely come back one day, a snowy day!! 

Hint! If you want to buy stamps and send cards from there, there's a post office on the left side of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, that's where I bought my stamps and I think you can guess which one of these cards I've sent to my mailbox. Yes, the snowy view.  The other card was sent by Rita. 

Foto: http://pilvepiksel.ee

This spectacular, onion-domed structure perched atop Toompea Hill is Estonia's main Russian Orthodox cathedral.

It's also by far the grandest, most opulent Orthodox church in Tallinn.

Built in 1900, when Estonia was part of the tsarist Russian empire, the cathedral was originally intended as a symbol of the empire's dominance – both religious and political – over this increasingly unruly Baltic territory.

The cathedral was dedicated to the Prince of Novgorod, Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky, who led the famous Battle of the Ice at Lake Peipsi in 1242, which halted the German crusaders' eastward advance. It was deliberately placed in this prominent location right in front of Toompea Castle, on the same spot where a statue of Martin Luther had previously stood, to show the mainly Lutheran locals who was in charge.

Now with the controversy long since faded, what's left is simply an architectural masterpiece. Designed by respected St. Petersburg architect Mikhail Preobrazhenski, the church is richly decorated in a mixed historicist style. The interior, filled with mosaics and icons, is well worth a visit.

The church's towers' hold Tallinn's most powerful church bell ensemble, consisting of 11 bells, including the largest in Tallinn, weighing 15 tonnes. You can hear the entire ensemble playing before each service. - in: https://www.visittallinn.ee/eng/visitor/see-do/sightseeing/pid-307/st-alexander-nevsky-cathedral

Konya - Turkey

Third and last card sent by Muanmer. Konya is also on the UNESCO Tentative List. 

Konya is a major city in south western edge of the Central Anantolian Plateau and is the 7th most populous city in Turkey. 

PTT

The Mevlâna Museum is the mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian Sufi mystic also known as Mevlâna or Rumi. It was also the dervish lodge (tekke) of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes.

Sultan 'Ala' al-Din Kayqubad, the Seljuk sultan who had invited Mevlâna to Konya, offered his rose garden as a fitting place to bury Rumi's father, Baha' ud-Din Walad (also written as Bahaeddin Veled), when he died on 12 January 1231. When Mevlâna died on 17 December 1273 he was buried next to his father.

Mevlâna's successor Hüsamettin Çelebi decided to build a mausoleum (Kubbe-i-Hadra) over the grave of his master. The Seljuk construction, under architect Badr al-Din Tabrizi, was finished in 1274. Gürcü Hatun, the wife of the Seljuk Emir Suleyman Pervane, and Emir Alameddin Kayser funded the construction. The cylindrical drum of the dome originally rested on four pillars. The conical dome is covered with turquoise faience.

The decree of 6 April 1926 confirmed that the mausoleum and the dervish lodge (Dergah) were to be turned into a museum. The museum opened on 2 March 1927. In 1954 it was renamed as "Mevlâna Museum". - in: wikipedia

Aspendos - Turkey

The ancient city of Aspendos, approximately 50 kilometers east of Antalya, is one of the big-hitter historic attractions in Turkey's Turquoise Coast region. The local theater is of the Roman Empire's greatest remaining pieces of architecture. 

The Theatre and Aqueducts of this ancient city are on the UNESCO Tentative List. 

www.guneykartpostal.com

Aspendos' theater is one of the largest ever built by the Romans in Asia Minor, and today it is one of the best preserved examples of Roman theater architecture. Located in the lower town area of the site, the theater was built in the 2nd century AD during Marcus Aurelius' reign.

The mammoth seating plan could fit an audience of between 15,000 and 20,000. It has been thoroughly restored and is now used for music and drama festivals, including Turkey's famous annual Aspendos Opera Festival.

The semi-circular auditorium, divided into two sections by a broad passage halfway up, has 20 tiers of seating, with 10 staircases in the lower half and 19 tiers with 21 staircases in the upper part. Round the top runs a barrel-vaulted colonnade.

At either end of the stage are vaulted passages giving access to the orchestra. The two-story stage wall was articulated by slender double columns with Ionic capitals on the lower order and Corinthian capitals on the upper one. The double column flanking the central entrance to the stage had a common broken pediment. The stage itself had a wooden roof suspended by ropes, and the auditorium, too, was probably covered by an awning. - in: https://www.planetware.com/antalya/aspendos-tr-ant-sda.htm

Diyarbakır Fortress - Turkey

Since the last day of June, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has been discussing the inscription of new sites. This morning Portugal received wonderful news from Baku. Our 2 candidates were inscribed ツ The Royal Building of Mafra – Palace, Basilica, Convent, Cerco Garden and Hunting Park (Tapada) and Sanctuary of Bom Jesus in Braga are now on the UNESCO WHS list. 

In 2015 Turkey had Diyarbakir Fortress inscribed. I got this card thanks to Muanmer.

Foto: Mehmet Masun Süer

Located on an escarpment of the Upper Tigris River Basin that is part of the so-called Fertile Crescent, the fortified city of Diyarbakır and the landscape around has been an important centre since the Hellenistic period, through the Roman, Sassanid, Byzantine, Islamic and Ottoman times to the present. The site encompasses the Inner castle, known as İçkale and including the Amida Mound, and the 5.8 km-long city walls of Diyarbakır with their numerous towers, gates, buttresses, and 63 inscriptions. The site also includes the Hevsel Gardens, a green link between the city and the Tigris that supplied the city with food and water, the Anzele water source and the Ten-Eyed Bridge. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1488

BG-130753

Postcrossers like to travel and like to send postcards while traveling. Thanks to the travel mode option it is now possible to send official postcards with the ID of the country / countries you're visiting. That's what Frederick did. In May he left Germany and traveled to Bulgaria, where he got my address.

Last month I've also sent 4 postcards on travel mode. I've send cards with Swedish, Finnish, Estonian and Dutch ID's. The Estonian cards wasn't not registered yet.

© Larus Ltd

BG-130753, sent by Frederick.

Kranevo (Bulgarian: Кранево) is a coastal village on the northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.

The vast beach, clean sea, gently sloping sea bottom and curative mineral water have propelled the swift growth of the village into a competitive tourist destination.

Trier's Cathedral - Germany

Raquel is probably one of the postcrossers who sent me more postcards from PC meetings. These two were sent by her. The 1st in May 2016 and the 2nd a few days ago.

The High Cathedral of Saint Peter is the largest church structure in Trier. In 1986 it was listed as part of the Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St. Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Foto: RV-Archiv S.

Trier Cathedral, the oldest bishop’s church in Germany, stands today in Trier’s center above a former palace from the era of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. The palace complex was supplanted in the 4th century by the largest Christian church complex from ancient times. It consisted of four basilicas joined by a large baptistry; the complex covered an area extending to the present Main Market. Tours under the building of the Cathedral Information show the remains of the first Early Christian assembly room north of the Alps from the late 3rd century and the remains of the first basilica.

Poster XXL

Today's Cathedral still contains a Roman central section with the original walls rising up to a height of 26 m (86 ft). The huge fragment of a granite column next to the entrance to the Cathedral is another indication of the Roman origin of the building. After destructions in the 5th and 9th centuries, the remaining nucleus was enlarged by Romanesque additions - today, the Cathedral, with its three crypts, its cloister, Cathedral Treasury, and Holy Robe Chapel, displays architecture and artwork from more than 1650 years. - in: http://www.trier-info.de/english/cathedral-info

Bremen - Germany

Bremen is one more German city that I would like to visit, the fact that it is a UNESCO site highly contributes to put it on my long list of places to visit in Germany. Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace have been on the World Heritage list since 2004

Photo by Okon

DE-1187261, sent by Piet.

The Marktplatz (Market square) is dominated by the opulent façade of the Town Hall of Bremen.
The old town hall was built in the Gothic style in the early 15th century, after Bremen joined the Hanseatic League. The building was renovated in the so-called Weser Renaissance style in the early 17th century. A new town hall was built next to the old one in the early 20th century as part of an ensemble that survived bombardment during the Second World War. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1087

Set between the town hall and the State Parliament, the cathedral completes the ensemble of historical buildings on Bremen's market square.

Protestant/Lutheran church with a history spanning more than 1,200 years. It was built in Early-Gothic style in the first half of the 13th century. The oldest sections are the crypts. 

Foto: Torsten Krüger

DE-8247206, sent by Tatjana.

There are Roland statues in many German towns and cities, symbolising freedom and market rights. Bremen's Roland statue is one of the most beautiful, the largest and, according to UNESCO experts, the most representative and one of the oldest examples. 

Measuring five and a half metres (with a baldachin bringing the total height up to just over ten metres), the stone giant was erected in 1404, after its wooden predecessor was destroyed by the archbishop's soldiers in 1366. The distance between its knees is exactly one Bremen 'elle', a historical unit of measurement. From the outset, the statue symbolised the freedom and independence of the city. - in: https://www.bremen.eu/tourism/attractions/roland-statue