191 SINGAPORE - Marina Bay

Marina Bay is a bay near Central Area in the southern part of Singapore, and lies to the east of the Downtown Core. The area surrounding the bay itself, also called Marina Bay, is a 360 hectare extension to the adjacent Central Business District. The URA Master Plan for Marina Bay aims to encourage a mix of uses for this area, including commercial, residential, hotel and entertainment. The Singapore government also spent $35 million to complete the 3.5 km Waterfront Promenade around Marina Bay. It includes a new eco-friendly visitor centre and The Helix linking Bayfront to Marina Centre where the Youth Olympic Park is located. The Promontory @ Marina Bay (formerly Central Promontory Site) will be used as an interim event space and public space used for activities such as theatres and carnivals. 

In 1970s, land reclamation was carried out at Marina Bay, forming what is today the Marina Centre and Marina South areas. In the reclamation process, Telok Ayer Basin and Inner Roads was removed from the map by reclaiming land, while the Singapore River's mouth now flows into the bay instead of directly into the sea. In 2008, Marina Barrage was built, asin into a new downtown freshwater Marina Reservoir, providing water supply, flood control and a new lifestyle attraction. The inaugural Singapore Grand Prix took place on 28 September 2008 on a street circuit through Marina Bay. It was also the first ever Formula One Grand Prix to be staged at night, with the track fully floodlit. Since its inception, The Float@Marina Bay has hosted events such as the National Day Parade, New Year’s Eve Countdown, Singapore Fireworks Celebrations, as well as served as a spectator stand for the inaugural Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix. The world’s largest floating stadium played host to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the inaugural 2010 Summer Youth Olympics.

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Starring You sent from Singapore on ?

190 ITALY - Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta (UNESCO)

Ferrara is an outstanding planned Renaissance city which has retained its urban fabric virtually intact. The developments in town planning expressed in Ferrara were to have a profound influence on the development of urban design throughout the succeeding centuries. The brilliant Este court attracted a constellation of artists, poets and philosophers during the two seminal centuries of the Renaissance. The Po Delta is an outstanding planned cultural landscape which retains its original form to a remarkable extent. Among the great Italian cities Ferrara is the only to have an original plan that is not derived from a Roman layout. It did not develop from a central area but rather on a linear axis, along the banks of the Po River, with longitudinal streets and many cross streets around which the medieval city was organized. The most significant characteristic of Ferrara's urban history rests on the fact that it developed from the 14th century onwards and, for the first time in Europe, on the basis of planning regulations that are in use nowadays in all modern towns. This type of development is known asaddizione ; the third phase was implemented in 1492, making Ferrara the only planned Renaissance town to have been completed. The street network and the enclosing walls are closely linked with the palaces, the churches, and the gardens. Throughout the 16th century the city was planned with the aim of making it a future 'capital'. Its evolution came to an end after the 17th century under papal administration, and the city did not undergo any extensions for almost three centuries. The city plan (1492) provided for doubling its area, an expansion limited to the south of the castle. This extension was completed by a new and very up-to-date defensive system made up of elements belonging to the various extensions carried out over several centuries (ramparts, keeps, semicircular towers, bastions, barbicans, etc.). These alterations completely changed the appearance of the city: new streets were created on a grid and buildings in a new style were built.

The most important monument surviving from the medieval period is the San Giorgio Cathedral dating back to the 12th century. The facade is a work of the master builder and sculptor Niccolo who, influenced by Benedetto Antelami, worked in the first half of the 12th century; the construction of the bell tower began in 1451 to a design attributed to Leon Battista Alberti. Standing in front of the cathedral, the 13th-century Palazzo Comunale was the first residence of the Este family and was joined in the late 15th century to the Castello di San Michele or Castello Estense. This massive, four-towered fortress was built in 1385 by the court architect Bartolomeo da Novara after a violent popular revolt. Works were carried out until 1570 with the creation of a noble residence with large halls to receive the court and embellished by frescoes and marble balconies and logge. The Palazzo Schifanoia, built in 1385, was first remodelled in 1465-67 for Borso d'Este by the architect Piero Benvenuti degli Ordini assisted by the young Biagio Rossetti, who was responsible alone for the work in 1493. The palace has a long brick facade with a marble portal bearing the arms of the Commandery, the work of Ercole de' Roberti. It is, however, the decoration of the halls, and in particular of the Hall of the Months, which best illustrate the humanist culture of Ferrara. The intersection of the streets coming from the castle (Corso Ercole I) and the main axis of Ercole 1a addizione (Corso Rossetti, Corso Porta Mare) linking two of the city gates is one of the most important elements in the 1492 city plan. This focal point, which links the modern and Renaissance city with the medieval, is underlined by four palaces: Palazzo Prosperi-Sacrati, Palazzo Bevilacqua, Palazzo Turchi-Di Bagno and Palazzo dei Diamanti. The construction of the Palazzo dei Diamanti began in 1492 for Sigismondo d'Este, but was not completed until 1565. The regular rustication over the entire height of the facades gives it a special appearance.

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Daniele Pennisi (direct swap) sent from Zafferana Etnea (Italy) on 12.05.2014

189 BULGARIA - Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo (UNESCO)

In the valley of the Roussenski Lom River, in north-east Bulgaria, a complex of rock-hewn churches, chapels, monasteries and cells developed in the vicinity of the village of Ivanovo. This is where the first hermits had dug out their cells and churches during the 12th century. The 14th-century murals testify to the exceptional skill of the artists of the Tarnovo school of painting. The period of the history of Bulgaria from the last years of the 12th century, when for the second time the country became independent from Byzantium, until the Ottoman Empire annexation in 1396, is known as the Second Bulgarian Empire. Independence from Byzantium could not be complete until the Bulgarian clergy became dependents of the Patriarch of Costantinopoli. In 1204, the Kaloyan Tsar signed an agreement with the Papacy in order to return as part of the Roman Catholic church. It was not to be a long-lasting agreement. During the reign of Tsar Ivan Ansen II, Bulgaria once again embraced Orthodox Christianity, but with its own Patriarch, not subordinate to Costantinople. The first Patriarch was the monk Gioacchino, who shared with Ivan Ansen the plan to expand the Bulgarian church. Before taking over the Patriarchal throne he had lived as a hermit in a cave in the river Rusenski Lom valley, not far from the village of Ivanovo. The monk achieved so high a level of sanctity that Tzar Ivan Ansen entrusted to him the construction of a monastery, something which contributed to strengthen his image as a merciful monarch. The convent was built between 1218 and 1235 and had from the outset a rocky character; all its buildings were dug into the limestone cliff gorge of the river and its contributories.

In the years between 1331 and 1371 the monastery, thanks to further new royal donations, acquired the best of its artistic patrimony: the splendid frescoes attributable to the painters of the so-called Tarnovo School. During the conquest of the country by the Ottoman Turks in 1396, the forgotten monastery of Ivanovo fell quickly into ruins and was abandoned. The solid limestone out of which it was carved and on which frescoes were painted enabled it to resist to the inclemency of the weather. Along the two walls of the Rusenski Lom river gorge there is a labyrinth of cells, of rooms, and above all of churches and chapels dug into the cliff face which were originally completely covered by frescoes, but of which only five are still in good condition. Bearing in mind the fact that three of these churches go back to the reign of Ivan or immediately afterwards, they constitute remarkable evidence of the revolution in painting during the two centuries of the Second Bulgarian Empire. In the churches of the first period, the human figures are painted in the same realistic style, with oval faces and fleshy lips, and the colours of the clothing are bright. The 14th-century frescoes by contrast are in the classical style of the Palaeologic period. The five churches and their frescoes are testimony to the Byzantine art influence in Bulgaria. The creation and decoration of these rock-hewn churches is largely attributable to the donations of the Bulgarian Tzars in the 13th and 14th centuries.

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Irina Kalcheva (direct swap) sent from Sofia (Bulgaria) on 14.04.2014

188 HUNGARY - Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and the Andrássy Avenue (WHS)

Within the unified perspective of an immense urban panorama the Danube is the dividing line between two cities, which were quite separate originally: Buda on the spur on the right bank, and Pest in the plain on the left bank. Human occupation of both sites is extremely ancient as it can be traced back to the Palaeolithic period; Celtic populations also established themselves here, attracted by the abundance of thermal springs. But the historic importance of the city is certainly prior to the medieval period, when the two urban developments received their present names. It dates back to the foundation of Aquincum by the Romans, the capital of Lower Pannonia, one of the border provinces of the Empire in the 2nd century AD. Aquincum played an essential role in the diffusion of Roman architectural forms in Pannonia, then in Dacia. Remains of Aquincum and of the camp Contra Aquincum have been revealed by archaeological excavations on both sides of the river and can be seen today, together with a few arches of the aqueduct which supplied the Roman colony, but the present city did not develop on the ruins of the ancient city. After the Hungarian invasion in the 9th century, Pest became the first medieval urban centre, only to be devastated by the Mongol raids of 1241-42. A few years later the castle of Buda was built on a rocky spur on the right bank by Bela IV and the inhabitants of Pest found shelter within its fortified outer walls. The castle is an architectural ensemble illustrating two significant periods of history separated by an interval corresponding to the Turkish invasion. Buda Castle played an essential role in the diffusion of Gothic art in the Magyar region from the 14th century.

The history of Buda became closely identified with that of the Hungarian monarchy and followed their changing fortunes. There was a brilliant period, corresponding with the Angevin dynasty, from the reign of Charles-Robert (1308-42) to that of Sigismund of Luxembourg (1382-1432). After the end of Hungarian independence, a second golden age coincided with the reign of Matthias Corvinus (1458-90), the humanist king who not only founded the university, the library and the royal printing office, but also attracted Italian architects, sculptors and painters, making Buda one of the main centres of Renaissance art in Europe. After the city was ransacked by the Turks in 1526 and its final fall in 1541, the two original cities were rebuilt and led a semi-lethargic existence until 1686. Recovery did not really begin again until the 18th century, when the Empress Maria Theresa and the Emperor Joseph II took an interest in the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary: the city was then influenced by late Baroque architecture, soon to be supplanted by the more sober lines of discreet neoclassicism. In the 19th century, the city's role as capital became enhanced by the foundation of the Hungarian Academy (1830), after 1862 housed in a neo-Renaissance palace, and especially by the construction of the imposing neo-Gothic Parliament building (1884-1904). The parliament is an outstanding example of a great official building on a par with those of London, Munich, Vienna and Athens. It exemplifies the eclectic architecture of the 19th century, while symbolizing the political function of the second capital of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Since 1849, W. T. Clark's suspension bridge has symbolized the reunification of Buda and Pest (which did not become official until 1873). With the Union of Pest and Buda in 1873, Budapest truly became the nation's capital, developing at a faster rhythm than earlier. The symbol of this development is the radial Andràssy Avenue. There had been no attempts at organized urban development since the Middle Ages, and the Hungarian capital needed to make up for this lack in a single great leap in terms of public services, transportation, and city planning. The route of the avenue cut straight through an unregulated suburban area, thereby radically transforming its urban structure. The Siemens and Halske companies built the first underground railway on the European continent there in 1893-96. This also led to the construction of a memorial on Heroes' Square (1894- 1906), the development and extension of the landscape garden, the development of the Szechenyi Baths as an establishment for spa culture, and the Vajdahunyad Castle that displayed the different periods of Hungarian architecture.

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ditk3 (postcrossing) sent from Budapest (Hungary) on 27.05.2014

187 RUSSIA - Russian Bread

In general, the word "bread" is associated in Russian culture with hospitality, bread being the most respected food, whereas salt is associated with long friendship, as expressed in a Russian saying "to eat a pood of salt (together with someone)". Also historically the Russian Empire had a high salt tax that made salt a very expensive and prized commodity. There also is a traditional Russian greeting "Khleb da sol!" (Хлеб да соль! "Bread and salt!"). The phrase is to be uttered by an arriving guest as an expression of good wish towards the host's household. It was often used by beggars as an implicit hint to be fed, therefore a mocking rhymed response is known: "Khleb da sol!" — "Yem da svoy!" (Хлеб да соль — ем да свой! "Bread and salt!" — "I am eating and it is my own!").

With the advent of the Soviet space program, this tradition has spread into space. It was observed at the Apollo-Soyuz project, when crackers and salt tablets were used in the spaceship. Bread chunks and salt were a welcome at the Mir space station, a tradition that was extended on the International space station. Bread and salt are also a welcome for cosmonauts returning to Earth. In the Russian Orthodox Church, it is customary to greet the bishop at the steps of the church when he arrives for a pastoral visit to a church or monastery with bread and salt.

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Tany (postcrossing) sent from ? (Russia) on 15.06.2014

186 GERMANY - St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Church at Hildesheim (UNESCO)

St Michael's Church has exerted great influence on developments in architecture. The complex bears exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared. These two edifices and their artistic treasures give a better overall and more immediate understanding than any other decoration in Romanesque churches in the Christian West. The ancient Benedictine abbey church of St Michael, built between 1010 and 1022 by Bernward, Bishop of Hildesheim, is one of the key monuments of medieval art. Of basilical layout with opposed apses, the church is characterized by its symmetrical design: the east and west choirs are each preceded by a transept which protrudes substantially from the side aisles; elegant circular turrets on the axis of the gable of both transept arms contrast with the silhouettes of the massive lantern towers located at the crossing. In the nave, the presence of square impost pillars alternating in a original rhythm with columns having cubic capitals creates a type of elevation which was prove very successful in Ottonian and Romanesque art.

St Mary's Cathedral, rebuilt after the fire of 1046, still retains its original crypt. The nave arrangement, with the familiar alternation of two consecutive columns for every pillar, was modelled after that of St Michael's, but its proportions are more slender. The church of St Michael and the cathedral contain an exceptional series of elements of interior decoration that together are quite unique for the understanding of layouts used during the Romanesque era. First come the bronze doors dating to 1015, which retrace the events from the book of Genesis and the life of Christ, and the bronze column dating from around 1020, the spiral decor of which, inspired by Trajan's Column, depicts scenes from the New Testament. These two exceptional castings, the first of this size since antiquity, were commissioned by Bishop Bernward for St Michael's; they are now preserved in the cathedral. Also of special significance are the corona of light of Bishop Hezilon and the baptismal fonts of gold-plated bronze of Bishop Conrad.

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Jenni (UNESCO Forum) sent from ? (Germany) on ?

185 ROMANIA - Churches of Moldavia (UNESCO)

In the European art of the period, the exterior mural painting of the northern Moldavian churches is a unique phenomenon in Byzantine art and a masterpiece of mural art. In terms of the art of Romania, this group of churches constitutes a specific phenomenon, from the point of view of architecture as well as painting. Their exterior painted walls constitute an exceptional aesthetic value, forming a perfect symbiosis between colour, architecture, and surrounding landscape. Moldavia became an independent state in the 14th century, achieving its apogee during the anti-Ottoman crusades of princes Stephen the Great and Peter Rares. This also produced a cultural flowering, and the most remarkable series of churches. A general Christian tradition of decorating the exteriors of churches was adopted and extended in Moldavia. This had its own specific iconography, dominated by certain obligatory themes: the Church Hierarchy, the Last Judgement, and the Tree of Jesse. These monuments form a compact and coherent group in chronological terms, all being built in the 1530s and 1540s, during the reign of Peter Rares. They are all within a 60 km radius of Suceava, the residence of the Moldavian princes. The Church of the Holy Rood, Patrauti, built in 1487 by Stephen the Great, was pillaged in 1653 and 1684 and restored by Prince Nicolas Mavrocordat in the early 18th century. It is a small three-apsed building consisting of a sanctuary, a naos crowned with a high drum, and a narthex. The monumental interior mural painting represents the Passion Cycle. At the Church of St George of the former Voronet Monastery, also founded by Stephen the Great, the naos and sanctuary were painted between 1488 and 1496 and the narthex in 1552. It is a three-apse structure, with an exonarthex added in 1546. The interior murals represent the Passion Cycle. The walls and the vault of the exonarthex are covered by the 365 scenes of the Calendar of Saints. The exterior murals depict traditional scenes, and the famous Last Judgement, on the western wall.

The Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist was built as the residence of the Governor of Suceava, Luca Arbore. It was decorated at the order of his granddaughter in 1541 and became the village church when the family died out. The Arbore family is represented in a votive tablet on the wall of the naos and by funerary portraits in the narthex. The high quality of the interior paintings continues on the exterior. The three-apsed Church of St George, formerly the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia until the late 17th century, is now the catholicon of the Monastery of St John of Suceava. The interior paintings, although somewhat darkened, have exceptional plastic qualities. The exterior paintings of 1534 only survive on the west and south facades, and depict the four traditional themes. They are exceptional by virtue of their monumental composition, elegant silhouettes, harmonious colours and perfect Cyrillic inscriptions. The Church of St Nicholas and the Catholicon of the Monastery of Probota was built by Prince Peter Rares in 1531 as a family mausoleum. All the paintings are contemporary with the church with the exception of those in the sanctuary, repainted in the 19th century. The exterior mural paintings, in poor condition, show evidence of the hand of a master in their outstanding composition and remarkable use of colours. The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin of the former Monastery of Humor dates back to before 1415, but the present structure was built in 1530 by the great Logothete Theodore Bulberg and the wife, Anastasia, of Peter Rares. It exhibits certain architectural variations from the traditional three-apsed monastery church, such as the lack of a drum over the narthex. The Church of the Annunciation of the Monastery of Moldovita was rebuilt by Alexander the Good, but the present structure is earlier. It is very similar in form and decoration to the Humor church, and is believed that the same master may have been responsible for both churches.

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Danut Ivanescu (direct swap) sent from Ploiesti (Romania) on 16.02.2014

184 BRAZIL - The City of Cianorte

Cianorte is a city in northwest Paraná, Brazil, with a population of 68,629, as measured by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in 2009. The city was planned and founded by the Companhia Melhoramentos Norte do Paraná (Company for the Improvement of the North of Paraná), a British company for which it was also named. In the beginning of the 20th century the region was dominated by a subtropical forest and totally wild, except for the Road of Peabiru, used by the Portuguese to connect the Guaira region, further west, to the coast. That road was there since the 17th century, but reports registered that the first contact with the natives of the region, the Xetas, was in the 1930s. The Xetas, a group of three or four hundred, had their own language, and were early Iron Age in culture. The group vanished after they were contacted by the British in controversial and unexplained circumstances. In the 1940s the English company draw the city plan and split the region into very small farms. At this time, the city was redivided and part of the city and the areas around were sold to immigrants, mainly Italian-Brazilians and Japanese-Brazilians of second or third generation from São Paulo. Those immigrants were primarily poor ordinary workers in the huge coffee farms of São Paulo, and perceived the inexpensive land in Cianorte as their big opportunity in life. They built houses and schools, temples and business. The city become a municipality, which, under Brazilian laws, allows the area to extend its political structure.

The Municipio of Cianorte was created through the State Law no. 2.412 of July 26, 1955. Cianorte then had around 11.000 inhabitants, mostly in the country areas. The economy was based on coffee. A disastrous freeze in the winter of 1975, in which temperatures dropped below zero for the first time in recorded weather, destroyed the coffee plantations. Coffee trees take five years to begin producing, so the economy went through a terrible crisis. Population fell and businesses closed. The disaster transformed the city. People opened clothing factories and shops in their garages and back yards. By the time agriculture began to recover, some of the mini-factories had grown to medium sized companies, and the work force was already devoted to that. During the next decades some of those garage enterprises turned into huge factories that today sell clothes to the entire country, and export a significant portion to several countries. The shop owners from several states of Brazil visit Cianorte in the beginning of every season to buy, so hotels and restaurants were opened specially for them. Local agriculture is now significantly diversified—coffee is only 5% of the cropland now—and other farmers plant soy, sugar cane and corn. Beef and chicken are also produced in fairly big scale. With the factories and the agriculture doing very well, the city in the new millennium has attracted more and more immigrants from all over the country, and today the city population, business and infrastructure is increasing fast, turning Cianorte into the regional hub of that part of Ivai River Valley, which includes ten smaller cities.

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Davi Cesar Correia Jr (direct swap) sent from Cianorte (Brazil) on 30.12.2014

183 NETHETHERLANDS - Plane landing at night

I received this postcard without any information on the card, so I don't know where this is and what kind of plane this is.

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Kaatje Kaart (direct swap) sent from ? (Netherlands) on 13.07.2014

182 CHINA - Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa (UNESCO)

The Potala Palace symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration of Tibet. Also founded in the 7th century, the Jokhang Temple Monastery is an exceptional Buddhist religious complex. Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's former summer palace, constructed in the 18th century, is a masterpiece of Tibetan art. The beauty and originality of the architecture of these three sites, their rich ornamentation and harmonious integration in a striking landscape, add to their historic and religious interest. Construction of the Potala Palace began at the time of Songtsen of the Thubet (Tubo) dynasty in the 7th century AD. It was rebuilt in the mid-17th century by the 5th Dalai Lama in a campaign that lasted 30 years, reaching its present size in the years that followed, as a result of repeated renovation and expansion. The Potala is located on Red Mountain, 3,700 m above sea level, in the centre of the Lhasa valley. It covers an area of over 130,000 m2 and stands more than 110 m high. The White palace is approached by a winding road leading to an open square in front of the palace. Its central section is the East Main Hall, where all the main ceremonies take place. The throne of the Dalai Lama is on the north side of the hall, the walls of which are covered with paintings depicting religious and historical themes. At the top of the White Palace is the personal suite of the Dalai Lama. The Red Palace lies to the west of the White Palace. Its purpose is to house the stupas holding the remains of the Dalai Lamas. It also contains many Buddha and sutra halls. To the west of the Red Palace is the Namgyel Dratshang, the private monastery of the Dalai Lama. Other important components of the Potala complex are the squares to the north and south and the massive palace walls, built from rammed earth and stone and pierced by gates on the east, south and west sides. Building of the Jokhang Temple Monastery began in the 7th century CE, during the Tang dynasty in China. The Tibetan imperial court eagerly espoused Buddhism when it was introduced,

The site of the Temple Monastery was selected, according to legend, when the cart in which Wen Cheng was bringing the statue of Sakyamuni sank into the mud by Wotang Lake. Divination identified this as the site of the Dragon Palace, the malign influence of which could only be counteracted by the building of a monastery. The foundation stone was laid in 647 and the first major reconstruction took place in the early 11th century. During the century following the reunification of the Tibetan kingdom by the Sakya dynasty in the mid-13th century, a number of new developments took place. These included extension of the Hall of Buddha Sakyamuni and construction of a new entrance and the Hall of Buddha Dharmapala. The Temple Monastery is in the centre of the old town of Lhasa. It comprises essentially an entrance porch, a courtyard and a Buddhist hall, surrounded by accommodation for monks and storehouses on all four sides. The buildings are constructed of wood and stone. The 7th Dalai Lama is reported to have had health problems and he used to come here for a cure. The construction of Norbulingka started in 1751 with the Uya Palace. Successive Dalai Lamas continued building pavilions, palaces and halls, making it their summer residence, and soon the site became another religious, political, and cultural centre of Tibet, after the Potala Palace. Norbulingka (treasure garden) is located at the bank of the Lhasa River about 2 km west of the Potala Palace. The site consists of a large garden with several palaces, halls, and pavilions, amounting to some 36 ha. The area is composed of five sections.

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? (UNESCO Forum) sent from ? (China) on 14.01.2014

181 BELARUS - Architectural, Residential and Cultural Complex of the Radziwill family at Nesvizh

180 THAILAND - Doi Ang Khang Mountain

Doi Ang Khang is a mountain in Fang District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. It is part of the Daen Lao Range that straddles both sides of the Burmese-Thai border. It is the site of an agriculture station, which was the first research station set up by King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 1969. The peak of Doi Ang Khang is 1,928 metres (6,325 ft) above sea level, and the agriculture station covers an area of 16,577rai. The temperature average is 17.7°C, the highest temperature is 32°C On April, the lowest temperature is -3°C on January and the rainfall average is 2,075 mm per year.

The agriculture station researches and cultivates of winter fruits, winter flowers and winter vegetables. At present, the agriculture station of Doi Ang Khang has more than 12 species of winter fruits such as raspberries, peaches, plums and strawberries, and more than 60 species of vegetables such as carrots, Brussels sprouts, and peas, and more than 20 species of winter flowers such as carnations and roses.

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sweetiepatt (postcrossing) sent from Chiang Mai (Thailand) on 12.01.2014

179 SAMOA - The Island of Upolu

Upolu is an island in Samoa, formed by a massive basaltic shield volcano which rises from the seafloor of the western Pacific Ocean. The island is 75 kilometres (47 mi) long, 1,125 km² (434 sq mi) in area, and is the second largest in geographic area as well as with 135,000 people the most populated of the Samoan Islands. Upolu is situated to the southeast of the "big island", Savai'i. The capital Apia is in the middle of the north coast with Faleolo International Airport at the western end of the island. The island has not had any historically recorded eruptions, although three lava flows date back only a few hundred to a few thousand years. In the Samoan branch of Polynesian mythology, Upolu was the first woman on the island of the same name.

In 1841, the island was the site of the Bombardment of Upolu, an incident during the United States Exploring Expedition. In the late 19th century, the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson owned a 400-acre (160 ha) estate at Vailima village and died there in 1894. He is buried at the top of Mount Vaea above his former home. The Vailima estate was purchased in 1900 as the official residence for the German governor and, after British/Dominion confiscation, served successively as residence for the New Zealand administrator and for the Samoan head of state after independence. An extremely small species of spider lives on Upolu. According to the Guinness Book of World Records 2005, the spider is the size of a period on a printed page.

178 LATVIA - Andris Vitolins Ambulance

This postcard shows the painting "Ambulance" created by Andris Vitolins in Riga, Latvia. Unfortunately, I do not have many informations about him. Vitolins is a Latvian painter which already had exhibitions in Latvia and France. Here is a quote from him from his website: "Mankind fascinates me; nevertheless I do not paint people. I paint objects created by men. I portray the material world. I focus on the materialised fruit of human fantasy. I observe human development by watching how the mankind develops thus transforming and using the landscape. I am watching how our living environment gets urbanised: it escapes the control of mankind and transforms into a disarranged entanglement."

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Dietrich (postcrossing) sent from Riga (Latvia) on 15.06.2014

177 CZECH REPUBLIC - Jewish Quarter and St Procopius' Basilica in Trebíc

The Jewish Quarter of Třebíč is an exceptional testimony to the cultural traditions related to the Diaspora in central Europe, and bears witness to the coexistence of and interchange of values between two different cultures, Jewish and Christian, over many centuries. The World Heritage site is in the town of Třebíč, and it has three distinct components: the Jewish Quarter, the Jewish cemetery and St Procopius Basilica, all situated on the north bank of the River Jihlava. The Jewish Quarter rises from the river up on the hillside. The urban layout is characterized by two main streets, linked with the riverside through a number of small medieval alleys, some of which go through the houses. The buildings are vernacular in character, consisting generally of a vaulted ground floor and one or two upper floors with wooden ceilings. Some of the facades have features dating from the Renaissance or Baroque period, but many are of later date, until the 20th century. Because of political constraints, the Jewish quarter was limited in space. Its natural limits meant that this area was never fully fenced, although there was separation (eruf ) until 1875, after which Jews were free to move and buy property elsewhere. As a result, wealthy people moved out, and the area remained in the hands of the poor. Characteristically the area is organized in condominiums. At street level there was often a shop or a workshop, the upper levels being reserved for residential use. There is no special typology for a Jewish house, which is characterized more in terms of the use of a limited space and the condominium structures. This leads to linkage of different houses through acquisition of spaces from neighbouring buildings. In Třebíč the area has preserved all essential social functions, synagogues, schools, etc., as well as a leather factory.

The oldest mention of a synagogue is in 1590; the present Old (Front) Synagogue, from 1639-42, a simple Baroque building, is today used as a Hussite church. The New (Rear) Synagogue dates from the 18th century; it has been restored and serves as a museum and meeting room. In the 16th century, orders were issued to expel the Jews from the Jewish Quarter but these were not carried out. As a whole the authorities were more tolerant here than elsewhere in Europe. Earlier the Jews were involved in money lending, but they also worked in some crafts (tanning, bead-firing, glove-making, soap-making). From the 17th century they were mainly involved in trade and crafts of this kind. From the beginning, the Jewish Quarter had its own self-government with an elected magistrate and two councillors. In 1849, it had its own administration led by a mayor, and it was called Zamošti ('over the bridge'). In the 1920s the area was merged with Třebíč, and the population became progressively mixed. In 1890, there were some 1,500 Jews in this area, but in the 1930s only 300. All Jewish residents were deported during the Second World War, and none are left at present. The Jewish Cemetery is situated above the Jewish Quarter, behind the hill. Access for carriages was arranged via a special road. The current cemetery has two parts, the first part from the 15th century and the second from the 19th. There are some 4,000 stones and some of them bear important carvings. At the entrance there is a ceremonial hall, built in 1903, which is still intact. St Procopius Basilica is situated in a good position on the hill with a view over the whole of Třebíč. It was originally a monastic church (13th century) and part of a Benedictine monastery (founded in 1101). Now it is linked with the castle built on the site of the monastery after its destruction in the 16th century. This is partly due to the mixture of Romanesque and early Gothic elements. It is a triple-choired, three-aisled basilica with an elongated presbytery, an open north porch with square plan, and two western towers. Beneath the east end and the presbytery, there is a crypt with pointed rib vaults. The basilica is built from granite and sandstone. The exterior of the basilica is in square-cut granite blocks. The west elevation is in Baroque style, with 'Gothicized' features in it, and it has plaster rendering. The walls of the interior are now bare, although some traces of original plaster have been discovered in the choir. The nave has Gothicized Baroque vaults with rendered fields.

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Petr Wohlmuth (direct swap) sent from Prague (Czech Republic) on 26.02.2014

176 USA - Idaho Nature View

Idaho is a state in the northwestern region of the United States. Idaho is the 14th largest, the 39th most populous, and the 7th least densely populated of the 50 United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state. Idaho is a mountainous state with an area larger than that of all of New England. It is surrounded by the states of Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. The network of dams and locks on the Columbia River and Snake River make the city of Lewiston the farthest inland seaport on the Pacific coast of the contiguous United States. Idaho's nickname is the "Gem State", because nearly every known type of gemstone has been found there. In addition, Idaho is one of only two places in the world where star garnets can be found in any significant quantities, the other being India. Idaho is sometimes called the "Potato State" owing to its popular and widely distributed crop. The state motto is Esto Perpetua (Latin for "Let it be forever"). Humans may have been present in the Idaho area as long as 14,500 years ago. Excavations at Wilson Butte Cave near Twin Falls in 1959 revealed evidence of human activity, including arrowheads, that rank among the oldest dated artifacts in North America. American Indian peoples predominant in the area included the Nez Percé in the north and the Northern and Western Shoshone in the south. An early presence of French-Canadian trappers is visible in names and toponyms that have survived to this day: Nez Percé, Cœur d'Alène, Boisé, Payette, some preexisting the Lewis and Clark and Astorian expeditions which themselves included significant numbers of French and Metis guides recruited for their familiarity with the terrain.

Idaho, as part of the Oregon Country, was claimed by both the United States and Great Britain until the United States gained undisputed jurisdiction in 1846. From 1843 to 1849 present-day Idaho was under the de facto jurisdiction of the Provisional Government of Oregon. When Oregon became a state, what is now Idaho was in what was left of the original Oregon Territory not part of the new state, and designated as the Washington Territory. Between then and the creation of the Idaho Territory on July 4, 1863, at Lewiston, parts of the present-day state were included in the Oregon, Washington, and Dakota Territories. The new territory included present-day Idaho,Montana, and most of Wyoming. The Lewis and Clark expedition crossed Idaho in 1805 on the way to the Pacific and in 1806 on the return, largely following the Clearwater River both directions. The first non-indigenous settlement was Kullyspell House, established on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille for fur trading in 1809 by David Thompson of the North West Company. In 1812 Donald Mackenzie, working for the Pacific Fur Company at the time, established a post on the lower Clearwater River near present-day Lewiston. This post, known as "MacKenzie's Post" or "Clearwater", operated until the Pacific Fur Company was bought out by the North West Company in 1813, after which it was abandoned. The first attempts at organized communities, within the present borders of Idaho, were established in 1860. The first permanent, substantial incorporated community was Lewiston in 1861. After some tribulation as a territory, including the chaotic transfer of the territorial capital from Lewiston to Boise, disenfranchisement of Mormon polygamists upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1877, and a federal attempt to split the territory between Washington Territory which gained statehood in 1889, a year before Idaho, and the state of Nevada which had been a state since 1863, Idaho achieved statehood in 1890. The economy of the state, which had been primarily supported by metal mining, shifted towards agriculture, forest products and tourism. Idaho was one of the hardest hit of the Pacific Northwest states during the Great Depression. Prices plummeted for Idaho's major crops: in 1932 a bushel of potatoes brought only $.10 compared to $1.51 in 1919, while Idaho farmers saw their annual income of $686 in 1929 drop to $250 by 1932. In recent years, Idaho has expanded its commercial base as a tourism and agricultural state to include science and technology industries. Science and technology have become the largest single economic center (over 25% of the state's total revenue) within the state and are greater than agriculture, forestry and mining combined. The Idaho State Historical Society and numerous local historical societies and museums preserve and promote Idaho’s cultural heritage.

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Kevin Grimes (friend) sent from Idaho Falls (USA) on ?

175 CHINA - The Great Wall (UNESCO WHS)

Known to the Chinese as the 'Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li', the formidable defensive structures built to ward off invasion of the Celestial Empire by barbarians is called the Great Wall or the Wall of China by Europeans. The principle of these extraordinary fortifications goes back to the Chunqiu period (722-481 BC) and to the Warring States period (453-221 BC). The construction of certain walls can be explained by feudal conflicts, such as that built by the Wei in 408 BC to defend their kingdom against the Qin. Its vestiges, conserved in the centre of China, antedate by many years the walls built by the Kingdoms of Qin, Zhao and Yan against the northern barbarians around 300 BC. Beginning in 220 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the founder of the Empire of the Ten Thousand Generations, undertook to restore and link up the separate sections of the Great Wall which had been built in the 3rd century BC, or perhaps even earlier, and which stretched from the region of the Ordos to Manchuria. Towards the west, he had extended the fortifications, the first cohesive defence system of which significant vestiges still remain in the valley of the Huanghe all the way to Lanzhou shortly before the accession of the Han dynasty (206 BC). During their reign the Great Wall was extended even further, and under the emperor Wudi (140-87 BC) it spanned approximately 6,000 km between Dunhuang in the west and the Bohai Sea in the east. The danger of incursion along the northern Chinese border by the federated Mongols, Turks and Tunguz of the Empire of the Xiongnu, the first empire of the steppes, made a defence policy more necessary than ever. After the downfall of the Han dynasty (AD 220), the Great Wall entered its medieval phase. Construction and maintenance works were halted; China at that time enjoyed such great military power that the need for a defence policy was no longer felt.

It was the Ming Emperors (1368-1644) who, after the long period of conflict that ended with the expulsion of the Mongols, revived the tradition begun by Qin Shi Huang. During the Ming dynasty, 5,650 km of wall were built. To defend the northern frontier, the Wall was divided into nine Zhen, military districts rather than garrisons. At strategic points, fortresses were built to defend the towns, passes, or fords. The passageways running along the top of the wall made it possible to move troops rapidly and for imperial couriers to travel. Two symbolic monuments still proudly stand at either end of the wall - the First Door under Heaven at Shanhaiguan, located at the wall's eastern end, and the Last Door under Heaven at Jiayuguan, which, as part of the fortress entirely restored after 1949, marks its north-western end. This complex and diachronic cultural property is an outstanding and unique example of a military architectural ensemble which served a single strategic purpose for 2,000 years, but whose construction history illustrates successive advances in defence techniques and adaptation to changing political contexts. The purpose of The Great Wall was to protect China from outside aggression, but also to preserve its culture from the customs of foreign barbarians. Because its construction implied suffering, it is one of the essential references in Chinese literature. The Great Wall of the Ming is, not only because of the ambitious character of the undertaking but also the perfection of its construction, a masterpiece. The wall constitutes, on the vast scale of a continent, a perfect example of architecture integrated into the landscape. During the Chunqiu period, the Chinese imposed their models of construction and organization of space in building the defence works along the northern frontier. The spread of Sinicism was accentuated by the population transfers necessitated by the Great Wall. That the great walls bear exceptional testimony to the civilizations of ancient China is illustrated as much by the tamped-earth sections of fortifications dating from the Western Han that are conserved in Gansu Province as by the admirable and universally acclaimed masonry of the Ming period.

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Starring You sent from ? (China) on 14.01.2014

174 GERMANY - Wartburg Castle (UNESCO WHS)

The Castle of Wartburg is an outstanding monument of the feudal period in central Europe. It is rich in cultural associations, most notably its role as the place of exile of Martin Luther, who composed his German translation of the New Testament there. It is also a powerful symbol of German integration and unity. The legendary creation of the castle is attributed to Count Ludwig der Springer. The first steps in its construction were taken in 1067, and it became one of the key points in the early years of Ludovician sovereignty. This sovereignty grew more firmly established during the first half of the 12th century. Raised to the dignity of Landgraves, the Ludovicians supported the policies of the Stauffen emperors. The building of the palace in the second half of the 12th century illustrates their status as Princes of the Empire. In 1227 Heinrich Raspe IV, the brother of Ludwig IV, succeeded him and, espousing the pope's cause, was appointed King of Germany on the initiative of Innocent IV. His death in 1247 ended the Ludovician dynasty. The Margrave of Wettin, Heinrich von Meissen, took possession of Wartburg. The transfer of the seat of power to Gotha and subsequently to Weimar at the beginning of the 15th century marked the beginning of the castle's decline. From the 16th century onwards, the castle was kept more or less in a state of repair; although abandoned as a seat of power, its strategic importance was nonetheless highlighted several times. After the Napoleonic wars, a national sentiment emerged which revelled in the image of ancient Germany as symbolized by Wartburg Castle.

In the first half of the 19th century, on the initiative of the Grand Duke of Saxony, the entire site was completely renovated: the remains of the palace were raised from their ruins, the curtain wall restored, and the remainder of the buildings reconstructed under the supervision of architect Hugo von Ritgen. The large parts played by assumptions in the reconstruction have rather more to do with the romantic imagination than with historical reality. In 1945, the bombing of Eisenach spared Wartburg, although the castle was later pillaged by Soviet troops. The German Democratic Republic made Wartburg Castle a national monument; since the reunification of Germany, restoration work has concentrated primarily on the interiors and on the problems of preserving the stonework on the palace facades. The castle occupies a rocky spur looking north and south, in the midst of the forest that looks down over the city of Eisenach. Its layout corresponds in essence to that of the original fortress, particularly the palace, the ramparts, the South Tower, and the outworks, which are now partially buried or in ruins. In architectural terms, The rocky spur is reached from the northern end, occupied by a tower with a drawbridge, followed by a number of outbuildings which form an outer courtyard. Next follows the lower courtyard, the main features of which are the keep and the palace, onto which the Knights' Baths back. The South Tower marks the farther end of the spur. The centre of the lower courtyard is occupied by a cistern.

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Nordseekrabbe (UNESCO Forum) sent from Spaden (Germany) on 19.01.2014

173 RUSSIA - Port of Vladivostok

Commercial Port of Vladivostok is a seaport in the Russian city of Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai. It is one of the main transport hubs in the Russian Far East, which plays an important role in international cabotage in the Pacific Rim. The Port of Vladivostok is the eastern last stop on Russia's Northern Sea Route that stretches from the country's northwestern shores at the border with Norway. It is the principal base for supplies for Russia's Arctic ports to the east of Cape Chelyuskin. In May 1896 Nicholas II, the Russian Emperor, ordered to build commercial port on the coast of Golden Horn Bay and allocated 600,000 rubles for this purpose. The arrival of the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1903 connected the Port of Vladivostok to Manchuria and gave the port a better connection to the rest of the Russian Empire and enhanced its importance as a major center in eastern Russia. The Port of Vladivostok was important as a military port that received supplies from the United States during World War I.

When the Russian Revolution of 1917 began, the Port of Vladivostok was occupied by foreign forces, primarily the Japanese, who stayed there until the early 1920s. After they left the city, the Port of Vladivostok became important to the new Soviet Government.The port is operated by Commercial Port of Vladivostok . During the World War II, when Baltic and Black Seas were locked out by the Wermacht, weapons, food stuff, machinery and medical supplies were shipped to Vladivostok from the USA under lend-lease. Then the cargo was loaded into wagons and transported to fronts via Trans-Siberian Railway. For 5 war years the port of Vladivostok handled 10 M tons of cargoes. In 1945 it was recognized the leading port for efficient and speedy vessel handling in the Soviet Union. After the war economic situation in the Russian Far East began to stabilize: new enterprises appeared and old ones were revitalized. In 1950 the port handled 7 times more cabotage cargoes than the year before. In 1952 the port became closed to foreign ships due to being the location of the Pacific fleet of the Soviet Navy and was opened only 40 years later in 1991.

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Ulyana02 (postcrossing) sent from Vladivostok (Russia) on 07.02.2014

172 JAPAN - Fujisan, sacred place and source of artistic inspiration (UNESCO)

The solitary, often snow-capped Mount Fuji (Fujisan), rising above villages and tree-fringed sea and lakes, has inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries. Fujisan is a solitary strato-volcano, around 100 km south-west of Tokyo that rises to 3,776 meters in height. The base of its southern slopes extends to the sea shores of Suruga Bay. The awe that Fujisan’s majestic form and intermittent volcanic activity has inspired was transformed into religious practices that linked Shintoism and Buddhism, people and nature, and symbolic death and re-birth, with worship ascents and descents to and from the summit, formalised in routes and around shrines and lodging houses at the foot of the mountain. And the almost perfect, snow-capped conical form of Fujisan inspired artists in the early 19th century to produce images that transcended cultures, allowed the mountain to be known around the world, and had a profound influence on the development of Western art. From ancient times, pilgrims carrying a long staff, set off from the  compounds of the Sengenjinja shrines at the foot of the mountain to reach the crater at its summit where it was believed that the Shinto deity, Asama no Okami resided. At the summit, they carried out a practice called ohachimeguri (literally, “going around the bowl”), processing around the crater wall. There were two types of pilgrims, those who were led by mountain ascetics, and from the 17th century onwards, those in greater numbers who belonged to Fuji-ko societies that flourished in the prosperous and stable Edo period.

As pilgrimages became more popular from the 18th century onwards, organizations were established to support the pilgrims’ needs and routes up the mountain were delineated, huts provided, and shrines and Buddhist facilities built. Curious natural volcanic features at the foot of the mountain, created by lava flowing down after volcanic eruptions, came to be revered as sacred sites, while the lakes and springs  were used by pilgrims for cold ablutions, Mizugori, to purify their bodies prior to climbing the mountain. The practice of making a circuit of eight lakes, Hakkaimeguri - including the five lakes included in the Fujigoko (Fuji Five Lakes) - became a ritual among many Fuji-ko adherents. Pilgrims progressed up the mountain through what they recognised as three zones; the grass area around the base, above that the forest area and beyond that the burnt or bald mountain of its summit. From the 14th century, artists created large numbers of images of Fujisan and between the 17th to the 19th century, its form became a key motif not only in paintings but also in literature, gardens, and other crafts. In particular the wood block prints of Katsushika Hokusai, such as the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, had a profound impact on Western art in the 19th century and allowed the form of Fujisan to become widely known as the symbol of ‘Oriental’ Japan. The serial property consists of the top zone of the mountain, and spread out around its lower slopes shrines, lodging houses and a group of revered natural phenomena consisting of springs, a waterfall lava tree moulds and a pine tree grove on the sand beach, which together form an exceptional testimony to the religious veneration of Fujisan, and encompass enough of its majestic form to reflect the way its beauty as depicted by artists had such a profound influence on the development of Western art.

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Pjazz (UNESCO You Choose) sent from Osaka (Japan) on 22.01.2014

171 MALAYSIA - Kek Lok Si Temple

The Kek Lok Si Temple is a Buddhist temple situated in Air Itam in Penang and is one of the best known temples on the island. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia. The temple is heavily commercialised with shops at every level and inside the main temple complexes. Mahayana Buddhism and traditional Chinese rituals blend into a harmonious whole, both in the temple architecture and artwork as well as in the daily activities of worshippers. The construction of the temple began in 1890 and was inspired by the chief monk of the Goddess of Mercy Temple at Pitt Street. With the support of the consular representative of China in Penang, the project received the sanction of the Emperor Guangxu, who bestowed a tablet and gift of 70,000 volumes of the Imperial Edition of the Buddhist Sutras. The primary benefactor of the Kek Lok Si Temple in 1906 was none other than Kapitan Chung Keng Quee.

In 1930, the seven storey main pagoda of the temple or the Pagoda of 10,000 Buddhas, was completed. This pagoda combines a Chinese octagonal base with a middle tier of Thai design, and a Burmese crown; reflecting the temple's embrace of both Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism. In 2002, a 30.2m bronze statue of the Kuan Yin was completed and opened to public. It replaced the previous white plaster Kuan Yin statue which was damaged due to a fire a few years earlier. The bronze statue is located on the hillside above the pagoda while the head of the previous statue which survived the fire is preserved and placed on the right hand corner of the new statue. As the fairly recent date mentioned above may suggest, the temple is still growing. Generous donations from the affluent Chinese community allow the construction of additional buildings. From 2005 to 2009 an ornate shelter for the Kuan Yin statue was constructed. 16 carved dragon pillars were built, carrying the top of three concentric octagonal roof. This most recent construction was inaugurated on 6 December 2009.

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Raymond Low (direct swap) sent from ? (Malaysia) on 17.02.2014

170 FINLAND - Climate and Flag of Finland

The main factor influencing Finland's climate is the country's geographical position between the 60th and 70th northern parallels in the Eurasian continent's coastal zone. In the Köppen climate classification, the whole of Finland lies in the boreal zone characterized by warm summers and freezing winters. Within the country, the temperateness varies considerably between the southern coastal regions and the extreme north, showing characteristics of both a maritime and a continental climate. Finland is near enough to the Atlantic Ocean to be continuously warmed by the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream combines with the moderating effects of the Baltic Sea and numerous inland lakes to explain the unusually warm climate compared with other regions that share the same latitude, such as Alaska, Siberia and southern Greenland. Winters of southern Finland (when mean daily temperature remains below 0 °C or 32 °F) are usually about 100 days long, and the snow typically covers the land from about late November to mid-April. Even in the most temperate regions of the south, the harshest winter nights can see the temperatures fall to −30 °C (−22 °F). Climatic summers (when mean daily temperature remains above 10 °C or 50 °F) in southern Finland last from about late May to mid-September, and in the inland, the warmest days of July can reach 35 °C (95 °F). Although most of Finland lies on the taiga belt, the southernmost coastal regions are sometimes classified as hemiboreal.

The flag of Finland, also called siniristilippu ("Blue Cross Flag"), dates from the beginning of the 20th century. On a white background, it features a blue Nordic cross, which represents Christianity. The state flag has a coat of arms in the centre, but is otherwise identical to the civil flag. The swallow-tailed state flag is used by the military. The presidential standard is identical to the swallow-tailed state flag but also has in its upper left corner the Cross of Liberty after the Order of the Cross of Liberty, which has the President of Finland as its Grand Master. Like Sweden's, Finland's national flag is based on the Scandinavian cross. It was adopted after independence from Russia, when many patriotic Finns wanted a special flag for their country, but its design dates back to the 19th century. The blue coloring is said to represent the country's thousands of lakes and the sky, with white for the snow that covers the land in winter. This color combination has also been used over the centuries in various Finnish provincial, military, and town flags.

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Amanda79 (postcrossing) sent from Oulainen (Finland) on 23.02.2014

169 ROMANIA - Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains (UNESCO)

The Geto-Dacian kingdoms of the late 1st millennium BC attained an exceptionally high cultural and socio-economic level, and this is symbolized by this group of fortresses, which represent the fusion of techniques and concepts of military architecture from inside and outside the classical world to create a unique style.
The civilization of the Getes and Dacians can be distinguished in the Thracian world long before Herodotus first referred to them in the 7th century BC. The Getes inhabited the Danube plain and the Dacians the central and western part of the region between the Carpathians and the Danube. It was a typical Iron Age culture, practising agriculture, stock-raising, fishing and metal-working, as well as trade with the Graeco-Roman world. When Greek colonies were established along the northern shores of the Black Sea, the Geto-Dacian rulers established close links with them and extended their protection.
The system developed by the Dacians to defend their capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, was composed of three distinct fortified elements: the oldest is represented by fortified sites on dominant physical features, which consisted of palisaded banks and ditches. The second group is that of fortresses. The final category is that of linear defences, which blocked access from certain routes and linked two or more fortresses.
There are three components of Sarmizegetusa, the capital of Dacia: the fortress, the sacred area, and the civilian quarter. The Grădiştea plateau is dominated by the fortress, which was the centre of secular and spiritual government. The sacred area is situated to the east of the fortress. Access is by means of a paved path on the west and a monumental stone stairway on the east.

Costeşti-Cetăţuie, a small plateau on a hill overlooking the left bank of the river Apa Oraşului, was terraced to form a strong fortress. Its fortifications were laid out in three concentric bands, erected in successive stages of the fortress's life. The ramparts are constructed from stone, wood and rammed earth, a different technique being used for each enceinte. A number of towers survive.
Costeşti-Blidaru is the strongest and most spectacular of the fortresses erected to defend Sarmizegetusa. It is rectilinear in plan and is located on the levelled summit of a small hill. There are two enclosures. The walls have corner bastions, through one of which access is gained to the interior, where there are the remains of a square building that would have housed the garrison. A second enclosure, also rectangular in plan, was added later, extending the fortress to the entire summit of the hill.
The Luncani Piatra Roşie fortress consists of two fortified enclosures on the eastern slope of a rocky massif. The earlier and smaller of the two has corner bastions. In the interior there is an apsidal timber-framed barrack block with two rooms. To the north and outside the defences there were two buildings on the site of an earlier sanctuary. The second enceinte dates from the late 1st century AD.
The Băniţa fortress was constructed on a steep conical hill in the Jiu valley. The only side on which the summit was accessible was on the north, and this was defended by a strong stone wall in murus dacicus style. The fortress itself was entered through a gate leading to a monumental limestone stairway with andesite balustrades. The plateau above has three terraces at different levels.

The Căpâlna fortress was constructed at the summit of a steep hill which was terraced and surrounded by ramparts following the natural contours. There is an imposing square structure built using the murus dacicus technique. The enceinte was entered by a fortified gateway on the south-east, close to the military building. There was originally another entrance in the north-east, but this was blocked between the construction of the fortress and the Roman conquest in AD 106.´

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Mircea Ostoia (direct swap) sent from Focsani (Romania) on 21.01.2014