Via Airmail

Holy Spirit Cathedral

This postcard of the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Belarus is from the "Legends of Old Minsk" series.  The postcrosser who sent it kindly translated the card (the back gives all sorts of historical information) and she mentions that the most valuable treasure of the church is an icon of the Mother of God.  It is said to be miraculous.  You can see the icon here.  The cathedral dates from the mid-17th century.  

I don't think I've seen this stamp before.  It looks a bit like a fortress.  A quick search didn't net any better information, but it looks like an interesting building.

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Postcrossing card #96

The Capitoline Wolf in Rome

Here's a roundabout postcard.  The sculpture is the famous Capitoline Wolf (La Lupa Capitolina) inspired by the legend of the founding of Rome.  It came from a Postcrosser living in Spain but originally from St. Petersburg, Russia.  It truly is a global world!

 

The stamp shows King Juan Carlos I of Spain.

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Postcrossing card #95

Salome by Franz von Stuck

Art postcards are some of my very favorite to receive in the mail (though I love any postcard really), but as I don't note specifically what sort of art I like in my Postcrossing profile, I'm always intrigued to see what cards appear in my mailbox.  I quite like this one, by an artist I'd not heard of before.  This is "Salome" by Franz von Stuck, 1906.  It is located in the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany.

Salome is a Biblical figure, and she is shown here with the head of John the Baptist quite literally with his head on a platter.

Apparently the postcard was returned to the sender (luckily she had used an address label with her own address on it as well as mine), but she kindly put it in an envelope and mailed it back to me.  The original stamp shows the Post Tower in Bonn.

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Postcrossing card #94

Dutch Open Air Museum

These farmhouses are only a few that make up the nearly one hundred historic buildings found at the Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem.  This is a living musuem where people can  see the actual buildings and how they were used.  Many of the structures were built hundreds of years ago.  In 1912 the museum was founded as a way to preserve the architecture and cultural heritage surrounding a fading way of life.  Unfortunately the card does not give details of the buildings.  I would love to know what they were used for, but I am pleased to be introduced to this sort of museum.  Who knows, maybe someday I'll get to visit it.

The card was mailed with a Postcrossing stamp as shown here.

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Postcrossing card #93

Scene by a Bavarian Lake

This picturesque Bavarian village was painted by Wilhelm von Kobell, a late 18th-early 19th century German painter.  There is no title or description on the card of the painting, but the Postcrosser called it "By a Bavarian Lake". 

The stamp is another Balloon Flower that I shared here.

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Postcrossing card #92 

Jaipur Museum, India

I've completely fallen behind in sharin my postcrossing cards, so I think I'm going to have to try an step things up and scan more quickly!  I've only been sharing Postcrossing cards of late (hoping to get them all scanned first), but I've also been receiving lots of great postcards through personal swaps as well.  I may have to share several of those at once as soon as I get around to them.  In the interim I'm going to try and catch up on my official postcrossing cards.

This came from Jaipur, India and shows the Jaipur Museum.

"Famous also as Albert Hall is situated in the Ram Niswas garden.  Contains colourful huge portraits of Maharajas of Jaipur, many other miniatures of art, costumes and wood work and many articles of old armoury & curious, etc."

The stamps include one in honor of Children's Day and one showing C.V. Raman (Novel Prize winner for physics).

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Postcrossing card #89

Chartres Cathedral: Labyrinth and Nave

Isn't this beautiful?  A friend very kindly sent it to me as I've been reading Greek mythology and had been reading about the minotaur in his labyrinth.  I didn't realize there was a famous labyrinth in the nave of Chartres Cathedral in France.  It dates from the early 13th century.  Obviously it's quite a different sort than the one in Crete.  It looks quite amazing.  Did you know that labyrinth and maze are not interchangeable terms.  A labyrinth has only one path, whereas in a maze there is a choice of paths.  I think this is an absolutely amazing postcard and had to share it here!  

Please note: Image is by ©Alain Kilar
Check out his website Promenades-angeliques.ch

(Much appreciation to M. Kilar for allowing me to share his amazing image here)!

Year of the Tiger, 2010

This is a commemorative postcard from Canada celebrating the Chinese New Year, Year of the Tiger, in 2010.  It's a postage paid card with the stamp being a detail of the illustration--the tiger sculpture in the foreground. 

I love this design--it's quite an attractive and unusual illustration!

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Postcrossing card #87

Arkhangelskoye Palace, Russia

This is the "Antique Room" at the Arkhangelskoye Palace, ca. 1780s-1810s located not far outside of Moscow.  It is a popular tourist destination and I read that it took some fifty years to build and decorate. 

It looks like a lovely building done in the classical style.

The stamp on the flip side is from the Kremlin series.  I've received this stamp before, and you can see it here.

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Postcrossing card #86 

University of Tempere Library

I once had a penpal from Tempere, Finland, so it was very cool when I found this postcard in my mailbox which shows the main library of the University of Tempere.  Alas, it did not come from my former penpal, but it did bring back happy memories.  And with the hot weather we've been having the piles of snow in the photo look kind of refreshing to me!

And is this not the coolest stamp?  I don't see many round ones, but this one is quite nice. 

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Postcrossing card #84