Postcard from Russia no. 4

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Here's a very nice postcard senr from St. Petersburg showing the main sights of the town of Kronshtadt, in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, 30 kilometers west of Saint Petersburg. The historic centre of the city and its fortifications are part of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments. Pop. 43,000.

The 10 rouble stamp (16 Feb 2009) commemorates Grigory Yakovlevich Bahchivandzhi (1909-1943) is the test pilot of scientific research institute of the Air Forces, the Hero of the Soviet Union. Print run: 800,000 - quite a small number, I think, 800,000 copies of a stamp is an average print run of a commemorative here in the much small Czech Republic.

Czech cover no. 6

A new stamp in the ongoing series dedicated to the tradition of the Czech stamp production, issued on 20 January 2011, reproducing the stamp from a postal card (1966) made by Josef Herčík, one of the top Czech engravers. The cover above bears the stamp with the coupon (taken from a booklet), and has two cancellations... I wanted to have it only hand-cancelled, but interestingly, the cover then still went to receive the machine cancellation, at the same post-office (Kroměříž 1 - the only one here which has the machine).

Below, the stamp is used again, this time without the coupon, but with a hand-cancellation only, from Kroměříž 2 post-office located in the Main Square. This postcard shows the Baroque Church of St. John the Baptist, within a stone's throw of the said office.

Postcard from Přerov, Czech Republic

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Here is a view of the centre of the town of Přerov, where I grew up:) - the main (Masaryk) Square and the Municipal House, which is a cultural venue for concerts, also with a very stylish (black, plush, and magic) night club (the entry is right behind the bus). The A stamp (local rate of 10 Kč) was issued on 29 September 2010, and in my opinion is one of the best of this year issued here. It features a painted sign of the Austro-Hungarian Post (1870s), a historic map and six postal goblins busy about their important work in postmarking and delivering letters.

The card was dropped on Saturday into a post box, so on Monday it received the automatic cancellation which is truly awful (I expected otherwise, but no, everything found in post boxes these days goes to the machines).

Postcard from Slovakia no. 6

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A postcard which we sent ourselves this August during our stay in Slovakia, showing a part of the town of Vysoké Tatry (the municipality of Starý Smokovec). Vysoké Tatry (the High Tatras) are the highest mountain range in Slovakia (part of the Carpathian Mountains). The town of Vysoké Tatry was created artificially in 1947, and it is not a true town, but a conglomerate of separate and different settlements (originally separate villages), whose only common feature is that they are the main tourist resorts in the mountains. There are three cadastral areas and fourteen municipalities (the coats of arms of four of which are shown in the postcard, together with the coat of arms of the whole town).

The 33 eurocent Easter stamp was issued on 27 February 2009, in two forms, as a classic stamp in a sheet of 50, and in a booklet - my stamps is taken from there. The 10 eurocent stamp is a definitive showing a part of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Sedmerovec – Pominovce (issued on 1 January 2009), and the engraved T2 50g stamp (2nd class, up to 50 grams, currently corresponding to 40 eurocent) is a fantastic piece of art featuring an illustration by Einar Turkowski taken from the book ‘Es war finster und merkwürdig still’ (‘It was dark and eerily quiet’). The stamp commemorates the Biennial of Illustrations (competition of original book illustrations for children and youth) held in Bratislava. The reproduced illustration won the competition in 2007 (Grand Prix) and the stamp was issued on 14 August 2009, in 4,000,000 copies.

Postcard from Belarus

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A great postcard received from Belarus, postmarked in Grodno, showing an aerial view of the historic town of Volkovysk (Vaŭkavysk) in western Belarus, pop. 48,000.

The matching stamp, issued on 2 September 2005 in 72,000 copies, commemorated the 1000th anniversary of its founding, since the first mention of Volkovysk in the Turov Annals is in 1005. At that time Volkovysk was city-fortress on the border of the Baltic and the Slavic ethnic groups. The wolf in the coat of arms reflects the name of the town in Russian "Volko-vysk", the place where wolves howl.

The two smaller definitives are from 2008. Thank you, Helena!

Postcard from Austria no. 2

A postcard sent from Graz, Austria, on 7 December 2009, showing the map of Austria and the coats of arms of its regions (only the descriptions of the neighbouring countries are a bit out of date, there is no Czechoslovakia or Jugoslavia any more).

The impressive 65 eurocent stamp (issued on 2 September 2009, in 900,000 copies) commemorates the 60th anniversary of releasing The Third Man (Der Dritten Mann), a film noir directed by Carol Reed, which took place in the bombed out Vienna and its sewers (famous chase scene). The film won the Cannes Film Grand Prix in 1949. Thank you, Anita!

Postcard from Austria no. 1

A postcard we sent to ourselves from a trip to Vienna to see the city centre and the pre-Advent Market beneath the spires of the Rathaus. As usual, I found a minute to send back home a card, but had to hunt for a stamp because the newsagents in the city don't sell any. Invariably, I was sent to the post-office... which I luckily found, but as it was Saturday afternoon, the big philatelic counter was closed. Finally, I managed to buy a Christmas stamp, issued on 9 November 2007 and showing an icon from St. Barbara Church in the centre of Vienna, in fact a stone's throw from the central post-office. I dropped the card in an ordinary post-box in a street near Hundertwasser houses, and am surprised that it did not receive any automatic treatment and was cancelled by hand (if I did this here in the Czech Rep., the stamp would be "killed" by ugly black wavy lines of automatic cancellation). Apart from all this, I am really looking for further visits, Vienna definitely has its charms:-)

Medieval dream of Riquewihr

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Riquewihr, for me the loveliest town I have seen this year in France, hands down. To underline this fact I was happy to find in a side street the Musée de la Communication en Alsace, where, apart from a nice selection of current French stamps on sale, it was possible to get a special hand cancellation with the text "Les Plus Belles Maquettes du Musée" with the date 29 May 2009. I chose the then new engraved stamp dedicated to the 500th anniversary of birth of Jean Calvin (1509-1564), major figure of the Reformation.

Postcard from Slovakia no.5

A multiview postcard of the thermal spa in the town of Velky Meder in southern Slovakia (District of Dunajska Streda) which I sent myself from there on our way from Hungary in 2007. The large 16 SVK stamp commemorates the 750th anniversary of founding the city of Banska Bystrica in 1255 (even if it looks like it is engraved the stamp is printed in offset, print-run 300,000, issued on 14 February 2005). The smaller engraved definitive was issued in 1995 and is part of the long-running series of towns and their coats of arms, which has been replaced in 2009 by a new series with euro nominal values.

Postcard from Bulgaria

A nice surprise from Sofia, Bulgaria, with a postcard of St. Sofia Church and St Alexander Nevski Cathedral (in the background), with both featured also on the commemorative stamp of 0.60 leva issued on 25 March 2009 and cancelled by the special first day postmark with the head of Sofia. The stamp (print-run 16,000) celebrates the 130th anniversary of the proclamation of Sofia as capital of Bulgaria. The other, definitive stamp, was issued on 15 January 2004, as part of a series dedicated to night butterflies and shows Noctua tertia.

Thank you, Lilia:-)

Postcard from Lithuania no. 4

A fantastic mapcard of Lithuania with all its regions and districts and their coats of arms, received on 9 March 2009 and sent 5 days earlier from the city of Kaunas. As a bonus one of the stamps reproduces one of the coats of arms... The stamp with the emblem of Pakruojis was issued on 21 February 2009 in 500,000 copies along with two other stamps in the ongoing series dedicated to the coats of arms of Lithuanian towns and cities. This one shows a "black arch bridge on the golden background over which there is a red shield with golden wind mill. The town distinguishes from others by its wind mills and a unique arch bridge in Lithuania, therefore these images were used in the emblem of Pakruojis."

The green church belltower self-adhesive definitive of 50 ct - the belfry of the Tryškiai Church - was issued on the same day in February 2009 in 500,000 copies (the same stamp was also issued two years ago on 2/1/2007). The same goes for the other self-adhesive definitive showing the church of Degučiai, issued on 5 January 2008 (this version) and also this year on 21/2/2009.

Thank you so much, Kristina!

Postcard from Olomouc, Czech Republic

A card in my favourite series showing two important buildings in the centre of Olomouc - the Archbishop's Palace (used until by the Archbishop), and the Baroque Armoury (now part of the Palacký University where I studied). The Armoury was built on purpose in front of the Palace since there were some clashes between the mighty...

The 10 CZK stamps was issued on 3 September 2008 (2,000,000 copies, in tete-beche configuration), 9 days before the beginning of the Praga World Stamp Exhibition held on 12-14/9/2008, the logo of which it bears. There is another religious building on it: the Emmaus Monastery in Prague, founded in 1374 by the Emperor Charles IV.

Postcard from Zlín, Czech Republic

Postcard of the city of Zlín, the seat of the region where I live, called Zlínský kraj (there are 13 regions in the CR + the capital of Prague). The front of the card shows the towerhall and the main square plus the coat of arms of the region (top), the coat of arms of the city (bottom) and coats of arms of all the remaining towns in the region. In my opinion, for us coat-of-arms lovers, this is the best line of postcards published in the Czech Republic nowadays (the publisher's catalogue with the production covering almost the whole of the CR can be found: here. Luckily, they can be bought almost everywhere. It would be nice to collect them all, sent from the place they show...

Zlín is known here as "Bata City", because the world-famous shoe company was founded here, and now the main avenue bears the founder's name (Tomas Bata Avenue), as well as the local university.

The single 10 CZK stamp was issued on 19 December 2007 (print-run 700,000) on the occasion of our country's entering the Schengen Area, the zone of free movement of people within the European Union. Evropou volnou cestou means something like "freely within Europe". Since the postcard was dropped into a letter box on a Sunday, it was cancelled a day later by an automat using those ugly black waves.

Postcard from Slovakia no. 4

Only now, 28 January 2009, have I received my first postcard from Bratislava, Slovakia's capital. It shows a view of the Castle and St. Martin's Cathedral across the Danube. The single 0.66 euro stamp is part of the previously mentioned series of the new Slovak definitives with the euro denomination (issued on 2/1/2009, print-run 1,000,000) and features a detail of the portal of St. Egidius church in Ilija near Banská Štiavnica.

Thank you, Jano.