Alcobaça - amazing monastery

Some postcards seem to be just ordinary postcards. But some hold much more - a new place, and a new story. This postcard comes from a town of Alcobaça in Portugal. The Alcobaça Monastery (Portuguese: Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaça) is a medieval monastery located in the town of Alcobaça, in central Portugal.

Some history and a love story:

In the 12th century Alcobaça became the site for the construction of the Portugal's largest church. In the month of March in 1147, the fledgling King, Dom Afonso Henriques defeated the Moors by capturing the city of Santarem. As a suitable memory to this splendid victory he vowed to build a magnificent home for the Order of Cistercians. It took another 76 years before this task was completed. The monarchy continued to endow the Monastery of Alcobaça with further construction, and 60 years later King Dinis built the main cloister but it was only in 1252 that the Monastery was inaugurated within the church.

In the church are the tombs of King Pedro I and his murdered mistress, Inês de Castro. Forced at an early age by royal duty he had to marry Constanza, the Infanta of Castile, in 1336. She died in 1345, and created the opportunity for Dom Pedro to escape with his true love and live in the city of Coimbra. King Alfonso IV, his father, believing that the family of Inês to be a threat to his own kingdom, had her murdered. Shortly after the death of his father, Dom Pedro declared that he had married Inês in a prior secret ceremony in Braganca, promptly taking revenge on the killers in a very gruesome manner and exhumed her body. He presented the embalmed corpse at court with a crown on her head and demanded that all his courtiers kneel and individually pay homage to her decomposed hand. Their ornate tombs have been facing each other for 650 years (!) and on Judgement day, his first sight would be of his beloved Inês."

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Russia - UNESCO

This beautiful card came form Olya (ikkyo) through a private swap. It is one of the Russian World Heritage sites of nature - the Golden Mountains of Altai, Katunsky Reserve. UNESCO site says the following: "Katunsky Biosphere Reserve is located close to the borders with Kazakhstan and China. It encompasses a mosaic of 14 ecosystems, from mountain tundra to forest-steppe vegetation. Twelve plant species are included in the Red Book of the Russian Federation (1988), including fawn lily (Erythronium sibiricum), peony (Paeonia hybrida) and spleenwort (Asplenium exiguum). The snow leopard (Uncia uncia) occasionally enters the biosphere reserve."
When I was younger and lived in Russia, we always dreamed of going hiking in Altai. It supposed to have many interesting ancient sites, old burial places, very beautiful, breath-taking vistas and an ingenious people, called altaitsy. I don't know if I would ever be able to go there, but I am glad I have this postcard. :) Altai was called "Russian Shangri-La" because of the mysterious spirit and the natural beauty of the mountains and lakes.

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St. Petersburg, Russia - Lomonosov Bridge and Trinity Cathedral

A beautiful card from Alexandra. Saint Petersburg is a very beautiful city. This picture depicts an old Lomonosov Bridge across the Fontanka River. Wikipedia says that it " is the best preserved of towered movable bridges that used to be typical for St. Petersburg in the 18th century." Bridge was built in 1785-1787.

In the back you can see the Trinity Cathedral.

According to the Russian tradition, each regiment of the imperial guards had its own cathedral. The Trinity Cathedral was the regimental church of the Izmailovsky Regiment of Imperial guards, one of the oldest guards regiments in the Russian Army.

On July12, 1733, a large field tent operating as a church was consecrated here, with icons painted on a dark blue satin. However, the church functioned only in the summer, and in winter the soldiers and officers had to attend other parish churches. In 1754-1756, a wooden church was built on the site on order of Epress Elizabeth. The church had two altars, the main one of which was consecrated in the name of the Trinity. It suffered heavy damage as a result of the flood of 1824 and had to be rebuilt. Construction of the new church began in May 1828, and the new cathedral was consecrated in May 1835.

The interesting fact: in 2006, the main dome of the Cathedral collapsed and one of the smaller destroyed due to a large fire. (This card was published in 2003!). Thankfully, Russian Government is restoring the old church.

The cathedral became a part of the Saint Petersburg UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990.


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Moscow, Russia

The first Russian reference to Moscow dates from 1147 when Yuri Dolgoruky called upon the prince of the Novgorod Republic to “come to me, brother, to Moscow". Nine years later, in 1156, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky of Rostov ordered the construction of a wooden wall, which had to be rebuilt multiple times, to surround the emerging city. Since then, he is considered the Moscow's founder. This postcard depicts the monument to Yuri Dolgoruky.

Kremlin from the Moscow River.
From Wikipedia: Kremlin "is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River (to the south), St. Basil's Cathedral and Red Square (to the east) and the Alexander Garden (to the west). It is the best known of kremlins (Russian citadels) and includes four palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall with Kremlin Towers. The complex serves as the official residence of the President of Russia." Kremlin is a UNESCO World heritage site.


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Long delay and a new card

I apologize for the long delay in posting new scans. Over the last week and a half I received a lot of new cards that mostly came through the Round Robins I joined online. They all are fun cards and I am having great time researching the places they came from. Unfortunately, Blogspot and my desktop don't cooperate for some reason. I finally figured out how to post from my laptop.

SO, here goes:

A nice card from Porto, Portugal. "The city is located in the estuary of the Douro River in northern Portugal. The largest city in the region, Porto is considered the economic and cultural heart of the entire region. The city, which had an estimated population of about 220,000 (est.2008), lies at the centre of the political Metro area, with a population of slightly more than 1.7 million. One of Portugal's most internationally famous products, Port wine, is named after this city because it is produced in, and shipped from the area."
The card shows Dom Luis I bridge that was built in 1881-1886 by the Eiffel's students, and an old city center which was recently recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.