Reflections

St Front Cathedral in Périgueux, France can trace its origins back as far as a church built on that site in the 4th and 5th centuries. In 976 the Abbey of St Front was built on the site of the church and it became a cathedral in 1669.  It was rebuilt in the mid 19th century and only the bell tower and crypts are left of the 12th century building.

The significance of St Front lies with the fact that it was and still is an important stopping point for pilgrims following the Routes of Santiago de Compostela (Chemins de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle) through France. These routes are recognised as of World Heritage importance by UNESCO.

So, the A to Z Challenge has come to an end.  I managed to keep ahead of the schedule though I nearly lost it when I had to be away for some days.  The intention was to kick-start my blogging which had sadly lapsed.  I hope I can keep up some of the impetus.

I found trawling through the list for blogs was very time consuming. I did have difficulty commenting on a lot of them, especially having to sign in to Disqus, Wordpress, Google+, and there were quite a few who hadn't updated though I noticed a lot were weeded out.

But, all in all, it was an enjoyable experience, though I doubt I will be repeating it.

My posts, in order of appearance
A is for Amsersfoort
B is for Biarritz and also for Bertie
C is for Czech Republic
D is for Dunes
E is for Estonia
F is for the Forth Bridge
G is for Green Giant
H is for Hollywood, Houston and Honeymoon Island
I is for Irkutsk
J is for Japan
K is for Korea
L is for Reading
M is for Mulu National Park and Malaysia
N is for Nürnberg or Nuremberg
O is for Ottawa and Ontario
P is for Potelych
Q is for the Queen
R is for Riquewihr
S is for Swiss tradition and for Silvesterkläuse
T is for Tango
U is for Ulm
V is for Vintage
W is for World
X is for Xinjiang
Y is for Yin and for Yang
Z is for Zulu

White Monuments

In 1992, UNESCO added the White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal to the list of Russian World Heritage Sites.  The group consists of eight different stone built medieval buildings.

The card at the top shows the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl.  It was built in 1165 and has had very little changed over the years.  In winter the river rises and floods which makes it look as though the church is floating on the water.

The second card shows the Cathedrals of the Assumption (or Dormition) and St Demetrius.  These too were built in the 12th century.  The Dormition Cathedral is on the left in this picture.

The city of Vladimir is in the background.  The city is considered to have been founded in 1108 although the area has been inhabited for 25,000 years.

Roskilde Cathedral

Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it was the first Gothic cathedral to have been built with brick, and as a result the style spread to the rest of northern Europe.It dates from the 12th century thought there was an earlier wooden church in the 10th century.  Very early in the 11th century a stone (travertine) cathedral was built to replace the church.

During the next century the brick cathedral was built around the travertine building.  This allowed services to continue during construction.  When this was far enough advanced to allow services in the new building, the original cathedral was dismantled.

Kölner Dom

Another view of the amazingly beautiful cathedral in Köln or Cologne, Germany.  I do have several different views of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, but I never tire of them.

The Vatican and Rome

It seems an appropriate time to show a postcard of Rome in Italy when all eyes of the Catholic church, and many others too, are turned in the direction of the Vatican waiting for the news of a new Pope.

The card is an aerial view of the city of Rome with St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican in the background on the left, and Castel Sant' Angelo of Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" fame (amongst other things :) ).

I have other cards of the same views:  the river Tiber and St Peters and Castel Sant'Angelo

Bourges Cathedral

The cathedral in Bourges, in central France, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Read more here about the city as a whole.

I am here

Santiago de Compostela in Spain, an awe inspiring place to be so forgive me if I'm apparently silent for a while. I have pre-scheduled several postcards for you to enjoy, I hope, while I'm away.

Golden spires

The cupolas of the Kremlin cathedrals in Moscow sparkling in the sunshine.

The Cathedral of the Annunciation originally had only three domes but after it was damaged in a fire, the restoration in 1564 added two more. Then four chapels were added, each with a dome, so that the cathedral now has nine.

The other two cathedrals facing on to Sobornaya Square are the Cathedral of the Dormition (five domes) and Cathedral of the Archangel (also five domes but four are silver).  And dominating them all, you have the Ivan the Great Bell Tower too.

The cathedral in Cologne

It is amazing to think that at one time there were plans to build a high rise building near this magnificent cathedral.  Fortunately the plans came to nothing and there are now restrictions on the height of any building anywhere nearby.

The building of the cathedral started in 1248 but stopped again in 1473.  It wasn't completely finished until 1880 and during the 400 intervening years it had a crane perched on top of the incomplete belfry.  It was hit many times during WWII but never collapsed.  Repairs were complete by 1956.

It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site (though put on the danger list when the high rise building was a threat) because it is "an exceptional work of human creative genius, constructed over more than six centuries".

An earlier view.

St Isaac's Cathedral, St Petersburg

A very unusual but effective view of St Isaac's Cathedral in St Petersburg, Russia.  It is part of the historic centre of St Petersburg and so part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.  It's an unusual view but one I very much like.

Russian heritage sites

Nine-in-one!  All these beautiful buildings are listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.  There are many others of course, fifteen cultural and nine natural sites already listed and probably about the same number again in the tentative list, but these ones are beautiful.  It makes me want to try to find postcards of the individual places:

I have only four (so far)
Church on Spilt Blood
St Basil's Cathedral, Moscow
Kizhi Pogost
The Kremlin, Moscow

Strasbourg cathedral

The cathedral in Strasbourg, France, towers over the city and in fact between 1647 and 1874 it was the tallest building in the world.  Today it is still exceptionally tall, 142 metres or 466 feet, being the sixth tallest church in the world.  The top postcard marks the height at various points and also measures it in steps.  I can't believe that the public is allowed go up all 636 steps to the top of the spire, but I'd love to go part way at least.  What a wonderful view it must be.

While wondering why it had become the world's tallest building in 1647 after being completed in 1439, I discovered that through Wikipedia at least, you can trace the world's tallest building backwards and forwards through the years.  In 1647, the previous world's tallest building burnt down.  That was St Mary's Church in Straslund.  It became the tallest when St Olaf's, Tallinn, was struck by lightning in 1625.  Before that..... this could go on for ever.

Gargoyle

I am very fond of gargoyles in all their various forms, though this one is tactfully called a funny face.  The primary function of a gargoyle is to direct water away from the building to prevent damage.  In fact in this postcard you can clearly see the channel behind the head which will deliver the water to the spout for safe removal.  The secondary function is to frighten off evil spirits.

 In German, the word for a gargoyle means "water spewer" while in Dutch it translates as "water spitter" or "water vomiter".  Gargoyle may not be a pretty word but it's slightly better than these.

As it's a detail of a building, you can't tell where it's from until you read the small print on the reverse of the postcard.  It is to be found on the Cathedral of San Salvador, Oviedo, in Spain, and that cathedral is a UNESCO World heritage Site because it is a unique example of varying architectural styles.  It was built on the site of a former cathedral dating to the 9th century and some of these original buildings have survived.  The construction of the building as it is today continued between the 13th and 16th centuries.

St Thomas' Church, Portsmouth

Looking for old cards with trees, I found plenty of views but none had much of a story to tell until I came across this one showing St. Thomas' Church in Portsmouth on the south coast of England. The card dates from somewhere between 1902 and 1909 because it allows "for INLAND communication" only. that regulation applied in the UK from 1902 but not in the rest of the world for a few years, France followed in 1904, Germany in 1905, with 1907 for the USA.

I didn't recognise the church at all and assumed that it had been destroyed, like so much of Portsmouth, during World War II.  A little investigation made me realise that I had missed an opportunity to visit it because it is now, greatly extended, Portsmouth Cathedral.

The original church dates all the way back to the early 12th century and was dedicated to Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury assassinated by Henry II in Canterbury Cathedral.  It was attacked by the French in 1337; it was closed for a time when the whole town of Portsmouth was excommunicated after the Bishop of Chichester was murdered in Portsmouth; it was damaged by cannon fire during the Civil War 1642–1651. The cupola on top was added in 1702.

It wasn't until 1927 that the church was chosen to be the cathedral for the newly created diocese of Portsmouth.  It obviously had to be enlarged but the work was suspended at the outbreak of war in 1939.

It survived the Blitz but the building works remained incomplete until 1991. 

I used to live in Hampshire and while there I did take this photo of the cathedral.  It's very different now, as you can see, but I like to think the large tree on the right could possibly be at least related to the one shown on the card.

Apparently Ronald Reagan once said, "A tree's a tree.  How many more do you want to look at?".  You can find out how many more there may be at Sepia Saturday.

In 1964 we spread our wings

The first card above was one bought by my father and unused. Although there is a scribbled 1964 on it, it must date from at least two or three years earlier because St Andrews church on Freeman Street had been demolished by 1962.

Here was the common ground for all of us - going to school in this town, Grimsby in Lincolnshire, during our teenage years as we were finding our feet as we strived for adulthood. Some of us had lived here from birth, others were just passing through. Now we we've scattered throughout the country.  In 1964 all these cards were sent to me by friends as we took our first steps taking summer holidays without parents.

Wendy and Rosie went to Rosslare, in Ireland.  The weather wasn't too good but they seemed to have fun recovering from hard work at school.

Jennifer and Susan went to Scotland, a "grand tour" of Largs, Arran, Inverary, Loch Lomond and Edinburgh.  The card itself has a story.  I found it as I moved a small desk that used to be my mother's.  It dropped out of a narrow slot which can't be seen unless the desk is on its side.  The card arrived for me while I was living at home and it must have fallen behind the drawer soon afterwards.  The desk has moved house at least six times and yet the card didn't fall out until last month.

Muriel and Esther went to Chichester.  Muriel has since returned to that area and teaches nearby.

My sister went on an exchange to France.  She went with strict instructions to write home frequently and, goody-two-shoes that she is, she did.  I think she bought all the cards at the beginning of the trip, probably even wrote them all at the same time, and then posted them every other day.

The card shows the cross channel ferry, the Lord Warden, the first drive-on, drive-off car ferry for British Railway's cross channel service.  She was launched in 1951.  In October 1964 she was repainted in the new colours for British rail: blue hull, red funnel.  At the end of 1979 she went to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, but just a year later was sent to Pakistan for scrapping.

And I, what was I doing?  I was staying with my grandmother in Dublin, and apparently not sending any postcards home.

You can find some other flights of fancy at Sepia Saturday.

Arcos da Lapa

The Arcos da Lapa is another name for the Carioca Aqueduct, given to it by the residents of Rio de Janeiro - it's in the Lapa district and it has arches, so why not?

An aqueduct was finally built in 1723, after earlier attempts failed, bringing fresh water from the Carioca river to the Santo Antônio in Rio.  Before very long, it needed to be replaced by a larger structure and that is the one seen today.  The most impressive part is that going through the Lapa neighbourhood.

By the end of the 19th century it was no longer needed to supply water to the city so it was adapted into a tramway.  Since then, houses nearby have been demolished to enhance the view.  The tram is still the only one in use in rio de Janeiro.

Behind, you can see the conical shape of the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Dublin's fair city

Four lovely pictures of the capital city of Ireland, Dublin:

Top left, Christchurch Cathedral
Top right, Trinity College
Bottom right, the river Liffey
Bottom left, colourful Georgian doors.

It's not often that you see a cathedral with attached bridge but here you have one in Christchurch Cathedral.  the bridge leads to the Synod Hall which was built on the site of an earlier church.  The Hall is now the home for an exhibition of medieval Dublin, Dublina.

Churches in Tallinn

Four of the beautiful places of worship in Tallinn, the capital and largest city in Estonia.  Apart from the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the rest shown here are medieval, dating from the 13th century. 

St Olaf's church spire at 159 metres was once the tallest building in the world.  It was probably intended as a signpost to ships at sea but it was also a very efficient lightning conductor.  The church has burned down three times.

Three from Prague

Views of the old city of Prague in the Czech Republic.

The wonderful cathedral within the castle grounds, perched on top of a hill.  The present day cathedral was founded in 1344, and finished 600 years later.  Alfons Mucha designed the stained glass windows in the north of the nave.

Golden Lane is an ancient street very near the cathedral and again part of the castle grounds, in fact built on the castle walls.  At one time Franz Kafka lived there.

Almaty Ascension Cathedral

 The Almaty Ascension Cathedral was built between 1904 and 1907.  Although built of wood, it survived the earthquake of 1910, but it went on to become a museum after the Russian revolution.  It was later used by various organisations and even had radio transmitters installed in its belfry.  In 1997 it reopened for religious services. In 2007 it appeared on a coin issued by the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

But the best part of this card, by far, was the message for me, written by 3 year old Almina.

Thank you, Amina.