Friday 3 April 2015

C is for Czech Republic



Medieval castle on hill, covered in snow, floodlit at night

From one extreme showing a beautiful medieval (yes, again) castle in the Czech Republic...

The back of the card says the following which I have tried to translate using the Google translator:
The former guardian of the western borders of the kingdom, the powerful and ancient castle Loket has opened its doors to visitors during the winter. In addition, snow can conjure up a becoming hat, along with the charming town beneath the castle.

..to the other of an industrial complex



From the back of the card:

The old steel works. The idea of establishing an ironworks using untapped black coal deposits dates back to 1767. The works originally had been intended as mere departments of the Frýdlant foundry, but before starting construction in 1829 this plan was abandoned and Vitkovice emerged as an independent enterprise

The town of Ostava is the most industrialised of the Czech Republic although it was originally an agricultural village.  Mining stopped in 1994 and part of the ironworks closed in 1998.  There is now a Mining Museum there, the largest of its kind in the world.  The old steel mill is part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

It may seem odd to you, it seems odd to me too, that I collect postcards showing beautiful medieval buildings as well as industrial heritage.  I'm not at all sure why I find it so fascinating but maybe Mrs. Brown, my history teacher, drummed the details of the Industrial Revolution into me better than I realised at the time.

6 comments:

  1. My daughter traveled just briefly inside The Czech Republic with a traveling choir back in the day, and a friend toured there about a year ago, said it was truly beautiful. Would love to go someday. Am enjoying your post cards! Thought I'd leave you a link of one of my favorite puzzles...afghans, where stuff was odd sized. In some cases I don't even have the same number of squares in a row. I don't approach it with math, but know many do. I'm good at visualizing what something will look like and generally look closely (plus measure) the largest and the smallest square and go from there.

    This ghan is Called Red Brick, Sandy

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  2. ah YES, the Industrial Revolution- I remember it well- thank you Mrs Orman. Those history teachers have a lot to answer for

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  3. Hi, enjoying all your posts so far, informative and great variey - I really enjoy industrial scenes as well as the easier on the eye and enjoying the mixture, well done! Back soon, b4n :)

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  4. i like your theme and the places and times you are taking us to! looking forward to more!
    happy c day!

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  5. Both postcards are really interesting. The first is beautiful and many would pick up that postcard but the 2nd is historical. What I find interesting is that a postcard was made of this in the first place:)

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  6. I'm finding more places I've missed....the Czech Republic and Hungary....a friend from the UK, a tablemate from my cruising days, who was a BA 747 pilot said Budapest and Prague were two of his favorite cities to visit.

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Welcome to my postcard collection! I love hearing what you think of the cards - but spam WILL be deleted.

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