King Gustav III of Sweden

Merja sent me this card which portrays an Helmet from King Gustav III’s tournament armour in the 1770’s.

Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia who was a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

A vocal opponent of, as he saw it, abuses by the nobility of a permissiveness established by parliamentarian reforms that had been worked out since the death ofCharles XII, he seized power from the government in a coup d'état in 1772, ending the Age of Liberty and venturing into a campaign to restore royal autocracy which was completed by the Union and Security Act in 1789, sweeping away most of the last pretences of Riksdag rule. As a bulwark of enlightened despotism, his expenditure of considerable public funds on cultural ventures contributed to his controversial majesty. Attempts to seize first Norway through Russian aid, then to recapture the Baltic provinces through a war against Russia were unsuccessful, although much of Sweden's former military might was restored. An admirer of Voltaire, Gustav legalized Catholic and Jewish presence in the realm and enacted wide-ranging reforms aimed at economic liberalism, social reform and the abolishment, in many cases, of torture and capital punishment, although the much-praised 1766 Freedom of Press Act was severely curtailed through amendments in 1774 and 1792, all independent media effectively extinguished.

Nesvizh, Belarus

Nesvizh is a city in Belarus. It is the administrative center of the Nesvizh District (rajon) of Minsk Province and location of the Nesvizh Castle World Heritage Site. Its 2009 population is 14,300.

The Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh, Belarus (the one on the card) is an early Jesuit church and one of the oldest baroque structures outside Italy, influencing the later architecture of Belarus, Poland and Lithuania. Commissioned by Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł and constructed in 1587-1593 by Gian Maria Bernardoni, it contains graves of members of the powerful house of Radziwiłł.

Thank you Alexander for this nice card.

Nice - Bay of Angels

The Promenade des Anglais is a celebrated promenade along the Mediterranean at Nice, France.

Nice, the capital of the Côte d’Azur is beautifully curved round the Bay of Angels, desirable and as lively as you like. Its reputation for glamour is enhanced by an equal reputation for top-end scandal.  The clearest-possible light spangles the Mediterranean to create a setting for sybarites, and shadows for well-dressed decadence. These days, France’s fifth city has recovered some of its stateliness without in any way renouncing the hot Latin blood courses through its veins. And it’s bewitching at pretty much anytime of the year.

The Bay of Angels (Baie des Anges) has surprisingly nothing to do with angels of heaven who made this paradise, but it were the angels from the deep, the angel sharks from the sea that used to live here until the 19th century that gave their name to the bay of Nice. These angel sharks -Squatina angelus- had 2 fins that looked like 2 angel wings for the Mediterranean fisherman. Nowadays they have been disappeared completely.

Thank you Sophy for this very pretty card.

Mozart

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons. 
Theresa sent me this card.

Jefferson said.........................

“I find friendship to be like wine,

raw when new,

ripened with age,

the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial”

-Thomas Jefferson-

Suit of armour, from military counselor Henrik Klasson Fleming's (1584-1650) funeral

The picture on the card is that of a suit of armour, from military counselor Henrik Klasson Fleming's (1584-1650 funeral, which is in Mynamaki Church in Finland.

Thank you Merja for this nice card.

Greetsiel - Ostfriesland - The Harbour

Hanna sent me this beautiful card of Greetsiel which  is a small port on the bight of Leybucht in western East Frisia, Germany that was first documented in letters from the year 1388. Since 1972, Greetsiel has been part of the municipality of Krummhörn, which has its administrative seat in Pewsum. The nearest railway station is at Emden, about 15–20 kilometres (9.3–12 mi) away, and the two towns are linked by a bus service.

Although originally just a small but picturesque fishing village, Greetsiel has become a major tourist attraction. In December 2006, it had 1,534 inhabitants, but the number of people living in the village significantly increases during the summer months and over the Christmas holidays.

Greetsiel's harbor is home to East Frisia's largest fishing fleet. Around 25 cutters have at times anchored here. Shellfish fishers, excursion boats, Dutch Tjalken and a sailboat harbor complete the picture.
The harbor itself is not affected by tides. By means of a lock on the Leyhörn, which was built at the beginning of the 1990s, ebb and flow have lost their effect.
In the past, ships that came from the inland used the sluiceway to enter upon open sea. Traffic from Greetsiel to the islands was very busy.