Kungur Ice Cave

Despite its ancient and "exotic" story, the city Kungur is unique now because of the legendary Ice Cave in the Ice Mountain. It has got no less mysteries and secrets than Stonehenge and Egyptian sphinxes have got. Kungur Ice Mountain and Ice Cave are situated in the south-east of Perm Krai, 90 km. from the city of Perm. The area of the reservation is 106 ha, min altitude (the Baltic Sea) is 116 m, max altitude is 198 m. Kungur Ice Cave is known since time immemorial. In 1703 Peter the Great issued the decree sending a well-known geographer S.U. Remezov from Tobolsk in Kungur. He worked out the Uyezd plan and the first sketch of the Cave. The cartographers of the XVIII century made a copy of the sketch, multiplied them and they were included in the scientific encyclopaedias of the European Universities.

The Cave as an excursion site is used since 1914 and equipped with with 2 tour routes with total length of 2 km. The examination of a large excursion ring (classic route) continues 1h. 20 min. During this time the tourists travel under the ground 1300 m. Some hundred thousand people come to have a look at this unique creation of nature every year. The total number of tourists has already exceeded 5 million.

In 1733 Professor I.G. Gmelin first in the world kept the ground microclimate under observation. The constant monitoring regime in the cave is carried out over 60 years. This is the only underground laboratory in Russia with long-standing and diverse observations of karstic processes. The standard for monitoring observations in the cave is a protected part, which remains in the primordial form. Ice Mountain is of great interest in archaeological terms. There are two sites of ancient settlement of VII-IX centuries, relating to Lomovatov culture. Yermakov's site of ancient settlement known since the XIX century is located in the eastern part of The Mountain, just above Kungur Ice Cave. Kungur's site of ancient settlement , smaller in area, is situated in 0,5 km to the west of it. Both have well-preserved castle defenses - barrages and moats. This wonderful card was sent to me by Maria who lives in Perm.

 

Forests of Roztocze and woodland-tundra.

Lubelskie is located in one of the most green and ecologic clean regions of Europe. Here is located the largest in country group of Forests Janowskie and Solska Forest. Also here are stretch from Kraśnik to Hrebenne (and further to Lvov) picturesque areas of afforested hills of Roztocze. Forest land, with deep valley, numerous springs and small waterfalls on rocky terrains creates superb conditions for foot and bicycle wander. Apart from peculiarities of the nature, you will find here old country huts, antique small churches, Orthodox churches, cemeteries, and also on borderland in forests concrete bunkers from so-called Mołotow line, built hurriedly by Red Army in years 1940-41.

Roztoczański National Park protects the valuable forests of Central Roztocze, with fir-beeches forests - typical for Carpathians. Town of Zwierzyniec was formerly hunting terrain of Zamoyski family. Now it is farming of Polish pony, coming from extinct specie of forest horse - tarpan. Magda sent me this card.

Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Zabelin

This lovely painting was made by Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Zabelin who was born in 1935 in Khamovniki, an old region of Moscow. Zabelin recounts his childhood as having “passed by during the years when my country was engaged in a heroic war against fascist Germany”. After the war, in the late 1940’s, he had the opportunity to work in the studio of M.A. Slanov. One day as he was working in the studio, the famous artist Konstantin Yuon (student of Valentin Serov and K. Korovin) came to visit. Yuon took notice of Zabelin’s work which resulted in Zabelin’s acceptance to the “1905” Moscow Art School in 1956. His studies here continued until 1961 when he enrolled in the Surikov Institute. Zabelin spent the next six years at the Surikov, obtaining his diploma and continuing on to get his post-graduate degree. Yuon would continue to help direct Zabelin along his educational path as well as inspire his work. Mari sent me this card from Belarus. The card depicts the artist’s impression of the “morning glory over the Rostov Palace”.

Lviv Market Square

The Rynok Square in Lviv   is a central square of the city of Lviv, Ukraine. It was planned in the second half of the 14th century, following granting city rights by Polish king Casimir III, who annexed Red Ruthenia. The king ordered Lviv to be moved more to the south, where a new city was built to the plan of a traditional European settlement: a central square surrounded by living quarters and fortifications. Old, Ruthenian Lviv had become a suburb of the new city. The square is rectangular in shape, with measurements of 142 meters by 129 meters and with two streets radiating out of every corner. In the middle there was a row of houses, with its southern wall made by the Town Hall. However, when in 1825 the tower of the Town Hall burned, all adjacent houses were demolished and a new hall, with a 65-meter tower, was built in 1835 by architects J. Markl and F. Trescher.

Around the square, there are 44 tenement houses, which represent several architectural styles, from Renaissance to Modernism. In the four corners, there are fountains—wells from 1793, probably designed by Hartman Witwer. The sculptures represent four Greek mythological figures: Neptune, Diana, Amphitrite and Adonis. In front of the Town Hall, there was a pillory. In 1998 the Market Place, together with the historic city center of Lviv, was recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site.

Julia sent me this nice card, which shows the North side of Market Square.

Dresden - Frauenkirche

Further to my previous post (dated 01.6.2012) on the very same subject, namely the Frauenkirche in Dresden. I was fortunate to get another card depicting this famous church from Heike in Germany. So take another look.

Dresden Frauenkirche

The Dresden Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) is a Lutheran church in Dresden Germany. Built in the 18th century, the church was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. It was reconstructed as a landmark symbol of reconciliation between former warring enemies. The reconstruction of its exterior was completed in 2004, its interior in 2005 and, after 13 years of rebuilding, the church was reconsecrated on 30 October 2005 with festive services lasting through the Protestant observance of Reformation Day on 31 October. Once a month, an Anglican Evensong in English is held in the Church of Our Lady, with clergy sent from St. George's Anglican Chaplaincy in Berlin.
The conviction that the Frauenkirche that had been totally destroyed simply had to be rebuilt was shared by many people within Dresden and elsewhere too. But it took 45 years for the realisation of this dream to become a feasible possibility. And, in total, 60 years went by before the Frauenkirche in all its baroque beauty could reopen its doors to the world. Initial endeavours to start rebuilding were already undertaken in the last months of the Second World War. As the reconstruction of a church was not, however, a priority issue in the GDR (former East Germany), conditions favourable to this didn't exist until after the political changes that led to the reunification of Germany. Thanks to the impressive efforts made by the citizen's action group, the reconstruction concept was spread throughout the entire world. Over a period of 11 years and more, the church was rebuilt piece by piece - in keeping with the design specifications set out by George Bähr for the old church and using original materials to the largest extent possible. On October 30^th 2005, the celebratory consecration took place to mark the conclusion of the church's reconstruction. My good friend Christina sent me this lovely card.

Turku

Turku is a city on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed to have been first settled around the end of the 13th century, making it the oldest city in Finland. It quickly became the most important city in Finland, a status it retained for hundreds of years. After Finland became part of the Russian Empire (1809), and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland was moved to Helsinki (1812), Turku continued to be the most populous city in Finland, until the end of the 1840s. Today it remains a regional capital and an important business and cultural center. This lovely card was sent to me by Pia. It shows Turku as seen from the tower of Turku Cathedral.