Saint Peter’s Square

Saint Peter's Square is located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace" (Norwich 1975 p 175). Bernini had been working on the interior of St. Peter's for decades; now he gave order to the space with his renowned colonnades, using the Tuscan form of Doric, the simplest order in the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the palace-like façade by Carlo Maderno, but he employed it on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and evoke emotions awe.

St. Peter's Basilica (Italian: San Pietro in Vaticano) is a major basilica in Vatican City, an enclave of Rome. St. Peter's was until recently the largest church ever built and it remains one of the holiest sites in Christendom. Contrary to what one might reasonably assume, St. Peter's is not a cathedral - that honor in Rome goes to St. John Lateran.

St. Peter's Basilica stands on the traditional site where Peter - the apostle who is considered the first pope - was crucified and buried. St. Peter's tomb is under the main altar and many other popes are buried in the basilica as well. Originally founded by Constantine in 324, St. Peter's Basilica was rebuilt in the 16th century by Renaissance masters including Bramante, Michelangelo and Bernini. This lovely card was sent to me by Maria.

Ethnic Communities in China

These four pretty postcards were sent to me from China by Françoise. They show glimpses of four different ethnic communities in China. They are :-

Jino nationality (top left) which is one of the 56 ethnic groups in China, the population is around 20,899, most of the Jinos live in the Jinoluoke Township of Jinghong County in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province.The language of this ethnic minority belongs to the Tibetan-Myanmese group of the Sino -Tibetan language family. Its structure and vocabulary have much in common with Yi and Myanmese.

The Monbas (top right) are scattered in the southern part of Tibet Autonomous Region. Most of them live in Medog, Nyingch and Cona counties. They have forged close links with the Tibetan people through political, economic and cultural exchanges and intermarriage over the years.

The Lhoba Nationality (below left) is one of the smallest ethnic groups of China. It has only 2.312 members. They mainly live in Mainling, Medog, Zayu, Khunze and Nang counties. The Lhobas have many tribes including the Bogar, Ningbo, Bangbo, Degen, Adi, and Tajin. Lhoba is a name given them by the Tibetans meaning "the Southerners". After the founding of new China, they were named the Lhoba Nationality.

The smallest of China's 55 ethnic groups is the Hezhen nationality (below right) who once lived at the confluence of the Heilongjiang, Songhua, and Usuli rivers in Heilongjiang Province in northeast China. Their illiteracy rate is the 4th lowest following the Chinese Tartars, the Chinese Koreans, and the Xibos, and even lower than that of the Han nationality. There were about 12,000 Hezhen citizens in the early 18th century.

Drake and The Golden Hind

The Golden Hind was an English galleon best known for its circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. She was originally known as the Pelican, but was renamed by Drake mid-voyage in 1578, as he prepared to enter the Strait of Magellan, calling it the Golden Hind to compliment his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose armorial crest was a golden 'hind' (the heraldic term for a female deer). Hatton was one of the principal sponsors of Drake's world voyage.

Sir Francis Drake sailed the Golden Hind on his historic three-year voyage round the world. The flagship of a fleet of five, the Golden Hind was the only one to safely return. Having plundered Spanish treasure at every opportunity and earned a massive return for himself, his financial backers and his country. On 26 September 1580, Francis Drake took his ship into Plymouth Harbour with only 56 of the original crew of 80 left aboard. Despite his piratical conduct on his voyages, Queen Elizabeth herself went aboard the Golden Hind, which was lying at Deptford in the Thames estuary, and personally bestowed a knighthood on him; her share of the treasure came to almost £160,000: "enough to pay off her entire foreign debt and still have £40,000 left over to invest in a new trading company for the Levant. Her return and that of other investors came to £47 for every £1 invested, or a total return of 4,700%."

After Drake's circumnavigation, the Golden Hind was maintained for public exhibition in Deptford. This is the earliest known example of a ship being maintained for public display because of its historic significance. Golden Hind remained there for nearly 100 years before she eventually rotted away and was finally broken up. The table in the Middle Temple Hall (in London) is reputed to have been made from the wood of the Golden Hind, as is a chair in the Great Hall, Buckland Abbey, Devon. My dear friend Maria sent me this pretty and historical card.

Nærøyfjord fjord

The Nærøyfjord (or Nærøyfjorden) is a in the municipality of Aurland in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. The narrow fjord is a branch of the large Sognefjord, and it is featured on the "Norway in a Nutshell" daytrips for tourists. The 18-kilometre (11 mi) long fjord is only 500 metres (1,600 ft) wide in some parts. This part of Norway is without a doubt, one of the most scenic areas in the world. The river Nærøydalselvi flows down the valley Nærøydalen into the fjord at the village of Gudvangen, near the highway. Since 2005, the Nærøyfjord has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has also been rated by the National Geographic Society as the world's number one natural heritage site along with the Geirangerfjord. My dear friend Merja sent me this card.

Princely Treasures – Liechtenstein Museum Vienna

The second series of “Princely Treasures – Liechtenstein Museum Vienna” commemorative is devoted to the ceiling frescos by the Salzburg painter Johann Michael Rottmayr (1654–1730), as seen in the ladies’ and gentlemen’s apartments on the ground floor and in the stairwells of the Liechtenstein Garden Palace in Vienna’s Rossau District.

At the end of the 1680s, after a period of study in Venice where he had mastered the Venetian/Neapolitan mixed technique, Rottmayr returned to his homeland where he was commissioned to produce works for the Archbishop’s palace. In 1696 he settled in Vienna and there became one of the most significant Austrian Baroque painters.

His principal works include the frescos in the churches of St. Peter and St. Charles in Vienna, in the Melk collegiate church, the Klosterneuburg collegiate church and the Garden Palace in Rossau, Vienna, built under Prince Johann Adam Andreas I of Liechtenstein, where Rottmayr created one of the finest examples of his master craftsmanship. Rottmayr had not figured in the original plan for the Palace, which provided for Bologna artists only. However, after making a name for himself as a fresco painter with his recently completed work in the Great Hall of Schönbrunn Palace, in 1705 he was the only local-born artist engaged to paint the ground floor and two staircases. He completed this commission in 1708.

The first of the two stamps depicts “The surrender of the Golden Fleece to Jason” (face value CHF 1.40), an obvious reference to the conferring of the Order of the Golden Fleece on Rottmayr’s client in 1693, and “Ariadne giving Theseus the thread” (face value CHF 1.00). Thank you my dear friend Maria for these two maxi cards, nay, Princely treasures.

P-51 Mustangs

The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range single-seat World War II fighter aircraft. Mustang pilots claimed 4,950 enemy aircraft shot down, the most of any Allied fighter in the conflict. It should be noted that the concept of the P-51 Mustang began more than three years before the first daylight bombing missions and the heavy losses. It is often accepted that the P-51 Mustang was designed to be an escort fighter, but as you look at the timeline, it is more plausible that the Mustang, as a fighter aircraft, fit that need better than any other fighter available. By the time heavy bomber losses were at hand, the P-51B and P-51C, with outstanding range, were already in production and being delivered to bases in England. The bombers of the daylight missions were taking very heavy losses each day from Luftwaffe pilots until an escort fighter could stay with them deep into enemy territory and home again on every mission. The North American P-51 Mustang was the immediate choice. The bomber crews nicknamed them their "little friends."

From late 1943, P-51Bs (supplemented by P-51Ds from mid-1944) were used by the USAAF’s Eighth Air Force to escort bombers in raids over Germany, while the RAF's 2 TAF and the USAAF's Ninth Air Force used the Merlin-powered Mustangs as fighter-bombers, roles in which the Mustang helped ensure Allied air superiority in 1944. The P-51 was also in service with Allied air forces in the North African, Mediterranean and Italian theatres, and saw limited service against the Japanese in the Pacific War. At the start of Korean War the Mustang was the United Nations' main fighter. However, jet fighters, including the F-86, took over this role, and the Mustang became a specialised ground-attack fighter-bomber.

Despite the advent of jet fighters, the Mustang remained in service with some air forces until the early 1980s. After World War II and the Korean War, many Mustangs were converted for civilian use, especially air racing. This nice card was sent to me by Paige.

The Spanish Steps in Rome

The Spanish Steps are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church at the top. The Scalinata is the widest staircase in Europe. The monumental stairway of 138 steps was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier’s bequeathed funds of 20,000 scudi, in 1723–1725, linking the Bourbon Spanish Embassy, and the Trinità dei Monti church that was under the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France, both located above — to the Holy See in Palazzo Monaldeschi located below. Architects Francesco de Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi designed the stairway.

In the Piazza di Spagna or the Span Square at the base is the Early Baroque fountain called Fontana della Barcaccia ("Fountain of the Old Boat"), built in 1627-29 and often credited to Pietro Bernini, father of a more famous son, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who is recently said to have collaborated on the decoration. The elder Bernini had been the pope's architect for the Acqua Vergine, since 1623. According to an unlikely legend, Pope Urban VIII had the fountain installed after a boat brought here by a flood of the Tiber River had impressed him.

In the piazza, at the corner on the right as one begins to climb the steps, is the house where English poet John Keats lived and died in 1821; it is now a museum dedicated to his memory, full of memorabilia of the English Romantic generation. On the same right side stands the 15th century former cardinal Lorenzo Cybo de Mari's palace, now Ferrari di Valbona, a building altered in 1936 to designs by Marcello Piacentini, the main city planner during Fascism, with modern terraces perfectly in harmony with the surrounding baroque context.

My dear friend Maria sent this lovely card to me.