Lighthouse and a little church on the rock in Bolshoy Utrish

In this postcard sent to me by Maria, are shown a lighthouse and a little church on the rock in Bolshoy Utrish (Big Utrish), south Russia, on the shore of the Black Sea. Between the seaside village of Bolshoy Utrish and Sukko, a rural locality serving as a resort, sprawls across the Bolshoy Utrish protected area, which stretches for 12km along the coastline and is closed on the north ridge Navagir. Sukko lies in the north of the Abrau Peninsula, in the valley of the small Sukko River, wedged between the westernmost spurs of the Caucasus Mountains, otherwise known as the Markotkh. 

The lighthouse, is located on an island and appears to be abandoned and deteriorating. The date when it was put into use is unknown, but probably is 1920, because the station was established in 1911. It's a round cylindrical masonry tower with a gallery and a band of sculptured faces around it at about a quarter of the height, and a small red lantern on top.  

Somero Church

The Somero Church is built on a small hill. Georg Theodor von Chiewitz designed, styled the red-brick church. The church was built in1859 .

Church organ and the Zachariassen organ were made in the year  1880 . Organ changes were made ​​in 1960 - and 1970's. The player is a valuable example of a Finnish history.

 This card which Ella sent me depicts the Lutheran Church of Somero. The Chaple is to the left. This picture must have been taken more than 20 years ago. Now there are many trees between the Church and the river.

Lutherans are Christians and they are found throughout the world!  They represent the world's third largest block of Christians and are the oldest Protestants.  There are nearly 70 million Lutherans living on every continent, speaking hundreds of languages.  In the USA alone there are more than 12 million Lutheran Christians.

Zaporozhian Cossacks

The Zaporozhian Cossacks, or simply Zaporozhians  were Ukrainian Cossacks who lived beyond the rapids of the Dnieper river, the land also known as the Great Meadow in Central Ukraine. Today most of its territory is flooded by the waters of Kakhovka Reservoir.

The Zaporizhian Sich grew rapidly in the 15th century from serfs fleeing the more controlled parts of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth establishing itself as a well-respected political entity with a parliamentary system of government. During the course of the 16th, 17th and well into the 18th centuries the Zaporozhian Cossacks became a strong political and military force that challenged the authority of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Tsardom of Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and its vassal the Crimean Khanate. The Host went through a series of conflicts and alliances involving the three powers before falling into the Russian sphere of influence and eventually being forcibly disbanded in the late 18th century by the Russian Empire, with most of the population relocated to the Kuban region in the South edge of the Russian Empire, where the Cossacks served a valuable role of defending the Empire against the fierce Caucasian tribes and in return had a great degree of freedom granted by the Tsars.

The name Zaporozhtsi comes from the location of their fortress, the Sich, in Zaporozhzhia, the ‘land beyond the rapids’ (from za‘beyond’ and poróhy ‘river rapids’).

This card showing three comical characters from Ukranian folklore Oko, Gray and Tur, were famous for their bumblimg and tumbling ways, but, they invariably did what they wanted to do J. This card was sent to me by my friend Irina from Kiev.

Somero

Somero is a municipality of Finland, located in the province of Western Finland and part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of 9,268 (31 January 2012)^[2] and covers an area of 697.68 square kilometres (269.38 sq mi) of which 29.9 km² (11.5 sq mi) is water.^[1] The population density is 13.88 inhabitants per square kilometre (35.9 /sq mi). Somero is unilingually Finnish.

Somero has been known as a trading place as early as 14th century. The municipality was officially founded in 1867. The municipality of Somerniemi was joined into Somero proper in 1977. Somero moved from the province of Häme to the province of Turku and Pori in 1990. Currently it belongs to the province of Western Finland. Somero became a town (kaupunki) on January 1, 1993.         

This pretty card sent to me by Ella shows an old Windmill which is part of the Somero Museum. There are many buildings from the 17^th and 18^th centuries that form part of the Museum.

Ipiranga Museum

Constança sent me this pretty card. The Museu Paulista of the University of São Paulo (commonly known in São Paulo and all Brazil as Museu do Ipiranga) is a Brazilian history museum located near where Emperor D. Pedro I proclaimed the Brazilian independence on the banks of Ipiranga brook in the Southeast region of the city of São Paulo, then the "Caminho do Mar," or road to the seashore. It contains a huge collection of furniture, documents and historically relevant artwork, especially relating to the Brazilian Empire era.
The most famous work of art in the collection is the 1888 painting Independência ou Morte (Independence or Death) by Pedro Américo.
A few months after the Brazilian Declaration of Independence, people started to suggest a monument on the site where the declaration took place, although they were not sure about what sort of memorial construction to build. In 1884, Italian architect Tommaso Gaudenzio Bezzi, who was hired to develop the project, chose to build an eclectic-styled construction similar to the French Palace of Versailles with impressive and perfectly manicured gardens and fountain.

Lapland – The Land of the Midnight Sun

The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon occurring in summer months at places north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle where the sun remains visible at the local midnight. Around the solstice (June 21 in the north and December 21 in the south) and given fair weather the sun is visible for the full 24 hours. The number of days per year with potential midnight sun increases the farther towards either pole one goes. Although approximately defined by the polar circles, in practice midnight sun can be seen as much as 90 km outside the polar circle, as described below, and the exact latitudes of the farthest reaches of midnight sun depend on topography and vary slightly year-to-year. This pretty card sent to me by Hilkka from Finland shows the different poses of the Sun in Northern Finland, namely in Lapland.

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Hepburn was ranked as the third greatest female screen legend in the history of American cinema and a place in the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. Born in Ixelles, a district of Brussels, Hepburn spent her childhood between Belgium, England and the Netherlands, including German-occupied Arnhem during the Second World War, where she studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell in Amsterdam before moving to London in 1948 to continue ballet training with Marie Rambert and perform as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions.  Pia sent me this card.
After appearing in several British films and starring in the 1951 Broadway play Gigi, Hepburn played the Academy Award-winning lead role in Roman Holiday (1953). Later performing in successful films like Sabrina (1954), The Nun's Story (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Charade (1963), My Fair Lady (1964) and Wait Until Dark (1967), Hepburn received Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations and accrued a Tony Award for her theatrical performance in the 1954 Broadway play Ondine. Hepburn remains one of few people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards.  One film of note was Robin and Marian (1976), with Sean Connery in 1976. In 1988, Audrey became a special ambassador to the United Nations UNICEF fund helping children in Latin America and Africa, a position she retained until 1993. She was named to People's magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. Her last film was Always (1989) in 1989. She had made a total of 31 high quality movies. Her elegance and style will always be remembered in film history as evidenced by her being named in Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time."
She appeared in fewer films as her life went on, devoting much of her later life to UNICEF. Although contributing to the organisation since 1954, she worked in some of the most profoundly disadvantaged communities of Africa, South America and Asia between 1988 and 1992. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in late 1992, but a month later, aged 63, Hepburn died of appendiceal cancer at her home in Switzerland in early 1993.