All for tourists !

THE CHATEAU AT HORŠOVSKÝ TÝN

Hi ! I just came across some nice issues related with Tourism . The two stamps feature one of the finest architectural designs of Czech Republic. They call it the Beauties of their country. Its true, the exquisite design depicted on stamps are magnificent. I am giving details about them. The other two stamps have been recently issued by Austria . One of the stamp shows a picture of Schonbrunn Palace, one of the Austrian capital's top tourist attractions. Another stamp features a picture of Mercedes' legendary "Silver Arrow" racing car in commemoration of the Vienna Technical Museum's 100th birthday. A beautiful Miniature sheet to be issued by Jersey Post on Surfboards.These all issues are real delight for the people who love travelling and like to visit new places. This is all for today....Till Next Post ....Have a Nice Time !

Architectural delights on Czech stamps ! - Date of Issue 5 May 2009

The chateau at Horšovský Týn

The chateau at Horšovský Týn is located in the West Bohemia. After the 1547 fire the original early Gothic bishop castle of the central European type of citadels underwent a delicate reconstruction led by the Italian architect A. Galli into a Renaissance chateau of the Lobkowitz family. Still preserved is the early Gothic bishop castle chapel with uniquely structured ribbed vault and wall paintings built by the Burgundian construction works in the mid-13th century. With the exception of small Neo-Renaissance rebuilding in the back courtyard in the late 19th century the chateau underwent no further reconstruction. The knight hall contains a unique gallery of portraits of Czech rulers. The origin of the gallery is connected with the chateau at Jindřichův Hradec and the Slavata family. In the course of the 16th and 17th centuries the latter ordered a chronological series of portraits of rulers from the Přemyslid family through the Luxembourg family, Jiří of Poděbrady, the Jagellon family until the Habsburg family. The largest part of the original magnificent series of portraits is kept at the chateau at Horšovský Týn.

In 1996 due to its immense historic value the entire chateau was proclaimed a national cultural monument. The chateau includes not only the main chateau building but also the building of the burgraviate and the almost forty-hectare landscape gardens with the Gloriette, the Widows' House and the Loretan Chapel which is likely the first building of this kind in Bohemia. The gardens are open to the public on the side of the town of Horšovský Týn. Today the chateau is one of the Czech monuments which are most open to the public, offering several visitor tours through equipped residential premises of the chateau and the richly equipped chateau saloons.

The postage stamp shown above features a part of the chateau with the main entrance gate. The design of the postage is made complete with a drawing outlining the unique ribbed vault of the castle chapel.

The Cistercian Monastery

The Cistercian Monastery at Vyšší Brod, celebrating this year the 750th anniversary of its foundation, belongs to the major cultural monuments in the Southern Bohemia. It was founded in 1259 by Vok of Rožmberk who called Cistercian monks from the Austrian Wilhering. Vyšší Brod became the Rožmberk family monastery, endowed with large property, and the burial place of ten generations of the family.

In 1611 when the family of Rožmberk died out the monastery passed under the imperial patronage and later on it was granted to the Eggenberg family. The monks had to maintain continuous fighting with the family for their rights. In the early 18th century the monastery passed onto the Schwarzenberg family. The rather distant location of the monastery saved it from destruction at the time of the hussite wars as well as at the reformation era.

The location remained basically unharmed and constitutes the best preserved and historically most authentic monastery in the Czech Republic. The cycle of nine board paintings by the so-called Master of Vyšší Brod in the gallery of the monastery is a middle pointed style jewel of the South Bohemian painting. The library is the third largest Czech library. Located in the chapel is a board painting of the Madonna of Vyšší Brod by an unknown painter and the most precious item in the treasury of the monastery is the double-arm Záviš' cross. A community of Cistercian monks who moved back to the monastery has been gradually reconstructing the monastery. The building of the abbey is the seat of a branch of the Postal Museum in Prague hosting the permanent exposition Postal History in the Czech Lands since 1526 until Today. The exhibits include, e.g. coaches and sledges, postal uniforms, contemporary signs and post boxes, postage stamps, historic telegraph machines, telex machines, telephone machines, etc. Since 1995 the monastery is on the list of national cultural heritage.

The postage stamp features the exterior of the monastery church of the Holy Virgin which is the actual dominating point of the buildings. Towering above the church is a drawing outlining the Gothic style of architecture with ogive arches and a wheel-window.

Courtesy – Czech Post

Famous tourist attractions of Austria

Date of Issue – 20 March 2009

Schonbrunn Palace, one of the Austrian capital's top tourist attractions

Mercedes "Silver Arrow," the legendary racing car of the 1930s. The car, produced by Mercedes Benz and Auto Union from 1934 to 1939, has the unofficial name silver arrow on its surface

Date of Issue -17 March 2009

Mercedes' legendary "Silver Arrow" racing car on stamp in commemoration of the Vienna Technical Museum's 100th birthday.

The Surf Boards – A delight for tourists on sea beaches

Date of Issue – 2 June 2009

The Jersey Surfboard Club celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2009

'Surf-planing' - lying down flat on carved, solid wooden boards - was first introduced to Jersey in 1922 by Jerseyman, Nigel Oxenden, after returning to the Island from Africa with the idea. The stamp within the Miniature Sheet depicts a variety of the surfboard styles used and made in Jersey.