This magnificent card came as a lovely surprise from dear Ksenia. These Ukrainian cathedrals just have something special in them..i dont know if its coz of their colours but they certainly dont resemble a typical cathedral...this one is more like a castle that had come from a Disney Fairytale...i just cant decide if it belongs to Snow White, Cinderella, Mulan or the Sleeping Beauty...though from the entire tranquil atmosphere around it, i would go for the Sleeping Beauty :)
This is the St. Sofia Cathedral, dating back from the XI century, and it is a UNESCO whs as well!! And no, i still havent updated my UNESCO list...i will, i promise.
The St. Sofia cathedral is an outstanding architectural monument of Kievan Rus'. Today, it is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first Ukrainian patrimony to be inscribed on the UNESCO whs list. The cathedral's name comes from the 6th-century Hagia Sophia cathedral in Constantinopole.
I havent come across the "Kievan Rus'" term before, and i was surprised to find out that it was a medieval state which existed from approximately 880 to the middle of the 12th century and was founded by the Scandinavian traders called Rus. Rus' polity is considered an early predecessor of three modern East Slavic nations, Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians.
Is this another history lesson i hadnt paid attention to?
From what i could gather, the stamp belongs to a set of 7 definitives, issued in 2007, featuring art and antique objects...i still need to get used to this 'definitives' word...
And Ksenia...dzięki! :)))))))
3 comments:
So glad to see my card here :)) Actually, this won't be a new UNESCO site in your list, because Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra an St. Sofia Cathedral are inscribed as one site, even though there's several km distance between them :)
It's a pity that cards sent from Ukraine often have a terrible black postmark on the front side... Well, this one is actually not so bad, I've seen much worse examples :(
When it comes to the Kievan Rus, Russian and Ukrainian people still argue, which country is the real ancestor of that state :) Well, I think it's Ukraine, because Kyiv is in Ukraine and Ukrainian language is closer to the language that was spoken in Kievan Rus (Russian language has been strongly influenced by South Slavic languages). But of course later Russia became much stronger than Ukraine and Moscow (which was founded about 700 years later than Kyiv) has developed into the most important city of East Europe. (Can you easily tell that I've just written my history exam today?) ;)))
I can also easily tell you did extra well on that history test too ;))))
It looks like out of a fairytale. I love it!
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