The Wooden Church of Heinävesi

This is my very first postcard from Finland. It was sent by Eeva of Postcrossing.

"The Heinävesi Church is located right in the heart of Heinävesi, Finland. Surrounded by fields, the tall church hill dominates the entire village and the surrounding landscape. The church hill is home to the wooden church, the churchyard surrounded by a stone fence and the old cemetery next to it. In addition, the church hill has the old parish hall and a granary that has been transformed into a museum. There is a road leading from the church to the harbor, which was a major inland waterway center.

The current church, a wooden cruciform building designed by Josef Stenbäck, is Heinävesi’s third church in the same spot. The previous church, which had been drawn by Carl Ludvig Engel and completed in 1840, burnt down in 1887. The current church was built by volunteers from 1890 to 1891 under the direction of construction engineer E. J. Holopainen. The church was designed to hold 2,000 people. It has organs that are from 1906 and 1980." (Source: Museums of Southern Savo)

The postcard came with this round-shaped stamp, which I initially thought was just a decorative sticker. Well, in fact, it's really a sticker. It's a self-adhesive stamp!

I wanted to know more about the stamp so I consulted Mr. Google. I found out that it is one of the two stamps issued in April of the current year featuring the dahlia flower. I also learned that Suomi is the shortened version of "Suomen tasavalta -- Republiken Finland," or the Republic of Finland.


I'm certainly looking forward to receiving another postcard from Finland! Finnish stamps are so cool, don't you think so?

Wishing you happy journeys...

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Capela de S. Sebastião

This postcard was sent by José. It features the Chapel of San Sebastian in the rural village of Sousel, Alentejo, Portugal.

This card traveled approximately 12,182 km or 7,570 miles for 12 days. I tried consulting Mr. Google for specific details about this chapel, but my research didn't yield much information. It also turned out that Alentejo has a lot of chapels named San Sebastian.

Here's the information that I gathered. Please note that I enlisted the help of an online translator because the write up is in Portuguese.

"Legend has it that in the ancient time, a major epidemic struck the county of Sousel. In that time of great distress and anguish, the people prayered to St. Sebastian to save them. The townsfolk were deeply grateful that their prayers were answered so they built a chapel in honor of Saint Sebastian. The City Council also adopted a heraldic seal with the image of the martyr. Although it is not possible to ascertain the veracity of the aforesaid events, what is certain is that the image of St. Sebastian appears in ancient documents of the Sousel. The Session Room of City Hall also displays a beautiful embossed image of the martyr. The City of Sousel also organized, at least until the mid-nineteenth century, the Feast of St. Sebastian." - lifted from terrasdeportugal.wikidot.com/sousel and translated using Google translate.

I adore the stamp that came along with the card. Isn't it charming?

Wishing you happy journeys...

This is my entry to this week's Wednesday Postcard Meme

hosted by Willa Stock of

Venezia's Church of Gold

Photography is prohibited inside Basilica di San Marco so I bought this postcard to remind me of how amazingly beautiful the interior of this Byzantine church looks like. I didn't want to trust my memory with all the artistic and architectural details I saw inside. I craned, strained, and stretched my neck to marvel at the opulent ceilings, vaults, and walls of this place of worship. You can bet that I had a very stiff neck afterwards.

Basilica di San Marco is also referred to as Chiesa d'Oro (Church of Gold) because of its gilded mosaics which covers about 8,000 square meters of its walls, vaults, and cupolas. 

"The mosaic decorations were developed through some 8 centuries of the Basilica's history. They represent stories from the Bible (Old and New Testaments), allegorical figures, events in the lives of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saint Mark and other saints. The mosaics, with their warm colors, particularly gold, decorate the ample spaces of the Basilica, from 28 metres wide up to 21 metres high. As in Middle-Eastern churches, the interaction of the decoration with a dim, but ever changing light, according to the time of day, creates a range of evocative and intense effects."  (Official website of St. Mark's Basilica)

"The intricately-patterned floor is a 12th-century mixture of mosaic and marble in geometric patterns and animal designs. A red medallion in the floor of the porch inside the main door marks the spot where, in 1177, Doge Sebastiano Ziani orchestrated the reconciliation between Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, and Pope Alexander III.

Over the high altar is a baldacchino on columns decorated with 11th-century reliefs. The altarpiece is the famous Pala d'Oro (Golden Pall), a panel of gold embedded with gems. It was commissioned from Byzantine goldsmiths in 976 and further embellished over the centuries. Napoleon stole some of the precious stones in 1797, but there are still plenty left, gleaming behind protective glass.

The choir stalls are embellished with inlaying by Fra Sebastiano Schiavone, and above them on both sides are three reliefs by Sansovino. On the two marble pulpits of the ambo are statuettes by the Massegne brothers (1394). Also in the choir are Sansovino's bronze statues of the Evangelists and Caliari's of the Four Doctors." (www.sacred-destinations.com)

Words, no matter how creatively stringed together, and photos, no matter how expertly captured, cannot adequately convey and bring to life the resplendence of the architectural masterpiece that is Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco.  One has to see and experience its grandeur.


Indeed, the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen.  I long to gaze at its beauty again.

Wishing you happy journeys...

This is my response to the Wednesday Postcard Meme of Willa of

A Card from Genoa

This card is special not only because it is one of the very first postcards I received since I joined Postcrossing, but also because it reminds me of the grand cathedrals I've seen during my trip to Italy a few years back. Mi manca l'Italia! (I seriously hope my Italian is correct.)

The postcard features Genoa's black-and-white stripped St. Lawrence Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of Genoa. The cathedral houses the urn of what is believed to be the ashes of St. John the Baptist which were reported stolen during the time of the Crusades. The urn is taken out and paraded throughout the city every 24th of June in observance of the feast day of the Saint.

It is interesting to note that Cattedrale di San Lorenzo had narrowly escaped complete destruction in 1941 when the entire city was being bombed by the British as part of Operation Grog during the Second World War. It is said that due to crew error, the British battleship HMS Malaya mistakenly directed an armour piercing shell into the cathedral, but the bomb miraculously failed to detonate. The said bomb shell is currently placed on display at the church's nave.

This card travelled approximately 6,551 miles for 17 days. One of the stamps used features Leonardo Sciascia, an influential Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, and politician.

Grazie, Davide! I hope I'd be able to personally marvel at the beauty of Cattedrale di San Lorenzo one day.

Credit: Interesting facts were lifted from a Wikipedia article on Cattedrale di San Lorenzo.


Wishing you happy journeys...

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