Poland

Zamek na Wawelu

A postcard of the Ceiling of the Hall of Deputies in Wawel Castle in Krakow.  

The ceiling has a number of individually faces depicting various different people in a variety of classes.  It is believed that the these faces were to remind the Polish Kings that they were the king of all of the people, regardless of their class or background.   

Poland

Polkish folk art

This panoramic postcard featuring a man and a women is actually a longer representation of the card featured here.

Poland

Bitwa Pod Orsza

Battle of Orsha

This card shows the painting the Battle of Orsha (circa 1524-1530) attributed to the German Renaissance artist Hans Krell.  The battle, fought in present-day Orsha, Belarus, took place on September 8, 1514.  

The painting is housed in the National Museum in Warsaw and a clearer photo of it can be seen at this page.

Poland

Wzór 16

This postcard with two roosters, called Design 16, shows beautiful folk artwork.

Poland

Kukuryku

This card features a drawn number of roosters and chicks and is part of the Polish Folklore card series by Ewa Jaloszynska and are available at www.nanaelo.pl.  

The word on the front of the card, kukuryku, apparently translates as "cock-a-doodle-doo."

Poland

* heart * Warsazawa

This heart shaped postcard features a variety of sights of Warsaw including two mermaid statues, Old town, the royal castle, and the Chopin statue.  .

Poland

Warszawa

This card features the imposing Zamek, or Royal Castle of Warsaw.  In the foreground, the column and statue is King Sigismund III Vasa, king of Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth from 1587 to 1632 and Sweden from 1592-1599 when he was deposed.   

His statue features so prominently as in 1596 he moved Poland's capital from Krakow to Warsaw.  

The actual column stone for the Sigismund Column  has been twice replaced.  The original stood for 243 years from 1644 until 1887.  The second one stood from 1887 until 1944 when it was toppled by the Germans during the Warsaw Uprising on September 1, 1944.  The current column was raised in 1949.

Poland

Universitas Jagellonica Cracoviensis -1364

Featuring the symbol of the Jagiellon University of Krakow, this card shows that the university was founded in 1364, 651 years ago.  The university is the oldest in Poland, second oldest in Central Europe (after Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic), and is one of the oldest universities in the world.     

Poland

Babie lato (Indian Summer) - Józef Marian Chełmoński

This painting by Polish artist Józef Marian Chełmoński is called, in translation, Indian Summer and features a women laying on the ground with her black dog looking over what appears to be a herd of animals.  This painting can be seen at the National Museum of Warsaw.  

Poland

The Statue of Chronos in the National Hall, 1768

The Statue of Chronos, the ancient Greek God of time with a globe on his back is located in the Royal Castle in Warsaw.  The scythe in his hands would tell the time when the statue was a working clock.  The statue is located near where the first bombs fell on Warsaw when the Germans began bombing the city at the start of the war in September 1939.  

Since the Royal Castle's reconstruction, the clock is not active but is symbolically kept at the minute the first bomb hit the castle in 1939.