Conquering the Alps on Trains (Austria, Germany, Switzerland)

The Semmering Railway was built between 1848 and 1854 under Carl von Ghega and is the first mountain railway in Europe built with a standard gauge track. On the 41km long line there are 14 tunnels, 16 viaducts and more than 100 bridges. Today it is still in use as part of the Southern Railway of the Austrian Federal Railways. Since 1998 is the Semmering Railway on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Brenner Railway was opened in 1867, 150 years ago. It was built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and crosses the Brenner Pass. Although it has insufficient capacity and the travel speed is low, it is still considered to be a fundamental railway.

The Rhaetian Railway is a railway operator in the Swiss Canton of Graubünden and the largest private railway operator in Switzerland. It features an impressive set of structures, which were all built in perfect harmony with the landscapes through which they pass. Its construction had a major and lasting socio-economic impact on life in the mountains. The Rhaetian Railway in the Albula and Bernina Landscapes is since 2008 on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Landwasser Viaduct - built between 1901 and 1902, signature structure of
the Albula Railway

Brusio Spiral Viaduct - in use since 1908, signature structure of the Bernina Railway

The Mittenwald Railway connects Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria with Innsbruck in Tyrol. It was built as an electric local railway from 1910 to 1912 and had a substantial impact on the development of standards for electric railway operations in Central Europe. When it was opened in 1912 it was operated jointly by the Austrian Federal Railways and the Royal Bavarian State Railways.

The Other Reformations (Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom)

The Reformation-themed posts on this Blog were until now focused on the person and the ideas of Martin Luther and his supporters, but he was neither the first one nor the last one whose ideas and doings reformed. This post is about the other Reformations.

Jan Hus (1372-1415) is considered to be the first church reformer. His teachings had a strong influence on the states of Western Europe and on Martin Luther. During the Council of Constance he was burned at the stake for heresy. After his death the followers of his religious teachings, the Hussites, rebelled against their Roman Catholic rulers and defeated five consecutive papal crusades during the the Hussite Wars between 1420 and 1431.

Hus Memorial in Prague

Huldrych Zwingli was born in 1484 in the Canton of St Gall in Switzerland. He later studied theology in Vienna and Basel and became pastor. Around 1514 he first encountered the humanist writings of Erasmus of Rotterdam and started to search a deeper approach to the New Testament. In 1522 he wrote a paper against the Lent, which marked the beginning of his conflict with the Church. In 1523 the city council of Zürich organised two disputations and at the end the Reformation according to Zwingli was introduced. The doctrine of Zwingli has many similarities with the one of Luther. The main differences are the missing distinction of secular and religious power and the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper. Zwingli's Reformation spread in northern Switzerland and southwest Germany. When Zwingli tried to introduce the Reformation to other parts of Switzerland, a war between Zürich and other Catholic Cantons began. Huldrych Zwingli died during the Battle of Kappel in 1531 and the Reformation in Switzerland came to a standstill for the moment.

This is not a postcard, but a picture from the Internet.

The Church of England was separated from Rome by King Henry VIII in 1534. Although a theological separation had been foreshadowed by various movements within the English Church, the main reason became the monarch himself, although he was actually theologically opposed to Protestantism. Henry's motive was that Pope Clement VII refused the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. So Henry took the position of Supreme Head of the Church of England to ensure the annulment and was later excommunicated by Pope Paul III. Between 1536 and 1540 Henry VIII engaged in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Henry maintained a strong preference for traditional Catholic practises and just under his son, King Edward VI, more Protestant-influenced forms of worship were adopted. Queen Mary I, who succeeded Edward, returned England again to the authority of the papacy for a short time, thereby ending the first attempt at an independent Church of England. The Elizabethan Settlement from 1558 developed the middle way character of the Church of England, a church moderately Reformed in doctrine and also emphasising continuity with the Catholic and Apostolic traditions of the Church Fathers.

The Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Church of England. It was built in the 11th century and is considered to be a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. In 1170 Thomas Becket had been murdered in the cathedral, starting a constant flow of pilgrims. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer tell the story of such a pilgrimage in the 14th century. Since 1988 is the Canterbury Cathedral on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Johannes Calvin was born in 1509 in northern France and later studied law and theology. After he acknowledged the Reformation in 1533, he had to leave France. In Basel in 1535 he finished his main work, Institutio Christianae Religionis. Between autumn 1535 and 1538 and again from 1540 onwards he lived in Geneva, where he established a community according to his ideas. In 1541 the city council of Geneva accepted a church order written by Calvin. Together with Luther he is considered to be one of the most important figures of the Reformation. The Calvinism spread to many parts of Europe including France (Huguenots), Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Scotland. Johannes Calvin died in 1564.

The North German Confederation (Germany)

The defeat of Austria in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 resulted in a shift in power among the German states away from Austrian hegemony and the abolition of the German Confederation. Prussia, the new sole hegemonic power, subsequently founded the North German Confederation, the first federal state in Germany, which united 22 free cities, small and middle states north of the river Main under Prussian dominance. The new constitution became effective on 1st July 1867, after a draft constitution was presented by Bismarck which was altered by a konstituierender Reichstag. Bismarck planned to make the federal state attractive to southern German states which might later join. The North German Constitution created a national parliament, the Reichstag, and the Bundesrat, the council of the representatives of the allied governments. During the Franco-Prussian War Baden, Bavaria, Württemberg and the North German Confederation united to form a new nation state, which later got the name German Empire. The King of Prussia became German Emperor and the constitution of the Empire was nearly identical to that of the North German Confederation.

The member states of the North German Confederation were 

the Kingdoms of Prussia and Saxony, 

the Grand Duchies of Hesse (only the northern part), Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg and Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, 

the Duchies of Anhalt, Brunswick, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Saxe-Meiningen, 

the Principalities of Lippe, Reuss-Gera, Reuss-Greiz, Schaumburg-Lippe, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and Waldeck and Pyrmont and 

the Free and Hanseatic Cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck.

Sun Yat-sen and the Revolution in China (China, Hong Kong)

Sun Yat-sen was born in Cuiheng in 1866. In 1878 he went to a school in Honolulu and in 1886 he started to study medicine in Hong Kong, where he afterwards worked as doctor. The time he spent in the West nurtured his dissatisfaction with the government of the Qing dynasty and so he started to be active in politics. After he failed riot in 1895 he went into exile in Europe, the USA, Canada and Japan for 16 years. After he heard of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911 he convinced the Western Powers to stop their credit payment for the Qing and returned to China. The Wuchang Uprising became the catalyst to the Xinhai Revolution, which ended the Qing Dynasty and two millennia of imperial rule in China. In 1912 he became the first president of the Republic of China and founded the Nationalist Party, which preceded the Kuomintang. Due to inner conflicts he had to leave China again in 1913 and only returned in 1917. In 1923 he delivered a speech in which he proclaimed his Three Principles of the People. Sun Yat-sen died in Beijing in 1925 and left China in a unfavourable situation.

Today Sun Yat-sen is admired as Father of the Nation in the Republic of China on Taiwan and as Forerunner of the Revolution in the People's Republic of China.

Hong Kong, Macau and the PR China issued a joint stamp
for his 150th birthday on 12th November 2016. 

The Sun Yat-sen Residence Memorial Museum was opened in 1956 next to his former residence in Cuiheng. It is a nationally protected cultural site.

The card is a maxicard with one of the joint stamps from the PR China.

The Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum in Hong Kong was opened in 2006 in the Kom Tong Hall. It shows various relics of Sun Yat-sen and focuses on the years he spent in Hong Kong.

Genoa's seafaring past (Italy, Turkey)

Genoa was in the Middle Ages the capital of the Republic of Genoa, a powerful maritime republic and colonial power. In 1451 Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa. The Republic of Genoa was an independent state until it was replaced by the Ligurian Republic in 1797, when it became a client state of the Napoleonic France. 

Via Garibaldi (Strade Nuove) and the Palazzo Doria-Tursi

Palazzo Doria Tursi - Palazzo Reale -
 Palazzo Pantaleo Spinola - Palazzo Rosso

In the middle of 13th century the Republic of Genoa was actively trading all over the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It was one of the most important trading nations in the Middle Ages and made its fortunes by maritime trade. The Treaty of Nymphaeum, signed with the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261, helped the Genoese to virtually monopolize the trade in the Black Sea. 

The communities of Genoese merchants were located at key points of trade and communication in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. One of their trading posts was the Galata Tower in Istanbul, their main hub in Anatolia. The Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade Routes from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea are currently on Turkey's Tentative List, as they are considered to be exceptional structures which reflect trading and international relationships of the medieval era.

20.05.2016

The Iberian Peninsula between Christianity and Islam (Spain)

The Umayyad Caliphate had conquered the Iberian peninsula in 8th century, but already in 718 the Reconquista started and the Christians began to establish new kingdoms to foster the power of Christianity on the peninsula. The first kingdom, that was founded by the Christians, was the Kingdom of Asturias in 718. First it was just a small state, but soon started its expansion.

One of the churches built in the Kingdom of Asturias was San Miguel de Lillo in the kingdom's capital Oviedo. The Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias are since 1985 on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Cordoba had its period of greatest glory after it had been conquered by the Moorish armies in 711. In 766 it became the capital of the Emirate of al-Andalus and also remained the capital after the emirate became the Caliphate of Cordoba under the Umayyad dynasty in 929. It was an important centre of education and had a big library. In 1236 Cordoba was captured by King Ferdinand III of Castile.

The Great Mosque was built between 784 and 987. After Cordoba had been captured by the Christians, it was turned into a Catholic church.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba is since 1984 on the UNESCO World Heritage List, in 1994 the rest of the city's historic centre was added.

The Alhambra was first built in the 9th century. In the 13th century it was largely renovated by the Moorish Emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar of Granada and in 1333 it was converted into a royal palace by Yusuf I, Sultan of Granada. 

In 1492 the Reconquista ended when the Emirate of Granada surrendered to the Christian monarchs after the Granada War. 

Afterwards the Alhambra became the Royal Court of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. There Christopher Columbus received the royal endorsement for his expedition. 

The Alhambra is today the best example of Islamic architecture in Spain and also one of the country's most visited sights. Since 1984 is the Alhambra on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

26.11.2016

Hong Kong to China (Hong Kong)

In the 19th century the territory of Hong Kong became a colony of the United Kingdom. Hong Kong Island was acquired in 1842, Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and the New Territories were leased in 1898 for 99 years.

It was considered to be impossible to divide the territory after 99 years and the People's Republic of China anyway considered the status of Hong Kong as illegitimate due to it being a consequence of the "unfair and unequal treaties", so negotiations between the United Kingdom and China began. 

It was decided that a Special Administrative Region would be created and that Hong Kong's previous capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years. This became known as "One Country, Two Systems" principle.

On 1st July 1997, 20 years ago, the United Kingdom handed over Hong Kong to China.

The Golden Bauhinia Square is a public area named after the giant statue of a golden Bauhinia blakeana, the flower on Hong Kong's flag. It is located outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, where the ceremonies for the handover of Hong Kong and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region were held. Every day a flag is raised ceremonially on the square.