Polska

Here is a nice pair of FDCs from Poland sent from Andrzej Bek, my philatelic contact in Poland. I actually received it about 3 months ago in August, but I only got to posting it now. In fact, there are many covers that I was never able to post because their scans were sorted into some obscure folder that I have virtually no recollection of ever creating and were then set aside in some corner of my hard drive that I rarely visit. It was only yesterday that I found out about these covers MIA. hahaha

So I guess I will be "way behind schedule" again since I plan on posting these before I do the ones I recently received. I plan on posting daily starting today, so it won't take too long till I get back on track - hopefully.

Moving on, this first FDC is #18 in a series called "Polish Towns and Cities" and celebrates 900 years of history of Racibórz, which was first mentioned in the Chronicles and Deeds of the Dukes or Princes of the Poles by Gallus Anonymous.

Racibórz is a town in southern Poland. In the Middle Ages, its vicinity to numerous trade routes helped develop it into a venue for craftsmanship as well as the host to the largest granary in the region. Over the centuries, it was inhabited largely my Germans, and this resulted in the Germanization of the area. Today this small town is home to about 60,000 inhabitants.

The stamps design shows some landmarks and symbols of the town, the first being the renaissance tower (built around 1574). The second is the late-baroque column that appears to be in the foreground. This was erected between 1725 and 1727 to give thanks to Mary for the end of the epidemic of 1715. Miraculously, the column survived WWII, which is a wonder since all the tenement buildings that surrounded the square on which it stood were all destroyed.

The FDC cachet depicts the Chapel of Thomas Beckett dating back to the end of the 13th century. The FDC was issued on 01 July 08 and some other stamps were added onto the cover for postage and were cancelled two weeks later, on 15 July.

This second FDC shows Sanctuaries of St. Mary, in this case St. Mary of the snow. This sanctuary, found near the major peak of Igliczna mountain, is for St. Mary Mother of God, the Cause of Our Joy "Mary of the Snow". The pilgrims come here to attend the wooden figure of St. Mary with Holy Child - a folk copy of St. Mary's figure from the Mariazell sanctuary in Austria. The figure had been brought in here in 1750 by Christopher Veit from Wilkanów village, as the changing national borders made the direct pilgrimage Mariazell sanctuary almost impossible for the local people. In 1777 the first case of miraculous healing had been documented, followed then by many others. The chapel soon proved to be too small for the ever-growing hosts of pilgrims and the new church had to be erected, consecrated in 1782.

The stamp shows the venerated idol and the FDC presents its domain. The FDC was released on 21 June and, again, extra stamps were added for postage and also franked on 15 July.