LIGHTHOUSE POSTCARD FROM RUSSIA

Ludmila sent me a special postcard featuring stamps and lighthouses, my two passions.

Russia Postal Administration issued on July 4, 2005 a set of three lighthouse stamps and this beautiful postcard shows two light stamps located at the White Sea and their precise location on the map. The 5.00 stamp depicts the Mud'yugskiy Lighthouse built in 1838 on an island just off the main entrance to the Dvina delta in Arkhangel'sk. The 40m (131 ft) round stone tower is the oldest lighthouse of the Russian North.

The 6.00 stamp shows the Solovetsky Lighthouse located atop Sekirnaya Hill in the northwestern part of the Solovetsky Island. In 1863, Orthodox monks built the Church of Ascension and mounted a lantern atop its onion-shaped dome. The lantern is at 123 meters  (403 ft) above the sea level and its light is seen around nearly 22 miles.

Russia issued on June 08, 2010 a souvenir sheet depicting Valaam archipelago, in the north-western part of Lake Ladoga and considered a unique historical and natural landscape area. The archipelago consists of the island of Valaam and more than 50 small islands. A dissected coastline, a lot of bays, inlets, sheer granite cliffs feature the landscape. The stamp shows the church of St. Nicolas, part of the preserved monastic constructions that includes the Wonder Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, the barbican church of Peter and Paul and the church of the Assumption.